7 July Dawson to Whitehorse

7 July
Dawson to Whitehorse

. . . .


I spent a bit of time last evening strolling around Dawson, the city is all dirt roads and boardwalks, so it’s a bit interesting from that point of view. The place has pretty much the same feeling it might have had in the gold rush days, only without the crowds and the horsepoo. Coming into town from the north, you have to wait for a ferry to take you across the Yukon River, there is no bridge, the ferry just runs back and forth all day. I guess the volume of traffic does not justify a bridge, plus the danger of ice dams in the Spring washing any bridge away.

Did a bit of shopping and picked up some nice souvenirs.

This morning packed the bike with a bit of rain and got under way, not bothering to use the pannier water retaining system and trusting to copious supermarket bags to keep the contents dry. It was pretty much a transport run getting to Whitehorse, the only real highlights coming about mid afternoon when I came to Five Finger Rapids, a collection of rocky outcroppings in the river which complicated navigation nicely for the stern wheeler riverboats.

Five Finger Rapids on the Yukon River

That channel to the left of the largest island is actually the preferred navigation channel. It's about 10ft wider than a sternwheelr!

I decided airing the tyres down was not the best move I’ve made and break out the super you-beaut $7 compressor I scored from Canadian Tire and it does not work! Bum! And I’d taken the trouble to test it before I left Kelowna. Maybe it’s something in the accessory wiring I installed on the bike but I really doubt it. To make matters worse, the compressor is set up to release a bit of pressure as you attach and detach it from the tyre and now I have even lower pressure in the rear. I wobble and slide my way a few miles down the road to Carmacks hoping I don’t unseat the bead and find an air line at a garage (they hide them well) and sort it all out.

…and I left the air cap on the road back at 5 Rapids whilst faffing around with Canadian Tire’s finest equipment!

…and it’s pissing down!

30 psi front and rear turns the bike into something close to what it was before I started all this palaver and I bowl along into clear weather and reach some nice lake scenery and a few good views of the river and shingle cliffs.

Shingle cliff on the Yukon River

This whole area is one giant gravel pit left over from the glacier age and everything basically grows in a thin crust of dirt on top of the gravel.

Fascinating cloud formations

Fox lake

I had thought I would make the rear tyre last until Kelowna, but at today’s rate of wear I’m not going to make it. It’s Sunday tomorrow, so I’m in a bit of a quandary, but Louise tells me we’re doing a tour of Whitehorse tomorrow so I begin to rethink the plan. Many bike shops are closed Monday too, so I’ll sleep on it and just chill out tomorrow.

Time on the road, 8 hours, 520km, 30-ish km of road construction on fine gravel.

65/53mpg.