Brian Bear

We'd spent quite a bit of time on the last two caches, so we needed to head down the road to Whitehorse. We had a little shopping to do (Mac's Fireweed Books is a favorite), and wanted to get a few of the caches closer to the center of town. We also wanted to get a prepared meal and beverage of choice; we wound up at Sam 'n' Andy's (Mexican, naturally), and had a great meal.

There's a pretty funny story associated with our search for this cache. I didn't buy the Canada topographic maps for my GPS (US$150), so I was trying to find this one with nothing much better than the GPS version of a road map (think of how well rivers are represented on road maps, and you'll get an idea of the challenge).

We'd done the Canyon City hike, and had found the Miles Canyon cache. While on the [west] side of the river, I'd convinced myself that this cache was also on the [west] side of the river. We tried several paths, some of which got pretty hairy the further we went downstream. After several false starts, we realized we must be on the wrong side of Miles Canyon. We crossed the bridge, marched down the trail, searched a bit, and there it was!

Every time I visit Miles Canyon, I think not only of the people who risked their lives trying to get their ton of supplies downriver to the Klondike region, but I also think of the fun it would be to run the Yukon River all the way to the Bering Sea. Maybe someday....

We spent the night at Wolf Creek Campground, not far from Whitehorse. I'd hoped to spend the night there so we would be able to find as many Whitehorse area caches as possible before we had to hit the road north again.

Miles Canyon is an area of great physical beauty; the Yukon River cuts through erosion-resistant rock to reach what is now Schwatka Lake. The dam that creates Schwatka Lake flooded the dangerous rapids that gave Miles Canyon such a notorious reputation during the Klondike gold rush.

There are a number of great hiking and cross-country skiing trails on the north side of Miles Canyon; they're accessible via a suspension foot bridge over the river. I particularly like to hike up to the ghost town of Canyon City, which is where stampeders could transfer their goods from boats to a tram system which would carry their gear around the rapids. Downstream of the rapids, their gear could then be put on boats again for the trip to the next hazard on the Yukon River at Five Finger Rapids.

We'd passed through Carcross (and searched for the Caribou Crossing cache, which I believe based on the spoiler photographs has gone "missing"), arriving just after the visitor center closed. We did a little hiking around; Carcross is a very historic place, and is a great place to visit. On the way north, out of town, make sure to visit the Carcross Desert, a large area of dunes that harkens back to the last ice age. Carcross Desert has the distinction of being the smallest desert in the world.

The Yukon's Gem is located on the shore of a beautiful emerald colored lake -- another great place to visit. The lake is on the left as you drive north on the South Klondike Highway. Because Caribou Crossing was a DNF, this was our first find in Yukon Territory.

It was drizzling a bit by the time we got to Fraser, but we had all the right gear, so we were in good shape. The road at this point roughly follows the track of the White Pass and Yukon Route (WP&YR) railroad. Fraser is a VERY small community; the folks who live here staff the border crossing and road maintenance facility.