On to Dawson City

My plan for leaving Valdez early worked! I hit rain 5 minutes out of town, and stayed in rain on/off for about 6 hours. The rain gear works so much better than the tent, I’d rather ride in the rain than try to sleep through it
I found this place to eat just a few miles from Valdez.

He runs the entire complex with wind turbines, batteries, and a generator. Of course, I left Valdez hungry, so I was glad to get a great breakfast here.
Hmmm.. Have I ever had a breakfast that wasn’t great? Dinners maybe, but I can’t remember a breakfast I didn’t like. J

I met Randy and his son Vince from Phoenix when we were all filling up in Tok. Vince was rigging up some rain deflectors for his handlebars from cut-up milk jugs. It looked like it was going to work fine! It looked right at home parked next to my bike with its soap dish foot peg cover!
Sometimes you just have to use what you can get.

After Tok, I headed to Chicken, AK, and the “Top of the World Highway” that leads to Dawson, BC.
You can see how it got its name:

There are some severe dropoffs on this road, and no guardrails to be found. It crosses into Canada at the northernmost border crossing in the U.S. About 70-80 miles of it is gravel.

Then I came down into Dawson, and rode the ferry across the Yukon River to get into town.
When I got off the ferry, I stopped a guy on the street (Paul) to ask for help finding a campground and FOOD.
Just like I left Valdez hungry, I arrived at Dawson hungry 13 hours later. Must be something about motorcycles that causes that.
It just so happened that Paul worked at the Visitor Center and knew everything about the area!

The commercial campground idea isn’t working very well.
Proprietors usually close their offices before 8:00 pm and when I arrive late and pick a site, in the morning, they aren’t up early to handle the late arrivals from the previous night.
In Valdez, I showed up late, and then in the morning I went looking for somebody to pay. A guy at the affiliated gas station said they usually arrive at 6:00, but I packed the bike and sat around waiting for somebody until 6:20. Finally, I squeezed money through the door and left.

Here in Dawson City, the proprietors are here, but they had closed the office and said I could pay when they open at 8:00 am. Grrr.

Dawson Camp:
(Photo taken at 1:00am)

This was behind me when I took that photo: (sunrise or sunset?)

They refused to give me the code for WiFi internet until registration was completed. So I waited till morning, and then we couldn’t get the WiFi service to work.

After trying a couple different options, I found out that the library has WiFi. Then I found somebody else who could tell me where the library is.
The library opens at noon. J

Dawson is a larger town, but my AT&T phone doesn’t work with their carrier.
I’m headed toward Carmacks and then east. I think I won’t have Cell service or Internet for a few days.
Life is good.