Day 10- In Fairbanks Alaska

I finished the Alaskan Highway early yesterday through easily some of the most remote and beautiful landscapes I have ever seen.

On Day 7 when I was driving I thought that this was a lot like driving through Oregon or parts of Idaho, but Days 8 and 9 were unreal- not like anywhere I’ve been.

The smoke finally let up when I hit the Yukon border with British Columbia. On Day 7 I left the Hot Springs Campground and ran past some open fire areas that were very smoky with some small flames still visible close to the road in burned areas. As soon as I crossed the border I could see dark, cloudy skies with some patches of blue. I ran along the highway doing about 60 most of the way then 55 since the speed limit reduced to 90 kph and the van was running really good so we made our way to the Yukon Capitol of Whitehorse.  I had now traveled 1,400 miles up the Alaskan Highway and almost 2,000 miles from Boise.

Whitehorse has a Walmart Super Center and after gassing up I parked there to spend the night with about 40 other RV’s and trailers and fifth wheels of all ages and types. It would be interesting to photograph them for a scrapbook, but I don’t want to get into a fight with an irate recluse.

I bought some eggs for a purchase and hardboiled them later in the van for healthy snacks and also got some milk for breakfast. The little fridge has been working well so far so good. I thought the spot I was parked in (well away from their normal parking) would be noisy because of a busy road beside it, but it turned out to be quiet at night and I had the best night’s sleep of the trip (9 hours) in the Walmart parking lot- too funny! After a quick breakfast of coffee, peanut butter on bagel and milk I hit the road again on another cloudy day. It spit rain at me occasionally usually not enough to make using the wipers worthwhile.

About an hour down the road I came to a place called Haines Junction that was the beginning of driving through a majestic mountain range and by a large river. For many miles I drove without seeing another vehicle and when you topped a rise all you saw around you were forests as far as the eye could see and the mountains on the left and big river on the right. People made no mark on this land, it was so remote.

The weather had warmed up so I stopped at a wayside for lunch and read about the First Peoples who still live and fish and trap this remote wilderness. What a life!

My original destination was Beaver Creek, Yukon, but when I got there in early afternoon about a million no-see’ums swarmed me while I gassed up so I asked how far the American border was- it was 20 miles away! Time to leave Canada for now and get too Alaska. I reset my GPS to Tok, Alaska and saw it was only 93 miles away. When I hit the Border the officer there just asked me a couple of questions about food from Canada and firearms and then waved me thru- easy peesy. I was pushing down the road now in a hurry to get the day done and then the road was very rough. I got to a section where traffic was stopped to wait for a pilot car to take us on the wrong side of a loose gravel section of the road. We waited for about 15 minutes and then the pilot car arrived leading long train of trucks and RV’s.

 The pilot car looped around and pulled in front of our line and off we went for several miles at 25 miles an hour or so with loose gravel flying around.  We got to the end of that section and the pilot car left us , but it turned out that there were sections of gravel road for miles- you would run a quarter or half mile on blacktop and then hit several hundred feet of loose gravel with potholes. I took advantage of this to practice for driving the Dalton Highway which has is mostly gravel so I tried to find the best speed I could do while still seeing and maneuvering around any potholes- turns out that is between 35 and 45 mph. This seemed to go on for a long time, but finally the road returned to normal, if not as good as some parts and I could cruise along. As I neared Tok the rain really started in hard and when I got there I pulled into a large gravel parking lot for a log cabin style restaurant.  

Inside they had a salad bar and lots of local color for decoration- snowshoes on the wall, pictures of miners, you know what I mean. I ordered halibut because I figured it would be incredibly fresh and tasty and then I started trying to get my phone to work. I had a Verizon signal and 4 bars, but could not make a call! I was receiving texts though so I updated some friends on my trip that way and then tried to figure out the phone issue.  It ended up being some kind of prepaid roaming issue that I managed to fix after two days and two calls to Verizon Customer Service. A manager approved my roaming to be transmitted to Verizon towers or some such thing so I will have normal service from now on. Please give me a call- it gets boring talking to myself!

The van had worked hard the last two days and she was hard starting – I think some of the Canadian gas had maybe been bad. Concerned I abandoned my plan to sleep at a turnout or gravel pit down the road a bit in case she did not want to start the next day. I went to an RV Park and paid 29 bucks for a tent spot with no hookups and free showers! So much better than paying a dollar for every 3 minutes! It’s now pretty cold at night so I close all the windows and I’m sleeping in my sleeping bag.

The next morning the van showed she had not burned any oil and the coolant level was perfect. I had filled her with high octane fuel in Tok to try to offset the crummy Canadian fuel. She started hard- the cold weather probably has something to do with that as well and she was sluggish pulling out; soon we were on the road to Fairbanks and the end of the Alaskan Highway.

Not too far out of Tok we began some short climbs and then dropped into another long river valley between incredible mountains- even taller than the ones the day before. There was snow on many of the mountain tops, probably permanent and they reached well into the gray clouds and produced weird looking spirals of broken mist at some of their peaks looking like whirlwinds. Unreal.

To my left at one spot there was a crowded observation area overlooking the biggest river delta I’ve ever seen. It seemed to go to the horizon. I will need to stop and photograph that on the trip back down when I’m in sightseeing mode; now is just about driving.  Leaving the mountains behind you come to some long areas through the forest and then the road changes to a four lane affair and passes Eileson Airbase. About 20 minutes later you are in Fairbanks, Alaska the official end of the Alaskan Highway- Success on Day 9! 2,581 miles from Boise in tow countries in 9 days in the 1977 Dodge Campervan!

Today is Sunday and a day for Thanks, Rest and Contemplation. Monday I will take the van to a mechanic’s shop and hopefully they will be able to reattach the transmission linkage with a proper fastener and give the engine a listen, maybe need to change plugs and then I will leave for the Dalton Highway and the Arctic Circle.

Thanks to those of you following me- I appreciate your thoughts and prayers!