6th June 2008
We took the motor home to Freightliner for it's first service today. Nothing major just a couple of hours work. While waiting in the lounge I perused a magazine featuring the Alaska Highway and the following made me wonder what was in store. The businesses advertised in the magazine included 'The Cinnamon Bun Centre of the Galactic Universe', A laundromat that sold buffalo meat and finally 'June is the best month for trolling with red and white spoons.'
We arrived in Dawson Creek late afternoon and parked in Wal-Mart just outside town. We had a good drive but at one point we had to swerve to avoid a lorry travelling very quickly towards us. It threw up a stone which gave us another stone chip on the windscreen. Mike could still see to drive but we were pleased that we didn't get the windscreen replaced in Salmon Arm last month.
Dawson Creek had an excellent Visitor Information Centre housed inside the old railway station. On one side was a museum about the railway and the other a very comprehensive display and museum about the construction of the Alaska Highway. We also watched an informative film about the history and building of the highway. This was undertaken during the 2nd World War as the Americans and Canadians were worried about their transportation links should the Japanese cross into Alaska across the Pacific. The weather conditions were truly terrible. Mosquitoes abounded in the summer and the winter was absolutely freezing with very little daylight. We purchased a travel guide book called the Mile Post which is published annually as a guide for those driving the Alaska Highway. The road has been extensively rebuilt and very little of the original route remains. Americans started to want to drive to Alaska during the 1950s so this guide was put together to give them some idea of what to expect. We found it extremely useful as it detailed not only places to stop and stay and eat but also areas where to look out for certain types of wildlife and what state the road was in.
Dawson Creek was quite a nice little town with a walking tour. Many of the buildings were not in use so had been painted with murals which were all well done.
The first day driving was on fairly good quality road. We spent the first night outside the Buckinghorse River Inn. 'The Best Burgers-over 1000 truckers can't be wrong'. We had to agree and what a diverse place. It sold fuel, was a motel, restaurant, Greyhound Bus Stop, post office and also had a coral for any horses. I was delighted that it didn't get dark until after midnight and loved the view across miles and miles of nothing but millions of trees.
8th June 2008
In the morning we set off early and had our best day of the whole trip to see wildlife- bear, caribou, moose, deer, bison, an owl and stone sheep with their big horns and white bottoms. The scenery was stunning but the road pretty difficult to drive on. Because of the huge variance in temperature (70's in summer and minus 40 in winter) as well as permafrost the road breaks up easily. Stops for extensive roadworks are frequent where the whole road is dug up and regraded. We also found the going slow over what are known as 'frost heaves'. This is where the road has lifted during the winter as the ground freezes underneath. Luckily we had air suspension in the coach and were able to ride much of the bouncing and see-sawing over the giant 'moguls'. Where the road had broken up and there were huge holes in the asphalt there were sometimes red warning flags by the side of the road. As this wasn't always the case Mike had to be very vigilant and so driving was very tiring.
In the evening we stopped at a tiny town called Watson Lake. This was famous for its sign post forest. This had been started by a home sick soldier during the time of road construction who placed a sign to his home town and the distance in miles. This started a trend and there are thousands of them there now. We watched an evening show in the Planetarium which turned out to be a film about the universe and not quite the amazing experience that the brochure would have had us believe.
June 11th
We arrived in Whitehorse-the capital of the Yukon and named after the rapids on the river which the early white settlers had to negotiate. We had an uneventful day driving the day before-beautiful scenery-but not as much wild life just a bear and a deer. The Yukon is roughly twice the size of Spain with a total population of just 23, 000. The population of Whitehorse was about 12, 000 so this gives some idea of the lack of human population. During the summer people can get about on the road. Before the Alaska highway was built goods travelled on the frozen river or by boat in the summer. The old capital of the Yukon was Dawson City. If we had driven north to get there we could have entered Alaska via a place called Chicken-so called because the man who named it couldn't spell Ptarmigan. We didn't go that way but opted to stay on the Alaska Highway all the way. It was absolutely freezing in Whitehorse and had been snowing the previous two days. Whilst in Whitehorse we visited the McBride museum. An extremely informative and excellent museum giving the history of the Yukon, Whitehorse and many of the characters that settled there in the early days. Mike made a windscreen protector for the Yaris out of cardboard boxes which we hoped would help prevent damage from stones flicking up off the rear wheels of the bus. The RV and car were both extremely dirty by now with all the mud and dust. We left Whitehorse on 11th June and had the worst part of the drive so far in terms of road conditions. Loads of roadworks and frost heaves so we could only average 40 mph. This was compensated for by some of the best scenery so far. Particularly at Kluane (pronounced kloo-arnie) Lake with incredibly blue water.
