I lost a bunch of pictures somewhere so I can’t show you the pictures of my trip through Canada and into Alaska. They’re on my computer somewhere but I haven’t found them yet. (Update: They are NOT on my computer. I guess I screwed up and deleted them off of my camera before downloading them to the computer.)
After spending the night in the mountains NE of Vancouver, at Whistler, I headed off north easterly on highway 99 into the hinterland of British Columbia. The first day was all up and down travel over hills and dales. Good workout for the RV and the work that had been done on it the week before. I missed a couple road signs so had to backtrack a little but overall it was interesting to be on the ‘Sea to Sky’ highway. I spent the night up on a high plain at an Indian owned campground named ‘Will Yum’ or something, across the road from Williams Lake. The night was eventful because I backed into a tree and dented and bent my RV. Not to bad but certainly noticeable. I’ll have to get it fixed when I get back to Mexico. Then after I got settled in for the night, I went to do my laundry and fed $4 into two dryers with no luck. None of the three machines were working. Went down to the office and asked for them to be fixed or looked at or something. All they could do was call the guy and he wouldn’t be there until the morning. Long after I’d be gone. The office refused to refund my money. Neither did they have any power with the fix it guy. So I took all my wet laundry home and dried it in the bathroom. Next morning everything was dry so not a big deal…except I was out $4.
Next day I drove north and then east, again with fair weather and bright skies. Passed through Prince George and stopped for LP, paid too much because of the ‘liters to gallons’ confusion. Couldn’t think of any other reason to stay there so headed on. Arrived at Dawson Creek the same afternoon, where the AlCan highway starts, known as Mile Zero, and stayed at a totally unremarkable but nice little campground that had WiFi.
Next morning I go down early to Mile Zero and take some pictures. It was pretty quiet because of the lack of tourists on the highway this year (fuel prices). I head on up the road and stop for diesel at the best price in town only to discover that BC allows cities to rip off tourists with a fuel tax that’s added on AFTER the pumping is done and you go into the office to get your printed receipt. So they advertise one price on the big street signs but actually charge another. Ass holes. I don’t mind that tax, it’s the nearly insane attempt by the owner of the station to pretend that it doesn’t exist by advertising a lower then real price. It’s actually a ‘bait and switch’ scheme. They advertise one price and then tack on other charges, like city taxes. The tax was nearly 9%. Quite a hit for someone buying $150 worth of fuel. Wasn’t anything I could do about it except complain, of course, and that station had the lowest price in town (I think).
Now heading northwest, the road is nice and flat with a few hills with what’s left of the Rockies. It’s a large plain here so there are the typical farms along the way. There are mountains here and there off in the distance with snow capped peaks.
Eventually, after 400 miles heading north west, the road enters a mountainous area. But still, not to bad. Then it does get into a stretch where it’s all mountainous road. But there are a couple bright spots, I come upon a forest fire that has just started. There is one cop there, in civilian clothes (must have been off duty), and a helicopter with some officials aboard. The flames are leaping perhaps 100 feet into the air and nearly 100 acres are on fire. I was there early enough that they hadn’t closed the road yet so I got a close up look at a real forest fire. A few miles later and I pass Summit Lake. There is still ice all over the lake but it’s pretty broken up. Surprisingly, there are several homes right near the lake. I saw one very old lady sitting on her porch all bundled up watching the traffic go by. The lake drains into a creek heading due west and the road follows that down. Summit Lake was one of the more difficult sections of the road for those that built it but I’m glad they built here as the views are spectacular. There were many mountain sheep wandering around blocking the road too. As I headed down this mountain pass, the creek turned into a stream, then a river. Then, all of a sudden, I noticed the water going the wrong way. It seemed to be going the opposite direction. And I didn’t see where two or more rivers had joined. Strange. Uphill flowing rivers. Weird stuff here in Canada.
Late in the day, I’m exhausted from all the mountain driving and pull into a provincial park right along Muncho Lake. It was $18 per night for dry camping and the spaces were right there next to the water. Unfortunately, all the deeper sites were filled. So I moved on down the road and spent the night at a hotel. A mistake because the hotel owner is an asshole. I spend the night anyway and it’s here that I first discover that it is staying light out very late. It’s still ‘daylight’ at 11pm. So I could have driven a few more miles to try and find a better RV campground, durnit.
Next day, I drive due west and stop to do some shopping in Whitehorse. Naturally, my debit card doesn’t work so I spend 40 minutes getting information like phone numbers and waiting for the damn payphone to be available, calling the card fraud office several times trying to reach a human, etc. Finally got someone at the fraud desk, told them that, “Yes, it is me, I am in Canada, and trying to use the card”, so they turn it back on for me. Now I can buy fuel.
After fill up, it’s still pretty early so I head Northwest. The travel is easy the next 100 miles and the road wide. The weather was, again, very nice. The road eventually gets into mountainous country and after a while, I’m up at elevation. The towns around here are few and far between so I don’t see many people. The roads are lightly traveled and stores nearly non-existent. There are around 50 miles between settlements. And in some places 100 miles. I do enjoy the solitude and the quiet in the rig, except for the usual road noise. After several hours, I find a roadside campground at Haines Junction. Before settling in, I drive around the area a little and find that the town is little more then a wide spot in the road. A few buildings here and there and then two different campgrounds. I didn’t see any interesting bars so I just stayed in for the evening. My bedroom has nice heavy curtains so the midnight sun is kept at bay and I’m able to get a restful nights sleep, even though it’s daylight outside at midnight.
Next morning, I head on toward the Alaskan border. At Kluane Lake, the road is all torn up and replaced with gravel. I’m familiar with this type of feature of the roadway so I’m prepared when I see the flags along side the roadway that indicate a ‘frost heave’ so I’m slowing down every 100 yards or so. But at the lake, it’s several miles of gravel roadway instead of the usual 50 feet to 100 yards. The major work going on here will really improve the roadway which hasn’t been worked on in nearly 30 years. It’s being widened and strengthened, all the while the engineers and road crews are trying to do as little damage to the ecosystem as possible. After several miles of gravel road, followed by numerous frost heaves, I finally get to the Alaskan border and am greeted by a very nice border guard…who doesn’t even ask to come into my rig. He just asks me a couple questions and then waves me through into the good ol’ USA. I’d been worried about that because when I came into the US from Mexico, I had to make sure I didn’t have anything in my refer that they might throw away. Here, they didn’t ask, and didn’t look.
The roads instantly became better. It seems that more tax money is used for roads in the US then in Canada. Who knew? A few hours later, and I arrive in Tok, Alaska. I stop at one of the small stores in town and buy myself a quart of milk for an outrageous price, but I’m happy to have it.
I arrive at the Sourdough Campground just a couple miles from town, introduce myself to the owner since I came here to ‘work camp’ and then, since I’d made the trip in 5 days instead of the expected 7 days, plopped down to rest…