We started the day with a fuel up, a water fill, and a drive to the famous Dredge 4 national historic site outside of Dawson. The thing is massive. It ran for 48 years, the first 30 in the Klondike River and then it was disassembled and reassembled in Bonanza Creek and spent the last 18 years dredging the creek. It averaged 0.5 miles in a season and produced over 300k ounces of gold in its life. Pretty impressive. That’s $18M a year in today’s dollars.
We headed back to Dawson to catch the ferry. The line was pretty long and we waited about 4 hours to get across. It’s nice to have the camper for this. After crossing we began to ascend the Top of the World Highway and the truck has decided to start some diesel emissions issue. Apparently diesels are supposed to be run hard and hot in order to keep the emissions system clean. Problem is the roads here are slow and the fuel is not always great and it has had to regenerate frequently. This time it started a regen and 5 minutes later I get a warning that the DPF is full and I am reduced in power and I have to take it to the dealer. Problem is, nearest dealer is Fairbanks, almost 400 miles away. So we downshift, keep the revs up and trudge onward. I killed the codes I could kill about halfway in and we kept moving. We crossed the USA border, chatted with the guards, and continued on to the Welcome to Alaska sign. Another state on Kathy’s quest. We made it to Chicken and decided to sit for a couple of days and do some research, fix some things, and save some $$. The next part might be costly.
While we were in Chicken, we hiked around and took in the sites, wildflowers, and of course the famous mercantile/bar/liquor store/cafe that is all one building and half sunken in to the ground. We had a few beers and talked with the owner, whose mom used to run the place the past 50 years. The inside of the bar is filled with hats, bras, panties, patches, signs and whatever else might be interesting. The music was played on an old record player and you could choose any vinyl in the collection. Kind of cool.
I took some time to fix an electrical problem we’ve been having with the microwave and then I wired up a more permanent setup for the Starlink. I tried to fix the mount system but it will take some more effort we cannot do here. I instead moved the tie point to the lift corner and left it loose hoping the other 3 will keep it in tact. Kathy took to the camper and truck with the little dust broom and a soft towel and Dry-Washed the road dirt from Howie. 100 miles with rain on that highway really dirtied things up.
Now for the Ram truck. We don’t have much of an option other than drive it as far as we can. It’s 60 miles to Tok, a minor stop on the AK highway, then from there another 120 to Delta Junction. There may be a Diesel Mechanic there. If we make it that far, we’ll try another 100 miles to Fairbanks where there is a Ram Dealer. So wish us luck that it gets us there. We have towing insurance to the nearest mechanic, and hopefully we won’t need it.
Here are some additional photos from the past two days. https://www.overlandadventureexcursions.com/photos-albums/nggallery/album/20250714-15-chicken-ak