Tonight is our last official night in Alaska. Pretty soon,
we're going to be making a left turn and it's the official
start of the Top of the World Highway. So, if you're leaving
Alaska as you're leaving Tok about ten miles outside of
Tok, you would make a left at Tetlin Junction and then start
heading towards Chicken. You start heading towards Dawson
City, Yukon Territory. We're going to cross the border at
the Top of the World Highway. I'm really excited to see what
this road is like compared to you know that part of the Alcan
highway we don't like to discuss.
Ahhh Okay.
When does the road turn to gravel? Is it chip seal? Is
it not chip seal? Are they also going to have this tore up and
we're just going to be driving on gravel forever. Tonight is
also the first night we're going to try out our generator.
Imma call her Genny. How original.
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Boy, we sure hit it at the right time. It is September 1st
and the border crossing actually closes up here on the
Top of the World Highway, September 4th. Really? I just
learned about that and I'm so glad somebody mentioned it. Had
no idea. Do you think we'll be their last customers? We might
be. Like it makes you wonder, did they just eventually like,
alright, we're done. That's the last one to cross. Shut her
down. See you next season. Well, it makes sense because we
were looking at the weather yesterday for Dawson City and
it's going to have some lows in the twenties over the next
couple days. When you're up here and the weather changes,
the weather changes. What's cool is we kind of get to chase
like fall weather all the way down. I just hope we don't hit
any snow. Genny's tagging along. She's strapped in the
back. We filled her up with some gasoline yesterday and we
also have a gas can just to have a little extra fuel. We're
not sure what type of dry campers we are. Are we the
people that are going to blow through like gallons of
gasoline while dry camping. You guys remember when we did some
boondocking in Denali State Park and we were very nervous
about running a lot of things because our batteries seem to
be draining faster than we imagined but we still made it
through the weekend but now, we can really test the batteries.
We can really drain those down because we have a way to charge
them back up.
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Well, no turning back now. We're in it to win it. I guess
the biggest question I want answered is what is going to be
the difference between this road and Destruction Bay.
There's so many questions we had before coming up to Alaska
to know which route to take. We hope to clarify some of those
answers for you as we go along. Mileage, fuel stations, actual
places to stay, maybe boondocking opportunities.
Need not worry, we're going to have a lot to cover going forth.
You know how we roll in the Hanks family. We bring all the goodies to you.
We had a heck of a time this entire trip trying to keep
up with cleaning the truck. To be honest, we actually haven't
really been cleaning the truck at all. We've only been washing
the windows and let me tell you, staying on top of that is
tough enough. Wow. We are climbing though. Feels like
we're climbing to the top of the world. I know why they call
it this now. If you're wondering why I'm always
driving, I'd rather drive than have to do camera stuff.
Carl's way better at holding the camera and getting all the
shots you need. So, I'll just, I'll be right here if you need me.
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Okay, I already screwed up. Ney took it upon herself this
morning to load the maps and get everything set up perfectly.
What do I do? I accidentally exited the maps on my phone.
Now, we have no signal and no way of knowing
where we're going. Hopefully, this town of Chicken has some
cell service. If not, the Hanks are just going to get lost in
this Top of the World Highway. Come find us. Now, get this.
This town of Chicken only has three businesses and the
coolest part is they have a life-sized statue of a chicken
there in town and it's made up of recycled high school lockers.
Talk about thinking outside the box. Was that a dad joke? It was kind
of like it skimmed the surface there. We'll go with it.
Initial thoughts so far in this road, hey, it's another
road. Nothing we haven't handled thus far in our
travels. The major concern, however, is going to be when we
cross over into Canada and we travel from Dawson City down to
Whitehorse. That's where the roads have a potential, a great
potential to get sketchy.
Maybe I spoke too soon.
Not so many heave-hoes quite yet but more just jolting and jittering.
So hopefully no leaky pipes in the RV or knocked over bookshelves
when we get back there to check it out. Hopefully. These views
are amazing though. Like it kind.... What was that? Oooh.
Kind of reminds me of when we drove the Cassiar Highway. You feel like
you're up, up top here like I feel like we have the bird's
eye view of Alaska up here. Yeah, it's an interesting
concept to think we're going south eventually but before we
do, we gotta head north and east as well. The top of the
world kind of takes us in a different direction than what
we were originally heading before. That's okay though
because we're excited to see some new things. That's what
it's all about and I'm glad we're doing this. Ask me how I
feel about that in a couple days just remind me. Ahh.
Oh my gosh. I think we're going to need a new rig after, after this
Alaska trip. This is some of the roughest roads we have
experienced since being in Alaska. It is what it is. The
Hanks know how to do it best. Take it slow cause everyone
else is like just speeding around us. I am going 25 miles
per hour and it seems like that's a good speed to not have
too much jolting of the, you know, like if you go too slow
on gravel, it kind of becomes bouncy.
