Deano's Road Trip: June 2011

Wednesday, 29 June 2011

Along the Yukon back to Whitehorse

We had a very pleasant camp at Pelly River Crossing watching the sun set over a hill at 11:15. Then, after 8 days of touring the Southwest Yukon and Alaska we had a short ride back to our friends and ultimate hosts’ Pat and Maxine’s place where another gourmet dinner was served. It’s been a fantastic trip made even more special by the special people of the Yukon.

The land of the midnight sun.

Camp visitor

Quick exit

Five finger rapids on the Yukon

Gull pestering Golden eagle

The big Yukon Valley

Dawson City

If you want raw and immediate history, a visit to Dawson City is the way to get it. The gold rush here in the late 1890’s was an incredible era and Parks Canada has great programs for allowing you to understand and feel some of the excitement of the time. The stampeders were an incredibly hardy and innovative group and the evidence of their exploits is bold and present. Just getting there was more adventure than most of us experience in a lifetime.

We toured the gold mining Dredge #4 which was like a giant mining conveyer that ate it’s way up creeks doing the work of 200 men with great efficiency. Then we did a guided walk around the town which was also fascinating. The visit to poet Robert Service’s cabin was well worth the admission. We spent an extra day here to take in the sights.

Car ferry across the Yukon River

Dawson city and the Yukon River

View from "the Dome" above the town.

Dredge #4 - a must see in Dawson

Big cables

Big gears

Good to be in a motel!

Robert Service's cabin

At our motel we bumped into bright and beautiful Britta Jensen, a tephrochronologist who is a former Math 10 student at Selkirk secondary now working on her PHD. Tephrochronology is the study of the age and distribution of layers of volcanic ash from ancient and more recent times. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tephrochronology
Her research is connected to a plethora of other fields and appllications. It was a delight to meet her again and fascinating to hear about her research.

Britta

The old- sinking in melting permafrost

The restored

Camp beside the Pelly River

Motorbiking The Top of the World

After a great day on the Denali highway, Roger and I made for Chicken Alaska on our way to Dawson City via the Top of the World Highway. On the way from Tok to Chicken, we wound our way through the remnants of massive forest fires with millions of dead scrub spruce still standing on the permafrost.

We must have met at least 50 people on motorbikes and in chicken saw at least another 30 and later 40 more. You see we were going toward Dawson city just as the famous “Dust to Dawson” motorcycle rally was ending so many of the riders were headed home to Alaska or continuing their travels. What a divergent collection of bikes and riders!

The Top of the World highway is aptly named because it snakes along the top of mountain ridges for about 100 km with some amazing views – particularly near the Canadian border.

We ended the day at a nice quiet government campsite beside the Yukon river, just North of Dawson City where we could watch the river paddle wheeler go by.

Click on any photo to enlarge.

Also the Spot tracker shows our route at:

http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0y5pH4BBN7xg01if5bvx6V4x9LLcZgciS

Massive fires through here

Lots of bikes at Chicken

Top of the World!

The Canadian Customs building

Comfy camp

Dawson City riverboat paddlewheeler

Saturday, 25 June 2011

The Denali Highway

Once again avoiding crowds, we decided to skip the big city of Fairbanks and instead ride the Denali Highway – a 130 mile gravel road through the mountains - a new route fo Roger too. Great decision – we were rewarded with spectacular views the whole way . The road was good and the bikes performed well on the smooth gravel, frequently getting up to100 km/h. Around every corner there was a new vista of broad green valleys, stunning rivers and magnificent glacier clad mountains. We stopped frequently – here are the pics...