Top Ten Things We Didn’t Know About The Yukon

10. the largest mountain in the world is in Canada: Yukon’s Mt. Logan of the St. Elias range in Kluane NP. It is also Canada’s tallest at 5959m (Everest isn’t even the world’s tallest [Mauna Kea, Hawaii] or the world’s highest from center of earth {Ecuador’s Chimborazo}, only highest from sea level). Saw it from a distance just after take-off from Whitehorse on way home (tho we were in Kluane NP, it is too far from any road to be reached, and hidden from hwy view by a wall of 4000m neighbours, wanted to do a sightseeing flight but bad weather those 2d).

9. it is illegal to take bear spray into the USA- it is considered a weapon. Altho you can easily buy it once there along with an Uzi submachine gun. Cdn Tire in Whitehorse makes a point of asking if you are planning to drive to Alaska and suggest air horns instead if so. Neither are allowed on airplanes.

8. met Jim Brennan walking hwy roadside, a colorful 72 yr old who is at the start of a planned 4yr walk to the tip of South America (just for his own sake).

http://rollingsouth.com/sample-page/

7. met the very interesting Doug Bell, 89, oldest living former Commissioner of The Yukon, and later publisher of The Yukon News, in a hotel restaurant. The gov’t-appointed Commissioners were responsible for running the territory until 1979, when position changed to be similar to that of provincial Lieutenant-Governors. Doug held the post 1979-86.

http://yukon-news.com/news/doug-bell-recalls-days-as-yukons-commissioner

http://whatsupyukon.com/Lifestyle/people/yukon-love%3A-doug-and-pearl-bell/#sthash.KDd5RMdJ.dpbs

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/former-yukon-commissioner-doug-bell-fed-up-with-spin-1.2606783

6. The wonderful isolation! Yukon has only 36k inhabitants, about 28k of whom are in Whitehorse. By comparison Alaska has 735k (tho 3.5x larger).

5. The Dempster Highway, one of the Yukon’s main roads is all-dirt and rental cars are not allowed on it (they are allowed on the even more remote mostly dirt but somewhat better maintained Top-of-the World Hwy). We took our chances despite rain-worsened road condition driving a 1hr/70km north adventure to Tombstone NP (the road goes 730km to Inuvik). The principal fear is trucks speeding the other way sending off windshield- fracturing gravel showers (also flat tires), we’d already accumulated a dozen or so very small chips from a young First Nations woman speeding past me on a gravel section (I was doing the 80km/h speed limit) on the way down to Atlin, BC (it taught me to slow to a near-stop and go as far right as possible whenever anyone was coming the other way (fortunately there are so few other vehicles that this is feasible- only about 15-20 on way up to Tombstone, and 4 on early evening return drive).

[Picturesque Atlin, though in British Columbia, is only reachable by road from The Yukon. Doug says The Yukon should annex it- as desired by its 450 Yukon-dependent inhabitants. He used to joke with the RCMP about alcohol transport and sales across provincial lines.)

4. the Aurora Borealis can be seen in the summer. After finding this out from our Carcross (actually shortened from old name of Caribou Crossing, where we spent the 1st wk hiking, canoeing, and biking) cabin owner, JC woke up in the middle of every night to look for it in vain mostly due to cloud cover. Our last night (in what ended up being a surreal near-sleepless night of horrors and wonders), back in the city of Whitehorse, we decided to drive out of town part-way up a mtn suggested by Doug for one last try- and success!!

3. Klondike Gold Rush history 1896-98. Never understood why needing to go up the Chilkoot pass’ ice steps outside Skagway, Alaska was such a big deal until I found out that the RCMP mandated you needed to carry one year’s worth of supplies to be allowed into Canada- so you had to do it 40-50 times! The goal was to get over the coastal mountains to Carcross, then go by the Yukon River ~600 km past hazardous Whitehorse rapids (they looked like the flowing manes of white horses, it only became a “large” city and the Yukon capital following WW2 during which the Americans built the Alaskan Hwy thru it in only 9 months in order to have a road connection to the rest of the USA/continent because of Japanese invasion of the remote Alaskan Aleutian islands) to Klondike River boomtown Dawson City (which in 2yrs grew from a small First Nations encampment to a city of >30k, Canada’s largest west of Winnipeg. 100k people headed to it during the boom, 30k reached it, with many dying along the multiple arduous trails from all directions- they were almost all too late to get much gold.). It was Yukon’s capital until 1953 despite a much reduced population (in recent decades just over 1000) once the boom ended. It is now the perfect mix between being its own town and an old-West heritage site- well worth visiting! The dirt-only downtown roads and multiple melting permafrost- tilted buildings add to the charm. (Melting permafrost effects can be seen in much of the Yukon- our hotel in Mayo was so tilted you had to be careful not to fall over in the bathroom! Also multiple new small permafrost lakes, and “drunken” forests. Locals tell of multiple several wk stretches below -40c and occasional -70c in past, now rare to get more than one wk of -30c).

2. There is a world-class gourmet restaurant in the Yukon! The Raven (also our hotel) in Haines Junction (the entrance to Kluane NP). The celebrity chef, Victor Bongo, is originally from The Congo, but grew up in Vancouver (we look forward to his return here for the winters). He is coming out with his 2nd cookbook, and hoping to market his amazing African Peanut soup. Also memorable were the Moroccan lamb, fig and goat cheese souffle, lobster and shrimp cakes, stuffed chicken, seafood linguine, mushroom flatbread, cheesecake and creme brule (we ate there 2 of 3 nts in HJ).

http://www.chefvictorbongo.com/

This is where we met Doug, who drove out the 159km for dinner and solitude.

1. NO BUGS! Not Kidding!! Although it was late summer, and at the end of what locals told us was an exceptional year in this regard (Doug tells a story of having his wife photograph him wearing a white t-shirt completely covered in the black of flies)- so if you go, we’d still suggest being prepared!