Off again at 7,00am as we were driving on Top of the World Highway. What a magnificent view from the winding ridge-top road. We are amazed at the amount of mountains they seem to go for as far as the eye can see. A very mountainous drive once again putting the vehicles to the test. When we reached the Canada/US border we had to go into the office and fill out paperwork as it was our first point of entry into Alaska. Even though I had completed the forms online they only applied if we had arrived in the US by air. We were fingerprinted and photographed and crossed into Alaska USA. We all assembled a little distance away from the border crossing waiting for all members of the convoy to clear through Customs. One jeep towing a trailer had rolled that morning but fortunately noone was hurt. The next day the maintenance team worked hard and the vehicle was once again on the road.
We then drove over a long unsealed road through more mountains and valleys to our stop at Chicken which has a population of 21. This little place is in the middle of nowhere but a stopover for people wishing to go on the Top of the World Highway. Everything is designed around a chicken theme,
The town got its name when gold seekers settled there in the late 1800s and owed their very lives to the ubiquitous ptarmigan they ate to survive.
When the town was incorporated in 1902, locals wanted to name it in honour of this crucial bird, but no one knew how to spell it. Fearing ridicule if they got it wrong, they settled on Chicken instead. A number of historic buildings remain, and visitors can enjoy fishing, a scenic kayak on the Fortymile River or gold panning, just like the original prospectors.
A few tried their hand at gold panning but we haven’t heard whether anyone struck it rich.
That night we had a chicken dinner and socialised with the convoy group as it was a lovely warm night outside and still daylight. Later a Kiwi couple came up to our campsite as they had heard that there were some Aussies on the trip. Once we had been talking for awhile they discovered that they knew one of the Kiwis in our group but unfortunately he was camping at a different RV park and they didn’t catch up with him. It really is a small world!!
We also met an Australian guy called "Frosty" who was riding his bicycle around parts of North America. A group of about 14 had come over from Australia to do various treks and some had already gone home. He was riding alone when we caught up with him. He needs a medal for the mountains and road conditions that he is riding on and the distance he is managing to cover each day.
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