Day 5 - July 16

 Early morning in Whitehorse. Had to get up at 5:30 to be in the lobby by 6:15. I’m feeling so sleep deprived. 

The flight was short and uneventful. Looks like another beautiful day for us. Landed in Dawson and took the bus into town.

Dawson is a charming town. No asphalt or cement anywhere. All the roads are dirt and the sidewalks are boardwalks. Our hotel is really nice and so charming. A buffet breakfast is included for us here and the food was really good. Even the coffee was good. 

After breakfast and getting checked into our room, we explored town. Bought a few protein bars and a bottle of water for our hike. The town is so interesting. Stampeders history for the gold rush in 1898 is everywhere and it is fascinating how much it completely changed the history of this area and persists to today. 

We decided to hike the Dawson City to Midnight Dome hike. It is a daunting hike - about 5 miles but 2000 feet of elevation gain with all of that happening in about two miles. We also hiked across a steep rock face that was challenging. But we are nothing if not persistent and we got to the top safely. The views were absolutely incredible. And we didn’t see a single soul hiking to the top. Nobody is quite as crazy as us, that’s a fact. We did see several others at the top who had driven up. Enjoyed some nice conversation with other traveling seniors. 

Heading down was intense. So steep. I was breathing my safety and peace mantras to keep my knees going and I did really well.

When we got to the bottom, we headed to the market and bought a liter of Diet Coke. Both of us drank freely and it tasted so good. Went to the local ice cream shop and shared an ice cream cone. We were so hot and sweaty; we realized it would be a “two shower day”. Headed back to the room and cleaned up. Decided we wanted a true Dawson dining experience so we headed to Sourdough Joe’s. This truly was a local hangout. It was a beautiful sunny day and we settled in to wait for our food. And wait we did, it was almost 90 minutes before we got our Caesar salad and Bonanza Poutine. We came very close to walking out. But the food was tasty and we got out experience with Poutine, a local specialty. We both decided we probably didn’t need to that again. 

After dinner, we walked along the river and went down to the ferry that goes across the Yukon River 24 hours a day. It is a quick crossing, only about six minutes. And it is free! We boarded and went across and back, just for fun. Matt said it was our romantic river ride. 

Walked around a bit more after the ferry ride but I’m running out of gas! Matt could go forever but I’m so tired. We headed back to the room and got ready for bed. The room was so hot, we had to turn on the air conditioner. I fell asleep for a few minutes before I even got ready for bed. I’m so sleep deprived. So tired. Finally got myself up and got ready for bed. It was hard to sleep well with the noisy air conditioner kicking off and on. Got up once and took some ibuprofen. My body was talking to me and I was tired of fighting. 

Finally fell asleep and got the first night of over 7 hours since we’ve been here.