We only did about 250 today on the ALCAN.
The road is terribly boring yet offers occasional stunning scenery dabbled with
nature's interesting wildlife. Today we passed the same pine tree about a
million different times, and the same mountain we passed daily for the past 3
days. I believe they have somehow redesigned the Alaska Highway to go in
circles and make you believe you are going in a straight line north and west.
This is a picture of the Teslin Bridge which looks a lot like other bridges we
have crossed in Canada.
Our breakfast supplies got slim to none
this morning (due to a lack of biscuits) so we stopped in at the Wolf’s Den
Restaurant just north of Teslin, YK. It
was a nice little restaurant. The owner
was the receptionist, waitress, cook, dishwasher, and maintenance person. (The only employee onsite) She fixed us a very nice breakfast. Some gold
miners arrived at the Wolf’s Den Restaurant shortly after we did. They were talking about the claim they were
working. Said they had to drill 5-6”
holes in the ground and obtain samples of soil in about 80-100 places on their
claim. That lets them know where the
gold is located and/or if there is any gold on their claim. They came up from Alberta and said it was
late in the season to be gold mining.
Most everyone had already left the fields to go back home. The prospector was awed that we were from
Georgia. He told us that at one time “he almost made it to Florida” and was
“within a few miles of the state border” but he got hot (no A/C in his
vehicle). So he pulled to the side of the road and stripped his clothes off
trying to sleep and get cool. Another interesting story.
Shortly after breakfast we
found ourselves in Whitehorse, YK. The
capital of the Yukon revealed itself to be a neat small city. Its most
prominent feature is their airport where they display and old Canadian Pacific
passenger version of the DC-3 that originally served during WW2. Today it sits
as a functioning weather vane- they claim it’s the largest weather vane in the
world. It seemed to be in rather good shape and appeared partially restored! We
stopped and it did indeed move with the wind as we watched. We visited the
local Wal-Mart and were able to acquire a tube of much needed biscuits. I do believe we will make it to Alaska
without having to stop at a Wal-Mart again.
The Wal-Mart parking lot looked like a make-shift campground with all
the trailers and truck campers parked.
Looked like a lot of people were still “camping”.
We stopped at the visitor’s
information bureau in Whitehorse to get the latest on road conditions that we
would be on tomorrow. This stop is an advised “must stop” where ALCAN travelers
are urged to get updated road conditions when traveling northwest to Alaska.
They didn’t hold back and gave us the grim news that it’s going to be rough
tomorrow- the last 100 miles to the border from Haines Junction where we are
this evening. This section of road passes along and adjacent to the Kluane
Mountain (Canadian National Park) range- the Yukon’s highest and as such they
have never been able to maintain the road on the permafrost it sits on along
this area. It is full of frost heaves. She told us to “find a rhythm” for the
constant movement across the heaves. Speed depends on vehicle suspension and
wheel base. She said we wouldn’t get out of them until we reached the border
and reenter the US. I’m not sure where that leaves us but we’ll find out
tomorrow if we have rhythm. We ran into
more road construction today leaving Whitehorse – we are getting used to
following the pilot car.
On
our way to Haines Junction, we visited the Historic Canyon Creek Bridge. This bridge was originally built in 1903 when
a lot of prospectors were stampeding the area in hopes of striking it
rich. The bridge was replaced after it
was damaged in 1920 due to a flood. In
the 1980s, the bridge was restored as a preservation project. How the bridge is engineered is quite
interesting. The new bridge was built a
short distance downstream of the preserved bridge.
The
Kluane Mountain range (Northern most part of the Canadian Rockies) began to
come into view as we approached Haines Junction. Here are a few pictures taken as we rode
along today of the mountains we saw today.
Shortly
after we set up camp, we took the dogs for a walk down a trail next to the
campground. We didn’t go too far because
this is definitely Bear Country. I was
constantly singing or talking loudly so we wouldn’t run into a bear. (They say if you make a lot of noise the
bears will go in a different direction when they hear you coming).
Tomorrow
we will be traveling the reportedly worst part of the AlCan. We will try to take some video and provide a YouTube
link so we can share some of our experiences. It has been quite a trip so far and we still haven’t
arrived to our destination after driving more than 4200 miles. Next time we go to Alaska, I think we’ll take a
plane. J
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