It’s official....we are legitimate RV’ers! This morning we successfully unhooked our unit from all services and were able to drive away with nothing dragging behind us and not too much shit on our shoes! (Well there might be some on my pants but there’s none on my shoes). :-)
Today I’m going to make a concerted effort to capture some of this days activities as they occur rather than waiting till the end of the day when we’re parked.
We’ve just pulled over to the side of the “Top of the World” highway that runs between Dawson City and Chicken, Alaska. So far the road has been great.....Firmly packed gravel and really wide. We didn’t have to wait too long for the ferry that we ended up on this morning...just two sailings or about 30 minutes. Our ferry took just four vehicles. One truck and large trailer, two SUV’s (one was a police vehicle) and us in our 20 foot RV. By the time we rolled onto the ferry the line behind us had grown considerably! Some of those folks will be waiting a very long time before they can board. Our MilePost book said that it is not unusual to have to wait 3-4 hours so once again....we were lucky. Vehicles are not necessarily boarded in the order they arrived. It is completely at the discretion of the ferry staff and they make the decision based on size and weight.
It’s now lunch time and we’re hungry and heh...we have an RV so.....We decided to make this stop so we could get something to eat AND create a memory of sitting at the “top of the world” (it really does feel like you are at the top of the world) looking down and out over the distance. In the near distance the mountains are soft and rolling and we are right at the tree line so the trees are pretty much all below us. In the far distance the mountain peaks are jagged and sharp. Bottom line....it is beautiful being at the top of the world! Our memory will be of us stopped here in our RV making a pot of tea and munching on home made sausage rolls, spinach/bean/strawberry salad (it tastes way better than it sounds) looking out over the world from our very own vantage point.
We’ll have our lunch and sit here long enough for the offloaded ferry traffic to pass us (we’re planning on letting three groups go by) so we can pull into the back of the pack and not feel pressured to go any faster than we want to as we know the road will get much worse before it gets any better. We still have to cross the border into Alaska and I’m guessing that stop is still at least 1/2 hour away. Once we’re across the border we’ll begin to hit some of the sketchy bits of road....hairpin turns....steep hills.....soft shoulders......no guardrails......too narrow for two vehicles to pass without significantly slowing down.....yes.....it will definitely get worse before it gets better!
Well, we’ve stopped for the night at a little place much further along the road than we’d intended to go today but it is so beautiful that we might just stay here for two nights! :-). It is called Moon Lake and it is about 1/3 of the way between Tok (pronounced Toke) and Fairbanks. Our initial thought was to stay in a pull out somewhere along the highway but everywhere that looked kind of like a place we’d like to stay either already had someone backed in there or was just too close to the highway and when too close to the highway....every vehicle that goes by sounds like it is coming right into your motor home! (I’m speaking from past experience here and it wasn’t pretty!). Moon Lake is only a few hundred yards from the highway and it has just a dozen spots. We’re in #12 so really....we feel like we’ve got the whole place to ourselves. Lynda has just walked over to the drop box to get us registered so within minutes we’ll be officially booked in for tonight for now. Tomorrow we’ll decide if we want to stay for an extra night. Cost to stay here is $18 USD. The site is unserviced but we don’t really care about that as we’ve got everything that we need on board, our water is topped up, our sewer emptied, and our gas tank full. The only thing that might happen is that this iPad might run out of juice before we start moving (and I can plug it in) again.
Our trip over the Top of the World was spectacular and crossing the US border into Alaska was made pleasant by the very nice border guard who actually gave us a stamp in our passports. :-). It’s not really a US entry stamp but it is a stamp from the crossing which is called Poker Creek and that is the most northerly land border port in the entire USA! By the way...did you know that Alaska has it’s own time zone? I didn’t! It’s called Alaska time and it is one hour behind Pacific Standard time.
The road leaving the border crossing looked like a fancy highway to us! .....well it is a fancy highway! We’d just come over some pretty rough ground and this was paved with lines and little shoulders that had decorative gravel along them. The fancy highway didn’t last for long though and in no time we were back into gravel that was maybe even a little worse than before but honestly....none of it was as bad as I thought it might be. The only sketchy bit was when we had to stop for an area that was under construction to widen and improve it slightly. While we waited in line one of the dump trucks (that had a belly blade) got stuck in front of us while trying to turn around. Fortunately he got himself unstuck almost as quickly and was off for another run up the hill. After about 1/2 hour of waiting (we were first in a line that had grown to four RV’s and a motorcycle....well technically the motorcycle was in front of us as the flag person had moved him up to the front of the line so he didn’t have to eat our dust for the next several miles. Going over the freshly dumped/plowed dirt and gravel was the sketchy bit. Parts of it were so loose that it was bordering on dangerous. The good news is that there was no traffic coming from the other direction so we could go right up the middle of the road (that isn’t really wide enough for two anyway). Our little RV did us proud and carried us up that hill with no problem.
Next stop was in the little community of Chicken where we stopped to do a little shopping and for a bite to eat. We decided to share a couple of bratwurst so Lynda ordered reindeer and I ordered buffalo. The reindeer was delicious but when Lynda bit into the buffalo she said, “it’s a little mushy”. I looked at my half of the buffalo one and had to laugh as I replied....”that’s cause it’s still kind of raw in the middle”. I returned it to the cook who apologized profusely and re-cooked it for us. When Lynda next had a bite she commented, “wow, that’s so much better!” LOL.....good thing she really likes sashimi! :-). Even though the bratwurst was good I think our favourite thing in Chicken was the egg shaped sign that says, “I got laid in Chicken”. Interesting facts about Chicken include: there were many Ptarmigan (often referred to as chickens) in the area and early settlers made good use of them in their stew and soup pots, winter population is around 15 and summers increase to 30-50. Roads close in winter and so does the town. There are no flush toilets (true story) and no cell service or wi-fi. Kids do correspondence for school and medical emergencies are sent by medi-vac to Fairbanks. It’s about 100 miles from Dawson (Yukon) and the same from Tok (Alaska). Locals still mine for gold and during the summer months find some of that gold in the pockets of the tourists who pass through. As much fun as it was to stop for a visit the fact that we chose to continue on our journey today speaks to the fact that neither of us could see ourselves staying there for long....it’s an interesting and eclectic little place.
The Taylor Highway picks up where the Top of the World highway leaves off in Chicken and the Taylor shared many traits with it’s cousin to the north. Pot holes, frost heaves, and loose gravel all made themselves known to us for that 100 mile leg of today’s journey. On the upside....the scenery was breathtaking! We still felt like we were on the top of the world and no matter which way we looked all we could see was mountains and more mountains covered in trees. The Taylor highway took us all the way into Tok where we stocked up our RV’s kitchen with some more drinking water and the ingredients to make a grilled cheese sandwich tonight and some eggs for breakfast in the morning.
So here we are...the grilled cheese are cooking, the water is boiling for tea, and there is a refreshing cool breeze coming in the windows (which all have screens). It was hot today....really hot! In fact we had to use air conditioning in the car more than once.
Super happy to be settled in here at Moon Lake and looking forward to sitting still for a bit. Till next time.
L & L
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