Hitchhikers, treks and cancan

After an exhausting journey down  Dempster Highway we decided to spend the day in Dawson City and around. Looking for adventure we ventured into the forest on our own. (having been warned by the locals that one has to stay very ' bearaware' as this territory belongs to grizzlies). Armed with bearsprays, we did feel slightly uneasy the whole time but luckily we had no bear encounters. (We do love to admire them but from a safe distance!).

The trek took us to beautiful cementeries hidden within the forest. We saw a masonic cemetery, a Jewish cemetery,Yukon Order of Pioneers Dome Cemetery  and the Hillside Cemetery.

One could not imagine a more peaceful respite than being buried there amongst birch and willow trees with insects joyfully buzzing around.  On our way we also saw a cabin of Robert Service, the bard of the Yukon known for cheerful poems such as 'Shooting of Dan McGrew' or ' The Cremation of Sam McGee' . We also heard about Robert Service the following day when I picked up a hitchhiker. The man turned to be very nice and told us about his grandchildren  from Quebec and his life as a constructor in Dawson City. He looked as if he could have stepped out of 1900s with his long grey beard  and a dark grey cap soaked with rain.

He quoted few verses of Robert Service poems  which added to the mysterious atmosphere of driving down the foggy road in the rain. It also made our drive to Tombstone National Park more pleasant as the second time we got there the road has clearly deteriorated due to heavy rain and driving  over  100 kilometres one way was a real challenge. 

It was definitely worth it, however, as we spent lovely time eating dinner with backpackers in the campground's shelter.

We met two teachers from eastern Canada ( Nova Scotia, where I do need  to go one day) and a 19-year old from Germany who decided to hitchhike from eastern to  western coast after he graduated from high school. He told us about  his adventures such as kayaking down the Yukon River for 5 days with no plans and no maps.

We then had a lovely hike in Tombstone amongst the winding pathway bravely forcing its way through  milky fog. There was abundance of ruby red Fireweed which apparently can be used to make delicious jelly and a lot of tasty wild berries. When we came back we were soaked and cold but very content and going  to Diamond Tooth Gerties, the oldest casino in Canada, was icing on the cake.  Diamond Tooth Gerties welcomed us with roulettes, where we quickly lost everything we  had decided to spend there and a very good cancan show. ( the stars of which come to Dawson City from Vancouver and other parts of Canada).  Afterwards, we went to a pub at Downtown Hotel and had an opportunity to witness a tourist drink a speciality of Dawson City , namely sourtoe cocktail. Apparently, once one drinks sourtoe cocktail one automatically becomes the member of ' The Club', which comprises only 100,000 members. So what is the infamous sourtoe cocktail? A shot of whisky with a dried out human toe inside. The trick is not to swallow the toe as this can incur a fine of 2500 dollars. The rules are easy: “You can drink it fast, you can drink it slow, but your lips have gotta touch the toe”'. Legend has it that the first toe came from an amputation being performed in the field on someone who developed gangrene. Since then 10 more toes have been acquired by 'donation' (whatever that implies).

We now regret not having tried it!

Po meczacym dniu na Dempster Highway zdecydowalismy sie odpoczac w Dawson City i okolicach.

W poszukiwaniu przygody wybralismy sie na hike do lasu. Mieszkancy ostrzegli nas, ze ten teren nalezy do misiow, zatem zaopatrzylismy sie w bearsprays i dzwoneczki ostrzegajace niedzwiedzie przed nami (tak jakby one mogly sie nas przestraszyc!). Hike byl przemily i sciezki porosniete mchem i grzybami (nigdy w zyciu nie widzielismy tylu grzybow!) doprowadzily nas do kilku uroczych cmentarzykow ukrytych w lesie. Widzielismy cmentarz zydowski, masonski, a takze wiele innych.

Na pewno milo sie im spoczywa w cieniu sosen i brzoz, sluchajac wesolego bzyczenia insektow.

Po drodze minelismy takze kabine, ktora nalezala do Roberta Service, znanego jako 'Bard Yukonu'. Do najbardziej popularnych wierszy zaliczane sa miedzy innymi ' Postrzelenie Dana McGrew' oraz 'Kremacaja Sama Mcgee) ( trzeba przyznac, ze oba maja bardzo radosne tytuly).

O Robercie Service uslyszelismy takze nastepnego dnia z ust autostopowicza, ktorego zgarnelam po drodze. Autostopowicz wygladal jakby nalezal do poczatku XXwieku. Byl okolo 80-letnim mezyczyzna z dluga siwiutka broda i przesiaknieta deszczem peleryna zasunieta na oczy. Opowiedzial nam o swoich wnukach z Quebecu i o tym, ze przez 30 lat pracowal na budowach w Dawson City.

