Of flats and men

"This is the law of the Yukon, and ever she makes it plain:
Send not your foolish and feeble; send me your strong and your sane"
The law of the Yukon, Robert  Service

In my last post I mentioned Paul, the caretaker of the Watson Lake Campground. Paul hales  originally  from Vancouver, British Columbia. A friend who was moving to the Yukon asked Paul to drive up with him while the friend drove the U-Haul. Once at their destination, the friend would buy Paul's  plane ticket home. Once they arrived, however, said friend lacked the financial wherewithal  to get Paul  home. Paul was 18 at the time and was now well and truly stranded. He found a job and fell in love with the place so decided to stay. As Paul proudly informed us, that was just 40 years ago.

Meanwhile, out on the road yours truly is changing flat number two. It took about an hour of cussing and fumbling to handle flat number one but it's successor was the beneficiary of that prior roadside school of hard knocks (aka the learning curve) and the old faithful donut was mounted up ready for duty in about 15 minutes. Mind you, Whitehorse was still more than 200 miles distant. You might ask, why not head back to Watson Lake and pick up the delightful match to my wonderful new snow tire. Sorry, but there was no way we were going back. North to Alaska! Well, at least somewhat westerly  to Whitehorse it would be.

To make a long story, or at least a long,slow drive, short, we ultimately arrived in Whitehorse which is actually the Capital of the Yukon Territory. There are not all that many folks who actually call the Yukon home but apparently about 90% reside in Whitehorse. Still, the population of Whitehorse, heck - the population of the entire Territory, is substantially  less than that of my hometown of Littleton, CO which is just a suburb of the much larger Denver area.

What Whitehorse lacks in population it makes up for in amenities. Remember those two most critical words that can appear on a road sign - TIRE REPAIR? Whitehorse boasts several real tire centers including a Canadian Tire store as well as - dare I say it? - a Walmart. I can hear your gasp of giddiness and I was in TIRE REPAIR  heaven.

Yeah, right.

The illustrious  snow tire that saved our bacon in Watson Lake  turned into somewhat more of an albatross  than it already was. Turns out you're not supposed to drive a vehicle with just one snow tire regardless of the season. The tread of the snow tire is so much more aggressive than that of a normal touring tire that the tire stores wouldn't mount a mismatched set of tires. The plan had been to buy three new tires in Whitehorse as one of my Denver  tires was still in great shape. Two new tires would go on the front of the van, the good Denver tire would go on the rear along with the now infamous snow tire ( ye  of the aggressive tread) and I'd  be good to go. I was also planning on buying a rim for the 3rd new tire so I'd have a full size spare.

Hah!

Two hours later I'm now the most proud owner of a matching set of 4 snow tires. Bring on the Yukon winter with its massive snows and forty below Temps. I'm ready for you! The upside of course is that I'm now another inch elevated away from the gravel thanks to the deep, aggressive tread gracing all four wheels. You'll be proud to know I did also get that full size spare.

Buying tires in the Yukon - priceless. For everything else, there's  Mastercard. As if they gave these tires away. Priceless my...

"This is the law of the Yukon, that only the Strong shall thrive;
That surely the Weak shall perish, and only the Fit survive."
Robert Service