Destination Circle: Day 23

June 5, 2016

A lovely sunny morning and not even chilly. I went back to Fast Eddy's for coffee but then settled in for breakfast to have an omelet with reindeer sausage. It was yummy. The hash browns that came with it would have served a family. It was busy and bustling this Sunday morning.

Post office in Chicken, Alaska

And then on to Chicken, Alaska. First I drove east from Tok (pronounced Toke) on the Alaska (Alcan) Highway for a dozen miles and then north for 60 through rolling open land with lots of black spruce. The last dozen miles were gravelly. Chicken was supposed to be named Ptarmigan but there was disagreement amongst its founders on how to spell that, so Chicken it became. The post office is tiny and across the street from a log cabin in which a mandatory mining class was in progress. A gentleman told me that if miners didn't comply with the regulations of keeping up-to-date on mining issues and attend periodic day-long sessions, they would be penalized and have to take a two-week course.

music fest stage in Chicken Alaska

Chicken was settled by gold miners. There is still active mining, which, along with the interest and curiosity of tourists who have a sense of adventure and visit and spend money, is the raison d'être of Chicken today. A well-stocked general store offers tourists camping space, free firewood, hundreds of gift items, espresso, baked goods and food. It was easy to spend time moseying and browsing here. The chicken theme and chicken sculptures are everywhere in the village. If I were ever to return to Chicken, I would spend a night camping here as it was so pleasant, laid back, tucked in the hills. The whole area around the store had been freshly raked; there was a generous deck in the sunshine for hanging out, and the coffee was delicious. It was kind of funky, a lot like Homer. The chick running the place was "born and raised" in Chicken which is kind of difficult to imagine. There can't be too many people who can make that claim. She was attractive, efficient and helpful, answering all queries coming her way.

A typical Alaskan tourist couple (white and middle-aged with a large RV and small dog) came in and the gentleman was harried. He had just driven the Top of the World highway FROM Dawson and asked, "How's the road from here to Tok? Jeez, we need to catch our breath....the road we were just on had no guard rails...it went straight down 1000 feet. Jeez...we may just stay here a few days. Does the road get better? We didn't know it was going to be so steep with drop-offs...."

"Oh, yeah," said the lady at the counter, "that's the goat trail...." (whatever that meant). She assured the man and his wife that there wasn't much more gravel on the road down to Tok; he was definitely relieved, but still wanted to stay put for at least one night....maybe two. Whew.....

Hmmm....this was the road I was about to take. Before I left, I told her about the road between Durango and Ouray in Colorado and how "scary" I found that. She apparently knew what I was talking about and said I wouldn't have any problem.

Top of the World Highway - Chicken to Daswon

Maria's tower on Top of the World Highway

Off I went for several hours, to Dawson, past a few mining operations which pretty much rape the stream beds, into the mountains with significant drop-offs but nothing I haven't seen before, through customs in a lonely wind-blown outpost apparently to the satisfaction of a handsome black-haired agent, and then drove a couple more hours on top of the world. It did seem like that; it was gorgeous. The Canadian side was packed gravel and dirt and actually quite easy to drive with incredible vistas in all directions. At one pullout, there was a little tower of flat stones that I silently dedicated to Maria. If the stones are placed to represent a human figure, they are an inukshuk, but I usually see just a little tower of 10 - 12 stones here and there along the highways in places where the rocks are flat enough to stack. Those really aren't inuksuit (plural of inukshuk) but I like them, and they always remind of her.

approaching the Yukon River from Top of the World

Slowly the skies clouded to the point where, near Dawson, it began drizzling and then raining, making the road surface slippery. But by then I was waiting for the free ferry that runs 24 hours and transports vehicles and passengers back and forth across the Yukon from the road I just took (which ends at the river) to Dawson in Yukon Territory. The river was flowing to the Bering Sea, wide, fast and muddy, and it seemed tricky to maneuver the ferry but the captain did it perfectly. I think the capacity is about 8 - 10 cars, RVs or trucks and it takes 15 minutes. Finally....my destination river....

Dawson I liked, after my initial wondering, "Now what?" It was gloomy, the town is small, the RV park dismal and the nearest town of any size (Whitehorse) six hours south down the Klondike Highway. So I googled and found a B and B, called and stayed there. It was wonderful, very modern, light, airy, good feng shui....the owner an attractive 30 something. I had chosen the "shared bathroom" option, but lucked out as I was in the annex and no one else came for the night. The town had just finished a Jack London three-day event and a greatgranddaughter had come to town. Part of his cabin is now in Dawson, next to a small museum. One of the events was the entire reading of The Call of the Wild.

I walked around on the board sidewalks, across the unpaved streets, ate at Klondike Kate's, bought a book by Pierre Berton titled Klondike (which is a river running into the Yukon at Dawson City, and which was the site of a frantic gold rush in the late 1900s), and lingered in a shop with gold for sale, talking with the owner, a delightful and knowledgeable older German woman. I got a tutorial on present-day gold mining.

Dawson City

My dinner at KK's was the best food so far on this trip: kale and wild mushroom wraps and a truly scrumptious dessert with ice cream,  whipped cream, espresso, Grand Mariner and a chocolate stick.

Except I couldn't fall asleep after that, finally gave up and read some more. Even at 1 a.m. it was light outside. Weird....