First day in Dawson City, gold panning competition.
Saterday July 7
We got up at 9:30 because of how late it had gotten last night. After breakfast, we headed back to Dawson City and had a half hour wait for the ferry. The town was really packed with people in for the gold panning competition which is an international event. We went to the museum first and looked in their train shed. There are three large engines there built for the mining tracks, and they were not even used for all that long.
We went to the gold panning competition and watched the first heat of the event I entered. There were 7 different categories, I was in the 'inexperienced class'. There were different classes for kids, national, international, old people and so on. The way it worked was they put an equal amount of gold in everyones pan of dirt but did not tell you how much, so you don't know until its over if you found them all. All they say is that everyone in the heat has an equal number of between 5 and 12. It is a race based on time but they add 3 minutes to your final time for every gold fleck you miss. The first heat had 9 gold flecks in their pans to find so going fast and missing them all would add 27 minutes to your time. Some people were done in under 2 minutes but only had 3 or 4 gold flakes so they had 15-18 minutes added to their time and didn't even come close to winning. The second heat (the one I was in) took quite a while to get started but I placed third in my heat! I was one of the last ones done but I kept all 8 of my gold flakes so there was nothing added to my final time. I placed 11th out of 49 overall. Also your time doesn't stop until you get all your gold out of your pan and into a vile and I lost mine on the ground, so that didnt help. The first place person found all 9 of their gold flakes in 4 1/2 minutes! The third place guy found 8/9 in just over 2 1/2 minutes and would have won by almost 2 minutes but he ended up in 4th because of that 3 minute penalty for each missing gold flake. We had to wait around for ages to get the results though and the instant they were posted the German film crew that was making a movie or tv show there surrounded the scoreboard filming for 10 minutes and wouldnt let anyone else in to see.
Video of the gold panning competition
But in the meantime we saw a gold pouring demonstration, I think the bar he poured was worth $75,000 but I cant remember for sure. You wouldn't want to spill any anyway. You could go in one at a time to hold it and take photos but the line was so long that I just took a photo of another family.... The video unfortunatly starts mid-pour, we stood there a long time waiting for it to happen and there was no announment that he was going to start, he just went and did it and Ryan wasnt ready with the videocamera.
Video of the gold bar
After that we just enjoyed walking around the town, looking in the shops. There was an ice cream place which looked great but it would have been $16 for 4 small cones so we went to the grocery store and got a pail of ice cream for Ryan and the kids and this tiny tub of lactose free ice cream for me for way cheaper. It was so much that Ryan and the boys couldnt even finish theirs. We continued touring the town but the kids both got quite sick and then there was nowhere in town that had any ice to sell for our coolers since it was so busy.
Video of crossing the Yukon River on the ferry
We got up at 9:30 because of how late it had gotten last night. After breakfast, we headed back to Dawson City and had a half hour wait for the ferry. The town was really packed with people in for the gold panning competition which is an international event. We went to the museum first and looked in their train shed. There are three large engines there built for the mining tracks, and they were not even used for all that long.
We left that museum before we were finished and headed to Front Street, so I could sign up for the gold panning competition they were having and then we came back. This is a pretty great museum, the free short tours they have are really worth it, and they have one of their display rooms open, with the shelves under glass, so that you can see things that aren't on display currently. They had everything from ww1 guns to mammoth tusks to locomotives.
We went to the gold panning competition and watched the first heat of the event I entered. There were 7 different categories, I was in the 'inexperienced class'. There were different classes for kids, national, international, old people and so on. The way it worked was they put an equal amount of gold in everyones pan of dirt but did not tell you how much, so you don't know until its over if you found them all. All they say is that everyone in the heat has an equal number of between 5 and 12. It is a race based on time but they add 3 minutes to your final time for every gold fleck you miss. The first heat had 9 gold flecks in their pans to find so going fast and missing them all would add 27 minutes to your time. Some people were done in under 2 minutes but only had 3 or 4 gold flakes so they had 15-18 minutes added to their time and didn't even come close to winning. The second heat (the one I was in) took quite a while to get started but I placed third in my heat! I was one of the last ones done but I kept all 8 of my gold flakes so there was nothing added to my final time. I placed 11th out of 49 overall. Also your time doesn't stop until you get all your gold out of your pan and into a vile and I lost mine on the ground, so that didnt help. The first place person found all 9 of their gold flakes in 4 1/2 minutes! The third place guy found 8/9 in just over 2 1/2 minutes and would have won by almost 2 minutes but he ended up in 4th because of that 3 minute penalty for each missing gold flake. We had to wait around for ages to get the results though and the instant they were posted the German film crew that was making a movie or tv show there surrounded the scoreboard filming for 10 minutes and wouldnt let anyone else in to see.
Video of the gold panning competition
But in the meantime we saw a gold pouring demonstration, I think the bar he poured was worth $75,000 but I cant remember for sure. You wouldn't want to spill any anyway. You could go in one at a time to hold it and take photos but the line was so long that I just took a photo of another family.... The video unfortunatly starts mid-pour, we stood there a long time waiting for it to happen and there was no announment that he was going to start, he just went and did it and Ryan wasnt ready with the videocamera.
Video of the gold bar
After that we just enjoyed walking around the town, looking in the shops. There was an ice cream place which looked great but it would have been $16 for 4 small cones so we went to the grocery store and got a pail of ice cream for Ryan and the kids and this tiny tub of lactose free ice cream for me for way cheaper. It was so much that Ryan and the boys couldnt even finish theirs. We continued touring the town but the kids both got quite sick and then there was nowhere in town that had any ice to sell for our coolers since it was so busy.
Video of crossing the Yukon River on the ferry
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