Adventures By Guy

We had a lazy morning, breakfast on the deck in the sun, no wind and still to cool for mosquitoes (low 60’s) Beautiful morning to around. Then we took a tour of an old river dredge used for gold mining. Amazing someone thought that up. Videos on FB. They brought in the pieces and put it together. Then dug a hole under it and the water from the creek filled the hole. Then it had big cast buckets up front and they would pivot the dredge by pulleys from shore. They had a large crew out front that moved pipe and drove water pipes vertically into the ground and flowed cold water into the ground to thaw the permafrost. Then the scoops would dig away and dump the load into a Trammell (?) which then rotated and small rocks, sand, fines would fall out and flow down over riffles where the gold would drop out. They cleaned them out every two weeks. We were surprised that it was only every two weeks that someone from Fairbanks came out to clean. The area was locked. People are still mining the tailings to this day. I was amazed that they didn’t have to follow the creek or river. They knew the river was much larger at some point in time and had deposited gold between the ridges. They would chew into dry land and dig its way along making its own channel. Big rocks go out the back. The part that looks like a rooster tail.
After that we hit the road from Chicken to Dawson City Yukon via “The Top Of The World” hwy. I couldn’t believe the huge bus type RVs down to trailers on the hwy. It was a lot of winding dusty gravel. 40 mph for us down to 10 on a lot of corners. Then the Canadian side was racetrack smooth sinuous pavement to the border station for about 15 miles. I was struggling between enjoying the corners and the road or looking at the scenery. I did both. Played on the corners and then slowed down in the straight sections. I had been noticing big white cumulonimbus clouds building up in the direction we were heading. They began to get darker on the bottom. Then rain tendrils came down and they looked like they were big Man-O-Wars in the sky. Getting larger by the minute and those tendrils started getting bigger and as the road wound around you just wondered when you were going to ride into it. We got lucky for quite a while. It was a wonderful view as the clouds got darker but the sun was shining down through and around them with the rain silhouetted. It was only a matter of time though … big bolts of lightning in the distance but not near me. Then while I am still in the sun I hear a big crash and it startled me and I thought something hit or something fell off the bike. It was a very loud case of thunder and I never saw any lightning! As we approached the border check in our turn came and big drops started to come down. Not a lot… maybe we’ll get lucky. Nope, as the road turned up ahead I could see a wall of rain. It is amazing how in the mountains I so often see just a line of rain. Perfectly dry and 3 ft over a deluge. That’s what I was looking at as water was bouncing off the pavement. Into the breach I went. Soon my glasses were misted over and I pulled them down and could see good enough. Half mile later the border agent for Canada waved Mike and I in. She didn’t want to come out in it. We walked in streaming water onto the floor. She said… I need to see your faces, passports, and license plate number. I said ok, let me get the helmet off. I put my gloves and helmet on the plastic chairs and they had puddles on them when we left. I told her if she had a towel I would wipe them up. Don’t worry it’s only water. We’ll have time to do it later. She said they hadn’t had anyone all day until it started raining then we four and and two groups after us. Another mile and we were out of it and the small hail stones too. But another 2 miles later we got it again. Then back to sun and dusty roads. As we went the rain was fewer and farther away. Now we came into Dawson City and crossed the Yukon River by ferry. I was the last vehicle to squeeze onto it. Then we came into Dawson City and ate at Sourdough Joe’s. Named after the founder of Dawson and on the first lot of the city. Fries are good but don’t get the Reuben Sandwich. Get the chicken dinner.
The guys went down to have a beer and I stayed behind to clean the lights and windshield on my bike as they were covered in dust and we were off gravel now and heading south tomorrow. Mike jokingly said… Hey, clean mine too! Jeff said… you could probably make a lot of money cleaning bikes in this town! They left and I got done with mine and did their’s too. Some people chatted with me as they always do. They all had British accents. Where you from? Edmonton. With that accent? Oh, originally from England. Ah, ok. Some warned me about road conditions going to Whitehorse the other asked about bikes. Oh, this is a Yamaha. Yep, not a BMW. He told me the best bike made was the Vincent BlackShadow. That’s from the 50’s isn’t it? Yes, they guaranteed it to make 120 mph back then. If it didn’t they would get you another one. He said he loved bikes but was to old for them. He asked me how long I was on Holiday for. I’m not on Holiday, I just retired 2 weeks ago. What? But you’re just a lad? I’m 59 and worked 35 yrs. It was time to go.
When you going home then? Sometime in September or before. Oh, enjoy yourself. I’mhereforawedding. Thanks, bye. These are the conversations I have all the time in parking lots. Met a couple from Kintucky… how they pronounced it. She had her helmet on but her cheeks and glasses were pure granny from the Beverly Hillbillies. Very nice folks. Her accent was very strong too. His was but he was more quiet spoken. We talked of places we had been and they said yes, you need to tour Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. They are beautiful. Don’t bother with Newfoundland as it is stark and nothing is there. We said bye and went our way.
At the Gold Camp the showers were coin operated. $1 a minute in quarters. Instructions were… open water knobs. Put in money. Water will start immediately. Conserve water as it has to be hauled in. I had $10 in quarters lined up. Started shoving in quarters as fast as I could. $5 worth. I’ll see what that does. I was thinking with my thick hair and a water saving head it would be a $10 shower. I was shocked to find out it was hot, great pressure and the head gushed water out. Done in 4 minutes and got to enjoy 1 minute of the best shower head I have experienced in ages.