Umililo nam to droge do Tombstone National Park, ktora przez dwa dni zdazyla sie zrobic jeszcze bardziej dziurawa. Co wiecej, deszcz sprawil, iz byla jeszcze trudniejsza do przejechania.

Przed kolejnym hike'm spedzilismy urocza godzine na kempingu rozmawiajac z dwoma Kanadyjczykami z Nowej Szkocji (musze tam pojechac! podobno jest cudownie!) oraz 19;letnim maturzysta z Niemiec, ktory sam podrozuje od maja autostopem oraz kajakiem przez Kanade. (najciekawszy odcinek jego podrozy to byl splyw kajakiem, 5 dni z rzedu, bez mapy oraz zadnych planow)

Hike w Tombstone byl cudowny. Szlismy przez pokryte gesta jak mleko mgla gory i moglismy podziwiac przepiekny karminowy kwiat tego parku Firweed, z ktorego podobno mozna wytworzyc smaczna galaretke. Delektowalismy sie takze dzikimi jagodami. Mimo, iz przemoknelismy i bylo zimno, bylismy zachwyceni.

Po powrocie do Dawson City udalismy sie do najstarszego kasyna w Kanadzie: Diamond Tooth Gerties, gdzie obejrzelismy wspanialy show.( Dziewczyny tanczace kankana przyjechaly z Vancouver). Udalo nam sie takze przegrac w ruletce wszystko, co zalozylismy sobie, ze przegrac mozemy.

Na zakonczenie wieczoru (a raczej nocy, chociaz na zewnatrz o 1 nad ranem bylo wciaz tak jasno jak w dzien), poszlismy do Downtown Hotel, gdzie moglismy zaobserwowac jak jedna turystka kosztowala sourtoe cocktail czyli koktajlu kwasnego palca (od stopy). 

Legenda glosi, ze wiele lat temu po amputacji palca(ze wzgledu na gangrene), ktos znalazl po latach ten palec w sloiku z whisky. Stad wzial sie pomysl na koktajl- shot whisky z wysuszonym ludzkim palcem od stopy. Zasady gry sa proste: trzeba wypic shota, dotknac palca ustami, jednakze polkniecie go jest surowo zabronione i grozi grzywna 2500 dolarow. Po calym przedsiewzieciu mozna dostac certyfikat, ze od terazy nalezy sie do czlonka Klubu Sourtoe(do ktorego do dnia dzisiejszego nalezy ok 100,000 osob). Po pierwszym 'oryginalnym' placu, kolejne 9 zostalo ofiarowane i przeznaczone na ten cel (jest to wybitnie ciekawe, skad te palce sie wziely..)

Zalujemy teraz, ze nie skosztowalismy tego przysmaku!!!

Yukon: Dawson, Arctic Circle and Tombstone

After spending the first two days in Whitehorse we drove to Dawson City, the heart of Klondike Gold Rush. The lakes seen from the road were of spectacular emerald colour, which could rival the Carribean.
Dawson City, itself, welcomed us with old, pictoresque buildings  and wooden boardwalks. Liquor store, photo parlour and former brothels are amongst the first buildings a visitor sees when entering this dust-covered town.( We did spend a night in Bombay Peggy's- a former brothel turned into a lovely bed and breakfast, which lost some of its excitement but none of its charm).

Picture: Lake on the way from Whitehorse to Dawson City

 The next day we got up almost as early as gold miners do to hit Dempster Highway leading to Eagle Plains, the Arctic Circle and all the way north to Inuvik.


The drive through Tombstone National Park, devoid of almost any people and facilities was as beautiful as it was long, so no one could blame us for feeling relieved when we reached our final (or so we thought) destination of the day: Eagle Plains.
Eagle Plains, proudly boasting to be a village and 'oasis in the wilderness' turned out to be nothing more than a devastated hotel and a gas station with a far too friendly male staff( towards me anyway).
We didn't even have to discuss it, as soon as we looked at each other and heard  the owner of the hotel say that ' frankly speaking there was absolutely nothing to do there', we decided to drive to the Artic Circle and all the way back to Dawson City ( each one of us did 500 kilometres that day, almost 1000 in total). Our decision was also influenced by the price of a well ripened (perhaps too well indeed) banana- three dollars. (although litres of black coffee, which I drank there were truly resuscitating)


As we were approaching the Artic Circle, the landscape smoothly transformed from lush green forests with pine and birch trees into truest 'end of the world' with tall, naked trees and a seemingly never-ending road gently winding through hollows with streams and wild flowers.

