Watson Lake, Yukon to Soldotna, Alaska... we made it :)

The last long leg of our journey has come to a successful end in Soldotna Alaska. We are unhooked and settled at our good friend Bill's, parked in the same place in his driveway that we spent a good 6 weeks in 7 years ago when we visited Alaska. It is almost like coming home.... and believe me, after over 2 weeks on the road, I am ready to be settled in one place for awhile.
We left Watson Lake in the Yukon on Saturday June 15th, after spending a little time poking around the famous "Sign Post Forest" , where you can find a license plate, a road sign , a hand made note or any other form of identification, from anywhere in the world you can dream up... all former visitors travelling the Alaska highway.

 

 

We had fully intended to drive from Watson Lake to Whitehorse Yukon that day, distance was about right for a good days drive, I think approx. 300 miles and on roads like these, that was far enough. It is hard to travel at any speed, because it is constant bumps, ruts, pot holes and frost heaves all the way. However, the scenery was beautiful... with Teslin being the highlight of the day I think.

We stopped here for a lunch break , overlooking the Bridge at Teslin.

Typical Yukon Road.

Near Haines Junction

 

We arrived in Whitehorse in the late afternoon, but it seemed busy and dusty and after fueling up we decided to carry on and stay in Haines Junction, just another hour and a half away. We found a small Government Campsite at Pine Lake just outside Haines Junction and spent the night. WOW... Mosquito's. Worst yet. You couldn't even sit outside, or you would get eaten alive. It was an early to bed and early to rise kind of place. We left early, headed into Haines, hoping to fuel up, stop at a liquoir store and .. get some groceries. UMMMM.. well, it was.. first off Sunday. (easy to lose track of days while travelling)... second.. the only grocery store in town closed...apparently last year. And third.. the only fuel was a card lock place. OK... we did find a little place to fuel up, and a tiny little store that charged us $4.95 for a dozen eggs. Wow.

So... on to Kluane Lake. We had a very nice short day... less than 2 hours on the road. Camped at a campground we had loved when we were up before... Congdon Creek. Had a very relaxing afternoon, a nice BBQ for dinner  and a good  nights sleep.

 Next day.... destination, Tok Alaska... and the Sourdough Campground, home of the famous pancake toss.. ( which, incidentally, we won back in 2006) haha.  Anyhow, another long day. None of these days would really have been very long... IF... the roads were better, but... again, lots of rough road, construction and delays. It was a good day with lots to see... and when you are only able to travel at a crawl... you really get a chance to see.. :)

 

Here we are... !!!!!!

We had a great night at Tok, even tossed pancakes, but this time, we didn't win. However, still went for Reindeer Sausage and sourdough pancakes in the morning before heading out. Destination, Matanuska Glacier, (about one hour from Anchorage). The day was clear and hot, but started out pretty breezy. We travelled south thru Glenallen, and then west towards Anchorage. As the day progressed... the wind got worse and worse. We stopped at Matanuska intending to stay the night but it was so hot up there we changed our minds.... and headed on in to the palmer/Anchorage valley.

Lions Head, near Matanuska Glacier

Lunch stop at Eureka Summit

Mount Sanford and Mount Drum near Glenallan.

Matanuska Glacier.

The drive continued to be crazy... howling winds.. dust so bad that when we went thru Palmer we could barely see. We couldn't find a park to stay in, wound up on the freeway into Anchorage so decided to carry on thru ( at rush hour no less ) and stay at one of our favorite campsites, Bird Creek... just about 1/2 hr south of Anchorage. Well... well made it thru the city, (just barely) ... fought the wind and traffic along Turnagain Arm to the campground... only to find it CLOSED until August.

AAARRRRRGGGHHH!!!!!!

So we parked in a dusty gravel parking lot at a motel across the highway and crashed for the night. In the morning, we left bright and early and headed for our finale destination 3 hours away..... Soldotna, Alaska. The last day of driving was good, no unplanned delays... typical roads, but... we made it.

Turnagain Arm near Bird Creek

Turnagain Arm.

Johnson Pass, heading south to Soldotna

 

It is hard to believe that we are now... 3000 miles away from home. That is a long way !!! I love Alaska, but I already miss my girls and my Grandkids so much. I think a lot of it is the fact, that I know just exactly how far away we really are. But the summer is going to be full of new adventures, new places to explore, old places to discover again..along with all the great bonus's .. such as buckets full of razor clams, lots of salmon and halibut and all the wonders that Alaska has to offer..... 

So.. here we are, ready to begin.

 

 

The famous Kenai River

Thanks for traveling with us. I can hardly wait to start sharing pictures of fish, clams, and all the other amazing things we encounter while up here.

See ya all soon.

 

Week 2.... B..C. / Washington Boarder to the Yukon in 5 days....

Week 2.. B.C. / Washington Boarder to Yukon in 5 days... total miles from home... 1805 miles

Well, the miles are flying by now. We have travelled the entire length of B.C. this week and it has been a very eventful week. We left Grand Forks on Monday morning at 7 am.. after saying goodbye to Tammi and Curtis.. and with a seriously welded and reinforced 5th wheel in tow. We planned on a long day and it was... went up 33 to Kelowna, then north to Kamloops. It was a clear and sunny day and a hot...but all went well.

