2010 Yukon Solo Motorcycle Trip

Day 9 — Dawson City, YT to Alaska

"To" Alaska, not "Into" Alaska, unfortunately. The second major road closure for me.

I rode the world-famous "Top of the World" highway but turned back at the AK Customs checkpoint as the road was washed out between there and Chicken, AK. Supposedly 2km of the road was taken out by a river, thus the unusually long bit of ROAD CLOSED. It drove the tourists crazy. And the businesses that relied upon tourists.

You can see the best part of the highway (on the Canada side) but to get to Alaska you have to take the long way via Whitehorse, which adds maybe 500 miles to the trip. There were lots of tour busses that had to make that long detour.

The free ferry across the Yukon. It's a quick trip. Here it is just "docking" on the Dawson side. The Yukon is swift enough here that the ferry has to cross facing upstream, which is kind of interesting.

Looking downstream on the Yukon from the hilltop above Dawson city. All that water is heading for Alaska.

With my little Nikon point-and-shoot I couldn't really capture the vistas of this highway which follows the ridgetops. Here's scenic shot of the highway, which is about 1/3rd paved and 2/3rds hard-packed dirt/gravel.

This is the top, as far as I can tell, somewhere above 4,000' whereas most of the highway is about 3,500' plus or minus 200'. This view is looking into Canada.

Same cairn, but looking towards Alaska with the border crossing in the small green roofed buildings in the center of the photo.

Semi-closeup of the border. Theoretically, it should be legal to take this photo, but it may be the Anti-Patriot act (or whatever they call it) took away that right too.

I rode up to the border, sent a Spot2 GPS "OK" signal, and took this photo. This is the view you'd get entering Canada from Alaska.

Another botanical challange for Debb Kopp. Pretty alpine berries in extreme closeup. The fruit is smaller than your little fingernail.

An old sod-roofed cabin along the Top of the World highway. I stopped near here to eat my lunch (a deli sandwich and a bottle of blueberry juice). It would be interesting to know who built it, who lived here and for what purpose, and why they abandoned it.

I had a nice ride that Monday, but was faced with having to backtrack to Whitehorse instead of riding through Chicken to Tok, AK and spending the night there on the Alaska Highway.