Tastes Like Chicken! - By Kevin

Boy does it feel good to be headed in the right direction! Aside from a short jaunt to the northeast to ride the Top of the World Highway, Larry and I have begun our “descent” to Indianapolis. Every mile we travel is another mile closer to home.

While the Top of the World Highway took us a few miles farther, I’d have to say it was one of most enjoyable roads we’ve taken on our trip. Spanning sixty six miles from Dawson City to the Yukon Border, the road is a mixed-bag of asphalt, gravel and hard packed dirt. Throw in broad vista views, sweeping curves and just a handful of cars and you have the recipe for motorcycling nirvana. You won’t see Larry in many of my pictures; he was having way too much fun to sit still! For miles I tried capturing the essence of this road with my camera, to no avail. I ultimately decided to ride this thin ribbon of road, which hugs the sides of mountains, and enjoy every second.

Around the halfway point of the TWH, you find yourself in the quirky little town of Chicken, Alaska. Here in Chicken, they’ve taken tourist trap to a new level. You can get an education at “Cluck U” academy (Go Peckers!), brag that you “Got Laid in Chicken”, and (when nature calls) go to the Chicken Poop to do you business. They’re other claim to fame is their pies. We didn’t think much of them. Tastes like chicken.

While there, we ran into a man peddling a heavily loaded, three-wheeled recumbent bicycle. Over coffee we had a chance to chat. Christopher is from Germany and his business card says “extreme adventures”. This years adventure was bicycling around Alaska. He started in April and plans to end sometime in October. We laughed together as he told us how the trip was going so far. “This is the stupidest idea I’ve ever had. I am so brain dead!” Turns out that he had been on this particular road for four days already (going an agonizingly slow 2.5 kph). It was going to take him another four days to get off it – IF it didn’t rain. One advantage to going so slow is that you have plenty of time for pictures. To date, he has taken over 16,000 photos during his extreme travels. Jeez, I get scolded for taking more than 16!

After a fun day on the highway, we finished our day at a provincial campground just before Dawson City. The night was cold and neither one of us got a good night’s sleep. Dawson City is an old mining town and looks like the set of an old western town. In order to get into Dawson, you take a short ferry ride across the Yukon River. While there is much to do, and much money to be spent, Larry and I decided that getting home was much more important. We kept pushing on until we reached our favorite camp site in Teslin, YT. This is where I end today. Where will be tomorrow? Who knows! One thing is for sure – any town closer to home is a good town, indeed.