Kamloops

Our goal was to reach Williams Lake and spend the night visiting with our friend Paul. We got there late, but in time for a steak bbq and a good visit. Left There at about 9am and headed north. Not much to see and our biggest goal that day was to get past Prince George ( truly not our favorite place). We travelled about 40 miles north of P.G. to a place I remember as a kid... Bear Lake Provincial Park. Had a very peaceful evening ..after covering ourselves with some mega mosquito repellant..but it was peaceful and relaxing.. and... we were north of Prince.

Bear Lake

Wednesday morning dawned bright and sunny and we headed for Fort St. John. This section of the trip took us thru the Peace River Valley... the home of the huge and powerful Peace River and the Bennet Dam. Also a trip thru Chetwyn ... the chain saw capital of the world, but... alas... by the time we got there...the skies opened up and the rains came.

Peace River Valley

We continued north to Fort St. John where we had a great evening with our Grandson Dan and his girlfriend Janet..who came to our campsite at Charlie lake and had a few drinks and a bbq and a wonderful visit. Thanks Dan :) it was great to see you.

Dan and Janet

Thursday morning we woke up to gray skies and rain showers.... but headed north.... our next destination...Fort Nelson. We were pleasantly surprised by the actual... "Alaska Highway". At this point in our travels.. the highway was wide... straight and full of rolling hills. Miles and Miles of the same... all the way to Fort Nelson. There were some rough sections but all in all.. it is a pretty incredible highway. We passed right thru the town.. ( not impressed at all ) and carried on about another 60 miles to a campground at Tetsa River. It was ok, but rainy and full of mosquitos. Spent the night watching a few episodes of smallville, season 2.

This morning we left camp at 8 am... headed to Watson Lake. It has been the best day of the trip so far. We have encountered all kinds of wild life today... A big old black bear, 2 moose, a mama bear and her two tiny cubs ( no opportunity for pictures...dang ), a coyote,, a red fox, about 6 stone sheep and at least a dozen bison.

 

 

 

 

Along the way we saw some pretty incredible scenary, Stone mountain, Muncho Lake , the huge Liard River. Every turn brought new and different things to see.

Stone Mountain

Muncho Lake

The weather changed continually all day... a bit of sun, a torential down pour, more sun, more rain... all day but we made it to Watson Lake Yukon and as we sit and sip on a bit of crown royal and relax, ( after a long day of really rough roads ) the clouds are leaving and the sun is shining. It is a good night.

On to Whitehorse Yukon tomorrow, Kluanne Lake on Sunday and with a little luck... Alaska on Monday. ( unless of course, Kluanne lake keeps us an extra day.

P.S. Our days are much longer up here.. Daylight begins at about 3 a.m. and it finally gets dark after about midnight. Long long days of sunshine.

 

 

 

On the road... well, mostly...

Well, we are on the road... finally. After a year of anticipation , preparations, planning and lots of stress.. but we are finally heading north. Not of course without the usual "Peters" luck to get the ball rolling.
We left home June 3rd... Monday morning after a short stop over in town for a couple of new tires for the trailer. Once that was done... it didn't take long to be out of town. The first "glitch" was trailer lights that didn't work so we spent an hour in Port Townsend with a very nice handy man who came to assist us and got us up and running.. and it was a cheap fix. Then off to the ferry and up Highway 20 to the North Cascade Pass. It is an incredibly high pass and the location of our first disastrous attempt to go north eight years ago..

 but... that is a story for another time.
We started heating up as we went over the passes, and seemed to really be lacking in power. With a Dodge cummins diesel one would not expect that.  But yes it was definitely struggling. We pulled into Winthrop to a beautiful campground about dinner time and decided to work on the problem in the morning.

PEARRYGIN LAKE STATE PARK

 

In the morning we headed into Omak and spent 2 days at a park there, while the wonderful guys at the Dodge dealership put in a handy little computer (chip).. a hand held gadget that attaches to your trucks computer. It reads all the info and we discovered that who ever had owned the truck before us had made some major changes to it.. and it just wasn't tuned properly. So.. after a couple of hours of messing around.. this little gadget re tuned the truck... brought it back to factory standards.. and then also allows us to just click a button and we have our own little "Turbo Boost". Well, not really but with changing the settings, we get the extra power needed to pulling heavy loads. Another $320 but at least we can make the mountain passes now with no problems.

On Wednesday we started out for Grand Forks B.C. to visit our daughter, but only 20 miles down the road, we turned around and headed back to Omak. This time... to replace a water pump. Still had a squeaky noise and heating up a bit.. so better safe than sorry. $380 later... we finally left Omak on Thursday afternoon, arriving in Grand Forks at 7pm.

We will be here until Monday morning and then it is northward bound.. no more actual plans, but where ever the truck takes us in a day. Before we leave here, we are taking the trailer into our daughters shop and we are getting a little welding job done on it, just to be sure the trailer actually makes it over all the rough roads ahead.

I don't know when I will get on here again, but hopefully in about a week. Take care everyone, keep smiling and have a great summer.