Saturday, May 29, 2010

The crack in the RV windshield is now from the top to the bottom. Overnight with the cooling of the air it spread. The owner at the RV park suggested we place cardboard over the car windshield to protect it for the rest of our journey. Apparently, cracked windshields are very common here. That's how they tell if you are just passing through! Not into the drive 5 minutes and we have another fat, juicy dead bug on the windshield right in eye view.
This area called Teslin receives 12' to 18' of snow a year; sometimes as early as October 7th in the high passes. They need to plow out the RV parks by April 7th. We stopped at Morley Lake for a breather, washed the windows again and tried a little fishing. It was nice and warm . We were on the road again; not even 1 minute, before we hit another juicy bug.
At 1:43 we crossed the Teslin River at Johnson's Landing where they used to ferry cars across. We are starting to see civilization again with real houses on the river bank instead of log cabins. They say you have to wait until August to catch the King salmon here.vcccc Lake a pair of osprey made their nest on a tower, probably because of the whitefish in the river. The Tagish name for Squanga Lake means "whitefish lake"
We are taking the Atlin-Tagish-Carcross scenic Loop and avoiding Whitehorse for now so we can arrive at Skagway tonight. Atlin (founded in 1898 and means Big Water) has a crystal clear lake that is 90 miles long. This area was one of the richest gold strikes during the Klondike Gold Rush. Carcross is the last town we need to go throuigh before we reach Skagway. To our west we can see the Montana Mountains. They look exactly like the mountains in Montana with no trees and all rock. The scenery is absolutely gorgeous! There are waterfalls everywhere you look! All of the snowcover from the high mountains is melting and flowing past us. Check out the pictures, because words cannot describe it.
The road drops down 3000' in a matter of 12 miles. Talk about steep! The RV had its air brakes on, downshifted two times and Daddy had to apply the brakes too. Entering Alaska from Canada at Customs was very easy. They just asked us questions about where we are going, how long we are staying, where we are from and what we are carrying with us. We could see the White Pass and Yukon Railroad trains on the narrow gauge railroad. This railroad was built to bring the miners and supplies up the mountain to Whitehorse where they could get a boat to Dawson City Gold Mines.
We are staying at Pullen Creek RV Park. It's right next to the marina for the cruise ships. The people on the cruise ships pass right by us on their way to the town. Several asked us if we really drove all of the way from Florida. They couldn't believe it. We walked into the little town of Skagway and on the way we saw a ferret catch a little salmon out of the stream, run up the bank and over the road and railroad to eat it! The town of Skagway seems to be made just for the cruise ships now. Over one third of the stores are diamond shops that you usually see on those Caribbean cruises. The buildings are owned by the government and have been restored to what they looked like during the gold rush days. The whole town is inside a National Park, but they allow people to live there(unlike the Smokies). Tomorrow we will explore the town and hike the trails.