On the road again.........

Fairbanks to Dawson City via the Taylor Highway/Top Of The World Highway

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FIRST THINGS FIRST

THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO HAS POSTED A COMMENT, SUE AND I REALLY APPRECIATE THEM. PLEASE KEEP THEM COMING.

Local novelty, a sign without bullet holes

So I'm stood at the petrol station this morning filling up with gas (sorry about the Americanism) and there's an old boy in a beat up Toyota pick up looking across from the other pump and eventually his curiosity gets the better of him and he wanders across, and the conversation goes something like this. "Izzis yuur mowdersaarkle" now quick as a flash I should have replied "no I'm just wandering the streets with this helmet on hoping to find one with the keys in it!" but kindness got the better of me, and also I wasn't going to get sarcastic with someone who lives in a place where people can pick up a gun with the weekly shopping! (not really) so then we had a nice conversation with me trying to convince him that Bee Emmm Durbya really did make mowdersaarkles and no it wasn't like a Harley Davidson (apologies for the bad accent)

Today was the day to get out of Fairbanks and head south, the last two weeks had been arduous for both Sue and, I and we knew that the two weeks we had lost fixing the bike had to made up somewhere along the road

The view over the Alaska Range leaving Fairbanks

We were blessed with good weather again and riding the road South was like a breath of fresh air. Delta Junction was the first stop of the day, this is officially the end of the Alaska Highway (also known as the Alcan) it was originally 1500 miles long and built in 1942 by 10.000 US troops and completed in eight months. For us Delta Junction was a breakfast stop before heading for the turnoff to the Taylor Highway on our way to Dawson city.

Excuse me, would you mind taking our photo?

"Go on Sue, just lie under that mosquito, no you won't look ridiculous"

More stunning scenery

Local wildlife

We stopped at the town of Chicken which was originally a mining community, and now exists purely on the strength of a silly name. When the original population arrived they wanted to call the settlement Ptarmigan after the bird, but they couldn't decide if the name started with a P or a T so called it Chicken after the ptarmigan's local nickname.

Downtown Chicken

The name says it all

This is the inside of the Chicken Saloon, visitors originally left hats nailed to ceiling, and now it has progressed to hats, caps, flags, and unfortunately used undergarments!!. Needless to say with my height I stayed outside and had a drink!

Oh, we love these gravel roads..no really we do.

The Taylor Highway eventually terminates in a place called Eagle (it's a bird thing) but we continued on the Top of the world Highway to the Canadian Border and Dawson City. It's called the Top of the world highway because........oh just watch the video.

This shot deserved to be in black and white

The US border with Canada

Crossing the border into Canada was painless, they wanted to know if we were carrying the usual contraband, drugs, alcohol, guns, and if not would we like to buy some......only joking Canada.

The officials were really helpful and we were into the Yukon in minutes.

Isn't she pretty, what a guy!

"I love that gal of mine"..... Shut up and get back on the bike Graham!

The Top of the world Highway is another classic ride through true wilderness, and whilst some sections are paved, the majority is good old gravel! We did manage another one of those dodgy tankslapping moments on the rough stuff, (due to the time we've lost Sue said I'm not allowed to crash again until we're at least in Mexico) other than that the biggest hardship was the dust from the bloody RV's. Once you're into Canada the road surface improves and it was getting late in the day when we reached the Yukon crossing ferry.

The free ferry across the Yukon to Dawson City

This log cabin turned out to be out most expensive accommodation of the trip so far.

Dawson City of course is famous for being the centre of the Klondike gold rush when gold was discovered in Bonanza Creek in August 1896 nearly 100,000 prospectors battled north to seek their fortune. By 1898 Dawson City was a modern city of 40,000 and the largest city North of San Francisco.

Dawson City, they still have dirt streets and boardwalks.

Dawson City today is a thriving tourist town with the usual tourist attractions and tacky souvenirs but get off the main street and there are still things worth seeing.

This is what happens when you build your house on the permafrost. As the house warms up the footings melt the permafrost......damn!

This has to be the ultimate mobile home

These buildings looked like they hadn't been touched since the gold rush

There really are no modern buildings in Dawson, so in that respect it still retains all the heritage of the original city, but as the tourist summer season only lasts approximately 90 days it makes you wonder what the locals do for the rest of the year when the place is only accessible by dog sled or snowmobile.

This was the best kept building in Dawson

Dawson City has been immortalised in the works of Jack London and the poems of Robert Service. The opening verse of the Spell of the Yukon was painted on the side of a building in downtown Dawson, read the full poem here.

http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Bluffs/8336/robertservice/spell.html

Prospector's graffiti