Dawson City to Chicken Alaska

Dawson City to Chicken
Spike posted new pictures of the tour at www.alaskarvtour.com.
Today (Saturday) we got up at 5:00 AM to leave Dawson City for Chicken Alaska. We didn’t hook up the pickup as we planned to do it at the ferry. The ferry would hold our MH, another small MH and the pickup. It runs back and forth across the Yukon river and is free because it is part of the Yukon highway system .We got there early to avoid a backup when 20 RVs show up at the same time. Once we crossed the Yukon we drove 11 miles to a wide turnout where we waited for the rest of the group. Once we all assembled around 9:30 we took off for Chicken. We drove 97 miles on gravel roads with no guard rails and steep drops of hundreds of feet at some points. The road was paved at one point but the maintenance was too high so they are letting it deteriorate to gravel which holds up better in the extreme weather. According to a couple that took the tour in 2003 the road (called the Top of the World highway) is much better than it was then. On the 2003 tour it was a single lane road with turnouts to use when you met oncoming traffic.
A few miles from the US/Canadian border one of the big diesel pusher Class A RVs called in to report he was overheating. Roger our mechanic, stopped to help. We were still 50 miles from Chicken and 140 miles from Tok which was the closest parts store. After a lot of discussion between Spike, Roger, and Leo (the RV owner), which at one point considered flying a part in from Tok to Boundary, they sent the rest of the tour on to Chicken. Spike joined Roger at the disabled RV. They determined that his serpentine belt had broken and they nursed it across the border to Boundary. Roger and Leo drove to Tok to pick up a new belt. Leo’s wife and 91 year old mother stayed at the RV with Teresa (another staff member). By the time we arrived in Chicken all the towed vehicles were covered with thick dust. One couple left a window cracked open on their fifth wheel and it was full of dust and dirt.
The temp Saturday afternoon was 84 with a few clouds. Did I mention that gas in Dawson City was $5.00 per gallon?
Top picture is Chicken Alaska (old section is across the road), Others are the Comissioners house Poker Creek crossing (most northern crossing point in US-no illegals here), and old dredge in Dawson.