South West Yukon (2)
Continuing the discover of backcountry roads the next day, I arrived into mining areas, some of which are still active today. Guys continue to look for gold…
1. VivaLaVida on the trail.
2. They are so many small lakes everywhere…
3. Over the tree limit, it’s meadows with lots of blueberry trees. Grizzly bears are probably really feasting here at the end of the summer!
4. VLV brave despite its only two wheel drive.
5. A mine site operated until three years ago and now closing. The government requires the demolition of buildings, but also the restoration of the landscape, including the filling of extraction areas and site cleanup. A big work which will take several years…
6. Back to Whitehorse, the Yukon capitol town, where the most popular campground is the local Walmart parking lot, who knows why. Beautiful sunset after midnight.
7. One of the Twin Lakes along the Klondike Highway.
8. Back through Carmacks, forced stop to say hello to Shanon and Garry ! 😀
9. Yukon River at Five Fingers Rapids.
10. That landscape is mostly formed of mudstone, a kind of petrified mud that contains many boulders. The river carves its bed sometimes making beautiful cliffs.
11. Camp at Frenchman Lake.
12. Quite Sunset at 01:30……
13. In some places, even the mighty river meander…
14. Detour towards Keno City with a stop at the remote Hansen McQuesten Lake.
15. In the mountains East of Keno City.
16. Higher, view of the many lakes in the valley with McQuesten Lake at the right background.
17. The few backcountry roads were all made by mining industry and remnants remain.
18. Some are practically unused except by Vivalavida..! 😉
19. Inaccessible valley to the east. To give you an idea of the low population density here: the area of the Yukon is ~ 482’000 square kilometers – Switzerland is ~ 41,000, or 12 times less – and its population has just reached 37,000 where more than 25,000 inhabitants live in Whitehorse ..! In short, there is room for the bears here! 😉
20. Not far from the summit of this mountain, the track doesn’t look like really anything…
21. … end ended by the only tracks of VLV.
22. I slept there tonight.
23. There are only a few first flowers on the tundra up there.
24. And golden plovers which spend the night here!
25. At summit of Keno Hill, a sign indicating some foreign places; I seems that I’m at about 3,000 miles away from Geneva in a straight..! 😉
25. Sweetness of the sunset from this splendid point of view…
Following of VivaLaVida’s trip through the Yukon soon…
D5 Creation
HI.. its canyon from the Big Sur area .. I keep wondering bout some points of travel… up there in the last frontier .. have you been sleeping outdoors & are you seeing ‘northern lights’ .. are you being invades by torrential flying biting insects, and are you meeting up with some romance now and then … if not then what close calls are you having .. with the ladies that is not the mosquitoes…
Will your drive system problem come under warrantee ? I want to post some pic’s of my own .. how should I direct ?
My camper renewal is coming along richly… & now we are bombarded with clear warm days so finding a beautiful spot to park overnite.. getting up early and beginning the sawing~glueing has let to some ten hour day’s .. finishing just in time to pack the tools away properly, cleanup the floors sawdust,wipe the counter-workbench down, pour a glass of local red, to then collapse onto the lounge with a bit of reading (now Anan Cara, by John O’donohue) then make up a dinner.. followed by deep sleep
Hows life with you ? Camper looks fine.. hows your choice of exterior paint color proving to your situation , IE.. fending off the heat and continuing to look great ? Do you get opportunity to fire up that upper spot light now and then ?Like to spy on a resting Owl, or herd of Caribou .
Are you a coffee drinker.. how do you brew your’s ..? I’m convinced for my needs and taste.. a Bolina Moka maker is the tops.. and it helps immensely to have a local roaster.. here the tops is Acme in Seaside .. Get the Valve Job !
Cho Bro !
Hi Canyon,
Sorry, there is no way to post some pictures in this blog comments, the theme doesn’t allow that. But you can send it per email if you want.
To try to answer your many questions.
Sleeping outdoor: if you mean sleeping out of VivaLaVida, I slept only once in a small tent, during a to long hike to make the round trip in one day.
Northern lights: It’s not the season, to much light here north. Maybe late August or early September.
Biting insects: yes, there is reaaly a lot. I tried to find somebody to bring me in the Mackenzie River Delta to Watch birds but even the locals did’t want to bring me there. “To much bugs” they all said. I was quite frustrated but it was to far away to get to in my kayak… It’s different on South coast – Valdez, Anchorage – where there is not to much of them, only a few. The worst place for bugs is the taiga where they can live protected from the Wind in the many marches. In some places, it’s just crazy, you cannot go out of the van without some repellant or a net on your hat ; in two second, they are 50 of them attacking you from everywhere… 🙂
About ladies: joker ! 😀 Seriously, I meet a lot of people, travellers or locals, and some are ladies but I’m not looking for any “romance”…
Drive shaft issue: It was just some bolts to change, so I would never ask Chris to a warranty for that, moreover I drove more than 30,000 miles since the built.
VivaLaVida’s color: I’m definitely glad of this choice. Clear enough to not warm to much in sunny days, very discrete in the forest as in the desert. Even the dust of dirt roads isn’t to noticeable. It wasn’t inexpensive but I don’t regret to have done it.
Spot light: didn’t fire up often here in Alaska since it’s bright till late in the night. But I used it quite a lot during last winter. It’s great to find a boondocking spot when already dark!
Coffee drinker: dépends what you mean by coffee! 😀 I don’t really like Américanos which taste like “dark water”. But I love a stron short espresso! I’ve a kind of coffee press in VivaLaVida which makes good strong short coffee. I don’t brew myself, I buy some…
Great that you’re enjoying good weather to work on Polar Bear and that the renewal progress well. I’m excited to see some pictures.
Good luck for the next steps…
Cheers