A final drive into Alaska, and now we wait it out…
These are crazy times, and the situation is changing so fast it’s hard to keep up with even your local situation. On Sunday, Cathy and I took the dogs down to Skagway and then Dyea for a play on the snow-free beach. Yesterday Skagway announced that visitors were no longer welcome, and this morning the Canada/US border was closed to non-essential travel.
I’ll tell you a bit more about what’s going on here in the Yukon, but first, let’s have some fun with Bella and Tucker 🙂
I had taken Bella and Tucker out for a long walk on Friday – our first real walk in months. It felt soooo good!
It’s a long way until Spring, but we had our first hamburger barbecue on Saturday. Not the first barbecue – we’d done some moose steaks a couple of weeks ago – but notable anyway.
The weather was spectacular on Sunday, which is what prompted the drive. The forecast for Skagway was for sunshine and 43°F (6°C). When we left home at about 11:00, it was -11°C (+12°F). Our first stop, as usual, was at Tutshi Lake, but the snow was too deep for the kids to play there so it was a short stop.
Skagway was very quiet. I checked my mailbox, then we went over to The Station and had a great lunch before driving to Dyea.
There were a fair number of people on the beach at Dyea – a dozen or so. On a square mile of beach, that’s not too crowded 🙂
Once the Jeep is parked and the ball comes out, the party is ON! Bella’s not actually much of a ball dog, but plays along a bit.
Mr. Tucker on the other hand is a ball maniac. Look, my dog can fly 🙂
There are no problems in the world when I see my pups laughing.
Still for about 3 seconds…
Bella the play monitor.
For quite a while, Tucker was dropping the ball in a little creek and watching it go downstream.
This beach is such a spectacular spot – and calm when the pups poop out. The tide was extremely low when were there.
As we were about to leave, Bella found something to roll in. The last time that happened here, it was very stinky, but we got lucky this time. She really enjoyed it but we barely noticed it.
Other than the dogs, I didn’t take many photos. With more sunny days forecast, I had planned to go down again specifically for photography, but that didn’t work out. Anyway, it was a great day.
I’m now able to work on the long-neglected woodpile, and have the wood room in the basement at a comfortable level now.
Although we have no COVID-19 cases in the Yukon, some people have gone crazy here too. Yesterday afternoon, the toilet paper racks in every store were empty, as they have been for a few days, and lots of other things were out of stock as well.
Today has been the big change here in the Yukon. Although closures of events have been going on for a week or so, today the Canada/US border was closed to non-essential travel, schools were closed for a month, and the Yukon’s chief medical officer declared a public health emergency.
I go out very little, but that’s normal for me. I’m happy to be at home with Bella and Tucker and Molly and just putter on my million projects.
The final image was created to post in an RV group in response to some nasty comments this morning, about a woman going out in her motorhome. Social distancing is my preferred lifestyle – that’s why I bought this rig. The spot in the photo is less than 2 hours from home and I regularly spend a week at a time boondocking there, doing day-hikes off into the wilderness with my 2 dogs, photographing, and writing. There is no “norm” for RVing – it can be anything you want it to be. If not for the fact that many nights are still nearing -20C, that’s where I’d be. My wife is in a fairly high-exposure public job and at 69 I’m probably a fairly high risk, so home isn’t a particularly safe place – my RV is totally safe. Please take care of each other, and don’t assume you know what’s best for other people – you really have no idea what might work in their specific case.
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