Dave through the Americas - Dawson City, Yukon 7.18.02

I must not be requiring that much sleep as I only gave myself about 6 hours before I was ready to start the day. I talked with Jodi, a girl who works in a city hostel in Edmonton, Alberta. She seemed pretty cool. I waited for Dan and Jason who were talking about breakfast last night, but it looked like they were sleeping in. So before getting into too deep a conversation with Jodi, I headed off to the river to catch the ferry to downtown Dawson City. First thing I did in Dawson was track down the music fest office and sign up to volunteer. I was surprised how easy it was to do. There were a few spots left in security so I took some hours on Friday and Saturday. I rode around town and checked out the grocery store, ATM, and did some laundry. I also set up a half-hour massage appointment for later. The ferry system across the Yukon connecting Dawson City to West Dawson City is amazing. It runs constantly moving people and about 5-6 vehicles back and forth and it's free! West Dawson is the direction I arrived from. At the base of the river you can find a hostel, government campgrounds, and cheaper camping at Tent City. I was going to spend one more night at the hostel campgrounds but I found someone to split the cost of the government campground fee. I headed over to my massage appointment and experienced a half-hour of great pleasure. Time flew by as the therapist only had time for my legs. She worked on the knots that had been building up and for a moment the experience balanced on a fine line between pleasurable and painful. After my great rub down, I grabbed my clean clothes and headed for the bike shop to see about re-stocking my maintenance kit and getting some tools. I ended up getting a smaller and less expensive chain whip then what I'd seen in Fairbanks. I also got a tool to take apart my cranks, more lube, a spare derailleur cable to replace the one I gave to Hans in Dot Lake, and another water bottle holder for my fuel tank (my other one cracked). Tomorrow my bike will undergo some heavy duty cleaning. Tim at the bike ship was a nice guy who sensed my need for some straight talk and no bull****. We chatted for an hour about touring and the upcoming music fest. He's volunteering too and will be driving the bands from the airport. After getting my town errands done, I met up with Santina at the river. She and I moved to a sight on the river in the campgrounds. We met some travelers on the way. One guy lived in Soldovia near the Kenai Penninsula in Alaska. We offered to buy one of his campground permits from him but he just gave us one for free. So that was really cool. Santina told me about a 6pm hike up to 'The Dome', which overlooks Dawson City from the East. After eating a snack at the campground, we headed over to meet the other hikers but we were too late so we just walked around town and soaked up the sun.
After relaxing in the shade for a while, we headed for the bar (The Pit) and a band called Fish Head Stew was playing. From about 8:30pm to close I enjoyed the night very much listening to their songs from bluegrass to reggae. I met the band, a floutist, fiddler/vocal, standing bass, rhythm guitar/vocal, drums, and congas. We smoked it up and got to know each other during their set breaks. After getting kicked out around 2am, everyone migrated to the gravel streets of this small town and collected around a little hot dog stand that provided smokies and dogs for all the exorcised bar patrons. I headed back to camp after a little conversation in the street and a snack. (8 miles)

Peace

Dave

Pic: The Dawson City ferry system that takes people and cars from one side of the Yukon to the other. In the background you can see a landslide that occured.

Pic: The Yukon River running near Dawson City.

Pic: Dawson City, Yukon