Kind of a Fowl day............

Tuesday, May 18, 2010
5:00 AM -- ARE YOU SERIOUS?? Bags had to be out of our hotel room by 5:00 to be loaded before our 6:00 AM departure. Guess our tour director and driver/guides didn't like that any more than we tourists did, since they load the luggage. But hey, this is a big state and we've got lots of ground to cover, so get crackin'. Most of us skipped breakfast this morning, since we'll have a coffee stop in downtown Chicken early today, a 78 mile drive from Tok. Chicken was settled during the gold rush, and during that first scarce winter, the residents of the area survived by eating ptarmigan, now the state bird that is similar in size and appearance to a chicken. The miners, so the story goes, weren't sure how to spell ptarmigan, so they called their town Chicken. Winter population is about 15 people, and can soar to 40 or 50 during the summer tourist season.

During our bus ride, Peter handed out gifts we got from Dave and crew at the Tok Westmark. Each of us got a t-shirt with the picture of our group on the front, and a thank you card.

As we're approaching Chicken, Jordan mentioned that they actually have an airport there. When we passed it, he pointed out the "Chicken Strip." (You knew it was coming didn't you?) Downtown Chicken consists of three businesses: Mercantile, Saloon/Liquor Store, and the Chicken Creek Cafe.

Don and I each ordered a breakfast sandwich from the Cafe, but what I really wanted was PIE. The pies looked fabulous, but we tried to be smart since it's going to be a long day and we needed something other than dessert to keep us going. The sandwiches were huge and delicious, but forgive me -- I was so hungry I forgot to take a picture until it was nearly gone. Here's a strange little factoid about Chicken: They have no indoor plumbing, they have no cell phone service, but they do have WiFi.

As I was talking with Jordan and Dave, Don was talking with the clerk at the Chicken Mercantile, who is from Green Bay, Wisconsin. We keep running into people from Wisconsin.....it's a small world.

We've been traveling on the Alaska Highway and the Taylor Highway today. The Taylor is paved between Tok and Chicken, but it's packed gravel, narrow and winding with some hairpin curves between Chicken and Eagle, which is where we're headed. We now have the services of a pickup in the lead, whose driver has radio contact with our driver guide Jordan. Jordan said he really puts a lot of trust into this guy: he'll notify us if there are rocks in the road, or if there's oncoming traffic. We had good weather, so the road was in pretty good shape, but if it's been rainy, the conditions can deteriorate quickly, and knowing when a vehicle has to move over a bit can be pretty important.


The scenery isn't nearly as good as it might have been. This area was decimated by forest fires in 2005 and the fireweed was not yet in bloom when we were there. It does give you a nice perspective of the road, though.
It was along this tough stretch of the trip that we discovered our trainee driver/guide Dave Harris has a great talent. We hadn't seen this done before and were totally amazed. He split this apple in half using only his hands. (I do have a video of the whole thing, but can't seem to get it loaded).





The snowbanks --- in Mid May!


And a picture of Penny sporting her new necklace.


Due to the long ride today on the Taylor Highway, we received a box lunch to eat aboard the coach. Not a bad lunch, but since I had eaten that enormous breakfast sandwich at Chicken, I really wasn’t hungry, so I gave my lunch to the drivers. Jordan told us he eats very little during the day because having a full meal can make him sleepy, which would not be a good thing on these roads with a bus full of tourists – many of whom are napping themselves. At this part of our trip, we drove by the Top of the World Highway, but we didn't take that route into Eagle.

When the coach pulled into Eagle, a couple of school children, about 12 -13 years old, came onto the bus to greet us. We then followed one of the children up the steps to the former Eagle Courthouse for a mock trial. The student selected Stu Ledingham as the judge (because he looks like Judge Wickersham who established Eagle as the first Federal courthouse in Alaska’s interior).


Several of our group volunteered to be the jury, and Allan Sales was the defendant. Now, it may or may not have been a fair trial, especially since the defendant’s wife was on the jury, but Mr. Sales was found guilty and was directed to leave town and not return. It was pretty entertaining to watch our travel mates display their thespian talents.

Don and I were surprised to find pictures of General Wm. Mitchell (for whom the Milwaukee airport is named) hung prominently on the courthouse walls. In 1900, at the age of 21, Lt. Mitchell was headquartered in Eagle and was in charge of much of the building of the WAMCATS (Washington-Alaska Military Cable and Telegraph System). The line was completed in 1903, and the residents of Eagle recognize his leadership in bringing communications to their town.

When the trial was over, we toured the museum and the Eagle Mall.


Then back on the bus for a short ride to the Yukon River and our trip to Dawson City, Yukon Territory aboard the Yukon Queen II. We saw a lot of damage in Eagle which was flooded by an early spring thaw just last year. Although there’s still a lot to be done, it’s clear the townspeople have worked many hundreds of hours doing clean-up.

The Yukon Queen II is operated by Gray Line of Alaska, which is owned by Holland America. The Yukon Queen II is a luxurious catamaran with a friendly and knowledgeable crew who served us a delicious meal (I had beef tips and Don had chicken) and gave us a running commentary about the folklore, history and geology of the river during the 5 hour trip to Dawson City. It was on this trip that many of us caught our first upclose viewing of a brown bear. It caused quite the stir onboard with everyone grabbing their cameras and getting the best shot of the trip!




The seats on the Yukon Queen II were comfortable and there was room to move around and the ride was definitely smooth and interesting. And the servers included our own tour director Peter!

While we were enjoying our placid boat ride (on which I had a little snooze), our bus drivers were driving the challenging Top of the World Highway to meet us in Dawson City. Those able bodied drivers made the road trip, washed the bus (where do they do that??) and were waiting for us upon our arrival into Dawson City. They drove us from the riverbank to the Westmark Hotel where we'll stay for the next two nights.