Tok, Alaska

     This day of driving was very slow.  Again lots of frost heaves on the road and many stretches of gravel where the road was under repair.  It took us much longer than expected to reach the Canada/Alaska border.  The border crossing was quick and easy, however.  Once back in the U.S. the roads really improved.  The U.S. has been testing some new methods for road bed over permafrost and it seems to be working.  The terrain is also much prettier.  The lakes are bluer - without as much glacial silt.  In the distance we can see beautiful snow-capped mountains in the Wrangell-St. Elias range.  It really LOOKS like we are in Alaska.

    Tok (pronounced toke) is a small, but nice town with several campgrounds.  We are in the Tok campground which has lots of trees between each site so there is plenty of lovely shade in this hot weather.

We went to our first "salmon bake" at a place which has picnic tables and buffet style serving.  We ordered King Salmon and Halibut which was grilled on a huge charcoal grill.  With the fish came a salad bar, salmon chowder, rolls and beans.  It was great.

     When we returned to the campground there was entertainment from some Alaskan musicians which was great fun.  We have cell phone service again.  Life is just great!

Kulane Lake, Yukon Territory, Canada

    We are staying tonight at a "Road House" style campground.  During the early days of the Alaska Highway many stops like this which have a motel, grocery, bar, gas station and campground were created for travelers.  The "campground" part of this stop is really just a big gravel parking lot.  It has water and electric hookups and is nice and clean but otherwise very bare.  When the sun came out the whole area got pretty hot.  But the little store had an Internet hookup and some ice cream.

    The road today was really bumpy from frost heaves.  Very slow going as we bounced from one to another.  Kulane Lake is pretty, but the terrain around it is dry and brown.  The Kulane mountains and the St. Elias Mountains behind them are beautiful, however.

   The long support at the base of the couch broke from the bouncing.  We went to the hardware store to buy three long steel rods to reinforce the broken support.  We also added some additional tie downs to keep it from bouncing.  These roads are hard on everything.

 

    The weather is still very warm and dry.  With these long days it seems that most travelers drive really long stretches.  Since we have plenty of time we are still doing about 200 miles a day with stops for hikes, pictures and lunch.  We get in to camp fairly early which gives us a chance to tour around and relax. 
    Many campgrounds and cafes along this stretch of highway are closed.  It may be that the area is just too remote to support many services.  We are still getting 10+ miles to the gallon so the $4 gas is not so painful.  We ARE happy that we installed the larger gas tank, though, so that we can go further between fills.  Tomorrow we get to Alaska!

Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada

    Today was another shorter and uneventful drive - no neat animals or amazing scenery.  Maybe the mountains are old hat to us now.  We got to Whitehorse and went to the Pioneer campground and saw that it was a parking lot on the highway so we moved on.  We are now camped at Hi Country RV which is so much nicer.  There are lots of cottonwood trees and great shade - which is a good thing because it is over 90F today.

     We washed the trailer and truck in the campground RV wash as they were completely caked with dust after driving long stretches of gravel road.  It is just great to have these outdoor wash areas with high powered hoses to clean off the camper so that we can see out the windows.  As we were pulling out of the wash someone stopped us to saw that it looked like we had something sticking out of our spare tire under our rig.  We looked and saw that somewhere along the way we had driven over a metal hot dog stick and it was embedded in the sidewall of the spare.  We parked back at our camping spot and Rick crawled under the trailer to pull out the stick.  The tire was ruined.  We didn't want to go on without a good spare tire so we spent Sunday afternoon shopping for a new tire.  Fortunately we are in a larger town and found a tire at Walmart which will work but does not quite match the others. 

    We took a tour of a Klondike River boat from the Gold Rush days.  It was a pretty fancy way to travel for first class passengers.  The boat had to stop frequently along the way to pick up additional wood to fire the steam engines. It was really interesting, but the heat was getting me down so we returned to our shady campground.  There are many tourists from Germany traveling here in trailers with German plates.  They must ship their campers over for a Canadian tour.  We saw a couple very fancy German all-terrain campers for the ultimate off road experience.  There are so many Germans traveling in this area that the German flag flies at many campgrounds.

