I’m back!

It’s so hard to leave Dawson City, if even for two weeks. This is my safe place, my utopia, my world.

But once I leave, this town feels so far away, like a memory in a novel. Could it even exist?

I left the Yukon for a couple weeks. Went “outside” as the locals say. Spent a week with my coworkers in Whistler, and then saw some of Vancouver Island with Jeff.  Full blog coverage coming shortly, but first an update on fall.

View from the Whitehorse airport a couple weeks ago

View somewhere between Whitehorse and Vancouver

Tonight we’re forecast to go down to -6°C! It is dark by 9pm now, and I needed a toque and mittens on our walk tonight!

The tourists are gone now. The border crossing on the Top of the World highway (an hour from here) closed on Sunday, which really marks the end of tourist season. The Westmark hotel is closed and boarded up. The campground in town is empty and closed. The tourist information centres are closed. Klondike Kate’s restaurant closed a couple weeks ago, and Diamond Tooth Gertie had her last show of the season this past weekend.

Many of the gold miners are in the final couple weeks, pushing through to harvest a bit more gold before they winterize their operations. Hunting season is in full swing as everyone is scrambling to find a moose or caribou to fill their freezers and those of their families.

The leaves are mostly gone now and there are snow on the mountain peaks. None in town yet. Maybe it’ll hold off until October 🙂 I love the hustle and bustle of having the town full of tourists, but there is something special about this time of year when the locals resurface and reclaim our watering holes and bar stools and the streets are clear of traffic and camper vans.