Alcan: Tagish, Yukon Territory - June 10th to 11th, 2022
Well Tagish isn’t really on the Alaska Highway (Alcan). We were taking a detour down to Skagway, Alaska. At Jakes Corner, we left the Alaska Highway, turning onto Tagish Road to get over to the South Klondike Highway. Skagway was farther from Watson Lake than we cared to drive in one day, so we spent two nights in Tagish.
Friday morning, it rained during our drive from Watson Lake to Tagish. We stopped at the Continental Divide Lodge for a restroom break. They were out of muffins, so we both ordered banana bread. The cook said the bread is pretty tasty grilled, so we gave it a try. We’ve never had grilled banana bread before. He was right, it was very tasty. Grilling it gave it a nice crispy coating on the outside. We’ll have to try that at home some time.
It was noon by the time we reached Teslin, so we went to the Yukon Motel & Restaurant for lunch. We both had the deluxe burger with fries, but Ann ordered it with a buffalo patty while Keith had the beef. To us, it was a toss up which bison burger was better, the one in Teslin or the one we had two days ago at Coal River Lodge (Alcan: Watson Lake, Yukon Territory - June 8th to 9th, 2022). You’ll just have to taste them both and decide yourself.
As we drove through several sections of gravel due to road construction, we would cringe every time a semi-truck would pass by us, hoping it would not kick up a stone to our windshield. Luckily, not one semi did. However, a small pick up truck did send a stone our way. It created a wonderful chip right in the middle of our windshield. Great. Hopefully it won’t create a crack before we get it repaired. Replacing a whole windshield could put a slight damper on our plans.
From Teslin, it was only about an hour to our destination, Six Mile River Resort in Tagish. By the time we reached the campground, the clouds cleared up and the sun was shining. The campground is situated on the Tagish River at the end of Marsh Lake, right after crossing the Tagish Bridge. The Tagish River connects Marsh Lake with Tagish Lake and is only about six miles long, hence the name of the campground.
Six Mile River Resort is a quirky little place. The toilets are a two seater outhouse, but there are showers inside the main building. There is also a small washroom building for washing dishes. A nice deck with a seating area overlooks the river. There is a restaurant inside the main building, but the restaurant is not open on a daily basis this year. The campsites are on grass and have electrical hookups. A handful of rustic cabins circle the property. Collections of knick knacks surround the main building, from old license plates and tractor seats to old stoves and meat grinders, and a whole lot more.
The skeeters were swarming around our campsite, but nowhere else on the property. It wasn’t supposed to rain again until late afternoon the following day, so we set up our Quick-Set by Clam (paid link). It took us a minute to remember how to set it up, but it’s pretty simple so we had it up in no time, without instructions. The shelter fit perfectly over the picnic table and provided a nice place to cook and eat dinner. We were trying to clean out our fridge to hopefully make the border crossing back into the U.S. on Sunday go smoothly. Dinner was French toast with honey, using up most of our eggs, the rest of the sour dough bread we bought from Tetsa River Lodge, and the rest of our fresh blueberries.
Sunset was at 11:21 pm, so we went to bed while the sun was still shining. We’re still thankful for our window shades.
Saturday morning was clear, but more rain was forecast for the late afternoon. Therefore, the first order of business was to repair that chip in the middle of our windshield. Fortunately, we brought a chip repair kit with us. Our windshield was in the sun, and the first several steps of the repair process are supposed to be done in the shade. Instead of moving our van, we pulled out an umbrella to shade the spot. After one of the steps, you have to wait ten minutes. Then there is another step where you have to wait 20 minutes. That doesn’t sound like a long time, unless you’re holding an umbrella up over the windshield. We took turns as our arms would tire out. Maybe it would have been better to move the van after all. Then one of the last steps is to let it sit in the sun for an hour. That part was the easiest. Even though this suction-type of windshield repair kit took a little longer, Keith felt it did a better job at filling in the cracks than the positive pressure kit he used before.
We also sprayed the screen we have on our sliding door with permethrin. The skeeters seem to hang out on the screen. We’re hoping the permethrin will keep them away from the screen and reduce the chance of bringing them inside the van when we go in or out the door.
After eating lunch, we went for a walk. Our friendly campsite neighbors from Whitehorse told us about California Beach just a few minutes down the highway. We went to check it out. To get to California Beach, you turn onto Reid Road and take it all the way to the end, even past the sign that says “No through traffic”. Google Maps thinks the road ends before it actually does. At the end of the road is a small area where you can park, right next to the beach. The parking area is right where the Tagish River connects to Tagish Lake. The nice sandy beach goes almost a mile in each direction. It is on the west side of the Tagish River and the west side of Tagish Lake.
We walked in both directions, to the end of the beach to the north, and almost to the end of the beach to the south. Quite a few homes line the beach. Being a Saturday, we thought there would be more people on the beach. When we first got there, a couple of kids on dirt bikes were just coming off the beach. While we were walking, we only saw one family wading in the water. Then, just as we were returning to our Red Tail Lodge (our van), a family on two ATV’s were coming down the beach. We were thankful that the motorized vehicles were not on the beach while we were on our walk, so as not to disturb our peaceful stroll along the beach.
At the southern end of our walk, we spotted a bald eagle up in the tree tops. Of course, we had our bear spray with us, but we did not see any other wildlife other than a small bird on the beach. In total, we covered 3.5 miles with 10 feet of elevation gain in an hour and 25 minutes.
When we returned to the Six Mile River Resort, it looked like the restaurant was open. We went inside and ordered an ice cream. They had waffle cones with hand dipped ice cream, as long as you only wanted vanilla. That works for us! We ate our cones over on the deck overlooking the river and the bridge. Very peaceful and relaxing.
For dinner, we finished cleaning out our fridge, so the meal was rather odd. It was egg drop soup with shredded carrots, but we had no fresh ginger, which is really what makes the soup, so it was rather bland. We also ate a few strips of bacon and a grilled Swiss cheese sandwich. There’s a reason why grilled cheese sandwiches are normally made with cheddar. Swiss cheese doesn’t melt as well, but it was still edible. It may have not been the tastiest meal we’ve ever made, but we weren’t going hungry, either.
Ok, we were now ready to cross back into the United States and into Alaska for the first time. Skagway here we come!
Check out our related video: Alcan: Tagish, Yukon Territory
(Ann)