Sunday 23rd June 2013 Miles Today 175 Total 9942
We had been advised by the hotel staff to go and visit the
Midnight Sun Dome. This was a hill behind Dawson where in 1901 hundreds of
people went up the hill, on the solstice, to see the midnight sun. However as
they were too far south by about 4 degrees, the sun set at 11:30pm. The hill
still got its name despite the lack of sun. The views from here were however, magnificent.
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Looking down on Dawson City |
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A view of the Klondike river and all the mining devastation. |
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Grumpy and Wallace |
We drove back down the hill and intending to buy a bigger
tent we drove along the river front an we found, parked outside a cafe, three
more Super Tenere's, just like Wallace. I insisted we stopped for some breakfast
and coffee. We got talking to the riders and later discovered that two of them
were pilots.
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What is the collective name for a group of Tenere's. |
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A proper wild west town |
After brekkie, we went into a nearby shop and bought a
larger tent. It weighed a fair bit more than the old one but we could at least
stand up in it and hide from the mosquitoes. We asked the girl who sold it to
us if we could dispose of the old (albeit hardly used) tent and she asked if
she could have it for herself. Naturally the answer was yes as we could not
carry two and aside from fruitlessly looking for a buyer, it was going in the
bin. She was a happy little girl.
We the set off, armed with out new tent, for the ferry to
take us across the Yukon (again). It is a small government owned free one.
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The ferry was a bit rocky so Karen held Wallace while I took piccys. |
As we rode off the ramp of the ferry onto the dirt we were
now on ‘The top of the World Highway’. It was magnificent. We then had just
over 100 miles of dirt road ahead of us before we hit the customs post of
Alaskan, America. This time we here on the top of the hills instead of being in
the valleys below and beside rivers. The views were brilliant.
|
100 miles of this....Yeehaa |
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Looking down on one of the creeks. |
We entered Alaska through the remote border post and on
chatting to the Immigration/customs officer, he too was looking forward to
retirement next year. He actually lived in the Government house adjacent to the
post. He is the only person for miles around. To compensate, he gets a good
wage and $100 a day subsistence.
|
A proper photo of the Alaskan border. |
We also lost another hour at this border and
are now 9 hours behind the UK.
We then came upon a road junction and the sign just made us
laugh.... choices choices
|
Eagle, Chicken. Chicken, Eagle.. Hmmmm |
We opted for Chicken, actually Eagle was a dead end so we
knew where we were going really. So on to Chicken. This is a mad little village
that was one of the boom and bust places of the gold rush era and the story
goes that it got its name from the Ptarmigan bird that frequents the area (like
the one in Scotland) but they could not agree how to spell it so came up with
Chicken instead.
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The Village of Chicken |
This local guy was taking no chances...
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Check out the AR15 assault rifle on this guys back. And his dog just getting on too. |
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One of the huge mining machines. |
After leaving Chicken the road changed back to tarmac. More
fun for Karen, less fun for me.
We see for hundreds of miles, and probably millions of
acres, that the trees were dying. We had been told previously that this was due
to the ‘Pine Beetle’. Sadly the effect was devastating and the only way to cure
it was to burn the whole forest, a daunting prospect the on occasion, mother
nature has a hand in (lightning strikes).
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Dead pine trees everywhere. The deciduous trees are now taking over. |
|
A closer look. |
Karen spotted this beast that crossed the road in front of us. Moose are huge and this photo does not do justice to the scale of it. it was about 7 foot to the shoulder.
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A huge Moose crossing our path. |
Another Hundred miles and we arrived in the next village of
Tok. Tok is an odd place and everyone that does not fly into Alaska has no
option but to drive to drive through it. Hence it is a sort of hub where you
can get virtually anything you want in only a few sprawling shops. The good
thing is that the camp site is a good one with wood shavings placed on the tent
sites to make them more comfortable. The other good thing is that we met up
with the other boys on the Wallace look alike bikes and we had a great night
talking rubbish and giving a few beers. Sadly it did not get dark so we mentally
thought it was about 8pm from 8pm to 1am and sort of, forgot to go to bed.
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The moon taken at around midnight. |
Monday 24th June 2913 Miles Today 210 Total 10152
We were now back on the Alaska Highway and it is a 200 mile
hop to Fairbanks, the weather was starting to get unusually hot for this area,
28 deg C. This was Alaska, it is supposed to be cold. The heat inside our
jackets was searing and we had to keep moving to cool down. We crossed the
river Tanana and decided to stop for some lunch and a few piccys. It was
beautiful.
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Beside the Tanana River. |
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The Denali mountain range in the background. |
It was then back on the road and the village before
Fairbanks was called ‘North Pole’. Guess what that meant. Father Christmas,
what else.
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Santa Claus house. Doh ! |
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And of course, Santa himself. How he gets down the chimney is a mystery to me. |
We rolled into Fairbanks and went in search of the only
campsite in town. It was crap with the only facilities being a table, a toilet
and a tap. Karen was not amused.
We went out for some provisions and a bite to eat and then
retired to an early night, going to bed
at the real 8pm.
Chicken and the Top of the World Highway, I loved that part of the trip.
ReplyDeleteHere's my entries on my blog:
http://www.riding-the-usa.com/2013/07/day-17-top-of-world.html
http://www.riding-the-usa.com/2013/08/day-17-top-of-world-part-2.html
http://www.riding-the-usa.com/2013/08/day-17-top-of-world-part-3.html
We loved that part of the trip too. And I just read the posts you put on above and noticed that you have or had a Harley. Please ignore my previous comments about not liking Harleys, I think they are great....not ;-0
ReplyDeleteNever owned a Harley, you saw the pictures, I have a black Super Tenere. I rented a Harley once in Las Vegas.
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