Part two, Wow, Alaska, how long will that take?



Mile 0 of the Alaska Highway

It was great to reach Beaver Creek, BC and begin our journey on to Alaska via the Alaska Highway.  After a point, the Alaska Highway is the main road other than waterway by which to reach Alaska. It is the chosen route of most travelers and all truckers.  Vehicle watching becomes a primary distraction while putting in long driving days.  Most of the highway provides incredible scenery and lots of wildlife, often in the middle of the road.  

Hum, looks tasty!

Dawson Creek to Delta Jct. Alaska is about 1300 miles.  The road is marked with mileposts, kilometer posts when in Canada.  I can follow the mileposts in a special publication creatively called, The Milepost.  This book tells what lies ahead and is very useful in finding pull-offs to spend the night in, gas and repair service.  Many of the former lodges, gas stations and repair shops along the highway are now closed and boarded up as the modern self-contained RV traveler speeds through no longer needing these services.  The ALCAN, as this road was formerly known was begun in 1941 after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.  Military engineers were directed to put a road through the wilderness connecting the existing native trails.  In this way the lower 48 would be connected to Alaska which seemed critical to the War effort.  10.000 or more troops came to the area with the aid of many civilians and in what is now described as an engineering marvel.  Following the topograph, this road winds through the Canadian Rockies, crosses huge glacial rivers and passes through miles and miles of forest.  Remarkably, the ALCAN highway,as it was then known, was completed in just 8 months and 12 days.  Aircraft and skillful pilots played a huge part in directing the placement of the highway through uncharted wilderness.  In 1948, the Alaska Highway was openned to the public, but it was not the smooth ride of today.  We have heard from some old timers what the trip was like back then.  Even today, as Carlisle will attest to, after suffering a flat tire last January at -30, it is not a road to be taken lightly.  However, we suffered no mishaps on our third crossing.

Rapeseed or canola

Traveling through BC there are yellow fields of canola and farm land.  Fort St. John and Fort Nelson are hard working oil towns with big trucks, dual wheeled pick-ups and men with big arm muscles.  Not bad to look at except for the cigarette smoking that accompanies them.  We filled up the RV, 55 gallons, in Fort Nelson which had Bucky grumbling about the oil situation for the next few hundred miles, $1.45 a liter which converts to around $5.80 a gallon!  It seems incredible that anyone is driving anywhere, but necessity warrants it.  The forest here stretches on forever lined with the most wonderful wild flowers, dominated by fireweed, which is now turning red as it looses its purple bloom.

July 31 found us spending the night near Fort Nelson.  The next morning we drove through Muncho Lake Provincial Park and on to the city of Watson Lake.  Here we looked again at the signpost forest which runs along the roadside.  Signs are placed here from all over the world by travelers and it grows larger each year, obviously a sustainable resource.  Speaking of the forest, we noticed damage by the Pine Beetle to almost all the pines along the road until after Watson Lake.  At this point the trees seemed unaffected.  Last year, we saw the extreme damage caused by the Spruce Bud Worm in BC.  This wasn't apparent here. 

As we drove through Muncho Provincial Park and along the shores of turquoise Muncho Lake.  Stone sheep stood both in and along the roadside.



as did the black bear

We were excited to see the sheep as they are so much fun to watch.  They seemed unafraid as they climbed over the rocks and fed on the verge.  One little lamb was especially cute.  When not seeing sheep, we were looking for bear and buffalo.  Caribou were also present, but we only saw one. 

calves accompanied their mothers



Muncho Lake

Muncho Lake Provincial Park is always spectacular with the highway hugging the turquoise water.  This deep lake supposedly obtains it color from leaching copper oxide.  The highway winds through the Canadian Rockies for more than 200 miles.  August 1st found us camped in the Yukon beside the Swift River.  Then it was Whitehorse and the mighty Yukon River and on to the Kluane Wilderness with its towering mountains and beautiful water. We drove along green-blue Kluane Lake.  Again, this is an amazingly beautiful part of the highway and much improved since we first traveled it in 2008.  There are two largish communities, Destruction Bay and Burwash Landing which hug the lake shore.  Kluane Lake is the largest lake in the Yukon and was showing significant whitecaps as we passed by.  The temptation is always present to just stop and spend some time, but there also is the need to keep moving on.

Kluane Lake

We have now been on the road for eight and a half days.   Finally, on August 2nd, we arrived at the Alaskan border and our return to the US through Port Alcan.  We were alone at the Alaska entry sign until several German motorcyclists arrived and nicely volunteered to take our picture.  There are many motorcyclists on the highway and traveling within Alaska.  We have been told that the Germans in particular come because of their love of the mountains.  It is easy to see after so many days of travel above the lower 48 how Alaskans feel a lack of connection to the rest of the US.  Most of them seem to like it that way for any number of reasons.

August 2nd, it took 9 and 1/2 days to reach AK!

We were able to conveniently meet up with Carlisle in Anchorage after spending a quiet evening along the highway near Tok, Alaska.  It was here that we officially left the Alaskan Highway and made the 5 hour drive to Anchorage.  Carlisle was finished with her summer job aboard the Maritime Maid doing work for the US Forest Service, quite an amazing experience being helicoptered into remote locations.  If you're interested, you can see the Maritime Maid at http://www.maritimehelicopters.com/.  We now will  plan what might be available for us in the way of hunting and fishing in the days to come.  Today we are in Talkeetna, Carlisle's home town at the foot of Denali.  The weather is a cool and drizzly 53 degrees, and I thought that I might need that little sun dress!  Stay posted!