Honey, Guess What I Got For The Ford?

Saw this parked next to the Air Force Lodge today and had to have it.

The owner of the Lodge is a German ex-pat, with a Masters in Economics, and obviously even more skills than that would imply. He redid this bus, it’s street legal (in Yukon Territory), and the tallest vehicle in Canada. It’s got almost 600 square feet, two bedrooms up, one bath, kitchen, and den down. Before he added the second floor, the top end was 130 kph. Now it’s limited by aerodynamics (or lack thereof) to 95kph. And the windows match the windows in the Lodge.

He was interested in the new Explorer I'm driving, so I thought – Hey, I won’t have to worry about reservations for the rest of this trip, and it could be the second home I’ve always wanted. It'll even tow the Boxster.

Pat, you won’t need the space at Portobello any more. We’ll just park this puppy on Main Street in downtown Hendersonville. Or I could park it in Plaza Midwood and sell it for $200 per square foot.

Wonder if it will fit in the garage?

New Hazelton to Watson Lake

Hey, you wildlife lovers. We got some major ursa. Yes, bears, four in total. I passed four bears in various places alongside the Cassiar Highway this morning. None of them appeared too wary of the car, and one of them was close enough when I stopped that I could hear him chewing. He was still standing there, chewing, when I drove off. I almost thought I could see him wave at me in my rearview mirror. It’s kind of humbling to realize these guys are wild creatures in their own habitat, and I’m a visitor passing through. I also saw a beautiful grey fox. Crossed in front of me and turned to look when I stopped the car. But he didn’t wait around to have his picture taken.

Sorry, no moose - yet.

It’s not surprising the bears weren’t too wary of the car – they don’t get to see too many. The drive today was 507 miles, largely up the Cassiar to the Alaska Highway and into Watson Lake in Yukon Territory. Until I got to the last 30 miles of the Cassiar, I probably saw less than a dozen vehicles total, most of those trucks taking the Cassiar as a shortcut south. Then traffic picked up and I probably saw another dozen vehicles in the last 30 miles.

It was a beautiful drive. The Cassiar Highway largely follows a wide valley North to South, with snowcapped mountains to the East and West for most of the way. Along the valley are some pretty large rivers and lakes fed by the mountain ranges. The rivers right now are all running high, with the spring thaw. To top the day off, the weather today was perfect. Mostly sunny all day. 41 degrees when I left New Hazelton this morning, and in the low 60s this afternoon.

I got in to Watson Lake in the middle of the afternoon (yes, Mother, I did 507 miles by the middle of the afternoon – pretty good time, an early start, and I pretty much only stopped for bears and pictures). Watson Lake is in Yukon Territory and it’s on the Alaska Highway. Watson Lake is small – a few motels/cabins, some gas, and a restaurant or two. The tourist highlight of Watson Lake is the signpost forest (picture above). The signpost forest was started in 1942 when the US Army was first building the Alaska Highway through here. A homesick GI (Private Carl Lindley from Danville, Illinois if you care) put up a sign pointing to his hometown. Other workers did the same, and the idea stuck, kind of like this blog thing. Today, the signpost forest covers an area that’s probably a good city block. It's an Alaska Highway tradition. And, no, I did not have a Charlotte, Matthews, Pineville, Waxhaw, or Gastonia sign to put up. But I’m betting Private Carl Lindley from Danville, Illinois wishes he had rented space on the pole he used to put up his first sign.

I’m staying tonight in the “Air Force Lodge”. It’s actually a set of Air Force Barracks from the 40’s that was restored and moved from the airport to its current location. Nice simple super clean digs, shared bath, good value, and WiFi.

I discovered on the drive today that Sirius Channel 10 is all Springsteen and E-Street Band. Can you imagine? Can life get much better? Tomorrow I'm going to look for the Warren Zevon channel.

Tomorrow is the first full day on the Alaska Highway. My itinerary says Whitehorse is tomorrow’s stop, but I might try to go further.

Williams Lake to New Hazelton

First, thanks to everyone for your comments on the posts. Reading them makes me feel connected. And a special thanks to those who have used their creative abilities to create your comments. Thanks to Mark as well for sharing his song.

