River breakup and photo dump

The Yukon River broke on May 3rd at 10:04am.

I missed it.

I was sitting at my desk in our home, participating in a video chat with my team at work, and our boss Matt. I heard the town siren go off, but I stayed put. Shortly after, during the same call, a government inspector came to inspect our house for earthquake damage. We didn’t even feel it here! He tip toed around the house taking photos while I continued on in my meeting.

Luckily for me, the breakup I missed wasn’t too exciting. The ice shifted and moved the tripod down the river a ways. There was no big violent slamming of ice, and no ice jam or flooding.

Here’s a video from our Mayor’s Facebook account:

The river height came up for a day or so while the ice was busting up into big chunks, but it wasn’t long until we were walking on the bare river bed again. The Yukon River’s water height is quite low right now. But the mountains are still covered in snow, so the meltwater will help.

I’m off to Whitehorse tomorrow, and San Diego on Monday for a week. Before I go though, let me dump some photos here for your viewing pleasure.

Before the river breakup

90 minutes after the tripod moved and the breakup became official

Tripod’s resting place the evening after breakup

Walking on the river bed

The ice chunks are continuing to go past. Sometimes the river gets pretty clear of ice, then it fills again with ice chunks. Now there are big ice boulders on the shores. I wonder how long before the ferry is back in the river. They’ve been working on it, doing maintenance and giving it a fresh coat of paint, getting it ready for another season of shuttling vehicles back and forth across the river.

The Triple J is open for the season now too! Their crispy chicken burger and side salad with cranberries and almonds is amazing!

Diamond Tooth Gerties opens in another week, and so does Klondike Kate’s. The campground in town has it first guests this weekend. Town is already getting quite busy. The ice is out and summer is here!

This afternoon we went to the Humane Society to walk a couple of their residents.