We crossed into Alaska problem free and spent the night at Border City. Sounds grand but in reality a camp site and a couple of fuel stations. The first thing we saw was a big black bear crossing the road- a great welcome.
After one night at Border City we continued into Alaska. There are only 3 or 4 main roads in Alaska. The Alaska Highway to get there and a loop road around the middle and we turned off the Highway to take the road towards Anchorage. From the road we could see the glaciers on the mountains in the distance and were lucky enough to see a moose feeding on greenery in a pool of water. There was evidence of more people about as there were more cars and 'hill billy' style homes and shacks alongside the road in places but generally along tracks leading off the main road. We had our supper at a restaurant called the 'Noisy Goose' in Palmer and with permission slept over in their car park. Great home cooked food but unfortunately a bit of a noisy night as someone left a generator running- would possibly have preferred the noise of a goose.
We booked into a campsite in Palmer which like many other businesses we have seen was for sale. Palmer was a very pleasant walkable town. At visitor information we learnt about the town's history. The original settlers had no time for the 'sugar puff' colonists. These were families of mainly Scandinavian descent that President Roosevelt relocated during the Great Depression. They were chosen to make a go of life in Alaska as it was felt that they would be able to cope with the climate. They appeared to do well and the most amazing ENORMOUS vegetables are still grown due to the long days in summer. The longest day is approximately 22.5 hours. We drove to Wasilla, home of the then fairly well unknown Governor of Alaska-Sara Palin. It seemed a bit lacking after Palmer but redeemed itself with the most fabulous Mexican restaurant. An incongruous find so far away from home. We visited Anchorage which wasn't far from Palmer. A couple of streets formed the 'historic' centre but it seemed mainly to cater for the cruise ships. There was a good street market to wander around though which had every type of cuisine imaginable represented on its food stalls.
We left Palmer on the 15th June and headed north towards Denali where we had a two night stop. We chose a site just beyond the National Park entrance. This consisted of a collection of shops, restaurants and hotels near the entrance. During the evening the sun came out and we sat on a terrace for a drink. With hindsight we should have driven to look at the mountain then as this was the only really clear sky while we were there. We drove to a restaurant that specialised in caribou steak. I chose this as I felt we wouldn't see it on many menus. It was very nice and tender, not gamey at all and had a very fine texture so didn't take much chewing.
The Denali National Park is very heavily protected to prevent the delicate wilderness environment from being disturbed. We stopped at the excellent Visitor Information Centre and had a look around their Natural History Museum. We then took the bus to the dog kennels. Vehicles are only allowed along a short stretch of road into the park in order to protect the natural environment. Dogs are used to pull sleds to take staff, goods and supplies around the park when there is snow cover. We were allowed to meet and greet the dogs and had a presentation and demonstration of them pulling a sled. They have a holiday during the summer but were all extremely excited to see a sled come out for our demonstration. They seemed to be trying to out bark each other in order to gain attention from the rangers. We took the car as far as we were allowed to get to the Mount McKinley view point. Unfortunately the mountain was shrouded in mist and we could only get a vague idea. There was a TV crew there and we later found out that 2 Japanese climbers who had been missing for five days had been found alive after an extensive search. At over 20,300 feet Mount McKinley isn't a place to make mountaineering mistakes. 2 other Japanese climbers had died on the mountain that week.
The next morning we continued north to Fairbanks. We wanted to get there in time for the longest day celebrations. We arrived at our camp ground which in the winter time doubled up as an ice park. Not a rink but a place to showcase ice sculptures. The pitches had 20A supply and huge black boards made from stretched canvas over wooden frames dangling from chains strung up in the trees. These would provide the backdrop for the sculptures in the winter. It was pretty basic with no dump facilities- all we needed to do was tell reception and they would send a honey wagon over. Fortunately we never needed the service. We were very close to the river and were able to cycle into the down town area. One morning we saw bear prints in the mud on the edge of the river bank. The down town was really just a couple of streets. A local lady told us that most of it had been pulled down to make way for the Marriott Hotel. Previously there had been a good choice of bars all interconnected with passageways to avoid going out in the cold in wintertime. We had lunch at Soapy Sam's a restaurant owned by a gold rush descendant who treated us to an an informative and lively talk about the early days. The walls were covered in memorabilia and trinkets.