Crossing the Arctic Circle, even though it boiled down to taking a lot of pictures of a wooden signpost, truly in line with Facebook and Instagram culture( or lack thereof) of 21st century, did fill us with immense  satisfaction of crossing that mysterious border.
 Interestingly, there is 24 hours of sunlight until  8th of August and even though we were there by evening, it was still very light outside.

Whilst standing there and admiring the beauty of this world, we met a French guy (with a lovely dog), who has been living in Yukon for two years now and mainly spends time kayaking down the Yukon river, yet his wife (and a daughter!) lives in France. He  gleefully explained that they had  lived together two years ago for a year, this year they are living separately and 'who knows what the  next year might bring'. Joie de vivre!

When driving back, I kept telling Raph we would certainly see some grizzlies. ( I needed to find a suitable justification for having dragged us all the way north to the Artic Circle)

Yet the road kept winding, kilometres kept piling on  and  no bears were in sight. We were almost ready to give up on a hope of seeing one, especially because the breathtaking scenery and true wilderness surrounding us was more than enough to make up for it and then suddenly we saw a car standing in the middle of the road.

 Out of pure goodness of our hearts we decided to stop and see whether the man needed any help (as if we could provide it! No mobile signal and the closest thing to civilisation was a tiny Information Centre, probably closed at this time of day, 200 kms away)and then we saw them. A beautiful family of three. A grizzly mum with two (by the look of it) adolescent cubs. They were too busy digging out worms to pay too much attention to us and we  spent almost an hour admiring them until they turned back and walked away.

The rest of the drive was even more spectacular than the drive to Eagle Plains as the sunset and a  menacing thunderstorm added new colours to the Tombstone Park.The grey mountains looked even more majestic against ruby red skies and dark blue clouds. We were completely alone and we've never felt this close to wilderness.

Tombstone

 

Arctic Circle

Road to Dawson

Horse with No Name i.e. Whitehorse

Our journey began in an interesting way with our luggage getting lost in Vancouver ( but all's well  that ends well and we got it this morning). Apparently  planes that fly from Vancouver to Whitehorse are too small to take all luggage  ( especially if one of your bags resembles a mini kitchen cupboard with all the necessary  food for someone not to starve for  two weeks) and it is a common occurance for some of it to get left behind. But, as already stated before, we and our two bags are together now. Yay, happy ending to this particular story ( if only more stories would always end like this).

Anyway, our taxi driver dropped us off at a Restaurant,Inn and Convention Centre( 3 in 1). It resembled a building one could expect to see in a Western movie but the food turned out to be quite good ( according to Raph) and waitresses quite hot ( and definitely not obese, which is surprising considering  the average size of people we've seen here so far).

Whitehorse, the biggest cityh of Yukon (with population of 20 000 people out of 30 000 inhibiting whole of Yukon. Yukon being twice  the size of the UK!) of itself is  not very  pictoresque. The buildings are quite run down and the Walmarts, McDonalds and Starbucks mixed in with some old rusty garages make up an interesting composition.

People are very friendly  ( except when you trespass onto their property as I did by accident when trying to turn around when Raph was busy flying his drone) and the chef at our B and B even prepared a delicious vegan breakfast for me ( chia pudding with fresh strawberries and coconout flakes).

We visited Yukon Wildlife Preserve where we saw many moose, elks and even some foxes. The walk was very nice, especially considering the lack of tourists who took the bus.

We also found out an interesting  fact about moose. Apparently they can dive 5 metres  down to gorge on their favourite snack: water lilies.

Tomorrow we're hitting the road, heading towards Dawson City.


P.s. Raph insists on letting you know that the drone's name is Ziggy.( you get the reference, ' Ziggy Stardust)

P.S.2. And the car is called  Arnold  the Second.

Nasza podroz zaczela sie w dosc ciekawy sposob: w Whitehorse  wyladowalismy my ale nie nasza walizka. Okazalo sie, ze samolot z Vancouver do.Whitehorse jest za maly i bardzo czesto jedna z toreb zostaje w Vancouver i czeka na nastepny samolot. ( tym bardziej, jak w jednej z nich mamy mala spizarnie, ktora utrzymalaby kazdego przy zyciu przez co najmniej dwa tygodnie).Ale wszystko dobrze co sie dobrze konczy! Jestesmy juz na miejscu. My i nasze obie walizki.Taksowkarz wyrzucil nas przy Inn, motelu i centrum konferencyjnym w jednym.restauracja wygladala jak z westernu ale jedzenie podobno bylo niezle ( wedlug Rafcia) i kelnerki dosc seksowne( a juz na pewno.nie otyle,  w przeciwienstwie do wiekszosci mieszkajacych tu ludzi) Ludzie sa bardzo mili ( z wyjatkami, kiedy dokonujemy trespassingu, czylinnp dzis jak wykrecalam podczas gdy Rafcio zajety byl swoim dronem), a szef kuchni przygotowal mi wspaniale weganskie sniadanie ( pudding chia ze swiezymi owocami i wiorkami kokosowymi). Odwiedzilismy Yukon Wildlife Presevre, gdzie widzielismy duzo losi(elk) i tutejszych losi ( moose) oraz kozy i jednego liska. Spacer byl sliczny, tym bardziej  ze bylismy sami, bo reszta turystow wybrala autobus.

