The Olympic torch has made a jump north on the fifth day of the 106-day cross-Canada relay, hopscotching from Vancouver Island to Haida Gwaii, then to the Yukon and back to northern B.C.

Stops were planned Tuesday at Sandspit, Skidegate and Queen Charlotte City on Haida Gwaii, also known as the Queen Charlotte Islands, before the flame boarded a plane for visits to Whitehorse and the Kwanlin Dun First Nation in the Yukon.

The torch arrived in Whitehorse at 3 p.m. PT and is expected to be carried across the city to Shipyards Park, where a celebration is planned for that evening.

Runners were also carrying the torch in Taku River Tlingit territory in the Yukon before wrapping up the day in Atlin, at the extreme northwestern corner of B.C.

The 45,000-kilometre relay began Friday in Victoria and will end Feb. 12 at the opening of the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver.

Later in the relay, the torch will head northward again to Alert, Nunavut, which claims to be the northernmost permanently inhabited community in the world.