Day 15 – Dawson City, YT to Tok, AK

Today was the official start to our 3rd week of the trip. It also included the part of the trip that we KNEW did not have 100% paved roads, i.e. we knew that portions of the Top of The World Highway between Dawson City and the US border was unpaved – supposed to be hard packed gravel – and that portions of the Taylor Highway between the US border and the Alaska Highway as also unpaved.

Before we headed out, we took the drive up to Midnight Dome to check out the view of Dawson City from atop – it was a great view,

even if it was a bit hazy due to the current forest fires taking place just south of Dawson. After the trip up, we came back into town for breakfast at Belinda’s Restaurant in the Westmark Inn and the hopped onto the George Black ferry to cross the Yukon River.

YT9 (Top of the World Highway) has awesome views as it winds its way towards the Alaska border. About 10 kms into the ride, it does become gravel, and they are trying to make it passable, but have laid down some fairly heavy and deep gravel to withstand the pounding that the trucks hauling RVs and transports put on it. It doesn’t make it very biker friendly though and Vicki and I felt sorry for Brian and Jana who were riding it on Matilda, whereas we were in the comfort of

LiB’s temporary replacement.

Once we crossed the border, the road becomes known as the Taylor Highway (AK9) and the first 20 or so miles have beautiful new pavement. However, twenty miles east of Chicken, it becomes all fairly thick gravel as well, so I am sure that Brian and Jana had enough gravel to last then a full riding season.

At Chicken, we stopped for a rest and a walkabout of the area, including going up to the Gold Mine to see some of the old equipment. We also met a lot of other biker groups there, including a group from Motoquest tour that were leading a group of around 10 bikers from China. The rest of the Taylor Highway from Chicken to the junction with the Alaska Highway is paved, but it also has a number of repair spots that are quiet tricky, with thick chunky gravel

in places. Of course, the fact that some people want to travel that road in excess of the speed limit, passing on bends and hills, doesn’t make it any better, especially with the amount of dust and rocks that they throw up while driving.

Regardless, we managed to make it to our destination – Young’s Motel in Tok (as in toke), Alaska without incident. We got ourselves checked in early – we are now 4 hours away from EST – and then got out to the local car wash to clean off the rental car and Matilda. The extra hour allowed us to get caught up on laundry and get over to Fast Eddy’s Restaurant (part of the Young’s Motel group) for dinner.

For the day, we logged just over 305 kms for a total to date on the trip of 7,547 kms