Day 2 (Monday, 8 June): Tok to Whitehorse

Border crossing screen shot from Foreflight.

Day 2 (Monday, 8 June): Tok to Whitehorse.  Still reporting one day behind schedule.

The plan was to relax and get a start when we felt like it.  Still no rush to get any distance down the trail.  We got the crew ready, got cinnamon rolls from Fast Eddie's for the road, and trekked to the South ramp to load up.  I couldn't take how excessively the aircraft was sitting on the tail, so I went over to 40-Mile to seek some assistance.  Clay, the director of maintenance, was extremely helpful and we were loaded by 0920 for a 0930 departure. It's possible that the extreme weight in the back of the aircraft was caused by the monstrous cinnamon rolls. I've never seen cinnamon rolls that big and will likely never again. Either way, Clay got us straightened out. 

The weather brief was a bit of a challenge as neither Fairbanks nor Northway were receiving weather for Canada.  We had to go off of my googled reporting of the METAR and TAF.  I should also note that Northway FSS opens at 0915 for briefs.  I might have missed it, but I hadn't seen that published anywhere.  

We started out cruising at 3,500 to enjoy the scenery, but climbed to 7,500 around the Sanpete Hill to get out of the rough air down low.  It was too late.  Both Brayden and Carly lost it.  Carly usually takes some motion sickness medication before we fly, but we had forgotten to give it to her until just prior to departure.  

As always in this area, the terrain is strikingly beautiful.  We just did catch a glimpse of the Donjek and Kaskawulsh Glaciers.  I'm always impressed with the number of higher altitude lakes between the border and getting out of the mountains West of Fort Nelson.

The approach and landing was much better executed than the previous day's.  We turned right onto the Apron and requested progressive taxi for customs.  It is located just NorthWest of the terminal and has a small shack from which you can call CANPASS.  I called from the plane and got our clearance number.  Amazing how easy it is.  

The fuel pumps are on the far Northwestern edge of the ramp and there is transient parking there.  There is also transient parking at the base of the tower, but we elected to park by the pumps to avoid another hot start challenge. The walking gate is right next to the fire station behind the customs shed.  Follow the outside of the fence to stairs leading to the terminal.  We had lunch in the restaurant in the upstairs area of the terminal.

After lunch we checked weather and determined that too much of the day had slipped by for us to continue to Watson Lake.  The afternoon building clouds were developing and thunderstorms were decorating the whole route.  We decided to rent a car and head downtown for a hotel.

In our adventures the last few weeks, we've followed a general plan to explore an area.  We geocache.  Now, I've made fun of my parents for years as declared geocache nerds.  They might not have official geocache pocket protectors, but they literally have hats.  We picked it up and are now card carrying dorks ourselves.  Our method is to simply pick a couple caches in an area and by getting those, we almost always visit the best areas of a location.  For example, caches took us to gold dredges, beautiful views, whale skulls, and a herd of musk ox in our Barrow and Nome visits a week ago.  

In Whitehorse, we used the playgrounds on the visitor's center map and a couple caches to experience the town.  The kids got to play, we got some terrific photos from a perch above town, and visited the start of this year's Yukon Quest, which we had watched the end of from the Chena behind our house.

It is noteworthy that we ate at the Klondike Ribs and Salmon restaurant for dinner.  There is usually a line early in the evening as all the tour bus and camper folks push their way into the early bird.  We waited 20 minutes, and it was absolutely worth it.  The food was terrific and the staff was very friendly.  Tammy had a 5-minute conversation with our 3-year old about our trip.  If you haven't been around our 3 year old, 5 minutes can be a long time! Highly recommend it and recommend you go a bit later in the evening.

We checked the all important hours at Tim Hortons and got the kids off to bed.  The plan is to get up at 5 a.m. for a 7 departure to Watson Lake.