We headed out from Whitehorse at 8 AM this morning under overcast skies and cool temperatures and almost made Tok, Alaska. We stopped 40 miles shy when we found a lovely, flat, paved, and free MP1269 rest area. Everybody was ready to stop because the road from Burwash Landing, Yukon west to Beaver Creek, Yukon was one long obstacle course of rough breaks and frost heaves. At times 15 mph wasn't too slow. Many of the bad spots are marked with small red flags, but many are not. We all did a great job of just taking it slowly. Rich, the leader of the day, did a great job on the CB radio giving us a heads-up on the nasties coming up. Building roads on top of permafrost must still be more art then science.
We didn't even come close to missing the right turn at Haines Junction, the turn is extremely well marked. We fueled up there and again at Beaver Creek.
Kluane Lake was still mostly frozen and we couldn't find any mountain sheep on the hill sides there, but we saw a moose along the way and several pairs of nesting swans for our wildlife fix.
Customs was another straight forward process - no, I'm not bringing $10,000 in (I wish) and yes, I promise that I'll only stay for the summer. Rich and Lin's trailer cleared the 13 foot roof with at least 2" to spare! There were a few miles of road construction right at the border, but the way soon returned to clear sailing. The long day ended with the sun, 60 degree temperatures, and chicken and noodles on the table.
There is talk about breakfast in the morning at Fast Eddys in Tok. Sign me up.
The right and correct turn.
So what's your hurry pilgrim?
Shy moose.
Night camp on the Chisana River.
Looks like you made it! Congratulations! You're closer to summer there than we are in Montana. I saw snowflakes in the air today, between little pieces of ice--I guess that's called hail--and drops of rain.
ReplyDeleteLooking at the pictures made me want to go back this year.
ReplyDeleteWent in 2004 and have been trying to get back ..
Nice!!