Days 20 and 21

Day 20 - Tok,AK to Dawson City, YT

Miles today - 733 miles
Total miles - 7053 miles

Today we left Tok and headed to Dawson City - the long way around. We intended to go at least to Whitehorse and possibly a little farther. It was slow going because of construction areas, but we made it to Whitehorse and decided to go as far as Carmacks - 120 miles down the road. When we got there, we ate dinner and decided we were still ok and we knew that even though it was 8:30, it would still be light pretty much all night - so we decided to keep going. We arrrived in Dawson City about 12:30 A.M. It had been a 15 hour riding day! We rode into town and it was rocking - due to the 30th annual Dawson City Music Festival. We decided that at that time early Sunday morning - we were quite possibly the only sober people in Dawson City. After checking a couple of hotels, we quickly found that there were no empty rooms in town, so we went to a campground outside of town and set up our tent. It still amazes us that we can set up camp in 1:30 A. M. and it is as bright as if it were daytime at home.






Sunday morning, after sleeping in, we went into Dawson City to explore the town. We ate breakfast at the Downtown Hotel - Jack London Grill. It is named after the famous author of Call of the Wild and White Fang.

Outside of the hotel, we met one of the locals - who had obviously overly indulged a bit the night before - and wanted to take our picture. We are standing by the stone that is a monument to those who are a part of the "Sour Toe Club" some special drink that is a part of the folklore there.

As previously mentioned, the weekend of July 16-18th was the 30th annual Dawson City Music Festival. We actually just stumbled into it, but it was a great weekend to be there. Lots of "want to be" bands as well as some better known area musicians were there playing through out the weekend.

We took a walking tour throughout the town to soak up a little of the history. Many of the buildings are designated as historical markers. This building has been left "as is" to show how the "frost heaves" the melting of the perma frost, affect the buildings.

Many of the historic buildings, such as the Dawson Daily News, have displays in the windows that tell about the history - even if they are no longer in business.

This is the SS Keno, the last steamer to run the Yukon River when she sailed from Whitehorse in 1960 to her present berth on the riverbank in Dawson City.

We ate dinner here at Klondike Kate's. This building was originally built in 1904.

This sign painted on the side of one of the buildings caught our eye.

Although it has been long since closed, the Flora Dora Hotel is typical of the type of buisinesses open during the Gold Rush Days.

Many souvenir shops and little stores now line the streets next to the riverfront. All of the current day stores are built to fit into the original style of the old days in Dawson. All of the roads in town are still dirt roads.

The river you see here is the Yukon River. To get to Dawson City to go over the Top of the World Highway, (when it's open) you must take a ferry across the river.

At our campground, we met another new friend with an interesting motorcycle. Zeddie, who is originally from Czechozlovakia, and now lives in Vancouver was driving this Ural motorcycle with sidecar.