Keno City, Yukon is about as far as you can go North from Whitehorse if you hang a right after Stewart Crossing. If you hang a left, you end up in Dawson, which is also a fabulous destination town – and where you can drink the sourtoe cocktail, as I did last year when my wife and I visited Dawson for a few days. I continue to be amazed by the number of Canadians who are unaware of this important part of our national heritage. But if you are one of the great unwashed who does NOT know about the sour toe cocktail (and shame on you!), here is the Reader’s Digest Condensed Version for your edification. There was a lad in Dawson during the gold rush who claimed to be a real Yukoner, but people had their doubts about him. So that winter when an old sourdough lost a toe to frostbite and pickled it in alcohol, the Dawson folks figured they would present it to the would-be Yukoner in a drink, and if he drank his whiskey, by golly he must be one of them. He did, and he was. The original sour toe has long since been swallowed by some drunk, but they continue to find new digits to put in your drink if you have the parts to drink the sourtoe cocktail. The one that I soaked in some Yukon Jack before I rolled it around in my mouth to terrify some young German tourists, was from an older diabetic lady who had it amputated. It was still fairly challenging to drink the sourtoe cocktail......................
Anyways, here I am in Keno, we are seeing lots of moose including bulls, but no opportunities yet for a shot. We did shoot four spruce grouse today, so we are not skunked, but a thousand pounds of moose is not quite the same as three pounds of grouse.
Tomorrow we are going to mix things up a bit and try for woodland caribou, please wish us luck!
Doug
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