It’s the Journey, Not
the Destination…
We’ve done
lots of variations of Alaskan trips—driven partway (via truck, via motorhome,
via motorhome-pulling-boat), ferried the other parts, flown and rented cars,
and have even flown in to where our only mode of transportation was a
bicycle. This year we thought we should
try driving the entire way to our destination, exploring parts of the Alcan
Highway that we had not driven before.
Our destination: Lake Louise,
Alaska. This involved 2,500 miles both
ways, over 5,000 miles total with added side trips. As usual when you have expectations with
anything in life, the expected adventures and successes were not to be had and
the unexpected oddities provided fulfillment that we could not have imagined.
Lake Louise, Alaska-bound!
We knew
going in that the journey part (the driving) would be the bulk of this
vacation, so it’s not like we were BLIND TO THE FACT THAT WE’D BE DRIVING OUR
BRAINS OUT…it just kinda became very apparent as we did our 15 to 16-hour days
(5 days going up and then 4 days coming back) that it was a type of travel we
were glad we did ONCE—saw beautiful things but nothing beautiful enough to make
us want to pedal-to-the-metal like that again.
Tues., 6/25/13
We hopped up
out of bed and were on the road by 3:00 a.m. in Salem in order to try and catch
Seattle traffic at a decent time. We
actually did pretty well and managed to get through Seattle without too many
problems…up to the Abbotsford border crossing (about a 20-minute wait, not too
bad), then onward to Prince George, B.C.—arriving there at about 5:00 p.m. So, if you’re big into math, we had already
driven 14 hours and naturally thought we should stay in Prince George. The problem was that the way we had to
traverse the town in order to head towards the road we needed to be on next,
took us through the worst part of town—the motel choices we were eyeballing
felt like Skid Row—not only uninviting, but making you feel like you didn’t
want to stop and idle anywhere for too long.
Chris was feeling optimistic that we’d have some choices in “the next
town” so we just kept right on outta ol’ PG.
Optimism
waned as we found it hard to find any place to stay—many places were boarded up
(out of business) and it got to be a joke for us to read signs about what was
ahead—makes you rather cynical about “great food ahead” when you drive, and
drive, and drive, and…nothing.
So…200 more kilometers
(roughly 2 hours) of nothing and we were ready to take anything. And that we did—in McKenzie Junction. You know you’re in trouble when the first
words out of the keeper’s mouth is something to the effect of, “Don’t drink or
use the water…” Evidently, the water was
mainly for flushing the toilet, as we learned later. We were glad to see there weren’t any fleas or
bugs in the bed as the rest of the place gave us the impression that not much
was tended to (bad carpet with holes in it, musty-smelling, walls peeling,
toilet not flushing, different colors of paint like they used whatever they
had—main room was dark fucia purple and the bathroom was lime green—quite
attractive--NOT!)…When I commented that the place needed a good paint job,
Chris said, “What this place needs is a book of matches!” He then proceeded to use the bathroom which
in turn used US—we had to use the waste basket to flush it as it was clearly
inoperable.
Our big
surprise (unexpected cool thing) at this stay was our encounter with the “pet”
fox who greeted us. The first one I saw
resembled a pipe-cleaner on steroids, coming our way as though he owned the
place, and all I could say was, “What is THAT?” to which Chris turned, looked,
looked again, looked harder, then said, “I think it’s a FOX!” He quickly discovered they were tame and quite
accustomed to begging off of any road travelers stupid enough to have to stop there. Chris found some of our snacks to feed them
and we filmed the experience. Their
favorite appeared to be pepperoni; the beef jerky got mixed reviews—they kind
of rolled that around their mouth several times, chewed, gulped…then looked at
us like, “You got any more of that pepperoni?”
Of course,
Murphy’s Law…I was armed with mosquito repellant for Alaska but forgot to arm
myself at this place—and got nailed right off of the bat. Welts the size of quarters formed under my
chin and at the back of my neck (Chris said my skin was like petting bubble
wrap). Don’t worry. I didn’t get nailed like THAT again—not
messing around anymore!
