Day 11 - June 24th, 2010 Carmacks, YT to Dawson City, YT

Today was suppose to be a short, easy ride into Dawson City.  However, road construction made the trip a little more adventuresome than needed.  We hit the construction area just as they were adding new gravel to the chiseled-up seal coat roadway.  Tammy came thru these sections with a white knuckle, death grip on her handlebars.  She even did a full lock-to-lock head shake in one deep gravel stretch.  Glad she stayed upright!

Took a trail-mix snack at Pelly Crossing to calm the nerves.  Only one real building in town.

The Yukon Territories were excellent in conveying the history of the area and how and why early explorers were drawn to the area.  Had to be a rough life with few truly rewarded for their long, back-breaking work and risks taken.  This view is of a narrow stretch of the Yukon River that gave paddle-boat captains fits.

The last ten miles into Dawson were along a river that had been mined for gold by the big dredge machines.  Was continual mounds of gravel 500 feet wide for miles.  Dawson City at the peak of the Klondike gold rush had  nearly 40,000 people and was the largest city west of Chicago and north of San Francisco.

City was now essentially a tourist trap with every color building imaginable.  You could see the history everywhere.  Tons of restaurants and retail shops with neat stuff.  All sidewalks were made of wood planks.  Several of the residents looked the miner part as well.

Riders were starting to accumulated for the Dust to Dawson motorcycle rally (its not called a rally officially) and the rider/bike viewing was quite interesting.  (Roger, the girl with the pink hair you bought your Givi stuff from in FL was there on a KLR.)  Bought t-shirts and tickets for Friday night's banquet.

Campground had a gravel surface and people from all over the world.  English felt like a minority language at times.  Seemed to be a hippy element in the town as well.  Would love to spend several days here again sometime.  To leave town to the west on Saturday would require a ferry ride across the Yukon River.

Tammy always took advantage of the late night daylight to get a little extra reading in.  Just not sure about her choice of books to read.  Note the sleep mask to turn the lights out.