Teslin Surprises
We started the morning by driving back into Teslin to visit a couple of small museums there related to the local First Nations people. We were a bit too early so we stopped at the local lodge for coffee to pass the time. They had so-so coffee, but great pecan cinnamon buns. They also had a small log building with a gift shop and an impressive taxidermy exhibit of all the Yukon mammals.
After the coffee and sticky buns, we went over to the George Johnston Museum. George Johnston was a T'lingit who, as a young adult went off to Vancouver and came back with a modern attitude.He was a self-taught photographer and the museum had many photos and artifacts of T'lingit life in the early to mid-20th century. Johnston also had the first automobile in Teslin, even before roads. He had it shipped in by barge and it was carried by hand onto the the shore. He used it on the ice to hunt in winter (camouflaged in white paint) and ran it as sort of a taxi service to run friends and family upriver to other settlements. It was repainted every summer and used on a local road he built himself. When he finally traded it in after about 25 years, it had no dents or rust. The dealer, from whom he originally bought it, had it fully restored and donated it to the Canadian Government. It is on permanent loan to the museum.
After the George Johnston Museum we went on to the T'lingit Interpretive Center. Where the museum chronicled early 20th century T'lingit life, the interpretive center celebrated the modern T'lingit. It is housed in a contemporary log building with exhibit space and demonstration areas. It looks like it is also used for local gatherings.The staff were very friendly and informative. The exhibition space featured many modern T'lingit carvings and leatherwork items. There was also a video about the T'lingit people and Teslin. There was even an older woman demonstrating the traditional preparation of hides. We didn't get to see the demonstration though.
After leaving Teslin it was a pleasant drive through the Yukon to Whitehorse. It is seems to be a chaotic capital city. It is not very big, but had lots of traffic and aggressive drivers. We stooped to do laundry, grocery shopping, a stop at a bank for Canadian cash, and to refuel and dump our waste tanks.
The fuel station we stopped at also had a free dump station, but we scraped the bottom of Speedy going ver a dip at dump station, but fortunately there was no damage. We found out that waste valves and macerator are the low points under the van. It was a good thing that our new macerator is protected by a metal shield.
After refueling and dumping it was on to Lake Laberge, north of Whitehorse. We were very glad to get out of town. We were now off of the Alaska Highway and onto the Klondike Highway to Dawson City. Thar's gold ahead.
The Lake Laberge govt campground is another well kept Yukon campground. We had a long chat with the park officer about the lake and the Yukon. Lake Laberge is used as put-in point for raft, canoe and kayak trips down the Yukon, usually only to Dawson, but sometimes further into Alaska. According to the officer, there were only two small rapids before Dawson City and any reasonably competent canoeist could do it.
There is an upcoming race on the river from Whitehorse to Dawson with classes for canoe, voyageur canoe, kayaks and stand-up paddleboards (hardly a traditional mode of transportation). Being a mountain-fed Yukon river, I hope those paddleboarders have dry suits.
Once again there was night-time rain.
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