Cold Chicken at Breakfast and then the TOW

26 August 2017
Chicken Gold Camp

We stopped for the night at Chicken, which was once in the heart of major mining operations and the tell-tale signs are everywhere.  So the story is that the town was to be named Ptarmigan for the little birds commonly found around here. However, the miners couldn’t spell the name so they just opted for Chicken. Now they make their $$  from us tourists, and that is no chicken feed.

Woke up this morning to 38 degrees in Chicken, AK.  Burrr…time to head south !! Had coffee and eggs, took a shower, and off we go…to the famed Top of the World Highway!

We hit the Taylor Hwy out of Chicken toward the US/Canadian border. The first 30 miles was a small zig-zagy very dirt and rocky road. Many switchbacks and no guard rails as we traveled up and over three mountains of about 3000 feet tall. What a journey! The scenery was amazing. After 30 miles we were  welcomed with 12 miles of paved road leading up to Customs.

The Canadian customs agent was very polite, asked the typical gun/ammo questions, how much $$ do we have, and we were on our way across  the Top of the World (TOW) Highway.  About 75 miles  to Dawson City, Yukon, on a chip seal/dirt road that traverses ridges of some pretty alpine country. Spectacular views  over the most amazing country side we have ever seen. There were a few mountains at 4500 feet, and the views (including the clouds and rain) were spectacular.

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We got to Dawson City about 3pm, (Pacific Time now, not AK time). There is a Yukon Government campground just before the river where we will dry camp for three nights. There is no bridge across the Yukon River,  but there is a free ferry that shuttles everyone back and forth.  This should be a piece of cake with getting the rig across.

We are so glad we took this way “out” of Alaska after our 4 month stay. This part of the journey was like putting an ‘Exclamation Mark” on our Alaskan visit.

What a trip across those mountains we had today! Unbelievable!

Notice our speed (or lack there of) in lower right corner of video.

 

 

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