Yukon, Canada –
June 22nd I ended up leaving Dawson City. I was going to originally stay another day or two in Dawson City and maybe join the local mountain bike group or do some of the tourism things I missed out on, but I had an unfortunate interaction with a local that just really turned me off to the place in the moment.
Sitting in Peggy’s bar with less than an hour before closing I had a lady sit across from me and after learning I was from Georgia (do all people thing Georgians are cool with racism?) proceeded to tell me all these racist slurs among other things about the local First Nation tribe as well as comparing it with blacks in Georgia. Even though she admitted she’d never even been to Atlanta. Honestly, I’d love to say I shouted everything she said down but I didn’t. I just sat there jaw open listening to all this generalized vitriol spew forth unprompted. I was saved by Peggy’s closing at which point I just went home. In the morning I immediately started packing for some place different.
This kind of reminds me of something I was told once about nomads; how we’re all either escaping from something, looking for something, or running from ourselves. This case was definitely escaping from something, with my experience in Dawson City soured.
The Top of the World Highway’s name is definitely well deserved. The views are just expansive and I had a great day to cross it. Not all went well though. Despite taking my time and not going too fast, I had the very kind US Border Patrol agent flag me to pull off to the side to show me my rig is leaking and if it was sewage I would be getting a fine! Luckily it was just the drain for my freshwater tank.
This now meant that instead of traveling slowly and getting a nice refreshing shower in my own rig in Chicken, AK and experiencing the saloon there (I did grab a pint as I stopped through though) I’d be going straight to Fairbanks to setup in a campground and figure out these repairs.
