TOW

No we did not need a tow we were on the TOW (Top of the World) Highway, or Yukon 9. Guess what another dirt road. It was hard packed and worth the bumpy ride. I did see a caribou he had a nice set of antlers although you don’t get the full effect from the back side picture. I was surprised to see this guy, we stopped by the side of the road I got out to look for him. The guy gave me a chance for a headshot but I was surprised to see him looking at me so I missed the opportunity. The result was butt shot. At least I’ve seen a large animal on this trip. Someone posted a herd of caribou crossing this same area the day before. People we met on the road came through the day after we did and were stopped by the same herd. I think our timing is off. 🙂

I know my time is coming. I am learning to appreciate the scenery without animals. The rolling hills and vast views can be almost as striking as having animals in the scene. (my story). We made it through customs at Poker Creek which is the farthest northern US border crossing. That’s what the sign said it also stated that the population of Poker Creek is 3. After a brief stop over at the Walker Fork BLM campground and the side trip to Eagle we headed to Chicken Alaska.

Chicken Alaska https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken,_Alaska is famous for the annual music festival Chicken stock. It also has the famous chicken with road distances of towns.

The chicken is above the actual town they do have three chickens of their own. We stayed here three years ago and the town seems to have stayed the same. The place Chicken Gold Camp https://www.chickengold.com/ we stayed both times have a place to pan for gold using tailings from their mine claim.

Chicken is a place where you can unplug from all electronics because there is no internet, cell phones, or electricity unless you have a generator. You can also try and make you fortune here. Chicken is well worth checking out.

The Old and The New

I want to start this blog on a side note, the day we were leaving I was able to catch the start of a wildfire. The good news is they were able to get it extinguished Dawson City will never get a McDonalds as it is a historical site. https://dawsoncity.ca/ Diamond Tooth Gerties https://dawsoncity.ca/diamond-tooth-gerties/ The casino gives back to the community so losing there it goes to a good cause. The other good thing is you can watch Can-Can girls. Information from Parks Canada about the old in Dawson City. https://www.pc.gc.ca/en/lhn-nhs/yt/klondike These two buildings are photographed by many tourists. Known as the kissing buildings these were built on permafrost before people realized the building had to be raised. This is a replica of Jack London’s cabin which also benefits from Gerties profits. Here are some other buildings around Dawson

It is starting to become a boomtown again, with the edition of a Westmark Inn https://www.westmarkhotels.com/destinations/dawson-city-hotel/ and the land tours offered by Holland America https://www.hollandamerica.com/en_US/cruise-destinations/alaska-and-yukon/travel-articles/exploring-the-yukon-and-dawson-city.html I will say the new is trying to blend in with the old. Not related to the cruise or tour industry there are also some new hotels built to look old. The Bunkhouse is one .

I am not sure if I covered this earlier but it is worth mentioning again. The lamp chops from The Drunken Goat where just amazing. This restaurant is worth making the trip to Dawson. It was also enjoyable to shop in the only grocery store in town.

Dawson City is a great place to recover from a trip up the Dempster and back or a trip over the Top of the World Highway. Speaking of the Dempster I did get my Artic Circle t-shirt, an I survived the Dempster, plus a few others and I will wear these proudly.

Mayberry RFD……. I mean

Eagle Plains.

Eagle Plains https://eagleplainshotel.ca/ is a unique place as it is the halfway point on the Dempster, was built a year before the highway was finished and is your one stop shop. Even though it’s just a gas station, hotel, rv park, restaurant, and bar it has town written all over it.

The day we got here was beautiful a little cold, a few mosquitoes so no big deal. The first thing we did was catch up on the news for me at the bar that was. We are to far north to get SirrusXM. I was told Trump is still President, China is still being China, gas is still high, and Iran is Iran. So, my comment was no news, his response was I just give the summary the tv gives the details. I felt right at home definitely could pick the bar up and put it in the Northwoods of Wisconsin. Asked about an RV spot next was told that would be Ericka’s job the bartender cool this place multi-tasks. Ericka I found out she is known as the mouth of Eagle Plains. She has the speeches down no question that I had went unanswered even the ones I didn’t have to ask. Side note the rv park had 15amp electric for $25 Canadian, plus my license plate number.

