Note 3/17: this is a repost back from August 31, 2013. Enjoy!
After another night of successful camping, we were on the road again. Destination: Dawson City.
Daily report:
We were on our way around 10 am. While driving down the road we noticed a bird and instead of scaring it off I decided to roll in stealth mode and say hi. I managed to get some cool pictures.
Once the bird was bored with us we rode down to find an abandoned run-down cabin by one of the (many) lakes.
Here is a picture of the lake.
The scenery was getting even more beautiful as we rode along. This trip was getting legit and luckily the weather was cooperating all the way!
13:17: Soon enough we arrived in Pelly Crossing, YT. I was hungry so I managed to put together a "sandwich" composed of sweet Italian sausage links and left over bread. (Not recommended.)
After that horrible escapade, we got going. Dawson city in 165.5 miles!
Soon afterwards we encountered our first real construction zone. The way construction works up north is that they provide pilot cars to navigate you through the construction zones. It's a good idea since, most of the time, the whole road is torn up and machines are all over the place.
We made it through without a hitch and continued onward to Dawson.
19:30: We arrived in Dawson soon enough. We parked and walked around taking in the vibe of the old town. Gregg decided to get some fish from Riverwest Bistro while I settled for a sandwich from the deli inside Bonanza Market. Once we refueled our bodies and bikes we headed to the campgrounds on the other side of the river. And what better way to cross the rapidly flowing Yukon River? Why by ferry of course!
What was most impressive about the ferry ride was the magnitude of the current of the Yukon river. Once the ferry left the shore it was sideways fighting the current as it traversed across the river. I don't know how the steamboats ever got anywhere when they used to run up and down the Yukon from Whitehorse. Crazy.
We rolled around the campground and settled in on one of the spots farther away from the water. The campgrounds were great and they even had free firewood for campers to use. A+!
It was a good day of riding and we needed the rest so we could tackle the Top of the World highway the next day. Alaska, we have you in our sights.
The Gear
One of my favorite side projects preparing for the trip was creating a penny stove! These stoves are made from two soda (or beer) cans and 1 penny. The stove utilizes alcohol as it's fuel. I used the alcohol available at Lowes (Crown 1-Gallon Fast to Dissolve Denatured Alcohol ).
Tip: I don't recommend using Isopropyl alcohol because it doesn't burn clean. (Learned that the hard way)
I also custom built the stand out of some small (and bendable) steel rod with some bored out 5/16" nuts to hold it together.
All the instructions to build a penny stove can be found here.