It’s been a late spring this year, but things are picking up!
The breaking of the Yukon River feels like the beginning of our summer. It signifies the beginning of boating, river travel, ferry travel across the river, and tourists coming to and from Alaska.
It’s May 6th today and the river level is coming up, allowing water to puddle and flow above the ice. When will the river break? I don’t think it will be this weekend, but the last few days have showed some drastic changes!
One week ago, the river looked like this:
On Wednesday I spotted my first robin of the season!
By Thursday afternoon, the Klondike River showed the first signs of breaking up (it always breaks first and spreads its water onto the Yukon).
Ducks are here already, sitting on the ice, waiting for the thaw. The seagulls have been around for a week now too.
Here’s the ice bridge on Thursday:
The old Flora Dora building always spends spring under water.
Meantime, town is switching into summer mode. The Triple J restaurant opened a week and a half ago, and we’ve already eaten there three times.
The Triple J, just like all our other service providers, has cut back in the last few years, less items on the menu, fewer days open. They just don’t have the staff to run the place to full capacity any more. My favourite menu items have been cut, one by one. The rock fish tacos were gone last year, the pulled pork was gone by last fall. The rice bowls are gone this spring. And we won’t even talk about the ran-diggity-dawg. Here’s hope they never get rid of the avocado chicken burger – complete with a juicy chicken breast, a layer of goat cheese, and a topping of sliced avocado. Delicious!
Cheechakos bakery and sandwich shop opened this week! I’ve already had a turkey cranberry sandwich!
The taco shop opened too on Front Street.
And on Friday, the ice cream shop opened! We went tonight and ate some ice cream sitting on a bench with a view of the river.
We helped watch Hank’s brother Griff for a few days while his owners were out of town.
It was neat to walk them both together. We tried to walk to the dog park, but the road there was badly flooded so we walked the streets each day instead.
The Gold Rush campground needs a few more days to thaw before we can welcome campers into town. We met their newest employees today who just arrived in the Yukon for the first time!
Puddles are big right now, and the melt water cutting it’s way through town is carving some excellent grooves across the streets as it heads downhill.
Here’s the confluence of the Klondike and Yukon Rivers this morning:
We spotted a couple of quads driving across the river today, so it’s still crossable!
One of our neighbourhood stop signs didn’t survive the thaw so far.
It’s really the ugliest time of year around here. Mud. Thawing dog shit everywhere. Brown. Puddles. Mud.
We drove up to the top of the Dome this evening to check for the crocuses that are the first thing to grown and bloom and give us some beauty. In past years they’ve already been up by now, but not this year. They are a bit delayed, but they are poking their way out of the ground!
The river has even more water on top of the ice tonight, but to me, it just doesn’t look like it is ready to move or break up just yet. I’m thinking it may not move for a few days. Wednesday maybe?