BACK ROAD TROUBLE IN ALASKA // Hasta Alaska // S05E09

Previously on Asta Alaska, we faced every Volkswagen owner's worst nightmare, a fire in our Kombi which destroyed our tiny home on wheels. Unwilling to be beaten, we drove all the way up to Alaska to rescue our adventure mobile to give him one last chance to make it to the Arctic. After a lot of hard work and losing half of the possessions that we did have, we managed to bring old Capito back to life and once again ready for an adventure. So finally, let's go and explore Alaska. Would you believe it's actually been 10 months since we were last able to road trip in the Kombi? You can probably imagine but I'll tell you anyway, it was incredible to be back on the road and driving north in Capito. I just wanted to point out how amazing this scene is right here, okay. That's Dawson down there. This cloud is creeping in over Dawson. There is pretty much every single colour that there could possibly be in the sky right now. It's over here, there is a huge storm which is just coming through. Down there, it's like green. Up there is blue sky. Over there, the sun. The sun is rising, it's one o'clock in the morning. The sun hasn't really set, it just went down and kind of got a little bit dark but like it basically stays sunset into sunrise. It doesn't go away. Getting towards the poles, like everything changes, you know. The weather, the animals, like the animals, freaking mosquitoes. Anyway, it's time for bed but this is going to be a great place to wake up in the morning. The next morning, we woke up to one of the best views of any home in the Yukon. Even from up here, Dawson looked more like a town than a city. So why was it called Dawson City? Well, 100 years earlier during the gold rush, this town was growing rapidly and back then it did qualify to be incorporated as a city. These days, not so much but the town kept its name for historic reasons. But that isn't the only thing that's strange about Dawson. This town is also home to the infamous Sour Toe cocktail. Yes, that is a real human toe. There's a dead toe in this drink. The history of the toe dates back to the prohibition era. In the late 1920s, the Lykin brothers, who were a couple of bootleg booze bandits, ran into some trouble trying to smuggle 180 proof rum into Alaska. To avoid gangrene, one of the Lykins axed off the other Lykin's toe and stored it in a mason jar filled with their infamous liquor. 40-something years later, Captain Dick Stevenson happened upon the jar in Dawson and in 1973 started the Sour Toe Cocktail Club. To join the Sour Toe Cocktail Club, you will need... One ounce of hard liquor. We recommend Yukon Jack. One severed human toe. And a bucket load of courage. You can drink it fast. You can drink it slow. But your lips must touch this gnarly toe. Quick is better. Shake it. Shake it well. There it is. Done. And for an optional extra... We're not finished yet. Oh no! Well, you want to taste the toe, don't you? Good to the last. Toe jam! And cut. You think that's gross? We found out about something much worse. The guy swallowed and it stuck in his throat. He had a beer chaser there. It went down, stood up, and was down. At that time, the price was $500. But $500 sold him for $5,300. Who the heck would swallow a toe? I swallowed the toe, so... He's a toe swallower. Who would want to swallow somebody else's toe on purpose? Really, would you want to swallow somebody else's toe on purpose? Why would you not? This guy. Why would you not do that? That's the question for you. In charge of theft, destruction of private property, loss of revenue, and other things. You know, I draw the line of cannibalism. I made a joke about that for about a week when I lived in Dawson City. And then I was like, well, why draw the line of cannibalism? How long were you plotting this whole thing? And yeah, actually for a couple weeks. There's a lot of things you can do with $500. You can help a lot of people. Or you can eat a toe. Or you can eat the f***ing toe, because nobody did it. So I went there. I ordered a shot of Yukon Jack. Put the toe in there. I had a beer for a chaser. I knew what I was going to do. I was really nervous because I won eating contests in Louisiana. Like oyster eating contests, crawfish eating contests. But ever cannibalism? And I could never cannibalism. No, first time cannibalism. And nail first. And shot down. Went about halfway down. Opened the throat up. And then grabbed the beer. Got the rest down. I was like, no. That's how you end up. And Terry was really upset about it. Said, here's your f***ing $500. The owner shows up and is going on the streets trying to find me that night to get me. This is true. To vomit the toe back out. And give me my fava joas back. You are the man, the myth, the legend, brother. Yeah. Let's go exploring. The next day, we somehow still had an appetite and decided to cross the Yukon River and make our push for Alaska. If it was winter, we would be driving across this river as it would be frozen. But as it's summer, we're taking the ferry. The only thing that stood between us and Alaska now was the Top of the World Highway. One of the most remote highways in the Americas. And didn't Capito just know it? We're in the middle of nowhere. We're having to turn around to go back to where we came from which is Dawson in the Yukon. Didn't quite make it to Alaska. We're having fuel starvation issues which means the gas pump's not getting fuel again. Tried to fix it but just can't do anything about it right now. I have to wait. The waiting game seems to fix itself after like 20 minutes or something. Just frustrating. Can't rely on this vehicle at all. The Top of the World Highway is only 79 miles long. And guess what? We broke down eight times in that distance. It took us two days to get there. But eventually we made it. We made it. We finally made it. Alaska is that way. We have a lot of exploring to do. And this time we're ready. It's a bit fishy. Let's go, let's go, let's go. Let's get in, let's get in. We made it. South America to the top of North America. Almost. Just one final push. Crudeau Bay, here we come. Let's hit the road. Despite Alaska's pathetic excuse for summer weather, we were stoked to be finally driving on Alaskan roads. But then the adventure was almost all over before it began. Oh, I'm shaking. Oh my god, full-on shaking. We're driving some dirt roads here, as you can see. And we just came around the corner. I wasn't driving that fast, was I? That was sketchy, eh? My heart's beating. We have to be really careful then. Like, you somehow managed to save us. I don't know how. But that was crazy. So crazy. This is like the first hour in Alaska and we nearly died. I wasn't driving that fast. And like, the car just completely lost it. We've been worried about this slippy mud all