Looks like we are heading out tonight about 2 AM. We'll pick up Kooney and Lois from Whitehorse International shortly before 1, head out to the campsite to have a celebratory glass of wine, pack up the last of our personal things and shove off into the lake. The sun should be lightening the sky by 3:30 and by then we will be near the top of the island heading acsross to the other side. The lake is very cold and very deep and about 50 miles long, can blow up with a big wind quickly, and for that reason if the weather is nice tonight we will be starting off the next part of the trip.
The last 4 days here at the campground have been busy and fun, we practically have the place to ourselves, are camped right on the shore and we met some very helpful neighbors. Randy and Olga who are letting me sit in their yard and use the internet and who gave us fishing lures and Olga's smoked Arctic char, Tom who lives next door and who was a barge pilot on the river for 30 years, running a self powered 70' steel boat between Minto and Dawson, Rob from Yukon doors who hooked up with us and traded for our boat trailer, he helped put up the ridgepole on the cabin tent, and Paul Tubbs from Watson Lake who was on his way in a camper to Dawson and was kind enough to accept our offer of coffee, sausage, and eggs. The whole plan is falling into place perfectly, we had to improvise and launch the boat here in the lake instead of a few miles upriver in Whitehorse because the river level is so low and the very early stretches are still too shallow, our gear seems well suited to the time ahead, and we will have the river to ourselves for a while.
I went into "town" yesterday (Whitehorse is a grown up frontier town of 20,000), the trip took me 4 hours, I did laundry and went to get a fishing pole and called home and checked my email, by the time I was done I couldn't wait to get the hell out of there back out of town to the campground. Soon we will be out of town for good, next stop is Carmacks, about 300 river miles away.