Dawson City YT – A Yukon ride and dredge check.

We awaken in a Carmacks fog but after a couple hours of driving welcome sunlight and light showers.  Marcia and I are leading, which makes it all the more annoying when the rigs immediately behind radio a black bear sighting.  We again see nothing.

The road is average but there are occasional potholes and frost heaves, and no shoulders.  The surrounding forests are marked with signs from 1965 to present indicating major fires.  There are closed down lodges and gas stations and dirt roads going into the forests, but otherwise little sign of people.

The approach to Dawson City is different, more like a drive through Gold River or Folsom near Sacramento – mounds of orderly river-rock deposited by dredges many years ago.  We see signs of on-going mining activity, but also lots of old rusting equipment.

Again, we arrive in camp a bit bunched up but the parkers quickly have us settled; in my case, we are in a too-small spot at the campground entrance, so traffic cones are placed to warn others of our presence.

As in many parks on this trip, the power is weak, not sufficient to run an appliance like a microwave or small electric heater.  I am becoming very frustrated by the poor WiFi service, but I guess that goes with the territory, no pun intended.  At this rate this blog will be posted mostly from home.  Perhaps in Alaska it will be better.

Dinner is on the Yukon River aboard a side-wheeler that sounds like it is coming apart.  We later learn they have been working hard to repair damage sustained a few days ago.  The narration is impossible to follow for the noise, the salmon dinner average, and we end up short two dinners.  We understand the next night’s cruise with the other half of our group went much better. 

After dinner we go on deck and enjoy the beautiful scenery.  On the left the Klondike joins us adding clear water to the turbulent and dirty Yukon.  On the right, at the edge, are camps of the occasional First Nations people and perhaps an eccentric white person or two, otherwise just forests and sandbars.  We see no wildlife, but find it incredibly relaxing to gaze at the green, brown, and blue colors in the evening sun.  The boat labors, then turns downstream and is carried effortlessly and quietly back to our starting point.

On Wednesday we take a good city walking tour with a Parks Canada summer guide studying to be a neuroscientist.  In the afternoon we tour the huge Dredge 4, used to recover low-grade gold from the riverbeds.  Once there were many of these, although I believe #4 was the largest.  In 1889 this town had about the population of all Yukon today, and was the territorial capital (it is now in Whitehorse).  Today it is a small summer treat for travelers interested in natural beauty, adventure and history.  Gold mining continues, but not anywhere near the scale of long ago.  

The Keno, now a museum, regularly ran the Yukon until the roads improved, about 1960.

Robert Service was a teller in this bank until he hit it big with his stories. (The pop-outs are tin.)

A few of the large scoops for Dredge #4.

My dad would have loved this machine.