Canada v2

Back, back again

After many weeks we’re back in the greatest of White Norths, Canada. It’s been a minute since our last update! (Click through to the website for big photos; full album here.) We’ve taken some downtime in Fairbanks…starting at a fantastic little hostel called Sven’s Basecamp.

This hostel had shared bathrooms, showers, kitchen, and common outdoor areas - complete with a slackline. The sleeping area is also shared, should you choose, via male and female tents. We opted for a private cabin canvas tent.

The last day we were there a guest decided to get an early, 6am start on his Harley Davidson. He decided to warm up his motorcycle…for fifteen minutes, with straight pipes, right in the middle of the common area. He further decided to absolutely send it by ripping a fat wheelie of the parking lot and down the street. (Just kidding, Harleys can’t do that. They can be incredibly loud, though.)

Pro tip! As a lifelong motorcyclist: nobody wants to hear your damn motorcycle. Especially not at six in the morning without any solid walls to be found.

Anyway, it’s fine. We found ourselves in an actual cabin for the next few nights. We went to UAF’s Museum of the North, had some fantastic Thai food, and ate a bagel.

After Fairbanks we began our journey back to the lower 48. Starting with a stop at a familiar campsite in Tok! And a visit to the ol’ faithful, Fast Eddy’s. Their $13 all you can eat salad bar is tops. The kitchen got backed up at it took 35 minutes for my burger to show up…so the waitress just comped our entire meal. Fast Eddy’s is where it’s at, visit if you can.

After Tok we drove to Dawson City, passing both the town of Chicken and the Canadian border.

The highway - called Top of the World - is a mostly gravel affair with some killer Views ™️. There were also wildfires in the area so it was pretty hazy, especially between Chicken and the border. (You could say the smoke was…foul? Ayyyyooo)

The town of Chicken…well, it’s a town called Chicken. Population 12. They lean hard into the name. We stopped in at the RV campground/cafe/gift shop/bar/literally everything else and had lunch. Apparently they have a music festival once a year - Chickenstock, of course - that causes the population to temporarily jump up to at least 20. It’s a fun place.

After the border we landed in Dawson City for two nights. The city was a boomtown during the Klondike gold rush and they’ve kept the “old West” aesthetic. We ferried across the Yukon river and spent the afternoon in town.

We liked Dawson City! It’s a neat place to spend a day. There’s also a lot of outdoors activity in the area - river rafting, biking, hiking, etc. - that we added to our list for next time. We headed back across the ferry - which we just made! - and camped another night on the Yukon river.

The next day we finished the drive into Whitehorse, which is where we are now. (At the campsite slash Nordic spa, which is still amazing.) We’re about to head down the Alcan into Prince George and, fires permitting, Jasper and Banff National Parks.

Final thing! We’re thinking through some ways to make the blog a little more informative in ways that we would have appreciated when planning this trip. One of those things is doing some kind of FAQ post…so if you have any random questions about day to day life on the road, food and/or camping, gear, favorites of ours, etc let us know in the comments. (Or just respond to this email, we get those too.)

See y’all out there!