June 15-17 North to Alaska Days 9-11

We moved into our sites at the Gold Rush RV Park. We were the first to arrive. We set up the tent and wandered around town as we waited for the 4 errant riders to come from Keno.  Once they arrived our sites became quite full. We all broke off into small groups and walked around town.  Wayne and I found the liquor store, and then lunch at the Alchemy Café, a funky, hippy type place with good food.  Then we walked back to camp. Dave, Ken, Wayne and I went back out to walk around, and had a great bowl of Seafood Chowder for dinner.  We then rode our bikes up to Midnight Dome to look down at town.  These pictures were taken at about 8:30 PM.  Really!!

The view of Dawson from above

The river downstream from Dawson

The mountains from the Midnight Dome

The moon was up at it's normal time, however so was the sun!

Look at the difference in color of the river water.  The Yukon is on top, the Klondike is the lower one that comes in from the bottom left.
 

On Thursday the group went back to Midnight Dome, then off to Claim 3 where they have a number of old cars.

Wayne and Lyon checking on the old stuff

These birdhouses were all along the road up to Dredge #4.

Check out the dredge buckets in photos 1 & 2.

This is what they are used for by the residents now

 We saw this guy all around town.  He has about a million Go-Pro camera cases on his bike, one on his helmet, one on his chest and often has his camera drone bungeed on the back of his bike! Must be a photo-journalist.  Either that or his hobby is his life! 

Friday was the beginning of the Dust to Dawson Bike Games.  It started with a Poker run. I chose not to go, but the rest of them went. They were given a map to each of the checkpoints where they could draw a card, hoping to get the best poker hand. At check 5 they were given the GPS co-ordinates to the secret check with the bonus card.  6 cards and we still didn't have a decent hand in the group!  

Instead of riding on the long dusty run, I walked around town and did some banking and shopping. I also hung around in the sun.  It was sunny and 85 in Dawson City today and as a bonus I don't think the sun ever really went down.

Wayne at the Fire House Museum.  They had the typical number of fires for that time, including a huge one on Christmas Day.

When Wayne returned, with his lousy poker hand, we went to the Fire Truck Museum and the Tr'ondek Hwech'in Cultural Center. It was interesting to learn about the First Tribe of this area. When the first white men came they butchered the tribal name of Tr'ondek and it came out Klondike. Go figure.

Then it was time for the D2D dinner, which was very good.  In the drawing I won Wayne a t-shirt. Then it was time for the rest of the bike games.  Cindy is lined up for the slalom race.

Dave in the slow race

 

Spectator bikes during the games, 11:00 PM

Midnight on Friday night, 300 bikes and riders gathered in the courtyard for the group shot. Can you find me?
Then we all got our official Dust To Dawson 2016 stickers. It took a while to get out of the mess of bikes, but we all made it back to camp.  There we were, at 1am in the broad daylight, putting our stickers on our bikes, then starting the packing of the gear.  There was only so much of that we could do, so it was off to bed. As the bakery (i.e. breakfast) didn't open until 9, we won't be in a hurry!

June 14, 2016 North to Alaska Day 8

It was a good thing that we pitched our tents in the pavilion.  It rained on and off during the night. But because we were under cover again, it meant that all our stuff was dry when put away. Yeah!!  We left camp in two groups.   Ours left first, about 8:00. I led the group of 5, Wayne and I, Bob and Cindy and Lyon. As the leader, I got to set the pace, which meant we did the speed limit, and got much better mileage then when "them boys" were leading!  Also it helped with our timing, as there was a black bear on one of the access roads, headed out onto the highway.

 I chose not to stop, but Lyon and Cindy were brave, and got pictures. 

Highway 2 was breathtaking, with both sides of the road lined with bright pink and purple flowers. We stopped in Pelly Crossing for gas and a look around the Big Jonathan House Heritage Center. Here we learned a bit more about the history of the area. Then it was on to Stewart Crossing, where we joined up with Ken and Dave.

 From here Dave, Lyon, Cindy and Bob took the side trip to Keno. The road is not paved, so Wayne didn't think he should go, with his chain and sprocket issues. Instead, Ken, Wayne and I continued on to Dawson City.  The RV park we will be in with the group starting Wednesday was full for the night, so we rented a cabin at Klondike Kate's. A real bed, warm showers and real chairs to sit on. Luxery at its finest! When we checked in we were told about happy hour, so of course we had to check it out.  After dinner, we toured the town. 

This is the ferry we will take when we leave on Saturday.

The river boat Keno

In 1898, over 12,000 ton's of supplies were unloaded in Dawson City. By 1899  60 steamboats, 8 tugs, and 20 barges were in service on the Yukon River.

Tomorrow the rest of the group should arrive, and we will group up at the RV Park

Critter Count: 1 bear

201 miles

June 13, 2016 North to Alaska Day 7

It poured all night long at Takhini Hot Springs. We all stayed in bed late, because why not?  After all, it might stop raining, right? No such luck.  Instead we packed up all our gear in the rain! We headed to the nearest café to have breakfast.  Then in the pouring rain we headed back to Whitehorse to hit Walmart and Canadian Tire (which is a huge sporting goods store). We also finally (!!) connected with the BMW shop in Fairbanks.  They have the parts we need and will hold them for us.  This means no side trips for us until we get those parts.

