On the Road to Alaska

On the Road to Alaska
Denali from the Air

Monday, July 25, 2011

Week Fifteen~Alaska Trip July 20-25

                            On the Alaskan Highway
We left TOK AK on Thursday AM. after fueling up the RV and the truck. We had a good days drive. The road to the Canadian border is not too bad, but once we crossed back into the Yukon Territory the road very quickly deteriorated. There were about 80 to 100 patches of loose gravel to drive over where they had been working on the road. Phil went over every patch VERY slowly because it was during one of these stretches that the $6000 rock was thrown up into the radiator. Once we were past the construction areas we quickly came upon the stretch of road that was so rough with frost heaves. To say that the road is horrible is an understatement. We stopped for the evening by the picturesque Kluane Lake, Horseshoe Bay. This has to be one of the most beautiful spots along the road. We enjoyed a quiet evening. We were very glad to have that stretch of road behind us.
IMG_3105Friday was another good travel day. We stopped at Whitehorse to fuel up again and waved to the Kenworth dealer where we had been repaired, and just kept on going! We had seen enough of Whitehorse when we were in the shop that we had no desire to stop on the way south. We drove almost to Watson Lake YK before we stopped for the night. Again, we found a lovely pull off to the side of the road, beside a river. We were almost to the Continental Divide. We had driven through a few showers along the way and we were treated to a lovely rainbow after supper.
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Saturday we drove back to Watson Lake and pulled into the Visitor’s Center. We unhooked the truck and went to purchase a new can opener. I had replaced our really OLD one before we left home. Unfortunately the one I replaced it with was not very good, and it broke. We found a new can opener, good and heavy, like the one we have had for years. Sorry to say that the price on it was good and heavy too!!
We had come back to Watson Lake to see the planetarium show on the Northern Lights. The show was in two parts. One part was about the space program and it was excellent. It used the full planetarium  screen and was very close to 3-D in effects. The presentation on the Aurora Borealis was good, but not as colorful as we had expected.
Anyway, it was about 2:15 or so when we got underway again. We traveled back about 10 miles to go south on the Cassiar Highway. Right away we could see the millions of acres that had been lost to a forest fire this spring when we were traveling north. There is some green growing already on the forest floor, but many millions of tress and animals were lost. Later, down the road things were looking better.
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About 4:00 PM we found a quiet rest area and pulled in for the night. Supper was ready for the second night in a row. We had fixed chili and put it in the crock pot before we started out in the morning. Using a small inverter off of the house batteries, it was all done when we stopped. What a treat. Yesterday we did beef stew and that was done when we stopped for the day. Phil talked to our fellow camper in the morning and discovered that they were from Ithaca NY.
On Sunday as we traveled our way down the road Phil abruptly slowed and pulled into the Petro fuel station at Dease Lake. I couldn’t figure out why?? Well, there were our friends, Paula and Tom Nankivell parked in the lot. We were all happy to see one another again. We invited them in and listened to their saga of the last few days. Unfortunately they had also picked up a rock on the wonderful Yukon roads and their radiator was leaking (Sound at all familiar?). There was a fellow in town that could help them, they thought, but EVERYONE in town knew that Charlie was ‘out camping’ for the weekend. Sunday had been quite rainy, so I guess Charlie had come home from camping early. He stopped and looked at their RV while we were there. He said he could take the radiator out but they would need to drive it to Saint George (600 miles south) for repair, wait for it to be repaired, drive it back (another 600 miles) and he would reinstall it. We figured the best case scenario, this was going to cost them about a week at least, plus a few good ole American $$. 
We wished them ‘Good Luck’ and headed on down the highway. Thankfully, eventually the road surface turned better and we had a good asphalt road to drive on. We spent the night in another wayside rest. On Monday we finished the drive to Stewart BC.
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We found a good campground there with FHU and Wifi. We went across the border into Hyder AK for lunch. We ate at “The Bus” which had good local seafood.
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After lunch we took a drive around town. IMG_3128 Local home:





IMG_3129 Local church by river.
As we were driving Phil did another of his quick stops and turn arounds (I am just along for the ride!) He had spotted an unusual tow vehicle for an RV at Camp Run Amuck. Yes, that is their real name.  IMG_3133 Phil had a good time chatting with the owner. He has had this car as his tow vehicle for 8 years and it has been in all 50 states. He said he had sent it by train to Hawaii. :-) !
We proceeded down to Fish Creek to look for bears. We did not see ANY salmon in the river so we did not expect to see any bears. However, there was a cub wandering around. That was fun to see but the rangers were concerned for it because it appeared to be separated from its momma. Hope they find each other soon, as he was pretty small to be on his own.
IMG_3140 We will be in Stewart BC for another day and then finish the Cassiar Highway on our journey out of Canada.

Just another note….I forgot to post the picture of one of the bears that we spotted on the Cassiar Highway. He was in the middle of the road and ran off to the side by the time we got to him. He stopped in the wildflowers long enough for me to snap this picture of him. Double click on the picture to make  it bigger.

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