I spent a few nights in Dawson City in the Yukon, which is a very cool gold-rush style town I’ve visited before with lots of original buildings I completely forgot to take photos of. I stayed at a hostel across the Yukon River from town where I met a great bunch of people and got really, really trashed with them in several of the towns bars so I was way too hung over to leave town when I was planning. We made a 400% profit gambling in the casino ($5 between us turned into $25, it was wild), we all did the sourtoe shot (see photos) and then went the next day to watch the cancan show. Oh, and I saw some really spectacular northern lights while taking the ferry across the river late one night. Then I headed across the Top of the World Highway to Alaska, even though it seemed like the weather wasn’t playing ball.
I arrived in Dawson City just in time to see this magical sunset over the Yukon River.
The toe shot works like this: you buy a shot of something, they give you a human toe to put it in and to get the certificate the toe has to touch your lips while you drink it.
$2500 fine if you swallow the toe.
No, I don’t know why either.
But I’m now a member, which is the main thing.
And then five days later I left. I had tried to go over the Top of the World highway three times before, once from the Canadian side and twice from the Alaskan side but every time something had come up (like forest fires) and I hadn’t been able to make it. Eight years after my first attempt, I was excited I was finally going to make it!
It’s supposed to be one of the most beautiful roads in North America but the weather really wasn’t playing ball.
And then it got a little worse.
And then it started taking the piss.
But then we got over the top of the range of mountains and the weather started clearing up.
And the views started.
Such views.
You could really see for miles and miles and miles.
Then we got to the border town, which is absolutely in the middle of nowhere.
When I say town…
There I am.
There’s the nice Belgian lady who gave me a ride.
And then…
…there were just…
…all the…
…views.
I finally hitched the Top of the World Highway!
Total distance hitchhiked: 15833 km.
Total number of rides: 118.
I want to know who’s toe that is??? Fantastic out-of-this-world views from the top of the world!!
Haha, sadly they didn’t say. I can’t imagine sourcing human toes is particularly easy, though!