Chicken or Ptarmigan?

Monday, June 22, 2009 – Day 53

We got our usual early start around 9:45 AM.  The temperature was 17C when we finally got underway headed east on the Richardson Hwy. We stopped at an overlook to take some pictures of the Alaska Range to the south.  They were bathed in sunlight and really stood out against the blue sky.  We got talking to a couple from the Seattle area who had been generally doing a similar route to ours.  They had attended the Summer Solstice celebration in Fairbanks and were previously in Denali National Park.  They were lucky enough to get a full view of Mt. McKinley, while they were there.  We gave them our travelling card in hopes that they will send us some of their great shots.  Curt and Laurie were headed down to Valdez for a little more touring, before heading home to Washington.  We are finding it difficult to NOT stop and talk to people on our route.  They always seem to have some interesting stories. 

We continued on to Delta Junction, which is the official end of the Alaska Hwy at milepost 1422 and took some pictures here.  (Although we have not driven the route contiguously; when we arrive in Dawson Creek, BC, we will have driven the whole length of the Alaska Hwy.) We continued on through Tok, where we fuelled the truck and stopped at the Visitor Center.  When we came out, there was a guy on a bicycle talking to another guy in a camouflage hat.  I recognized the hat belonged to JP, whom I’d met on the Arctic Circle tour back in Fairbanks.  The biker with whom he was talking was from Belgium who had started this current bike tour in Buenos Aires, Argentina on January 01, 2007.  Apparently when he finishes in North America he is headed for Cape Town, South Africa where he will start his journey homeward.  Much more dedication than I have!!

We departed Tok and were soon turning northward on the Taylor Highway which leads to the Top of the World Highway and into Dawson City, YT (the home of Jack London and Pierre Berton).  The first 18 to 20 miles has been scarred by a forest fire; but after that the  scenery is just amazing.  Some gravel sections and steep inclines but well worth the effort.  We were stopped at a scenic viewpoint and a truck camper pulled in at the same time coming from the opposite direction. The camper had Manitoba plates so we had to stop and talk – What else??  The couple turned out to be from Morden, Ron and Doreen Martens know our friends Jim Taylor and Liz Leatherdale.  We meet someone on a mountaintop in remote Alaska and they know someone we do.  It’s a small world!  We continued over gravel roads for the next twenty miles and stopped in the old gold mining town of Chicken, Alaska. In the winter the population is 6, but in the summer the population swells to 21 not including tourists. All of their water is hauled in and their electricity is provided by diesel generators. Now, why did they call it Chicken???  The early prospectors couldn’t spell Ptarmigan, the state bird…so kids that’s why you should stay in school!!

One other noteworthy event today.  On the Alaska Hwy. just west of Tok, we caught a flying stone from a semi trailer.  We couldn’t see any chip at first but when we got into to Tok to fuel I noticed a chip in the windshield near the roof line. Within a few miles this tiny chip had become a “C” shaped crack.  This was on one of the best portions of the roadway in Alaska; after travelling on all kinds of gravel roads we got a stone chip here.  Go Figure.