Chicken

Thursday, August 11.  Well we made it to Chicken!  We found some new information in Tok, saying that we could get "to" Chicken fine, but the road on to the Border was closed.  However, they hoped (and were working toward) opening it this weekend because Dawson City was celebrating "Dawson Days," and from the Alaska side, this was the road to get there.  So after some debate, we packed up this morning and headed to Chicken.  It was 44 degrees in Tok this morning and we forgot to turn the furnace on, so it was 51 inside when I got up (while Joe laid in bed waiting for the RV to get balmy).

BTW, Mazie had picked up a brochure at the Valdez Fish Hatchery that provided the numbers they try to harvest every year during the spawn.  I have added that information to the Valdez blog, so if you are interested, you can read that one again.


The road to Chicken was actually not that bad, mostly chip-sealed, with a few frost heaves and pot holes.  We took it pretty slow and got to Chicken without incident.  The drive was a different kind of pretty, with mountain views.  There were supposed to be blueberries along the way, but we didn't see any for sure, though maybe we did, but didn't stop.

We had views of the Alaska Range again, off to the left.

This highway showed evidence of severe damage from a 2004 forest fire, which burned 1.3 million acres and closed this highway for several days.  2004 was our last trip here, and it was a very hot, dry summer, very unlike this summer.  Alaska had 707 fires that summer (not an uncommon number), but the acreage burned was tragic -- 6,385,496, making it the largest recorded fire season in recorded Alaska history.

Anyhow, we got to Chicken.  There is not a lot in Chicken.  Chicken got it name (according to legend) when the miners and residents wanted to incorporate, and were told they had to have a name for this place where they had lived for 7 years.  They wanted to name it ptarmigan, after the willow grouse that is prevalent here (and eventually was named as the state bird), but they realized that none of them really knew how to spell ptarmigan, and they didn't want to risk later embarrassment if they spelled it wrong.  Finally, one of the old miners said, "Hell, let's just name it Chicken."  And "Chicken" it became.

There are 3 businesses (gift shops, campgrounds, a saloon, 2 cafes that serve a lot of chicken).  We got a campsite right by Chicken Creek, which we intend to pan for gold while we are here.

Chicken does have an old dredge that you can tour, and they do tours of the Original Chicken daily.  We didn't tour the dredge, but we did tour the old town, which is just cabins  in different stages of disrepair.  They are trying to renovate some, and there is a book "Tisha" about a teacher in Chicken, so we got to see her school/cabin. 

Here's Dave peering into a cabn.  Collins stayed back at the campground because he wasn't feeling good, so we hope he might take this tour tomorrow. 

Here's the photos of Tisha's school, which was also a roadhouse at one time.  It was two rooms, and she lived in the second room.  Some of the people on this tour with us had read the book, so they were really re-living some of her experiences.  David bought the book that evening and will pass it around the 6 of us so we can all enjoy it.

The photo above is the classroom.  The next picture is where she lived.  One of the ladies in our tour group said she could just imagine her sleeping next to the outside wall and her blankets freezing to the wall.  Our tour guide said it gets 60 below every year here in Chicken, so it was mighty cold!

This is the road we have to take to go on to Dawson City.  They took two convoys through today before we got to Chicken, but they are installing culverts tomorrow and are not supposed to be taking any through.  The plan is that they will take two convoys through on Friday, at 8:00 a.m. and noon.  We intend to be ready for the 8:00 a.m. trip.

I guess the bridge over Chicken Creek had some damage from the flooding too because they told us some of the heavy trucks are fording the creek down by the campsite.  We saw a front loader go through there a couple times, but no semis so far.

Then we drove over to the other area, where there is a saloon/mercantile store (gift shop), and another campground/gift shop.  Joe thought we should all come back to the saloon later.  We drove out to the airport, where one little plane set on the runway.

Here's our trip to the saloon. 

There was over 500 hats stapled to the ceiling, along with various pieces of women's underwear.  Next to the saloon was a chicken pen.

But here's the chickens we really need to be aware of!

After our exhausting day, here's Joe "just hanging out in Chicken."

You can see that life is pretty rough on our Excellent Adventure.