West Dawsonites’ isolation starts to wane

DAWSON CITY - According to dedicated river watchers, the Yukon River in front of Dawson stopped moving at mid-morning Monday.

DAWSON CITY - According to dedicated river watchers, the Yukon River in front of Dawson stopped moving at mid-morning Monday.

The open water in front of the ferry landing in the middle of the river filled in and solidified quickly. Four days earlier - even the day before - it had looked like it might take some time.

West Dawsonites had been trapped on the far shore for some weeks since the ferry came out of the river and the drifting frazil ice pans became too hazardous to risk crossing in canoes and motor boats.

For those residents, this was the end of weeks of waiting, and they didn’t linger very much longer after that.

Bentley Schmidt was out on the river on Tuesday afternoon, riding his snowmobile over the uneven surface, tracing a winding path across the stretch between the two ferry landings.

Armed with an axe and pink plastic ribbon to mark the route, Schmidt could be seen advancing a few dozen metres.

He would then stop, walk to find the path that looked most promising, hack away a few obstructions, mark the end point with his tape, return to his machine and move it that far before doing it all again.

Friends on the eastern shore joined him in blazing a trail up the bank to town when he got close enough for success to be a sure thing.

While the newly-frozen surface looked pretty jagged to the untrained eye, Schmidt said it was really no problem at all. A few good snowfalls would go a long way toward smoothing it out, he said.

Increasing foot and snowmobile traffic over the next few weeks should do the same, while colder night time temperatures and a daily fading of the amount of direct sunlight will thicken the ice.

For the next while, commuters will be parking their trucks and cars on the far side of the river and coming across on snow machines, ATVs or on foot.

It will be weeks before the surface is strong enough for the larger vehicles belonging to the Department of Highways and Public Works to venture out there. Then they will begin the annual flooding, which turns this first tentative pathway into a four-lane ice bridge.

That may be some time off in the future, but for now, the isolation of early winter has ended.