Whilst in Fairbanks we also took a boat trip along the river and learnt more local history and culture. We met some of the Iditarod team which is a very long cross country wintertime race using sleds and dogs. The milepost marker in Fairbanks informed us that we were 4210 miles from London. Closer than when we started our trip in Florida which was 4709 miles away.
In Fairbanks on the longest day the whole of the centre of town was closed. There were 3 stages providing different types of entertainment. Among the assortment of stalls were some representing the political parties. Sarah Palin would have been there but we can't remember her. At 10.30pm a baseball game commenced without floodlights. There was also a fun run through the streets which finished at midnight. I must admit it really is a fabulous phenomenon seeing so much sun so late. At 7pm the sun is at a 2pm position in the sky. I woke one night and went outside. The sky was just pink at 2am half sunrise and sunset. I feel a bit ashamed to admit though that by now I was thoroughly sick of the daylight. It was just so difficult to sleep.
One afternoon we went up to the university to watch A Midsummer Night's Dream. A great traditional outdoor stage had been built. The only problem was the bugs. These HUGE beetles constantly flew into our faces and bodies. Apparently completely harmless but too ugly and intrusive to enjoy their company. We didn't get to see all the play though as the storm clouds gathered and thinking it was going to rain again we got back to close the windows and roof vents.
We also planned to go to the Eileson Air Force Base for their annual air show. Sadly the rain was so bad that if it was cancelled. We therefore headed south back to the border and into the Yukon. We arrived back in Whitehorse for an overnight stop but ended up staying for three nights as one of the bedroom room slides had got stuck in the out position. Organising a repair was less than straightforward as we had no mobile phone signal and no WIFI internet signal. We had to drive into a coffee shop in town to speak to the factory over the internet using our laptop. As Elkhart, Indiana was in a time zone 3 hours ahead of us we had a frustrating time catching help during business hours. On the morning of the third day we managed to get a specialist out from a motor home repair garage 5 miles away. The engineer was talked through by the factory which turned out to be a loose earth wire. We were able to leave within about 3 minutes. What a relief to be away.
We continued back along the Alaska Highway until we got to the Cassiar Highway. This gave us a different route south through British Columbia to Prince George. It was a narrower less used road and the scenery was stunning. We really savoured the last couple of days of being out in the wilderness knowing that it wouldn't be long until we got back into 'civilisation' at Smithers.
We took the motor home to Freightliner for it's first service today. Nothing major just a couple of hours work. While waiting in the lounge I perused a magazine featuring the Alaska Highway and the following made me wonder what was in store. The businesses advertised in the magazine included 'The Cinnamon Bun Centre of the Galactic Universe', A laundromat that sold buffalo meat and finally 'June is the best month for trolling with red and white spoons.'
We arrived in Dawson Creek late afternoon and parked in Wal-Mart just outside town. We had a good drive but at one point we had to swerve to avoid a lorry travelling very quickly towards us. It threw up a stone which gave us another stone chip on the windscreen. Mike could still see to drive but we were pleased that we didn't get the windscreen replaced in Salmon Arm last month.
Dawson Creek had an excellent Visitor Information Centre housed inside the old railway station. On one side was a museum about the railway and the other a very comprehensive display and museum about the construction of the Alaska Highway. We also watched an informative film about the history and building of the highway. This was undertaken during the 2nd World War as the Americans and Canadians were worried about their transportation links should the Japanese cross into Alaska across the Pacific. The weather conditions were truly terrible. Mosquitoes abounded in the summer and the winter was absolutely freezing with very little daylight. We purchased a travel guide book called the Mile Post which is published annually as a guide for those driving the Alaska Highway. The road has been extensively rebuilt and very little of the original route remains. Americans started to want to drive to Alaska during the 1950s so this guide was put together to give them some idea of what to expect. We found it extremely useful as it detailed not only places to stop and stay and eat but also areas where to look out for certain types of wildlife and what state the road was in.
Dawson Creek was quite a nice little town with a walking tour. Many of the buildings were not in use so had been painted with murals which were all well done.
The first day driving was on fairly good quality road. We spent the first night outside the Buckinghorse River Inn. 'The Best Burgers-over 1000 truckers can't be wrong'. We had to agree and what a diverse place. It sold fuel, was a motel, restaurant, Greyhound Bus Stop, post office and also had a coral for any horses. I was delighted that it didn't get dark until after midnight and loved the view across miles and miles of nothing but millions of trees.
