June 26-29

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  Dawson City, Yukon, Canada
Monday, June 30, 2008

June 26/08
Well chalk one up for us old folks. We hiked to the top on Midnight Dome 1.5h UP!, for the Solstice. And then down. The old quads were screaming two days later.
The sun goes down below the horizon for approx 1.5hrs at 12:30 AM.   We hiked up with two Swiss folks we met here in Dawson. Barbara and Daniel have chucked it all and are traveling the world. We think we've made a big step to move to the YT, but these two sold everything and are traveling the world!
 
We took off to the Dempster Hwy the next AM and drove up to Tombstone Campground.
It's only 70 km up the hwy but it might as well be another world. We camped there for 4 nights and hiked right from the campsite. Because of the daylight you can wait all day for the rain to clear and then hike in the evening. We were able to get above tree line in about ½h walk, up of course, but once we got up on the ridges you could see forever and walk along almost any ridge. Only 3km further up the road and through a pass the tundra opened up before us. We saw Caribou and the biggest Moose I've ever seen! There was a Grizzly close to our campsite the night before we got there but we are somewhat used to this from Canmore.  What a great place. There were quite a few people driving all the way to Inuvik. Lots of folks on motorcycles. Lots of BMWs Lorna. Mostly the GS 1200 the big brother to your 650 (I think that is the model that Fred our neighbour has).  
 We've got to get back here for autumn which in these parts is early Sept. The colours are spectacular. Anyone want to join us???
 
We're now back in Dawson waiting for the finish of the Yukon River Quest. Cheryl and I are helping out at the finish line on Friday and Sat. For this we get T shirts and a steak dinner!!!!
We're planning our next move but it's so nice here we may stay for Canada Day and then trundle off to the Alaska on the Top of the World Hwy spend July 4 there, then get back to Whitehorse.
Of course our digs become available July 23 but we also have the opportunity to house sit for Cheryl and Dick Smith from July 7th.  Lots of things to do up here. The Atlin Music Festival is coming up in July and we may make our way down there for it. 
 
Living out of our camper is pretty good. I thought it would be a pita but so far everything has gone well.
We did have lots of bugs up on the Dempster but our new add a room tent which was designed to attach to our camper works great. Cedar sleeps inside it and we had a great bug house to sit in. Of course the warm weather in Dawson has made it easy. I keep looking at the forecast for Whitehorse and we think staying up here is a good thing. I doubt we'll feel this way in the winter as they still get -50.
Our 4 nights at Tombstone was the longest stretch we have camped dry without benefit of power. I hooked up our 20W solar roll to the battery and we had no power issues. The biggest draw on the electrical system is the fan that cools the 3 way fridge when it is on propane. There are always the usual draws on the system like the radio and gas detectors.  We really haven't had a chance to see how long we can go but the 22h of sunlight certainly must help to charge the battery.
 
June 29  We've just come back from visiting the paddlewheel graveyard on river left downstream of Dawson/ There are probably 6 old paddlewheelers pulled up on shore rotting into oblivion.
Kind of sad to see part of our recent history of the Yukon sitting and being forgotten.
 
Cheryl and I spent the last three days helping with the Yukon River Quest. http://yukonriverquest.com/
 The top team finished the 750 km from Whitehorse to Dawson City in < 40h approx avg speed of 18kph  Yikes!!!! That's FAST!!!! By way of comparison we did the same route two weeks ago in 9 days of paddling and perhaps 54h of effort on the water and the guide books suggest 14 days is a good time.
 
We worked at the finish and we helped racers out of their boats after they'd finished.  Some were in bad shape and had to be lifted. Others bounded out of their boats. One guy I helped, stood up in his Kayak, stepped up on the deck in front of his seat, and fell over backwards into the Yukon. He was truly out of it!
His reaction reminded me of the 60's which I wasn't there for......LOL  We talked to people who hallucinated. One guy saw a floating log which he swore called him by name!
We sat with the Kayak solo female winner at the banquet today. Ingrid, who I assume is in here 60s said she was paddling by a dock on the river with a boat pulled up. She saw a woman standing there and waved to her. She swore she received a return wave so in spite of being in a race, pulled over to chat. Turned out it was a broom with a rag attached stuck at the end of the dock. 
I asked Cheryl if she wanted to do this race with me and I've decided I'd rather stay married......
 
Canada Day is coming up and we've been invited to a bit of a house party at the home of a retired teacher who was the race coordinator for the finish of the race. We're looking forward to meeting more 'locals'

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