Back..back in the USA

We stayed in Dawson Creek only a couple of days to catch up on the news and go to Walmart! Then we headed back to the ol USA 

We did stop in Calgary and while we were there we went to the zoo and had such an excellent time..one of the best zoos ever!

We crossed the border in Shelby MT ... was I happy to be back? No...not really...

Fire..Fire.Fire

In mid-July a series of large wildfires erupted across California, mostly in the northern part of the state and by August most of northern Washington State and British Columbia were also burning, but we were unaware of all this, having such a good time and all! 

When we left Dawson City we started south, the weather was getting colder and I thought we should head for warmer weather, I planned on Carmack to Whitehorse then on to Watson Like and then we were going to take the Cassier Highway, back to Washington State. The Cassiar Highway provides an excellent alternate route to or from the Yukon or Alaska, and since we took the Alcon Highway up to Alaska..this was an experienced that I wanted...we decided we wanted to experience the Cassiar Highway also, mainly because this highway knives through mountains, glaciers, rivers and lakes. You pick up this highway just outside of Watson Lake. 

When we reached Whitehorse we were able to watch some TV and we saw the fires, they were everywhere..all around us. 

I thought we could make to Watson Lake and then down to BC...I was wrong...really really wrong. 

We made it to Watson Lake and there we stayed, while the fires burned all around us. 

Watson Lake.. normally a very small town...with only about 700 swelled to well over 1500 with more coming in every day from out laying areas that were catching fire, vehicle lined the streets. We were lucky we had found a site before all this confusion.. so we just stayed put...

The sign post forest/ welcome center became the information station, so twice a day we got info on where the fires were and what was happening around us. 

The Alcan was burning..the Cassier was burning...

Ugh

After day four I had had enough of all that and I told Pierre we were leaving the next day..dam the fires... The fires crews were stopping anyone trying to leave, and turning them back, so we started out very early in the morning on the fifth day hoping the crews were not out yet and we lucked out... freedom... but it was scary.. we drove down the Alcan highway with fires burning on both sides of the Hwy... for two days we could not see more than a few feet in front of us, some times we drove at 35 mph, but we got through! 

It was good to see Dawson Creek Again!!

Dawson City And the Toe

Dawson City was founded by Joseph Ladue and named after noted Canadian geologist George M Dawson, he explored and mapped the region in 1887. Dawson City was the centre of the Klondike Gold Rush, it began in 1896, but by 1899, the gold rush had ended but it still is a eclectic and vibrant northern City. For me.. it was like walking back in time...no paved streets, the sidewalks are still made from wood, and the preserved frontier-style buildings...it was awesome.. we stayed in an RV Park right in the heart of Dawson City. 
One of the first things to do in Dawson City is to go to Diamond Tooth Gerties Casino – Canada’s first legalized gambling hall. Since 1971, Diamond Tooth Gerties has been wowing visitors with its unique Klondike period style, Can Can dancing and friendly charm, you will have a whooping good time, with the Gold Rush Girls, casino games, nostalgic tunes, and three different cancan-inspired shows, it was a night on the town that I won’t soon forget..Gerties is operated by the Klondike Visitors Association and all proceeds are re-invested in the community.

Another fun thing to do is visit the Downtown Hotel in Dawson City this is where the famed drink...the Sourtoe Cocktail is....this drink is seasoned with an amputated toe....REALLY.....Established in 1973, the Sourtoe Cocktail has become a Dawson City tradition and is exactly what is sounds like: an actual human toe that has been dehydrated and preserved in salt, used to garnish a drink of your choice, then the rule is this “You can drink it fast, you can drink it slow—but the lips have gotta touch the toe.”

I chose whiskey as the drink of my choice…and yes…I did it!!

We had so much fun in Dawson City. One afternoon we drove up to the Midnight Dome and the views from up there are spectacular, a 360 degree view of the Yukon River, Dawson City and Top Of the World Highway.

We went to the Danoja Who Cultural Center..The Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in: The People of the River

For countless generations the Hän speaking people of the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in lived and traveled in a vast territory extending from the Yukon valley into the mountains to the north and south.  The heart of this homeland was Tr’ochëk, a fishing camp at the confluence of the Klondike and Yukon Rivers.

Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in made their living on the land. People traveled between the rivers, creeks and the mountains, according to the season, harvesting fish, game and berries. They devised ingenious tools and devices from wood, skin and stone to trap, hunt, net and store their food.  Resources from the land also provided clothing, transportation and shelter.

