Taylor Highway

Connecting Tok with northern Yukon, a beautiful gravel drive with lots of adventure opportunity.

Signs on the West fork of the Dennison warn you about grizzlies, so the prepared anglers are the happy ones.

Downtown Chicken Alaska. The miners couldn't spell Ptarmigan so the name is close. 

Susan's homemade apple cranberry pie with Yukon Brewing Ice Fog IPA is the perfect lunch. 

The home of sourdough

My recipe for sourdough came from an Alaskan cookbook years ago and Burf has his own batch so we had a campfire dinner of grouse breasts in a mountain picked blueberry, rosehip brandy reduction with grouse legs hotter'n a coed dirty rice and sourdough biscuits.

Damn good vittles!

Pursuing the state bird

Willow Ptarmigan are so prevalent that they are the state birds. Live in the tundra above treeline. "Always uphill..."
Hunted Mt. Fairplay from 3300' to 4000'. Found a covey of sharptails on the way up and Burf got to experience Kali at her best.

Look beside Emil's right ear and you'll see see Denali Peak, 275 miles to the southwest. Big mountain! 

Kali snoozing in a blueberry patch. Picked a bunch for supper. 

Truck just visible above Burf's hat. 6.59 mile hike. Unfortunately, no Ptarmigan. Everything else was awesome. 

Even better travel day

Got away from the crowds and settled into serious hunting.

First spruce grouse

Many AK lakes have boats for anglers to use. Add Alaska Boat Captain to my business cards. 

The free boats come with challenges however. 

Great travel day

Been a while since we've had wifi so catching up. Left the comfort of Cantwell headed north to Fairbanks, stopped at the Tanana State Forest and Emil scored a ruffed grouse.

Had to stop at Skinny Dick's Roadhouse for local color and brews. Got the full treatment for travelers including all the bar jokes and gags.

"Do what?"

Designated driver beer

Never seen this sign before. 

New moon pie from Gold Hill

First northern pike! 

Can't well get along in Cantwell

Labor Day corresponds with caribou and moose openers in Alaska so the crowds encroaching on where WE wanted to hunt were a bit of a buzz kill. Shut down in Cantwell and found the Longhorn Saloon & Cafe. Kinda rough place even with our winning personalities. Started with a guy confronting Burf! With "what are you looking at" and ended with me squaring off with a guy bragging about Alaska size vs. Texas. And he was from Pennsylvania!
Got out in time with good food and beer, plus Emil got to put his XXX sobriety dollar on the ceiling!

Meanwhile, Kali starts and ends the day with equal enthusiasm.

Grayling

Fishing has been high on our priority list (along with hunting, exploration and local brews) and we had good luck with flies at Poplar Grove Creek north of Gakona. Grayling are small very pretty fish and good fighters.

Kali has hunted for forest grouse and Ptarmigan without success so far but finds fishing equally entertaining.

Alaska! Finally

Took 4027.2 miles but we made it. Hunted immediately due to rising temperature and found feathers but no birds. Rest of the day spent visiting with biologists, sporting goods salesman, and waitress. Some hunting and fishing and scouting.  Mostly just excited to be here!

Dad,I'm ready!

Did hit 1 ruffed grouse. Actually she hit me on the driver door!  Promising start. 

Fishing in the Little Tok River. 

Yukon scenery

Yukon River

Alaska Highway

St. Elias Mountains

Hanging with the Tlingits

Stopped at the Tlingit Heritage Center to look at totems, dugout canoes, and for a native made basket to shake dominoes along the highway.
Met Tim, Jr, and Sonny building a log cabin from spruce and visited over an hour. Trappers, hunters and lifelong Yukon residents. Plenty to sit a log and discuss.
They decided they like Texans, so our Ambassadorial Skills work.

Tim has a hat it's easy to envy.

Log scribe, a tool I don't have. Yet!

From across the globe

The sign forest in Watson Lake YT merits a stop. No signs from Helena TX but just about everywhere else. Over 75000 in all.

Had a real Yukon breakfast at Rancheria with 3 eggs, tons of bacon, sourdough pancakes. Played dominoes in the warm café.  Great start.

BC is "Beautiful Country"

The drive from Ft Nelson to Watson Lake is spectacular and full of wild life. Also in much better condition than when I last traveled it in 1998. Since pictures are worth thousands of words and I type with 1 finger. ....

First caribou

Still some construction

Smith River Falls

Whirlpool Canyon

Sawtooth Mountains

Fun with local tool materials

Mile 0

After our stay in Red Deer it was more NxNW through Alberta. Breakfast stop in Sangudo at the Coffee Connection introduced us to Sunny Moser, a musician who played the Kerrville Folk Festival and rode the bus with Asleep at the Wheel. Repaired a mesquite thorn hole on the right rear at a friendly shop then off for BC.

Hit Mile 0 in Dawson Creek at 1600 and made it to Ft St John to shut down. 200 miles to next stop.

Also picked up a new trail rider. We call him Domino. 

On to Alaska! 

Canada is cool

The cooler weather followed us into Montana and across into Alberta, even though there was steady rain all morning. Had a great breakfast at the Lariat Country Cafe in Hardin, WY, including the best strawberry rhubarb pie I've ever enjoyed courtesy of Lori.

Did catch a glimpse of sunrise against the Bighorn Mountains.
Central Montana has received over 8" of rain the past three days so we had to go to an alternate border crossing due to flooded roadways, but that worked out just fine as the mounties at the Wild Horse crossing were great.
Made it to Red Deer for dinner and sleep. Not bad for two days. Yukon tomorrow.

Love Wyoming!

Left Ft Worth at 1600 on Friday because we were packed, antsy, and Susan didn't want to put up with us. Also 112°!
Plenty of room in the efficiently packed rig.
Stopped in Clarendon for the night and rolling NxNW by 0500.
Breakfast with blueberry pie at the Longhorn in Springfield, CO.
Hit cold front and rain north of Casper. Great buffalo ribeye at Wyoming Rib&Chop House in Sheridan, one of my favorite American towns then in one of my favorite motels. Kali knows exactly where we are and is very excited. Doesn't know we're only about 3/8 there.
Currently 39° wind chill so we get to wear the mountain man vests we never imagined we'd need.
Favorite state! !!!!!