2019 ALCAN (Alaskan Canadian) Road Trip

AKA: The Voyage of Randy and the Cheverse-tronauts
(or there and back again)

Part 2 (Days 11 - 23)

ALCAN Day 11 (10 June Monday) Klondike Loop Yukon Highway 2 to Dawson City

We began the day spending just over an hour at the Yukon Transportation Museum in Whitehorse which was really cool for military truck nerds (like John Liss) but was less appealing to teenage girls but they were troopers.

Mamouth pic waiting for museum to open

DC3 - Worlds Largest Weather Vane	Yukon Jane & Klondike Cate got Gold Fever

Based on the brochures made that made it look like the rollicking embodiment of the Yukon Gold Rush with all the sin sanitized for family fun, we let the ALCAN and took the side loop highway north to Dawson City the former Capital and axis of the Klondike Gold Rush of 1898. The scenery were some of the least inspiring of the trip, to date even less than the open sea of grass of Saskatchewan to some extent. When we got to Dawson City we walked a few of the broad gravel, dirt city streets and boardwalks along store fronts filled with informational posters of the city's past but the stores themselves were empty and the only rollicking was retirees strolling the streets out of their RVs and a small number of younger people there that were as misguided as we were. We struggled to linger there for 45 minutes. To be honest we were in line for the territory ferry across the Yukon River longer. The only real regret of the trip that didn’t involve not staying longer pretty much everywhere.

Disappointed in Dawson City

(Outside the closed Klondike Kate's in the overly tamed former Yukon capital city)

Fortunately after driving 330 miles over 6 ½ hours, there was a massive PP campground just across the way with lots of fire wood which we still didn’t use, and once again no potable water. We had to resort to rationing and changing our dinning plans to limit our water use. We watched a few episodes of Brooklyn 99 which Jane downloaded on her laptop from Netflix (she was super excited that this was an option but as it turns out only in Canada). Went to bed at 10:30 in broad daylight which wasn’t surprising as officially there was only 3 ½ hours of night from between 3:57 am to 12:36 pm.

Meanwhile back home(?)

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ALCAN Day 12 (11 June Tuesday); ALASKA!

After all the epic scenery along so many of our routes, traversing the hyperbolically named Top of the World, Highway 9 was a bit of a letdown, at least at first. The scenery got better after we crossed the northern most border crossing into the USA and ALASKA. As I frequently pontificate to the girls, the key to all unhappiness is high or Great expectations (i.e., if we had no expectations, it would have seemed grander).

The border guard gave us a little trouble for bringing in a Roma Tomato purchased in Canada but then again didn’t make us toss it out either when we told him we planned on eating it.

Top of the World border station

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The gravel Taylor Highway 5 was more interesting as it dropped us back on to the ALCAN highway near Tok, Alaska where we stopped at Fast Eddy's (completely different than the Alton joint) with the girls enjoying their pizza and Dad digging the fish and chips. As notable, after rationing our water for half a day in the Yukon, we went through 3 pitchers of cold water with our meal.

We reached the official end of the ALCAN highway at Delta Junction at mile 1422. The romance of driving the ALCAN served as the overt reason for the trip and its terminus might have been a bit anti-climactic but it was a means to an end: the trip more about the journey and not the destination…and it wasn’t just the journey either. Like most journey stories it was so much more than that. Oh …never mind.

Chevertronaughts at the end of the ALCAN	Comparing the CANOL, Haines-Fairbanks and Alyeska Pipelines

As a 31 year employee of the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), I take some pride in being part of the organization that completed the stunning achievement of building the land route between Dawson Creek, Alberta to Delta Junction (or in reality Fairbanks), Alaska in just over 8 months in 1942 linking airfields of the Lend-Lease program to Russia. Canada allowed the construction as long as the US paid all the costs and agreed turn it over to Canada after the war. For the war, the highway's importance proved negligible as 99 percent of the supplies to Alaska were shipped by sea. Driving the ALCAN in its refined, upgraded and paved form today, still strikes awe though, especially in the mountains and river crossings. The highway is a great singular achievement but its only part of the numerous and massive construction programs that USACE undertook during WWII and that I’ve spent most of professional career cleaning up the environmental consequences for in the US and its territories I could say more but everyone can Google it if this wasn’t enough.

