Day 26: Friday July 29 "Tombstone & Goldensides Hike"

Day 26: Friday, July 29 "Tombstone & Goldensides Hike"

After a lovely, lazy sleep in until 10:30am followed by a delicious breakfast of eggs and sausages cooked by Chef Dadda. Yum! Mornings are such a special part of our days on this trip… kids wake up all snuggly, we boil the kettle and coffee is freshly brewed in our little melita one-cup filter holder and Jonathan usually cooks a mean breakfast. Our little “house” is so cozy and comfortable. We are very much at home in our little 24ft mobile traveler. Xoxoxo

This morning we realized that we had some kind of leak problem in the bathroom floor. We were not sure if it was because we had driven in some very heavy rain and bumpy roads, or if it was because of being hooked up to the water line directly at the RV park the night previous to last night.  Anyhow, water was coming up through the classy peel-n-stick fake parquet flooring. Hmmmmm. Problem to be solved.  This was along with our fridge being on the fritz. We cannot figure out what the problem is there. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. Seems to be a connection issue with wires. Jonathan has been puzzling over it.

We drove to the Interpretive Centre and had a great visit there reading about the history of the area, cool geological formations, amazing furs and skulls from local animals on display for visitors to check out. They had a giant beaver skull replica there that was found, I think, by miners in the Yukon. It would have been the size of a black bear. Amazing. They had  information about Beringia, which was fascinating.  The interpreter, Cathie, was so lovely and really knowledgeable and was very sweet with the kids. While Jonathan and I read about the history of the area and looked at photos of Dawson and the people that lived here, Cathie played with the kids and showed them the puppets and the little puppet theatre. She also told ollie about the spider experts that were up there recently studying spiders in the area. Cathie recommended a few walks we could take with the kids… the first being a walk right out from the Interpretive centre grounds along a river to a Beaver Pond. An easy 1km walk that Ollie could do. We got our binoculars and camera and headed off down that trail first. We put Amelia in the carrier and she passed out fairly quickly on Jonathan’s back. They had interesting signs along the way that explained the area and plants, etc that could be found here. We also came across a big bear sculpture made of bent branches, like the ones we saw at the centre, but this was 3D… very cool. Ollie liked that one. We also saw lots more mushrooms (even some Bateles) along the path. The beaver pond at the end was pretty cool… neat to see the lodges. No beavers to be seen (and no bears, thank goodness), but a pretty spot to stop and overlook the pond.  We walked back to the RV and hopped in so we could drive a couple of kilometres north up the Dempster to a road that would lead us to the Goldensides Trail that started at a radio tower.

We pulled over at the rest stop just across the road from the turn off and had some lunch. What an AMAZING view. The air is so clear, it hurts our eyes that we can see so far away so clearly. The landscape is stunning. Mountains all around, with rolling green grasses and trees. It is so vast. Our brains can’t really compute what we are seeing. We love it. This is the vastness we were craving when we drove up to the Yukon. Gorgeous.  

We had some food and then packed Amelia into the backpack carrier on Jonathan’s back and Ollie walked. I had the Ergo on my back for the inevitable switchover of having Amelia on my back and Ollie in the carrier on the way down.  It was 4:30pm when we started from the RV. We walked up the road for quite a while to reach the radio tower where the Goldensides trail started. It was a long walk, and kind of muggy weather. We were warm and energy was a little low. We were starting to think that we’d end up just walking the road and not even making it to the actual trail head, when we saw the sign. The reason we walked the road was because we were not sure our RV would make it up there. Also, Cathie had advised that if there were other vehicles up there, it could be difficult turn-around for our big “rig” to make.  We were happy to see the entrance to the trail (cue photo op of kids beside sign) and by this time Amelia was wanting out and was happy to walk part of the trail. Both Jonathan and I carried bear spray. It was very “beary” out there, but for the most part you could see around you for a long ways, which was helpful. At least if a Grizzly was coming for us, we’d maybe have a chance of aiming our spray at it before it was upon us! Yikes. The trail was really neat… meandering through short scrubby trees and shrubs, with the vast mountain ranges all around us. It lead us up towards a section that plateaued a bit and would continue on towards more of a ridge. We made the executive decision to head back down once we felt that we had a pretty good view of the area, knowing that we still had a walk down, and a long walk down the dirt/shale road to the highway in order to get back to the RV. With Amelia in the Ergo on my back and Ollie in the carrier on Joanthan’s back  We reached our RV just after 6pm… so it was a short, but felt long, 1.5 hour wander in the most amazing landscape. Very cool. If was had a more rugged truck to drive, we would have been tempted to keep heading north and get to Inuvik, and reach the Beaufort Sea. That would have been pretty amazing. Our Mobile Traveler is just not cut out for “rugged” driving and we felt lucky not to have suffered any damage on the 70km we did venture on (and we wanted to get back too!)

We loaded back up and headed back south down the Dempster, this time it was not raining and the light was better. And, as per usual when heading back along a route already taken, it seemed to be faster than when we drove up.   Along the way I spotted some Shaggy Manes at the side of the road, and Jonathan pointed out a very large rabbit that hopped across the road (snowshoe hare??). And, coming into Dawson City, we saw a beautiful black/white mottled fox with a fresh, plump rabbit in its mouth waiting to cross the highway.   On a side note, so far we  have not seen any large animals in the Yukon. All the big game we have seen has been in Northern British Columbia. Interesting.

Rolled into Dawson City around 8:30pm and the streets were lined with parked cars and the town was bustling. It was Friday night! On a long weekend, no less. It was nice to see it busy and upbeat. However, this of course meant that the Gold Rush RV park was full. We chatted with Diane, the owner, and I remembered to ask if she might know the Van Nostrands… and she did. Her husband, Pat, plays golf with Dick. Neat to make a connection. Katie and Matt Van Nostrand are friends through ollie’s prenatal class 4 years ago, and Matt’s parents, Dick and Joanne, used to run the Dawson City Hotel up here.

With the Gold Rush park full, we drove a little ways out of town (in the rain) to Dawson RV Park (a gravel parking lot with lots of space) and pulled into a site. Oliver enjoyed ripping around on his pedal bike between mud puddles and has been getting pretty over confident in his bike riding abilities. He is destined for a major wipeout soon. He told Jonathan he was practicing riding with his eyes closed. Oh boy.

Jonathan attempted late night laundry, and the facilities were less than excellent. The dryer didn’t seem to dry anything AT ALL. He tried three times, and only one machine half worked.  The next morning, he went into the office to pay for the night’s stay and told them he’d like to deduct the $9 he had wasted on trying to get the machines to work. The older European guy seemed reluctant to give him the deduction, but since we hadn’t paid for the site yet, it was hard to argue. Jonathan gave him the appropriate money, with dryer refund, and we were on our way again.