Another Day at the Office
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Dawson City,
Yukon,
Canada
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Blog 62 - September 25, 2007
Dawson City, Yukon, Canada
Dawson City - The Han - "People of the River"
- due to an error in dates, this blog was misfiled
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It is Raining - It's a good Day to go to the "Office"
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There was hardly any time to lick my wounds after returning to Dawson City from the failed attempt to drive to Inuvik.
There was still plenty of sightseeing to do in Dawson City, and I was far behind in my blogging. Therefore, I decided to spend the afternoon "at the office" catching up.
The fact that the weather was throwing cold, drizzly rain at me, certainly helped in making that decision.
In my blog, my cyberspace alter ego - "lobo"- was still somewhere down around Valdez, Alaska writing from the last "office". That was in the student lounge at Prince William Sound College.
The only question this afternoon was where to find another "office" to work on my blog. The first usual choice of a university or college was not an option since Dawson City is too small to have either.
That left the Public Library, attached to the Robert Service School, as the new address of my "office of the day".
This was an easy choice because it was located right in the center of Dawson City and was a relatively modern building, ensuring that it had a pleasant atmosphere conducive to writing.
Today's "office" turned out to be poorly equipped as the librarian, a young lady who had just immigrated to Canada from Germany, informed me that there was no wireless internet available in the library.
While that was a setback, there was nothing to stop me from writing for several hours in the beautiful surroundings of the library.
My table mate at one point was a lady who was a proof reader for a soon-to-be-published novel.
- Robert Service School
How it would be nice to have a professional editor. (no, my own editor told me to write "Now, wouldn't it be nice to have a professional editor!")While I don't have a professional editor, I do have the next best thing and that is Barbara whose task (sometimes, it is a task) is to proof read my blogs. Whatever level my writing may be at, it would be a lot worse if Barbara did not kindly make the effort to read over my final efforts.
Thanks to her, the end result is a blog which has some flow and readability and which is relatively devoid of errors. I am amazed at her knack for words, spelling and the ability to see problems of grammatical structure and concepts that I have overlooked.
In summary, my forte is in the ideas department while Barbara completes the process by polishing the final product. We make a good team.
Speaking of writing and a good team, I have to include another mention of "zento" who I met in Travelogue: ARGENTINA - Blog no. 29 - "Meeting my Favourite Porteño Writer".
It was March 20, 2006, and at that time, Lucia and Eduardo were on the cusp of starting an adventure of a life time. They were about to leave Buenos Aires to start an extended "work and travel" trip during which Lucia would be blogging.
It was obvious to me that from the limited number of blogs she had written, this young lady had an extraordinary talent for writing. Her many blogs since then, first from Spain and now Great Britain, are simply outstanding. Lucia's power of description and attention to detail are second to none.
- named after the famous Yukon writer
Her final product seems perfect. If you haven't yet read her works, click on the link "zento" under "Your Favourite Travelers" on my Travelpod home page.Returning to the theme of writing my own blogs, it takes a lot of effort, so the first requirement is to enjoy the process of writing.
It requires the power of observation, some research, organization of thoughts, ability to put these thoughts on paper and a lot of checking and revision. With the effort that goes into the writing of a blog, I have a penchant to become psychologically fatigued at the very important stage of editing.
Barbara often points out my tendency to string together one subjunctive clause upon another resulting in something which to me sounds intelligent but which Barbara rightly points out is difficult for the reader to follow. (Like this sentence.)
Therefore, another person's help in proof reading is a wonderful luxury to have.
Getting back to blogging in "the office", my attention was diverted by a young teaching assistant who was trying to give extra help to a Han student. Remember, the library is attached to Robert Service School. The student's disinterest and obstruction made the assistant's task extremely difficult and made me wonder if she is being paid enough.
It also reminded me that I had another 10 days before returning to Prince George and resuming my role as an occasional teacher in French, Spanish and German. This made me enjoy the rest of the day even more than usual.
Speaking of the rest of the day, the time was approaching 18:00 and I still had a long way to go.
- essential to clean shoes
Six hours of driving to be exact.Today's destination is a return to Whitehorse, 557 km further south along the Klondike Highway. The full length of the highway from Skagway, Alaska to Dawson City is 716 km and since it follows the trail of the Klondike Gold Rush of 1896-1898, it is well named as the Klondike Highway.
As I write out the distance of 557 km, I can better understand why the drive took me seven hours, as I did not arrive in Whitehorse till around 01:00. Well, as I have often repeated, I do like night driving, even with its special challenges.
I had long ago concluded that based on the lack of high mountains, the Klondike Highway is probably one of the least scenic drives on the Alaska/Yukon itinerary and it was for that reason I had no hesitation to drive it at night.
It is a very isolated stretch of road with only a few settlements along the 557 kilometers to break up the drive.
Only 60 km into the trip, I came upon a superb lookout over the Tintina Trench which I mentioned in Blog no. 52, where I said that the Rocky Mountain Trench was a continuation of the Tintina Trench. Both are used as navigational aids for "pilotage"- meaning flight by VFR (Visual Flight Rules).
There was also a wealth of information presented in very succinct terms about the Trench and its surroundings for people like myself with short attention spans.
Again, fuel consumption was a matter for consideration and to feel comfortable, I planned to reach Stewart Crossing before 21:00 to fill up on gas.
That was no problem but the next opportunity to fill up would be tomorrow in Whitehorse as the service stations in Pelly Crossing, Carmacks and Braburn were closed.
At Pelly Crossing, it would have been great to make a left hand turn and drive the 100 km up the Silver Trail to the historic old mining town of Keno.
- Barbara - the editor (Yaletown -July 2007)
As it was late in the day, this was no longer an option.The only other break in the trip was the crossing of the Yukon River at Carmacks across a very long bridge spanning an historic river in a very isolated part of the Yukon. But then, aren't almost all parts of the Yukon in an isolated area?
The drive proved to be challenging for its length, the danger of wildlife on the road, and particularly for its berm driving. A good part of the Klondike Highway is built on a berm or a mound of earth which makes it an elevated road with steep drop offs on both sides and a very narrow shoulder.
This makes for very unforgiving conditions. A moment of inattention could find one driving off the berm with disastrous results. The chances of being spotted at night by passing cars are slim, thereby greatly diminishing the chance of survival.
Suffice it to say that the conditions merit extra attention which translates into driving slowly and trying to stay alert.
The berm construction has its advantages. It makes for a relatively straight highway that eliminates minor ups and downs. It makes the clearing of snow relatively simple, as snow is just pushed off the sides of the berm and thereby has no chance of accumulation.
Due to its relatively steep banks, it also lessens the chances of wild life suddenly running across the road.
During the spring break up, the melting waters would not reach the elevated road on top of the berm thereby avoiding the hazards of flooding.
Sounds like a great way to build a road except that it aggravates the already stacked odds of getting in harm's way when driving off the road.
Maybe, that is why I was just about the only car driving on the Klondike Highway this late at night.
I had reached the end of the road in more ways than one when I finally reached the Alaska Highway Junction at 01:00, about 30 km west of Whitehorse.
Once in Whitehorse, I was now in a position to make my move on the Alaskan panhandle, but first there was the matter of the bad weather to deal with.
Coming Soon - Waiting in Whitehorse
