May 31 - Chicken to Delta Junction via Tok, AK

Chicken is a bit isolated.  There is no cell service and the closest emergency services are in Tok, almost 80 miles away.  Not even a pay phone here, but the campground has a satellite phone in case of emergency.   We were tired and it was muddy, so we didn't do much exploring last night.  This morning we found out about the Chicken wars.  Seems there are three camping/store areas and each is billing itself as CHICKEN.

Here is where we spent the night at the campground in the TOWN of Chicken.  It offers gold panning, tours of the Tisha schoolhouse, and flush toilets.  It is the first Chicken you see when you come in from Dawson. 

This is Downtown Chicken within walking distance of the Town of Chicken.  The person running the Downtown (Susan) has been here for 25+ years. 

The saloon in Downtown Chicken

For some reason patrons at the saloon like to autograph and then leave their hats.

When I saw this type of facility at both Downtown Chicken and at the Chicken Gold Camp, I could tell why the Town of Chicken advertised it's flush toilets.  Personally, I was very happy I had my own.

Facilities at the Chicken Gold Camp.

This portable commode was intriguing.  There was a 5 gal bucket under the "seat".  This box is mounted on skis.

Chicken #3

This Chicken overlooks the Chicken Gold Camp.

This dredge is a historic site, but the Chicken Gold Camp operator has the concession to run tours.

Birds have made the dredge their home.

 The operator of the Town of Chicken (which is on the adjoining property) cleared an area on his property to encourage his guests to view the dredge.  This was so unusual as what we have encountered up to now was all the tourism businesses sharing information and encouraging all the activities in a town.  One thing that may have factored is the businesses in Chicken just opened up yesterday, so maybe being it was day 1 for the system, they weren't trained well.  That certainly was the case for the person that checked us into the Town of Chicken RV park.  

She didn't offer us any information on what they were offering.  I didn't find out until today that this business controlled access to the Tisha school house (from the book TISHA, which I've been reading). 

David was trying to figure out how these different pulleys created different gear ratio's. 

"ok, when this one brakes, the power take off goes here..."

Hint, if you need diesel, The Town of Chicken ($5.20/gal) it was $4 something at Downtown Chicken.

We never found out how much the guided tour cost, but we didn't have time to wait until 2pm for the tour.  Some gold miners I was talking to last night told us where the Tisha school house was.  This cluster of structures were in use in 1927, when the story of Anne Hobbs Purdy.  Sent at age 19 with only a high school education to Chicken as a teacher. 

This is the building that served as a classroom with an area sectioned off as living space.  I can't imagine living in this type of structure in either the summer heat or the -60° winter.  The school room was used for community dances back in the day.

The road leaving the USPS Post Office in Chicken (which is not in the Town of Chicken, Downtown Chicken nor the Chicken Gold Camp).  No paved streets in any of them.

We are back on the Taylor Highway, en route to Tok, AK.  Trees and vegetation are starting to fill in areas of past fires.

Yes, this went on for miles.

But there is still immense beauty.

Look close and you'll see how close we are to the Arctic Circle.

Anyone tired of pictures of our mh?  Sorry.

Joining up with the Alaskan Highway.  The sign says go left to Canada or the right to Tok.

I thought this was pretty creative.  Each letter is from a different license plate.

We took a break at the Visitor Center in Tok.  The staff were very nice and informative.  Our original plan was to stop here, but there wasn't that much of interest.  They had a pictorial on how the log building was built that was very interesting.  One of the staff ladies knew Anne Hobbs Purdy (the teacher in Tisha).  She said Anne didn't write the book and that many of the geographical and other details of the story were not factual.  She said Anne told specific stories to the ghost writer, who filled in details, but the part about her adopting Indian kids was accurate.

 Heading north on the Alaskan Highway

We haven't seen any mosquitoes this big, yet.

Delta Junction is the END of the Alaska Highway.

Example of the different sized pipelines used on different routes.

The campground just opened yesterday.  They had snow on the ground last week.  His sewer and water lines are not yet defrosted and operational, so we have power but not other hook ups.  Basically the same as we had yesterday.  The biggest difference is we were alone last night, and it was so quiet and nice.  This park isn't crowded, we are actually in two spaces and have been able to keep some extra space between us and other campers.  We are close to the highway and definitely not quiet like last night, but then we get tv reception tonight.  Something we haven't seen in awhile.  We are catching up on fires and flooding in Alaska.  Fortunately nothing is affecting us.  Apparently going from Winter to Summer (81° at 6 pm when we stopped today in Delta Junction) is creating problems with snow melting to fast.  The ground can't absorb much because it is still frozen.

We did not have phone service in Chicken, but when we stopped for a break in Tok I called Stacy.  It was so neat to hear her voice.  I was going to make some other calls, but by the time I settled down to do it, it was 9:30 pm here (bright as at noon), but we lost an hour coming into Alaska, so it was 10:30 pm San Diego time.  A bit late for social calls.  The mosquitoes are plentiful, but half the size we experienced earlier on the trip.  Heading to Fairbanks tomorrow.