As Dawson City spits me out across the Yukon river, a find myself at the feet of the "Top of the World" Highway. This highway is 79 miles (127 km) long and ends at the "Little Gold" outpost, the most northern border crossing between the US and Canada, and all of the hemisphere for that matter.
It's daunting at first-- this is the first time I'm going to be on a dirt road, out of service, away from any human settlements, and on my own. I have new tires and had a fresh breakfast. The sun rising so early helps with the cold but it's still in the 40s (<10 C).
Might as well let her rip!
As I'm going down the highway I get a groove going. Of course I'm not going to be the fastest vehicle out there. I pull over for the trucks and RVs that want to fly by, and I keep it slow in the curves. My new tires are amazing. I've never had the opportunity to really test out 50/50 (on road / off road) tires on a long dirt road before. I even turn off the ABS and put Lechuza into 'Gravel mode" and work on my turning in curves. It's so nice to have the extra traction!
I hit the border and it's a piece of cake. The crossing guard had his son there and nothing better to do but wave me through after a few essential, formal, yet redundant questions. They're not looking for substance, they're looking for accuracy-- like a human Turing Test.
"How long have you been in Canada?"
"Since Mid-July, I had to fly in and out for a weddi--"
OMG I don't care..
The Alaskan side, believe it or not, is not the "Top of the World" highway. It's a horrid, loose gravel, twisty, primitive piece of shit highway known as the "Taylor Highway" that takes you down to the "Alaska Highway" near Tok.
Before leaving Dawson City, I was sure to fill up my extra tank that contains a few extra liters for emergencies. Google didn't show any gas stations in the mining outpost of Chicken, but there was one there. The prices were ludicrous, Jeffrey. I didn't fill up in Chicken there because I possessed the fuel economy to make it to the Alaska Highway, but I struck up conversation with a professional shoot-shitter.
He came up and we talked motorcycles, travel, and road conditions. Steve, from Arizona, had told me he paid $5 to use the wifi in Chicken by getting a special code to access the internet. I was curious how many miles were from Chicken to Tok, my next destination, and he said he'd let me use his code. After attempting? Guess what? He'd used all 100mg already. There was a cap on the amount of data you could use for $5. I've never heard of such a wifi rip-off in all my life.
After leaving all that noise behind I made it down to Tok, then Fairbanks the next day- The heart of Central Alaska and my last stop before the Arctic Ocean.
JT - 8/1/2022