8th June 2008
In the morning we set off early and had our best day of the whole trip to see wildlife- bear, caribou, moose, deer, bison, an owl and stone sheep with their big horns and white bottoms. The scenery was stunning but the road pretty difficult to drive on. Because of the huge variance in temperature (70's in summer and minus 40 in winter) as well as permafrost the road breaks up easily. Stops for extensive roadworks are frequent where the whole road is dug up and regraded. We also found the going slow over what are known as 'frost heaves'. This is where the road has lifted during the winter as the ground freezes underneath. Luckily we had air suspension in the coach and were able to ride much of the bouncing and see-sawing over the giant 'moguls'. Where the road had broken up and there were huge holes in the asphalt there were sometimes red warning flags by the side of the road. As this wasn't always the case Mike had to be very vigilant and so driving was very tiring.
In the evening we stopped at a tiny town called Watson Lake. This was famous for its sign post forest. This had been started by a home sick soldier during the time of road construction who placed a sign to his home town and the distance in miles. This started a trend and there are thousands of them there now. We watched an evening show in the Planetarium which turned out to be a film about the universe and not quite the amazing experience that the brochure would have had us believe.
June 11th
We arrived in Whitehorse-the capital of the Yukon and named after the rapids on the river which the early white settlers had to negotiate. We had an uneventful day driving the day before-beautiful scenery-but not as much wild life just a bear and a deer. The Yukon is roughly twice the size of Spain with a total population of just 23, 000. The population of Whitehorse was about 12, 000 so this gives some idea of the lack of human population. During the summer people can get about on the road. Before the Alaska highway was built goods travelled on the frozen river or by boat in the summer. The old capital of the Yukon was Dawson City. If we had driven north to get there we could have entered Alaska via a place called Chicken-so called because the man who named it couldn't spell Ptarmigan. We didn't go that way but opted to stay on the Alaska Highway all the way. It was absolutely freezing in Whitehorse and had been snowing the previous two days. Whilst in Whitehorse we visited the McBride museum. An extremely informative and excellent museum giving the history of the Yukon, Whitehorse and many of the characters that settled there in the early days. Mike made a windscreen protector for the Yaris out of cardboard boxes which we hoped would help prevent damage from stones flicking up off the rear wheels of the bus. The RV and car were both extremely dirty by now with all the mud and dust. We left Whitehorse on 11th June and had the worst part of the drive so far in terms of road conditions. Loads of roadworks and frost heaves so we could only average 40 mph. This was compensated for by some of the best scenery so far. Particularly at Kluane (pronounced kloo-arnie) Lake with incredibly blue water.
We crossed into Alaska problem free and spent the night at Border City. Sounds grand but in reality a camp site and a couple of fuel stations. The first thing we saw was a big black bear crossing the road- a great welcome.
After one night at Border City we continued into Alaska. There are only 3 or 4 main roads in Alaska. The Alaska Highway to get there and a loop road around the middle and we turned off the Highway to take the road towards Anchorage. From the road we could see the glaciers on the mountains in the distance and were lucky enough to see a moose feeding on greenery in a pool of water. There was evidence of more people about as there were more cars and 'hill billy' style homes and shacks alongside the road in places but generally along tracks leading off the main road. We had our supper at a restaurant called the 'Noisy Goose' in Palmer and with permission slept over in their car park. Great home cooked food but unfortunately a bit of a noisy night as someone left a generator running- would possibly have preferred the noise of a goose.
We booked into a campsite in Palmer which like many other businesses we have seen was for sale. Palmer was a very pleasant walkable town. At visitor information we learnt about the town's history. The original settlers had no time for the 'sugar puff' colonists. These were families of mainly Scandinavian descent that President Roosevelt relocated during the Great Depression. They were chosen to make a go of life in Alaska as it was felt that they would be able to cope with the climate. They appeared to do well and the most amazing ENORMOUS vegetables are still grown due to the long days in summer. The longest day is approximately 22.5 hours. We drove to Wasilla, home of the then fairly well unknown Governor of Alaska-Sara Palin. It seemed a bit lacking after Palmer but redeemed itself with the most fabulous Mexican restaurant. An incongruous find so far away from home. We visited Anchorage which wasn't far from Palmer. A couple of streets formed the 'historic' centre but it seemed mainly to cater for the cruise ships. There was a good street market to wander around though which had every type of cuisine imaginable represented on its food stalls.
We left Palmer on the 15th June and headed north towards Denali where we had a two night stop. We chose a site just beyond the National Park entrance. This consisted of a collection of shops, restaurants and hotels near the entrance. During the evening the sun came out and we sat on a terrace for a drink. With hindsight we should have driven to look at the mountain then as this was the only really clear sky while we were there. We drove to a restaurant that specialised in caribou steak. I chose this as I felt we wouldn't see it on many menus. It was very nice and tender, not gamey at all and had a very fine texture so didn't take much chewing.
