Whitehorse started as an old frontier town on the historic Yukon River, the recreational and cultural oasis of the north woods. In the 1890s, Klondike stampeders landed here to dry out and repack their supplies on the way to the gold fields.

By April of 1942, Whitehorse experienced its second boom — this time as a major staging area for the building of the Alaska Highway. Thousands of American soldiers and Canadian contractors gathered here to build the roadway north.

Back in those days, people passing through always had to be on the lookout for crooks and swindlers — one of the most famous being Soapy Smith in Skagway. Though times have changed, we soon learned travelers still need to watch out for sharks.

Whitehorse is the capitol of the Yukon Territory with a year-round population exceeding 25,000 people. In the summer, the travelers and natives love it. With such long, sunny warm days, people have plenty of time before or after work to enjoy the outdoor life, and they take full advantage of it. You see activity all around.

The city has much to offer visitors as the halfway house to Anchorage and Fairbanks. Surrounded by the Grey Mountains, the downtown business district features a variety of modern shops, restaurants and services. Upon our arrival, snow still covered the summit of many of the peaks. It was quite an impressive sight!

Nearby is Miles Canyon, a commanding strip of wilderness river carved through the rocks by the mighty Yukon. Visitors can hike the river canyon's edge and by means of a suspension bridge cross to the other side.

Diane amazes me; she walked across that bridge like a cat on a window ledge. The bridge is quite high suspended over the raging water below. Me, well, I'm not too fond of high scary places especially suspension bridges that swing and sway as you walk. And to make matters worse, you can look down between the planks and see the rapids below. Somehow, I made it across.

While we were parked at Pioneer RV Park, a transit park for people traveling the road, I took the opportunity to seek out some "old timers," men who have traveled the highway many times. If you want to know just about anything having to do with recreation vehicles, talk with people of experience.

You know them by the way they dress, the vehicles they drive or pull, and the way they handle their rigs. They are old salts of the road. I discussed my trouble on the road with several, and of course it was nothing new to them. Some had even experienced it themselves.

You've seen me speak of frost heaves. Well, some travelers believe metal hitches over time become fatigued and brittle. Periodic inspections fail to disclose the problem. Then, you drive on the Alaska Highway with its many mountainous inclines, rough bumpy roadways, the rutted uneven cracks between sections, the potholes and the frost heaves.

Think about it. As a 40-foot motorhome goes through a frost heave, it jolts from an up movement to a sudden down movement (or vise-versa). As the motorhome goes up, the tow car is going down, and great stress is placed on the tow bar and the base plate. At this point, a fatigued hitch just explodes.

We had just traveled up a sizable incline and reached the summit when it failed. I don't know the business of stress engineering that goes into hitches, but this explanation sounded logical to me.

What was left of the base plate to frame? Nothing. (Photo: Diane M. Owens)

Later in the day, we got together with some other travelers and discussed the best route to take from Whitehorse to Tok. There seemed to be a consensus that staying on the Alaska Highway through Haines Junction was preferred to the route through Dawson City.

OK, we decided to stay on route as planned, but let's invest a few bucks for damage control.

First thing the next morning, I called my insurance carrier and reduced my deductible from $1,000 to $250 on both vehicles. Upon Diane's suggestion, we also went downtown and purchased a cheap soft blanket and a long bungee cord for the Jeep's windshield. The blanket covers the windshield side to side and is held in place at the top with the bungee cord. The bottom is held in place by the windshield wipers and the sides locked into place by the doors.

One last thing, our new tow bar arrived, and the base plate was replaced on the rear of the coach. Our rig was back to normal again, safe to travel. All that was left was to pay the owner of the repair company for his services. When the hitch was replaced, I watched as one of his employees took about 30 minutes to complete the job.

When the owner provided a bill for $255 Canadian, I asked him to itemize. He said he was charging me for 2.5 hours of work at $92 per hour. I said, "Your man only put in 30 minutes on the work."

The owner explained how he also talked on the telephone with Winnebago, and someone had to pay for that time. Sure, but two and a half hours? Rather than argue, I paid the man his pieces of silver. I spoke with Winnebago, and they accepted the bill. It has happened before, and they expect it to happen again.

Just the same, it makes me sick that sharks still feed on the motoring troubles of the public. Beware of sharks in sheep's clothing, the kind that underestimate the time going in and overstate the bill going out.

Travelers are always vulnerable to the sharks along the roadway and must be careful when they are in need of help.