Dawson City

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Welcome Gifts

I wrote last fall about a wonderful Dutch couple that left me several bags of useful items. I’m still using the dish soap they left me!

This week, I was once again the recipient of much appreciated gifts! I met a wonderful, feisty RVer a few days ago when she brought in a bunch of books for our book exchange. She let me have first pick, so I took a couple of novels. Then, she came in this evening just after I started my shift with two more things for me. The first was dinner! She brought me a slice of pizza fresh from town!  She also handed me an unopened package of  fancy hot dogs that aren’t full of the junk regular hot dogs have. I don’t normally eat beef or pork, but I’m not a vegetarian anymore so I don’t turn down free protein!

As it turns out, they’re about to cross the border, so they can’t take any meat with them. The sausages were all they had left and rather than ‘donate’ them to customs, they thought that maybe the single gal would appreciate them. She does. 🙂

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Thoughts on Dawson City

Dawson is a town that attracts those with a ‘past’ who are in search of a new beginning.

So many people here are ex-cons, druggies, alcoholics, and gamblers needing a fresh start. I can’t imagine any other place in Canada being so welcoming of these kinds of people. If you come to Dawson with a willingness to work hard, you will be accepted. It is also easy to live on the fringes of society here; just move to a cabin in the wilderness and choose a solitary profession like mining.

This is also a town that appeals to those who are attracted to the romantic idea of the Yukon, of a hard life lived on the land where every action matters. There are people who live here without running water or electricity, something that is surprisingly common throughout the Yukon. When I often did without running water during frigid spells in the Gatineau Hills, I was pitied whereas here the melting of snow and hauling of drinking water from the village spring would be quite normal.

I lived in a small village in Quebec for four years and rarely ran into anyone I knew when I was running errands. I would enter a restaurant and be met with suspicious whispering. I was an interloper disrupting the the quiet sameness of the community. Dawson, however, was built by outsiders and it knows that this is where its strength lies. Dawson depends on outsiders for labour, for entertainment, for supplies. Soon as someone knows you, you are met like a best friend on the street or greeted as one on the phone.

I am someone who has always thought of herself as being something of a loner. I enjoy interacting with people, especially through the safety net of the ‘web, but I’ve always needed a lot of ‘alone’ time. Dawson has changed me into something I can barely recognize. Two months ago, I would never have imagined that I would ever go ‘into town’ after a long work shift and be happy to have my alone time on a bench by the Yukon with an ice cream cone be interrupted by an acquaintance wanting to catch up on gossip.

Dawson is changing me in ways so profound that I am almost regretting not spending the winter here. I think I will be more open to that idea next year….

I was once told that you shouldn’t have to travel to the end of the world to find yourself, but in my case this has proven itself to be false.

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There’s Beginner and Then There’s Complete Novice

After a year on the road, I consider myself an advanced beginner RVer. Today,  I met someone who made me feel like a pro. I feel awful blogging about this because it’ll seem like I’m making fun of the poor person, but this question really took the cake:

“I’m on a full hookup site. Is the hole in the ground by my site for dumping dish water or the toilet and where do I dump the other tank?”

In case any other very newbie RVers are reading this, unless otherwise specified a ‘full hook up’ site includes a sewer connection into which you can dump both your black (toilet) and grey (dishwater) tanks.

And, please, use a hose and not a bucket…

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Camp Hosting Update

This summer of camp hosting has been absolutely fantastic!

I am very happy in my position that has seen a growth of responsibility. This week, I’m covering for the manager for three days and will have the run of the park, so to speak, for two of those days while the owner is also away. It’s great to be trusted and appreciated. The shifts this week are long, nine hours, but there are so many little things to do that the time goes by very quickly. I have some desk work to do, like bookkeeping and updating the computer system, that gives me a moment to breathe after frantic running around and I also have to coordinate (I refuse to use the word ‘manage’!) the motel housekeeping staff. It’s a full plate, but not overwhelming, and at the end of the day I know that a day’s worth of work was done.

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Emergency Exit Strategy

The fires raging through both BC and Yukon are making me think about what I would do if I suddenly had to evacuate as many in BC are doing presently.

In theory, evacuating with an RV sounds ideal. If you are a full-timer, then you can just drive your home out of the evacuation area. If you’re a part-timer, then you can at least know that you will have comfortable surroundings wherever you end up.

But how long does it take to pack up an RV? How quickly can you actually get it on the road? When I’m settled somewhere, it doesn’t take long for me to need at least an hour to get on the road. Moreover, I’ve been parked for two months so I’m sure that my tires need air. I also don’t have that much gas in the tank. I’m in no shape to hit the road quickly.

Then there’s the issue of exit routes. In Dawson, the choices are few depending on where the emergency is coming from. There’s the non-RV friendly Top of the World Highway that can only be reached by ferry. RVs are low priority for the ferry so the chances are good that it would take me days to get out of town. Another option would be to take the Dempster highway to Inuvik. The final, and most ideal, option is the Klondike highway back to Whitehorse.

What I’ve learned in the past few weeks is that I need to get a bit less comfortable when I’m parked for a long time as getting too entrenched undermines the mobility I craved so much. I need to check my air and battery levels and park with at least a half tank of gas. It’s also a good idea to have a few days worth of food on hand as well as cash.

Thankfully, the situation in Yukon does not thus far constitute an emergency, just a smoky nuisance.