In addition to river views, Autumn is arriving rapidly up here.
Aspen, birch and everything else that is not a pine is turning gold and red.
The caravan took a break at Braeburn Lodge. This place is known for being a check point for the Yukon Quest sled dog race…
…as well as for the largest sticky buns in the Yukon. That fact was of utmost importance to our group. The one I got lasted for about four days and was pretty tasty.
Then we were on the road again.
By now the Yukon is known as a ‘braided’ river with many channels, making it a tough river to navigate except for the very experienced.
We are forced to endure more gorgeous scenery….
Finally we reach our RV park in Dawson City where we will be spending three days.
Dawson is a fun town because it is really authentic with much history born here.
The caravan was greeted by an “old gold miner” ready to get them all parked into their spaces. Liar that he is, like many miners, he announced on the radio that he had free gold claims…
…and he got instant response from Linda who wanted to take him up on his deal.
Part of being in Dawson City is a walking tour with a local tour guide.
We all felt like we had hit the mother lode with our guide, “Sue, How Do You Do!” This lady was very knowledgeable and also very funny.
In addition, Sue was in perpetual motion. I actually had trouble photographing her, because of her constant movement, I got a lot of blurry photographs.
Sue told us all kinds of stories about Dawson as we walked along the dike and into town.
The paddleboat, Keno, is anchored there on the Yukon River.
In the saloon she told us about the famous, (or infamous) “Sour Toe Cocktail.”
It is a long and funny story (and basically true). I found a card with a detailed picture.
The drink does actually contain a real toe, and various people have cut off toes and sold them to the saloon. (Possibly after spending a little too much time in the saloon in the first place!)
The drinks are still sold, but the rule is:
“You can drink it fast,
You can drink it slow,
But the lips gotta
Touch the toe.”
Ewwww!
If you are crazy enough to do it, a 'handsome, framable certificate' is part of the deal. (Oh, well, that makes it worth it, I guess…right!)
One of the issues from this point on northward, is permafrost. Permafrost is frozen ground, usually about 18 inches below the surface.
Because of the freezing and thawing, buildings need to be built with air space between the foundation and the ground. If they are not, they will begin to sink into the ground during the thaws...
...Like this one!
Buildings built directly on the ground in a permafrost area are easily identifiable as they sink and lean in unusual directions.
Sue also took us inside the old post office. The mail boxes all had beveled glass in the front of them.
The natives originally named Dawson City, “Moose Hide,” for the famous slide on the hill above town, which is the color of a moose hide.
I noticed the side of this old building with all the different slabs of tin on the side….
…then I saw the sign that explained it all.
The famous Canadian poet, Robert Service, lived in Dawson City for many years and did much of his writing here. His cabin has been preserved in very good condition.
Don and Spike visited with the young man, dressed to represent Robert Service, who does readings from several of Robert Service’s books and talks about the history surrounding the man.
We all really enjoyed this as Robert Service poetry, for the most part, is a lot of fun to listen to.
This year, for the first time, you can actually walk through the small two-room cabin, as opposed to just looking through the door and windows.
It is not uncommon to see cabins, such as this one, with sod roofs.
Right next door is the original cabin belonging to the writer, Jack London. This is not the original location, the cabin was found somewhere in the woods and moved to this location.
Between the cabin and the visitor center, is a cache, where meat was stored (to keep critters out) and under it, a rocker box, a method of sorting sand and gravel from gold. It was a step above panning for gold. (Technology is wonderful, isn’t it?)
If you go to an old historic town, you have to go to the old historic cemeteries.
This one is the Royal Canadian Mounted Police cemetery.
We were struck by the ages on these markers…late teens to early 20’s of all but one of them. It obviously was a very hard life back then.
Across the road was the YOOP cemetery…Yukon Order Of Pioneers. Even though these were fairly recent graves, the markers were still the old fashioned wood markers which we found interesting, although odd since they don’t age very well.
Then it was time for a drive up to Midnight Dome, a mountain top that overlooks Dawson City and the surrounding area. Rain was rapidly moving in and before we left we were wet.
We could see the entire town of Dawson as well as the valley that leads up to where the original gold strike was found that ignited the 1897 Gold Rush.
Looking the other direction, before the rain came in, there was still blue in the sky and it provided a great view of the Yukon River.
The next day we meet Sue again, this time dressed in her Parks Canada uniform, at the old gold Dredge Number 4. Sue, once again is a very able tour guide as she has personally worked for many years on mining crews in the gold fields.
Sue told us that now, at her age, she has discovered she can make really good money by baking and selling cookies to the miners in the mining camps instead of drilling like she used to do. (GOT to be an easier job!)
This is the dredge, capable of moving many tons of rock and gravel to find gold.
As our group boards the dredge, you can get an idea of how large this piece of equipment is.
Sue, with her usual humor, explains how the dredge worked.
Not only were these gears huge, but no grease was allowed anywhere near them. Any oil would make the gold float instead of sink as was required to be able to “harvest” it.
Sue told us that the men who used to work on the dredge way back when, are now all deaf. The noise in this huge machine, was extreme. The screeching of iron against iron could be heard all the way into town, several miles away.
Up on the “bridge” the direction of the dredge was controlled by this bank of levers.
It was amazing to us that 40 degrees below zero was all that was needed to be able to work the dredge. Also that the entire crew on each eight-hour shift consisted of only four men.
On our way to do a bit of gold panning ourselves, we visited the actual spot on Bonanza Creek where the original gold strike occurred that started it all.
A couple of our gals, got a bad case of Gold Fever.
Kathy and Linda (same Linda who wanted to take Don up on his offer of a free gold claim) couldn’t wait till they reached the creek. They decided to look for gold in the parking lot. (Although it is possible to find gold anywhere around here, the parking lot was not very productive.)
When we finally talked the gals into going on to the creek, Linda decided to take a short cut.
Our group descended on Bonanza Creek and began gold panning in earnest. Linda actually found a small nugget. Don and I found only a couple flakes, froze our feet in the steam, but had a good time. I definitely think Linda had more fun.
Being old folks, we improvised. I don't thing the original gold miners used lawn chairs.
Canada and Alaska have an unusually long growing season (longer than Central Oregon!) because of the very long days and many of us have commented on the beautiful flowers we have been seeing growing here. I loved that some one used an old washing machine for a flower pot.
This perfect sunflower decorated the front of a store.
So is this trip sounding interesting to you? Do you think you could ever drive an RV to Alaska? Oh, come on. It’s not all that hard. If Molly and Max can do it, so can you….
Tomorrow we take the ferry across the Yukon River and head for Chicken, Alaska. It is guaranteed to be an adventure.
