The View from the Outhouse
Good morning from Silty Slough. Things got busy and my post are lagging behind as usual.
Brother Ed and I are up early in Carmacks, YT. It’s a pretty quiet place. Heading up the road toward Dawson City paralleling the Yukon River. Yes the same river that Ed stripped down and jumped into last night. Something on his bucket list, not on mine. We met the first car coming toward us at mile 21 from Carmacks, the next at mile 27-36-40-52-63, you get the picture no traffic. At about mile 50 there was a dead coyote in the middle of the narrow road. I ask you my friends, just how unlucky does this coyote have to be to end up dead crossing a 20 foot strip of asphalt with all this traffic. I don’t think the Roadrunner had anything to do with this. This shows that when it is your time, it is your time.
On to Dawson about 150 more miles. The pavement ends here and all the streets are gravel. We had some lunch and checked out the sites. Ed had some places to research for another book he is writing. We are on the east side of the Yukon River and Alaska is on farther west. There is no bridge but a ferry. We were ready to head west and got in line. Only had to wait for one short trip and we were ready to drive on. The ferry ride is only 5-10 minutes. Loading and unloading takes the most time. The current in the river is so strong we were pointed almost straight upstream with just a slight right crab to get us to the other side. Now we continue our journey on the Top of the World Highway. After climbing a steep grade the pavement ended in a few miles and we were on a good gravel road with no traffic. The road is almost all on the mountain ridges. They don’t waste any money on guardrails here. If you ever went over the side you would starve to death before you rolled all the way to the bottom. The views were magnificent, I’m concentrating on keeping the rig between the white lines so no pictures. There are no white lines. Somewhere along here we reached the northernmost point of our trip 64 degrees 14 minutes North, the Arctic Circle is 66 degrees 34 minutes a little over 100 miles north of us. On my bucket list to drive up there sometime but near the bottom of the bucket. I’m not sure how much further it is to the US border but after a while we can see the buildings up ahead. I told Ed that if they won’t let a couple of Americans cross here we will swing around and come in from our southern border. Will only take a few more days/weeks. We could unload the Vette for him to drive across and I will fill the trailer with illegals. Should cover our expenses and make a tidy profit. We could drop them off in some sanctuary cities along the way. I’m thinking maybe Seattle and then taking the ferry to Alaska.
Border was no problem. Same questions. Where do you live? What’s in the trailer? Did you buy anything in Canada? Have a safe trip.
The road is paved for 10 miles from the border. I would venture to say the best 10 mile stretch in the state of Alaska then it is back to gravel, not quite as good as the road in Canada but Ok. This route is closed in the winter from outside of Tok to Dawson. Kari and I have ridden it a few times on the “Trek Over the Top” snow machine ride and party in Dawson. The highlight in Dawson is the Sour Toe Cocktail. Google it, I don’t have time here. Anyway back on the road and back to the trip and on to Chicken, Alaska. When the prospectors discovered gold here they wanted to name the place Ptarmigan but no one could spell it so they just called it Chicken. Tastes like ptarmigan. After a brief stop to see the big metropolis it is on to Tok and our room for the night. After fueling and a good meal at Fast Eddie’s it is time for a nap. Fuel is cheaper here about $4.09 a gallon so we added enough to the big tank to get us home to Wolf Lake. It gets expensive again in between at Glenallen.
I had planned to write about the next day when I started but this is too long now. I will try to finish the next leg of the adventure next post.
I hope sometime soon I will get these posts and pictures transferred to my blog at www.siltyslough.com.
I hope everyone had a great 4th. Thanks for listening.
Thank you Lord for a safe trip.
I’ll be in touch
Blue skies!!!
The View from the Outhouse 