0039 16th June - Tok to Dawson City

Took a photo just before I turned in, at about 10 minutes to midnight, and the sky beneath the tree line was a bright red from the sun on the horizon.  As usual, photos never do the actual view justice, but I can assure you it was magnificent in the flesh. 

The sky was clear – not a cloud in the sky – a PERFECT day to drive the Top of the World Highway.  But first we had to do a quick shop for some food, and get fuel and propane for the car and cooker respectively, and then after a cup of coffee to go from Beaver Fever, we set off on the road to Dawson City. We drove about 20 miles out of Tok on the Alcan Highway and then turned north on the Taylor Highway towards Chicken, and the Canadian Border. There was a pull over beside the Tanana river where the old bridge had suffered major damage in a 2002 earthquake, and a new one had to be built to replace it. Any construction job is a major issue in this part of the world because of the extreme distances for raw materials to travel, and it was no different in this instance – So they used a lot of the steel and other materials from the old bridge to build the new one !

 

Heading up the Taylor Highway, fluffy white clouds appeared, but it was still a beautiful day, and it was so clear you could see for ever.  Snow capped mountains were visible in the distance to our left, and we were climbing steadily to about 1000 metres, through endless spruce forests that in the most part were quite dead.  Spruce beetle is a major problem in the north, killing a lot of the trees, but this was just endless – mile after mile of dead spruce.  We eventually found out that there had been a massive fire here in 2005, one of the biggest bush fires ever in US history, and the area is only just now starting to recover, although it won’t be spruce trees growing again for a long time, just the faster growing birch and aspen. The hills are more rolling hills than mountains, despite the altitude, and the amazing scenery just stretches on and on for mile after mile – If it wasn’t so stunning it would actually become quite boring – But I can assure you that it never does !!

After about 50 miles the sealed road ended and 10 miles later we came to Chicken – The famous place that was supposed to have been called ptarmigan, but because the locals couldn’t spell it, they called it Chicken !!  I was here 2 years ago, and it really hasn’t improved or changed very much since then – Basically it is just a town based on gold mining, that has become a tourist destination itself (on route to the Top of the World Highway) based on its name – So everything is “Chicken” based – from the souvenirs and T Shirts to the toilets, the bar and café to the liquor store, the Gold Camp to the Chicken Creek RV Park – And they do very nicely out of it too !!  Yes, we bought a couple of souvenirs, had a beer in the bar talking to owner Susan Wiren, and had one of their burgers !!  They had had a music festival in Chicken the weekend before, and next weekend many motorbikes will be

passing through on their way to Dawson City for the annual Dust 2 Dawson ride, so there is always something going on in Chicken !     After a look over the old gold dredge and around the other bits of “town”,  including the sign post to every place in the world with a name related to “Chicken” (even “Fowl Cay” in the Bahamas) with distances all marked “as the chicken flies”, we set off again, crossed Chicken Creek, and headed out of Chicken.

Driving along beside Chicken Creek for some time, we passed gold mining operations both past and present. Some famous ones which are now just tumbling down old sheds beside the road, some private ones where they have bulldozers and mechanical equipment to move more material faster, to several where people were just sluicing and panning for the afternoon on the river.  People come from other parts of Alaska at weekends just to pan for gold, while others come up from the Southern 48 for the 3 months of summer, and return home at the first sign of snow or cold, usually in September. 

Meanwhile, the views across miles of country continued, with the Ogilvie Mountains now visible to the north east, and I am sure it was so clear that in the far distance to the north west we could even see the peaks of the Brooks Range that we had crossed on the way to Prudhoe Bay almost 2 weeks ago.  Shortly before the Canadian Border and the start of the Yukon Territory, we passed the turn off to Eagle, where someone recently (can’t remember who !) had told us to go just a little way up the road, and then park and walk up a small hill for a dramatic 360 degree view – So we did.  And they were correct – What an amazing view in every direction.  We then headed on the dirt road towards the

border.  We had also been warned about a 40 mile section of very rough road with very sharp large stones, and people getting lots of punctures. We encountered this section leading up to the Canadian border, and it was quite rough, but nothing like a lot of the Australian bush roads we have encountered.  Travelling at a slow and suitable speed, and taking it easy on the corners in order to protect the tyres, we had no issues, and this section finished just as we headed up a steep incline towards the border post.  And then we saw Karl, .. and Kayla pushing their bikes (and trailer) up the hill !  Poor things had not had much fun on this rocky section of road – We had last seen them just south of Fairbanks on the 7^th June, and they were now just reaching the border. So we stopped and chatted, Janet had a play with Kayla to give her some exercise, and we gave them some fresh fruit for their supper ! They said they had everything else they needed, and they expect to be in Dawson City in a couple of days, so we should see them there.

Through the Canadian Customs no problem – Just a disbelieving comment from the officer that we were planning to go to as many places as we said, in the time we had available !!  Then it was into the Yukon Territory, and ongoing views as far as we could see in all directions, and even quite a lot of residual snow beside the road – We were continually between 1000 and 1400 metres. We passed an advert for the Top of the World Gold Course, (“Play a round at midnight” is their advertisement), before we started the descent down to the Yukon River and Dawson City, famous from the 1898 Yukon Gold Rush. The route of the miners was from Seattle up to Skagway and Haines by boat, and then up over various mountain passes, hauling their food and equipment through the snow, then by boat

or stern wheeler to Whitehorse, and on up the Yukon to Dawson City. We had seen most of these stages in their trail, so a lot of the local history is becoming familiar to us. So it was exciting to come in past the fake buildings advertising the city, down to the ferry where we were to cross the Yukon.  There was no wait as the free ferry was just pulling up as we arrived, and there were just two motorbikes, one other car, and a great big tourist coach to put on the ferry.  This 5 minute crossing drops you right at the end of main street Dawson, and from there, after a quick drive around town to show Janet some of the old and sunken (through the permafrost) buildings, we went to a

campsite right in the middle of town which would enable us to walk into town. The sun had been out all day, and it was a magnificent evening, so after some spaghetti for supper, we turned in, exhausted after a busy day coming across the Top of the World.  We could not have asked for better weather – We have been so lucky all trip – Lets hope it continues !  Tomorrow will be a slow day around Dawson, before we set off the following day to drive up the Dempster Highway to Inuvik, once again well north of the Arctic Circle in the Northwest Territories.

No pics at moment due to poor wifi in Arctic - Will upload later.

Later - Here are Pics !!!  https://picasaweb.google.com/117739775480775657932/0039TokToDawsonCity?authkey=Gv1sRgCNWOmoGAgrfEFA#