Canada - Dawson City
Our entry into Canada was not heralded with the tight security we had expected. In fact, the whole idea of presenting yourself to an official seemed more optional than mandatory. You had to drive your vehicle over a cable across the road which rang a bell to get someone’s attention. We waited for a bout 5 mins before someone came. The young lady, equipped with 'Police academy' reflective sunglasses, 'assumed' that as we were riding the same type of bikes, wearing the same suites and helmets that we were together(so that she could read the standard border weapons, alcohol routine to both of us at once). Sometimes you can't help yourself and Mike just had to say no we weren't..............quickly followed by a 'yes, we are'...what was he thinking ? Anyway, she took it in good stead and we were allowed into a Canada with our second passport stamp, a very smokey Canada, from the many forest fires that were also gorging Alaska's forests.
The first town we hit was Dawson City, which sounded like an American gun slinging town to us and was presented as such, which we didn't understand to start with.
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A few streets in Dawson City...note the wooden side walks and smoke in the air.
Dawson city was a very busy place at the time of the Klondike goldrush, and as such, attracted the more colourful characters such as Klondike Kate and Diamond tooth Gertie(more of which later). It is impossible to express in words just how well this town/city had been preserved...if Jesses James had appeared in a few of the streets looking for a gunfight he wouldn't have looked out of place. We had inadvertently arrived for their discovery weekend, which had attracted a fair few more people than normal apparently. Our first night in town was very conservative-we found a bank to get some Canadian dollars and a restaurant that was still open. We also found ourselves a quiet B&B on the outskirts of town where we met another biker from Tennessee, Alex, who is a ballistic-type expert for their Police. We liked our B&B and it was fairly priced and hoped to stay a second night BUT all the rooms were booked and so we headed off into town to find our next nights accommodation.......
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A reminder that there's more to life than money/gold.
The Bunk house looked a bit like that the top of a paddle steamer had been taken off, dried out, restored and made into a hotel. This place looked like the deal of the century to us, costing about $25 each per night. The rooms were small but it had recently been decorated and so everything was clean and in full working order. Excellent ! , what could go wrong ? What we couldn't have know was how loud and inconsiderate some people from the Yukon can be, particularly in their early twenties !...more of which later..
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The Bunk House.
We met up with Alex again in the afternoon, wandered around to see the Discovery displays for the week-end and enjoyed a coffee or two. In the evening we went to Diamond Tooth Gerties, an old-time dancehall and casino where the "Madame" and her girls did a few dance routines for about 20 mins or so. All relatively tame and tongue-in-cheek.
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Diamond Tooth Gerties.
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Inside Gerties - John and Alex with some of the gals !
We returned to the bunk house about 01:00 and went to bed.....at about 3:00 am the noise started...as the guys from the Yukon returned from their night out........and went on and on and on...people shouting from the road to the balconies, from the balconies to the roads......even after the Land Lady had a word, the noise continued for another hour or so. As the next day was Sunday we expected these 'red-necks' to go back to their homes and decided to stay at the Bunk House a further night.....hmmm, well they didn't and we took up a fortunate invite from an English guy, Jules who left a note pinned on our door to meet up for a late night beer on his balcony having seen our bikes. We accepted and went up to see him. The night was rescued and had a really enjoyable night spent chatting with him and a Canadian, Peter until late in the night. We returned to the Bunk House with the noise still going on. These guys(with a girl) had found the idea of shouting out B-R-I-A-N at the top of the voices earlier in the evening funny, now having run out of other shouting conversation, resumed back to calling for a non-existent Brian again. Finally they packed up at about 4:00 and we got a little sleep before packing up and leaving. The real shame was that these town(i.e. not camping) stops are our opportunity to catch up on upon lost sleep etc and this left us both bleary-eyed and tired. We had frequented Klondike Kate’s, a restaurant !, quite a few times over the week-end and decided to make one last stop there before leaving town as the food was so good.
<IMG SRC="http://pic4.picturetrail.com/VOL784/4062504/8448420/115580582.jpg">
Klondike Kates
Dawson is definitely worth a visit for a few days....you can't help but find yourself smiling as you look at all the old artifacts lying around the town.
