July 14 & 15 - Whitehorse, YT to Dawson City, YT - 400 miles

On July 14th, we rode from Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, to Dawson City, Yukon Territory.  Then on July 15th, we spent a tourist day in and around Dawson City.

The ride from Whitehorse to Dawson City was on another great weather day.  We've been so lucky, and this was no exception.  The temperature was again cool, starting at about 55^oF and having a high of about 62^oF, but with our riding suits, it was just fine.

Before leaving Whitehorse, we were chatting with an RCMP "Mountie", and he told us there would be a lot of wildlife on the route we were taking.  He said "I hope you don't hit a moose with those motorcycles, but if you do, save me a hind quarter".  So we were excited about seeing moose and other wildlife.  But as hard as we looked, we hardly saw any wildlife at all.  We did see a fox, so that was a first for us.  However, we thought the fox must work for the tourism department, since he ran across the road in front of us just as we were coming to a sign by the side of a lake saying, "Fox Lake".  His timing was just too perfect!

We rode up rugged valleys alongside the Yukon River part of the time, and alongside the Klondike River part of the time.  These are both big rivers, and when they meet at Dawson, the resulting Yukon River is a BIG, BIG river!  

They used to have many Paddle Wheelers on the river, like this one.

We have been amazed at the size of the Northern Canada rivers.  They drain tremendous amounts of watersheds, and each has a lot of moisture from rain as well as snow.  The valleys became less forested as we continued north, and with more northern Birch and less Spruce and Fir.  We still had grand views as we went along.

Then we had a day to spend in and around Dawson City, the gold rush city of 1898.  This has developed into a real turn-of-the-century tourist town, although the biggest industry is still gold mining.  (Mining the tourists is a close second.)  We took a very interesting tour of the mining area, including a huge gold mining dredge, and the site of the original gold discovery.  

We each did a little "Gold Panning" while out in the gold fields, and that was really fun.

Now for the "Wild Life" report for Dawson City.  We saw four Can-Can Girls, "Diamond Tooth Gertie", and other local characters.

This is as far north as we go in the Yukon.  The paved roads don't go any further north (look on our homepage map to see how far north Dawson is).  Incidentally, it is a bit strange to have light so late at night.  The Sunset time here is about 12:00 Midnight, and Sunrise time is about 3:00 AM!

By the way, my odometer just turned over 4,000 miles since leaving Albuquerque!  (Remember, Norm rode about 1,900 miles to get to Albuquerque, so he's ridden nearly 6,000 miles since leaving home.)

Tomorrow we ride from the Yukon into Alaska, on the "Top of the World Highway"!!

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