Okay, so I bit off way more than I should have. What's a little mistake in arithmetic, anyway? I drove for almost 400 miles today, and when I questioned myself as to why, it comes down to me misreading my map, and where it really said miles, I thought it said kilometers.
The maps I got from AAA have point to point mileage in kilometers, if you're looking at Canadian locations, and for U.S. locations the map uses miles. Well, after ten days or so in Canada, I was beginning to think kilometers, and therein lies today's mistake. Whereas I thought the distance of 108 was in kilometers and converted it to 64.8 miles, it really was miles, and that added 43 more miles to my already long day of 350 miles. Cheeezzz!!
I purposely went north from Whitehorse the other day, because I wanted to see and experience the Klondike with a visit to Dawson City. That was a boring drive, but I did enjoy the visit to the town with a very rich history of the 1898 gold rush. More about that in just a bit.
Having made the decision to visit Dawson City, the continuation of my itinerary was to drive a very poor roadway called the "Top of the World", which takes you from Dawson City, literally across 65 miles of mountain tops in the Yukon, about 55 miles of harrowing mountainous gravel road in the U.S. and then it rejoins the Alaska Highway still 55 more miles south. It was an experience. More about this too in a bit.
Last night, I entered my diary, and then went off to have some dinner and also to visit Diamond Teeth Gertie's saloon. Apparently, this is the only legal gambling hall in the Yukon and proceeds go to the Visitor's Association. I'm glad to have contributed my roulette and slot machine money, because I didn't carry away any winnings.
I paid my dues and stayed for the gambling hall show, which by comparison to the Frantic Follies I saw in Whitehorse the other night ......well, it didn't compare. The Whitehorse show was truly a turn of the century variety show, with comics and vaudeville, talented musicians and yes, the can-can dancers. The Dawson show was built around just two things. Gertie, involving the audience with various gimmicks and the can-can dancers strutting their stuff. I left before it was over.
When I learned that in order for me to leave Dawson City and take the "Top of the World" road, I would have to use the free car ferry, I initially said okay, but then I also learned that they shut down service from 5:00-7:00AM every Wednesday. Being an early riser, I had to decide on when to leave if I couldn't take the ferry around 6:00AM. If I waited until 7:00AM, I was afraid that I'd have to get in line and who knows how long it would take to get the queue of cars and RVs across the Yukon River.
Well, the decision I made was to go to sleep early (before 10:00PM) and get up early such that I could catch the car ferry before 5:00AM. That part worked out well. I got a good six hours of rest and caught the ferry before it shut down. But....no one told me that the U.S. Customs doesn't open until 9:00AM. Wonderful!
The 65 miles from Dawson City to the Yukon/U.S. border was really very good road. A bit narrow here and there, but for an oil-sealed rock road, it was a good road. That portion of the "Top of the World" road, literally rides on top of 65 miles of mountains. What a view, especially at sunrise.
Leaving before 5:00AM, someone might wonder about driving in the dark. Believe me, being this far north, it is so light in the evening, I could have driven without any car lights. And...leaving early, there was virtually no traffic on the mountain road. I actually enjoyed my views from the "Top of the World".
But then came the shock. At the Yukon/U.S. border was a sign saying that customs doesn't open for business until 9:00AM. Wonderful! So, I took a two hour nap, and read the book of Robert Service poems I bought yesterday. He is a very good, very readable poet. Check it out. Tank took my picture to commemorate my visit to the "Top of the World".
Finally, at 9:00AM, being first in line, U.S. customs waved me through and I continued with the "Top of the World" roadway. The Yukon portion was all paved but none of the U.S. portion is. For 55 miles, to Chicken, Alaska, it was rough, really rough. Mountainous road, up and down, twisting turns, jarring rough gravel road, and a road that caused a lot of tension for me. Poor Eeyore fell off the dashboard.
The CD player was playing today's folk songs, and I'm really very impressed with the electronics Ford put into my Limited Edition of the Explorer. In spite of how jarring the washboard gravel road was, the CD player played smoothly.
