Sunday
1st half: Wasilla to Tok
Beautiful morning, left around 630am in clear skies. Saw a lot of moose at the beginning of the day, raging rivers due to the melting of the snowpack’s, took the Glenn highway to Glenndale which brought us through rock peaks, rock slides and glaciers. It wasn’t long before the temps began to drop and the skies began to get darker – then the rain came. As most of you riders know when you’re cruising along you get used to the sounds of the engine. We were cruising along at 60 mph, cresting the top of one of the mountains, when the bike went silent, I felt the rear tire slide – then at the same time Donnie rolled back on the throttle slowly and pulled the bike out of the slide. Once the bike was under control again, he pulled over and we looked at each other and had a little chat about the event. We’re guessing that there was ice at the top - it took a couple of miles for him to get back his confidence in the road. WE eventually arrived in Glenndale, had breakfast – as we were leaving a few locals stopped us and asked which way we were going and said it was slippery going south so be careful as there is ice at the top. We assured them we were on our way north and had first-hand experience with the ice. The sun did come out again a little while later and we stopped at an information center in Tok to check road conditions before venturing off on the second leg of our journey.
2nd half Tok to Dawson City Yukon
Question: if you were given the choice to travel over the 60+ miles of rock, loose gravel, water trucks and traffic delays we encountered on our way between Destruction Bay and Alaska - or – take the Klondike Loop, a 498-mile way around that construction with over 100 miles of narrow dirt roads, steep terrain called The Top of the World Highway? which would you choose? I’m guessing most of you would choose the first option. -of course, we choose the second one. We agree – we’re a bit insane. The first part to the town of Chicken, was good for the most part – but right outside the town we encountered the most nastiest washboard roads ever! When arriving at the town (little mining community) we knew we were most likely going to encounter more rough riding when the locals were pointing at the bike with the trailer and shaking their heads. As we left that town we started climbing narrow windy tight dirt road with hairpin turns, no guardrails, just a gravel road with 1,000 foot drops. We drove for miles and miles along the tops of the mountains, down to the bottom, then back up the next. At one point as we were creeping alongside a river when we came across a true Yukon gold miner. We could see that he had been panning in the water and must have heard us coming. As we approached he put both hands (including the pan) up in the air and greeted us with the most authentic welcoming toothless Christmas morning smile and waved as we passed. I sure hope he didn’t dump his fortune back into the river. Further up the river we passed by several commercial mining operations and then back to climbing up the next mountains. I didn’t think the dirt was ever going to end. However, 12 miles before US / Canadian border, the US paved the road in the middle of nowhere – a welcome “gift” from all us taxpayers. Finally arriving at the Canadian border, the agent told us that we had 65 more miles of dirt roads between us and Dawson City – and that we should go slow as they had recently received rain which as we know makes those roads slippery. Sure enough the rain came back as we were descending the last mountain down to the Yukon River where we had to take the ferry over to Dawson City.
As we set up the camper for the night – I made Donnie promise that there would be no more off-road adventures this trip. Went for dinner at Diamond Tooth Gerties gambling hall – then at midnight walked back to our camper with sunglasses on (21 hours of sunlight)!
I really recommend you all google the top of the world highway – it’s insane!
D&C
PS I do have pictures but the Wi-Fi I paid for is incredibly s-l-o-w so will post when I can....
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Sunday
1st half: Wasilla to Tok
Beautiful morning, left around 630am in clear skies. Saw a lot of moose at the beginning of the day, raging rivers due to the melting of the snowpack’s, took the Glenn highway to Glenndale which brought us through rock peaks, rock slides and glaciers. It wasn’t long before the temps began to drop and the skies began to get darker – then the rain came. As most of you riders know when you’re cruising along you get used to the sounds of the engine. We were cruising along at 60 mph, cresting the top of one of the mountains, when the bike went silent, I felt the rear tire slide – then at the same time Donnie rolled back on the throttle slowly and pulled the bike out of the slide. Once the bike was under control again, he pulled over and we looked at each other and had a little chat about the event. We’re guessing that there was ice at the top - it took a couple of miles for him to get back his confidence in the road. WE eventually arrived in Glenndale, had breakfast – as we were leaving a few locals stopped us and asked which way we were going and said it was slippery going south so be careful as there is ice at the top. We assured them we were on our way north and had first-hand experience with the ice. The sun did come out again a little while later and we stopped at an information center in Tok to check road conditions before venturing off on the second leg of our journey.
2nd half Tok to Dawson City Yukon
Question: if you were given the choice to travel over the 60+ miles of rock, loose gravel, water trucks and traffic delays we encountered on our way between Destruction Bay and Alaska - or – take the Klondike Loop, a 498-mile way around that construction with over 100 miles of narrow dirt roads, steep terrain called The Top of the World Highway? which would you choose? I’m guessing most of you would choose the first option. -of course, we choose the second one. We agree – we’re a bit insane. The first part to the town of Chicken, was good for the most part – but right outside the town we encountered the most nastiest washboard roads ever! When arriving at the town (little mining community) we knew we were most likely going to encounter more rough riding when the locals were pointing at the bike with the trailer and shaking their heads. As we left that town we started climbing narrow windy tight dirt road with hairpin turns, no guardrails, just a gravel road with 1,000 foot drops. We drove for miles and miles along the tops of the mountains, down to the bottom, then back up the next. At one point as we were creeping alongside a river when we came across a true Yukon gold miner. We could see that he had been panning in the water and must have heard us coming. As we approached he put both hands (including the pan) up in the air and greeted us with the most authentic welcoming toothless Christmas morning smile and waved as we passed. I sure hope he didn’t dump his fortune back into the river. Further up the river we passed by several commercial mining operations and then back to climbing up the next mountains. I didn’t think the dirt was ever going to end. However, 12 miles before US / Canadian border, the US paved the road in the middle of nowhere – a welcome “gift” from all us taxpayers. Finally arriving at the Canadian border, the agent told us that we had 65 more miles of dirt roads between us and Dawson City – and that we should go slow as they had recently received rain which as we know makes those roads slippery. Sure enough the rain came back as we were descending the last mountain down to the Yukon River where we had to take the ferry over to Dawson City.
As we set up the camper for the night – I made Donnie promise that there would be no more off-road adventures this trip. Went for dinner at Diamond Tooth Gerties gambling hall – then at midnight walked back to our camper with sunglasses on (21 hours of sunlight)!
I really recommend you all google the top of the world highway – it’s insane!
D&C
PS I do have pictures but the Wi-Fi I paid for is incredibly s-l-o-w so will post when I can....
OMG you are fearless, at least for the most part. I agree Cyndy, enough is enough. Get home safe and sound. Love your amazing adventures. xox
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