Dawson

The Yukon has two roads/highways that run through it. One is named Road #1 and one is named Road #2. This morning, we met with Grant (THE Yukon paleontologist, who mentioned that there is an archy dig going on in Whitehorse that I could help with if I was interested!!), had breakfast, procured a cooler, snacks for the trip, and field pants for Mattias, and began our trip up Road #2 to Dawson City.

Either dehydration or tiredness/stress caught up with me, and a headache caused most of the trip to be not exactly fun. My carmates let me nap, but I was awakened by torrential downpours and changes in the quality of the road on various occasions.

The scenery did not change much throughout the 5.5 hour trip to Dawson. Lots of birch and spruce trees. An occasional stream or river. More tree-covered mountains. All very beautiful. One of our two stops along the way was for one of these crazy, tasty cinnamon rolls. Hopefully you can read the excitement in my face. There was a small airplane landing strip across the road that was actually called “Cinnamon Bun Landing Strip”.

You could tell that we were getting close to Dawson City because suddenly there were random groups of houses along the road. Interspersed between these groups were huge gravel pits, remnants of old mines from years/centuries before. The primary economy in Dawson is still gold mining.

Dawson is almost indescribable overall. There is a special air about this tiny, tiny town. There are two main roads (Front and Main). Small, box-like, colorful businesses are crammed together with wooden boardwalks connecting them. The paint and lettering on the businesses could easily be from the late 1800’s. There are a few places that have seemed to feel the downfall of the world economy and are closed, but there are other restaurants, museums, bars, and gift shops to satisfy the tourist trade. I have two favorite buildings so far: the abandoned mill and a bright, completely purple house off the main drag.

These are the Whitehorse Cabins (well, our quadplex here is one of three buildings plus camping space) where we are staying. After our arrival, we briefly met with the owners (did a verbal “check-in”), and dumped our stuff before heading in to town to eat dinner and look for the other two team members from University of Alberta who arrived yesterday. Dinner was successful (I had a Yukon salmon quesadilla. Strange but AMAZING), and when we returned we were able to meet Duane and Tyler. (Duane is the man in charge for this dig, he’s been working on this project a long time!)

Although we stayed outside and talked for two hours, I did not receive any mosquito bites. The gnats are gnasty for sure, quite thick in some areas, but I wasn’t even wearing bug spray, just pants and sleeves.

As of this writing, the rest of the team ventured into town (for some shinianigans, I’m sure), and I’m still trying to convince my body that it is 11 p.m. It is extremely bright outside. Extremely. In fact, all of the pictures from the cabin picture to now were taken at TEN AT NIGHT.

The plan right now for tomorrow will be to go and visit some of the mining sites where we will be taking samples, so Mattias and I are able to begin looking at the landscape/geology of the area.

By the way, the wireless connection is as expected in the Arctic North, spotty or non-existent. There is an Ethernet cord outside which I am going to go and attempt to use to post this and contact some of you.

Cheers!

(The last photo is from the cabins where we are staying looking in to town. It takes about 3 mins total to get to the action)