Day 22
Thursday, June 29
On the Road to Chicken


After 21 days we finally made it to ALASKA!!!! And where in Alaska did we go?? Chicken, yes, that's right; we came to Chicken, Alaska!!

We tried to leave Dawson City and the Yukon Territory this morning at 8:00. The only problem was that the only way to leave Dawson was to take the ferry across the Yukon River. We could have driven 500 miles back to Whitehorse and around to Tok and then Chicken, but we wanted to take the ferry and then drive the Top of the World Highway. Possibly it would have been better to take the long way around. We waited in the ferry line for 3 hrs and 45 minutes. It seems that everybody wanted to take the ferry this morning. When I crossed there were still 22 RV's and I don't know how many cars waiting in line. There were lots of walker, bicyclers, motorcyclists and even a couple pushing a shopping cart full of groceries who wanted to ride the ferry today. But waiting in line for the ferry was just the first part. The first 68 miles of the Top of the World Highway alternated between patches of asphalt to longer patches of gravel and dust. After 68 miles we left The Yukon Territory and Canada behind as we passed through customs and entered the good old U.S. of A. One would think that the road would improve once we reached our soil, but Oh No, quite the contrary. The road changed to dirt and mud with innumerable potholes and washboards. We had 46 miles of awful road in order to reach Chicken. The only saving grace to all of this is the scenery we saw on our way. The Top of the World Highway literally runs atop the mountain range and it is incredible. You could see for miles across plunging valleys to the next mountain range. The road in many places was literally hanging on the side of the mountain with one lane or the other up next to nothing but a sheer drop. We had been warned to stay off the shoulders because they are very soft and you could easily tip over the side. Needless to say, I held tight to what I thought would be the center line. there are no center lines on dirt roads. I hope the pictures are good, but they could never show the magnitude of the beauty we saw.

After arriving in Chicken we set up and went to a travel briefing for our trip to Tok tomorrow. Following the briefing the staff provided us with a Welcome to Alaska dinner of what else but - Chicken. We had grilled chicken sandwiches, potato salad, 3 bean salad, and all the sandwich fixin's. It was a great dinner. Following dinner, the owner of the RV park and his wife brought us dessert - blueberry crunch with ice cream. It was Yummy!! He gave us a brief history of Chicken. It seems that when the residents of an unnamed mining camp wanted to establish a post office, they were told that they would have to come up with a name for their town. The wanted to name it after the Alaska state bird - the Ptarmagan. There was just one problem; no one knew how to spell Ptarmagan. They began discussing exactly what a Ptarmagan was and decided that it tasted like Chicken so that should be the name of the town. They have signs welcoming you to "beautiful downtown chicken" as you turn up their road. Their downtown consists of a mini-mall containing a saloon, cafe, liquor store and souvenier shop. There are two RV parks and an airstrip - grass of course. The say they have a school - Chicken University - and their mascot is the "Peckers." Everything about this town is a joke. The park owner started out her 35 years ago as a gold miner. They still mine gold and allow people wo stay here to mine gold on their claims. HE and his family do not stay here in the winter as it gets to -80 degrees. There were over 400 residents of Chicken in 1900. Today there are only 4 permanent residents - that is those who live here year-round.

One of our group, Chris and Mary, had a spring break on their 5th wheel on the way here today. I guess the rough road got him. Anyway, I offered him the spring I brought along - thanks to Jerry Hansen. At first it looked to be too short, but Robert - our NASA rocket engineer - said he thought he could make it work. With Robert doing the heavy work, Chris - a nuclear engineer - and Ken - the wagonmaster - assisting him and I being the gofer, and 5 or 6 of the other guys offering moral support, we were able to get the spring onto Chris's trailer. He can surly make it to Tok where he can have it checked and replaced if necessary. It is amazing to me how everyone comes together to help in any way they can. I've seen it happen in 3 different cases this week.

Just as we were finishing up with Chris' rig, there was a hugh explosion. It seems the saloon across the road in the mini-mall has a cannon that they fire whenever the mood strikes them. I was loud and it shook every RV in the park. It was 10:00 and most people had already gone to bed or were on the way. I came in to take and shower and they shot it again. It sounded as if something hit the front of the trailer!

Tomorrow we go to Tok - about 78 miles. We won't have to get up so early and get around so fast. And the best thing is that we won't have to wait in line for nearly 4 hours for a ferry! I;ll report about Tok next time. Til then - Happy Trails!