Robert Service is a well known local bard

We spent Saturday in Dawson City. Jen did laundry and I took Quinn to the museum (which had a train shed) and to a playground. The next day we started off on the last leg of our journey to Alaska on the Top of the World Highway. As advertised, the unpaved road keeps to the hilltops and ridges, providing amazing views.

Dawson City and the confluence of the Yukon and Klondike rivers

Trains!!

On the Top of the World Highway

We were about halfway to the US border when the van stuttered and died again, just like on the Dempster. Ugh.

This time I was pretty sure I could get us moving again, and since it was relatively warm and dry out, I broke out the tools and disappeared under the van. First I tried to actuate the fuel tank switch manually by applying voltage to the terminals of the switch, but no luck. Seems like the switch really is fried this time. No problem, just switch the two fuel supply lines – then we should be running off the front tank, right? I switched the lines, and after cleaning the worst of the diesel fuel off of my hands the van started up and we were on our way… for about 3 minutes. Frustrated and out of ideas, we coasted back down the hill to a pullout.

We flagged down the next car that came by. It happened to by Martin and his wife Diana who live in Dawson City and were out leaf peeping. With Martin’s help, we tried bypassing the tank selector and splicing fuel line from the tank directly into the line feeding the engine. We weren’t sure which fuel line came from the front tank, so we tried both, but with no luck.

Martin and his wife then drove two hours back to Dawson to get fuel for the back tank. With the fuel lines re-connected and fuel in the tank, the van still wouldn’t start. So out came the tow rope and Martin generously towed us back to town, leaving us at the only auto repair shop in town, where we planned to spend the night (and possibly the next day since Monday was a holiday).

Martin towed us back to town

Of course, when we tried to start the van back in town, it fired right up. We drove across the street to an RV park to spend the night. At least we got showers, but by then it was too late to make dinner, so we had Wow butter (a soy peanut butter substitute that curiously has been available almost everywhere in Canada) and jelly sandwiches.

The next morning we learned that the repair shop wouldn’t be open until Tuesday. Since our battery will only operate our diesel heater for about 1 night without sunny days or driving to recharge the battery, we decided to get a hotel in town. We drove the 2km back to town and checked in at the Eldorado Hotel. We spent the day sightseeing and playing in playgrounds. I went for a hike along the trail that circumnavigates town. They left a lot of the old artifacts from the settlers who built cabins there during the boom days along the trail. It sort of looks like rusty old junk, but it does add an element of history to the trail.

Downtown Dawson City

On Tuesday morning I called the repair shop. The soonest they could get me in was at 4pm, so we headed out into the rain to visit a couple of the remaining museums on the list, including the firefighting museum and an excellent First Nations cultural museum.