… Alaska residents have, or are working on obtaining, a pilot’s license.
Many of the smaller aircraft trade their wheels for pontoons when the ice leaves the rivers. Pontoon planes are so prevalent that the Fairbanks International Airport also has a lake next to the main runway for these planes. This is a 1952 Piper Super Cub. It can take off and land in as little as a couple hundred feet at half the speed you drive on the interstate. There’s many of these old craft still very much in service and well maintained.
This afternoon’s excursion took us on an abandoned gold dredge tour. The pic doesn’t begin to show just how massive this old beast is. It’s the largest dredge of its kind in North America, built for the Canadian Klondike Mining Company. Number 4 was in continuous operation except for most winters and a few brief times for major maintenance, from 1913 until 1959.
Standing at 60 feet and set on a wood barge, #4 was built on land, then floated by water from ditches dug from nearby streams to the site. The whole rig was set in motion by large electric motors, and powered by hydroelectric dams up to 30 miles away.
Our park service guide noted that the dredge was so noisy, with 18,000 cubic yards of rocks tumbling through it in a day, that workers inside were left nearly stone deaf. It could be heard up to 10 miles away. It also razed the land, leaving long piles of rocks in its wake.
Canada Parks welcome sign at George Carmack’s (remember George?) Discovery Claim, that ignited the gold rush.
This stream is a short walk from the welcome sign. So this pristine stream is where it all began? And it’s been preserved? Amazing!
Knowing that the dredge miners had been all over every obvious place that might be hiding the yellow stuff, I asked a guide why hadn’t the stream where it started been dredged? Oh, that stream was dredged. This stream is on the claim site but not the stream where Carmack and company found gold.
A comment about my May 6th post: there are no northern lights (visible) here in the summer months because there’s literally no night. So, yes, the aurora really does spend the summer in Emerald Lake. And seeing the Lights stays on the bucket list.
We have almost the whole day to ourselves here in Dawson City, so we strolled about, looking at the shops. Didn’t see anything we liked enough to cram into our already overstuffed bags, but…
we did pay homage to (U.S.) National Donut Day.
Walked along the Yukon River, just downstream from where it’s joined by the Klondike River. Gosh, the dogs that live here leave hand-sized paw prints and scary big piles of scat. 🧐
Kayakers taking a break from their trip down the Yukon. Which is north during this stretch.
Found a great place to chill for a while. Cool (62), dry, and quiet.
Thursday 6th of June continued. Another pit (toilet) stop (not shown), a short drive, then lunch at a rustic but charming cafeteria, of sorts.
The Yukon River
Group photo (to be shared later)
Visible from space, not so visible here, is the Tintina Trench. It’s a sliding fault that made most of its 270 mile movement 55 million years ago. Geologists credit the fault for bringing much of the gold and other rare metals to the surface in the Dawson City area.
A red fox, just out of frame on the right, we passed shortly before arriving at Dawson City. It happened, we have 20 witnesses. Also, we passed a large-ish black bear a while back but did not have cameras ready. 🤦🏼♂️
That’s no mountain, that’s a space sta… sorry, yes, that’s a mountain, and the scar on the side is named Moosehide Slide. The landslide happened roughly 1700 years ago, and became the landmark that let the Stampeders know they made it to Dawson City.
The story has it that two local First Nations tribes were fighting, one at the base of the mountain, the other near the top. Someone near the top cut a tree down, which loosened a rock, which then triggered the rock slide. The geology around here is very dynamic. “I always recommend the higher ground” – O. W. Kenobi
You truly step back in time here. Very Old West vibe. Heck, the nearest Tim Hortons is six hours away (without burning vans and road construction delays) in Whitehorse. This pic was taken at 9:15pm. Sunset at 12:31am then twilight until 4:00 sunrise. Seriously. I peeked outside at 3:00am and it was light enough to read a book.
We have about 8 hours on the road today. Getting this placeholder update out before we depart in the likely case of no cell/data access.
Our destination, Dawson City, Yukon Territory, sitting about halfway between Skagway on the Pacific and the Arctic Ocean, is our northern-most stop at just 2 degrees latitude from the Arctic circle. It was also the epicenter of the Yukon gold rush from 1896 to 1899. Not a very long run, eh?
One more from yesterday’s ride up to Whitehorse: (allegedly) the world’s smallest desert. Sand, you say? Yep, created as glaciers ground rock down to sand many millennia ago.
We departed Whitehorse at 8:00am, heading up the Northern Klondike Highway. Not that it all isn’t as picture worthy as yesterday’s run, because it is, but it was much like this and variations on the same. Submitted for your listening enjoyment, a song we sang several times on the bus: Rocks and Trees by The Arrogant Worms.
We weren’t far up the road when all traffic (and I use the term lightly) came to a stop. Down around the corner, half a mile from there, a VW Bus had gone full flambé. No one hurt, but the VW was literally toast. Took at least an hour to get rolling again. Oh, and not a single horn was tooted.
One of many roadhouses in the Yukon, this one being open air, in a bit of disrepair, and no longer in use. Bit of a fixer upper, but it’s got a nice skylight and good bones.
Totes adorbs. 🥰
Another rest stop for bathrooms and snacks, by the Yukon River in Carmacks, YT. Named after George Carmack, who owned a trading post nearby and a coal mine. A few years later, George (or his wife, it’s unclear which) and two others discovered gold in a creek near Dawson City and staked Discovery Claim. That’s the event that started the Klondike Gold Rush.
I’ll finish today’s updates tomorrow. It’s been a hella long day, and it’ll be getting “dark” in a couple hours. 🤪
June 6th travel: 330 miles by motor coach from Whitehorse YT to Dawson City YT.