All this,
and we did manage to get a good night’s sleep—whew!
Wed.,
6/26/13
On the road
again early for our next 14 hours of driving…and we came to a place called
Buffalo Inn. Again, we got the water
speech—water’s orange, can’t drink or use for domestic purposes. And once again we had to use the garbage can
to flush the toilet. Hmmmm. Starting to see a pattern here.
Well, every
experience is certainly a learning experience and this was not without its
share of life’s lessons. For example,
this is where we learned the great cleaning art of mopping the carpet. You did not just read a typo, no. The way they cleaned the carpets in this
place was to enlist a typical string-style industrial mop and bucket to do the
task. Chris and I stared at this for a
while and then immediately looked for the hidden cameras…”This is a joke,
right? They must just want our reaction
to this absurdity!”
Our barbeque
chicken and French fries with gravy meal about cured us—of hunger, and of ever
eating again. We started to play cards
(Chinese Cribbage) and then Chris got to chatting with a Grizzly Adams kind of character
who was long-winded and covered just about every topic imaginable—including
alien warships and such. We finally got
ourselves up to our room which kind of reminded us of being in a Batman
movie—the floors were all warbled and slanted—made us seasick to walk across
them! The neat thing that happened
here—a tropical downpour that lasted 8 hours (as opposed to most downpours that
last about 20 minutes)—it was certainly nice to go to sleep by, but didn’t give
us a sense of security in terms of flood conditions out there.
Thurs.,
6/27/13
Well, we
drove through quite a bit of rain—and it seemed a good time to reflect on the
differences we observed on this trip so far--things Canadian vs. American:
1.
Good things to say about Canada:
a.
The metric system is far superior, hands down.
b.
“Washroom” is definitely more descriptive than
“bathroom” or “restroom”.
c.
Chips on credit cards make them more secure—made
our lives a little difficult at times because gas stations and other places
didn’t appear to accept our cards, but we still like the idea of that level of
security!
d.
Canadians are definitely a more laid back and
calmer people overall.
e.
Litter buckets are everywhere and there is very
little litter on the highway—it’s almost non-existent! This coupled with the threatening signs
($2,000 fine for littering) keeps things cleaner overall on the roads.
f.
Highways have safety “nets” for wildlife—cleared
sides so that it’s easy to see animals as they’re coming onto the road.
g.
Highways are in better shape than Oregon’s.
h.
RCMP is federal and covers ALL of Canada—gets
rid of all of the conflicting governments (state, county, city, etc.).
2.
The not-so-good things to say about Canada:
a.
There’s a 10-12% tax on everything.
b.
Gas prices are quite a bit higher.
c.
Motels are highly priced and you don’t get much
for it—that must be why so many people seem to RV in this country.
d.
Everything seems to be worn out, including their
rather crude/basic rest stops (at least it does have a lot of them—Alaska has
about none—you are on your own).
e.
Lots of misleading signs we came across (where
we never found what they went to):
i.
Home cooking ahead
ii.
Subway sandwiches ahead
iii.
Nice motel ahead
iv.
Comfortable (needs definition—like, we have a bed
in the room)
v.
Clean (needs definition—like, you won’t find
moldy cheese scattered about the floors or anything)
We stopped
for lunch at a tired-looking spot in the middle of some beautiful northern B.C.
country. The woman who waited on us was
pleasant and talked to us about politics which was interesting. She mentioned that she had 7 kids and then
launched into topics quite emotionally about the environment and how everything
bad that’s happening is due to over-population.
Chris pointed out that she may not have an exact soap box to stand on
with that particular point and her smile got a little less friendly. Thanks, Chris. Hope she didn’t poison our food.
Once back on
the road, we saw bear and buffalo—BIG buffalo!—and finally made it into Watson
Lake, B.C., where we had a credit card adventure at our next sleeping place,
“Andrea’s Hotel”. Chris ended up in a
smashing good mood after spending time on a pay phone straightening out the
credit card biz, and in the meantime, I got cozy with the room key that had a
secret special way to get us into our room.
