Tuesday 8/3/99
Day 6: Whitehorse, Silver City & Tok
It was 80 degrees with just a few clouds today. We left our hotel in Whitehorse at 9:45 am and did some more shopping in town, got sandwiches for the kids at Subway and at The Deli for us. We went back to eat at the Rotary Peace Park again. This park tends to be windy because it's so close to the river, but it's a large park with picnic tables and a play area for the kids. We drove past the skateboard park that Jacob was dying to see before leaving town at 11:30 am.
We took the Alaskan Hiway west toward Haines Junction. Just west of Whitehorse is the Tahini Hot Springs, which also has a campground. We would have liked to check out Kusawa Lake which also had a campground but it was 15 south of the hiway. We drove through the native Indian village of Champagne. There were some interesting log cabin homes here. On the right side of the hiway there was an old Indian cemetery with a 'no trespassing' sign. We stopped for a minute at Canyon Creek where there was a bridge buildt by the famous poet Sam McGee. We would have liked to have gone to Aishihik Lake and village, which was several miles north of here but didn't feel like we had time because we were already oneday behind.. We got to Haines Junction at 1:30 pm where Dale got gas. For some reason there are two Shell gas stations across the street from one another in this small town. In the middle of town there is a man-made mountain with replicas of wildlife found in this area.
Just before Kluane Lake a short gravel road led to the ghost town of Silver City. This was an interesting collection of buildings, some of which were just barely standing and surrounded by blooming fireweed. There were no signs or maps posted, so we were left to our own imaginations to figure out what was what. A tour bus stopped while we were there. What we thought were chicken coops someone on the bus informed us were kennels for the pack dogs.
Back on the Alcan we followed Kluane Lake, the largest in the Yukon, for quite a while. This lake has an island in the middle. We stopped at the Sheep Mountain Visitor Center at the north end of the lake. Just before Burwash Landing we noticed there had been quite a forest fire on both sides of the highway. Later we found out the fire had only occured about 6 weeks ago. Fireweed was already taking over. We just had to stop at the Blue Moon Turd Company in Kluane Wilderness Village after seeing their sign. The Blue Moon Turd Company displayed and sold (if you were interested) sculptures made from trees that had burls on them. The owner, we think his name was Scully, was quite content if you just looked around and shot the breeze with him while he worked on his newest piece. He told us about the fire that occured about 6 weeks earlier. We crossed a bridge over the Donjek River. 
This river reminded us of some of them in the Denali National Park. It appeared to be dirty because of the glacier silt, and was rather shallow with lots of driftwood and islands. After the bridge, the road was gravel due to construction for several miles. The White River also had lots of glacier silt in it. We passed Dry Creek #2, several lakes and Beaver Creek.
We crossed the Canadian-Alaskan border at 7 pm (which was really 6 pm Alaskan time). Immediately we noticed the trees were getting skinnier. We checked out the campground at Deadman's Lake. There were 15 sites, all but two were taken. These sites were nicely spaced. There was a plastic dock on the lake, a bit unusual. Probably had something to do with the permafrost. Continuing north we took the turnoff for Northway, 9 miles off the hiway. The road was under construction, looked like they were preparing to blacktop it. There were lots of driveways, but we couldn't figure out where they went. We finally came to the village which consisted of an airport, motel, cafe and a few homes. 
Back on the highway there were several turnouts to view the Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge, which included forests, and lakes-some with islands. Otherwise it was a boring drive with lots of brush and scrawny trees. We arrived in Tok at 9 pm (our time). Ate dinner at Charley's, the salad bar was the best thjing on the menu. We drove 18 miles west to Moon Lake State Recreational Site which had 15 small campsites. There were just a few empty sites. There were three float planes sitting on the lake near three of the campsites. We got a campsite right on the lake. Some jet skiers were still on the lake. The volunteer host warned us they could be pretty noiisy and while the campground had a designated quiiet time, it didn't apply to the lake. It finally got quiet around 11 pm Alaska time. It was still light out at midnight.
450 miles today and 2500 miles total