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We're finally hitting some loose gravel and we're about
50ish miles from that junction in Tok.
(music)
If Alaska's like this, I don't know what Canada's going to be like.
(music)
Finally out of it. Let's see what the rest of this road
holds for us. Well, the roads unfortunately showed no signs
of improvement. You see, we weren't exactly expecting a
dramatic difference on this particular route but we had
held onto some hope for at least a reduction in dust and
gravel. Throughout the summer journey to Alaska, our truck
and trailer have endured quite the beating. Oh, the joy we are
going to feel when we finally are able to encounter normal
roads once again. You see, out here in this desolate part of
the country, you can't help but feel utterly alone. So, when you
stumble upon towns consisting of nothing more than three
shopping buildings, it's hard not to be elated and let me
tell you, the chicken statue, it's absolute a must-see
attraction. After all, how often do you find yourself next
to a 10-foot sculpture of a chicken constructed entirely
from old lockers? Whoo. Well, a quick stop turned into an
awesome like hour plus hangout. We met some of our peeps here.
We got Grand Design Solitude. So, I know we didn't make it to
the National Rally but we're kind of having our own little
Grand Design rally here in Chicken,Alaska. So sweet. They
bought us some cherry pie from the cafe. Delicious. So, make
sure you stop here and get yourself a slice of pie.
Alright, we met some friends. We got some pie. I love it.
Can we all cheers our pie?
It's like you want to stay here longer but it's time to make
our way to hopefully somewhere to boondock tonight. I've been
meaning to share with you guys that I downloaded the app
iOverlander. I downloaded that so we can find some really cool
boondocking spots because the other apps we have will show
some boondocking but this app is like meant for wild boondocking.
I'm going to use that app. We're going to find a
place to boondock tonight. We're going to get the
generator out. We're going to see how that puppy roars. Hahaha.
You ready to go Carl? Ready. Let's rock n roll. Alright. Let's get that
generator ripping. It's important to note here that
there is absolutely no cell service. Yeah, I said that
right. Zero cell service. So, if you plan on visiting Chicken
or exploring more of Alaska, here's a valuable tip. Get
yourself a copy of the Mile Post book. It's known as the
bible of Alaska Travel and here's why. It's filled with
information like fuel resources, foods, towns, and
even wildlife suggestions. It has been by far our ultimate
guide for exploring the wonders of Alaska and our complete
travels throughout. Sitting here, I can't really put my
finger on it. Maybe it's the vibrant fall colors or the
inexplicable thrill of just exploring uncharted territory.
But the Top of the World Highway seems to offer
something truly magical. There's streams and rivers that
go on for miles. Complemented by cascading views with vistas
of orange, yellow, and red trees. Yes, we eventually
encounter that stretch of the road we were dreading which is made
of entirely gravel but it served as a gentle reminder to just
slow down and absorb the beauty around us. Inevitably even so
the time spent on the road eventually left us mentally
fatigued. I don't know about you guys but who would have
guessed that driving at a mere 10 to 20 miles an hour on dirt
roads demand such concentration. Needless to say,
we eagerly anticipated arriving at our boondocking site
tonight. Longing for a well-deserved rest and an
opportunity finally witnessed the performance of the new
generator. Whoo. What a day. We made it. We're set up. We're
ready for some real boondocking where we're not at a campsite
and it cost us zero dollars. We just had a long talk about how
this is going to be a long weekend and we don't know what
we got ourselves into because we just spent the past few
hours driving maybe like 20 or 30 miles and it took us several
hours because we had to go so slow. Guys, I don't know
how the rest of this drive's going to go. I have a feeling
it's going to get worse from Dawson Creek all the way to
Whitehorse but I just I don't, I don't know. Either way, let's
focus on the now. We have this beautiful boondocking spot. I
just wish it was clear because we really would love to see the
northern lights but you gotta be grateful for what you have.
We got here safely. Nothing's broken. I mean, the bookshelf
in the back was definitely tipped over because of all the
crazy driving and I'm just going to leave it laying down because
there's no reason to pick it back up for this whole drive.
This is a really nice boondocking spot and if you're
looking for details on where this is, you might want to
download the Overlander iOverlander app and I'll put it
in the description below of which location this is. We got
the inverter hooked up so we're able to run the Starlink and
the Starlink's given us pretty good speeds right now. I think
we got 18 down and twelve up. Thanks mister Starlink. With
the Starlink with our inverter, we can relax and watch TV
tonight. We're hungry. We're tired. Probably going to go to
bed early. So, we'll catch you guys in the morning and give
you some some more updates on how this site went. Good night.
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