A Viking’s Walkabout – Day 22 – Viking Navigation LLC

Tok, Alaska to Dawson City, Yukon

Distance: 185 miles / 298 km

Time: ~5 hours

Poop or mud? Unclear. Avoid. Getting gas at the only gas station where I bought gas twice on the trip.

East of Tok, crossing the Tanana River, I visited this crossing and the newer Tanana River Bridge in the background on Day 14 on the way up. Part of the original truss is on display at the remaining bridge abutment of the original bridge. The first bridge in this location was a pontoon bridge used during the construction of the Alaska Highway during WWII. Then the Army Corps constructed a wooden bridge. The wooden bridge was replaced with a steel truss bridge in 1943. The 1943 truss suffered from scour under the concrete piers. The truss also created high and wide truck size limitations. The new bridge in the background was finished in 2010 and the old structure was removed.

A smurf guards the 1943 abutment.

The 2010 Tanana River Bridge as seen from the 1943 bridge abutment looking west towards Tok.

Turning north (“Dude, you’re going the wrong way…”) from Tetlin Junction and leaving the Alaska Highway to start on the Taylor Highway.

Those are trees… lots and lots of trees… They stretch as far as the eye can see, which around here is probably out past the Forty Mile River. The road felt very isolated. There was very little traffic and there were times where I felt I was the only person for many miles.

The road goes ever on and on… There is very little traffic on this route. For the first hour I only passed two or three cars and only a couple trucks.

Road conditions are much better on this road than the Alaska Highway closer to the border.

Some washboard gravel exists on the route, but still in better shape than the Alaska or Dalton Highways.

The first settlement of any size is Chicken, Alaska at mile post 67 or so. The giant chicken was a high school project cutting old school lockers into metal chicken feathers. The M*A*S*H style mileage sign to poultry themed city names was a nice touch.

This is the F. E. Company Dredge No. 4 in Chicken. A large, barge-like machine, they would dredge up continuous buckets of material that were then sifted on board the dredge with large rocks dropped behind the dredge in piles, and gold sorted out in sluices. They would churn up an entire river bed, extract the gold, and dump the rocks behind. This dredge originally worked a creek north of Fairbanks from 1938 to 1958, and was then moved to Chicken Creek where it worked the creek until 1967.

Valves anyone? Old parts of the dredge operation in Chicken.

A wild tracked snow machine of some kind in Chicken.

Ongoing placer mining along Wade Creek east of Chicken.

The Top of the World Highway as the road follows the ridge line into the distance.

Storms obscure the mountainous horizon along the Top of the World Highway near the US-Canada border.

Looking north near the Canadian border.

Leaving Alaska after 8 days here…

The road into Canada has more gravel sections, but it is in generally good shape (better than the Alaska Highway at the same longitude). There is a lot of RV traffic here, but not much heavy truck traffic. The reason for that was about to become clear…

Wait?!? A ferry?!?!? Yep. There is no bridge over the Yukon River in Dawson City. I suspect this contributes to the lack of heavy trucks on the route too.

War Bus waits its turn to board. Note the massive landslide remains on the hillside on the other side of the river.

I’m told this ferry is famous… It lost out to “Tugger” as the guest star of Russell Crowe’s “Fightin’ Round the World.”

A colorful school and a boardwalk sidewalk.

Robert Smith of the Cure hanging out at the Triple J Hotel Bar… The curry was fantastic. It was here that I met Kevin, Mike, and Scotty. A great group of people. Scotty became my tour guide!

Can-can line at Diamond Tooth Gerties Gambling Hall.

Scotty’s buddy Donny in the sound booth at Gerties is only moderately annoyed with me, which is an accomplishment.

Scotty and Adam take a bow with the dancers at Diamond Tooth Gerties.

My Lineman friend in Tok was right to send me this way. I had more fun, met more people, and made more friends in Dawson City than any other stop along the way.