Dawson City home of the midnight sun, dancing girls, and gold. We don't have gold pans but we do have an extra kitchenaid frying pan. If Ken doesn't hit pay dirt I may try my hand at dancing can-can style. Dawson City is also home of the Dome, a mountain where people come from everywhere to watch as the sun never sets. (We have plans to be there)
No need to wait until June 21st to become sleep deprived around here, it hasn't been DARK at night for the last week or so. Black t-shirts and towels cover the windows in the camper so we can catch a few hours of shut eye at night.
June 19th Ken and I did our own version of hte midnight pilgrimage. Although we didn't DO the whole Dempster we did ride the KTM to the Artic Circle. We packed up the tent and sleeping bags and headed out around 4 pm (deciding to go a little latter in the day because rumour had it the road was good at the time and the forcasts were for clear skys). Our 400 km ride was amazing, a different world, shale mountains, tundra plateaus, forests of short black spruce and at this time of the year still a little snow. We arrived in time to set up our tent on 66 33' and get a snapshot at 12:00a.m., sun still up. The it was off to bed to try and sleep in a daylit tent. Not likely! 2:30 a.m. , what is that we hear? could it be thunder? The Dempster Highway is not a road you want to ride in the rain especially on a bike (we saw a camper flipped in the ditch earlier that day on the way up the road). We packed up as fast as we could while at the same time trying to avoid being eaten alive by millions of mesquitos, an hit the road in record time. Lightning, thunder and a lot of rain made the first hours drive trecherous. Ken refered to snot when discribing the road conditions and we were very happy when skys opened to blue the farther we got from the Arctic Circle. The trip was also highlighted with one flat tire on the way back, and the sightings of 2 wolfs, a big moose, a black bear and a blonde bear. We made it home cold and wet by 8:30 a.m., tired and happy to see the camper and a dry bed.
On the way up to Dawson Dity we have stopped at Mayo and Keno City, (old mining towns), hiked up trails the miners used to follow, watched the water rage thru Miles Canyon where paddle wheelers used to navigate and met some very hard core travellers. Sever couples are on treks from the North thru to South America, somewhat like what we are doing, only they are on peddle bikes. Now that is hard core! Also lots and lots of Europeans who can't get enough of the open spaces. Interesting people and interesting places.
Everyone should have a cuddly teddy-bear
