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Chasing Summer p.004
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Day 10 - August 25th - Dawson City
Ouch . Late wake-up this morning. I blame it on this city where so many AdvRiders already succumbed. Who on earth forced me to drink Martini Espressos yesterday?!?
Anyway, none of us think it would be a good idea to ride our bikes today so we check-in for another night. It turns out to be a great idea: Dawson is really nice and we also spend a lot of time watching the Gold Panning competition.
There are different categories and all but this is basically how it works: each competitor receives a bucket of dirt/sand with from 5 to 10 small gold flakes. They are standing in a basin of water where they can wash the sand in their pan. The faster you are to go through your whole bucket the better but if you go to fast and miss a flake or two (the competitors don't know how many were in the bucket) you receive time penalties.
It's pretty tricky since the flakes are really small and only their higher density keeps them (hopefully) at the bottom of the pan.
Depending on the competition you can either use the old metal one or a more sophisticated plastic one with grooves.
It was surely an interesting crowd to watch and talk to.
Training area
It was surprising to see many women participating and also a good proportion of young competitors.
Several US and Canadians for sure...
But the main country represented was Finland and I think they won most of the competitions
Many Europeans but also people from South Africa, Japan etc.
We spend more time touring the little town. It's so quite during the day! We hardly see anyone, like at nap time in the Mediterranean countries. What adds to the illusion is that it's surprisingly warm and we're just wearing shorts and T-shirts. Hey, they even have a KTM dealer in town
The crows are incredibly big here
Dawson is located at the junction of the Yukon river and the Klondike river
One of the old steam boats that used to service the river
It's pretty neat to have several places dedicated to the history of Dawson. "The Klondike gold rush began in July of 1897 when two shipsdocked in San Francisco and Seattle carrying miners returning from the Yukon with bags of gold. The press was alerted and papers carried the story to the masses. Soon, miners of all shapes and sizes, called "stampeders", were on their way to the gold fields. Within six months, approximately 100,000 gold-seekers set off for the Yukon. Only 30,000 completed the trip." Dawson City was at the heart of the rush and at some point became the second city in the West behind San Francisco.
We're recovering slowly while starting this ride report at the Bombay's.
Teryk works on his blog with this strange emailing device
The Bombay's gets alive only later so very few people are here but we just happen to be seated close to a very nice couple riding KLRs.
They were on the end of their own Americas trip, started 8 years ago when they leaved in Bolivia and spent several months traveling in South America. Then after after being back in the US for years they decided to finish their trip with the exact same bikes/gear etc. Awesome people and it was really nice talking to them and sharing experiences. However I had that thread to continue. Then we had that awesome piano player / singer who entertained us for a while, just for her own pleasure.
Dawson is really special.
That evening was much quieter for us...
Day 11 - August 26th - Dawson City
Yes, we’re still in Dawson But it's not as bad as it looks: technically we moved forward since we crossed the river in what’s called West Dawson. So there is progress!
This morning we woke up with the firm intention to go to Alaska but had to stay a bit to upload pictures and continue the thread at the Internet Café. The guy in charge is a Frenchman who’s been living in Dawson for 5 years. He was a mechanic in Alsace (East part of France) and “could never find time to do things”. Now, he seems very happy here, has plenty of time in Winter, did a dozen different jobs and even built his log house in West Dawson himself! It’s a rough borough with no electricity, running water or sewage so some houses look very much like in the old days with wood stove and propane oven.
In the café we also met Igor, a Russian photographer in Dawson for years. When we discussed about what we had visited so far and our plan he was really adamant that we should visit Tombstone NP on the Dampster Hwy. Dampster is almost the only road we had decided to pass on since like the Dalton Hwy it goes North for many miles (Inuvik) and then you have to go back the same way. Igor insisted that the most beautiful part of the road was the first part and “not seeing Tombstone was like going to Alaska without seeing Denali!”
Always trust the locals! We backtracked East to get to the Dampster Hwy and then rode 1 hour or 2 to Tombstone and didn’t regret it a bit.
First, a quick detour to the "Dome" with Dawson City on the lower right corner.
Then on our way to Tombstone Park. We felt blessed to be here in fall!
The park is gorgeous! And the light (a mix of dark clouds and sun) made it even more dramatic.
No worries, even if helmets are not mandatory in Alaska, this was only for a couple of hundred feet.
Definitely a "big sky" place
Rain is okay when it offers such beautiful skies...
Going back to Dawson we decided to camp on the other side of the river, using the free ferry.
Nice campground on the river, with rainbow and all...
A quick dinner with fresh food for once and then we hike to Dawson to listen to Florient's musician friends who played their first gig that night, at the Bombay. Such a small city (about 2,000 in winter) but many artistic talents it looks like.