On to dinner, we sat down about 6pm, because we just went to look at the site and come down to eat. That was a good thing because we just beat the rush. I wanted to jump back and help the girl in the kitchen she was so overwhelmed. The food was good even if the wait for it was long. It gave me an opportunity to meet my neighbors, brothers headed up to Tuk one from Utah and one from North Pole Alaska, had an interesting conversation about the road because they were on motorcycles. (now that’s insane).

Speaking of motorcycles on the road after dinner we met a gravel surfer, complete with road rash. He did not look to rough for wear but you could tell he was hurting. I guess he had a tire issue which caused his bike to go do and him doing some traveling on his own. The good thing is he did walk away. I am finding advantages to combat camping is after dinner chats with your neighbors. Eagle Plains being the halfway point we were the only ones heading up to Tuk the others were headed back to Dawson. It was forecast to snow in Eagle Plains so we knew it would be an early morning for us. The most interesting comment we heard was you will either love or hate Tuk, and you must put your toes in the ocean. You bet I will. Oh just to give you a heads up I enjoyed Eagle Plains I come back an extra time.

Don’t Let the SUN Go Down on ME

I had to do it. The sun did go down on 6/21/19 the summer solstice for about an hour. I went up to experience it on Midnight Dome https://dawsoncity.ca/attraction/midnight-dome/ in Dawson City. It was amazing here is a picture of me taken at 10:04 pm. I have my sun glasses on my shirt because I am facing away from the sun, had to put them on when I turned around. The views seemed to be even more breath taking then on a regular day. Maybe it was all of the people also at the dome, or that it was the longest day of the year.

I caught the shuttle bus up to the dome, because I enjoy being a social butterfly. (Who me?) We are waiting for the shuttle and I start talking I was asked were we were headed I say Tuktoyaktuk NWT. Sharon spoke up and said I would love it. The 24 hour daylight and the culture in Tuk is amazing. The roads are good if you use common sense. So I get on the bus and there’s room on the seat for me next to a couple and of course I ask if I can sit next to them because I don’t bite. You know where that went. 🙂

Once at the top of the dome the views are spectacular of course. You can even see TOW (top of the world highway) this is the road that takes you to Alaska. and is about 30 miles from the dome on a clear evening. The road is on the right of the picture. Here is a better picture that I took on a different day. Then I think my best photo of the night was of the up and down rainbow at about 10:42pm You have to look hard . It was a great night and I was getting tired and the crowd was getting rowdy. I was waiting for the shuttle for awhile and watched a truck camper block the way up to the pick up area so I knew it would be a walk to catch it. I want to give a shout out to the three people I hopped in their car for a ride down the hill. Tonight felt like a safe night to do that. it was in the air. So thank you Sunshine, Patrick, and I want to say Mary the driver?(I am bad with names).

Well we are off to the artic ocean so in about a week look for our continuing adventures.

I See Dead People

No one I know. Like most of our adventures we do it then go get information on what we just saw. That’s what happened with the Dawson City Cemeteries we saw. One of the more interesting cemetery was the Police Cemetery still maintained by the RCMP today. There are 18 graves dating from 1896 to 1936, constables and sgts. NW MP and RNW MP North West Mounted Police and the Royal North West Mounted Police before they became the RCMP. Just interesting.

On this road there are 10 cemeteries a few are still active today. Near the police cemetery is the Fraternal Order of Eagles Cemetery there 13 graves but only three with names you can make out. The tombstones are made of wood.

There is also a large monument behind the graves honor men who died in WWI. The other thing that was extremely interesting was seeing trees growing up the grave stones.

