Whitehorse and Dawson City

Western Yukon Territory – Whitehorse and Dawson City:

July 19-24, 2013

Day #6 of our Alaskan Adventure (A.A.) started with a pancake feed at the RV Park – Fantasy hosted the “troops” – a great selection of pancakes, sweet potato pancakes and blueberry  (Arleen, 1 of our guides brought the frozen berries from her Fairbanks home).  The drive to Whitehorse was a short one, we enjoyed a side trip to Teslin Tlingit Heritage Center – saw some very interesting displays of the crafts that these 1^st Nation people create.  We listened for several minutes to a woman who every winter tans several moose hides that people bring to her. What a process! The beading that she then does on these hides that she makes into mukluks, mittens, bags, ceremonial gear, etc. was fantastic. The drive was a pretty one, we crossed several rivers/lakes along the way, ones that I could identify were the: Teslin, Rivele, Marsh Lake, and the Yukon River.  Dinner was provided at camp so a real easy day for every one concerned.

Miles for the day: 105.1 Total miles for the AK Adventure: 873.2

Tlingit Museum

Tlingit wall art

Days # 7-8 of our A.A. were spent enjoying Whitehorse, Y.T.  We started off seeing the might Yukon River (3^rd largest river in North America), and then we toured the S.S. Klondike a steam paddle wheeler that sailed on the Yukon from Whitehorse to Dawson City taking provisions to the miners up on the Klondike. No real roads at that time.  Despite the afternoon rain we walked around a bit enjoying the murals on many building’s walls, we toured the log church museum that had artifacts and stories of the early priests and missionaries who worked with the 1^st Nation’s people and their children of the area. The McBride Heritage museum had many displays on the mining history of this area, and a room that talked about the Yukon Quest Dog Sled Race that is run every year (this was # 30) from Whitehorse to Dawson City.

One evening we went to the Frantic Follies Vaudeville Revue.  A fun, sort of “corny” show that had musical acts, dancing, skits and audience participation acts.  Driving around town we went to the cabin that Jack London lived in while he was in the Yukon looking for gold.  Near by was Sam McGee’s Cabin – he was a prospector that moved from San Francisco to the Yukon to mine gold. He found a deposit of copper over looking the town of Whitehorse. The local poet Robert Service, a bank teller in the area, made him famous.  Service liked Sam’s name and asked him if he could use it in his poem: The Cremation of Sam McGee.  Funny poem that tells a story of a stampeder (miner) who got so cold, he asked his pal to cremate him if he died. Well Sam froze, his buddy found a cabin and built a fire to dispose of his frozen corpse.  After several hours he checked in on Sam, only to find him loving the heat from the fire and asking him to put more wood on the fire and close the door. Both of these cabins had been moved from their original locations to an area in the city of Whitehorse.  One of our last stops while in town was to see the world’s largest weather vane; a plane that has been mounted on a large post. It sits on a foundation of ball bearings allowing the plane to turn with the wind. An interesting visual for the local airport.

S.S.Klondike

Sam McGee's Cabin

Day 9 of the A.A. was spent driving to the town of Dawson City, our longest mileage day on tour. The drive took us along the Klondike Highway – roads had bit more personality today.  Mike got in several innings of his “dodge the potholes game” along with riding the washboards and trying to identify oncoming dips. Despite these challenges there were many pretty views to be enjoyed, a lot of the dense small tree forests, sites on Yukon-the Five Fingers Rock area and many acres of the pinkish purple Fireweed plant that grows well in these northern climes.  There were some interesting archaeological areas present today (and for many years, I am sure J): 700+ year old ash layers in the soil along the road and what they described as “conglomerates” that are 1000s of years old made from mud that mixed with lava producing long tube like structures on the mountainsides.  Upon arriving in Dawson City we say piles and piles and piles of what looked like river-rocks.  Wondered what this was? Duh!!! they were of course the tailings from the dredge mining that occurred all along the rivers and creeks in the area.  We got to Dawson City and were glad that we would be there in camp for 2 more days.

Miles today: 335.5, total for the AK  1208.7

Yukon River

Days 10-11 of the A.A. were spent enjoying the interesting community of Dawson City. We had a very entertaining walking tour of D.C. led by a young woman who calls Dawson City her home. She was real character and was exceptionally good at weaving the past and present together. We walked around town going into several old buildings: the bank, the post office, and the saloon – all of which looked like they were in the 1890s. The town has really only one paved road, the rest are dirt, and the sidewalks are all boardwalks along the building fronts. Many of the buildings are leaning due to their construction on the permafrost – not good for foundations. Walking through the several blocks that make up the city one would think that this was a reconstructed tourist town, but really is an old town that the 1200 or so residents of Dawson live and work in. While the road to Whitehorse (335.5 miles away) is open all winter, it is a long way to go.  The weather gets very cold 70 degrees below 0 for many days in a row, only 2-3 feet of snow, but when it snows it sticks around for the winter.  The Yukon River and all bodies of water usually freeze up by the end of October and don’t thaw until April or so. Marika, our tour guide, lives across the river – rides the ferry across when the river is flowing but 2-3 weeks in the fall before they make the ice bridge and 2-3 week in the spring before the ferry can start running again she is left to “hunker down” in her home that is off the grid – no electricity except a generator and solar panels, no water, uses an outhouse with a Styrofoam toilet seat (won’t freeze to your butt). What a character! The town has a lottery every spring to see who can come closest to guessing when the exact day, and time of “break-up” of the river.  They put a tripod out on the ice with a rope attached to a clock in town – when the tripod falls, it stops the clock and sirens go off to ell everyone that spring is on its way.  Many of the people in town will leave once the tourists are gone – so winter in Dawson is very quiet, the way the “sourdoughs” (the real Yukoners, residents who stay all year) like it.

Dawson City

Jack London's Cabin and Cache

Our evening was entertaining; we started with a show at Diamond Tooth Gertie's – a great musical review. Gertie was a great singer and took a fancy to Mike and many of “old guys” in the audience. The 4 dancers that joined her and the pianist and drummer combo were FANTASTIC, real professional show girls.  After the first show we walked a couple of blocks to participate in an important rite of passage. We joined over 50,000 people who have “kissed the toe “and become part of the exclusive club of the Sourdough Saloon. For $10. We got a shot of Jack, a toe and prayer.  Drink it fast or drink it slow – however you do it, you must kiss the toe—yes a real toe that has been “pickled” Many people loose their toes to frostbite every year and this has become a tradition.  Mike and I both have our membership cards and certificates to prove our performance.  We then returned to Gerties Saloon and watched the next two shows – all three were different and got better as the night went on (well maybe it was the toe-shots that did that?). We got back to the MoHo about 1:30am—of course it was still light – the Yukon averages 20 hours of day light in July.

Karen joins the Sour Toe Club

Diamond Tooth Gertie

We drove up to the top of the Dome Mountain to see the town and river below, quite a view. While in town we did a bit of window-shopping and enjoyed a couple of good “pub” lunches. This area is very interesting and people who live here are a unique but very friendly. We would really like to come back in the winter – see the solstice, the northern lights, and witness the extreme cold, frozen river and all that goes with this very different place the locals call “home”.