Dawson City

by

Living in Her Car

The other night, I had the chance to meet an incredible fellow blogger. She’s a gal who just a few short months ago was dreaming of a more connected and less materialistic life, of driving an RV to the Arctic even though she’d never RVed before. She downsized, took a crash course in mechanics and RVing, and finally quit Texas, with the Arctic in her sights. She pushed on through fear and the sometimes impassable muddy stretches of the Dempster highway and emerged triumphant at the very edge of the world where a photo was taken of her frolicking in the Arctic Ocean. Her name is Jennifer and she is living in her car.

Our meeting was much too brief, as such meetings are, but how incredible to have met here, in Dawson City! I had a chance to show her a few sights and we talked a little. Meeting her in person was like welcoming home an old friend and a true kindred spirit. It was the kind of meeting where you are grateful for the time you had instead of bemoaning how short it was. Here was the only logical place for our paths to intersect, and they did.

Thank you for coming out on Saturday, Jennifer. I wish you many happy miles!

by

Kluane Country

Kluane National Park is one of those regions that, like Kananaskis Country in Alberta, has inflamed my imagination for years. While I would love to explore the region in depth and camp there, just a brief day trip into those fabled peaks was enough to satisfy the itch.

After the car repairs, I headed west on the Alaska Highway and, for the first time, pushed past the turnoff to the North Klondike Highway. The landscape became arid, with soft round peaks rippling through, grey and weathered, reminding me of elephant skin. The road imitated the mountains, with one frost heave after another threatening my suspension. I would not have enjoyed this ride with Miranda!

And then, just like that, they were before me, the Kluane Ice Ranges, just as I had always envisioned them. Pointy, slate grey, and snow covered. Beautiful.

I only went as far as Haines Junction, heart of Kluane Country, and turned back. And it was enough for this current incarnation of my traveling life. I would love to come back that way again, in another version of this life where I have more time to explore the territory, but it was enough.

pushing west on the Alaska highway

pushing west on the Alaska highway

CIMG0002

Takhini Valley

Takhini Valley

CIMG0004

Takhini Valley

Takhini Valley

CIMG0006

CIMG0007

CIMG0008

CIMG0009

first glimpse of the Ice Ranges!

first glimpse of the Ice Ranges!

info about Kennedy and Hubbard peaks

info about Kennedy and Hubbard peaks

CIMG0012

You can clearly see the Hubbard peak in this photo, but the Kennedy peak is very faint. They are the white bit between the darker mountains.

You can clearly see the Hubbard peak in this photo, but the Kennedy peak is very faint. They are the white bit between the darker mountains.

CIMG0014

entering Haines Junction

entering Haines Junction

downtown Haines Junction set against the Ice Fields

downtown Haines Junction set against the Ice Fields

Haines Junction, by the way, is tiny, little more than a swell on the highway, and should not be confused with Haines, Alaska. Alaska Highway travelers headed for Fairbanks should note that they should turn right at Haines Junction for Fairbanks rather than going straight to Haines. I think that someone was trying to confuse the tourists. 😀

by

Whitehorse Supply Run

I left Dawson in pouring rain at 8 this morning. There was a lot of construction between Pelly Crossing and Whitehorse, which stretched the trip to a nearly interminable 6.5 hour journey.

My first item of business was to have the toad’s tires examined. Thankfully there’s a Kal Tire in Whitehorse! The news was acceptable; I need two new front tires and an alignment. They should be able to do the work first thing tomorrow, so I should still be able to do some touristy stuff.

I’m staying at Hi Country RV Park… In a tent! 🙂 It’s pricey, $18 + tax, but I got a locals discount and showers are included. There is also wi-fi, which I’m accessing with my iPod Touch! The campground is nice, but I resent being sold a ‘tenting’ spot where the only place to set up the tent without being on rocks is on a slope. Our tent spots might be on gravel, but at least they are flat!

Tonight, I will do my non-perishable shopping, which includes things for my friends. I’d better get cracking!

by

Fixing the RV Water Heater

It’s taken about a year from the first manifestation of a problem to a resolution, but my RV water heater is now operating perfectly. The final fix was easy, but getting there involved quite a bit of diagnostics.

