DAY 1 OF OUR "TUK TOUR"
North to Dawson City
If we were all a bit jaded after our somewhat awkward briefing and tiresome supermarket shop the evening before, then the start of our tour north signalled a bright new day - quite a joyous occasion. At 8:00 am, ten animated, chatting passengers boarded our minibus bound for the Klondike and the famous Dawson City. The occasion was all the more enjoyable as we were travelling on a relatively mild (minus 5°C) but sparkling, sunny morning. It was an exciting start to our travels
As we were to find out, our tour friends were an interesting group of people: friendly, polite, super helpful, and inclusive of each other. It was an impressive cross-section of people. We were from all over the world and represented a sizeable age profile from the late-20s to the mid-80s. Even our gender profile was numerically equal!
Leo was our guide and driver for our eight-day tour. Fondly known as "The Tuk Tour", it was named after our final destination of Tuktoyaktuk (pronounced something like "tuk-too-yuk-tak) on the Arctic Ocean. Leo was an engaging guy who was friendly, helpful, and well-prepared. On board, he had organised a large cooler box for cold foods*, hot water, drinks, tea, coffee and snacks. We certainly did not want nor expect it, but he insisted on helping us with our luggage on numerous occasions. Nothing was too much trouble.
*The cooler box was hardly needed. If we left our food on the bus overnight, it was so cold that everything froze anyway.
Pleasingly, Leo was informative and particularly sensitive to the culture and lifestyle of the local First Nations peoples, making it quite clear that as guests in their land, we should show utmost respect. His advice would not have been necessary for our sensible group, but it was appreciated.
Our bus was clean and very comfortable. Most importantly - and thanks to the small group size - it was spacious, allowing each person to have a double seat if they wished. And thankfully, the long-legged Alan had plenty of space to stretch his legs.
Our initial apprehensions evaporated as we headed out of Whitehorse. I wondered what the other passengers were thinking...
Our first day's travels would take us along the Alaskan Highway for the first 33 km, followed by a 524 km trip along the Klondike Highway to Dawson City, the home of the late 1890s gold rush stampede. The journey would head roughly parallel to the Yukon border, sometimes just over 100 km from Alaska, USA.
It would be a long day's drive. Leo estimated it would take us nine to ten hours, with a few stops. At that wintery time of the year, it was wise to be off the highway before nightfall.
First Stop Braeburn Lodge: "Hey, it's Right Next Door to Cinnamon Bun Airstrip!"
Our first stop was at the Braeburn Lodge, just over 100 km north of Whitehorse. The lodge café is famous for its massively oversized cinnamon buns, ginormous hamburgers, mega-large sandwiches and freshly made soup. Needless to say, it is a popular stopping-over point for hungry tourists and truck drivers.
Again, we were confronted with more of the whimsical and often downright crazy names of the northern parts of Canada. And once again, we were delighted to hear that the local airport next to Braeburn Lodge is aptly named Cinnamon Bun Airstrip. It receives no maintenance, and pilots are advised to use caution as there are numerous holes in the runway caused by gophers. All rather bizarre, really...
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Braeburn Lodge is also famous for hosting a checkpoint for the long-distance Yukon Quest sled dog race. Formally known as the Yukon Quest 1,000-mile International Sled Dog Race, it has been scheduled every February since 1984 between Fairbanks, Alaska and Whitehorse, Yukon - switching directions each year. Because of the harsh winter conditions, distance, rugged trails, and limited support that competitors are allowed, it is considered the most challenging dog sled race in the world.
Braeburn Lodge owner Steve Watson welcomed us to his friendly, cozy café, a gem full of quirky local memorabilia and interesting artifacts. As we were warned, the size of the cinnamon buns and hamburgers was staggering. Again, we were shocked by the size of the food portions in northern Canada.
Thankfully, we do not have a sweet tooth... But they did look good!
Historic Carmacks - Birthplace of the Klondike Goldrush
Our travels north took us through the numerous Little Salmon Carmacks First Nations designated settlements of the Northern Tutchone-speaking people that occupy much of the south-central Yukon.
This indigenous territory is rich in natural resources; local indigenous people spend much of their time hunting, trapping, fishing and gathering flora for food and traditional medicines. A wide variety of game, including birds, waterfowl, large game, wolf, wolverine, fox and marten, is sought for food, clothing and other uses.
Carmacks village is the main centre for the Little Salmon First Nations settlements. Boasting a population of just 588 people (Canada Census 2021), it is situated on the confluence of the Yukon and Nordenskiold Rivers, about 180 km north of Whitehorse and 360 km south of Dawson City on the Northern Klondike Highway.
The Carmacks community was named after George Washington Carmack, who in 1893 built a cabin on land at the confluence from which he traded for furs. Carmack later found coal at the locally named Coal Mine Hill site. In 1896, he was one of three prospectors** who found gold at what was to become known as Discovery Claim on Bonanza Creek, near Dawson City, staking the famous claim that sparked off the Klondike Gold Rush. We were now in real Klondike territory!
** "It is not clear who discovered the gold: George Carmack or (his offsider) Skookum Jim, but the group (of three) agreed to let George Carmack appear as the official discoverer because they feared that the authorities would not recognise an indigenous claimant" (Wikipedia).