Delta Junction Interprative Sign	Corps Castle Best Federal Government Icon

After driving 330 miles in 8 hours, we made it to USAF Birch Lake Recreation Area (open to the military and DOD civilians) associated with Eielson AFB at 5 pm with an hour to spare before the staff called it a day. With no one really staying there in the middle of the week, we had our pick of the cabins and spots (we picked #20). We decided to skip the tent set up and go for the very reasonable $30 for a two-person cabin. It turned out to be a 12 by 13 feet dorm room with two twin beds, refrigerator and microwave. With the cot we brought along, it was a definite upgrade from setting up the tents. After microwave dinner, we watched A Night at the Museum on the mini DVD player.

Birch Lake cabin

ALCAN Day 13 (12 June Wednesday); Birch Lake

As we were sort of ahead of "schedule" we decided to have a lazy day of no driving and stay a second night. We slept in than rented a motor boat for an hour ($15) and then rented a couple of paddle boards ($10). Showers in the separate shower house followed with some journaling, reading, naps taking up the rest of the day. It was nice to have no agenda.

Cate motor boating around Birch Lake	Jane making use of her Camp Lakewood training

Birch Lake Paddle Boarding	Paddle boarding on his bum and staying dry...almost

The only down side was no TV to watch game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals. We followed on our phones. After it was over and the Blues had won, we shook up our last Coke and celebrated as we shared a Coke with a Champion. Tears of joy, relief and melancholy about who didn't get to share the moment.

Celebrate with a Champion

ALCAN Day 14 (13 June Thursday); Fairbanks

We had a short hour drive to Fairbanks. As we passed Eielson AFB, we could clearly see the B-52s, KC-135s and F-35 fighters siting on the runway parallel to the highway (the airfield and the highway clearly came BEFORE the post-WWII missions), which wouldn’t have been placed in such close proximity to a public road.

In Fairbanks, we visited Pioneer Village (nee Alaska 67 Exposition, Alaskaland) which had a low key 1971 Six Flags sans rides vibe. Meh. Trip to Old Navy and Walmart were more fun. We got a Super 8 hotel room and watched Pulp Fiction that night before a few more night of camping.

Riding the Wild Salmon at Pioneer Park	Klondike Cate/Kate - Really?

ALCAN Day 15 (14 June Friday); Denali National Park & Preserve

After leaving Fairbanks hotel a bit after ten, we made the pleasant drive south on Alaska Highway 3 to Denali. Fortunately, we had a reserved campsite as it was full by noon when we checked in. We set up our camp at site B101 on the Caribou Loop of Riley Creek Campground on the eastern extreme of the park and made our selves some lunch.

Flying our STL Blues flag at Denali camp

Not having a real plan for the day, we made our way to the bus depot to see what might be available in the way of getting around Denali as personal vehicles are not allowed past mile 15. We booked tickets on the 5 pm transit bus to Toklat River at park road mile 53 ($33.50 per adult, youths 15 and under were free). This was the SHORTEST bus tour, it lasted 6 ½ hours and was the last one of the day. Other trip options lasted up to 12 hours taking you to park road mile 92 and cost $64

Denali NP road

BLUF (Bottom Line Up Front): we never saw the parks name sake mountain on trip, which is hardly unusual as the NPS claims only 30% of the visitors see ANY part of the mountain while visiting the park. Even so, we didn’t feel like we wasted our time and money as the lesser mountain scenery was terrific, even by our experienced and jaded eye. The real treat was the wildlife peeping. We saw 4 grizzly bears, several caribou and moose, lots of snowshoe hares, and a couple dozen Dall sheep on the distant mountain (binoculars and the telephoto lens were key tools). Also, the other 9 passengers on the bus were key to spotting all the wildlife, as the Curti were not responsible for any of the first sightings. Generally, we were among the last to actually see what everyone else's camera was pointed at. The best viewing was the group of 3 grizzlies: a mama and 2 yearlings that we watched for 15 minutes near Sable Pass, both coming and going on the park road.

Three Grizzilies

(Telephoto lens on the 35mm made the day on this excursion)

Single caribou	Heard of Dall sheep?No, but we saw a bunch.

Alasaka Range at Tolkat River	Walking accross the Tolkat River road

Alasaka Range at Tolkat River

Moose Antler fun	Donning Caribou horns

Our trip ended at 11:20 pm (still daylight) with a moose and her calf just outside the Visitor's Center Parking lot about 40 feet from our car. We had to actually wait to get in the car until the moose wandered off as by the time we walked to our car, the moose were right there and a Mama moose with her calf is not to be trifled with.

