Top of the World - Alaska

Dempster Run to Inuvik (part 1)...

Jaz’s bike wouldn’t start this morning in Dawson. Apparently it was unhappy… and some damn thing about FOB or electronic key ignition… at any rate, the little thingy needed a battery. We walked down to the gift shop/hardware store and they had one in stock! We were on the ferry and soon headed towards amerika. The rain poured and poured. I had all my heated gear on. Since the roads were mush, even motorhomes were passing us. One particular motorhome (aka BUS).. passed us fast and with ineffective mud flaps kicked mud up all over us. Jaz shook her fist and yelled and flipped them off… but they didn’t even tap a brake. We had to stop so Jaz could recover her goggles. We have traveled this road 3 times in 3 weeks. This particular crossing was the worst. Pot holes have become deep… and Jaz was, of course hitting every one of them. Frost heave type trenches across the road had filled with water and and the mud was really soft… the trailers and motorhomes were tearing these areas up and they were a real challenge to go through with the motorcycle.

As we continued to wind through the county side, higher and higher (they call this Top of The World because of the view), the soft shoulders became softer and softer - apparently too soft for motorhomes!

We rounded a corner and Jaz’s motorhome buddies were teetering on the edge… they had lost control and slip off the road. They were dangling precariously on the ledge.. Close to the tipping point. The slope below, if they tipped would have sent them rolling down at least a couple of thousand feet. Help was on the scene, so we kept on going. Later in Chicken… we couldn’t help but chuckle… at the idea of the motorhomers being scared shitless and then having to climb out of the driver’s side window. This is what movies are made of! I know it is poor taste to laugh at other peoples misfortune… but since they almost caused us to crash, and they seemed to be okay… we couldn’t help it. Jaz imagined a small yippe dog… on the dash… as these types of travelers inevitably have… yipping and shitting on the dash as the big rig slid. We passed one more big rig in a similar predicament before we got to Chicken, this one not as dramatic, but pretty messed up. This camper had on a yellow slicker and a lawn chair out… waiting for help. We figured with a big semi type tow truck needed for both of them.. it was going to be a wait. It was nice to see something other than motorbikes crashed on the road. It looked like over half a million dollars’ worth of rigs…

AND THEN… there were no chicken pot pies in Chicken… dammit! They were out… apparently the motorhome traffic was high and they were sold out…

We rolled in to Tok and we are currently celebrating the presence of tarmac… (as Ewin would say)…

Tok has a liquor store that is open 24 hours – 7 days a week. No massage therapist though.

Tok Liquor