Woke at our Gold Claim to a very icy start to the day. The stream was frozen along the sides, so gave up the idea of doing a bit of panning before breakfast, and also after breakfast. Noticed on the drive into town there was no dust on these dirt roads, seems when they are frozen, so is the dust, cool.
Popped back into Dawson City and took some photo’s, found an internet café and posted a quick update on our wellbeing, and then faced the challenge of getting the RV across the Yukon.
They provide a free of charge car ferry, it takes about 9 cars, but the drive down the banks of the Yukon and the access gradient were a small concern. Alas, no worries, we were successful in getting on without any bum dragging.
I told the kids that we ‘Don’t Pay the Ferryman, until he gets us to the other side” but they didn’t recognise/know the song, the humour went over their heads.d
Did a bit of Geocaching on the other side, up on a hill that overlooks town, but didn’t find the cache, as we were working of memory and not LatLong’s, bugger, Linda later found the printout of the cache details, but it was 5 hours to drive back, bugger again.
The Top of the World Highway lives up to it’s name. While most of the other road travelled following the floor of the valleys and ran along side rivers and lakes, then road goes up along the top of the mountain range, with views for miles and miles on either side as you drive along, so we had many camera stops.
I decided this was a great place to Josh to have a go behind the wheel, to he took the helm for a bit, his first time in control on a public road.
Reached the highest point, added to the Cairn and did the photo thing, it was after lunch, but was still very fresh out, so didn’t spend a lot of time up there.
Then the crossing of the Border back into Alaska and the USA.
Crossed the border, which closes this Friday. The one US Customs Officer (only two on deck, one USA one Canadian, two lodgings provided to the side) asked, as usual, “What’s the purpose of your visit?” We’re in the middle of nowhere, in a 30’ RV, what did we look like, Commercial Fishermen, did we have towels on our head, they had, as usual, no humour, and were not a Tourist Information Centre either, we got through. They were doing lots of work, we were to later find out that they had apparently install last year all the high tech scanning gear that you had to drive and pause past, here, in the middle of no-where at the Top of the World, as they say, leave no stone unturned, no border crossing unprotected.
Then the road changed. The Canadians had a great road along this stretch. Some bitumen, most great smooth dirt sections, but the Yanks, this is where all the trouble had been with the recent rain. Eventually caught up to the current road construction and waited 45 min for the Pilot Car. Chatted to the lad on the stop go. The average wage up here is $9/hr and he was on $30/hr, so though the job was boring, it was the best money had had made all season. It was mid afternoon, so used the time for afternoon tea and made the kids some coffee and pancakes, which he greatly enjoyed, so much he gave me a beer. It came out of the boot of his car and was colder then our fridge.
Made Chicken, to find it closed. They had decided to close the town this week, as the three shop owners wanted to do something (so the Stop go kids told us) but they were going to be open again next week, after the border had closed, go figure.
There is also an RV / Gold Panning Park here, but it had a few in it and the access in was quite rough, so we decided to push on. The road was average, mostly bitumen with lengths of gravel.
Found a camp ground along the road, again, in the middle of no-where, called West Fork a few miles down the road from Chicken.
Set camp and met some local hunters. The Moose season finished the Friday before so the camp ground was almost empty, it was full a week ago. Only Caribou is still in open season.
We all ended up spending the evening until midnight beside a camp fire with two hunters, Richard and Kurt. They were wonderful to chat too. Kurt was a certified sea Captain and Richard was retired, but a former Air Force Officer. We had the opportunity discuss and explore some intricacies of each others countries.
Heard a Horned Owl very close nearby, stands about 3 feet tall and hunts rabbits.
Weather: Low minus 9 C High 5 C
Wildlife: Horned Owl
O/N N 63 53.246 W 142 14.646
The Ferry to cross the Yukon, we're next.
No comments:
Post a Comment