Burning rubber in Canada Part 11 - The Dawson City

Hi there

   After a quick breakfast we marched on to Dawson City , this was the longest and highest point of our travel . The drive was smooth but traffic was not much as it seems people going to Alaska don't prefer this route much . Again there were miles and miles of trees as one could see , not a single house or human being , I would say it was green desert .

Long beautiful road 

Random click 

   The Dawson city  is beautiful , kind of rustic it has old world charm and buildings have been restored painstakingly . By the time we reached the center it   was 0300 pm as per our  watch!! however it was late afternoon in other parts of world but not here. This is due to long daylight  shops remain open late in night . I stood at this sign below and pinched myself as it was dream come true for me , I had been planning this trip for almost 3 years and Dawson city was my  first choice the feeling was beautiful can't be expressed in words .

Self pinching sign

Streets of Dawson City

Streets of Dawson City

Streets of Dawson City

  After a quick tour of town we settled for lunch in the beautiful   Joe's Pizza . The service was superb and pizza was really good surprisingly it was full house in spite of being almost 0330pm . We than walked to the most famous place in the town ,The Down Town Hotel to have sour toe shots!

Joe's Pizza 

Currency of almost all countries including our own Rupees 

Restored working old post office 

Boardwalk

Streets of Dawson City

Streets of Dawson City

   The Sourtoe Cocktail served at Downtown hotel is a  simple drink (a shot of whiskey, usually Yukon Jack) with an unusual accompaniment a mummified human toe.   In the 1920s, the rum-running Linken brothers Louie and Otto  got caught in a blizzard . Louie put his foot through a patch of ice and soaked his foot . When the brothers got back to their cabin, Louie's right foot was frozen solid . To prevent gangrene , Otto used his axe to chop off Louie's toe . He placed the toe in a jar of alcohol to commemorate the event. 

    In 1973, legend has it that Captain Dick Stevenson found the jar (and the toe) in a remote cabin. He came up with the idea of the Sourtoe Cocktail Club , an exclusive club . However till date there have been almost seven toes after the original toe which lasted only for seven years. In order to gain admittance to the club, potential members must drink the legendary Sourtoe Cocktail . There's just one rule: "You can drink it fast. You can drink it slow. But your lips must touch that gnarly toe."

   One gets a certificate signed by a old timer and you pay a small fee to get the certificate apart from off course the cost of drink .  We were not able to try the drink since the bar only starts at 8 pm and it would have been very late to return back to Whitehorse after that , however the staff at bar was very good and allowed us to click photos and gave information all smiling .

Deepak,me,Malhar,Shaunak and Netrali

The Downtown Hotel

The bar 

   We again walked around the town and visited the visitors center . By the time we reached it was closing time however the staff gave us a lot of information . In the center we saw a pair of locked horns its basically two moose  who fought to death and both died ,  the locked horns have been preserved till date .

   We took a small walk on the river front , in fact a short distance from visitors center there is a jetty from which one can take a free ferry across on the other side, this ferry is generally taken by riders and travelers who enter Alaska using Top of the world highway.

Visitors center 

Entangled moose antlers 

 

Paddle ferry boat 

River front park 

    Another unique thing you will find in Dawson city is leaning buildings ,basically Dawson city exists on sub arctic climate , a place with lot of permafrost in the  soil . It  remains frozen throughout the year , however due to climatic changes, the weather is  getting warmer leading to  permafrost getting melted this has effected the structural stability of the buildings thereby pushing it up/down leading to leaning of houses  .

Leaning building

  By the time we were ready to leave the city it was already 7 pm and we had a long , lonely drive back to Whitehorse. After a long drive we stopped at this beautiful Silver trail tourist information  center , there was no one in the center but it was open , information leaflets were kept and it had good washroom too. I just thought is it possible in any other country like this ,but than this is Canada , they just trust you .

 

   After a coffee break we were back on the road by this time sleep was overpowering us however hats off to Deepak he was more than alert in fact all of us dozed till the next rest stop ,  by this time it  was already 11 pm and took this opportunity to click photo in Northern light .

Northern lights

Whitehorse in Northern lights 

   By the time we reached our hotel  it was dark and we decided to have a quick dinner . The moment we reached our hotel rooms we all crashed ,  for it was a long day and my long standing dream had come true . I drifted to sleep with sweet memories as from tomorrow our return journey starts .

   Ride Safe Firm Saddle 

Burning rubber in Canada - Part 10 , The Whitehorse

Hi There

   Dease Lake to Whitehorse was a pretty long drive as we drove on the Al- Can highway there were miles and miles of trees on both sides of the road , one could hardly see the land the only place to stop were rest stops in between .

  Finally we came to another iconic stop on this highway the Jade city . The city is named after   Jada rock  is which found on the privately owned mine , located on huge privately owned forest .

  The area around Jade city is world's largest deposit of nephrite jade  . The population  is just 30 people !!! and its called city !!! The store sales various type of rocks apart from that they offer free coffee and wash rooms .The owner is very kind and ready to give you all information you want Netrali brought a few stones as souvenir . However there is no restaurant onsite.

Inside the Jade store 

    It was already getting late and we were on lookout for a place to have lunch,finally we came to a small restaurant were we had quick lunch. By the time we finished our lunch it was past 4 pm and the long drive was now getting on nerves of each one of us . 

Another stunning lake -Southern lakes

Lunch stop 

Lovely road 

  Finally we saw the welcome sign and it immediately lifted our spirits . The drive to hotel  was very simple  just a straight drive on the main road.

Main street Whitehorse

Mc Dee!!!

    Since it was rest day we all took it easy . However I went out for my morning walk to explore the city . It was pretty cold in the morning , streets were empty but it was pretty nice town . I took a small trail along the river front . The trail was very well laid out with many view points  along the trail . At one place it had a beautiful deck on the river front .

  

Random click

 

Random click 

Yukon river front 

Deck on river front 

Totem pole 

Fox on the Trail 

  During the walk I came across the SS Klondike national historic site . Its basically a vintage stern wheeler ship similar to the one which sailed on the Yukon river during the gold rush of 1898 Klondike gold rush . Before you visit the ship please watch the short film , there after its , self guided tour in the ship . Everything is restored beautifully including the boilers and the wheels in the rear . The ship looks as if it is ready to sail .  

 

Main Ship

Main wheel 

   By the time I came back it was afternoon . Netrali made a great vegetable pulao for lunch , again after lunch it was time to go to sleep . We woke up late in the evening and felt really refreshed , dinner was back to McDees on popular demand of Shaunak and Malhar . Before that it was time to replenish our supplies  for the next few days on the road . On our visit to Walmart we were pleasantly surprised to see a huge section of Indian groceries including ready to eat stuff and Parle G biscuits !!

   The day  ended with a small walk as we had to start early tomorrow for our long drive to final destination .

Ride Safe Firm Saddle