Day 336. July 8, 2014. Klondike highway

LOCATION:  100 miles south of Dawson, Yukon in central part of the territory

WEATHER:  Sunny. Highs in 69s

We picked up our mail which my Aunt Martha had kindly forwarded to us and hit the road, after spending 4 nights in this nice campground in Whitehorse.

We drove a bit west on the Alaska Highway, then turned northwest onto the 

Klondike  Highway.  This was another all day of driving, with much of it slow-going.  There is hardly any traffic, and very few towns to go through (I.e.  places to buy gas). Much of the road was dirt, gravel, mud and potholes.  Our poor Airstream is dirty and forlorn, but we won't wash it until Fairbanks as we have worse roads ahead of us.

We think our mouse hitchhiker jumped ship.  There hasn't been a sign of him in the last few days.  

We stopped along the way at beautiful lakes for George to go fishing (no luck).  We had a nice picnic lunch at one stop.

We bought gas in a little village.  While there, I went to the post office/grocery/diner to use their WIFI.  We talked with a local there who told us about a huge forest fire they had had last year.  In its wake this spring, millions of morel mushrooms have popped up.  People are in the forest, madly picking and making $1000/day on them.  Native Indians paddle the pickers across the Yukon River and are making lots of money, too.  We asked if we could buy some and they pointed us to a lean-to where a woman was  buying them from the pickers  and drying them.

We asked if she would sell us some.  

She agreed at $16/pound which was very reasonable since they were partially dry.

She said she was preparing to deliver these to Vancouver.  They are really big.

We drove on, stopping at about 6:00 PM in a government campground called Moose Creek. We hiked a bit along the river searching for a good fishing place.  I came back, as the Mosquitos were after me.

Back at the campsite, George made a fire.  We defended ourselves from the Mosquitos with the campfire smoke, a big can of repellant, and netted mosquito hats.

Then, I made us cocktails with gin, to save us from malaria!  

DINNER:  Needless to say, but I changed my prepared menu for tonight, after we lucked out on morels.  I reconstituted about 1/3 of them.  George sautéed them over the fire in butter.  I served this with  the leftover corned beef, and peas.  We would have preferred steak, as I think mushrooms and steak are a perfect combination.  Hopefully we can buy some meat tomorrow in Dawson to fix with the rest of the mushrooms.