Category: Travel

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!

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)

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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.

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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. 🤦🏼‍♂️

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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.

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 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?

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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.

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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.

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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. 🥰

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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.

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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.

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.