Moose calf	Moose munching moose moss at the Cheverse

Hands at 12 O'Clock in the Midnight Sun

2019-06-14 ALCAN Denali Midnight Sun.jpg

Visitor Center topo model, at least we could see Denali

ALCAN Day 16 (15 June Saturday); Denali NP

We had two nights of camping reserved but without an electric hook-up, powering our phones and laptops took some creativity with the power strip.

Journalling and charging outside the comfort station

With the Denali NPSign

We signed up to do some White-Water Rafting on Nenana Scenic Wilderness on the eastern side of the park in Healy. We chose Nenana Gorge Whitewater excursion through the Nenana Raft Adventures (Raft Denali!) company ($300 for all 3 of us). Advertised as a 3-4-hour trip, this included the hour to suit up in the dry suits and safety talk and about as long to take them off and ride the bus back. Still it was 2 hours of rollicking fun. We got partnered up with a group of Air Force guys TDY at Eielson AFB from Minot, which was comforting knowing that all could readily haul the over-sized Dad back in the boat should he fall in. That didn’t happen to Randy but one of the airmen went in. He was only out of the raft for a minute and with the wet suit it was no big deal. He took it well along with the ribbing from his pals. The tour guide / keel man was less enthused as concerns of losing business for having one of his guests go swimming was a no-no. Evidently Princess Cruises gives the company a hard time when this happens as their cruise ship clientele are not so nonchalant about white water swimming. The girls really enjoyed their first white water rafting trip and expressed a desire to do more (another trip goal achieved).

Nenana Gorge Whitewater

2019-06-15 ALCAN Raft Denali JC warriors.jpg

That night we took in the Park Service Ranger program at 7:30 pm which was pleasant but a little bothersome to see how the Ranger had to dance around any discussions of climate change issues.

RBJC Postcard from Denali.jpg

ALCAN Day 17 (16 June Sunday); Anchorage

The travelers got up at 8, giving us time to shower, eat and decamp in time to make the 10 am sled dog demonstration with the ranger before heading south for Anchorage

Denali NP Sled Dogs

At the Denali North View State Park during a pit stop, we saw the specific cloud blocking our view of the top of Denali. Some claimed this a win for seeing it but not this scribe.

Cloud obscuring the top of Mt Denali

At 4 pm, we arrived at Erin Sage (Bethany's Cousin) and Roman Bakic house at 11906 Wilderness Drive, Anchorage; the beginning of a 3-night stay with Finn, Iris, Roman and Erin (FIRE) who were wonderful hosts and plied us with excellent conversation and storytelling in between challenging us to various card games to the wee hours of the night. For dinner we went to the Bear Tooth Theatre Pub for great pizza and beer (we would definitely go back for the movies too if we lived there). This was followed by ice cream at Wild Scoops in downtown Anchorage

Bears Ear Pizza	Jane feeding a bear

ALCAN Day 18 (17 June Monday); Anchorage

Erin took day off which means a lot from anyone but even more on the adjusted scale of the well-paid Exxon Mobil Engineer with more $ than time. She made the crew waffles for breakfast along with fruit etc.

FIRE and the Curti than made a mini- road trip on the Seward Highway on the north side of the Turnagain Arm to Whittier (a FUDS town), go through the 2.5-mile one-way tunnel used for cars and trains. While in line a police officer reprimanded Roman for exceeding the speed limit. Being a dad with a car load of family ranging over 5 decades in age probably helped get him off with a stern naughty-naughty.

The town of Whittier lies on Prince William Sound is essentially all a FUDS. The town is quirky remains of a former WWII and Cold War Army post with underground tunnels connecting the concrete structures and with most of the ~200 town residents living in a former Army housing tower, completed in 1957 and converted into a condominium complex for civilians in 1974.

Essayons!	Finn riding high

Waiting for the tunnel to clear with the Whittier glacier

On the way back, a contingent made a short hike up towards the Byron Glacier while Finn napped. We stopped at Girdwood for mini growlers of beer and cookies at the après ski bakery and made a pull off at McHugh Creek where Erin and Roman got married.