day. Like, we've been driving like, I don't know, a couple hundred miles or something on this dirt road. And the car literally went all the way sideways. And then I was like, on the wheel, like. And then it went all the way the other way. And then like, managed to pull it out like this. Like, this is where I just stopped the car just this second. But that was the most out of control that I've been on this entire trip. This is lethal, these roads. They're so slippy. I don't know if you can see that on the camera. But like, this is where we kind of span this way. And then span that way. That was playing Sega Rally when I was growing up. Maybe a quarter mile back there, there's just a huge drop off right down. I'm like, I don't know, like 800 feet down to a really steep valley. This is dodgy. I think after that, both of us needed a drink. Luckily, chicken was just around the corner. Welcome to Chicken, Alaska. Chicken, Alaska, population seven. Well, usually anyway. Once a year, though, the crazies from Alaska and around the world gather in this, the smallest of towns for the outlandish festival, Chicken Stop. Thank you. Thank you, chicken. Thank you. Chicken was founded as a gold rush town in 1886 and still serves part-time prospectors looking to pan for the last few bits of gold. And it was here at Chicken Stock, in amongst the madness and used lingerie, that we just so happened to have met a prospector who invited us to look for gold. We were pretty stoked on Chicken Stop and the festival made for a great first night on the road in Alaska. I'm just having a bit of a post Chicken Stock chill out day at the Kombi, getting a little bit of work done. Found some BLM land and we're going to be in the water for two seconds because it's flipping freezing. So good to finally be camping next to a river. We've been camping in car parks and just not nice places, but this is beautiful. It's our first one in Alaska. So pretty. We felt like we had the whole place to ourselves. Not one other vehicle came down the road the whole time we were there. But then, this is Alaska. The state that redefines the meaning of the word road. This river is actually the famous 40 mile river. Famous because of the gold rush in the late 19th century. Ah yes, about that gold. This is called Jack Wait Creek. It's in the 40 mile mining district of Alaska. It was the first area in Alaska where gold was discovered. I think the gold rush up here was in 1897, but gold was discovered here in 1895. And thousands of miners came here to look for gold. If there's any gold, see look at the gold. See the gold on top? Find a couple of nice little flakes right off the bat. But if you run for a little while, you should be able to find some. Dan was showing us just how easy it is to find gold here. But unfortunately, we had no such luck. These are two that we found yesterday. This one weighs almost an ounce and a half. May I hold your gold please? Absolutely. It's really heavy. It is, it's very heavy. Gold is one of the heaviest materials on earth. Really? Yes. Now if it was 24 karat gold, you'd be able to bite into it like that. Really? Yeah, but our gold is only about 80 to 85 percent pure. So how much is this worth, Dan? I'd say that's probably worth five or six thousand dollars. It's pretty incredible, huh? Wow. Yeah. We better go digging. The way we do it is that we push up the dirt with a bulldozer. Generally what you do is you scrape off the top layer, which is called the overburden. Now this overburden, we're running it all because it's been mixed up over the years so many times that there's still some gold in it. But most of the time what you do is you strip off the top layer of overburden and then you get down to what they call the pay layer where you're going to start finding gold. And gold, which is very heavy, will continue to sink over the years until it can't go down any farther. And that's generally what they call the bedrock. So there's a layer of rock and that's where you find most of your gold. Are you thinking what we were thinking? This looks horrific. Certainly there is a stark difference between this site and the surrounding hills. And I know which we prefer. So you're standing on Jackweed Creek. We're miners up here. We've been miners up here for 21 years. And this is part of one of our reclamation projects that we're doing and trying to restore the environment back to the way it was. That's the right thing to do. So what we're trying to do is put the creek back where it was but then re-establish fish habitat. Gold mining in Alaska and its history is fascinating. And we were happy to hear that these prospectors spent a significant percentage of their season in Alaska working on land restoration projects. We weren't so happy to hear that they also claim to be the only miners in Alaska who do so. Our feeling is if we are going to take so much from our planet, land restoration should be mandatory, not optional. Gold mining had been on our Alaskan bucket list but at the top of that list was the Arctic Circle. In Combi Life we never really know how long our luck will last so we decided to push north towards our last and most challenging road. However, our luck didn't last for very long at all. We've been breaking down multiple times a day since we left Whitehorse and here, broken down 50 miles north of Fairbanks, Steve and Nancy found us. Incredibly, they took a detour from their own V-Dub adventures, drove a 100 mile round trip to purchase a telescopic camera and returned the next day to help examine our gas tank. That little bit of tape in the tank there may well be the 100 breakdown tape. I think I've broken down about 100 times because of this little piece of crap in the tank. So glad to have this camera and Steve's help. As it turned out, in Whitehorse a tiny piece of tape had fallen into the tank and each time we flushed it, it just got stuck to the side of the tank. Without this camera we would have never fixed this issue. Without Steve and Nancy we'd have probably gone insane. I just had it at the entrance. It's just playing with you now. Oh man, did you see that? It was literally out of the tank and went back in. Yes! Yay! Yeah, that's it Steve. How blessed are we to have met them and how incredible is it that they are the type of people that would stop to help a stranger. It's a piece of glass. There's no saying how many times that we've broken down because of that one piece of tape. Now we are finally ready to make our push to the Arctic. At this point I'm not sure if we're more nervous or excited. It would be 1000 miles of the toughest, most remote terrain that we had ever tackled. How would Capito fare? What would we discover at the end of the world? And could we make it all the way to the Arctic Ocean? Well for that you're going to have to wait until next time.