We left Skagway to continue north. To do so, we had to reenter Canada and the Yukon Territory. It was only a short drive (relative to northern driving distances) to our next destination: Whitehorse. Along the way, we saw a forest fire burning out of control. Apparently, in the Yukon, they don’t fight forest fires, they just let them burn themselves out.

We did stop for lunch at Tagish Lake Kennel, home to Michelle Phillips and Ed Hopkins, seasoned Iditarod mushers and dog trainers. During the summer they train and strengthen their dogs by having them pull ATVs with people in them. We were lucky to have Michelle as our musher as we off-roaded with one of her team of dogs. So fun!

Whitehorse is the capital of the Yukon. It is home to 25,000 of the 33,000 hearty souls that live in this remote land. Its size lends itself to box stores of which we gratefully took advantage of and stocked up. Additionally, we visited some of the area’s sites: The SS Klondike (which took passengers and supplies up the Yukon River until 1955 and is now a national historic site), the Yukon Beringia Center (which told the history of the ice bridge that once connected North America and Asia and allowed both humans and animals to migrate), and the Whitehorse Fish Ladder (allowing the all important salmon to travel back to their spawning streams).

John and I also took a hike along the Yukon River to Miles Canyon and Schwatka Lake. We felt like real “northerners” since we hiked in the rain without insect repellent or bear spray (dumb)! I even had to cross a ridiculously scary suspension bridge over the canyon. On our last day in Whitehorse, we took a float trip down the Yukon…this time THROUGH Miles Canyon. It had been raining off and on all day long, and, wouldn’t you know it, as soon as we shoved off the skies let loose. It poured on us for most of the trip down the river. But we all kept a positive attitude and managed to have a good time despite the rain. (And we saw lots of bald eagles:)