Teslin, Yukon Territory, Canada

     It was another beautiful, sunny day today with no clouds in the sky.  We have been told that the weather is usually cloudy and rainy this time of year.  We slept late today and had another shorter drive.  We didn't see animals on the road today.  We stopped for a break at Rancheria Falls along a fast flowing river.  However, due to the fact that most of the water in the rivers is from glacial melt, they get higher as the summer sun gets warmer.  It is always nice to get for a little hike to break up the driving.  Our Milepost is good at telling us if there is room in the parking area off the road for big rigs to turn around.  We have seem so many really big Class A motor homes pulling full size cars so we are certainly not the largest on the road.

    Our campground tonight is on Teslin Lake.  There is a nice breeze off the lake to keep the mosquitoes at bay.  As we were setting up Rick walked into the corner of one of the slide outs.  He gave himself a 3 corner gash in his forehead which bled a fair amount.  After some ice and pressure, we got the bleeding stopped but he will have quite the lump and bruise for a few days.  I have no idea where we would find first aid if we had a real problem.

   We planned to visit a museum today, but it was closed for the weekend so we came back to the campground and sat in our lawn chairs looking at the lake.  I found a hard wire connection for the Internet in the laundry room and finally got some emails from home.  If I had known that I was going to be hauling my computer into so many odd places to hook up to the Internet I probably would have purchase a lighter, smaller laptop.  Ah well, it is great to hear from home.

Watson Lake, Yukon Territory, Canada

     We are now in the Yukon Territory which always sounds to me like the REAL wilderness.  It is.  I used to watch Sgt. Preston of the Yukon on 50's television.  And now here we are!  Our drive today was much shorter (we sort of drive from one decent campground to another).  The shoulders were wide and the road had few steep ups and downs.  Actually the road is much straighter and flatter than when it was originally built.  Road improvement keeps cutting out steep curves so that the overall road is shorter than when it was originally built.

    We drove to Laird Hot Springs today and saw some wild horses and buffalo along the road.  The Springs area is beautiful and is situated in a Provincial Park with a nice campground.  I think we will try to stop here on our way back as it looks like many campsites will accommodate our length.  The hot spring pools looked delightful with a gravel bottom and a board walk surrounding them.

    But for today we drove on to Watson Lake.  We stopped 2 miles outside of town at the first campground which was very nice.  The downtown campground was a gravel parking lot (Not that unusual on the Alaska Highway).

     The Visitor Center had a good slide show with more information about the building of the Alaska Highway.  Outside the center was the signpost forest with signs from all over the world.  The tradition started during the building of the highway in the 40's.

    Although it is light late into the evening and then again early in the morning, we have been sleeping like rocks in our cozy trailer.  I just hang towels over the windows to keep it darker in the bedroom.  This trailer is very comfortable for us.

Muncho Lake, British Columbia

    The days are very long now as we head north and get close to the Summer equinox.  It is light enough to read outside at 11:30 pm and bright again by 4 am.  I wake up early with the birds and then go back to sleep.  We are now in Pacific time zone.  No cell phone coverage here. 

    Our drive today was both the highest and the lowest part of the Alaska highway.  We crossed a bridge at 1000' and went over a summit of 7000'.  Our truck/trailer combination seems to do just fine with it all.  We have seen folks on this road with really old, overloaded campers that make us wonder if they will make it.

     We saw lots of moose today.  Males with big horns and females with calves.  Stone mountain sheep in herds were walking on the road.  Lots of deer, some elk.  It was a big day for wildlife hazards on the road.  I am noting in the Milepost book everytime we see something - lots of notes today.

     The road was winding and very hilly.  Sometimes there were no shoulders.  We had a little rain, but mostly gray and dry.  The view was amazing.  Really impossible to describe or photograph.  Just miles and miles of pine covered mountains, a few farms, and only a couple small towns.  We are really in the middle of nowhere.

  Toad River and Mucho Lake are both a beautiful blue from copper sulfite.  The river is running very fast and we saw many "watch out for rocks" signs as we drove between rocky cliffs and the river.  We also saw many rocks. The lake is clear, 7 miles long and 700 ft. deep.  Wow.  The J and H campground is right on the lake.  Electricity at these campgrounds comes from a generator which was not working for the night.  Hardly mattered as it was light so late that we just sat outside to read.

