TUESDAY |
Kathleen Lake |
 YUKON TERRITORY |
We set an alarm for 6:00AM this morning, but we were both awake before it rang. We've got a long way to drive today and Tricia has nearly ten pullouts she wants to stop at to take photos.
By 7:00AM Tricia was outside taking photos of Yarger Lake before we hitched up to leave.
A view of the fog covered Yarger Lake at 7:30AM this morning.
Tricia zoomed in on these Trumpeter Swans hanging out on the far shoreline.
By 7:30AM we were rolling out of the campground and heading for the Canadian Border. At 8:18AM we very unceremoniously crossed the border into Canada and put Alaska in our rear view mirror. It wasn't until a full 20-miles down the road before we encountered the Canadian Customs Station where we had to check-in to the country.
Everyone is always so worried when it comes to border crossings. With the limited experience I have with the situation, I've found it's best if you have your passports ready when you pull up to the window, remove your hat and sunglasses so the agent can see your eyes and evaluate the truthfulness of your answers to their questions, and limit your responses to one word, typically YES or NO, that's what works best for me. Also, don't be trying to secretly record video of your crossing!
Todays questions were simple to answer. After handing over our two passport cards the agent first asked if there were only two of us in the vehicle today? YES.
Are you carrying any firearms? NO.
Are you carrying any ammunition? NO.
Any kinds of weapons? JUST BEAR SPRAY.
(we knew this was permitted from our previous crossing)
Any alcohol? JUST A HALF LITER OF TEQUILLA (well under the limit)
Any tobacco products? NO.
Any cannibus or CBD products? NO.
Are we carrying more than $8000 dollars in cash? I WISH, BUT NO. (I just couldn't resist)
Now that all all the tough questions are out of the way (Alcohol, Tabacco, Firearms and Drugs) we got to the simpler questions.
How long were you in Alaska? 100 DAYS.
How long will you be in Canada? ABOUT THREE WEEKS.
Then it was have a nice visit and you're OK to proceed. It was just that simple and took about the same amount of time as it took for you to read this. What's all the worry about?
The Yukon Territory looks exactly like Alaska does, and why shouldn't it!
The only difference is a line someone drew on a map a long time ago.
I've seen this scenario enough times to know what to expect.
It wasn't long before we entered the Kluane National Park and followed along the south shore of Kluane Lake for nearly 40-miles. Kluane Lake is the largest lake in the Yukon Territory and is located in the northern boundaries of the National Park.
This is the northern section of Kluane Lake, just inside the Kluane National Park.
This photo was taken 20-miles south near the center of the lake.
Finally the southern end of the lake is known as Horseshoe Bay.
As you can see it is fairly dry this time of year.
Just a short while later we were approaching the small town of Haines Junction where we stopped to purchase some gasoline. The lowest price in town was CAD$1.90⁹ per liter. When you do the math and convert liters to gallons and then take in the current exchange rate from CAD$ to US$ it comes out to roughly US$5.51⁹, not terrible, I was expecting worse.
There were several other stations is town selling gas for CAD$2.02⁹ per liter, which again converts to US$5.86⁹, so once again Gas Buddy saved us $7.00 in cold hard US cash on just this one 20-gallon fillup.
Just 100-yards down the road from the gas station we turned right, off of the Alaska Highway, to begin our 152-mile journey south down the Haines Highway. We're only doing the first 17-miles today as that is where we will find the Kathleen Lake Campground we are looking for.
We got a big surprise when we were all set up on our new campsite and opened the door to THE POD. I guess the roads were bumpier than I thought as we were leaving Alaska and entering the Yukon Territory.
Don't worry, nothing is broken, just a few screws that came loose and let the awning door fall off the cabinet. As usual when I fix this I'll overbuild it with longer screws and a little Lok-Tite to hopefully keep this from happening again. And YES, I'll do the other door (the one that didn't fall) at the same time.
It's just more of what life on the road is like and what happens when you constantly expose your home to near earthquake conditions twice a week.
We took the door off completely and will repair it at our next stop.
We have an extra large campsite here at Kathleen Lake and look,
someone was kind enough to leave us some firewood.
If you squint your eyes or bring out the binoculars,
this is our view out the back window of THE POD.
My photo of the view from our firepit.
That's called King's Throne Peak in the background.
Would you like to be notified of new blog posts?
 |
We encourage everyone |
Until next time
