We ferried across the Yukon River and took the Top of the World Highway. It is not paved but supposed to be scenic. However it was raining and foggy. This made for an interesting drive on an unpaved, bumpy road. We saw many bikers riding in these conditions and made it us feel lucky to be in our van. At one point as we neared the border there was a biker pushing his bike uphill in the rain and fog. We stopped and asked him if he needed help. He replied “Gutentag” so we rolled up the window and kept going. We thought who would be so crazy to ride their bike in extreme conditions.
Eventually we reached the border crossing and were back in America (minus some firewood). The roads after the border were paved but eventually were reduced to dirt until we reached Chicken, AK.
Chicken, AK has three competing RV parks with a population of 23 in the summer and 7 in the winter. The RV parks are Downtown Chicken, Chicken Gold Camp and Outpost and Town of Chicken RV park. We made a quick pit stop in Chicken and moved on to Tok, AK. The Midnight Sun of Alaska provides endless daylight and time on the road so we pulled into Tok, AK about 9 PM. Dinner a la Fast Eddies and then a night sleeping in the van at the Tundra RV Park. Who can complain with Fast Eddies followed by a night in the RV Park?
Next stop was our most northerly stop on the trip, Fairbanks, AK. We arrived there after a quick stop at North Pole, AK and a visit with Santa’s reindeers. They were shedding their winter fur coats. Santa was not “in the house.” He had the day off.
In Fairbanks we took some time off from camping in stayed in a hotel. We spent half day on a riverboat cruise on the Chena River. It was a tourist trap but we learned a lot about Fairbanks History and Native American culture. The boat was narrated by a former radio host, Ray who was quite entertaining although most of the jokes were corny.
The trip included a visit to a replica Athabascan Tribe village. We learned about how they hunted, cooked and made clothing.
The highlight was a demonstration and a Q&A with a sled dog trainer and her pack of wolves oh I mean alaskan dogs. One of interesting things about the dogs was how they all looked different even thought they were the same breed. The dogs are breed for racing and not their looks so they have a good genetic variance preventing health issues and ensuring a long life. We asked about other types of dogs doing the Iditarod and the trainer told us about a team of poodles doing it who froze to the snow. Subsequently all non-northern breeds were banned from the Iditarod.
Once upon a time, poodles raced in the Iditarod. They weren’t half bad.
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Next up Denali National Park!
Thanks for checking out.
Maggie and Doug