Pink Mountain, British Columbia, Canada

     Today was a huge milestone.  We got to Mile 0 on the Alaska Highway.  Dawson Creek is the official beginning of the highway when it was built in 1942 to get American troops, supplies, trucks, and tons of equipment to Alaska during World War II.  We took pictures of the official Mile Marker and watched a video on the building of the road - it was an amazing engineering feat.  

    The road narrowed from four lanes down to two, but this stretch still was good pavement. We drove down a very long, steep hill to the Peace Bridge which crossed the Peace RIver.  The bridge was open metal grid construction so that I could see down to the water as the trailer bounced around.  Then a semi came along and passed us so that we bounced more.  My heart nearly stopped, but Rick just kept on driving.

     I saw a moose today and many signs that they often cross the roads here.  We started using a book called "Mileposts" which describes all of the wayside rests, road hazards (moose crossings), campgrounds, motels, service stations - you name it.  It is an invaluable tool and often updated.

    Our campground tonight is very bare bones.  We are only about two feet from our neighbor's kitchen slideout.  There were not many choices in this empty stretch of road.  Again the campground is full of long term campers.  But the woods are nice and so are the neighbors who are returning from a coast guard deployment in Alaska.  We have no phone, internet or TV service so we will watch old episodes of West Wing and read. 

Grand Prairie, Alberta, Canada Camp Tamarak

     We tested our brakes today when three deer crossed just in front of the RV and truck.  If they hadn't kept running at least one would have been on the hood of the truck.  The vegetation is cut back quite a ways along the road so that you can spot wildlife before hitting them, but it was too close for comfort.  There were many signs warning about moose crossing as well, but we didn't see any.
    Most of the dirve out of Edmonton was four-lane highway and pretty smooth.  We finally go to an area that is mostly pines and birches and hilly.  Much more interesting scenery than the flat farmland of the last couple days.

    We added more latches to the cupboards and figured out how to tie down the couch.  The road is getting rougher.  Today the highest cupboard came open and a 12 pack of pop fell out, BUT not a one broke open.  It was iced tea so maybe the less fizzy content is less likely to burst.  Seems like every evening we have a bit of maintenance to do to keep everything running smoothly.  Thank goodness for my handyman/driver.

    Today we got the good news that the very expensive tires on our RV which need to be replaced due to bad axles were reimbursed about 80%.  We had the axles and tires replaced before leaving home.  Tonight's campground, Camp Tamarak, is nice, clean, shady and full of wild roses.  There seem to be lots of long-term campers who are here to work on the pipelines.  We grilled some chicken and had a great outdoor meal.  I love being on the road.

Edmonton Mall, Alberta, Canada

     Today was a very domestic day.  We had a long breakfast with lots of warm sunshine coming in the door.  So nice to sleep later and relax in the morning.  My night owl husband was really happy.  After breakfast we gathered all the laundry and went to the laundry room with 5 loads.  The hard wired modem connection was in the room next door, so Rick logged on to pay bills online.  I don't know how folks managed to be on the road a long time before the Internet.  We had a nice lunch and then went shopping.
     We went to check out the Edmonton Mall which is bigger than the Mall of America.  It has a water park and ice skating rink inside.  The Mall was fun to see, but most of the shops are the same as at MOA.  The whole mall seems to be aging and a little rundown.  I think that the MOA owners are doing a better job of keeping it looking fancy and new.  It was fun to watch the skaters - I was a bit surprised at how many folks took advantage of the ice rink.
     When we came outside the sky had turned black so we rushed back to the RV to close windows and take down the awning.  Rick bought an electric drill to put in more latches and tie downs on the cupboard doors to keep them from opening.  Child safety latches seem to do the trick quite well.  In addition we need to do something about the sofa which moves around when we go over rough roads.  We will be finding more bouncy roads as we head further north.
   We had to make one more trip out to Home Depot and Safeway, and then went back to wash some of the dust off the RV so we could see out the windows.  Since we are in Edmonton during the Stanley Cup we watched the Hurricanes beat the Oilers on TV.  Then called home to talk with Jenn and Arik - I miss them all and we will soon be out of cell phone coverage.