The Hän maintained a complex network of trade and exchange with their neighbors.  People walked hundreds of miles over an extensive system of trails to trade and to visit.  

The discovery of gold had an immediate impact on the life of the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in. Tr’ochëk fish camp, across the river from boom town Dawson, became flooded with prospectors.  The leader of the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in, Chief Isaac, was left little choice but to move his people away from their traditional home to the relatively isolated hunting camp of Moosehide.

The Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in has seen many changes over the past century, but the relationship and connection to the river and to the land remain.

We also got to experience Discovery Day...August of 1896, George Carmack, Dawson Charlie and Skookum Jim discovered gold in what is now called Bonanza Creek. Soon after came one of the world’s greatest gold rush stampeded; nearly 100,000 people attempting to strike it rich in the Klondike gold fields.

Today, Dawson City celebrates its rich and unique history with a weekend festival known as Discovery Days. They have lots of family-friendly events and of course a parade!

We stayed there for a week...Wonderful!

Back to Anchorage and on to Chicken, Top of the World Hwy and Dawson City

We stayed in Anchorage for another 2 weeks while the Cummins dealership and then  Pierre worked on Esprit, this took me off our schedule and it was becoming colder and dark at night. I wanted to head back to Fairbanks and see some more of the area up there, but our time in Alaska was coming to an end and we needed to start heading south before the snow and the winter set in and with Esprit sick...well.. I was loathing to leave Alaska, so we kinda started to head back to the lower 48. We left Anchorage and drove The Glenn Highway this highway runs northeast to agricultural Palmer, then twists east along the Matanuska River Valley, sandwiched between coastal and interior mountains. We stopped at Matanuska Glaicer this is the largest one in the State that is accessible by car. 

I really wanted to do the The Egerton Highway, this is a scenic paved road leading east, from its junction with the Richardson Highway, to the small town of Chitina, then you get on the McCarthy Road, this crosses the Copper River to the Kennicott River, leaving you about 1 mile west of the town of McCarthy and 6 miles from the historic mining area of Kennicott. But by now the snows had started to fall in that area and it would not have been prudent to take Esprit there. So we stayed in Glennallen for a few days and then headed back to Tok.

We stayed in Tok because the weather was getting cold and I really wanted to see the Northern lights. While we there a lady at the grocery store told me we could head North via Chicken Alaska and then cross into Canada that way.. always up for adventure we packed up Esprit and off to Chicken we went...

In the 1930s, a local mining company abandoned the Cowden dredge east of Chicken, where it can still be found, other than that, there is not a lot to be found there, but what fun we had! Here are a few facts about Chicken, it got its name because the people couldn’t spell Ptarmigan. There are no bathrooms only outhouses, so get used to it, Chicken still has active gold mines and the population is 5. What Chicken does have is GOLD...lots and lots of it, you can pan to your hearts content and I did...I loved it! We stayed there for a week and all I did was pan for gold...fun fun fun...we went so far out in the brush that the birds were not afraid of us and while I panned for gold, they tried to steal Pierre’s sandwich, but he had no problem sharing it with them. These birds are grey jays... they are very common in Interior Alaska, and always happy to accept a handout, these fluffy gray birds in a black and white cap quickly learn that humans are an excellent source of food, even coming to the hand for a bit of bread or cheese, as they did....Such familiarity has earned it a long list of nicknames, in addition to the once official ‘Canada Jay,’ it is called the lumberjack, meat-bird, camp robber, venison-hawk, moose-bird, and gorby. But its most notable colloquial tag is a ‘whiskeyjack,’ this is a corruption of an aboriginal name, wisakadjak, this is a mischievous prankster from Algonquin mythology.

When we left Chicken we headed for Dawson City, via the Top of the World Highway, this highway is remote and it connects Dawson City, Yukon to Tok, Alaska. While most roads traveling through mountains wander through lower elevations, this highway winds along the top of the mountain range for a truly breathtaking drive. We crossed into Canada via the little Gold/Poker Creek border crossing from the Yukon to Alaska, this is the most northern international border crossing in all of North America.

We had a wonderful drive and man the scenery....Unbelievable!

In order to get to Dawson City you have to cross the Yukon River, you can do this with the George Black Ferry, this ferry service is free, or you can find a bridge but there are only 4 bridges spanning the river that can support vehicles, these are: the Lewes Bridge, the Robert Campbell Bridge, the Yukon River Bridge (Carmacks) and the Yukon River Bridge (Dalton Highway)... so we chose the ferry... it was so neat, it ended up. That when we arrived they were loading for a trip across..so we just fit right in..with no wait time.. sweet