STARR TREKS Wednesday 6/17/15 Tok Alaska!
Last night, we enjoyed our last hours in Whitehorse Yukon— we really enjoyed the town. Since it was still very light at 8 pm, we took the Millenial path downtown that was 5 K. We walked along the Yukon River, saw a lot of bikers, roller bladers, and other walkers. There was one area where the trees had been gnawed down by beavers — they are busy little animals for sure. We walked over a bridge where we could see the dam— they have a huge fish ladder there, but no salmon this time of year to see.
Today was a very long, not exciting day of travel. We drove 396 miles from Whitehorse to Tok, and most of it was dry, very dusty, getting repairs. It rained off and on, then was really dusty. We could not go real fast because of the gravel areas and frost heaves— we found out all about permafrost— when they built the road, they removed upper layers of dirt — then the lower layers which normally stay frozen and stiff, melted and turns into a kind of slurry which causes the road to sink in spots— this has been an ongoing problem since 1942 when the AlCan was built. In some areas they had some cones and tubes sticking out, experimenting with ways to keep the permafrost from thawing. Anyhow, we had to go really slow a lot of the time — the car was totally coated with dust— glad we had our tow cover on over the windshield and hood. There were many little orange flags and signs at the worst bumps— even if it didn’t look bad, we always slowed down even more since there always was a bad bump or dip.
Around lunchtime we stopped by a beautiful Lake Kluane — the water was still with not a ripple, the mountains were gorgeous (they go up to 19.000 ft), and the wildflowers (lupine) were plentiful and colorful— the whole area smelled like flowers. Most of the towns we drove thru had populations <100 — each had a motel, gas station, restaurant — they were all stops for the road builders of the 40’s. One was called Destruction Bay — also on Lake Kluane. It had been destroyed by a storm in the 40’s and got its name. The last Yukon town was Beaver Creek — the Canadian checkpoint for people going south was located here. The USA checkpoint was another 19 miles north at Port Alcan. The border crossing area for cars and RV’s said it was 12 ft 10 inches high — Larry was sure we are more than 13 feet with the air conditioner on the roof. The other lane said Buses and Commercial Trucks only — so I hopped out of the car to ask what we should do, and the guy said to go thru the bus lane. The lady who questioned us, asked only about weapons and produce. We told her all the fruits and vegetables we had, but she said she only needed to take the grapefruit and oranges— if they were peeled, we could have kept them!!! I didn’t want to hold up the line to peel fruit, so pulled them out of the frig and gave them to her.
Even tho the road was still not super, we were happy to be back in the USA— especially when our Verizon our phone kicked in! We will have some internet in the RV with our hotspot that we carry — should not have to sit on the pot to use it!! It was still another 60-70 miles to Tok, and the closer we got, the smokier the air got. Hopefully the wind will change direction.
We chose the Tok RV Village rv park since they had an area to wash the car and even the RV. It was a good Sam park, but not cheap— like $42 even with discount. They said there are several fires burning in AK, and this smoke blew in around 2 pm today. It is not very pleasant since you can hardly see the mountains. After hooking up we drove to the Visitor Center and picked up some brochures— think we will go toward Valdez tomorrow. We stopped at the only grocery store and got some very expensive oranges, nectarines, bananas, milk, and lettuce. Larry is out washing the car while I am throwing supper together. We are pretty weary after the long dusty smoky drive!
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| beautiful lake Kluane |
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| flower matches Larry's shirt! |
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| our very dusty CRV |
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| entering Alaska at Beaver Creek |
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