The problem was that the water heater would fire up, then turn off after a few seconds. The problem appeared to be propane flow. At least, that’s what seemed logical to me. After all, whenever something else in the rig fires up then dies, it’s because there’s no propane. So, that’s the red herring I chased until I finally asked for help. Experienced RVers, including Croft, told me they’d experienced similar symptoms at the same time their circuit board died. This wasn’t very reassuring!

Before I was sent out to buy a new circuit board, I was told to check all the connections to make sure they were clean and tight. That helped a bit, sometimes.

The next step was to remove and replace the probe. Les of RVer’s Corner did this for me when I stayed over in Prince George this spring, using a probe from a leaky heater he’d picked up. He also did a few adjustments. This also helped a bit, sometimes. So, I had to concede that I had a worst-case scenario short of replacing the whole RV water heater and needed a new circuit board.

Circuit boards aren’t cheap; the best price I could find in Canada was over $200 with shipping. It wasn’t an expense I could justify at a time when I had access to free hot showers. I decided to hold off until the summer when I’d be a bit more flush and then bite the bullet.

This is when I discovered that sometimes procrastination can pay off. Donna of Life On Our Ark knows an RV tech named Tony*, based in Okotoks, who just happened to be replacing a perfectly good water heater with a perfectly good circuit board just like mine. Long story short, the circuit board made its way to me for the unbelievable price of $15–the cost of shipping!

The new board arrived this afternoon and installation took fifteen minutes, ten of which involved finding tools. On a scale of easy peasy to omigodcallanrvtech, I’d consider the replacement of the circuit board in an RV water heater to be easy.

Donna's awesome packaging! :-)

Donna’s awesome packaging! 🙂

the boards are attached with two screws and have two electrical connections

the boards are attached with two screws and have two electrical connections

the boards were identical, right down to their round green sticker

the boards were identical, right down to their round green sticker

this awkwardly placed screw required WD-40 and pliers to remove and reinstall

this awkwardly placed screw required WD-40 and pliers to remove and reinstall

guess which one is old and which one is new

guess which one is old and which one is new

*Tony Thomas, Technician/Owner of RV+MD (that is a red cross) Mobile RV Service “Quality, Full-Line RV Service At Reasonable Rates”  (403) 968-RVMD (7833) rvmdrv@telus.net

by

Internet in Dawson City

The internet situation in Dawson City this summer is abysmal and I am spending a good chunk of my day apologizing for this and telling people to use our wi-fi for emails only. Guests are about as understanding as I was last summer, before I understood the internet situation in Yukon. It’s bad for business.

There is one internet provider in all of Yukon, Northwestel. There is also only one line linking Yukon to Outside. Finally, Northwestel is protected by Canada’s punitive-towards-the-customer competition laws. This means that Northwestel doesn’t have to upgrade the infrastructure, only has to provide as much bandwidth as it chooses, can throttle back users at will (even if the capacity for more is there), and can charge whatever it wants.

There was a big exposé in the Whitehorse paper exposing Northwestel’s ‘throttle back’ policy. People are up and arms about this, but what can we do? I experienced the exact same thing when I was living in the Gatineau Hills, a mere 50km from the capital of Canada. The only internet accessible to me was a 28kbs dial up connection for which I paid the same as DSL and efforts made to improve service was blocked by the government. I really think that the only thing that could fix the telecommunications industry in Canada would be for folks to band together and provide their own service. That’s what happened in the Gatineau Hills, with a few people who had access to a DSL connection linking up via repeaters to provide a high speed wireless connection to as many people as possible.

All that to say, the internet situation is really affecting tourism this year. We can only have about 20 people on our wi-fi at one time before it crashes and we can only run a couple of hard-wired computers. There’s just not enough bandwidth to go around. Some long termers have run their own private lines, but they are also experiencing slow speeds and throttling.

In the midst of all this chaos are folks like me who are connecting to the internet via the cellular network and who have experienced a grand total of five hours without service this summer, decent speeds, and few drops. I’m starting to be embarrassed. 🙂

Telus and Bell internet sticks work here, and some Americans have had good luck with their Verizon aircards. I don’t know what it is about Verizon in that it seems to provide service for some and not others; perhaps it has something to do with their package. AT&T definitely does not work up here.

Since satellite has the same issues as DSL or cable internet, it seems that cellular is the way to go to get online in Dawson City. I’m a little worried that getting the word out will break the system!