With the Yukon Quest in Dawson City – Day 1
Wednesday was our first full in-depth day surrounded by Yukon Quest action at the Dawson City checkpoint.
Official sunrise wouldn’t be until 09:24, but I was out for a walk just before 07:00. This was the view to the southwest from the front deck of the Eldorado Hotel.
And looking to the northwest, the oldest operating hotel in the Yukon, the Westminster.
The first local I met was this beautiful cross fox (a colour variation of red foxes). He was strolling around as if he owned the town, and this car stopped for a few seconds until he decided which way to go.
We began our tour day with a look around Dawson City in the vans. On our way up the Bonanza Creek Road to see how far we could get, we met our first up-close musher, Ray Redington Jr. He and the dogs all looked happy after almost 500 miles on the trail. We turned around then and went back into town to see them arrive at the checkpoint.
Back in town, I parked my van to give a good vantage point for some of my guests who didn’t want to stand outside with wind chills way down into the -30s. Others walked a block down to the checkpoint in front of the Visitor Reception Centre.
At 10:20, here comes Ray and his team running along the trail on top of the dyke!
Dawson is my favourite town in the North for many reasons, not the least of which is that it’s a photographer’s paradise.
Jeremy had arranged a tour of the Masonic Temple, which was built as a Carnegie Library in in 1904, with over 5000 books. This was the northernmost Carnegie library ever built, and was considered to be the most elaborate building in Dawson City at the time. After a major fire in 1920, it was empty until 1934 when it was sold to the Freemasons, who restored it.
The building is stunning inside, but it isn’t heated and was possibly even colder than it was outside!
Even the light bulbs are impressive, with the filament shaped as a Masonic emblem.
After lunch, some of us went over to the mushers’ camp at the West Dawson Campground. To get there, we drove on an “ice bridge”, a road carved from the jumbled ice on the Yukon River. In the summer, the ferry George Black runs back and forth across the river at the same location.
The Top of the World Highway runs past the campground to Alaska, but is closed in the winter.
It’s interesting to see the mushers’ camps. Volunteer handlers take care of most duties here.
I led 3 of my guests down the river to the “Sternwheeler Graveyard”, where 6 derelict steamboats lie rotting along the bank and in the bush. The site is in much worse shape than when I first started going there almost 25 years ago, but the names of at least 2 ships, the Julia B. and the Seattle No. 3, can still be read.
Ed Hopkins’ dogs were cozy when we peeked in on the way back to the van.
The tour boat Klondike Spirit, a replica paddlewheeler, sits high on the bank on the Dawson side of the river.
We were halfway across the river when we saw Normand Casavant making the short run from the checkpoint to the camp.
This is the George Black, the ferry that runs when the river isn’t frozen.
The sun went down at 5:41 pm, but day or night doesn’t mean much to the the Yukon Quest teams, and there were people to meet the teams whenever they arrived.
About half of the group showed up for some silliness, but only 4 were brave enough for the Sourtoe Cocktail. Yes, it is a real human toe that’s dropped into your drink! Several of the race vets got their certification just before our folks did 🙂
The last team that I saw arrive this night was Brian Wilmshurst, at 9:50.
Several of us ended this night at The Pit, which is the nickname for the bar at the Westminster Hotel. Just seeing the paintings on the walls, by local artist Halin de Repentigny, make a visit worthwhile. With Halin’s originals selling for thousands of dollars now, the bar is virtually priceless.
Soaking up the best in local flavour – both the beers and the character 🙂 We had another busy Yukon Quest day in store for Thursday!
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