I discovered that I couldn’t get back in with the 2nd load of
stuff from the car (already had the cameras and equipment in the room), so I
was not in the mood to give up. It took
3 people trying to help me and finally they gave me a pass key and even THAT
had its own special instructions (“Okay, turn and pull to the right twice, then
pull/turn as you turn it left, then the door will open…”). Andrea’s is a 2-star motel at a 5-star price
($132). The shower was the best so far
of our trip to which Chris said, “Not much to compare it to…the bar was set
pretty low!”
We did have
some fun in Watson Lake—took in a show at a Northern Lights center on Aurora
Borealis—neat! Our sleep wasn’t the
best—couldn’t close the window and there was quite a bit of road noise/rowdy
noise to “lull” us.
Fri.,
6/23/13
On up to the
Yukon and our next stop in the town of Teslin—about 200 km before Whitehorse—to
pick up some snacks. We met up with a
friendly Native American named Joey Smarch who needed a ride to Whitehorse, so
we packed him into our car and headed on down the road. What a boon that was—Joey turned out to be
quite the entertaining travel guide and we appreciated his company very much,
even though we never were quite sure why he needed a ride exactly—his driver’s
license had expired, he had a meeting, he had a girlfriend (I’m thinkin’—“Bingo
that one!”). Regardless, he regaled us
with various as sundry items:
·
His grandfather built the roads we were
travelling
·
He has a grandmother, Virginia Smarch, had a big
part of the book “Part of Land, Part of Water” pertaining to Yukon Indians and
various remedies—very intriguing, like using devil’s club to cure certain
illnesses…
·
After comparing notes, we realized that our
Buffalo Inn blowhard guy had met and given Joey a ride as well—“Did he talk
about alien warships?”—“Yah! He DID go
on about that!” and we all had a laugh about it
·
He has a pet wolf
·
He doesn’t like eating porcupine (“tastes like
burnt hair to me”)
·
He found an organic meteor on Tagus Lake and
intends to keep it (has been approached to sell it but doesn’t ever want to)
·
There are “Mammoth Mountains” on the way to
Whitehorse that you can miss if the sun’s not quite right (he had us stop and
pointed them out to us—and we of course took pictures)
·
If you’re camping and want the bears to avoid
you, put mothballs all around your sleeping bag—they’ll repel bugs and bears
One of our
favorite moments with Joey was after he had mentioned that it was the “worst
year ever for mosquitoes”—this was to be the first of many times we heard this
from Canada and into Alaska—thrilling news for me, let me tell you! I had the feeling that Joey was tender
towards the mosquito spirit as he saw me trying to smack one that got into the
car—“You know, if you just roll the window down, the mosquito will simply fly
away”—and I figured he would probably not approve of all of the poisonous
concoctions I had in my arsenal for these winged wonders. Anyway, after he had detailed all of the
amazing home remedies for all kinds of things from arthritis to cancer, I just
had to ask him: “Joey, what exactly do
you folks do to repel mosquitos?”
Without hesitation, he emphatically stated, “Off!” “We use Off!”
He then proceeded to tell me about a “badge” that one of the elders uses
and swears by it (made by Off!). He
mentioned that we could find one of these at Walmart or Canadian Tire in
Whitehorse. If he hadn’t already made
his ride with us worth it with all the stories, he DEFINITELY got gold stars in
my book for this recommendation. The
badge turned out to be my saving grace for the remainder of our travels through
mosquito-infested beauty.
We arrived
at Whitehorse, dropped Joey off, then decided it was too busy and hectic for us
there and journeyed on up the road (after I purchased an Off! badge at Canadian
Tire of course!) and ended up at a place called Talbot Arm across from the
beautiful Kluane Lake. On the way we
stopped and watched a HUGE grizzly bear, right by the side of the road (about 2
km away from the motel). When we checked
in, a lively young motel staff said to us, “I guess I shouldn’t do my jog
tonight” when we told her of our bear siting.
No duh!!
