Two days stop-over in Whitehorse to regroup, re-stock grub, do laundry and try and get the darn webpage up and running. Our trip to the grocery store was not complete until we stopped at Canadian Tire to buy more of Frank’s chips! First things first, though, we had to go on a little exploration of Whitehorse. The first stop was the S.S. Klondike, one of the largest stern wheelers to operate on the Yukon River.

The Klondike is a steam powered paddle wheel boat that made daily treks from Whitehorse up the Yukon to Dawson City. This boat could haul over 300 tons of cargo and consume 100 cords of wood a day to make the journey. She began operations in the 1920s. Smaller sternwheelers operated on the Yukon River starting in the mid 1800s. The boat is being repaired and restored so we couldn’t go aboard. The Yukon River is very wide and beautiful here.

We walked through a lovely city park along the banks of the river and enjoyed seeing several groups of young children in color-coded shirts enjoying an end-of-school-year outing to the park. Then went to the MacBride Museum of Yukon History, a really well-done collection of both the natural history and human heritage of Whitehorse and the Yukon.

There we learned about Robert Service, the namesake of the campground we stayed at. Robert was an English-born poet and writer who sailed to western Canada in the late 1800s to become a cowboy in the Yukon wilderness. We watched a live enactment of one of his colorful poems about the wilderness and the tough, crusty gold miners who lived there. His poetry is similar in style to cowboy poetry; raw and humorous tales about life during the Yukon gold rush. We also took a stab at matching jars of real animal poop with which animal it came out of… we got 2 out of 10 correct. I guess we need to brush up on our poop identification..

The campground is full of friendly people, each with unique stories. Many stop to say hi as they walk by, some asking about our campers, about tires, or about where we’ve been and where we’re headed. Vicki met a young Welsh man travelling with his new fiancé from Canada. They met online a couple months ago. We also met a woman from New Zealand. She was born and raised in Toronto, met her Kiwi husband there and moved to New Zealand with him. They spend southern hemisphere summers in New Zealand and northern hemisphere summers driving around Canada. Another couple from Ontario took a week to drive west to take a break from their daughter and her wedding planning drama. Their daughter was getting married in 10 days. A man camped next to us was driving his little trailer from Ohio south to Texas, north to Canada, west to Alaska, then east back to Ohio. Him and his Shar-pei dog left home two months ago and he planned to be back home in October. He was collecting stickers from all the places he’s stopped and pasting them on the right side of his trailer. The left side was already full of stickers from last year’s summer-long trip around the perimeter of the lower 48.