Dawson at last

Wednesday 8th July

Our last camp was not as good as it could have been. The island we had planned to stay on had been reduced to half its former size due to flooding so we were on a gravel bar between islands without any vegetation. It had enough driftwood for a fire and whilst it was stony, it was generally flat and a Thermarest would take care of the larger stones.

Toilet facilities were more challenging as the gravel bar was cut off from the nearest island by a four metre wide channel with fast flowing water that came up to your thighs followed by a scramble up a three metre bank before you got into the forest. It was a great incentive to hang on for as long w
as you could!

It was a short paddle to Dawson and we arrived at lunch time with restricted views of the town due to a levee built to protect the town from flooding. There is a little house boat moored in the middle of the river for no apparent good reason.

The yellow building has history but is in a poor state of repair. 

The SS Keno is a beautifully restored sternwheeler, one of only three to have survived in tact from the dozens that used to ply the river.

We had to pass a paddle wheeler used for tourists trips wown the river...and a reproduction not an original.

I booked into the hotel, the suitably named Downtown Hotel and then went to look at the ship yard where there are a number of other sternwheelers in less good shape.

That evening we went to Diamond Tooth Gertie's...a casino cum dancehall cum theatre and watched the show

You know you are a Yuloner when...

...you are surprised to discover that the start of the hunting season is not a bank holiday

...you are delighted to be able to grow something other than fireweed in your garden

...you can greet everyone you meet in the street by their first name