Day 24 July 25, 2024 Tok Alaska to Dawson City Yukon 186 miles
Another hot night. Alaska just is not prepared for such hot weather. We ran the fan on full speed all night. Sure felt good to step out the door of the hotel room into some cool air. The hotel provided a light continental breakfast. After a quick fuel stop we were on our way.
Today is cloudy and smokey. A gentleman at breakfast said there are about 300 fires in Alaska currently. Makes picture taking not so good.
Today’s wildlife report is one fox and numerous chipmunks. Other folks have reported that they are not seeing many animals.
Most of the road to Chicken is paved but it has lots of dips and bumps. Certainly can’t go very fast. The terrain is mountainous with stunted black spruce. The higher up you go the shorter the trees.
After about 80 miles we got to Chicken. This is a fun place to visit if you are ever up this way. Downtown is three businesses consisting of a mercantile, liquor store/saloon and a cafe. We ate lunch in the cafe. Lots of people stopped to ask about the car.
The road out of Chicken is gravel but great in some places and terrible in others. The pot holes and washboards really make the woodie rattle. A few times I thought the car would fall apart. We go up and down lots of hills. They are all long distance. We have to stay in second gear most of the day. Takes a lot of energy to go up and the brakes are always a concern going down.
At the top of one of the hills was the Canadian border control. He asked a few questions and looked at the car but no hassles. He appeared to be very bored.
We are on the Top of the World Highway. We do feel like we are on top. It’s a long way to the bottom. That doesn’t show up well in photos especially when some of the smoke has settled in there. All the mountains are covered with the black spruce and some birch. Still lingering were a few patches of snow.
We saw three bicyclists with their support vehicle. Overall there have been more bicycles than we expected. At least today the big semis are missing. We really don’t miss the dust clouds that they create.
Then came the surprise. We had to ride a ferry to get to Dawson City. The ferry isn’t very big and doesn’t charge to cross. There is only one other trailer waiting to cross. Numerous vehicles were coming from the other direction. When we got on the ferry one of the guys told us that the road to Whitehorse might be closing so more rv’s were trying to cross. Well guess we will find out more tomorrow.
Our RV park is in town and easy to find. It consumes a city block and has RVs in so tight that they can’t put out their awnings or slide outs. They are closer together than in a sales lot or storage facility. After some fast talking Rob got us a corner spot that we could drive through. We don’t require hookups and the bill was $54 Canadian Which included 2 showers.
Everything in town is full because the First Nation Tr’ondek Hwech’in tribe is having their once every four years Moosehide gathering. People from all over come to attend. They are having lots of events down river.
The park has showers for men, women and all gender. That door has a picture of a lady, a guy and a lady with half a skirt.
The fact that our setup is very unique and we are on the corner, we get lots of visitors. A couple of guys were still talking when we went to bed. One of those guys did notice a loose bolt that Rob tightened before bed.
Spoffords Travel 