I Survived the Alaska Highway

Mile 7541. Hi Country RV Park in Whitehorse, YT (again).

The last blog was written outside on a beautiful sunny warm evening in Tok, AK. The next morning I awoke to rain and the smell of smoke, both of which put me in a foul mood, irritated by everything and quick to cry. There’s nothing worse than getting the trailer untethered from services and hooked up to the truck on a cold, rainy morning. Smoke was just icing on the cake. Later that morning driving through pouring rain and on roads bad enough to shake fillings loose, we crossed into Canada (Yukon) and drove through one of the fire areas from a few weeks ago. 

By the end of the day I’m fine because the weather cleared and we found ourselves at one of the most scenic campgrounds yet on this trip, one situated in the middle of nowhere on the shores of Kluane Lake on the outskirts of Kluane National Park. A range of mountains lies on the east side of the lake. Suddenly I’m grateful to witness all this beauty. It’s a feeling I’ve experienced many times on this trip and always it rights whatever is wrong with the day. 

There was no cell service or WiFi at this campground so for a brief period of time we did not exist. Cash only and trash we generated had to be hauled out. Of all the campgrounds visited in grizzly bear country this one had the most recent sighting with one walking down their driveway just a few days prior making bear spray a requirement even for a trip to the bathroom. But we’re in good hands. The owner’s patrol the grounds in a quad runner with a “Bear Patrol” sign hanging on the front bumper and a “Beer Patrol” sign hanging on the back. There’s evidence throughout of the owner’s sense of humor and love of their property. 

The following day we head back to Alaska, to Haines. Since Fairbanks we’ve been working our way west, stopping at Denali and then making three trips out to the coast on long “fingers” (Homer, Valdez, and now Haines). The road you drive out is the road you drive back except in the case of Haines where there’s the option of a ferry to Skagway, but the ferry was never our intent and just as well because a few days ago the Alaska ferry workers went on strike for the first time in 40 years stranding travelers all along the Marine Highway. It’s all anyone is talking about.

The drive back to Alaska is interesting – from the Yukon we drive through British Columbia and then make another border crossing and time zone change (lose an hour). Glaciers continue to line the highway. 

The day we leave Haines we do the reverse – Alaska, across the border to British Columbia (lose an hour) finally ending up back in the Yukon. These inspection points are tiny and isolated and have very little, if any, coverage, so the clocks don’t update right away. Sometimes cell coverage is a blip in time often leaving us to wonder what time it actually is. Mark and I start quizzing each other before each border crossing because it’s confusing. When were you last in Canada/the US? What did you buy on your last visit to Canada/the US? Do they want to know this for our longer visit or the less than 24 hour visit that we’re completing as we cross the border? Where did you buy that lettuce? How long do you plan on being here? A little later in our itinerary we have a similar crossing. 

The morning we set out for Haines I started calling campgrounds, concerned the ferry strike would back people up in town and we’d find ourselves turning around and heading back inland due to lack of availability. The SE Alaska State fair hosted by Haines, which we were unaware of at the time, was a bigger issue. But we took a risk and made the drive with a bunch of no’s and only one maybe in our pocket. Small town hospitality and karma saved us; a campground on the harbor gracious enough to let us stop in temporarily to dump (after two nights of boondocking) had a last minute cancellation turning our dump stop into home for two nights. The view (main image above and image below) was as spectacular as Kluane Lake.

Haines is another last minute addition to the itinerary, recommended by Mark’s niece when we were in Bend. It’s a popular destination for locals and the gateway to The Alaska Highway for Inside Passage travelers. It’s the smallest of the three coastal towns, but no less stunning in its scenery, sandwiched between Chilkoot and Chilkat State Parks. Way back when, the Chilkoot and Chilkat Indians met and traded with Russian and American ships at the end of the peninsula. Later the first permanent Army post in the territory (Fort Seward) was established and then populated in 1904 with troops from Camp Skagway. Fishing and gold mining were the initial industries in this area. More recently it’s become a popular backdrop for producers being the location of the “Gold Rush Alaska” reality show and the backdrop for the movie “White Fang”. Haines also has a Bald Eagle Preserve, 48,000-acres established in 1982 attracting 3,500 bald eagles from mid-October to December. What impresses us most though is Haines laid-back lifestyle and big small-town friendliness. 

Our first night in town we drive out to Chilkoot lake and river. Salmon were spawning and the river was littered with fisherman (and women). Sea lions had swum miles and miles to partake as well. An eagle perched in the trees above. A few hours earlier a grizzly bear cub had made an appearance. 

By far and away the highlight of the visit was the State Fair. It was postage stamp sized compared to the large fair we have at home, but that’s one of the things we loved about it. We could see and participate in everything in half a day as opposed to our fair which requires multiple trips and just overwhelms the senses. Small town feeling with a mixture of out-of-towners (from Alaska and beyond) and locals, many of whom knew each other, added to the charm. The owner of our campground competed in one of the logging contests as did campground neighbors from Whitehorse that Mark had met the night before. We walked to the fairgrounds following a shortcut through a small patch of woods. A mountain of unlocked bicycles sat next to the entrance. Basic, but wholesome and fun kids activities like a rock climbing wall, horizontal bungee jumping race, and a Fisherman’s Rodeo with events like net mending and gear baiting contests and survival suit and rain gear races where donning the appropriate gear is part of the competition. Delicious, unfried food. Alcohol confined to beer and wine gardens which kept the inebriation level down. Ozomatli, an LA-based grammy winning group played one night as did the winner of the fiddle contest. Saturday morning, before the fair opened, everyone lined Main Street for the 51st annual Grand Parade. 

The best part of the fair, and something we’d never see at home, was the Logging Show. Jack and Jill Handbucking where a couple, often husband and wife, saw through a log with a two-man saw; Log Rolling; Large and Small Saw Powerbucking where contestants, both men and women, saw through 4 foot diameter logs; and the best, Obstacle Bucking, where competitors with running chainsaws walk up a long 10” diameter log protruding from the ground at a 30 degree angle. Gusts of wind that day made it even more challenging as the further out you were the more unstable the log became making balance an important skill in winning. If you reach the tip, you must saw, from both sides, a pie off the end of the log. Only if you return to the log base does your time count. The only person completing this challenge was a young man who decided the best approach was an unconventional one. Also Ax Throwing, which we missed. What a treat to be in town for this wonderful fair and no doubt something we’ll talk about for years to come.

I should add that an hour after our return from the fair it started pouring rain and continued to do so, fueled by wind gusts, all through the night.

Our journey on The Alaska Highway was not continuous. We broke it up traveling various other highways in between such as the Klondike. So while we reached the official “end point” on July 5th and have a photo and certificate marking that accomplishment, we hadn’t at that point traveled all the miles there were to travel. Our return to Whitehorse on July 28th marked our official completion of The Alaska Highway.