I'm now leaving the Arctic on my way into Cascadia. Basically, I leave the land of the midnight sun and I drive into the temperate rainforests of the Pacific Northwest. More on Cascadia later, let's rewind a tick--
I was in Dawson City on a tour bus to go to an authentic gold miner's property to watch his operations and pan for gold myself. As we're backing out, the guide says over the intercom: "don't everyone look at once, but we have a celebrity off to the left." A few people even gasp.
"Yes, that is Tony Beets!" and I see people rush to take pictures of a bearded man enjoying a coffee on the boardwalk. He toasts the bus with his cup as we move onward. "Yeees, that's Tony Beets from Gold Rush ladies and Gentlemen!" and people start talking excitedly.
I have no idea who the hell Tony Beets is. Is Gold Rush an old western show from the 70s? I have honestly no idea. It didn't help that I was also the only millennial (and American) on this tour.
We move into the foothills of the mountains around Dawson City and come across a large monument along the road: "That is Tony Beets' property everyone!" He then starts talking about the Beets family and their struggles, talking about "manufactured drama" in the family.... but then I noticed something different. As we pass the property, there's a camera crew.
Gold Rush is a reality TV show.
Ever since I was a kid I was always a fan of the History and Discovery Channels. They always had interesting programming and I learned a lot about World War II history, Sharks during Shark week-- all that.
At some point in the mid 2000s, these channels found out what a cash cow reality TV shows were and they found their niche, along with pseudo-science entertainment docu-dramas along with it. I've always hated it.
Follow around blue-collar white people in the Arctic that do rough jobs and market it as reality TV?
CHA-CHING.
It happened again, too.
Just a day ago I was going down the Cassiar Highway. Saga 3 has begun, I'm finally off the Alaska Highway and I'm heading south. The days will get shorter, the winds will get warmer, more populated areas are ahead.
I'm still, however, in the subarctic, and I need a place to crash.
On my iOverlander App, I see there is a FREE campsite with FREE coffee and FREE wifi in the town of "Jade City". It's exactly 500km away from Whitehorse, where I set off, so it's the perfect place to stop by distance and through all of it's included amenities. Seems almost too good to be true.
I bank on it 100% and I'm actually quite rewarded. Everything they said about the town was true except the name "city". It's just a store, a very successful store, that sells everything Jade. Jade rocks, jewelry, knickknacks, huge jade stones don the front lawn and hell, even the toilet flush-handles are jade.
I set up my tent and go back for some coffee to shoot the shit with the guy working the front desk who set me up. There's a gregarious, boisterous, stocky woman there who is working with a couple of miner recruits wearing dusty, worn out "Jade City" t-shirts.
We get to talking, she tells me about the rain coming our way, tells me openly and out loud there's an outhouse for me so "You don't have to shit in the woods, you can shit in our latrine!" as people bustle around us looking at Jade figurines of polar bears and totem poles.
I tell her "Thank you, you must be the boss around here?" and she gives me a look.
Like, 'oh you don't know who I am' look.
I didn't know the look, and it wasn't a snooty look, more like, 'oh, you're new here' kind of look.
The front desk worker then stamps his foot and does a fan-girly jazz-hands yelp: "OMG It's Claudia from Jade Fever!!!" and she says "Look, if there's ever a report of a murder in Jade City, you'll know why." and we all laugh.
Upon further inspection of the shelves around me, there's DVDs by the dozens of every season of "Jade Fever" a reality TV show that starred my host. By then she'd already moved on to other customers.
It finally dawned on me that I'm in a hotbed of reality TV for people that dig 'tough job' reality television.
Gold Rush. Jade Fever. Deadliest Catch. Ice Road Truckers. They're all up here.
Whether they've been on the show or they've been around people that have been? They all know it's fake TV. That 'missed payment for the property' or that 'feud with the locals over hitting a beloved dog' ?
It's bullshit and everyone up here knows it.