Month: June 2024

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.

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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.

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