July 31
41 miles
879 feet elevation gain
Today was another day on the Alaska Highway, a bit more up and down than yesterday but still pretty straight and fewer miles.
The views of the mountains were better today, but I must admit we were a bit focused on getting to town so we didn’t take a lot of photos.
We arrived in Tok around 2pm. First order of business was a hot meal at a place called Fast Eddy’s, before finding a reasonable place to stay. We found a place renting cabins for cheaper than any motels, and we took full advantage of our space. We’ve emptied every bag to air out all of our gear, spread out all our food to plan our next section, and of course taken some showers and done a bit of laundry.
We’ve arrived at a junction in our journey. We could stay on the AlCan and ride 360 miles to Whitehouse, Yukon, on a route that has about 30,000 feet of climbing. Or, we could head north on the Taylor Highway, to join the Top of the World Highway and go through Dawson City before Whitehorse. That route is about 550 miles and has 70,000 feet of climbing. But it also crosses the highest border crossing into Canada, will have less traffic, and spends more time in the Yukon Territory. Of course this is the route we chose. I don’t think we will be doing any 70 mile days during this stretch!