Keno to Dawson City

With a tear in her eye and pain in her back, Fiona left her beloved Keno City behind. Keno was spectacular and likely the best preserved Gold/Silver Rush city remaining today. The drive from the Silver Trail to the Klondike claim city was remarkable in its beauty and for a change, its short distance. The road up to Dawson City is quite memorable for just how much the gold industry has reaped havoc on the landscape. Pile upon mountains of rocky debris line either side of the valley and go on for as far as the eye can see. On the approach you drive by the road that takes you out to Dredge #4 and the original claim at Bonanza creek; both of which we plan to see before our stay here is done.
Dawson City itself is caught between a time warp and the necessity to accommodate those android bus/boat tourists. They swarm the local businesses on Front Street in mad droves, desperately clambering towards tacky souvenirs and predetermined photo opportunities like cows to slaughter, unaware of their surroundings and inevitable fate; sadly the pretty cows get killed while our maundering friends live out the rest of their days comfuzzled. I personally love them. They are a subspecies that is well worth studying. Like grotesque overweight zombies or evangelical Christians, they speak in tongues – more mutterings and huffin’/puffin’ (likely from exhaustion) than anything that could be mistaken for a dialect – I wish there were more of them in Abbo. But I digress.
We designed our own walking tour of Dawson today which was both brilliant in conception and execution. We walked up and down the streets. Genius! The buildings are restored relics drizzled with a few derelict structures; a photographers dream. Next we hopped the ferry to the other side of the Yukon River to photophize the Ship Graveyard. Wow. What do you do when you are finished with your Sternwheeler? You beach it and let it rot. Oustanding. As one would suspect we spent a few rolls of film there before returning to the seething metropolis for dinner. Tonight we conquer the Midnight Dome and tomorrow the Dempster.

Kms - 300

Map




Ship Graveyard






Ferry across the Yukon River


Dawson City






How bright it is outside from 2am to 4am

Keno

Keno City; I use city loosely as it consists of a museum, cafe (where 6” pizzas are $11 and milkshakes $6.95), public showers, and two cabins for rent (one of which we are staying). Now you may be wondering why we are staying here, in the middle of nowhere, for not one night but two in a cabin that has a toilet, no shower, kitchen, and TV featuring one channel, an aboriginal channel. Keno lies at the end of the silver trail and was from the 1920s to 1980s a boom town for silver mining. I love silver as much as the next girl but we did not come here for that alone. The hiking and scenery is breathtaking. The first day we drove up a winding, narrow, potholed dirt road to the top of Keno Hill to observe the signpost that points out the distance to all of the countries that had scientists visiting the town in 1956 during the International Geophysical Year. From the signpost there is a 360 degree view of the surrounding mountains and valleys. Devon and I decided that wasn’t a good enough view and hiked an additional 300m above the 1850m height at the signpost to see what we could see. The landscape was interesting to hike on because there were basically no trails but we weren’t worried about getting lost as we were above the tree line and could easily find our way back to the car. The ground was either sharp large portions of shale like rock or moss that we would sink into, there were also tons of different wildflowers in bloom and mushrooms that we didn’t try although we had been informed almost all of the Yukon’s mushrooms are edible. Abandoned mine sites and homes dotted the hillside and made for some satisfying photography. The wind was very strong but it was warm day, around 25, on the hillside there is permanent snow/ice pack that we had to avoid as we stumbled our way down the mountain.
The second day we spent wandering up and down the one street in town taking photos of the old buildings. We also had breakfast at the lone cafe, it was delicious, and went to the amazing mining museum. Devon decided he basically didn’t want to do anything else and so I went on a three hour hike up to an abandoned mining camp, which turned out had been demolished in the last year, and an old rail track use to transport waste rock out of the mine all in all very pretty. I braved bear, moose, and marmot in this epic trek for photos and exercise.

Km- 319

Whitehorse to Carmacks to Faro and back to Carmacks

Today was meant to be a short drive. We left Whitehorse and headed to Carmacks with every intention of settling in a taking it easy. But, as we'd been warned, there was nothing to do in the "hub" of the Yukon. So with our bellies full of Braeburn's world famous cinnamon buns we set out to Faro, the Yukon's best kept secret. Now we went there because when we first set foot in the Yukon we were given Yukon "passports" where you collect stamps at certain historical sites to enter to win free gold. We arn't as interested in the free gold as much as collecting all of the stamps so we drove to Faro which was worth one stamp. Round trip we added about 400kms to the day, but the sights were simply communist! The sign said "best kept secret"... What it meant to say is come and visit our post gulag communist influenced living quarters and never mind the ones that have been abandoned or burnt down. Truly a picturesque village nestled between rivers and and extinct volcanoes. We loved it and it's sewage ponds. It's 8:30, warm, bright blue sun, and time to cook dinner.

Wildlife - a grizzly cub, a porcupine, locals
Casualties - almost one porcupine
Kms - 608

Forest fire of 1998


Cinnamon Bun!!!




