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September 25, 2009
Day Six
Saturday September 19, 2009
After lots of coffee and waffles we left Tok and headed up to the settlement of Chicken. Rumour has it when gold was discovered and lots of men went in search of their fortunes, many servived by eating Ptarmigan. The town would have been named that, except that no one could spell it, so Chicken sufficed....so the rumour says. When we got there, everything was shut. Closing down for the winter. We did, however, have a great chat with one of the locals. He leaves in Chicken for the warmer months and then heads to California to ranch for the winter. He reckoned he didn't have the same mindset as the 4 or 5 permanent residents of Chicken who spent the winter there despite the roads receiving no maintenance and no plowing from the 1st of October til spring.
We didn't plan on staying for that long either so we got back in the truck after a few photos and made our way up into the hills on the Taylor highway. This road winds its way through the hills and in, around and over several creeks that were running more like rivers due to the recent rainfall.
The highway eventually climbs to the top of the hills which by this point were quite broad and sparsely forested. Although not quite at the US/Canada border where the 'Top of the World' highway officially begins, this was the start of its style of landscape.
Now I'd love to be able to write about the incredible or dramatic views available from the Top of the World...except that we were at the Top of the World on a very cloudy/foggy day. The road itself follows the ridgeline of the hills leaving only a brief view of the hillsides as they plunge away into the foggy abyss. Occasionally, the cloud cover lifted long enough to get a glimpse of a valley snaking off into the mountain range. In the midst of this cloudy kingdom sits the American and Canadian customs building. Built on one of the highest elevations on the highway, it certainly brings to mind a lofty castle and a mighty ruler granting rights of passage through his kingdom.
Coming down out of the clouds, the highway gives a great view of Dawson City and the valley. We took the ferry across the Yukon River and headed into town. Dawson City has done well at keeping its historical feel - there are still wooden plank sidewalks and most of the streets are still gravel. We checked out the info center, found out that we were just in time to catch the last show of the season at Diamond Tooth Gerties and drove around town for a bit and then took the ferry back across the river as we realized that the government campground was again the best choice. A good meal and a few beers later and we walked down to the ferry to once again cross the river to town. Our first stop was the Downtown Hotel to get warmed up and try out a relatively now-famous shooter - the Sourtoe Cocktail. If you wanna learn more about it try here, but the short story is the bar has several human toes (kept in salt and essentially mummified) that are used. The cocktail is drunk with any choice of spirits 80 proof or greater. The toe is added and when the shot/cocktail is taken and the toe must touch your lips. Needless to say, we indulged (when have I ever not indulged in something new and alcoholic?) and became members of the Sourtoe Club. Now, whenever we go back, we get to have the toe in our drinks for free.
After the drinks with apendages in them we decided to head to Diamond Tooth Gerties for the last show of the season (which we would have missed had we been able to drive our itinerary as planned). It was a grand-ole show of song and dance with enough racieness to earn maybe an MA rating. Happy hour started when the last show did - midnight, which was great timing and kept us enjoying the review. The photos are of poor quality but that reflects the choice of spending time to find a good setting on the camera and a steady point on which to rest the camera OR whether to finish a happy hour pint and get another one....
End of day six
Posted by Dr.Unk at September 25, 2009 11:51 AM
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