I drove cautiously with my Explorer and gave the RV and motorhome drivers credit for their courage to drive such a road. Whereas all of the Yukon road was riding the crest of the mountains, the U.S. portion was up and down, some on top of the mountains and other portions down in the valleys. I was glad to get to Chicken, Alaska, where afterward the road stayed pretty much along the low land. It was still rocky and gravel.
I had an enjoyable rest stop at Chicken, Alaska. "Grumpy", the guy who owns the convenience store, filled my gas tank, and told me all kinds of stories about the roadway. I asked what the pretty pink/purple flowers were that I saw all along the highway's shoulders, and he told me about Fireweed. It made my drive pleasant, in spite of the road condition.
At various points I saw signs designating "subsistence hunting", and I was reminded of a conversation I had with a friend who described the people who live up here permanently. They have certain privileges, such as hunting year-round, because that constitutes part of their food supply.
I didn't see much game today. A bunch of rabbits and one female moose. Grumpy told me that the Fireweed flower is also known as "moose candy" because they eat it like a treat. I was told that if you scrape the stem and taste the plant's fluid, it tastes like watermelon. I'll trust them....
There was a time zone change as I left the Yukon and entered Alaska. It didn't help all the miles I wound up driving, but instead of getting to Fairbanks at 5:00PM, I checked in an hour earlier. I tried to do my laundry, but the two machines were busy, so I'm keying my diary now and I'll do my laundry later.
After my 180 miles on the "Top of the World" road, believe me, it was great to get back on to "real" pavement and the Alaska Highway, Highway 1. The route number didn't last long however, because in a short distance I got to Tok, Alaska and Highway 1 headed south to Anchorage. I followed Highway 2, instead, towards Fairbanks.
I stopped in Tok to have some lunch and at a place called Fast Eddy's I had a delicious taco salad. I look at Alaska as being a bit remote, but that salad had the freshest vegetables in it. It was a good meal.
I saw signs for "Mukmuk Land" and that amused me. Mukmuks are a boot, of sorts, but down in the lower 48, you don't hear much about mukluks.
The Alaska Range of mountains, paralleling the south side of Highway 2, is very dramatic. It made me think about Texas. I lived in Texas for 16 years, 1979-1995, and Texans think they have the biggest of everything. They have to see Alaska to really understand "BIG"!!! By the way, the most common license plate for visitors to Canada, the Yukon and Alaska, has been Texas. So, I guess they have come to see what BIG is all about.
I found limited things to see along Highway 2 to Fairbanks. I was reminded of my 1997 trip through Georgia. There, and here, as I was driving along a major road, I sensed a "tunnel of trees". What I mean is, I didn't have a view of the terrain on either side of the highway....just trees, trees, and more trees.
I did stop at one point, the confluence of the Tanana and Delta Rivers, to look at the suspended Alaskan pipeline, which delivers oil from the far north to processing plants further south. I have heard much about the permafrost and why the oil pipes are not buried. It became pretty clear as I drove on a road which had 'ripples' in it, due to the frost heaving the highway during the cold winters.
I saw a number of large, dry river beds, and that made me more curious about the water situation here in the north. As I said before, my perception is that it snows heavily up here and that should translate into ample water during the summer months. Apparently, that's not the whole story. More for me to look into.
I stopped to visit a place called Rika's Roadhouse, which is a well preserved cluster of log buildings dating back to the turn of the century. As more and more people ventured north, whether for gold in the Klondike, or other fortunes here in Alaska, there were the entrepenuers that came to provide services. A Yugoslav named John Hajdukovich, built some log structures near Big Delta, and they were eventually bought by Rika Wallen who continued a profitable roadhouse as late as the 1940's.
As I neared Fairbanks, I began to see more people, more cars, more everything. You have to put things into perspective. At 9:00AM, I was first in line to cross the international border, high atop an Alaskan mountain, with very, very few people in sight for 180 miles. Civilization is a comforting thing.
Included in the increased population and activity, I was interested in seeing the big jet bombers taking off from Eielsin Air Force Base, which is just south of Fairbanks. But, now that I'm settled in my motel room, I'm going to think about dinner and making plans for the next few days. I want to see what Fairbanks has to offer and also included in those plans, I want to book a bus tour of Denali, which is a major national park, south of Fairbanks.
I'll keep you posted.