Alaska Highway north in the Yukon and Alaska

Guess I spoke too soon when I bragged about the Alaska Highway being not as bad as the Alcan through the Yukon. Today, we drove 170 miles on the worst stretch of road on which we have driven – other than the Alcan, that is. At this point, neither of us can say which road was worse. We arrived at our home-away-from-home this afternoon beaten to a pulp. The scenery was worth all of the discomfort as we travelled on a road named “The Top of the World.” What breathe taking panoramas of valleys and low lying mountains.

BUT: We spent the night in Dawson City as mentioned in the last post. The ferry across the Yukon River was memorable, at least to me, since swift currents and raging waters are not in my list of favorite things or things to participate in. We waited while the ferry disgorged its travelers on the other side and then for its return to our side of the river. Did I mention raging river?  

Alright, in spite of all my phobias, we made it across without incident and went on our merry way toward the US border which is located at Poker Creek, Alaska, which is the northern most point of entry into the US. When we got there, the affable border guard offered that he had a stamp of a caribou and asked if we would like him to stamp our passports with the icon at Poker Creek, Alaska. I jumped at the chance. Love the stamp on my passport. The population of Poker Creek is two, and I think we saw both of them in the guard post upon our US entry. We wondered what these two guys did to draw duty in Poker Creek. 

We saw this young moose today.  Hard to get a proper photo though. 

We are in an RV park that is off the beaten path and the woman who is the owner is admirable to say the least. She’s pushing 70 and is riding an ATV pulling a trailer with a log on it and told me that she had been painting. She says she built this place and has been here 50 years. We are lucky because she opened only three days ago. We hope to see Mt. Sanford (16,237 ft.) in the morning. There was rain in between us and the mountain when we arrived this afternoon which obscured our vision of the mountain. It appeared to be covered in snow and must be a sight when the weather allows.

We had lunch in a turn out at West Fork Dennison River where Cliff fulfilled one of my wishes from last year by trudging out into the muskeg (wet bog stuff) to a dead Black Spruce tree where he used his trusty hatchet to chop it down and harvest about a foot of the trunk. These trees grow so slowly and I can’t wait to cut it into one-inch slices and polish them so that I can count the rings to see how old the tree was when it died. 

We finished listening to our audio book today. It was “Treasures of Khan” written by Clive Cussler and Dirk Cussler. It was 15 disks long and was a great asset to our trip. When driving on the Alaska Highway or the Alcan, one needs distraction from the pain of the roadway.

There are 18 mosquitoes on the window screen beside me trying to get in and “suck our blood” but we will not be their victims. Bless the person who invited screening!

Tomorrow, on to Anchorage.  Picture of the day: