Day 29: Takhini campground to Coal Creek

The dogs were at their best behavior.  I got ready to leave at 8:30am but couldn't get the rear gate to close.  Turns out the battery was dead again.  How did that happen?  I had left no lights on overnight (I would have noticed lights reflecting against the aspens, right?).  And when I drove, the engine light came on.  Oh boy.  When I got into Whitehorse and checked at the Dodge dealership, I discovered that the car repair shop is closed for Canada day until the 4th.  So I dared driving. And driving.  And I drove all the way to Coal Creek before stopping for the night, the last service area north of Liard Hot Springs.  It was cool and overcast and by midnight it was actually dark enough to sleep comfortably.

The celebratory tents in Whitehorse along the Yukon river from yesterday's celebrations were still up when I drove through town this morning.  I only stopped long enough to eat a breakfast at the Tim Horton's (my only meal of the day until 12 hours later at an Alcan diner).  I like this town, but I concentrated today on getting some mileage in, and I did it via detouring off the Alcan south toward Carcross, then turning east again toward Tagish before getting back on the Alcan.

I stopped at the Carcross desert to walk around.  It's a small sand dune area created by a dry glacial lake's sediment getting blown in this area over the years.  The dunes are bordered on the south by a swamp and mountain, and the cold glacial wind blows over the sand.  It still felt good to walk barefoot in this sand.  I felt both warm and cool sections of sand.  ATVs, motorcross bikes and even a fullsize pickup snaked up and over these dunes, startling the dogs as we stayed near the sand's edge.

Carcross was also a nice rivertown made famous when the railroad from Skagway was connected over the pass in this town.  Lots of First Nation totem poles and other historical plaques honor this part of history that few know about.  Skagway was still 67 miles away and I didn't feel like driving up and over a snowy pass.  Skagway is not a good walking town for dogs anyway, according to what I overheard in the Visitor's center.

More later