Dawson City and beyond

June 9 – Goldrush Campground, Dawson City

I’m sitting in the sun, beer in hand, eating Norbert’s fresh guacamole, trying to channel my inner Robert Service to entertain you.  Dawson City is like that – a rollicking, free thinking, messy sort of town, full of characters and drunks and crazy juxtapositions.  In 1897, 30,000 people lived here, mostly in tents strung along mud streets.  There were 30 bars, a silk dress shop, brothels, banks, riverboats and dog sleds.  Today there are only 1800 hardy souls, a paved highway to civilization, no riverboats, but still plenty of dogs.  The dirt streets are lined with glorious restored heritage buildings and broken down rusty tin huts.  There are still grizzled miners, but also dreadlocked hippies, costumed interpreters, uber-fit bikers, German tourists and skateboarding punks.  I doubt that Dawson still consumes more champagne than St. Petersburg, but it might give Dusseldorf a good run for the world beer title.   

Dawson is a wonderful town to be a tourist.  Parks Canada has a beautiful office in the steamship company headquarters building, and has restored about half the heritage buildings in town.  We really enjoyed the guided walking tour of the town, giving us an inside glimpse of the original post office, bank, theatre, assayer’s office, and a turn of the century bar.  Sadly, the brothel has fallen into private hands.  Robert Service is revered here, and his cabin is open to tours that of course include a recitation of BOTH The Cremation of Sam McGee and Mother, Please Don’t Stab Father with the Breadknife!  (If you haven’t heard the latter, please ask for my rendition next time I’m around!)  The Palace Grand Theatre has been recreated and we joined in a great debate to choose the most famous Klondiker – a choice between three local characters who lied, cajoled and pleaded their way into our hearts!  Hilarious! 

We’ve taken some time to catch up on housekeeping details – laundry, water fill, sani dump, groceries – which we can’t do in the more primitive campsites that we tend to frequent.  It’s also fun to be in town where we can walk to a restaurant and connect to the electronic world for a change.   You may notice that I’ve managed to add better photos with captions this time – a triumph of Microsoft over Apple I’m afraid.   

Tomorrow we head up the Dempster Highway to Inuvik.  It just opened yesterday after a month waiting for the river to go down so they could put the 2 ferries in the water over the Peel and the Mackenzie Rivers.  Prior to spring breakup (which was very late this year, on May 16) you can drive across on the ice roads. Finished in 1978, it’s 743 km of gravel, crossing the Continental Divide 3 times, two mountain ranges, the Arctic Circle, and the Yukon-NWT border.  We’ll spend 3 days along the way, fishing, hiking, and hopefully seeing lots of wildlife.  The most wildlife we’ve seen so far has been at the Sourdough Bar here in Dawson.  From the day we cross the Arctic Circle at km 405 until we make our way back down, the sun won’t go below the horizon.  (And I’m having trouble sleeping now!  Here in Dawson the sun sets at 11:40pm and rises about 4am.  It’s never even dusk, just sort of less bright at 2am.  You can see how midnight golf seems more feasible here.)  From Inuvik we’re doing a fly-in hike to Ivaavik National Park on the NW corner of the Yukon with Parks Canada.  We’ll be out in the park June 14-17, but will likely be able to check in wherever we camp in Inuvik.  I’ll have plenty of photos for next time!      

Keno, a goldrush town on the Silver Trail, half way to Dawson, at the end of a 100 km of gravel, high in the mountains. 

   

Front Street in Dawson, 10pm, with the Moosehide Slide in the background.  It was an ancient naturally occurring landslide visible for several miles down the river, signalling arrival in Dawson.   

We didn't attend the Commissioner's Ball unfortunately!  If only we'd known to bring fancy dress!

We did attend the Commissioner's Tea, although rather poorly attired for the gravity of the occasion.

 

Robert Service's cabin, across the street from Pierre Berton's home and just down from Jack London's cabin.  Of course, it has to be known as Writer's Block.

Just as it looked in 1897, but the beer costs more.

High water in the Yukon River.  This is the town dock, and this is why we've been waiting for the rivers to fall so the ferries are operating.  The ferry across the Yukon here in Dawson has been in the river for 2 weeks now (seen in the background), but the banks are deep with mud.