Crossing the border into Alaska (again!)

From Dawson to Alaska, one drives over the Top of the World Highway, an aptly named drive along a ridge with sweeping views of lots of spruce trees and mountains in the distance. The border crossing at Poker Creek is a wonderfully low-key affair with a very mom-like border agent who welcomed us “home” and told us to “drive carefully!”

We naturally stopped at the giant “Welcome to Alaska” sign for the obligatory photo for Michiel’s REAL entry into the interior of the great state.
We also HAD to stop in Chicken for a peek into the saloon (complete with baseball hats and women’s underwear hanging from the ceiling). Chicken is a town of about 15 year-round residents and some hard-core gold miners. The town started up when gold was discovered in the area. The residents wanted to call the town “Ptarmigan” after the state bird of Alaska (a sort of grouse), but they couldn’t spell it. Apparently, like many other things, ptarmigan tastes “just like chicken”.

For the first time on our entire trip, the weather turned really ugly (is this some kind of bad omen?) and we drove into Tok (pronounced “toke”) in a cold downpour.

After a night at a newly renovated motel with a rip-roaring drunk manager (after 4 times of trying to run the credit card through the machine backwards and upside-down, Sheri patiently tried to explain that it’s the brown strip that contains the information for the machine to read – not the numbers imprinted on the card!), we continued down the Tok Cut-off Road to the Glenn Highway (two-lane, paved roads – quite a treat after the miles of unpaved roadway.

We ended our journey at the homestead of our friends, Don and Tina, who run an outdoor adventure tour company. They have built themselves a lovely cabin, outhouse, greenhouse, and hot tub, and are now busy with a big storage barn. We enjoyed great company (including several of the guides who work for them), good food, a soothing soak in the hot tub and an incredibly comfortable sleep in a giant tent equipped with real beds! What luxury!