I started my 2,000 mile journey in Glacier in the snow/rain at 0930. The drive for day one is entering Canada, only 20 or so miles from my campground, and then onward to Hythe in Northern part Alberta. During the drive you pass through the big cities of Calgary and Edmonton. I have to say that the town of Edmonton sure did like their Oilers as people were sporting flags on their cars, homes and one building even had a skater (moving statue) on the side of their building. The highway 2 was good and moved quite well at 110 Km/hr or 68 mph. Most of the drive you are in farm country with green fields and cows. Past Edmonton you then get on the Alaska Highway or 43 North/West and that is when you get to see some small towns. The towns have names like Grand Prairie (just like near Dallas), Beaver Lake, Little Smoky, and Hythe. Little Smoky is also the name of the river that the town is on but it is just really a store/gas station. I remember Little Smoky as when I was crossing the river, I looked down on the river and saw a black bear walking along the banks of the river! That was cool but when I pointed and then said hey a black bear, nobody was in the van to see it with me, oh well. The deer came out in full force when it started to get later in the evening, sunset in Hythe was 2242! During part of the drive a deer was standing on the road so with nobody behind me in my lane and a van in the fast lane, I slowed down as to not spook the deer nor hit it. The van was just speeding along and at the last minute it slammed on the breaks. The doe and her friend, just off the side of the road, took off running right in front of my lane/van so it was a good thing that I did slow down. At 2330, I finally found my place to sleep for the evening and it was not even a rest stop that I was looking for but a campground in the town of Hythe. The campground was a municipal campground with free firewood, wi-fi, and even showers! For the sum of fifty Canadian dollars I was down the the night in this quiet little campground. I sure did need some rest after being on the road for 14 hours. The Hythe campground was somewhat quiet but you could still hear some road noise but this far north there is not a ton of traffic. The bathrooms were in a “trailer” but were bright, clean and heated. The good thing about the heat is that in the AM when I got up it was 48 degrees in the van and outside was about the same. The heater of the van was turned on when I got up as 48 is a bit chilly to get ready in the morning.
Day two started with 1,300 miles to complete the journey to Tok. I left Hythe at 0930 and traveled until 2130 or 12 hours but I was only able to get a little more than 600 miles completed. The journey is only a few roads to here and it was a real eye opener when I made a turn and the GPS said that the next turn would be in 980 miles! Well I did not get to turn before I called it quits for the day. I am on the Alaskian Highway that starts in Dawson Creek and ends in Alaska. The highway has been known for how rough of a road it is but I have found so far that the road is paved and not that bad. I will see what happens as I get closer to the end of the road if it gets worse but if I recall it is not too bad at the end going North. The interesting thing is that there are times when I didn’t see another car for 30 minutes, after 1800. I did see plenty of people pulled over at the various trash areas (no toilets) or parked along the road at a pull off. One of the most crowded areas was on a lake in a provincial parks called Muchan Lake. I think on the way back to the lower 48 I will spend a few hours here if not the entire night. As I am heading North the sun is staying up longer in the evening but I don’t know the sunset time as I do not have any cell service. It was funny that for a good portion of the trip today I had 5G or even LTE service. I did see some animals along the side of the road that were living and some dead. The dead ones were a black bear and a moose. The living ones were over 100 bison, 7 black bears, 6 moose, 1 caribou, and a beaver. All of these animals were less than 20 yards from the road! Be careful when driving on this road as you may interact with a wild animal. The place that I selected to stop this evening is a very large trash area and when I pulled in there was already three other people set up for the night. I did a bit of a walk around the area and there are a few picnic tables and a bench overlooking the river down below. On one of the picnic tables there is a sign that says “problem bear in the area.” Guess I need to keep the bear spray close and be aware of what is going on around me.
Day three of driving started at 0930 after a good breakfast at my spot. Nobody had joined the other three and I at our parking area and one had left before I got up so it was just two others. The amount of miles to drive in the day was just over 700 and I was determined to get to Tok today. I drove for two hours and saw more bears, 4, than cars! Total today I say 11 bicycles and people riding them in both directions along the Alaska Highway. The other animals were the 4 black bears, 4 bison and nothing else. I stopped for fuel at a station and filled up the tank and got on the road but the fuel gauge read only 1/2 a tank and 270 or so miles until empty. I had less than 40 to go to Haines Junction so I watched closely the gauge after checking that I did not have a leak. No leak and I was able to make it to Haines Junction but paid over $8.00 USD for a gallon of gas! I stopped about 1700 for some dinner and rest. After dinner I stared to drive some more with only three hours left until I got to the border. I came across a pond with some trees in front of it and snow capped mountains behind it. I decided that this would be a great place to rest for the night since I was tired with driving over 1,800 miles in the 2.5 days of driving I already had completed. Well it was here that I spent the night with less than 150 miles to go to the US border but was glad that I could rest before the push to the end.
Day 4 of driving was the shortest distance of them all only 250 miles to go to camp. You would think that would have taken about 5 hours but you would be wrong. The road was rough for most of the way to the Canadian border that is 19 miles short of the US border so it was 131 miles or 3 hours. You cross the border and then you are in “no man’s land” of Canada for the 19 miles to the US boarder. The US boarder is efficient and there are only a few cars/trucks going through so the two open lanes were easy to get across. The US boarder agents actually live at the border the entire time they are working at the border. I asked if it was a 2 week on/off kinda thing that happens in Alaska all the time and was told NO, it is until you leave this posting. The closest town of Tok is 94 miles away from the border so that would be a hike each day to work, and in the winter would be almost impossible with all the snow. The good thing about being back in the US and Tok is that fuel prices were $3.75 per gallon at the gas station. The gas station even had hot showers that are not timed so I took a hot shower before heading to camp.
