Tuesday August 10, Congdon Creek Campground, Kluane Lake, YK

180 Miles
Another day on the Alcan (Alaskan Highway), and we are back in the Yukon. And the clock has to go forward an hour and the American money swapped for Canadian dollars…..but tomorrow when we drive down to Haines it will through another border control, clocks back and hour and the money changed back to American dollars.

It has been a real wilderness drive dominated for much of it by the Kluane Range.

It was quite slow driving for a large part as this section of road is badly affected by frost heaves, where the underlying permafrost thaws and freezes causing it to expand. It was just like riding the roller coaster!.

Just through the border we stopped at Buchshot Betty’s in Beaver Creek, and decided to have lunch there. A great little place with fresh homebaked bread. Got talking to a lady from Missoula, Montana who was going up to Kodiak Island, a 12 hour boat trip from Homer, to teach for the year. Everyone on the road is traveling somewhere, and has a story to tell.

Mid afternoon we stopped at the Koidern River Lodge, in the middle of nowhere, had read about it in the Milepost. Jim and Dorothy Cooks have been on the highway since 1969 and they were pleased to tell us that they are the longest storekeepers on the Alcan. The little shop was an absolute delightful jumble, along with the Cooks!

We walked in the door and it was like walking into their home, the woodfire was burning in the middle with a number of coffee pots sitting on top, and the TV was going. Spoke to Jim first and he is in the middle of cancer treatment, not looking very good. Then Dorothy walks in with a plastic bag of old hair rollers, so pleased as she had been looking for them for weeks. The two of them have quite a banter going, complaining about each other, but obviously very happy. Jim breaks out into song and is full of humorous stories. The “store’ was full of coloured stones, and little ornaments made up from stones along with all sorts of bric a brac. Out behind is their kitchen and she shows me the huge bowl of dough that is brewing to make cinnamon buns, and according to one of the locals, they are the best you can get. Couldn’t help but be reminded of Fred and Myrtle, from the Paua Shell house at Bluff, NZ. It was a thoroughly enjoyable stop.

Tonight we are camping at a really nice government campground on the shores of Lake Kluane, although we missed out on a lakeside spot as we didn’t get in to camp until about 6.30. The camp provides free firewood in the form of big rounds of wonderful dry wood. Ian was not making much headway with the little
tomahawk, but ended up borrowing an axe from a neighbour which made short work of it. Not only have we had a great fire tonight, but every spare space in the van has been loaded. We will have firewood for the next week!