6/30/22
After my morning coffee at Red Mammoth, I meet up with the guys in front of their hotel at 11am. Steve, Ken and I were there but Curtiss was still loading up. I thought the former Navy man would be 10 minutes early but when you have three GPS to setup on his Pan America, it takes a while. I mean look at this cockpit:
He said as a former flight engineer, he needs his info and data. After we load up, we head to the west part of Dawson City where we had to catch a ferry for a quick ride across the Yukon River. It was a long line about 30 cars and RVs deep. But we scooted up to the front led by Curtiss. We didn't make the first ferry but we made the second one.
https://goo.gl/maps/99VJfWTyamLjpyed7
After a quick 5 minute ferry ride, we roll off the ramp and straight onto the Top of the World Highway. The Top of the World Highway is a 79 mi highway from West Dawson, crosses into Alaska at the Poker Creek - Little Gold and continues into Alaska until it meets the Jack Taylor Highway and then leads to the little town of Chicken, AK. The Canadian portion is mostly unpaved with hard packed dirt and gravel. At some portions the gravel is a bit deeper and softer. As you can imagine, the road is high at 4,515 feet.
As we were riding, some portions soar up to the top of the mountains and you can see forest in the valley below. There have been forest fires in Alaska since June and you can see the haze from the fire and smoke up here. I was still running my 80/20 Shinko 705s and they were doing ok on this dirt and gravel road but I definitely did not plan on going this fast. But the bike was doing alright at 50mph and I was hanging on as best as I could. A few turns in the gravel was a bit soft and washy but we made them all.
No photos here as we were riding pretty fast and hard. Curtiss was leading on his Pan America and we were flying at 50-60mph to keep up with him. Ken was second, then me, then Steve was sweep. Curtiss and Steve were on Cardo intercoms and were commenting on how graceful Ken and I were riding in the dirt. So much so that they shot this beautiful video of me:
After about 2 hours and 66 miles, we arrive at the Poker Creek - Little Gold border crossing. This seasonal border crossing is closed during the winter and is shared by US and Canada.
We all went thru without any issues, although Ken had to clean off his license plate since it was completely covered by the Yukon and Dempster dirt.
After crossing, we continued onto a mostly paved portion of the Top of the World Highway but it did turn back into gravel after 20-30 miles. From Poker Creek, it was another 40 miles to Chicken, Alaska. To call it a town would be generous. It's more of a camp with several areas of camping, RV sites, and cabins. There were a few restaurants and of course, several bars. All the bathrooms I saw were outhouses.
At this point, Curtiss and Steve are staying here in Chicken to pan for gold. I convinced Ken to continue to Fairbanks with me so he can get a new rear tire. I will be swapping for a fresh set of Dunlop 50/50 Trailmax Mission in preparation for the Dalton Highway up to Deadhorse and Prodhoe Bay. I'm also trying to convince Ken to go up the Dalton with me. I would surely enjoy his company since I'm not sure I'd want to go up alone given everything I've read about this infamous road.