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00:00Expedition Overland's Pan American Series is presented by General Tire. Anywhere is possible.
00:44The guys trip was underway and we were like a car full of giddy little schoolgirls. Our first destination fit
00:51the bill for the start of the man trip. Chicken, Alaska.
00:57Aside from the giant chicken, you know you're in the right place when you roll up and a Unimog is
01:02already gracing the parking lot.
01:04It requires you to go talk to whoever owns it to get the lowdown on the awesomeness that is a
01:10Unimog.
01:13The owners are from Germany and we're extremely hospitable to our drool oozing grins.
01:19Oh, beautiful. We shipped them over from Germany to Halifax. Oh yeah.
01:25And now we go to Brudo Bay and then we want to go to all the crazy countries, Colombia and
01:32Venice.
01:33Yeah, cool.
01:40See how much really common this is?
01:42Yeah.
01:43It's a Halifax jack.
01:46It's a electric head.
01:52The inside was typical German engineering. Extremely well thought out, comfortable, and everything had its place.
02:02The missus showed us her pride and joy of the vehicle, a micro, clothes washing machine.
02:08Seeing that stirred us to ask the gentleman what his favorite part of the vehicle was.
02:11Favorite part of this truck.
02:15My favorite, look, this is my favorite part.
02:20Lisbon!
02:23It's the little things.
02:25I love it. It's nice.
02:27They were a fascinating couple to speak with.
02:30Even though we had to navigate a language barrier, we shared a bond for exploring and seeing the world by
02:35vehicle.
02:39In Chicken, you have a choice of three destinations.
02:42The Chicken Mercantile Emporium, the Chicken Creek Saloon, or the Chicken Creek Cafe.
02:51Opting for the bar, we stepped in.
02:55First thing you notice is all the hats on the ceiling, stapled up there by the passerby and local patron.
03:01It's obviously an off-the-wall destination for travelers and wanderers.
03:08Upon closer inspection, the ceiling is also lined with torn underwear and questions formed.
03:15The jukebox is broken, but the atmosphere is light and lively.
03:20At the bar, the guys order their drinks.
03:23Ryan goes out on a limb and orders a chicken fart.
03:26A layered, not mixed, drink made of Kahlua, Bailey's Irish Cream, and Crown Royal.
03:32In that order, and ideally with just a float of Crown.
03:43Ty and the gang slip over to the gift shop to see what they could scrounge up.
03:47Soon they were consumed by eclectic t-shirts and trinkets.
03:51There's one right here from Deer Lodge, Montana.
03:53I think he's a prison guard.
03:56Outside, Jeff was learning to shift gears in the Unamog.
04:06And Jeff's driving the Unamog.
04:08He's so happy right now.
04:10He had a really big smile on his face.
04:13As Jeff commanded the Unamog toward the open road, a younger man, perplexed and pacing, caught our attention.
04:22So, tell me what happened.
04:24Yeah, it went into my tent last night, and so I shot it.
04:29Yeah? Did you punch it first?
04:32I did wrestle with it, but...
04:34No, wait, you did wrestle with the Bears?
04:36I did wrestle with the Bears.
04:38Yeah.
04:39It wasn't worth it.
04:40I wouldn't recommend it to anybody.
04:43Well, you won, right?
04:44Yeah.
04:45Yeah.
04:45I guess so.
04:47I'm better off now than he is.
04:48That's for sure.
04:50Cuz, what happened?
04:51I didn't know.
04:51He's driving this Unamog, and he's all smiles, so I was getting him.
04:55And the Unamog pulls around, and behind him out of the woods comes this little Ford something or other, barreling
05:00out.
05:00And this blonde guy, hair all over, gets out of his truck, and this smell follows him.
05:06And I knew automatically, you know, the story.
05:08Dead?
05:08Yeah, dead bear.
05:09What story?
05:10Okay, so, let me tell her.
05:11You're in a dark.
05:12I've been in here shopping.
05:15So, what did you just do?
05:17And he's like, well, last night I walk in my tent, and there's a young bear standing up in my
05:21tent, huffing at me.
05:23So, he cracks the bear, breaks his jaw.
05:26With his fist?
05:27Yeah, he's an MMA fighter.
05:28It's not like the best record.
05:30Do you have any other injuries?
05:32Ah, he bit me in the leg, he didn't break the skin though.
05:34Get out of town.
05:35He just gnarles this young bear, bop, and then go gets a 40.
05:38He has two shots in the 40, misses him the first time.
05:41And I missed him the first shot, and I hit him the second shot, but he was right on top
05:46of me, like, as soon as the second shot.
05:48Boom.
05:49Yeah.
05:50Did the bear come after him, or he'd go like, come on bear, whack?
05:52I don't know.
05:53I don't know.
05:54It looked like he had a rough eye.
05:56Can we have one of your bear claws when you get back?
05:58Yeah.
05:58Okay.
06:00It was an evening none of us will ever forget.
