Day Four: Stewart Crossing to Destruction Bay, YT

Highlights from Friday, 25 July:

• We wake up around 7:30. We seem to be getting pretty good about getting up in the morning, even though we really should go to bed sooner. The showers have mercifully warm water. This being the middle of the Yukon, we worried that we'd be taking an ice bath.
• We pack the car. Our strategy of packing as much as we can the night before seems to help get us moving sooner. Unfortunately, I packed the car incorrectly today, so Christina has to do a quick re-pack so that I can see out the rear window.
• Breakfast is actually pretty good, although Kiersten eats less than we’d like. The restaurant inside the lodge is very cute, almost diner-like. We notice that all their food seems to be homemade--the bread is very fresh, and the ham has an unprocessed taste to it. Since the owners are in the middle of nowhere, it must be cheaper to make their own food than to have it shipped in.
  
• We get moving around 9:30, which is close to on-time for us. We do our best to keep Kiersten entertained, although she's become addicted to the Disney CDs we bought her (we've played "Bippity Boppity Boo" over and over and over...). The drive is a little long, but there’s lots of nice scenery. However, we still don't see any wildlife other than a small creature which might have been a fox.
• We reach the small Yukon town of Carmacks around noon and stop at their small visitor center for lunch. I take Kiersten inside for a look around. The lady manning the center has a little girl with her who's a year older than Kiersten. She seems happy to make a friend, so both girls play for ½ hour while Christina makes lunch. We later learn that the girl doesn’t have many friends in this small town (many of them are native children who are on different schedules), so she's thrilled to see another little girl her age. Sadly, she's also really reluctant to let Kiersten leave when it's time to go.
  
• We gas up again--$75 to fill the tank! I buy a “bear bell,” since bears have been spotted in the area and we're going hiking tomorrow. The idea is that it generates constant noise, so a bear will know that humans are in the area and steer clear of them.
• We leave town around 1, and Kiersten goes down for her afternoon nap. We listen to the last disc of "Airframe." The overall story and mystery were pretty good, although Crichton goes into this weird anti-media rant at the end of the story. It's not a bad story point, but the obvious social commentary is rather distracting from the overall direction of the story.
• We're within an hour of Whitehorse when we have to stop for construction. We don't have to wait terribly long, although Kiersten does wake up at this point. Back to the Disney CDs! I let Christina take over the drive around this point, so it's my turn to entertain Kiersten until our next stop.
  
• We drive for another 90 minutes to Haines Junction. Technically, we're driving back towards Alaska for this leg. It's a little sobering, because our inclination is to drive south and east, not north and west. We have to remind ourselves that we're vacationing.
• We arrive in Haines Junction around 5:30 and stop at the visitor center for Kluane National Park. When we drove from Florida to Alaska two years ago, we discovered Kluane when we stopped at their visitor center for a comfort break. We were so impressed by the park that we swore to come back on our way out and hike up Sheep Mountain. Anyway, their larger visitor center in Haines Junction is impressive, although I was hoping to see more stuffed animals to impress Kiersten. (She really liked the ones at Denali National Park, which we went to twice while in Alaska.)
• We watch Kluane's video on bear safety, and see footage of bears destroying campsites and chasing people up trees. We really wish we'd bought some bear spray....
  
• Kiersten starts coughing a lot and acting very sick. She also keeps filling her diaper; I change her three times in an hour. This is not a good sign.
  
• We continue on to our next B&B, the Kluane Base Camp (about 10 minutes from the park). Although in a rustic setting, the cabins are VERY new and much cozier than the ones we slept in last night. (N.B.: yesterday's cabins weren't bad, just not very modern.) There's also a full kitchen for guest use. We cook some dried soup, although Kiersten is extremely cranky and doesn't want to eat. She later throws up and develops a wheeze, so we quickly rush her to bed.
• Will our hiking trip for tomorrow be canceled on account of sick baby? Stay tuned....
• Results: Long drive, and we didn’t do anything or see any wildlife. It took forever to get between destinations, and Kiersten got sick. Not a bad day, but nothing we're impressed with either. However, our cabins are very cute and cozy, and we think we'll enjoy the night. Grade: C-.

Distance traveled to date: 978 miles.