chapter 70: Dawson City time warp

There are strange things done in the midnight sun
By the men who moil for gold;
The arctic trails have their secret tales
That would make your blood run cold
“The Cremation of Sam McGee” by Robert Service, Dawson City Poet

Northern BC is beautiful, but there is something both romantic and unsettling about the Yukon. The tourism slogan is “Larger than life”. It's vast and empty, but breathtaking. Comforting, yet unsettling, and stuck in a time warp in more ways than one.

I spent my first full day at the beautiful Tombstone Territorial Park. Even though I
knew about it, the midnight sun still took me by surprise. We time our lives to the setting of the sun subconsciously. I set up camp, went hiking, built a fire, and didn't even realize I was hungry until it was 10:30pm. Dusk came around 1am, then a couple hours of light grey, then the sun came out again. Weird.
The first casualty of the trip came on the amazing but treacherous Dempster Highway. The rutted gravel road that runs all the way to Inuvik, Northwest Territories ripped one of my tires to shreds, and cut short my bid for the arctic circle and the 'other' territory. After putting on a temporary tire, I decided the travel gods didn't want me there, and headed for Dawson City.

The Dawson City Music Festival is renowned for its lively vibe and friendly crowd. It's a strange feeling to party under perpetual daylight alongside refugees from the 70's. Long haired burnouts do their freaky dances beside bohemian girls in flower dresses, while packs of scruffy teenagers roam around hiding their beer and looking at girls. It's like the cast of “Dazed and Confused”, but it's not the 70's or the 90's.

Meanwhile, the rest of the city is stuck in the early 1900's. Old-timey facades have been re-created advertising an era long past, alongside new businesses disguised in turn of the century clothes. Everything looks new, but is supposed to be old. Nothing is real. Dawson City became the centre of the Canadian gold rush in the late 1800's, and a city sprung up almost overnight. Without tourism, nobody would be here, and the city would die almost as fast. So everyone lives in the past, and invites visitors to do the same – more information available on the internet of course! But that's not in the pamphlets.

By the numbers:
-kilometres traveled: 4,268
-bears sighted: 4
-police sirens heard: 0
-eyeglasses lost: 1
-flat tires: 1