In response, here’s some poetry I’ll share. This, from the poet laureate of the North:

It's the great, big, broad land 'way up yonder,

It's the forests where silence has lease;

It's the beauty that thrills me with wonder,

It's the stillness that fills me with peace.
- Robert Service

I got an early start this morning (still on East Coast time) and got in 420 miles by the middle of the afternoon. It felt a little chillier this morning (low 50’s), was sunny most of the day, with some afternoon showers. A lot of the morning’s drive followed the Fraser River again, but when I got to Prince George, I cut west on the Yellowhead Highway, which runs to the coast.

The flora is changing – lots of birch and fir trees now. The nature of the little towns I’m going through is also changing. The businesses are a little more basic, and the buildings are more obviously designed for long, cold winters.

Stopped tonight in New Hazleton, which is really small – gas, grocery, movie rental, and a couple of motels. My motel, the Robber’s Roost, is simple but nice. There’s an Old Hazleton too, off the road a few miles, on the river. It’s got a two block “Historic District” and used to be an important frontier outpost. According to the motel owner, it’s got the best restaurant around, also on the river. The alternative looks like a couple of questionable Chinese places.

Hazleton is home to a couple of Native Canadian tribes. One of the things I learned while getting ready for this trip is that the Canadians refer to their Native populations as “First Nations” peoples. I’m surprised I’d never heard of this before, but it makes sense that they aren’t called Indians. It was us who screwed that one up. “First Nations” is a much more intuitive name.

Tomorrow, I go up the Cassiar Highway, and join the Alaska Highway in the Yukon. (Notice that the highways from here on are known by names). The Cassiar is a more remote and scenic stretch of highway than the portion of the Alcan I’m bypassing. The motel owner here said I should expect little, if any traffic – meaning I might go an hour without seeing a car. He also said to make sure I leave here with a full tank of gas. Next services are 8 hours up the road.

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Couple of comments on the photos (and no I can't figure out how to format them any better with this editor). One photo is taken from my motel room, and the mountain in the background is Mt. Rocher Deboule. For those who don't know French (for example, me) that means Rolling Stone Mountain. No, not those guys. It was named by the local miners who kept getting nailed by landslides. It was also the religious centerpoint of the First Nations Gitxsan tribe.

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The statue is of Jean Jacques Caux (known as Cataline), a legendary British Columbia backwoodsman buried near Hazelton. He was known for the brutal size of the loads he could carry, and for his ability to lead large mule trains into the gold mining areas. One source says that part of the legend is that he only changed his clothes once a year (I'm not making this up). I'm guessing he was a single guy.

Seattle to Williams Lake

Got in a lot of miles (398) today, and made it to Williams Lake late in the afternoon. Left Seattle (Lynnwood) at 52 degrees and cloudy. Crossed the border into Canada at Sumas. From there, the route followed the Fraser River and Fraser Canyon much of the way north. The Fraser is huge (largest river in British Columbia) and runs in a deep canyon for almost 200 miles before opening into the Fraser Valley then reaching the ocean at Vancouver. Where the valley restricts it in the canyon, the river has huge whirpools and rapids. Passed lots of rafting companies along the way.

I've learned already that Canadians are very fond of the outdoors and proud of their many natural resources.

But as I passed this sign along the way to Williams Lake, I realized that they can also be brutally honest about the potential nuisances associated with being outdoors.

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Had two really serendipitous events today.

The first came early today as I was leaving Seattle and playing with the buttons on the car radio. I realized that I have Sirius satellite radio in the car. I spent part of the day (and part of this evening at the Sirius website) figuring out what the 200 Sirius channels are. Actually, this is a mixed blessing. Satellite radio will be great to stay connected withe the world when I'm in the backroads of Alaska. But maybe it's not always good to be connected. There's something jarring about being able to listen to Howard Stern while looking for moose in the Alaska wilderness.

Before I describe the second event, I promise that I won't be wasting your time with what I have for dinner (or breakfast, or lunch) every day. But today was an exception. After I got to Williams Lake this evening, I drove through the small town checking things out and looking for a place to eat. Out of desparation I was about to head for a Denny's (of all things), when I saw the Laughing Loon Pub and Grille. At the Laughing Loon, I had one of the more memorable meals of my life. I had a table on the patio, surrounded by rhododenron in bloom, an appetizer of wasabi encrusted prawns with melon salsa, and then pork loin with rosemary and roasted local vegetables (beets, onions, carrot,et. al) with homemade cranberry relish. All of this with a half bottle of a really nice California Cabernet. Wow!!!

