After a relaxing morning in Dawson
City, during which Neil went to the museum and returned with some interesting
points:
·
According to the museum display, the Yukon River
changed the direction of its flow as a result of advancing snow and ice which
blocked the South and East flow of the river about 3 million years ago. As a
result the Yukon carved out a route to the Bering Sea in the north. Perhaps
this happened at the same time as the tectonic movements….
·
Neil saw more examples of the remains of Woolly
Mammoths who roamed this area in the ice age because Dawson City was ice free
then
·
Originally this area was populated by the First
Nation people as part of their seasonal migration looking for fish, caribou,
moose etc
·
1846 saw the arrival of the Hudson Bay Trading
Company as they set up trading posts in the Yukon. They were forced out by the
Chilcat 10 years later
·
Early miners used picks, shovels , gold pans and
rocker boxes
·
When 30,000 people arrived in Dawson City after
hearing about the gold strike in Bonanza Creek, Dawson City was the biggest
city north of San Francisco
·
A competition is held each year to guess the
exact time the ice in the river will break and the whole town goes down to the
river to watch the start of the melt
We left Dawson City at 2.15 via a
different route. We waited for the paddle steamer to pass and then drove on to
the car ferry and crossed the Yukon River by ferry. Once the river freezes, an
extra layer of water is put on the river to make the freeze stronger. Then
cars, trucks and semi-trailers drive across the frozen river.
We passed through West Dawson and
set off on the Top of the World Highway from which we could see the strong but
silty Yukon River, Dawson City and the Klondike. It takes 10 miles for the 2
rivers to fully integrate but the land beside the river is very fertile. We
gradually wound our way up to the top of the mountain ridges on the dirt road
which stretched most of the way to Fairbanks. We climbed above the tree line
(4,300ft) and drove to the border (USA and Canada) with mountains from one horizon
to the other. The mountain tops were all grass covered and we saw a caribou
watching us as we went through the border crossing at a place called Poker
Creek (Elevation 4127 ft Population 2)
We swapped vans just after the
border crossing and, after watching a whole herd of about 30 caribou walking
and grazing on top of a mountain near us, we headed off to Chicken, Alaska. It
was called Chicken because the miners could not spell the name the Indians
called it. About 20 miles from Chicken the Top of the World Highway ends. It
was built in the 1970s to connect 2 mining roads and make it possible to drive
from Dawson City to Fairbanks on this scenic route. Suddenly we came across 3
caribou walking on the main road. They looked at us and kept walking. Then they
turned around and were not impressed to see us still there. Two left the road
and the biggest one then followed his friends so we could continue our journey.
They have right of way so we just slowed down and followed.
In the town of Chicken people
receive mail once per week by air. The town sign said 39 people and 1 old grump
live in Chicken but 2 years ago the grump died. We stopped to get fuel and some
drinks and then headed towards Tok for dinner. Its population in summer is 1200
but few businesses stay open in winter so the number is much small then. An
unusual road sign beside the highway read: WILDFIRE AHEAD: DRIVE WITH CAUTION.
There are about 70 fires burning somewhere in Alaska each day. We finished on
the Alaskan Highway near Delta Junction and pulled up beside the Alaskan Oil
Pipeline . It has survived an earthquake of 7.5 and goes for 800 miles.
We crossed the Tanana River which
is very fast flowing and saw the Eielsen Air Force Base which is 23 miles from
Fairbanks and the runway is long enough for moon launches to land if necessary.
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