Saturday June 20
Drive to Prince George and stay 2 nights so that we could watch the US play Iran in the World Cup. After losing to Germany in their first game, the US was in a must win situation, but they couldn’t pull it off, and lost 2-1 to the Iranians. They ended up losing their 3rd game to Yugoslavia on the 25th, so they go home with no ties or wins and only one goal. Not a great performance.
On the way to PG, we stopped in Ashcroft – and watched the parade for the "Ashcroft and District Stampede and Rodeo". Ashcroft’s population is very small, so we were quite surprised to see two sets of Shriner’s, a group of Hari Krishnas, and Royal Canadian Mounted Police all in this parade, along with the mayor, kids on bikes and a bagpipe band.
At mile 52779 we spot our first bald eagle in the wild. They are everything you can imagine. He was very commanding perched in the top of a dead tree – and very big, too! We had several other big moments on the road today including the spotting of a black bear crossing the road, cat jumps up on the dashboard for the first on her own while the coach is moving (I’m sure there must have been food involved!), another bear and excellent weather. We can however already tell that the ever increasing amounts of daylight as we go north will be a problem for us diurnal folks. When are we supposed to get some sleep?
6/22 pm Dawson Creek, Official Mile "0" of the Alsaskan Highway.
I won’t put in all the details about the building of the Alaskan highway (ALCAN) but if you want to know more, I’ll tell you later. Needless to say it was on of the great engineering feats of this century. They built 1400 miles of road the absolute middle of nowhere in about 7 ½ months. This is the start of the official Alaska trip – all the other stuff wasn’t really vacation….
While in Dawson Creek, we once again noticed that our dinghy (tow vehicle) was covered with oil. So we had it checked, and it turns out the o-ring that those guys in Little Rock put in was the wrong size and it blew again. After a short stay at the truck repair place in Dawson Creek we were on our way again.
At 53260 miles we passed the 5000 mile mark for this trip. It just so happens that we were going over the Peace River Bridge just outside of Dawson Creek at this time, which was a nice coincidence – the Peace River was one of the major hurdles that had to be bridged.
6/23
Spent the night at Sikanni Chief on the Sikanni River. Next morning 6/24 we left really early to get a long day of driving under our belt. We didn’t get up early all on our own though, my wonderful cat somehow got switched with her evil twin, and we didn’t end up sleeping much. She was in big trouble.
We made it past Ft Nelson, and here things got interesting. Once you pass FN, you are really out there, and the road is under constant repair – patched of gravel, broken pavement etc. On one particularly bad stretch of road, coming off of Steamboat Mountain, we had a close call. It has been raining for the last few days so everything is wet, including the fine-grained sand and silt they coat with calcium chloride. This turns it into mud – but very slippery clayey icy mud. As we were coming off the summit, we actually felt the motorhome’s back end start to slide off the road. Not good. I’m sure glad Doug was driving – he handled it perfectly, and we were soon on our way. I should mention at this time that Doug does all the driving of the MotherShip. We have never found time to train me, so I drive the shuttle craft and he handles the big boy.
We spent the night at Muncho Lake – this is a beautiful glacial lake, but the campsite was kinda bogus. We only had 20 amp service – but the 20 amp was shared by 4 sites. Turning on the microwave threw the circuit breaker. Oh, well – it’s only one night.
June 25 – One Month on the road!
We made it to Whitehorse and set up camp for a few days. We had a lovely shaded site at the top of a hill, and had a grand time here. We saw the "Frantic Follies" vaudeville show, complete with dancing girls, comedy shows, singing and costumes. Whitehorse is the home of Robert Service – "The Bard of the Yukon" – famous for such poems as "The Cremation of Sam Magee" and other poems about the Klondike/Yukon area. This area was one of the main hubs during the gold rush of 1898 – the centennial is this year – so Whitehorse is quite the happening place. It is full of history, and sits right on the mighty Yukon river.
From Whitehorse, we took two day trips. The first trip was to Atlin, BC – the headwaters of the Yukon. It is a very large sapphire-blue lake, with lots of boating and fishing. The village of Atlin is small and quaint and very nice. We saw several mountain goats on the way back to town. The next day we drove to Skagway on a scouting mission. It was our first trip into Alaska proper, and the drive was spectacular – peaks, lakes, desolate tundra, and the harbor. We had lunch at the Red Onion – a former brothel now a restaurant serving sandwiches like the Trollop and the Soiled Dove. The town has lots of old and restored buildings, and is the terminal for the White Pass and Yukon Railroad, which took goldrushers from Skagway up through the White Pass and to Whitehorse – it is an amazing feat of engineering. We will be riding the train we go back to Skagway via Haines.
6/29
Boondock! We camped in a pull-over spot next to the highway and watched the animals. It was very relaxing and free. Next we are in Anchorage!
Now we are officially back in the States – it feels so good to be back home. We found a great camping area very close to the Air Force base, but quiet and close to town. We had a mama moose and her two babies walking around the campground eating the flowers. We found a really good sushi restaurant in a strip center, and had the Saturn serviced and cleaned – we also go a cover for it. The shuttlecraft is getting a little beat up, but is towing great and we love being able to park the motor home and then zip around.
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