Well worth stopping by the visitors center and taking the complete walking tour. https://dawsoncity.ca/plan-your-trip/visitors-centre-info/

Oh Those Views

dawsonview This is the view from the Midnight Dome in Dawson City. I am not sure why we did not do this drive last time we were here before. I know we left it for something to discover. We were able to check into the RV park 2 days early and just today we extended another day so we are back on schedule. So Sunday we will be in Eagle Plains YT on the Dempster.

Even though we have not been gone that long it was good to drop the trailer and explore for a few days. Unfortunately we have not run into any of the stars of Gold Rush https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_Rush_(TV_series) , still have a few more days. We did get to see the barge that Tony B hauled the pieces of his dredge to Dawson City. The Jasmine B. jasmineb1 When we were in line to take the ferry across the Yukon river to check out the paddlewheel graveyard Roy made a comment that maybe we could see Tony B’s barge. Ask and it will happen. Now all we need is more animal sightings I’ve been asking. It was cool checking with the ferry worker to be sure it was the right barge. He was funny, basically confirmed that every other word out of Tony’s mouth is F =$k this. Though he is a good guy and his kids turned out right even though Tony works them hard.

Now onto the paddlewheel graveyard, https://dawsoncity.ca/attraction/paddlewheel-graveyard/ this is tucked on the shores of the river unfortunately it was over grown so I was able to only get the one paddlewheel right on the beach. paddle1 Check out the short video. Trying to find the place to get down on the beach took a little doing as it is not marked park here. The road to get there is in the Yukon River Campground. The access to the beach involved going down a slight hill across a plywood plank so your feet didn’t get wet then walking about 1000 feet down the beach. It was a nice walk and beautiful day.

Whenever you have to get across the river you take a free ferry, it runs 24×7 except for a few hours on Friday for maintenance. https://www.yukoninfo.com/dawson-city-yukon/the-george-black-ferry/ I would suggest not getting behind an RV caravan when trying to cross the ferry can only take a limited amount and certain weights.

I’ve enjoyed the extra days here now I’m off to the Midnight Dome to enjoy the solstice. Almost 24 hours of daylight. We get that early next week.

For A Good Time …..Visit Haines

Haines was a place where Roy almost wore ketchup, oh wait it was me. Sitting at the Lighthouse restaurant we order a whole order of halibut fish n chips to split. (yes, when you’ve been together for along time you split. I mean food.) The waitress brings the ketchup sits it down Roy asks where’s the ketchup. Me I pick it up and say right here. What I was going to do though was pick it up and squeeze the bottle so it went on him. Thank God I looked down just in time to stop myself. Why? The bottom was pointed at him and the top with the open end of the sqeeze bottle at me. I know you are smiling at the thought. I was too, all Roy said was he would have ROFLAO then possibly take me home inside the car not on the roof rack 😉. One of the few times I’m glad I looked.

Getting back to what else Haines was a place for good food if you get away from the beating path near the cruise ship port. (Yes, Haines even gets cruise ships. The large ship of 2000 plus docks on Wednesday then 3 times a week they get smaller ships with less then 500 onboard.) Raevyn’s Cafe they are only open Wednesday thru Sunday 5pm-9pm. They are in one of the buildings built for the movie ‘White Fang’. Their speciality is southwest cooking with large portions. If you are into fish-n-chips as I mentioned the ‘Lighthouse’ has them, also the ‘Bamboo Room’ features them. Although I would head to there for strawberry rhubarb pie.

If you like to photograph landscapes, eagles and bears Haines was a good place. The Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve, also check out Chilkat Lake and river. I went with Cindy from Rainbow Glacier Adventures http://tourhaines.com

We were able to get a glimpse of ok a couple of pictures of ‘Speedy’ the resident bear and her 3 cubs.

I really enjoyed seeing the dandelions in her mouth. We were just heading down the road and she stepped out. Once we got to Chilkat Lake we had an opportunity to see a raven attack a bald eagle.

All in all Haines is a great place. If you get the time do visit.

I’ve Been Here Before

even if you have go again. You will be surprised at what you find. This happened to me when I almost passed by the American Bald Eagle Foundation http://www.baldeagles.org .