Sat.,
6/29/13
Okay, hands
down, Talbot Arm gets high marks in our book—best shower by far (5
stars!). We slept really well (quiet)
and felt refreshed and ready to go.
Our travels
took us over the bumpy Alcan, across the border and into Alaska. We met a former Oregon woman at the Tok,
Alaska visitor center who said the rest of her family went back to Oregon but
she’s never going back—she was informative and fun to talk to. West of Tok, Alaska, we saw 5 moose total (1
baby, 3 cows and 1 bull)—way neat!—and a pair of nesting swans.
We arrived
in Glenallen and decided it would not be the best place to stay (the motel was
right smack in the middle of construction/dust/noise and the B&B was
booked) so Chris called the Lake Louise Lodge (where we had reservations for
Sunday through Thursday) and they actually had a cabin available for the night,
so we took it. Since their restaurant
was closing soon there, we went ahead and bought food to “picnic” with on the
way. We arrived at the lodge at 9:00
p.m., got unloaded, played cards and enjoyed a couple of drinks with a nice
view of the lake (it’s a big one!).
Sun.,
6/30/13
We were glad
to have a place to crash and Chris slept fine, but it was kind of a rough night
for me—for some reason, the combination of the noise of the generator (which
happened to be right by this particular cabin), the endless light at night, and
a mosquito that seemed out to get me (buzzing in my ear—too bad I can’t run
that Off! badge all night!) all made it difficult for me to even doze.
We got
dressed, had coffee (yes!), breakfast, and then took a drive. Our room—upgrade from a cabin for sure!—was
to be ready at 2:00 p.m. Since we had
cell reception, I made a couple of calls to family, and then we stopped by the
Basin Liquor store to get Chris some O’Douls where we had one of those
unexpected surprises in the form of a 100% Norwegian (this is how she
introduces herself) named Bonnie Wilsi.
She’s a retired teacher in the area and about the most interesting/funny
person you’d ever want to meet. She had
no problem flipping Chris crap and he had no problem taking it and joking right
back with her—it was really fun (the most fun I’ve ever had in a liquor store,
I can honestly say!).
Back at the
Lodge, checked into our room (really nice), had dinner, and crashed for our
early morning (Chris had a license that began at 5:00 a.m., Monday, so he
wanted to be up in time to be ON the lake by 5:00).
Mon.,
7/1/13
When Early Gets Even Earlier…
So Chris,
anxious to get out fishing for those famous lake trout, hops us out of bed
saying “It’s 4:10—we need to get goin’!”
I’m thinking, “Wow, feels like we just barely got to sleep!” but
nevertheless rushed with him to get all the preparations and gear and get onto
the boat. We got out onto the lake and
Chris was getting ready to get his lines in the water, when I happened to look
at my watch and was rather surprised.
“Did my watch stop?” I ask. “My
watch says 3:30!” Chris then looked at
his watch. Oh. His does too.
I’m thinking—hmmm…was it the time difference? No, that didn’t make sense. Then Chris realized he had seen “4:10” on his
watch when really it was “2:20”!!!!!
Wonderful! Had to go to shore and
wait to be legal…then got back out on the lake.
Once back
out, we saw a lake loon and a beaver but no lake trout. It was pretty nippy out there but that’s good
for the fish prospects. Once it warmed
up (after about 4 hours), we came back, did a drive-about, played cards,
ate…then back out again in the evening.
We were bundled up and it was cold…still no lake trout once again.
Tue.,
7/2/13
After the
fishing luck of yesterday, and the fact that the weather looked a little
skeptical, we decided to drive to Valdez after breakfast. Saw some beautiful sights—spectacular
mountains and waterfalls, and Chris was able to cast about in pretty streams
(no fish to speak of, but pretty!).
Stopped at a log cabin store (Chris and I were quite taken with the craftsmanship),
then studied glaciers close to the road (fun!).
Once back,
Chris talked to the lodge folks and they gave him a big POW lure to try
tomorrow (from a veteran who had passed but did a lot of fishing on Lake
Louise), so lake trout, here we come!
