Day 19 Chicken to Dawson City

Day 19 - Saturday, July 18/2009
Starting Location: Chicken, AK

Ending Location: Stewart Crossing, AK
Distance Travelled: 231 miles or 374 km
Distance Travelled to date: 5897 miles or 9881 km

After a very cool night, the coldest of the trip, we spent the morning panning and realized that we were definetly not going to strike it rich. We decided to head for Dawson City. The roads were supposed to be brutal...and they were. Gravel and potholes and washboard gravel for 36 miles. We took it slow. After ten miles, came across a young couple that had a flat and we tried to fix it with the tire repair kit I bought and air compressor. The hole was too big to stop the leak, but we repaired it enough to get them back to Chicken where they could get a repair done.
After the 35 miles, we came to the Canadian/US border at an altitude of 4200 ft. Border guard said if we came by yesterday, we could have seen thousands of caribou come over the hills. As we crossed the border, it started to hail and then rain very hard, but the roads were much better. We were now on the Top of the World Highway. It was well paved to start, but became loose gravel for long sections. It was a bit nerve-racking as it was previously known as Ridge Road as it follows the tops of very high mountains...4000 ft high and you can't see the edge as it is very steep and drops right off to a very deep valley...but it's gorgeous. The weather played havoc as did the roads. We wanted to get to Dawson City to visit, but the travel took so long most things were closed when we got there. All accomodations were booked as there is a very big music festival going on and there were tons of young adults partying. We ate, walked around a bit and then decided to head towards Whitehorse. Got past the 10,000 km point of our trip. Stopped in Stewart Crossing at about 11:00 and stayed at a RV park. The mosquitos were horrendous as they kept getting into the tent making it a very uncomforatable night of sleeping. 3 times, we could hear wolf packs howling in the night. Quite the day. At least we will have a good headstart for Whitehorse tomorrow.

Gas:
Dawson City, YK $1.317/li 17.768 litres $23.40 total
Stewart Crossing, YK $1.3230/li 10.179 litres $12.52 total

Stewart Crossing RV Park, $10

The weather started off cool, as we got up and was nice when we left at noon. Becasme overcast and rain threatened. Started to rain with slight hail, as soon as we got to the CDN/US border. Poured for a while. Got to Dawson City in the rain, but it was warm. Streets were really muddy, but being a frontier town, we thought they kept it this was for the ambience. Left for Stewart Crossing and the weather was comfortable.

Road from Chicken was very rought but doable. Gravel, pot holes, washboard gravel, but if you kept it slow and steady, things would be okay. Some spots very, very dusty. Top of the World Highway started of as excellent paved road, but there were long loose gravel sections that had washboard gravel. Road out of Dawson City was excellent with small broken sections of hard-packed or loose gravel. Again, just need to take your time.