Here is the back story. Two years ago we stopped in Haines Alaska for a small town America 4th of July, so where do you go, the place where they have Bald Eagles. It was ok but not something to write home about. There was a large cage with two eagles that you could walk in front of and a bird in the bird room, a small gift shop, then the museum with information and history of the area. You can see why stopping in again not high on list.

Pulling in the driveway we see what looks like construction going on behind the wall, I’m thinking this might be looking up. Walking in I see it’s up to $15 to tour I’ll be honest I almost changed my mind, glad I didn’t. Upon going round the corner I try to find the screech owl no luck. Then it’s into the room with the large cage and Arden is setting up on a perch looking regal. I am able to step through the door that I could not go through last time. Check out the video on my video page. They have laid out wooden boardwalks with info signs in front of the cages. Here is Vega peering at you from above.

Bella is a Bald Eagle who is also outside and is joined by Warrior a red tail hawk

I step further down the boardwalk and am introduced to a very squawking peregrine falcon Ole. I find out Sidney is preparing to change out equipment on him, and get a weight. I guess it turned out he’s a tad heavy. Before the introduction to Sidney, I was talking to another worker about how being able to come out and see more of the birds make the admission price worth it. I also touched on my first experience and how this boardwalk system is amazing. Touching on people who have mobility problems gravel can be difficult. He then pointed me in Sidney’s direction and said most of these improvements were from her.

I asked if it was possible to share this with people who read my blog, she was thrilled to be able to share her love for these birds. It really does show with everyone at the foundation. So we sat down and talked while she was in the process of making new anklets, which when he is worked there is a ‘safety leash’ for lack of a better word attached to the anklets. If Haines Alaska is anywhere in your future this is a place you have to visit.

I learned a valuable lesson if you’ve been somewhere before and you have the opportunity to visit again DO IT!

Motion of the Ocean

not the motion I was expecting. We hit a small squall of weather right off the bat. People who followed me last year know boats and me do not mix. I took my dramamine plus I kept moving. The only disappontment is the weather. Boy is it wet. We decided to pull out early evening to get in line for the ferry good idea. Well I was able to get a little sleep in the car while we waited. That is funny also Roy can be driving the car and I will be asleep in thirty seconds, but stop the car and I’m awake and ready to go. I think my parents drove me around to put me to sleep, my story.

First rant of trip, feel free to skip this part. I understand that Price Rupert is an origin point for the vessel ,so it’s ok to be a little spread out. What I didn’t understand was having to walk down a hill to get your ticket. I have to say I’m glad I had everything with means I did not have to make a second trip. Well, I had Roy’s passport and my passport, I mention my hubby had COPD and could we get loaded close to the elevator. She said sure but she would have to give us a handicapped tag I said OK. This is good. Hike back up the hill and wait. We are one of the last people down. I’m still holding out hope we have the sticker right. The second from last spot on the boat furthest from the elevator. Not cool! We mention something and are told we have to load by size. Mainly we got lip service. End rant continue reading.

The ferry ride has been amazing, all different types of people ride it. Ran into a young women who is embarking on a summer studying climate change and glaciers out of Juneau. Two guys riding motorcycles up to Tuktoyaktuk (also known as Tuk). A couple from Phoenix who has just started full time rving headed to Homer. The social butterfly that I am talking and making suggestions about what to do was fun. I told a few people about this winery in Homer were they have wine tasting and make a rhubarb chardonnay Bear Creek Winery http://bearcreekwinery.com . People loved my bear pictures so I mentioned Black Mountain Lodge. Then one of my favorite things on the Kenai is Skilak Lake Rd 19 miles of gravel through the national preserve. http://Alaska.org/guide/skilak-lake-road-map

All in all a good trip minus a rant and some seasickness on my part. Animal wise saw a few eagles, some whale blows (no tails), and also some gulls.

Onto Haines for a about a week then meander to Tuk and the artic ocean. I’m on limited internet will upload pictures when I can.