Our entry into Canada was not heralded with the tight security we had expected. In fact, the whole idea of presenting yourself to an official seemed more optional than mandatory. You had to drive your vehicle over a cable across the road which rang a bell to get someone’s attention. We waited for a bout 5 mins before someone came. The young lady, equipped with 'Police academy' reflective sunglasses, 'assumed' that as we were riding the same type of bikes, wearing the same suites and helmets that we were together(so that she could read the standard border weapons, alcohol routine to both of us at once). Sometimes you can't help yourself and Mike just had to say no we weren't..............quickly followed by a 'yes, we are'...what was he thinking ? Anyway, she took it in good stead and we were allowed into a Canada with our second passport stamp, a very smokey Canada, from the many forest fires that were also gorging Alaska's forests.
The first town we hit was Dawson City, which sounded like an American gun slinging town to us and was presented as such, which we didn't understand to start with.
<IMG SRC="http://pic4.picturetrail.com/VOL784/4062504/8448420/115580549.jpg">
A few streets in Dawson City...note the wooden side walks and smoke in the air.
Dawson city was a very busy place at the time of the Klondike goldrush, and as such, attracted the more colourful characters such as Klondike Kate and Diamond tooth Gertie(more of which later). It is impossible to express in words just how well this town/city had been preserved...if Jesses James had appeared in a few of the streets looking for a gunfight he wouldn't have looked out of place. We had inadvertently arrived for their discovery weekend, which had attracted a fair few more people than normal apparently. Our first night in town was very conservative-we found a bank to get some Canadian dollars and a restaurant that was still open. We also found ourselves a quiet B&B on the outskirts of town where we met another biker from Tennessee, Alex, who is a ballistic-type expert for their Police. We liked our B&B and it was fairly priced and hoped to stay a second night BUT all the rooms were booked and so we headed off into town to find our next nights accommodation.......
<IMG SRC="http://pic4.picturetrail.com/VOL784/4062504/8448420/115580599.jpg">
A reminder that there's more to life than money/gold.
The Bunk house looked a bit like that the top of a paddle steamer had been taken off, dried out, restored and made into a hotel. This place looked like the deal of the century to us, costing about $25 each per night. The rooms were small but it had recently been decorated and so everything was clean and in full working order. Excellent ! , what could go wrong ? What we couldn't have know was how loud and inconsiderate some people from the Yukon can be, particularly in their early twenties !...more of which later..
<IMG SRC="http://pic4.picturetrail.com/VOL784/4062504/8448420/115580661.jpg">
The Bunk House.
We met up with Alex again in the afternoon, wandered around to see the Discovery displays for the week-end and enjoyed a coffee or two. In the evening we went to Diamond Tooth Gerties, an old-time dancehall and casino where the "Madame" and her girls did a few dance routines for about 20 mins or so. All relatively tame and tongue-in-cheek.
<IMG SRC="http://pic4.picturetrail.com/VOL784/4062504/8448420/115580625.jpg">
Diamond Tooth Gerties.
<IMG SRC="http://pic4.picturetrail.com/VOL784/4062504/8448420/115580644.jpg">
Inside Gerties - John and Alex with some of the gals !
We returned to the bunk house about 01:00 and went to bed.....at about 3:00 am the noise started...as the guys from the Yukon returned from their night out........and went on and on and on...people shouting from the road to the balconies, from the balconies to the roads......even after the Land Lady had a word, the noise continued for another hour or so. As the next day was Sunday we expected these 'red-necks' to go back to their homes and decided to stay at the Bunk House a further night.....hmmm, well they didn't and we took up a fortunate invite from an English guy, Jules who left a note pinned on our door to meet up for a late night beer on his balcony having seen our bikes. We accepted and went up to see him. The night was rescued and had a really enjoyable night spent chatting with him and a Canadian, Peter until late in the night. We returned to the Bunk House with the noise still going on. These guys(with a girl) had found the idea of shouting out B-R-I-A-N at the top of the voices earlier in the evening funny, now having run out of other shouting conversation, resumed back to calling for a non-existent Brian again. Finally they packed up at about 4:00 and we got a little sleep before packing up and leaving. The real shame was that these town(i.e. not camping) stops are our opportunity to catch up on upon lost sleep etc and this left us both bleary-eyed and tired. We had frequented Klondike Kate’s, a restaurant !, quite a few times over the week-end and decided to make one last stop there before leaving town as the food was so good.
<IMG SRC="http://pic4.picturetrail.com/VOL784/4062504/8448420/115580582.jpg">
Klondike Kates
Dawson is definitely worth a visit for a few days....you can't help but find yourself smiling as you look at all the old artifacts lying around the town.