We then went back north in the pouring  rain up Hwy 2 to Carmacks. By that time the rain had stopped so we had ice cream for lunch.  Wayne reported the temperatures ranging from 42-70 once the sun came out.

 We camped at another Yukon Campground at Tatchun Creek.

 We again got the pavillion

 Wayne catching up on his Cycle News

 Lyon's tent fits so nicely up on the table 

 Bob, Cindy, Dave and Ken enjoy the camp fire. Besides the pavillion, Yukon campgrounds all have free wood!  What a deal!

There was a beaver dam just up stream, and the beaver came out to gather grass from across the creek from us.  Very cool!

Critter count:  1 beaver

138 miles

June 12, 2016, North to Alaska Day 6

It was a good thing we used the pavilion  at the Watson Lake Provincial Park as it rained hard during the night. But in the morning we had blue sky with a few puffy clouds.  We had planned to get gas in Teslin, however the whole town had no power. I heard the town's main power source (a generator) was down.  We squeaked into Johnson's Crossing, but it made us uncomfortable enough that we finally filled our spare gas cans.  After all we are way out in the boonies and you never know what could happen.  We had isolated rain showers, and in between we wanted to remove gear as it was so warm!

We stopped to check out the Whitehorse Rapids. During the Gold Rush, boats would take miners up through the rapids on their way to the gold fields. 

Whitehorse is named after the historic rapids on the Yukon River which resembled the flowing manes of charging white horses. On the “Trail of ’98”, the stampeders had to bypass the treacherous water of Miles Canyon and White Horse Rapids, south of the present city.

The White Horse Rapids became known as the greatest peril on the trail of ’98. The construction of the Whitehorse hydro-electric dam in 1958 tamed Miles Canyon and has replaced the once-foaming White Horse Rapids with Schwatka Lake reservoir.

 Now both sides of the rapids have walking/biking trails.  This bridge is for todays users.

Patti and Wayne on the bridge 

We stopped briefly in Whitehorse, then it was up to Takhini Hot Springs where we arrived about 4 pm. After setting up camp, with tarps on everything, we headed to the pool for a soak.  It was OK, just because the water was hot.  But the pool had way too many dead bugs floating around.  However there were a bunch of cute big ground squirrels to entertain us.  They looked like prairie dogs, standing up on their hind legs.

286 miles

June 11, 2016 North To Alaska Day 5

It didn't rain on us overnight in Hyder but it began sprinkling when we finally got all the bikes packed up and on the road. 

  It was a good thing that we came down that road in the sunshine the day before as all the beautiful views were hidden today.  Boy was it nice to see the sunshine at the end of the tunnel of clouds.

 By the time we headed north on the Cassiar Highway the weather was cooperating again. It was a beautiful day. We stopped for lunch at a pull out on a neat lake.

 It was time to stop again at Jade City. They had free hot coffee!  Someone (Cindy and Dave) had to check out the rocks!  I guess we'll be seeing Jade cabochons this winter in Quartzsite.

Lyon and his bear friend

When Hwy 37 ended we went east to Watson Lake to see the Sign Forest.  Lyon at the entrance

 Here's Wayne

 I'm ready to check it out!

 Look what we found... 

 It is a maze.   You could get lost in there for hours!!! 

 Then it was off to our first Yukon Territory Campground. When we got to the group site we found a covered pavilion!  Yeah!  Big enough to put up all our tents, although Lyon's little one ended up on top of a table!!! It gave us a chance to make sure all our gear was dry.

The view of Watson Lake from camp.

Critter count: 3 bears

Big day!!  397 miles!!

June 10, 2016 North to Alaska Day 4

Last night Cindy and I made an executive decision, no cooking in the rain.  But as it turned out, there wasn't any rain last night. We had breakfast in camp and then got on the road about 8 am.  This morning our history lesson was in Old Hazelton.

 Our first stop to check out the rapids.

 We stopped at the old stern wheeler at Hazelton Landing. This was one of the stops for the fur trade that we learned about at Fort St James.

  There were Totem Poles and old steam machines to look at. It was a nice break.

Then we returned to Hwy 16 and continued to the intersection of Highway 37 where we turned north heading on the Cassiar Highway.

On Highway 37, before the junction to Stewart BC/Hyder AK, we saw our first black bears!!  The first one had climbed up a tree by the road.  The next two were eating on one side of the road, then crossed over and munched for a while on the other side.  The last was again along the side of the road just hanging out. We also saw 2 eagles siting on snags out in the river.

At Highway 37A we headed west to the twin towns of Stewart BC and Hyder Alaska, separted only the the Canada/US border.

The ride down the highway was full of wonderful views.

Grouping up in Hyder at the park. Then it was off to lunch.  While at lunch we decided to spend the night in Hyder.  It would give us time to go see the Salmon Glacier and maybe catch a bear at the viewing area.

 The glacier was amazing.  All that ice, and it's been here for ever!

 Dave at the glacier

Many interesting rides at the glacier.  These folks were from Germany

 The view of the road back to camp

Wayne and me headed down the road

 Looking for bears, but no luck

 A stop at Portland Bay

Wow, What a view!

Again we tarped up camp to avoid the rain. 

Critter Count:  4 black bears

                       2 eagles

247 miles