Day 18 - Whitehorse, YT to Teslin, AK

Well it is Saturday. We didn't know that until somebody told us this evening. We've lost complete track of what day of the week is what.

It was a leisurely day though. We did a little sightseeing in Whitehorse.

We first went down to the river and looked over a big paddle riverboat. That was a major transportation route that was used until the 1940's or so. Next we went off to a museum of the Yukon. This was pretty nice. Had an exhibit of animals and lots of history about mining, Mounties, and stuff. They use real gold in the exhibits here. The girl at the front desk said this was one of the largest displays of gold nuggets in North America.

One interesting story about the gold rush and miners was about how they fought against scurvy. They needed vitamin C and iron. So to get that they boiled spruce boughs. The iron was added by throwing a handful of nails into it. It was so strong it disolved the nails! I guess they didn't take it full strength, must have diluted it some with water.

The ride was only 120 miles today with the usual 5 minutes worth of rain. The road conditions are very good and easy to ride. Just gentle curves through woodlands and lakes. The scenery is very pretty but nondescript enough so we didn't take any pictures.

At our motel the mosquitoes are out in force. We had to pull out the bug spray to keep them off of us.