Day 15 - Dawson City

I walked Molly up the hill and we could see Dawson City from above.  It's not that big of a place, and I could see how the streets were laid out and where the Yukon river and the Klondike river meet.  The ferry that we will take tomorrow was busy making it's trips back and forth.  The no charge ferry runs 24 hours a day during the summer and is pulled out of the water when the ice starts to form on the river.  It is not a huge ferry and we don't know if both of our rigs will fit on at the same time.

The day started with a mis-communication with the tour company and our bus drove of with out us.  After a couple of phone calls we joined up with our tour guide and after a bus ride around town we headed out to Bonanza creek to see where the gold was found that started the whole gold rush.

We stopped by the dredge but we couldn't go in as the inside tours didn't start until 10:00.

The tour continued with a stop at Robert Services cabin (if you are not familiar with him, look him up or catch up with me and I will read "The Cremation of Sam McGee" for you).  Fred gave us a extremely good presentation of Robert's life interspersed with recitals of some of his poems.

In the afternoon we went back to the dredge where Aris and I took and hour long insightful tour that was way more interesting than  I expected.

Bill, Aris, and I made an excursion up the hill to Midnight Dome.  The view was impressive and we could see the road we would be taking tomorrow wind across the tops of the ridges on the other side of the river.

We drove up the mountain, but as we we were enjoying the view two ladies were making their way up the trail.  Mom and daughter had made the climb in a little less than two hours.  I am not good at guessing ages, but the daughter was maybe in her 30's and was in Dawson City for a marathon.  Her mom looked worn out so we gave them a ride back to town.

We had a great steak dinner thanks to Cathy & Bill. 

Day 14 - Dawson City

We left Moose Creek campground at our usual 9:00.  We have been pretty consistent about our departure times.  We manage to get all of our chores done, (guys outside, and girls inside) and be ready to go on or about 9:00.  The interesting part is that we have been changing back and forth between mountain and pacific time and it hasn't affected our schedule much.
It was Bill and Cathy's turn to lead so we were able to see the worst of the potholes and frost heaves by the rocking of their trailer.
We got into town early and were able to get campsites right next to each other in the middle of town.  The guy at the desk said they were the last two sites, and the no vacancy sign went up not long after we checked in for two nights.

Dawson City is an interesting town.  The gold rush pushed the population up to 30,000 at the turn of the century and since the boom ended nothing much else has happened.  The tourist trade is still brought to town based mainly on the gold rush story.  The population surges with around 1,400 seasonal workers in the summer and drops to under 2,000 year round residents.
The buildings are mixes of well restored old buildings and just plain falling apart old buildings.  There is only one paved street, and board walks keep the pedestrians out of the dirt and at times muddy thoroughfares.

We spent the first afternoon eating lunch at the Jack London Grill and making plans for our excursions that evening and the next day.
Bill went to the firefighters museum and everybody else (and I mean everybody including a busload of Wisconsin cheese heads) went to the tour of the Commissioner's house.  The tour of the restored house was well done and some actors portrayed some of the problems of the times around the turn of the century that the Commissioner would have to deal with.  The actors and the tour guide then served us tea (or lemonade) and snacks on the front porch and answered questions.

Bill met up with us and we made plans for a light supper and then go to the can can show at Diamond Tooth Gertie's Gambling Hall.
Bill and I walked up a road that headed up the mountain behind the town.  We found the 9th avenue trail that we would investigate further in the next couple of days and a road that we needed to see where it went.
Our campground and the town were invaded by lots of motorcycle enthusiasts.  There was some kind of rally.  It was not a Sturgis type of rally, rather a laid back quiet group.

Day 13 - Moose Creek

Aris and I went into the local liquor store for beer and wine. While we were there we asked the girls for some one dollar coins (called Loonies, two dollar coins are Toonies) so we could do our laundry. We told our wives that the girls were flirting with us. Hedda said that two old guys asking for change to do their laundry, the girls probably thought we were a cute couple!

We left Whitehorse at our usual 9:00 am.  It was our turn to lead and we got out of town without getting lost.

The ride north was green and treey.  Lots and lots of trees!  We saw a brown bear cross the road in front of us.  He was brown, but had the looks of a black bear.  We didn't get any pictures, but how many pictures of bears do we need?

The road was getting rough.  They marked the rough spots with flags and signs, but the severity of the rough spots was inconsistent with the flags and signs.  Sometimes the marked spots were really rough and other times it was like they had extra flags and put them out randomly.

We were (I was) getting tired so we stopped at Moose Creek Campground.  There were no hook ups, but it was beautiful and the mosquitoes were manageable.  We drove the wrong way to get into our campsite and shared a pull-through that was big enough for both rigs.

I made big batch of chili and was looking forward to left overs for lunch tomorrow, but the pot was empty by the time dinner was over.  No left overs for me.

Day 12 - Whitehorse

After seeing all of the bears, we were discussing buying bear spray. Cathy said she thought we should buy some. Then she said, “I do have bear balls.” I wasn’t sure if she meant “bear” balls or “bare” balls. I also wasn’t sure how either one would help the situation if she ran into a hungry bear. I suppose a woman walking in the woods and meeting a bear could hold up some “bear balls” and say, “This is what happened to the last bear that messed with me!” That should discourage any further confrontation. I have no idea how “bare balls” could help.

She quickly turned red and said “Bear bells! I have bear bells!”

Today was a “rest” day. We (Aris and I) went grocery shopping while the girls did the laundry. After lunch we hit a couple of museums in Whitehorse. The first was about the AlCan highway and Whitehorse history. The second was a tour on a river boat, The Klondike and we saw a short film about the river boats.

We then went to an interpretive center about the sub-continent Beringia and ancient animals and people.