I didn't expect this trip to be much of a gourmet's delight, but this was a great meal. Cost was about the same as dinner at Mickey and Mooch.

If you're ever in Williams Lake, don't miss the Laughing Loon.

Itinerary

Here's what I'm thinking of for the itinerary. I know it should have been one of the first entries, but I've been trying to figure out how to get the Blogger editor to accept spreadsheet data. The answer is that it doesn't. So, rather than try to create a table in HTML, here's an image.

I've made reservations at a few of these (Seattle, Haines, Fairbanks, and Vancouver), but the only thing that's really cast in concrete is getting back to Seattle on Jun 18.

Day 1 - Seattle

Not much exciting today. USAIR left Charlotte on time at 6:00 pm, and got into Seattle on time at 9:00 Pacific time. Luggage arrived, a Ford Explorer (w/6000 miles) was waiting, and I’m safely ensconced in a Hampton Inn.

Total miles today: 25

Hope to get up and get going early tomorrow. The time change will help. Goal is to get to Williams Lake, BC, in about 270 miles.

I wonder if I’ll be able to find a Starbucks around here.

Introduction

I’ve always called it a life list – things I want to do, see, achieve, or get done in this life. More recently, I’ve seen it referred to as the “1,000 things to do (see, go to, etc.) before you die.” Most recently, I’ve seen it called the “Bucket List”, and it’s something created by terminally ill men (e.g. Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman) in a cancer ward.


I prefer my term.


There’s been an item on my life list for some time related to driving to Alaska. For a long time, it meant driving a Miata to Alaska. For a while, it meant riding a motorcycle to Alaska, but for the most part the list item was associated with a Miata For a long time the Miata being considered was my old blue one, and the road trip was from Charlotte, up the Alaska Highway, and back.


The road trip has morphed. I don’t have the Miata any longer, and now feel like I’d like to have something a little more substantial under me during the drive anyway. Maybe it’s the advancing years or something.


So I've wrestled a lot with what vehicle to take on the trip. I thought about buying a pickup with camper top for the trip, selling it in Anchorage, and flying back. I considered driving one of my current cars, but the Q45 has 135K miles on it, and the Boxster… well, it would be a blast, but 5000 miles of frost heaves and unpaved roads with my car – not on this life list.

Then the answer came to me – drive someone else’s car.

So, I’m leaving on Wednesday, flying to Seattle, picking up one of Hertz’ finest SUV’s, and spending the next three weeks driving to Alaska and back.


I also wrestled a lot with the itinerary. First off, it’s not fixed, although I’ve made reservations for some of the nights. I thought about taking the ferry (Alaska Marine Highway) up the inside passage, but decided to put that off for another trip, maybe a cruise. I put off a side trip to the Canadian Rockies for later as well. After a lot of planning I took Anchorage ("just another big city") off the list. As of now, the whole Kenai peninsula (Homer, Seward , etc) will have to wait.



And although it was calling to me, taking the 3 day Alaska Marine Highway Ferry out the Aleutian chain to Dutch Harbor (yes, that's THE Dutch Harbor from "The Deadliest Catch" fame) wouldn’t work. That ferry only goes twice a month, and there’s only a 6 hour turnaround in Dutch Harbor. Miss that ferry and you spend a couple of weeks in Dutch Harbor where there's only one bar.


So, the current itinerary starts and ends in Seattle. In northern British Columbia, I’ve decided to cut over to the Cassiar Highway – supposedly even more remote and scenic than the Alaska Highway, as well as shorter by several hundred miles. The Cassiar meets up with the Alaska Highway in Watson Lake, B.C. From there, it’s up the Alaska Highway to Haines Junction, where I’ll cut down to Haines for a few days. Haines is a small, scenic town on the Inside Passage where a possible bush pilot trip into the nearby mountains, and a glacier landing, awaits. From Haines, it’s back up to the Alaska Highway, and a day and night backpacking in the Kluane National Forest. Then, up to the end of the Alaska Highway in Fairbanks. From Fairbanks, back down the Alcan for a few hours , then a loop up to Dawson City. The loop rejoins the Alcan which I’ll follow down to the start/finish of the highway in British Columbia. Finally, I’ll cut over to Vancouver, to finish the trip in a city I’ve never visited.


Anyway, that’s the plan. But plans are subject to change.