Five Finger Rapids


Map

Miles Canyon and Takhini Hot Springs

The title really says it all. We went for a hike through Miles Canyon to Canyon City where during the gold rush people had to shoot the rapids to go north to Dawson City. It was a delightful hike where three local girls showed us around and talked about the history and flora in the area. After this we felt lazy and went out for coffee before going to soak in Takhini Hot Springs which were a developed hot spring establishment compared to Liard. That's about it. We leave for Carmacks tomorrow and then on to the "town" of Keno, population 17. So needless to say we won't have internet for the next three days.

Animal sightings- squirrels
Casualties - none
Km - 100

Miles Canyon


Flora


Takhini Hot Springs

Atlin and back

It’s my kind of town, Atlin is. Well by town I mean 4 streets and several avenues, nevertheless, it is a spectacular village for, oddly enough, summering Europeans. Before I continue I have to say that the Lonely Planet is a liar or their writers cannot tell the difference between paved and gravel roads. Unlike Monkman though, the drive down to Atlin was very pleasant but again we had the sense that we were driving into the middle of nowhere. Of course no killers this time except for the Bobcat we saw on the way back.
Atlin, B.C. is an incredibly picturesque village nestled between mountains, glaciers, and lakes. There isn’t much to it, but what is there is worth seeing. Tourism, in the form of fishing excursions in the summer and heliskiing in the winter, brings in some outside funds and the rest appears to be all local spending. And though I’m told that the local economy runs off of retirement money there is certainly a thriving gold market as our dear friend and sometimes narrator of this blog found out. The nuggets were too much to resist. Now she will sparkle and dazzle her way up and down the Klondike!
I think that after tomorrow we will have conquered Whitehorse and its touristy spots. Takhini Hot Springs tomorrow and Miles Canyon await!

Wildlife - One Bobcat, Several Ground Squirrels, One Road Moose, and One Gold Purchaser.
Casualties – none
Km travelled today - 407


Movie theater last night




Atlin






There is a glacier back there in the clouds


The fresh spring water the guide book recommended us to drink


Bobcat, the one Devon was so afraid of he didn't want to open the window to take a photo!


Map

Whitehorse to Skagway and back again

So today we went on a side trip down into BC and to Skagway Alaska to see the scenery and watch the cruise ship people. On the way to Skagway we stopped in Carcross YT which is home to the world’s smallest desert. Now it isn’t really a desert it is more a dried up glacier fed lake that when the glaciers receded so did the lake and left its sandy bottom behind. None the less it was pretty cool to see a desert in the Yukon. We met with our first hoard of tourists in Carcross proper where the masses of cruise shippers unloaded to board a train back to Skagway. Now let me paint a picture of these people, in a mass generalization. They were mostly Americans (based on accent and hats identifying them as such), loud, stumbling about with an overindulged look of blankness and lethargy, and drinking and smoking while enjoying the great outdoors. Bus after bus after bus dropped these people off in this tiny town consisting of a general store and a post office until thankful the train left with them all on board and Devon and I were alone with a strange quiet. In this quiet you could hear the town give a small sigh of relief. Now this was not the end to the sightings of these bizarre people. As we drove further south every few minutes another bus would pass us by and every photo stop had at least one bus stopped with the masses trying to figure out how to use their newly acquired digital cameras and instruct others on how to take photos with them. Devon and I were dumbfounded, but we pressed on. The scenery today was the most amazing I have seen anywhere in the world. The areas between the mountains were rocky with small lakes and trees that had very stunted growth. It really was awe inspiring and we must have stopped every 15 minutes to take pictures that will surely do nothing to show the beauty that surrounded us. When we reached Skagway it was everything that I remember it being 14 years ago, touristy. There were four cruise ships in so it was moderately busy as most of the people appeared to be on buses on the highway. We stopped at a pub for lunch and Devon sampled the fish and chips (which weren’t as good as the ones in Whitehorse apparently) and I had delicious Caribou. I feel that it is my duty to sample as many local animals as possible to experience the Yukon in the fullest way possible. After lunch we discovered that Sarah Palin is indeed from Alaska and there is a market for everything that you could possibly put her name or face on. The highlight of Skagway came when a group of people entered a shop selling clothes made of muskoxen wool that had a stuffed muskox at the door. One of the group yelled to the shop keeper while pointing to the muskox, "Is this a moose?" The shopkeeper, Devon, and I all had to laugh outright at this and the shopkeep replied, "It would be a pretty funny looking moose!" After this we drove the highway back to Whitehorse and again took tons of photos as the weather had changed for the better. This evening we are going to go to the local cinema to watch The Last of the Airbenders which should be enjoyable. I must say one thing about Whitehorse, the 20 hours of daylight each day is the most remarkable experience!

Animal sightings – arctic ground squirrel, chipmunk
Animal casualties – almost one arctic ground squirrel
Km’s travelled today - 372

Carcross Desert


Carcross


Beautiful BC






Alaska!


Skagway




A shop devoted to Sarah Palin!


Alaska


Train stop at the boarder


B.C.




Yukon






Map