Przy okazji dowiedzielismy sie ciekawostki o losiach: moga nurkowac do 5 metrow w glab w poszukiwaniu swojej ulubionej przekaski: lilii wodnych.

Jutro wyruszamy w droge, w kierunku Dawson City!

P.s. Rafcio nastaje na tym, zeby Wam oznajmic, ze dron nazywa sie Ziggy ( tak jak w piosence Davida Bowie)

P.s.2. A samochod nazywa sie Arnold Junior.

Pictures below: Something we haven't seen in Alaskan supermarkets

Alaska trip in a nutshell

Mount Blackburn (elevation: 4996 m)

A FEW NUMBERS:

• Trip duration: 14 days
• Flight time: 9:30 hours from Frankfurt (on a 767 from Condor Airways).
• Total distance: 4,200 KM (the map below shows the main cities visited)
• Max speed allowed on AK highways: 65 mil/h
• Avg speed of 55 mph drops significantly (30 mph) on gravel roads (McCarthy-Kennicott)
• Weather in August (end of the season): sunny most of the  day (8), one/two showers (3 days), rainy (3)
• Max temp: 73 F / 23 C (Anchorage).
• Min temp: 44 F / 6 C (Richardson Hwy).
• Average temp: 63 F / 17 C during the day.
• Notable wildlife: Grizzli bear (1), Black Bears (2), Moose (6),  Bald Eagles (10+), Mosquitoes (0! - dry season), lots of Salmon and other fish in Kenai Peninsula.

FEW FACTS ABOUT ALASKA

 The knowledge about Alaska in Europe is quite limited (we found ourselves being asked by most of our friends what we will do there/why we are travelling to Alaska at all - we hope our posts provided some answers). This observation was shared by the few travellers that we met during our journey. With the exception of Denali, Alaska largerly remains an 'off beaten path' / very wild destination. :) 

 •Denali National Park is one of the largest in the United States and encompasses North America's highest mountain. Denali is the 20,320-foot peak's traditional name, but modern explorers dubbed it Mount McKinley.
 •Wrangell-St. Elias National Park is the largest and most magnificent of Alaska's sprawling national parks, with nine of the 16 highest peaks in the United States
 •Alaska has a population of only ~750k people. The state owns 80% of the land (you hardly see no trespassing signs). The rest is owned by natives. Private property is only 1%.
•Alaska ranks first among U.S. states in federal expenditures per capita. About 1/3 of Alaska jobs depend—directly or indirectly--on federal spending.

BUDGETING A TRIP TO ALASKA

• Budget - main costs  (1.55 USD = 1 GBP as at Aug 2015).
• Accommodation cost: BnB - 80-150 USD per night.
• Avg fuel cost: Unleaded 87 - 3.6 USD / Gallon (3.79 L). 3.2 USD in Anchorage to 4 USD in Glenallen.
• Average fuel consumption: 25 miles per US gallon ie 11 L/100 km on GMC Terrain SUV (2.4L) 
• Toll roads: none except Whittier (13 USD per car).
• Mealprice range: 8-35 USD
• Flight cost: 1550 EUR (1100 GBP) per person
• SUV rental price: 100 USD per day with Nationalcar. Note that gravel roads are not insured by car rental companies.
• Avg wildlife park price per pers: 15 USD
• Extras can represent additional costs in Alaska (viewing flights, rafting or other activities). 

USEFUL LINKS

Aurora Borealis: most useful forecast is provided by the Geophysical Institute at http://www.gi.alaska.edu/AuroraForecast

Useful resources: www.Alaska.org, local brochures.

Recommended BnB:

• Copper Moose http://www.coppermoosebb.com
• Talkeetna Lodge: http://www.talkeetnadenaliviewlodge.com/
• Summit Lake: http://www.summitlakelodge.com/

OUR TRAVEL MAP

Note : A few day trips are not represented below due to Google maps restriction on the number of destinations.

Catching a silver salmon (Coho) in Whittier