Wed.,
7/3/13
Got up at
4:00 and we were out on the lake by 4:30.
As I’m gathering stuff up and asking Chris “Did ya get…” this/that,
etc., he added “AND our rain gear!” which made me go—“Uh-oh”. Yep—raindrops falling and about 3 inches of
water under my feet as I began steering the boat. Great.
I started the morning with wet feet, which proceeded to get really cold. I was bundled up (3 layers plus life vest plus
coat plus rain coat on top, warm hat plus rain hat over that, 2 pairs of socks
(now wet!), 1 pair of gloves (soon wet), long underwear plus jeans (getting wet
with rain). I was mostly warm except for
the feet, hands, legs—aghghgh! About
8:00 a.m., we had no lake trout and I was soooo ready to to come in and get
warm (no feeling in my feet and hands by then), then around 8:15 as we were
heading into the lodge to get docked, and get back in time for breakfast,
POW! Chris caught his lake trout—quite
the excitement! Took pictures and I have
to admit—pretty fish! Of course, you
throw these guys back in, because they don’t taste worth a darn—not for
keeping!
I took a
long hot shower, then it still took most of the morning to get the feeling back
in my fingers and toes, which I finally did—whew! Chris the macho man says, “I don’t get it,
hon—it really wasn’t that cold out there!”
I was too happy to be warm again to hit him.
After
breakfast, we were off to IGA in Glenallen for some travel snacks, hit the
library, made our Scrabble plays, and then went back to the liquor store—not
for the liquor, but to say goodbye to Bonnie, as we would be leaving the lodge
early the next morning.
Chris was
now on a mission/quest to catch a grayling in streams and lakes, so he found
some spots (one a beautiful lake right in front of a breath-taking glacier),
but no grayling. He got some tips from a
Russian native on the fish and realized he probably needed more equipment than he
had with him (waders, boat) to catch any of those graylings. We drove, listened to our book on CD, and got
back for supper, clean-up and packing.
Thurs,
7/4/13
Up at 5:00
a.m. and we left right after breakfast.
An absolutely beautiful day—we went back through customs from Alaska to
Canada (Yukon) and hit the rough roads on the way back to Talbot Arm in
Destination Bay Yukon (we loved that spot near Kluane Lake so much, mainly
because the showers and toilets worked, we decided to make that our first night
back on the road). The roads are victims
of perma-frost damage—lots of warbles and “drunken trees”, so you really can’t
do a decent job with the cruise control—keeps you on your toes! But we had our audio book to keep us company,
so it wasn’t too bad. No critters to
report.
Arrived in
Talbot Arm in time to eat dinner, play some cards and get to bed—slept really
well. Chris pursued a new
hobby—documenting all of the motorcycle travelers that pack up and do tours in
both Canada/Yukon and Alaska. One couple
motorcycled all the way from Kansas and were celebrating their 80th
birthdays doing this trip!! Amazing, the
people you meet and adventurers you run across out there on the road.
Fri.,
7/5/13
Made it from
Kluane Lake to Dease Lake on the Cassiar highway, a road we wanted to explore
on the way back, and weren’t disappointed once we made it past the burnt
part. We had a bit of a time delay as
the gas-fill we were to do at the junction, was out of power, and we ended up
driving back to Watson Lake again to get what turned out to be the
gas-filling-experience-from-hell.
Everyone had gone to Watson Lake like us and the lines were long. Then the clerk was outmatched by so much
business and she nearly had a meltdown.
We felt lucky to get out of there within an hour.
Once out of
there, and onto the Cassiar highway, we began to have a more wilderness
experience once more. We had moose cross
right in front of us, but couldn’t get a good shot of them… Then we came across a fox with a squirrel
kill—we were starting to think we had some kind of “fox karma” this trip!
The first
part of the Cassiar highway that we drove (north to south), was full of burnt
forests and was definitely mosquito paradise which Chris found out when he
stopped to pick up an abandoned gas can (in case we needed it—such a sucker for
the free stuff, ya know?)—wow! Mr.
