To go from the sublime of peaceful Chena Springs to the ridiculous, we stopped at The North Pole. Mmmm. A guy called Con (!) Miller who had already developed a reputation for playing Santa Claus to the Native children in Alaskan villages, moved his store from Fairbanks and renamed it Santa Claus House – at North Pole. A few other businesses sprang up on the back of this one – restaurants, shops, B&Bs. It hasn’t quite taken off as a global Christmas destination – but is worth a stop for photos.
From here we drove through Tok and then up to Chicken, the last bit on the Taylor Highway, which closes in winter. After seeing the banks of snow that had been cut through to free the road after the winter, I’m not surprised. About 4 foot deep at the side of the road, compacted like a glacier. And then there were the burnt out trees – a desolate landscape in parts. A huge area of Alaska was hit by fires, so mile after mile, we saw these bizarre, sad shapes. Apparently, the people of Chicken spend only the summer months there, then return to Fairbanks for a more habitable – but almost completely dark – winter. And when in Fairbanks, you have to keep yourself really busy through the long dark winter, otherwise depression gets you. One girl I spoke to works with dog-sled teams, others – mainly artists and craftspeople – work at their craft right through the winter, then sell their stuff in the summer. Some fabulous jewellery and paintings in this part of the world.
Chicken is a great little place! Downtown Chicken consists of four shops – the Mercantile Emporium, the Saloon, the Liquor Store and the Cafe – and two campsites. Right bang in the middle of the notorious Klondike area. We were on the Chicken Outpost site, with a lovely shop and another tiny cafe (where they let me plug in my hair straighteners).
If anyone wants to camp in Chicken, I can recommend it – great toilets, albeit drop, and good showers. We got a nice spot to camp the bus and pitch the tents – 9 of them. With the aid of a large water canister and a small plastic stool I bought, I managed to get myself off the ground this morning, in spite of knees, and haul myself up. So the tent will get posted home and I will continue to camp in the UK when I get back. Lovely! I had a wonderful night’s sleep in my little hideaway, and it was lovely and cool, while I stayed cosy in my -15C sleeping bag. Tonight we’re all sleeping in the bus as it hurtles towards Whitehorse, but I’ll be back in my tent when we get there.
So, back to Chicken. It’s so-called because the goldminers who formed a community there wanted to name it Ptarmigan, after the local birds that proliferated there. But nobody could spell it so they named it Chicken instead. However, if you look at the map, you see there’s another town north of here called Eagle, so I wonder if this is just a smaller place and named accordingly. We had some good food in the cafe, they made a salad specially for me, and blueberry pie and ice-cream for afters. Heavenly. I cashed in the voucher for a free gift which I printed from the Chicken, Alaska website – and got a purple frisbee. It makes a great container beside my sleeping bag for mobile, glasses etc. The Mercantile Emporium is a sight to behold – full of tacky rubber chickens, T-shirts to fit every occasion, fridge magnets declaring ‘I was laid in Chicken’, and a hundred and one other items which make this a place of great character! I love it!
We were about the first visitors of the season – and they were a bit unprepared for so many of us. But in the summer the place is inundated with people flocking to the area to pan for gold, living in their massive RVs for several months. Big business!
This morning, up early and showered, then breakfasted and took the tent down. The weather is fantastic – 30C here in Dawson (where I’m writing from). We set off after some of the group came back from a gold-dredging tour and spent a few hours covering not so many miles to Dawson. .
The road was superb – not tarmacked, as it would be full of potholes after the severe winters, but brilliantly engineered – as the views were beautiful in all directions. At this point, it is called the Boundary Spur Road, until you leave Alaska behind and it then becomes the Top of the World Highway – a ridge with steep unbarriered drops which I’m actually getting used to.
A very windy, snaking road across the heights, with great views of hills and mountains receding into the distance. At the border we were inspected by the customs officers – they wanted to make sure we were taking no apples into Canada. Pretty little border post which is only open from mid-May to Mid-October, completely cut off by snow the rest of the year. Which means of course, that this wonderful road across the roof of the world is only open for 5 months of the year. We were so fortunate to get the dates right! So, over the border and then we were in Canada – the Yukon – saying goodbye to Alaska until we enter it again farther south on the coast. The photo says Welcome to Alaska – that’s for people going the other way. I’ve included it just to confuse! 
Patamateria 