Moonrocks and Miners

This morning we drove to the old townsite of Dyea, a native village near Skagway that is the Chilkoot Trail access. In 1898 thousands of gold seekers came to this spot to begin their long journey to Dawson City. The men marched up Chilkoot pass at 45 degrees, long lines, never stopping, with a box of goods on their back. If they faltered, they waited hours to get back in line. It was each man for himself. When they reached the summit 20 miles away, they stashed their goods and came back for more. They made over 20 trips to get to 1000 lbs of goods to the top of the pass. The Yukon required every miner to have those supplies because they did not want all those Americans starving to death in their country.

I was psyched. Daisy and I were up for a little stroll on the Chilkoot trail. Man oh man. Right away with the vertical stuff. I went about 100 yards up. Daisy was ready to rumble all the way to the top of the pass, but not me. When I die, I still want to have knees to donate to science.

We left Skagway after that, following the Klondike highway on the same route as the train the day before, except the other side of the valley. Same great scenery. After we passed the summit and entered BC, we drove through an area called Tormented Valley. It is a moonscape of rock, lakes and conifers dwarfed by the snow and icy winds that are called Mops. It felt like a foreign planet. This lasted for miles till we crossed into the Yukon, which looked more familiar.

We stopped for the night outside of Teslin at Dawson Peaks, an RV/Cabin outpost with a good restaurant. To celebrate the beginning of our 3rd month on the road, we ate in the restaurant with a good bottle of wine. The owner has two canoes down on Teslin Lake that we can take out on the honor system. $5 an hour, tell him how much we owe him when we are done. Maybe good weather in the morrow?