Edmonton, AB Glowing Ember Campground

    Less wind today so the drive from Banff was not bad although it was 270 miles long.  We try to keep the driving to about 5 hours each day.  We had reserved a campsite on the south end of town, but things just didn't work out.  The roads were closed.  We took the long way around town only to find out that the campground had no WIFI despite their advertising.  Next time I will ask specifically when I make the reservation.  I have work to do for Anoka and need the connection.
     Rick was pretty tired as we drove to the northwest part of town to another campground.  This one is great though.  It has a nice laundry (never thought I would care so much about laundry) good WIFI, and is near many shops.  We are also just a few miles from the big Edmonton Mall.

    The freeways in Canada have odd entrances and exits which may be left or right without much signage.  The rest stops are not marked on any of our maps and come up without much notice on the freeway.  Since this is where we like to stop for lunch it has been pretty inconvenient.  Today our lunch was on a wide place in the road for truckers to pull over and check their loads.  Not scenic at all with traffic whizzing by just a couple yards for our window and only a full trash can for amenities.  Oh for Minnesota-style reststops everywhere!  No pictures today - pretty much just ordinary highway and traffic so I am posting some pictures of the Hoodoo lookout which was just a short walk down from our campground in Banff.

Banff Hot Springs Hotel, AB, Canada

     Today was wildlife day - we saw a female elk on the side of the road next to our campsite.  Then later, a whole herd of mountain sheep were on the road to Two Jack Lake.  The day started with a great buffet breakfast at Banff Hot Springs hotel.  It is an old railroad hotel built by the Canadian railway to encourage tourists across Canada from the East to pay for the building of the railway.  The hotel is just huge with a formal ballroom, a beautiful conservatory, and many wood-paneled sitting rooms.  The golf course adjacent to the hotel has been there since the 1920's and is just huge! 

     We walked around downtown some more and then drove up Tunnel Mountain drive which offered spectacular views and overlooks.  In the afternoon we hiked in to see more of the "hoodoo" rock formations along the Bow River.  There were lots of folks rafting the river in the sunshine but there was a strong breeze that kept the day pretty chilly.

    Back at the campground we entertain ourselves by watching our many neighbors with rental RV trying to back up and hook up their water and sewer systems.  We feel like such old pros now.  When we can we offer assistance, but most folks seem anxious to do it on their own.

Lake Louise, Banff, AB

     Today we drove to Lake Louise.  The glacial water was the same beautiful aquamarine that it was 32 years ago, but the area is much more developed with many parking lots and walkways.   The Chateau Lake Louise was spectacular, but the surrounding gardens were still pretty sparce.  I guess the weather has been too chilly.

We walked along the lake past folks speaking German, French, Japanese, Spanish and other languages I couldn't guess at.  Really an international spot.  It was a perfect day for hiking - partly cloudy and 70.  We had a great picnic lunch to eat along the road until two Canada Jays decided to join us.  They landed on the picnic table, then flew under the table and landed on my leg.  They really made pests of themselves until I threw a pinecone at one of them and the flew off.  We really like taking along a picnic lunch so that we can stop anywhere along the way and enjoy the outdoors rather than being stuck in a noisy fast food spot.

    Tonight we are both tired after hiking and having a beer for dinner.  The campground is busier tonight as it is now the weekend.  Our neighbors have one of the many rental RV's and are speaking German.  Another beautiful evening with only a few mosquitos.

Tunnel Mountain Trailer Park, Banff, AB

     It was only an 86 mile drive to the mountains of Banff today.  We are now smack in the middle of beautiful, rugged peaks.  Tunnel Mountain is in Banff park.  It is shady, with nice tall pines and each campsite is well separated from the others.  This campground is for hard sided trailers only - lots of grizzlies in the area.  The campground used for tents and tent trailers is surrounded by a tall, barb-wired fence to keep the unwelcome animals out.  I am sitting at our picnic table and can see mountains on three sides.  It is just perfect.

     We spent some time in downtown Banff today after lunch.  It is a really pretty town, but somewhat touristy.  Rick remembered many places he visited with Matthew when they came here for a ski vacation.

     I remembered the campground that Rick and I stayed in when we were here in 1974 at Two Jack Lake.  It was later in the year - just after the 4th of July - but much colder then.  I remember just freezing in our orange nylon tent and air mattresses.  Of course, now I just turn on the heater when we get chilly in the morning and put the coffee pot on the stove.

    I had to call Mark to share this nice evening.  I wish he were here.