06:04And as I thought the evening was coming to a close, the others were up to no good.
06:10Okay, so, inside this bar here in Chicken, Alaska, they have all these hats and underwear plastered all over the
06:20walls, stapled up.
06:22And the underwear are blown out of this little small, like, floor can, and it's really the only way to
06:27describe it.
06:29The panty can.
06:30The panty can.
06:31The panty can.
06:31Well, we decided that we're going to blow up one of Clay's pairs of Ex Officio underwear.
06:37The underwear gods, I'm sure, will be pleased with a noble sacrifice of Ex Officio give-and-goes.
06:43There's a little brown in there.
06:46So that's a cannon.
06:48Look, you got your barrel.
06:49You got where your fuse goes here, and you're going to pour black powder down the top?
06:53No.
06:55These are turkeys.
06:56They may have come out of your bag though.
06:58Nope.
06:59They're the turkeys.
07:01Clay, I'm sorry.
07:03You got the hand sanitizer?
07:04It's his.
07:05It's his.
07:05I will wash my hands.
07:09Give-and-go Clay, give-and-go.
07:10That's it.
07:11He's going.
07:12I'll stand over here.
07:17The panty cannon took a little bit of work and was a letdown when it didn't go off.
07:22Good thing the bear wrestler and his buddy were there to help.
07:25This year, panty cannon is still occupied by a half-diffused wad of gunpowder.
07:30Watching these two stumble through its reload was a little nerve-wracking.
07:35I was struggling to remember any training on how to remove an impaled screwdriver from
07:39a skull.
07:41Oh, there you go.
07:42That was it.
07:44We stepped back and watched as two mildly intoxicated gentlemen rambled and loaded.
07:49I told you, you should have played guilty.
07:52I mean, you should have played, uh...
07:54In sand or what?
07:55No.
07:55I was afraid for my life.
07:57100%.
07:59But I saw it now.
08:00It's off my record at least though.
08:02It's sponged.
08:03No, it's not.
08:04You can't get into Canada.
08:05Eventually, the short statured panty cannon had its proper charge.
08:09And it was go time.
08:41Yeah, it's still there.
08:43The sand is still there.
08:45Well, there he goes, wearing them proud.
08:52Nice.
08:53Those were a giving going.
08:58Yeah, let them hang proud.
08:59Let them hang.
09:00Hey, tickle people's foreheads as they walk by.
09:03This night went out with a bang. The next morning we had some chores to do. The Land
09:15Cruiser steer tires were in need of a rotation. A creative solution was
09:20required to keep the front end off the ground to allow the removal of the steer
09:24tires all while lifting and removing the back trailer tires to swap with.
09:52Ryan set to putting in some much-needed grease. Ty was at the river working on
09:57other greasy things and Scott and I saw an opportunity to capitalize on a shared
10:01passion. Scott and I have panned and panned and panned and never found anything
10:09notable. I have a vial at home like this and it's got three little specks on the
10:15bottom of it and I'm so proud of them. There's this German guy over here that has
10:21found more gold in three hours than I have found and seen in my entire life.
10:34He was hard at work, his hands gnarled from years of labor.
10:56Did you understand a word he was saying?
10:58A few. Something about black sand and a little red in it. Came from Germany, he speaks German
11:06and Greek. Really, actually he speaks really fast English but you can't
11:11understand any of it. It's so mumbled. I was lost quickly.
11:16Yeah, he's a character for sure. A character that really knew what he was
11:23doing. He was a gold mine within himself and was a pretty good teacher despite the
11:29language barrier. Shovel after shovel we experienced the best panning of our lives.
11:39Seven, eight, nine flecks of gold. There's officially more gold in this one quick shovel of a pan than
11:49I have found in all of Montana on like four or five days of work in one pan right here.
11:57That's really fun. I mean that goes to say that I don't know where I'm looking but it's really cool
12:03to
12:03find a guy who knows what he's doing and who's willing to teach you and show you something. That's cool.
12:15In a state of gold fever we eventually were able to pry ourselves from the river
12:20to make our way across the border into Canada but time was no longer on our side.
12:40I'm pushing her to the max and she's not liking me for it but we're still pushing 70% of
12:46what the
12:46vehicle can do. It's comfortable. It's just we can't get there in time. We're not going to make it.
13:05We were forced to spend the night near the border. All told it wasn't a bad thing. The campsite was
13:11awesome.
13:15The guys set up camp and as the sun dipped on the horizon they looked out over the Yukon territory.
13:28With camp set up Scott and I parred over the maps and took our plans to the team.
13:35Tomorrow we would enter Canada.
13:57With the border behind us we've pushed on for 65 miles to the world famous Dawson City Yukon.
14:09Arriving at the Yukon River our first ferry crossing is required to reach Dawson City.
14:20It's a little bit unnerving but it's really cool.
14:27What do you think? It's cool. It's really cool.
