Summer Solstice – Dawson City
Once
in town we headed right for the pit. This is one of the seedier beer joints in
town and where all the locals go. I can’t remember the exact name of the hotel
it’s in, I want to say Whittier Hotel, It’s the pink hotel. According to one of
the workers I talked to later the whole hotel is totally haunted but I didn’t
get any details on what types of things people have seen.
The guy at the piano was cranking out all kinds of old time songs.
Part of the Solstice tradition is the pub crawl and I wasted no time joining a team. Basically the pub crawl is just an excuse to drink too much. We went from bar to bar and got a special drink price and had to do some task at each bar, karaoke, guess the shot type or something like that.
I
couldn’t pass up the gratuitous tourist shot here. A few days later I came back
through Dawson and the girl above my left shoulder was also my waitress at a
local diner and I didn’t realize it until later when I looked at this picture.
While we were at the Downtown Hotel I got the chance to view the sour toe. When someone gets frost bite in the Yukon they have to have the frost bitten toe removed and in Dawson City they’ve got quite a collection. There is a sour toe club and the way it goes is they place this nasty frost bitten toe in your drink and it has to touch your lips while you drink your shot. I most definitely passed but David on the other hand. Well you can see for yourself.
This was a dark bar and I altered the picture so the action
is visible, that’s why the pics look grainy. He’s setting up for the shot, the toe is floating
in
the drink.
And
the toe is entering the mouth!
And
there it is Ladies and Gentlemen, a frostbitten toe hanging out of his mouth.
Mom you should be proud.
That’s
just wrong.
The guy sitting behind him is the Sour Toe Captain. He records the event and verifies compliance with the rules. This guy isn’t the original Captain though, rumor has it the original guy would get all liquored up during the night and eventually he would go into the bathroom and come out naked. All the bars stopped letting him do it anymore and now the bar hires someone each year to be the captain.
As
the night comes to a close everyone goes up to Dome Rock above town and watches
the sunset and rise in the same spot. The hippies were all playing bongos and
dancing around the fire when the sun rose. It was interesting, definitely
interesting.