The Denali National Park is very heavily protected to prevent the delicate wilderness environment from being disturbed. We stopped at the excellent Visitor Information Centre and had a look around their Natural History Museum. We then took the bus to the dog kennels. Vehicles are only allowed along a short stretch of road into the park in order to protect the natural environment. Dogs are used to pull sleds to take staff, goods and supplies around the park when there is snow cover. We were allowed to meet and greet the dogs and had a presentation and demonstration of them pulling a sled. They have a holiday during the summer but were all extremely excited to see a sled come out for our demonstration. They seemed to be trying to out bark each other in order to gain attention from the rangers. We took the car as far as we were allowed to get to the Mount McKinley view point. Unfortunately the mountain was shrouded in mist and we could only get a vague idea. There was a TV crew there and we later found out that 2 Japanese climbers who had been missing for five days had been found alive after an extensive search. At over 20,300 feet Mount McKinley isn't a place to make mountaineering mistakes. 2 other Japanese climbers had died on the mountain that week.
The next morning we continued north to Fairbanks. We wanted to get there in time for the longest day celebrations. We arrived at our camp ground which in the winter time doubled up as an ice park. Not a rink but a place to showcase ice sculptures. The pitches had 20A supply and huge black boards made from stretched canvas over wooden frames dangling from chains strung up in the trees. These would provide the backdrop for the sculptures in the winter. It was pretty basic with no dump facilities- all we needed to do was tell reception and they would send a honey wagon over. Fortunately we never needed the service. We were very close to the river and were able to cycle into the down town area. One morning we saw bear prints in the mud on the edge of the river bank. The down town was really just a couple of streets. A local lady told us that most of it had been pulled down to make way for the Marriott Hotel. Previously there had been a good choice of bars all interconnected with passageways to avoid going out in the cold in wintertime. We had lunch at Soapy Sam's a restaurant owned by a gold rush descendant who treated us to an an informative and lively talk about the early days. The walls were covered in memorabilia and trinkets.
Whilst in Fairbanks we also took a boat trip along the river and learnt more local history and culture. We met some of the Iditarod team which is a very long cross country wintertime race using sleds and dogs. The milepost marker in Fairbanks informed us that we were 4210 miles from London. Closer than when we started our trip in Florida which was 4709 miles away.
In Fairbanks on the longest day the whole of the centre of town was closed. There were 3 stages providing different types of entertainment. Among the assortment of stalls were some representing the political parties. Sarah Palin would have been there but we can't remember her. At 10.30pm a baseball game commenced without floodlights. There was also a fun run through the streets which finished at midnight. I must admit it really is a fabulous phenomenon seeing so much sun so late. At 7pm the sun is at a 2pm position in the sky. I woke one night and went outside. The sky was just pink at 2am half sunrise and sunset. I feel a bit ashamed to admit though that by now I was thoroughly sick of the daylight. It was just so difficult to sleep.
One afternoon we went up to the university to watch A Midsummer Night's Dream. A great traditional outdoor stage had been built. The only problem was the bugs. These HUGE beetles constantly flew into our faces and bodies. Apparently completely harmless but too ugly and intrusive to enjoy their company. We didn't get to see all the play though as the storm clouds gathered and thinking it was going to rain again we got back to close the windows and roof vents.
We also planned to go to the Eileson Air Force Base for their annual air show. Sadly the rain was so bad that if it was cancelled. We therefore headed south back to the border and into the Yukon. We arrived back in Whitehorse for an overnight stop but ended up staying for three nights as one of the bedroom room slides had got stuck in the out position. Organising a repair was less than straightforward as we had no mobile phone signal and no WIFI internet signal. We had to drive into a coffee shop in town to speak to the factory over the internet using our laptop. As Elkhart, Indiana was in a time zone 3 hours ahead of us we had a frustrating time catching help during business hours. On the morning of the third day we managed to get a specialist out from a motor home repair garage 5 miles away. The engineer was talked through by the factory which turned out to be a loose earth wire. We were able to leave within about 3 minutes. What a relief to be away.
We continued back along the Alaska Highway until we got to the Cassiar Highway. This gave us a different route south through British Columbia to Prince George. It was a narrower less used road and the scenery was stunning. We really savoured the last couple of days of being out in the wilderness knowing that it wouldn't be long until we got back into 'civilisation' at Smithers.
