The Road Home : July 18-July 23, 2005
Journals
Lisa and I hit the road hard out of Tok on Monday the 18th, or should I say, the road hit us hard! As discussed in previous log entries from our trip up to Alaska, we planned to be taking the rougher roads on the way up, and then the easier, more direct route on the return trip. Turns out that the single worst stretch of highway that we have encountered so far is the main Alaska Highway between Tok, AK and Whitehorse, Yukon. When not in a construction zone, the road was rough with many frost heaves, gravel breaks, and potholes-all in moderate to heavy rain. While in the numerous construction zones, it was even worse. Aside from the wait to cross the one lane road in these construction zones, the conditions were pretty extreme due to the rain-I had to put her in 4x4 a couple of times because the mud was so slippery. Late in the day on Monday, we went through a really rough construction zone and lost one of our trailer tires. The trailer has two axles and four tires, so we didn't know that the tire was flat until we stopped for gas. "Flat" does not accurately describe the condition of this tire: it was more like half destroyed! The remains of the tire consisted of the sidewalls only on the rim-according to our estimate, we drove no more than 50 miles before discovering the flat. Fortunately, we had a good spare and I was able to change it out quickly. We drove only a couple more miles and spent the night at Kulane Lake, Yukon in a nice Provincial Park. On Tuesday, we broke camp and drove from Kulane Lake to Whitehorse, Yukon - a town we stayed in on our way north to Alaska. On the way north, we stayed at Takhini Hot Springs; on the way home we decided to try camping in the parking lot of WalMart. For those of you who may not be aware of this fact, WalMart allows people to camp in the parking lot of almost all of their stores for free. You've probably guessed by now that camping in the parking lot of a WalMart would not usually be our first choice, even though it is free. However, we've known about this phenomenon for a while and wanted to give it a try once; in addition, we needed to stock up on food, get a new tire, and do several other errands in Whitehorse. Camping at WalMart provided us with a good base to get our errands done. By our estimate, there were at least 40-50 rigs in the parking lot - everything from truck campers to the big diesel pushers. The funny thing is that many of these folks seem like they probably camp at WalMart all the time-got their deck chairs out, enjoying a nice cocktail, etc. We completed our errands on Tuesday evening and then enjoyed a nice swim at the recreation center in Whitehorse-the pools there are very nice and include a pretty good waterslide. Wednesday morning we headed out of Whitehorse and drove almost 300 miles into Watson Lake, Yukon-out last night in the "true north." The main attraction in Watson Lake is the "Signpost Forest"-there are over 54,000 signs posted in Watson Lake at the junction of the Alaska Highway and the Cambell Highway (alternate route to Dawson City, Yukon - we opted not to take this route on the trip north). Anyone can post a sign here, and there are a lots of them from places in Colorado or just about anywhere else. We camped in another nice provincial park on the lake just a couple miles outside town, mostly rainy while we were there. On Thursday morning, we drove out of Watson Lake towards Fort Nelson, BC. It is about a 325 mile drive, but we stopped about halfway to Fort Nelson at the Liard Hotsprings. Lisa and I both agreed that these springs were about the nicest we have visited so far - all natural pools with a variety of temperatures, and it was free to use them! Rainy here too, but no problem due to the warm waters. We made Fort Nelson at about 5pm, and since there were no good provincial parks in the area, we decided to stay at the Westend RV Park. The sites had some nice trees, and weren't packed in too tight so it was OK-some folks camping there for the summer were pretty friendly too. Friday morning we continued on down the Alaska Highway towards Prince George-we made it about 300 miles or so before stopping at Moberly Lake Provincial Park. Friday was our last day on the Alaska Highway: we are now on the other lower highways with about 200 miles left into Prince George. Moberly Lake was a another nice park, but it rained hard all night long. Saturday morning we broke camp and headed down to Prince George, BC. It was a pretty short driving day, about 200 miles, but we've made a lot of progress this week and need a break from the road. We found a nice RV Park near town with a heated pool so Lisa can do some swimming, and we did our shopping. On Sunday, we'll be driving east to Jasper, Alberta which is in the Mountain Time Zone. Sorry there are so few photos this week, but we've been moving pretty quickly, and there has been a lot of rain. Everyone is feeling pretty homesick at this point; however, we plan to spend a couple more days driving through the Canadian Rockies before crossing the US border near Glacier National Park. We'll spend a couple nights at Glacier, and then take about 3 driving days to get home. We are still on track to get back to the house on the 2nd or 3rd of August. Hope everyone is doing well-see you or talk to you soon.
Click any of the above photos to enlarge the image!