Sun, Sept 19........Tok to Whitehorse

Today we bid "adieu" to Alaska, after several eventful days, to say the least, and headed East to Yukon Territory.
   As an aside, the Yukon appears to have approximately 1/3  the landmass of Alaska and has a grand total of 34,000 residents.  The town where we're heading to spend the night is Whitehorse, which has a population of 25,000....leaving 9,000 other inhabitants distributed throughout the remainder of this vast Yukon Territory.
   By the time John finished breakfast, back at "Fast Eddy's" and we gassed up and hit the Tok gift shop for a couple of gifts it was almost 11:30am.  However, it was a really nice gift shop, as gift shops go....

At the border their was a monument area Welcome to Alaska as well as a Yukon sign. We chatted with a couple going to Alaska and another couple leaving.

This was a joint spot shared by both the US and Canada for some historic facts and cooperation. Not much  of a secured border because the only thing we could see was a clear path cut thru the forest over the ridge of the next mountain.

    We had smooth and uneventful sailing to the border and just as it appeared we would pass through customs without a problem, the customs officer spotted the "baleen" in the back of the van that Tom had purchased from BJ yesterday.  He had been told by her that the whale's tooth being decorated by a native Indian and legally harvested, would classify the piece as art without an issue with customs....However, this proved not to be the case according to the border officials. It ended up that we were addressed by a US Border Agent as well as two Canadian Agents. Tom pleaded his cause to no avail, out numbered and for fear of his friend John, Tom graciously "abanoned" his baleen. He was assured to would be passed on for educational purpose or research. The two warnings were for "unlawful import of an animal part" and "import of endangered specie part". Tom was "outaluck." but no fines were imposed or further issue on the matter is expected. We kind of wished BJ from the shop had been there to defend the purchase secure our rights & property.  She is the kind of person who will make this right, some how.
   The rest of the journey to Whitehorse, though occasionally bumpy and dusty, went without further incident.  We saw more rugged, beautiful scenery under delightful weather conditions, once again.

This was one of our earliest sighting of large game "elk" in the wild. This female elk had a tracking collar.

   As we neared Whitehorse, we saw a cow elk and two calves.  They posed for a couple of pictures and them ambled off into the brush.
   We had a little problem finding a hotel room but, ended up in a decent place, and.....had a very good dinner at a nearby Italian-style restaurant.  Tomorrow it will be off to the Linard Hot Springs, we hope....The waitress at the restaurant assured us that we should be able to make Calgary by Saturday, to catch John's plane, and still be able to enjoy all the spectacular sights along the way.  As a student at Calgary University, majoring in finance, she had made the trip many times, so we figured she ought to know....She even told us a better way to get there than we had originally mapped out.....Later....