_      Much to everyone’s surprise (especially the local Skagwegians), we woke up to a beautiful sunny day!  We explored town a bit more, including a walk down to the cruise ship dock, where a new boat had unloaded its happy passengers earlier that morning.  From the dock, we had some sweet views of the Tracy Arm.  Then, we made our way back into town for some pan au chocolate at Glacial Smoothies and Espresso.  Noticing an ad in the Skaguay Alaskan paper in the coffee shop, we stopped in a store nearby for a free train whistle with the purchase of some snazzy bear socks.  In times of radio silence while driving through massive British Columbia, the train whistle certainly came in useful (without much success, we both attempted playing songs ranging from Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” and a smattering from Lonely Island).

_      After much hugging and a few high fives at the Attic, we started the scenic drive out of Skagway through White Pass, climbing some 3,000 feet in just nine miles and crossing the Canadian-America border one more time.

_      We crossed from BC into the Yukon, where we happened upon the deserted Venus Mill mining structure on Tutshi Lake.  Built in 1908, it was meant as a last-ditch effort to try to mine silver from the lake, but it was unsuccessful.  Later on we crossed through Carcross (from the original town’s name CARibou CROSSing) and then the Tagish Road onto the Alaska Highway for the third and longest stretch of our trip.

_     We made a quick stop in Teslin for gas and groceries before making a nice lunch overlooking Nisultin Bay just outside of town.  With a full tank in the trusty Pilot and full stomachs, we covered a lot of ground before reaching the Watson Lake Signpost Forest.  We meandered around a bit and made the necessary stops to check up on Chase’s two signs there.  We skipped out on the Northern Lights Centre, deciding that we would just have to wait until our return to Alaska to see them again in the sky and not on film.
     From there, we drove for a bit and started seeking out a place to rest for the night.  Our first stop was place we will forever call mosquito land.  We took a turnoff, hopeful for a nice spot, but it looped around back towards the Highway.  We found what appeared a nice spot in the back of the loop, but after a few minutes of setting up the tent, we were swarmed with plaque-like quantities of mosquitoes and quickly decided to pack it all in and search for something better.  We stopped in a rock quarry a few miles down the road that was still fairly mosquito-infested but a much better option for a place to make dinner and get some rest.

_      We woke up among the Klondike gold rush-era facades of the Attic, as Freddie’s apartment complex is known among the residents.  Once again it was time for more blueberry pancakes using Charla’s blueberries from Talkeetna!  (Readers might have noticed that by now they’ve been smuggled across a second international border, so we should get around to eating them.)

_      We spent the rainy afternoon getting to know Freddie’s roommates and coworkers, and then ventured back into town for a stop at the local brothel.  The Red Onion was Skagway’s brothel back during the gold rush days of the 1890s (and a post office, telegram station, military barracks, etc., before becoming the museum it is today; hence, the 1940's and 50's pinups on the walls), and the fully-functional bar gives tours of the upstairs where the girls never missed a trick.  Today it costs $5 to get upstairs for 15 minutes, which is the exact same that it cost in 1899.

_      Before departing on the trip we had become accustomed to Burger & Brew at the West Rib Pub in Talkeetna on Friday nights, where you get a burger and a PBR for $6.95.  We were adrift in Skagway without our Friday night staple, until a whispered rumor sent us to Jewell Gardens for Friday night Hippie Hour where the burgers are $5 and the PBRs are $2.  Though an extra nickel changed hands, we were able to keep up the Friday night tradition!

_      After dinner, we started up a new Friday night tradition at the Skagway Brewing Company.  Well, perhaps not a tradition since it won’t happen again, but we all wish it was a tradition.  The BrewCo was offering 75 Cent Mystery Shot night, which we descended upon with Freddie and a couple of his roommates.  In addition to 75 cent shots, the BrewCo also had its signature Spruce Tip Blonde back on tap, a favorite of ours after sampling a brown and an IPA the night before.  After a wild time at the BrewCo (where we were the only table ordering mystery shots and also the only table being wild) we made a quick stop back at the Red Onion.  A lowly brothel by day, the RO turns into a dance club at night, luring in the likes of a bachelorette party all the way from Whitehorse.

       We started day three by packing up wet gear thanks to a Dawson morning rain shower.  Once we got all of our wet gear stowed away for the trip, we got to once again jump on the ferry for our final water crossing of the Yukon River.  The ladies at the Visitor Center directed us to the cheapest gas in town, at an industrial Alberta Fuels cardlock system in a mining part of town.  After figuring out how to use the most obscure cardlock system in the world, we were finally zooming out of town on the Klondike Highway.  We stopped for lunch at Moose Creek, a nice campground though it was lacking the running water that it had advertised.  Without rinsing our dishes we were back on the road again.  We continued on to Carmacks for a gas stop, and much more excitingly, a Cadbury’s Dairy Milk Mint Chocolate bar that was hiding in the gas station!  We stopped to enjoy some morsels of chocolate at Little Fox Lake, the scene of a catastrophic forest fire in 1998.  The landscape is still charred and recovering to this day.
     A few miles down the road we arrived at Lake Laberge.  We were on an overlook, not quite a marge, but it was still appropriate to have a reading of Robert Service's “The Cremation of Sam McGee.”  After the dramatic reading, we took a look around to discover we weren’t merely at an overlook, but we had somehow ventured into a Public Use Quarry, complete with three Caterpillar 776Bs with keys in the ignitions!  However tempted we were to rally, we settled with a photo shoot.  (Who knows how good the steering would be on a vehicle whose tires are taller than the trusty Pilot?!)_

_      Our quarry was quite close to Whitehorse, which features the Yukon Brewery (“Beer Worth Freezin' For”).  Unbeknownst to us we had stopped in on International IPA Day, a day we should all be celebrating.  After a bit of sampling we decided on a growler of Discovery Honey Ale and bottles of Ice Fog IPA and Midnight Sun Espresso Stout. 

_ A nice drive east on the Glenn Highway led us through the Chugach Mountains and past Matanuska Glacier.  After taking the left to Canada in Glenallen on the Richardson Highway, the full moon started rising over Mount St. Elias and the mountains exhibited an amazing alpenglow.  Twenty-one miles into the Tok Cut-Off we found a great spot to hunker down for the night with bathrooms and picnic tables and all!