Sunday, June 6, 2010

Slippin & Sliddin...

























Woke up this morning to heavy clouds and showers. We had a wonderful breakfast at Klondike Kates and then meandered down the wooden boardwalks before heading back to Tok.

Yukoner's call the highway the 60 Mile. Alaskans know it as the Taylor Highway, but everyone knows this beautiful road as "Top of the World Highway" although today we weren't sure what we would find. We hadn’t gone far before we realized this was going to be a long and miserable ride. The clouds are literally sitting on the road. There are no views and in places we can hardly see in front of us. I think we did the trip going 20 mph. We inched our way straight to the U.S. border and this was the good part of the trip!

At the U.S. side the road was dirt when we came over the day before. Today it is now mucky mud all the way. The jeep is covered in red mud and the road is thick and slimy. As we inched along following an RV for a while we were thankful we left the coach in Tok. There were very few vehicles traveling towards Dawson City. The road became rutted and wetter.

When we reached Boundary there were 4 RV’s parked in the parking lot. We stopped at the Roadhouse and talked with the other couples driving the RV’s. The road had become very messy and scary for the ‘big rigs’. The road was either slimy mud or pointed rocks and washboards where the dirt had washed away. The couples were trying to decide whether to keep going or return to Dawson City. We wished them luck and headed out again.

Finally we made it back to Tok and settled in. Ken went to wash the jeep and we had dinner.

It was a really tough day for Ken driving and he did a great job. We are disappointed that we drove the road twice and saw so little. Who knows maybe we’ll have an opportunity to do it again some day.

We watched TV and called it a day.

Pictures:Clouds on Top of the World, Rainy Views, Muddy Mess, Lifting Clouds, Finally a valley view, Down the Top of World Hwy, Jack Wade Junction, Lucky View

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