Yesterday afternoon I spent In Dawson City museum on my own. It was very interesting and included an exhibition of ‘panning for gold’ using original equipment. For those who haven’t made the connection: Dawson City was briefly the capital city of the Yukon region and was founded as a result of the gold rush in the late nineteenth century. Basically it went from boom to bust in just a few years and while mining for gold continued for most of the last century by one or two large companies, the flood of individuals looking to make their fortunes was over in a very few years.
Life was clearly very hard for those who made the trek to the Yukon but equally it must have been just as hard in the slums of London or various places in the USA or people just wouldn’t have upped and left to face such an uncertain future. Indeed I have concluded that it is impossible to really understand how people felt and coped in such a vast and inhospitable country before cars, trains and planes and modern utilities were common place. They were different times and people’s expectations and lifestyles were totally different to today.
After leaving Dawson City we rode alongside the Klondike river for a while (a bit of a clue there about this being gold country) and then on to Whitehorse, the capital city of the Yukon. We rode for about 300 miles through wilderness – or mountains, forests and lakes: There are a lot of them in Canada. In all that time we probably passed through about three little trading posts of a few houses where there’s a store that sells petrol and groceries – one also had a café where we had a quite pleasant lunch. Apart from that there’s no habitation and the wildlife continues to be in hiding when I ride past – one baby bear and one deer is all I saw apart from birds and squirrels!
After coffee in Whitehorse we rode rapidly on to Teslin (see piccies) where a motel was booked. We got in at about 5.30 pm and after a shower and a meal I’ve just had time to blog before going to bed ready for another early start tomorrow. Guess that’s the biggest problem with this trip – the long days in the saddle.