14:31Minutes later the town of Dawson rolled beneath our wheels. Dawson City was created in the early
14:36days of the Klondike Gold Rush when prospector Joe Ladue and shopkeeper Arthur Harper decided to
14:43make a profit from the influx of prospectors to the Klondike. But for now it pushed straight
14:48through town in pursuit of the reason this town exists in the first place.
14:54Gold was discovered here in 1896 and became known as the Klondike Gold Rush. When news reached Seattle
15:01in San Francisco the following year it triggered a stampede of an estimated 100,000 would-be prospectors.
15:09Out of the one-third that actually made it only some struck it rich. Most struck out.
15:15The Klondike Gold Rush lasted just three years.
15:21Later dredging became profitable as the new technology allowed gold bearing ground to be worked in mass
15:26quantities. Jeff and Ryan attended to a funny squeak as Ty fired up some lunch. Toby and Scott ventured
15:35into the bush to locate a dredge. I soon followed. I'm not here to find those guys. They're up on
15:42the
15:42dredge somewhere. Pretty cool piece of history. Just laying there rotten. I went too far. The dredge was
15:54powered by electricity. Cables were attached to logs buried in the hillsides and controlled by a winching
16:00system to maneuver the dredge within the pond. The floating dredges scooped gold bearing gravel from
16:06the front bucket line and sent it through a series of trommels and sluice boxes where the gold was
16:11trapped before depositing the waste behind the dredge forming rows of gravel behind it as it moved along.
16:22So you got balance across the log? Yeah. She's shaking. Then across the pipe. Then across the pipe.
16:32The pipe's a little more stable than the log you're on.
16:44This dredge had been doomed from fire. That didn't keep us from checking it out.
16:51Soon everyone caught up with us and good life decisions were hard to come by.
17:04I'm not going to touch that one again. Okay. It just got cooler.
17:11We're coming up. Don't use the right one.
17:16This is so cool. I know. It's so sweet. This is so cool. I know.
17:21And sketch. I wouldn't venture out much past the police. Look at the amount of weight that this
17:28is still holding these big heavy beams out here. Oh yeah. I mean look at this. This is tons and
17:34tons
17:35of weight. Yeah. On the bottom of where you're standing it's all burnt out.
17:48So yeah. Hold on to the burnt board. That'll help you. Well it's better than nothing.
17:52So one big concern is this big pipe that's hanging on by a little thread.
17:56That's not a concern. That could fall on you and crush you. The reason it's not a concern is because...
18:06Let's go back upstairs and find another way. Okay. There's going to be another way.
18:11Just trying to leave had its moments.
18:16FS 700 frog.
18:23Toby, you set your course. Alligators, alligators, alligators.
18:27You know, lonesome doubt where the kid gets bit by the water moxans in the face.
18:30Yeah, it's my favorite part.
18:40Oh!
18:42Is it okay?
18:45Oh!
18:47It was starting to get cold out.
18:49Tromp on!
18:52There it is.
18:54Oh, that is kind of stuff.
18:59Oh!
19:06You smell good.
19:07Oh, I know. It's straight up iron.
19:10I saw a lot of leeches in there.
19:13Yeah, I know.
19:14You might check your...
19:15You're my profits.
19:16Yeah.
19:16It's my show.
19:22Back in Dawson, piano music wooed us into the historic downtown hotel.
19:32The piano player was a classically trained gentleman living on the river.
19:41Across the bar, a drink was being served that caught our eye.
19:45The sour toe started in 1973 when riverboat captain Dick Stevenson found a severed toe preserved in a jar.
19:52Yeah.
19:53As far as my eyes and senses can tell, that is 100% real toe.
19:59The rules are simple.
20:00Put the toe in a glass of Yukon Jack and throw it back.
20:03You can drink it fast, you can drink it slow, but the lips have got to touch the toe.
20:12The officiating captain of the night reads the creed and drops the toe.
20:17The rest is up to you.
20:39You'd then tip your captain with a shot.
20:42Ours had had plenty that night and could barely record our names in the book.
20:47The bar was hopping.
20:48These guys from Scotland really wanted to be on camera and Toby executes a pro-level photo bomb.
21:05Two nights in a row we had not been let down.
21:08This portion of the trip was off to quite the start.
21:19The following morning, more planning went into effect to Tombstone.
21:25If it's day 28, we have until day 44 to get all of our trip done at the max.
21:35Head down to Dawson, head out of Dawson here and then we go up somewhere,
21:40maybe up towards Eagle River tonight or somewhere in the in this stretch that we camp.
21:45Yeah, it's gonna have to be maybe, yeah.
21:49We wanted to push north on the Dempster Highway to reach the Arctic Ocean.
21:54So we restocked our supplies and made way.
22:04And the question was asked, what's down this road?
22:07What's down this road?
22:09And it...
22:12We're there.
22:12This road might have more in store for us already than we thought it would.
22:18Scotty's got cameras out.
22:27Things were about to get interesting.
23:17I'll see you next time.
23:23You
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