Day 12 - August 27th - Dawson City to Ester (Fairbanks)
We had a lot of ground to cover today to catch up. We left Dawson with the nostalgic feeling that it would be hard to find such cool people in the rest of our trip. But at least we were starting with a beautiful road “The Top of the World Hwy”! It’s a dirt road, following the crest at a pretty high altitude. Surprisingly I didn’t feel like taking pictures. It was sunny but I guess the light was not beautiful or the scenery not dramatic enough. So we just enjoyed a spirited riding. There was almost no traffic but we passed on the way 10 BMWs from the Edelweiss Tour, it was fun to see mostly motorcycles on the road…
After crossing the border (strange feeling in such a remote location) we soon arrive to the “town” of Chicken.
Chicken Facts: Winter population around 15; 30 to 50 in Summer. No flush toilet, no cell phone, pretty remote life especially in winter when the road closes and the temperature drops sometimes as low as 80 degrees Fahrenheit below zero (- 62 C). They have a lot of wild animals in the area including black bears, grizzlies, wolf and lynxes. People really do gold mining here.
The famous saloon
The road South to Alcan was fine but afterwards, the Alcan (Alaskan Hwy) going west to Anchorage was painfully boring and straight for miles and miles. At least there was barely any traffic in it.
Nothing was appealing along the way so we decided to push to Fairbanks. We needed tires and chain but we couldn’t reach the KTM dealer by phone so we started to be a bit worry.
It was already late when we arrived in Ester, a small town a few miles West of Fairbanks. We wanted to get there because that was the address of the KTM dealer and our good friends Tiny and Whammo had told us about camping there, close to a cool saloon. The issue was that what we found was barely a town. Yes, there were a couple of saloons but that was about it.
We checked in anyway at the “campground” close by, filled with school buses but no other customers or amenities.
Then it all went bad, really bad. Teryk had smelt coolant on his bike since we arrived in “town” but couldn’t identify where the leak was from. Well, from my side it was pretty clear: Even if the 640 engine was off I could clearly see at regular interval a very thin burst of coolant coming directly from the head gasket, a little like a heart still pumping blood trough a leaking artery.
Head gasket kaput. Kind of catastrophic when you are on the road: 2 bikes that could hardly run in a small town with no services to be seen. That’s when you need to not despair but focus on trying to find a solution while keeping hope. Well, hope has a color: it’s orange.
We heard and saw a KTM 300 EXC that went through the side of the campground. We ran to stop the rider: it was Duke going trough dirt trails for a beer at the Golden Eagle saloon. Duke is just the nicest guy! As soon as we asked him if he knew a KTM dealer around he pulled his cell and called. Unfortunately that was the same number we were calling and there was still no response. That didn’t stop Duke who decided to take us to the KTM shop since it’s where the owner leaves. I was not too sure about bothering a dealer at 8:30 PM at his house but Duke seemed to know him well. Duke went to pick his 640 Adv and took Teryk on the back while I rode the 950 with the chain re-adjusted.
No luck: no one at home. Duke decidedly helpful took us to another place where he thought we could find Bob (the dealer). On the way we see a BMW sidecar 1966 coming the other way: it’s Bob going back home. Teryk explaining the problem:
No hesitation from his part: yes, come with me I’ll look at the bike and we’ll see what to do. We follow him to his place a few miles out in the woods, on a dirt road certainly very difficult to find when you are from out of town. Here is Bob placing orders over the phone to overnight the parts ASAP...
... While Teryk (with Duke) started to work on his bike to have it as ready as possible.
We just couldn’t believe our luck! Just an hour ago we were desperate, not knowing if a KTM dealer was still in town (the next one is Anchorage) when suddenly we meet 2 great people and we have a plan to solve our problems!
We wanted to thank them for their huge help so offered to take them to the saloon.
We had a great time! The Golden Eagle is a very cool saloon where you cook yourself your hamburger, have a beer on the porch or listen to the guitar players practicing their music. We had a long day so we were ready to go around midnight when someone told us "Hey, you should stay, there is a total full moon eclipse tonight. It starts at 1:30 AM". We thought we couldn't miss that so we stayed for more beers and talks. The locals were really interesting again. It takes a different kind to leave in Alaska and it was great to meet them.
Here is a picture of the eclipse
The eclipse was awesome but I have no pictures for the most extraordinary part: Aurora Borealis
.
It was a first for us and we couldn't believe our eyes. At the beginning the old-timers were saying "Oh, we see that all the time in winter" but soon they realized that it was an exceptional night with extraordinary colors and sharpness, especially when the moon was dark. It's also rare to be able to contemplate that in summer in mild temperature because the nights are usually too clear.
Anyway, there are no words to describe it so I'm not even going to try. But one of the amazing things is how quickly they move in the sky; and the size; and the way they spiral around themselves. They really look alive. I think that must have been the most stunning vision of my life .
Again, a bad situation turned out to become a wonderful one.
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