Tok to Chicken

This morning I drove the truck back into Tok to check on the mail. It did not come on Saturday but the postmistress said to check back after 1 PM when today’s mail came in. So I filled the truck with the last of the inexpensive diesel fuel we will see for a while and returned to our camp. After lunch I made a trip in on the scooter and our mail was there! So, we are off.

We hooked up and headed up the Taylor Highway toward Dawson City, Yukon. The paved road ended after 64 miles and the metropolis of Chicken, Alaska was only two miles further. During the summer the population of Chicken is 21 and the winter population is 6. But, they do have two RV parks including one where a coupon in our Toursavers book let’s us stay for two nights for $10. Of course, that does not include any hookups, and it costs an extra $15 if we want to dump our tanks. The appealing part however, is that they have wireless internet available, so we decided to stay for a night or two. We have plenty of water and space in our holding tanks, and we make our own electricity, so we are set.

Tomorrow we will look around and take some pictures of the historic buildings and the gold dredge located here. That should be interesting. Chicken is an old gold mining town that got its name when the local residents couldn’t spell ptarmigan. I don’t blame them. I couldn’t spell it either without a spell checker.

We are not sure how long we will stay here. There is 41 miles of dirt road between here and the Canadian border where pavement begins and I don’t want to pull the trailer through mud if I can help it. So, when we leave depends a lot on the weather. Tonight there are dark clouds all around so we will see.