Giant weasels

Thursday, August 9, 2007

WHITEHORSE, YUKON — We’re back in Yukon’s capital city once again — our third time through! It’s nice to pull in to place you know a little bit every now and then. Especially when we had several chores to take care of, and we knew exactly where to go to get them done.
The drive from Carmacks to Whitehorse was only 175 kilometres, but we enjoyed the vistas of rolling hills, lakes as smooth as glass, and some magnificent cloud formations. We spotted a handsome red fox trotting across the highway several yards in front of us. And, just as I was looking down at the Milepost guidebook to read aloud an interesting description of a local landmark, Val caught sight of a weasel doing a similar road crossing. When I chided him for not calling it to my attention, he teased me by saying it wasn’t just an ordinary weasel, it was a GIANT weasel. He almost mistook it for a horse, he said!
It was just before lunch when we rolled in to town. The first thing we did at the Hi Country RV Park was head for the pressure wash station. It was great to see the brown streaks of mud and dirt flowing off the truck and the trailer, and to emerge all bright and clean again.
Next stop was to get an oil change and pick up a few necessities — including a great big can of Tim Hortons fine grind coffee for Val. He’s been in withdrawal for about a week now with a substitute brand, which provided the required caffeine fix every morning but did little else for him. For me, it was the President’s Choice Decadent Chocolate Chip cookies — just the right size, and each one crammed with delicious dark chocolate chips. So we’re both much happier now!
Val wanted to see about buying some wild game meat, such as caribou or bison, from a deli we had seen here before. We found the place and got some bison burgers and reindeer sausage, but he’ll have to look for muskox meatballs and polar bear steaks somewhere else.
We were quite close to the Visitor Information Centre, so we decided to drop in and see what we could find out about our next destination, Atlin, BC. They had some brochures, and the lady at the counter gave us some useful information about the Cassiar Highway, which we will be taking in a few days as well. Apparently some parts were washed out earlier in the summer, and the route had even been closed for a few days, so the fact that it is now useable was good to know.
We mentioned our interest in seeing the grizzly bears in Stewart, BC, a spot that is known for them in great numbers. She said they are still there aplenty, and remarked that she hoped we wouldn’t do anything dumb to get good photos — like the man who sent his wife out, munching on a sandwich, and suggested she hold some out to the bears to get them to come closer!!
One of the little chores that needed attending to this afternoon was a small leak from one of the trailer’s tanks that Val noticed. He spread out a plastic tarp, strapped his miner’s flashlight onto his head and got down on his back underneath to see what was what. He had found some epoxy putty at a hardware store, which, when kneaded together, produces a leak stopper that even works on wet surfaces. Once that was firmly applied, we worked on loosening up the valve handles that open the waste tanks. For some reason, they had become very stiff, so I worked them back and forth while Val applied squirts of WD40 in strategic places. These jobs, plus an intensive bug-and-tar removing session on the front surfaces of the truck and trailer, rounded out our afternoon nicely.
Our reward this evening was dinner at the Klondike Rib and Salmon BBQ restaurant — our third visit! — for generous plates of caribou stew and Arctic char. We were too full to even consider the thick slabs of apple-walnut cake with ice cream and caramel sauce, which we saw our neighbours eating at the next table. But they did look yummy.