Back at their house, we spent the late afternoon and evening playing games at the dining table (e.g., Bang, Unstable Unicorns, Bears vs Babies)

Hiking part way to Byron Glacier	Unstable Unicorns

ALCAN Day 19 (18 June Tuesday); Anchorage

On Tuesday, Erin went to work as did Randy going into the Alaska District office to do some email maintenance and talking to co-workers regarding work load. A 6-hour day.

That evening we went downtown with Roman giving us a short walking tour of the local sites and talking for a couple hours over beer with more great pizza at Fat Ptarmigan on Erin and Roman's Third Anniversary…yeah we’re those people (i.e., clueless) and they’re that kind of people (i.e., really nice) to reschedule their celebration for Friday. Staying up until 1 am just talking to Roman and Erin telling personal and family stories. A really good visit.

Fat Ptarmigan

ALCAN Days 20 (19 June Wednesday); Back to the Yukon

We left Anchorage at 10:15 AM after saying goodbye to Roman, Iris and Finn (Erin was already at work). What followed was a long day of driving that included a "lunch" stop of croissants from the IGA in Glenallen. The more significant beak was the ½ hour stop for construction on Alaska Highway 1 near mile 51 between Chistochina and Slana. Not emergency repairs but just normal major highway maintenance repairs of a few miles. Alaska has 11 numbered highways, all essentially non-divided 2 lanes except in cities, and this was Highway #1. The construction wait time let us study the maps and Milepost to decide to punt detouring and staying within the Wrangle St Elias NP as originally envisioned. So, we decided drive LONGER so we could to Canada sooner and once again have Sprint data and cell service (there is no Sprint service in Alaska). That said there wasn’t cell service in that part of Canada except for around the very sporadic towns. We got back on to the ALCAN highway at Tok, heading east on Alaska 2 (road previously skipped because of our Dawson City detour).

Alaska Highway #1 Construction

At Canada / USA border on the main ALCAN highway we took lots of selfies with the signage (in stark difference to the crossing at Top of the World). A few kilometers at the manned crossing, the Canadian border guard congratulated the St. Louisan on winning the Stanley Cup (in stark contrast to 1985 when Randy was detained for an hour after laughing at the guard's follow up question of "Where's that?" to Randy's response of "St. Louis" the where are you from question (Fatherly Advice to the girls based on multiple personal experiences: Don’t laugh at border guards, cops or people in authority. It never goes well.)

Welcome to Alaska...as we were leaving.

Alaska / Yukon Border	Cate

The Milepost guided us to camping at Snag Junction PP outside Beaver Creek, Yukon (site #9). We made a super-fast set up of the tents at 10:30 pm with NO drama; just people doing what needed to be done quickly and efficiently. The mosquitos provided lots of encouragement not to dawdle (one of the few times they really bothered us). We watched a Netflix download of John Mullany at Rockefeller Center in the car until Midnight when it was pitch black (NOT).

Jane at the Yukon / Alaska border

ALCAN Days 21 (20 June Thursday); Yukon and Haines Junction

A couple hours on the road, we reached the Sheep Mountain (Tachäl Dhäl) Interpretive Centre of Kluane National Park and Reserve, where you can see four different versions of the Alaska Highway: the original tote road, the military road in place by the 1942 opening, the re-routed highway along Kluane Lake, and the new Shakwak Project highway which was completed in 2008. We made the short hike to Soldiers Summit at mile 1061 of the Alaska Highway along the original military roadway. The 20 November 1942 ceremonial completion point of the ALCAN highway. This was also roughly ceremonially the end of our time on the actual ALCAN, which was somewhat fitting and I’d like to say I planned it that way but that would be a lie. (The symbolizing of all it was completely lost on the girls).

Slim Flats

Soilders Summit - Ceremonial Completion of the ALCAN

Randy hiking up to Soilders Summit

2019-06-20 ALCAN Soilders Summit Randy.jpg

At Haines Junction, we enjoyed big veggie burger and fries’ meals on the porch at Frosty’ s with terrific views of the mountains to the south. We scored an hour of free wi-fi at the Haines Junction Public Library (and liquor store…really) before heading south.

Haines Library and Liqour Building

The Milepost helped us find Million Dollar Falls Provincial Park Campground on the Takhanne River (Site 10). If these falls were closer to more people, it would have been very crowded but being on the highway between Haines and Haines Junction, we had it pretty much to ourselves and the mosquitos that became pesky about 8:30 pm sending us into the Cheverse to watch some more downloaded Netflix Brooklyn 99 episodes and then heading off to sleep in the tents.