Lunch was a casual affair, with us all crouched on wooden benches overlooking splendid views of the frozen Yukon River, Lake Tatchun, and the surrounding mountains. Despite being a bitterly cold day, we thoroughly enjoyed the brilliant sunshine and fabulous scenery. Carmacks, in fact, can be a bit chilly - it claims a record low of a spine-chilling minus 57° C.
Our views took in the swift waters and narrow channels of Five Finger Rapids, once a formidable danger to overloaded boats and rafts of the Klondike Gold Rush "Stampeders." They were tough and dangerous times, with Whitehorse-bound sternwheelers having to winch themselves over large drops in the navigable channel until underwater obstacles were eventually blasted away.
Our lunch food was a pretty disgusting affair; the hurriedly bought-the-night-before bagels were about as stale and dry as you could possibly imagine. But fortunately, we had bought some butter. To our horror, however, the butter container had been opened before we purchased it, and there were three very obvious deep finger scrapings within the tub. Someone had enjoyed fresh butter at our expense... But with their licked, greasy fingers? Really... It didn't bear thinking about.
We ended up, however, eating the bagels along with the tampered-with butter. We had nothing else other than some cheese and fruit. And, after all, plenty of lubrication was the only way to choke them down.... And yes, we are still alive to tell the story!
Pelly Crossing
Just 155 km south of our destination of Dawson City, we passed through the settlement of Pelly Crossing. Named after Sir John Pelly, a governor in the early days of the Hudson's Bay Company, it is situated on the confluence of the Pelly and Yukon Rivers, where it is the home of the Selkirk First Nation and to the Northern Tutchone culture.
Fort Selkirk, a former Selkirk indigenous community located a short distance downstream from Pelly Crossing, was initially established as a ferry crossing and highway construction camp when the Klondike Highway from Whitehorse to Dawson City was built in 1950. With the completion of the Pelly River Bridge and road to Dawson city, the sternwheeler traffic on the Yukon River came to a halt. Fort Selkirk settlement was abandoned, and the Selkirk First Nation members were forced to move to Minto Landing before settling at Pelly Crossing. Today, the restored Fort Selkirk is a popular stop for Yukon River travellers.
Cultural displays and artifacts are now housed at Pelly Crossing, in a replica of the original Big Jonathan House, Fort Selkirk.
Stewart Crossing and Elsa
One of the last settlements we passed through was Stewart Crossing on the Stewart
River, about 180 km east of Dawson City. Like Pelly Crossing, it was once a Yukon government highway maintenance camp for
where the Klondike Highway crossed the Stewart River until a bridge was built in the mid-1950s.
South of Flat Creek, a tributary of the Klondike River, we stopped briefly for a photo stop at the former mining settlement of Elsa. With glorious views of the Yukon River valley, it was well worth the opportunity to take some pics and stretch our legs. But late in the afternoon, it was really cold.
Travelling on the Klondike Highway not far from Dawson City, we noticed an illuminated mobile sign saying "Dempster Highway Closed". We assumed that Leo and the other passengers had seen it, too, but no one said a word. It was an ominous sign as we knew that the highway could be closed at any time because of bad weather conditions. Karen and Farrell had told us about taking some of our Australian friends north on the Klondike Highway, only to be held up by bad weather and not even making the Arctic Circle. Like them, it would be a tragedy to have travelled all this way and not reach our final destination of Tuktoyaktuk. We decided to forget about it. And anyway, we had plenty of time before we headed onto the Dempster...
Destination Dawson City
We arrived in Dawson City late afternoon. A scene right out of a B Grade Hollywood Western, it was hard to believe that what we were seeing was a real city and the old shop stores and houses were not facades from a dated movie set. It was, we must admit, truly fantastic.
Outside, snow was falling heavily, and the wind was howling. In the diminishing sunlight, vision was becoming limited, and it was obvious that going for a late afternoon walk around town was out of the question.
Leo pulled our minibus up in front of our hotel - Dawson City Downtown Hotel - home to the very famous Sourdough Saloon Bar Karen and Farrell had so excitedly told us about the day before. At least we knew our accommodation would be good. And from the outside, the hotel looked charming.
To our dismay, however, after checking us in, Leo finally arrived back on our bus. The hotel restaurant was closed for renovations, and no evening meals or breakfasts were being served. We would have to walk to a local café or restaurant. Apparently, the Eldorado Hotel was open and "just a bit of a walk from the Downtown."
Leo insisted that before our travels, the establishment had informed us that meals would be served. "Someone must have told me an untruth" he said lamely. Little did we know that virtually nothing was open at this time of the year. And whoever was responsible for obtaining this information was not important. It was just that it should never have happened. After all, it was snowy mid-winter conditions with an outside evening temperature of around minus 12° C.
A silent groan overcame our group. Could we get a lift on the bus to an eating place? No, Leo was out for the evening. On seeing our disappointment - or thinly veiled fury - Leo finally agreed to drive us to the Eldorado. But we would have to walk back to the hotel.
Again, it was not a great start.
And on a desperately cold dark night, the walk back to our hotel in icy conditions and driving snow was dangerous and, well, just downright miserable....
To make our night, on our return to the hotel, we realised that the famous Sourdough Saloon Bar was also closed. Our initial apprehensions that had begun to "evaporate" in the morning had well and truly "condensed". It was St Patrick's Day too, and the bar would have probably been great fun...
"I hope this frigg'n tour gets better than this", muttered a fuming Alan...
2025-02-08