Our Excellent Adventures: Blog Entry #9 Gold and everything before and after

Dear family and friends,

I think that most would agree that this trip could be wrapped up nicely were I to update this blog 10 times. A nice round number. So here is the next to the last and the last will come after we are home and might include a few favorite things, a bit of advice were I to be so bold, and our trip by the ‘numbers’.

So here we sit in a municipal park in Lander WY, with just one night and two more days of travel. Oops, I am already getting ahead of myself and much too philosophical when I am supposed to be sharing our trip “post-Denali”. I think we had a bit of post-Denali blues … but not to worry, we squared our shoulders and ‘carried on’ . 

Some highlights of the rest of the trip + Gold Fever

• Another Highway where we knew those gorgeous mountains were out there but could not be seen. The “Old Denali Highway” could be, we think, an amazing drive. But aside from a very dirty wet truck, we saw a lot of mist. We did not linger at the Tangle Lakes when we had been told we must, but in retrospect, we gained more time for what I called ‘gold fever’.

• On the way to Dawson City, we stopped in Delta Junction where I just must tell you that they close the schools when it gets below -50F. See maybe now you believe me when I say … those Alaskans are tough. I wish I had bought a picture book by a local teacher called “Recess at Minus Twenty!” The pictures of the kids getting ready to go out were something. This is a beautiful agricultural area, homesteaded in the 40’s

• Our search for gold began in “Chicken, Alaska” where they say the miners didn’t know how to spell “Ptarmigan”. Chicken is famous for well …. the beginning of the “Top of the World Highway” (a bit, a wee bit white knuckling) that drops you into Dawson City, Yukon. Chicken is also the location of Tisha’s school house if any of you have read “Tisha”. In Chicken we met a couple who have a gold mine … and have mined it for the past 30 years and in fact, raised all nine of their children during the mining season (summer!!!!). P.S. Gold panning, apart from a couple of tiny flakes that look great in my journal, gave me the ‘I got it’. Gold is so obvious in the bottom of a pan … and kind of exciting!

Outside of Tisha's schoolhouse sinking into the permafrost

• The Top of the World Hwy, once we were past the awful drop-offs, gave us a complete sense of there being no place higher in the universe. Absolutely endless views.

Those Canadians love their cairns -- fields of them!

• GOLD: As you history buffs know, the Klondike Gold Rush 1898 was brief (one year more or less) but its story so incredible as to represent something larger than the rush itself … for in fact, though 100,000 set out (times were abysmal), only 30,000 made it to Dawson City and only about 100 ever saw gold in their pan or their placer. And yet, exploring the tales of the courage of these Klondikers has been an amazing part of our travel. Remember, it was just so hard to get there!! Also, without the Gold Rush and WWII (the AlCan Hwy), we probably would not be visiting AK as we are now.

 Dawson City, YK: Parks Canada has done an absolutely amazing job of restoring Gold Rush era buildings and providing knowledgeable guides to provide the background and the details to make the buildings live. Robert Service’s (The Cremation of Sam McGee) cabin and his interpreter was one of my favorites. We spent two and a half days there and were enchanted. By the way, walking around a deserted town, along the amazing Yukon River at 10:30 at night in the bright sunshine has to be the consummate northern experience (about 140 miles south of the Arctic Circle).

Beautiful Gold Rush saloon looking ready to stand at the bar!

Robert Service's cabin with raspberry vines on the roof (in one of his poems as well).

 Skagway, AK: For almost the first time, we were able to experience a ‘magnificent highway’ without the clouds and mist. We sure appreciated it. If Dawson City was the end of the Klondike, then Skagway, with its Chilkoot Pass (think of those miners bent over going up those icy stairs on the pass as perhaps the most defining photo of this gold rush) was the beginning. Skagway is also very well preserved and if you can ignore the large cruise ships dominating the harbor, it is possible to get a good understanding of the place. We also visited Dyea … where the pass began and it is totally a ghost town though in that one frantic, crazy and gold-fevered year, it has SEVEN real estate offices.

The whole drive into Skagway was one ahhh after another

Those Klondikers didn't have a parks sign

-----or steps! Hikers do it today in about 7 days.

This is most of what Dyea looks like today -- just rotting timbers

Just down from our campsite -- what is left of a 2 mile long wharf

The only thing left of this 'whole' city of 'gold'

• Other adventures …. Though in the same places just not about gold

 We just happened to be in Dawson City for the 10th Biennial Moosehide Celebration for the Han People (Interior Athabascan). It was amazing with dance and music. But my favorite part was a fiddle workshop led by a famous older Athabascan fiddler (fiddle has been part of the culture since ‘first contact’ with Europeans) and a brand new talent. And please note as you will see … one is never too old to learn.

Bill Stephens, renown Athbascan fiddler and his young student

Sierra Noble (Metis fiddler from Winnepeg) and a Han elder still willing to learn. Inspiring!

 Boondocking on the sand flats on the site of Old Dyea. Folks were fishing in the creek and then it seemed they were all watching something intently. Our photos will show you exactly what.

Alerted by a car, this Grizzly sniffed and then went back to very aerobic fishing.

After Skagway we have been heading home. We had a smoky trip down the Cassiar Hwy behind a pilot car due to a forest fire to Stewart BC/Hyder AK … another fantastic highway that was misted out but as you will see still clear enough to be spectacular. But our photos of the bear watching will surely suggest that the smoke and mist were worth it. On to our friends Mike and Ev (back to the beginning) and a lovely short visit to Yellowstone (a bit like a quick cuppa with an old friend) and a grand hike in the Tetons.