CycloVision Parashot School Children at the Elijah Smith Secondary School

CycloVision Parashot of Dawson City

CycloVision Parashot of "Sign Forest"

Update 09/17/99 - from Dawson City

We have arrived at 64 degrees North Latitude!! Only 2 degrees south of THE
CIRCLE.. . Our sincere thanks to Chris Gonnet, Yukon Territory Superintendent, JoAnn Davidson, Curriculum Corrdinator, John Wright, Principal at Elijah Smith, and Scott Benwell, Principal in Pelly Crossing. Their hospitality made us feel welcome and is most appreciated!!

Please take a moment to visit the Territories web site at http://www.yesnet.yk.ca to learn more about these outstanding schools. Our visits to Elijah Smith Secondary School in Whitehorse and The Eliza Van Bibber Elementary School in Pelly Crossing were most exciting.(see photographs) We arrived in Dawson City during the late afternoon and settled into the famous Downtown Hotel, owned and managed by 'Downtown Dick'. His hospitality has been most generous and has made the group feel most welcome. "Downtown Dick" owner and manager of the famous Downtown Hotel in historic Dawson City was the guest celebrity on this morning's live radio interview on WMDI-FM "The Bridge" Bar Harbor Maine. (Listen to posted audio file). He shared with us the Legend of "The Sour Toe" Team Lab Rover is applying for "membership" and arranging to sample The Sour Toe Cocktail" Stay tuned for details.

In the heyday of the Klondike Gold Rush of 1897-1899, Dawson City was home to over 30,000 residents seeking their fortune. The streets are left unpaved due to the frost-heaves in the winter that would destroy a normal paved road. Sidewalks are also a throwback to those gold-rush days and are a traditional boardwalk. Buildings and homes are built above ground on wooden foundations, and the city's water system pumps 1 liter of water per minute through each house in the winter to keep the water mains for the city and individual homes from freezing.

Today we head for the infamous Dempster Highway, 500 grueling miles of gravel and shale. One local who drove the road yesterday reported blizzard conditions on the highway north of the circle, and he also reported pulling a 5 inch piece of shale out of his rear tire, necessitating a tire change. We will make a live radio report from the circle either Friday afternoon or Saturday morning, depending on weather and local conditions. We will be stopping at Eagle Plains, just 30 miles south of the Circle, as we plan our assault on the second section of the highway from there to Inuvik.

We depart for our final leg of the trek to The Circle at 11:00 AM PDT (2:00 PM EDT) today. Depending upon weather conditions on the infamous Dempster Highway, we will arrive at 66 degrees/30 minutes North Latitude either later today or tomorrow morning. Our intermediary stop will be in Eagle Plains just a few short miles South of the Circle. There are reports of snow and blizzard conditions north of Eagle Plains so our vehicles will be put to the test. With chains on all four tires we should traverse the Circle with no difficulties. We will plan on conducting a live radio interview via satellite telephone back to Boss Hogg on WMDI-FM upon our arrival. This broadcast will be aired again on Monday morning on WMDI and fed to our Trek Updates Pages on http://www.lab-rover.com.

Our final destination will be Inuvik, Northwest Territories at the end of the Dempster. We will be visiting the hospital and the Sir Alexander MacKenzie School. On Sunday we are also trying to arrange a short flight to the native Inuit village of Tuktoyuktuk right on the Arctic Sea. It is a few miles north of Inuvik but accessible only by air. We plan to leave Rufus & Cleo in Inuvik for the day. Rufus demanded to fly only First Class and all the seats were booked so he refuses to go!!! He wants to spend the day sleeping as he is complaining that Jim is keeping HIM awake at night!!

We are all well and the level of excitement grows as we approach or final goal. Our next update will be from THE CIRCLE!!!!!

Keep the emails coming!

Cheers, JARC!

PS..If you haven't already checkout the Cyclovision Parashots by clicking the link at the top of the page, DO SO NOW! They're INCREDIBLE. Looking at them makes you feel like you're actually here with us in Northern Canada. Use your mouse to act as your eyes and you can see in all directions!

DESCRIPTIONS:
SchoolCyclo: Children at the Elijah Smith Secondary School pose for the worlds first Cyclovision Class Picture on the Circle of Life which is designed out of concrete and rocks in the front of the school. Aboriginal students of the Kwanlin Dun First Nation attend the school, making up a diverse student body of several races and backgrounds.

DawsonCyclo: Entering Dawson City, there is a drive to the north which takes you to the top of Midnight Dome which is where the locals gather on June 21st to view the sun and celebrate the summer solstice. This shot is from Midnight Dome, and you are able to see the road entering Dawson from the left, the Yukon River which runs past the city, and the view to the north.

SignForestCyclo: 60,000 stolen and home-built signs are displayed at the Sign Forest in Watson Lake. It is the "Largest Legal Collection of Illegal Property", according to a waitress who worked there last year as a 'sign-counter'. It was her job to count the signs each day, and as of one year ago there were 60,000 signs at the monument. An Army Private, sick in the hospital was assigned the duty to repair the distance signs to the various cities in 1942. He felt homesick and posted a sign to his hometown of Danville, Illinois. Since that time there have been countless city signs, license plates and various markers indicating who has visited and where they are from.