Day 17
7/7/26 Tuesday
Mosquito count: low
No special plans today. Expecting it to rain this morning so we slept in. Our van has great blackout window coverings. They magnet to the inside metal on the windows. It’s very, very dark inside. Like a cocoon. It was the spam phone calls that were our alarm this morning.
It’s the small things… the Coffee Press. While we love the coffee cleaning it up is really messy. Digging the coffee grounds out of the container and getting it into our little garbage container can be a lot of coffee grounds scattering around. Usually it’s an outside project but I don’t want to make a mess of coffee grounds outside where we camp either. We think we’ve found the solution… we are currently experimenting with it. I brought coffee filters like the kind you use in regular coffee makers. We put the coffee inside the filter then gather it into a twisted pod. It looks like a Chinese bun. You place the pod in the bottom of the press and gently pour the hot water into the press being carefully to keep the pod twisted closed. Then when you press the lid down on the coffee it keeps the pod tightly together. When you are ready to pull the plunger out you have “most” of the coffee still in the pod! Ta Da!! When you have limited water it makes the cleanup so efficient.
the pod still has its twisted integrity
Today’s Adventure… hiking in Miles Canyon. I finished yesterdays post with the photo of the Yukon River in Miles Canyon. Today we took a 4 mile hike along the canyon and back into the woods above the river. It was a loop hike.
From the rain this morning the storm moved out and it was a sunny warm afternoon. I think the temperature by 5pm was about 67’F.
We took the short drive to the parking lot above the bridge over the river. It was about 1pm and only a few cars were there. Most people are just walking to the bridge or maybe a short walk along the cliff above the river.
The water was running very fast and it was turbulent with boils and undercurrents. The canyon is actually basalt columns from lava flows.
Miles Canyon was named by U.S. Army Lieutenant Frederick Schwatka in 1883. He named the site in honor of U.S. Army General Nelson Miles, who was the commander of the Department of the Columbia, which oversaw the region at the time. This is the same general that my hometown, Miles City Montana is named after. He commanded a fort in Miles City.
Our little hike took us to the area along the Yukon River that used to be a small town called Canyon City. From Canyon City they built a tramway to avoid the canyon gorge and had animals pull goods on a wagon that ran along log poles like a railroad track to Whitehorse. Running goods on the river through the canyon was very risky.
Eventually the trail looped back to the river. All the trails in the area are also groomed for Nordic skiing. There was a network of trails we crossed… at least 4 in the area. You could go for miles back to some lakes too.
We came back to a lake where the canyon finishes. It’s actually a dammed lake on the river called Schwatka. There were seaplanes landing in the lake.
Lake Schwatka
The trial took us along the very edge of the cliff all the way back to the bridge. There was a spot that had the hugest eddy on our side of the bank. That finished this hike and by 3:30pm the parking lot was full and cars up the hill.
After our hike about we went back into Whitehorse and checked out this Douglas DC 3 Canadian Pacific airplane from 1945. It was active until 1970. Now it’s mounted outside the Transportation Museum as a weather van and always points into the wind!
We found an historic pub in downtown Whitehorse… The Woodcutters Brewing. We enjoyed having one of the popular flavors for Ales in this area. The Spruce Tip Ale. They make it out of the fresh specious that are the prevalent tree this far north. We both liked it.
Across from the brewery is the Canoe Adventure store. They had hundreds of canoes stored outside on both sides of the store. I had no idea this store existed when I mentioned all the canoes from yesterday. I had never seen so many canoes in one town as I have seen in Whitehorse!
Tomorrow we will meet with our friend Lenore. I’d also like to walk along the Yukon River … there’s a trail!
cinnicrew 