North to Alaska: Day 8

Alaska Day 8

Dawson City, YT to Tok, AK

8/31/11

We started the day with a 2 minute bus ride down to the Yukon River where we boarded the Yukon Queen, a speedy catamaran for a 3 hour tour of the river. (Doesn’t this sound strikingly similar to the start of Gilligan’s Island?) The Queen was a wide bodied boat with indoor seating and an outdoor deck. It, like the coaches, the hotels, and the cruise ships, are all owned by Holland America which appears to want nothing less than complete control of your Alaska cruise/tour experience. This was a pleasant outing where we got to listen to some more details of the Klondike gold rush, which it’s safe to say by now is a subject Kris and I could give our doctoral thesis on. Other than a few eagles and a few salmon fishing wheels anchored on shore (which are like waterwheels but instead of water they scoop out salmon), we didn’t really see much. No sight of bear or moose, just “moose mustard” that they were selling in the onboard canteen. (Well there was one bear…see picture below.)

We disembarked back at Dawson and then boarded our bus, er I should say coach, and took a brief ferry ride across the Yukon. From there we headed on a spectacular and harrowing drive on the “Top of the world road.” The views were awesome along this narrow highway that eventually brought us to the Alaskan border and reentry into the US. From there it became even narrower, so much so, that we needed a pilot truck to go ahead of us to warn of oncoming traffic.

We soon got to the town of Chicken, Alaska, where the local store had pie and chicken soup for sale. After browsing there a bit, we were back on the road, this time “the Alaskan Highway”, where after a few miles longer, we arrived in Tok. It’s unclear how the town of Tok got its name, but the most common theory is that it was named after an early settler’s dog named “Tok.” What I will remember about Tok, other than the liquor store where we replenished our dwindling wine supply, is that the Westmark Inn there had a very patriotic theme. There were American flags everywhere and the employees all had suspenders with American flag designs on them. There was also a flag lowering ceremony on the premises at 8:30 which we were encouraged to attend primarily out of fear of otherwise being reported to the House Committee on Un-American Activities. In a very solemn ceremony they slowly lowered the flag while patriotic music played on a cassette player. Veterans in the crowd (and I use the term ‘crowd’ loosely as there were only about 8 of us in attendance) were encouraged to participate . Oddly though, in spite of this unabashed display of patriotism, the house specialty at the hotel restaurant was Mexican food. So with “The Star Spangled Banner” in my heart and a burrito in my stomach, I slept well that night.