8/7/19 - Day 40 - The People You Meet
As our trip rolls to a close, we are already reminiscing about this adventure. In addition to the beautiful scenery and wildlife, we have enjoyed meeting many interesting people. Some conversations are brief while others are quite lengthy, but all of them added spice to our travels.
For example, a sweet little Athbascan lady in Tok who was making birchbark baskets at a visitor center. I was asking her about the supplies and tools she uses. She mentioned spruce root as a lacing. I asked if she meant the black spruce we had been seeing. She chuckled and said, "Nooo, I don't use that ol' black spruce. Its roots are too messy. Our nice white spruce is much better, its roots is smooth." Her tool for making the holes in the bark? A sharpened screwdriver.
Or there was a Dawson city resident who asked if he could join us at our table in the Westminster Tavern. He pointed to a painting behind us and said that was him boating through a rapids on the Yukon years ago. A local artist had painted a number of the locals in a variety of settings. He said he was the last one alive from those who had been painted. Turns out his main occupation is either moving historic buildings to new locations or bolstering up their foundations since the town is settling as the permafrost melts.
Another artisan I talked to was a man who carved horns and antlers. We chatted about how he goes about finding the materials he uses and some of the historical artifacts in his small log cabin store. He comes down to Seattle periodically to visit family and was wondering why there are so many homeless people here. I hadn't thought about it until then, but we didn't see homeless people very often throughout our travels.
For example, a sweet little Athbascan lady in Tok who was making birchbark baskets at a visitor center. I was asking her about the supplies and tools she uses. She mentioned spruce root as a lacing. I asked if she meant the black spruce we had been seeing. She chuckled and said, "Nooo, I don't use that ol' black spruce. Its roots are too messy. Our nice white spruce is much better, its roots is smooth." Her tool for making the holes in the bark? A sharpened screwdriver.Or there was a Dawson city resident who asked if he could join us at our table in the Westminster Tavern. He pointed to a painting behind us and said that was him boating through a rapids on the Yukon years ago. A local artist had painted a number of the locals in a variety of settings. He said he was the last one alive from those who had been painted. Turns out his main occupation is either moving historic buildings to new locations or bolstering up their foundations since the town is settling as the permafrost melts.
Another artisan I talked to was a man who carved horns and antlers. We chatted about how he goes about finding the materials he uses and some of the historical artifacts in his small log cabin store. He comes down to Seattle periodically to visit family and was wondering why there are so many homeless people here. I hadn't thought about it until then, but we didn't see homeless people very often throughout our travels.
Finally there were other travelers such as ourselves, like the garbage man from Burlington, who travels with his wife for about 7 weeks each year with the goal of seeing at least 100 bears. Many of the places he talked of are ones we had put on our "Next time..." list.
All of these and many more contacts added interest to our journey.
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