Author: Diane

Wow! Stepping into the 1890’s and right back out again to a modern city in Fairbanks, AK.

This was the last time going thru customs and using passports. The 45 min flight was quick and punctual unlike the flights that challenged us on the front end of our trip.

Arrived so early that we had to day check our bag and find something to do.

First stop is donuts. Walked here from the hotel and these donuts at “The Donut Shop” took us all the way back to Point Pleasant. Baby Soft Angel pillows perfectly sugared.

Now what?

The high today is 81 and breezy. Googling info about the northern lights we found ourselves at the University of Alaska’s museum of natural history.

Meet OTTO. Otto is a 1250 lb Grizzly bear. They can get up to 1400 lbs. We sat next to a Canadian couple at Diamond Tooth Gertie’s. They just came from Denali which is where we are going. They came too close to an encounter with a momma Grizzly and two cubs. I saw the picture. NOPE!

We saw the Dynamic Aurora film and many other wonderful pieces of art, northern animals, birds, and cultural artifacts. It was a good day.

Puffins have always been on my favorite sea bird list. Tried to see them off the coast of Maine back in 2000 but only saw a whale dorsal fin. Not this time either but still love the look of them. I left my artwork to share with others.

Now for a nap! dmc

June 8th travel: about one hour on a chartered 737 from Dawson City YT to Fairbanks AK.

Not far from this very spot is where gold was first found. George Carmack and wife Kate Carmack were the ones to start what would become the stampeders trek to this area. In the span of just 4 years it swelled to the point of gold, bars, and brothels.

They don’t mention Kate Carmack except to say that she may have been doing the menial tasks of washing laundry or dishes at the creek when she discovered gold there.

Being a woman was hard then and the men of the time would have never admitted the discovery of what became such an historic event, was discovered by a woman. Women certainly had their place here and became legendary for opening businesses that supported the quest for riches. Belinda Mulrooney, an Irish immigrant and intrepid entrepreneur, became the richest woman in the Klondike.

Belinda Mulroney arrived in Dawson City in 1897 from Pennsylvania. By 1899 she had three claims in the Klondike valley. One, called 39 above, produced 19 thousand dollars in one cleanup in the summer of ’99. That year she had 12 men working for her on her claims.

But gold mining wasn’t Ms. Mulroney’s only business venture. With money from her claims, she built the Fairview Hotel, a three story building complete with dining room, office, bar and electric lights.

In 1898, there was a shortage of fresh drinking water in Dawson. Belinda Mulroney setup and ran a company called Hygenia Water, a bottled water company well ahead of its time.

It’s worth looking into how women had both supporting roles and also rose to become business owners and miners in what was considered by most to be the adventure of a life time. Even though most died or returned home empty handed, that spirit of adventure was thought of fondly. Surviving such a tenuous journey is nothing short of heroic. dmc

We have it so easy.

Learning about the Klondike Gold Rush, it’s hard to fathom how they did it. Well, to be truthful lot’s didn’t make it or returned from the adventure of a life time with empty pockets. The luck they thought they needed for the trek didn’t pan out so to speak. But with the hard times before the discovery of gold, it made the chance for wealth and an easier life worth the risk. These people were clueless about how to do this.

So here we are in Dawson City where it all started. Dirt roads, perm-a frosted evidence of houses built that are leaning towards each other and board walks. Learning you can’t build a solid foundation on soil with perm-a frost they are now turning to pilings to jack up the houses.

I don’t know, but a long drive deserves a steak dinner. I ate it all. Chased it with that beautiful Berry Mojito and tuck me in to bed. But wait….the tour guide invited us all to Diamond Tooth Gertie’s. So we went.

This was a fun show. We walked back to the hotel and closed our darkening curtains for the night.

This building serves as the school and the library. The kindergarteners selected the colors. Good for them. It’s a well maintained building. As it should be. Go young people Go!

Our “8” hour Yukon bus ride had our cheeks in seats for 11 hours due to a toasted out and roached out VW van fire and road construction of epic proportions. Plus, when one of the two roadside potty’s is out of service it adds more time. I don’t know how a hole in the ground could be out of service though. No mechanical parts really. LOL. Unless it was full.

A long day singing “rocks and trees, and trees and rocks, and water… We played Moose Mania where index cards were passed out, we were asked to draw a moose leg, pass the card back and next person got to draw on your card the other leg, and so on through to the snout, tail and antlers. We all created Picasso’s.

Lunch on the Yukon Highway, cold cuts, salad, beverages, and back to cheeks in seats. I must say, it’s painful with sciatic and an L5 issue to keep my back from hurting. We are glad we’re settled for two nights.

Do you remember the Indiana Jones travel maps? That’s what it feels like to me. Plane to the ship to the train, onto the bus, back to the plane then on a train again and then a bus and onto a plane. It’s not for the faint of heart but thank goodness the cruise line has all of this taken care of for us.

These cabins are vital for roadside overnighting. A place to rest your weary bones, eat a hot meal (by your own brow) but nonetheless welcomed.

Black Spruce, White Spruce, Aspen, Birch, scrub plants juniper looking moss, smelled wonderful as well as other fireweed and low lying wild flowers all dot the landscape. I mentioned earlier about the toasted VW van. I understand why it took us an hour plus wait time for firemen to make sure this ghostly roached skeleton van structure was totally void of any embers or fire starting threats. With the vastness of the Yukon and a forest fire, this would not be a place I’d want to be. dmc

We have only barely crossed the line into the Yukon Territory and today we have an 8 hour drive to Dawson City.

Yesterday while walking around town, some homeless or maybe strung out sidewalk dudes tried to ask for money. One of them started quoting the “feed a man a fish and you fed him for a day but, teach a man to fish and you’ve fed him for a life time” quote. Although it’s never funny to see homeless people, we both laughed because he got the lines of his pitch for money backwards. We think he wanted the fish for the day but instead he asked us to teach him how to fish. The other guy sitting next to him was trying to correct him. We were well past them by the time they figured it out. We’re still laughing this morning about that.

Did you know that Holland America owns these hotels? It’s been interesting to see how far “inland” a cruise line goes to make their travelers experience pleasurable. The buses, the tour guides are all affiliated with the cruise line. Makes me wonder if the rumors of all the jewelry stores aren’t owned by them too.

Dall sheep. Walking on the high elevations without a care in the world. Saw the back end of a black bear also. No moose yet. Eagles from far away too.