I-don’t-get-bothered-by-mosquitoes was instantly attacked out there, swatting
like mad. I was so amazed, that I filmed
it from inside the car—it was a rare siting for me, seeing him battle those
pests. It was the price he had to pay
for that free can but then he proceeded to bring about 20 mosquitoes into the
car WITH him—I smacked about 5 on his arm, and then was swatting and smacking
like crazy to take care of the others.
Needless to say, I was beginning to wonder about this road we had
decided to venture onto…
A Word about Stupid Smart Phone--The
Adventurer’s Buzz Kill…
We do not
own a smart phone yet—we have stubbornly resisted due to financial reasons and
the fact that neither Chris nor I are taken with spending much time on the
phone to begin with. Technology has made
lives safer, I do believe—GPS and smart phones can get you out of all kinds of
jams when you’re lost. But here’s the
problem in our household: Chris likes to
get lost as part of his adventure, actually.
The thought of having something track him and take away the thrill of
finding his way back all on his own resources, totally deflates his sense of
fun. I understand that part of him, but
here’s the thing I was thinking as we’re travelling on a road where we saw
absolutely NO traffic, getting later into the evening, with about 200 kms to
the next town (our destination, Dease Lake) where we weren’t sure whether we
had a place or not to sleep, hitting potholes that could have blown a tire
easily in mosquito-infested, grizzly-bear occupied country: “We’re so dumb not to have a smart phone!”
Well, no
tires blew and we finally got to Dease Lake at midnight. They had rooms—and nice comfortable beds—yes! AND it was QUIET…we slept great.
Sat.,
7/6/13
Started out
from Dease Lake about 9:00 a.m. to enjoy some more of the Cassiar highway—did
some road shot stuff, picture-taking with us driving, etc., then came across a
big black bear. Chris hopped out and
filmed it and got way too close for my comfort—scared me to death for him (as
of course I’m sitting in the car). I’m
happy to report that he made it back with all of his limbs. The Cassiar highway was definitely worth
it—the traffic is light, the scenery is beautiful, and the road is in pretty
good shape. But it was sensory overload
by the time we got to the end of it.
We’re ready to head home now—in a big push kind of way. Gassed up in New Hazleton, got snacks,
stopped for lunch—we were looking for a restaurant that was recommended to us
that we either couldn’t find or passed and ended up at a mining camp. She had no menus and asked if she could make
us a burger and a salad—we said sure and they hit the spot! Fortified ourselves with coffee in
Vandervoort and made it into Prince George and the Bon Voyage Motel—our beset
one yet at the lowest price yet!!
Sun.,
7/7/13
Long day
today—started out at 6:30 a.m., grabbed a quick breakfast at McDonald’s 2 hours
later, then onto Hope for lunch by 2:00.
We had some incredible sheep filming opportunities between Cache Creek
and Hope—saw both Dahl sheep on a ridge above us, and then Stone sheep right by
the side of the road! So that was fun,
and we took time to enjoy that before pushing on towards Hope. Wow, what a disappointment Hope was for
us—this was the same town we spent time in filming in 2010 as the “quaint
little town”—it was absolutely crawling with people and the little place we ate
at that we were so impressed with had shut down as well, so we ended up eating
at the Dairy Queen (oh well—some places you can’t go back to—there’s that
expectation thing again).
Got to the
border by 4:00 with a “20-minute delay” only we ended up doing that thing where
you get in the line that looks the fastest, then it halts and doesn’t move…more
like a 40-minutes delay. We gassed up
once in the States, then got to I-5 by 5:30.
About 70
miles north of Seattle, there was a huge traffic jam—I-5 was completely
stopped. Chris noticed a bunch of people
getting off on the next exit so he followed the “herd”—and dodged a
bullet! They led us to 99N (old
highway)—a country road that took us south far enough down to get past the
clog—whew!! Back on I-5 & Seattle
(it was its usual harrowing experience for us, but we got ‘er done)…on down to
Portland, then Salem.
We figured that we’d done about an 800-mile day
today. And we figured that it was a
great trip that we did…great to do…ONCE.