Cate at the top of Million Dollar Falls	Jane with the rapids above Million Dollar Falls

Randy and Cate at the top of Million Dollar Falls

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ALCAN Days 22 (21 June Friday); Haines to Juneau

By this point, we were a well synchronized process for setting up and decamping. I woke the girls up at 7 and we left the campground by 7:30. The drive south down to Haines was exceptionally beautiful, and the best highway scenery of the trip so far.

Alaska Highway 2 to Haines

Had some minor excitement by not filling up the gas tank at Haines Junction the day before and the orange warning low fuel light glowed for the last 20 minutes into Haines with much concern expressed by Jane. As planned, we got to Haines with a couple hours to spare before our tickets for the Alaska Marine Highway System (AMHS) ferry to Juneau for a 4 ½ hour ride. We got spent our time at a café noshing, caffeinating and most importantly grabbing some Wi-Fi. In retrospect, Randy rues that he didn’t push for the trip to the nearby Fort William H. Seward/Chilkoot Barracks just outside of town and the ONLY Army post in Alaska in 1940 (things would change dramatically very shortly thereafter). He allayed his FUDS deprivation by passing an abandoned fuel tank farm on the hill next to the ferry terminal, which assuredly was part of the Haines-Fairbanks Pipeline. The crossed his mind, if only he copied the site layout plans he got from Fort Wainwright two years earlier he could show the girls…and…and…and ruin their morning.

Alaska Highway 2 outside Haines

Our ferry to Juneau, the Tazlina was a new, clean well accustomed vessel. Standing on the deck with the hat stealing wind, made the comfy interior seats seem very inviting. That and the scenery overload desensitized the girls who spent most of the time reading on our journey southward.

Hair raising fun on the ferry for Juneau Jane

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Scenary...smenary

2019-06-21 ALCAN AMHS Haineto Juneau reading.jpg

Saw a whale but did not get any decent pictures as the telephoto lens camera was still on a 10 second timer from ALCAN selfies the day before. Doah!
Haines to Juneau cost for 1 adult, 2 teens and the Cherverse -$263. A great trip.

Bad whale picture

2019-06-21 ALCAN AMHS Haineto Juneau whale.jpg

Getting off at the Juneau Ferry terminal about 14 miles from downtown, it wasn’t too far to our reserved campsite in the Tongass National Forest along Mendenhall Lake with a view of the glacier. We were a little tired and a little hangry but it was another quick encampment set up and dinner prep with pretty much everyone seeing what needed to be done and doing it, The ease of Minute Rice and Indian food packets food dinner prep were appreciated. The nice warm showers and potable water were a pleasant upgrade after the Yukon Provincial Parks.

Mendenhall glacier view from our campsite

2019-06-21 ALCAN Mendenhall glacier view.jpg

We made a reccy of downtown Juneau, where the cruise ship dock. Downtown Juneau is vibrant with literally thousands of cruise ship passengers invading the gauntlet of souvenir shops. The shop Alaska Robotics has no robots to be found except within the comic books which is the store's main ware along with games and local artist products, . Grabbed some food and insect repellant at the local Fred Meyer before returning to the campsite to go to bed (but not before watching more downloaded Netflix in the car; we’re not animals after all).

Campsite pond ducklings

2019-06-21 ALCAN Mendenhall ducklings.jpg

ALCAN Days 23 (22 June Saturday); Juneau

On Saturday, we visited the Alaska State Museum is great and we really enjoyed the Cruisin' the Fossil Coastline with art by Ray Troll (probably need to buy his funky geology/paleontology books like: Cruisin' the Fossil Freeway: An Epoch Tale of a Scientist and an Artist on the Ultimate 5,000-Mile Paleo Road Trip. It was raining, curtailing our desire to hike and explore outdoors. After getting frustrated about finding a place with a menu that would appease the girls AND let the non-21 years old folks in, we gave up and settled for McDonald's and caught a medicore Mindy Kaling movie: Late Show, at the local cinema. Still raining when we got out, so we headed went to the nearby Safeway coffee, Wi-Fi and power out of the rain in comfy chairs. It was somewhat crowed with a few homeless there as well (besides us but it may have been hard to tell). We ended the night by watching Supernatural in the Cheverse.