The Start of Our Yukon Adventure

The inspiration for this trip was the Dawson City Music Festival, "Canada's tiny, perfect festival" (according to Vancouver's entertainment paper, The Georgia Straight). Running the third weekend in July, if we left Toronto on July 1, I figured we'd have just under three weeks to make the almost 7,000 kilometer trip. I bought tickets for the festival online, and when I got back from our school's camping trip in May, the tickets were waiting for me in the mailbox.

In March we bought our camper-van, a 1978 Volkswagen Westfalia. We bought it from a gentleman in Stratford, Ontario who was loath to part with it, but needed money. I promised to give him the first chance to buy it back if ever I decided to sell it. Painted a light buttery-yellow (although originally it would have been beige), we christened him "Bobby". Bobby sleeps four adults in two double beds, plus he has a canvas cot for an extra child. His stove and sink were disconnected, but my wonderful mechanic, who specializes purely in air-cooled VWs, got the fridge hooked up and working for us. He also did some engine work to get Bobby tuned up and ready for his long trip.

For my birthday, my parents got me a great package from CAA/AAA - a "TripTik" of our route to Dawson and back. I hadn't ever seen one of these, and I was completely charmed by it. A real live person, "Melanie" in our case, assembled strip maps and highlighted them to show our route there and an alternate route back. The spiral-bound TripTik is cross-referenced to the CampBook and TourBook that are included, giving suggestions for where to camp, stay, and eat.

My wonderfully supportive husband installed a new radio in Bobby, complete with an SD slot to read music MP3s from 1GB cards. I had my laptop with 75 ripped CDs on it to keep us entertained on the drive.

July 1
With Bobby loaded up and eager to go, we left Toronto at 8:30am on Canada Day, headed to Ottawa for a gathering in honour of our friend Caia Miller. Caia loved Canada Day, and leaving the nation's capital on July 1 for a cross-country driving adventure seemed appropriate. She would have loved to hear about it.

We stopped for an hour to walk around Pembroke, then continued on to Samuel de Champlain Provincial Park for the night, arriving before dark. Our total mileage so far, on the first day: 750km.