Alaskan Bike Trip - Golden Circle Tour
Klondike Highway to Carcross and camp on Tagish Lake

June 30, 2006

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Leaving Whitehorse we traveled along the Alaskan Highway, following the Yukon River, and then headed south on the Klondike highway through coastal mountains. We stopped at the town of Carcross which was established during the gold rush and has preserved some of the building from that era. From there we biked past along massive lakes which are the headwaters of the Yukon River. The night was spent camping on the shores of a long arm of Tagish Lake.
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Team BP ready to leave Whitehorse
 


Downtown Whitehorse


Yukon River

Thor cruising down the Klondike HW

Heading towards the mountains

Emerald Lake

Lunch Break on Klondike HW
 

"Carcross Desert" - Sand deposited from glacial activity

The oldest operating business in the Yukon
 

Railroad station at Carcross

Bove Island on Tagish Lake
 

Fantastic campsite on Lake Tagish's Windy Cove

Gull waiting for some dinner leftovers
 

Taking a cool dip in Tagish Lake

Thom preparing Chinese stir fry for dinner

A campfire with glowing embers to end the day.
 
About Carcross

Carcross, originally Caribou Crossing, is an unincorporated community and a Reserve in the Yukon Territory of Canada on Lake Bennett and Nares Lake. It has a population of 446. It is 64 km (40 miles) south-southeast of Whitehorse on the Klondike Highway. Carcross is also on the White Pass and Yukon Route railway, a narrow gauge railroad that once connected Skagway with Whitehorse. Currently the train is operated for tourism and travels from Skagway to Fraser, BC, but is expected to have some trips to Carcross starting next summer.

Caribou Crossing was a fishing and hunting camp for Inland Tlingit and Tagish people. 4,500-year-old artifacts from aboriginal people living in the area have been found in the region.Caribou Crossing got its name from the migration of huge numbers of caribou across the natural land bridge between Lake Bennett and Nares Lake. That caribou herd was decimated during the Klondike Gold Rush, but a recovery program raised the number of animals to about 450.

The modern village began in 1896, during the Klondike Gold Rush. At the time, Caribou Crossing was a popular stopping place for prospectors going to and from the gold fields of Dawson City. Caribou Crossing was also a station for the Royal Mail and the Dominion Telegraph Line, and it served as a communications point on the Yukon River.Silver mining was promoted nearby in Conrad, Yukon in the early 1900s, but there was little to be found and mining efforts soon ended. Mineral exploration continues today, but tourism is far more important to the economy of the community.

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