A Viking’s Walkabout – Day 23 – Viking Navigation LLC

Dawson City to Whitehorse, Yukon

Distance: 331 miles / 533 km

Time: ~ 6 hours

Incessant pounding at my door awoke me at 8:55… OK, a little late for my typical start, but there was a “gambling hall,” “can-can dancers,” and “local watering holes” involved… “Ease up!” The knocking returned 2 minutes later: “I have you down for a 9am checkout.” “Say what?!?!”

Gassing up War Bus, Scotty shows up at the gas station. “Hey, I’ve been looking around for you.” And with him–I kid you not–fresh baked cookies. Say what?!? Dawson City might be the coolest place around. Nice work, buddy. They need to put you in charge of the visitors bureau.

Midnight Dome above Dawson. There is the city below me… but look at the horizon! You can see forever even with the clouds. The Klondike River flows into the Yukon from the left just south of town. It’s quite a sight. During the Gold Rush, residents gather on top of the dome at the solstice to see the midnight sun. Midnight dome is at 64*04’04.50″ N latitude, and the midnight sun does not happen until the Arctic Circle. Holy cow! Learning: The position of the Arctic Circle is not fixed!

The drive up Midnight Dome is more fun. Speed limits in Canada are low by American standards. The road to the top of the Dome is mountain rally racing perfect.

And here began my true love affair with the War Bus paddle shifters for the rest of the trip. I probably was not feeling tip top, and I definitely exceeded the speed limit by a fair bit, but it was soooo much fun. (Saying that, I probably now cannot safely return to Yukon Territory for several years.). The visitors guide says “Follow the winding road for approximately 10-15 minutes.” Bwahahaha! It’s waaayyy less. I assure you.

The road out of town turns up the Klondike River valley. This is a mound of rocks left behind a dredge in the Klondike. The whole river valley looks like this. Lots of gold came out of this river.

Know your placer mining equipment… I think I found it: https://thegoldmachine.ca/machine-models/

I know it’s been 23 days of bridges… But I like them. Stewart Crossing. I also like town names up here. Name the river, and if it has a bridge insert “Crossing.” It’s probably the only one.

Pelly Crossing… Hahaha. Told you.

I don’t know enough about the Oregon boundary dispute between the US and Great Britain. James K. Polk is my favorite president to study but I still know little about this moment in history. John Pelly was the 17th Governor of the Hudson’s Bay Company at the time of the dispute. I need to study this area of history more. It seems none of the key players wanted a war, but a bunch of rabble-rousers did. Having driven the Cassiar Highway over the next few days, I can assure you, from a geopolitical standpoint, that Polk and Lord Aberdeen had it right: The British should not have “traded one of the barren hills of Scotland” for all of northwestern B.C.

The bridge at Pelly Crossing.

Back in Whitehorse and staying at the Edgewater Hotel again. This time I ate in their restaurant called “Belly of the Bison.” I will say, the bison was very good. I told myself, “If you order bison, it’s not steak, so it’s not having steak again…” Hahaha. I actually ate more fish on this trip, but I’d have bison over a burger anytime.

I saw guardrails made from concrete railroad ties at Carhenge over three weeks ago(!). In the back lot of the Edgewater Hotel I found guardrails made from steel rail sunk into the ground.