Mastering Alaska

We have come to the conclusion that Alaska is just not an easy place to be. My main goal for the Alaska trip was to see Mt McKinley. This is something that only about 20% of the visitors ever get to do. Partly because it makes its own weather by being so tall and partly because most people only have 1 day to get a shot at seeing it. To help increase the odds we scheduled 5 days in the park 2 days on the road to get there where there were viewpoints and 3 days in Fairbanks where you can see it from the university viewpoint 125 miles away. It was sunny all along the road from Anchorage to Denali, but the mountain was creating a cloud above 7000' so we did not get to see it on the way. Once we arrived in Denali National Park it started raining. And it rained for 4 days. The forecast was for at least 3 more days of rain so hope of seeing the big one was slipping away. BUT !! A miracle!! On the 5th day there was no rain and there were a few breaks of sun. These are known as sun events in Alaska. Only I was determined enough to drive to the visitors center and book a bus trip into the park. This is a $40, 8 hour, 66 mile trip on a school bus with 40 of your closest friends. It is also the only way to get into the park. They keep cars out to keep it pristine. Finally I was rewarded by what the driver called "the best day for viewing the mountain all year".

So now on we went to Fairbanks. The weather was clear and we had several more views of the mountain along the road. We also got a good view of it along with the entire Alaska Range from the viewpoint of the museum at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.

While in Fairbanks we made a stop at the Ford dealer where the truck had been repaired and got one more part installed, the coolant checked and the oil changed. We were good to go but still apprehensive. We also got to do some riding for the first time in a week. We went to see the Trans-Alaska Pipeline north of town and got lost on the way. We rode about 40 miles of dirt road that at times was little more than a cow path only to hit a dead end and have to ride halfway back to find the real route and some pavement. We finally made it and the site was very interesting.

Now if you have been following our travels you are going to find this next statement unbelievable. Our next stop was in TOK !!! That is only because it is the only way to get in and out of Alaska on the highway. We were warmly greeted by the staff at the RV Park like we were long lost friends. While it was nice to see them and did feel like we had come home we were out of there early the next morning. We drove back over the same road we had taken to get to Alaska and were held up briefly (1 hour) getting across the border. Seems like everyone wanted to get out before winter started in September. The seasons are Sept – May, winter. June, spring. July, summer. August, fall.

Our next stop was a new place in the Yukon Territory. Watson Lake. There is a Signpost Forest there where people from all over the world have posted signs about themselves, or from their hometown.

About 55,000 of them. We had a sign with our names on it made in the Redwood area of California that we decided to add to the collection. Since Watson Lake is smaller than Tok we only planned to stay one night.

Did I say planned? My mistake. Next morning, about 30 miles out, our travel partners radioed to say they had an engine light on and no power on upgrades. YES Virginia, truck trouble again. They contacted a tow truck while we pulled our rig back to Watson Lake. We then returned and hooked up their rig to our truck and followed the tow truck back to Watson Lake. The next morning the repair shop told them the truck would have to go back to Whitehorse to the dealer for repair. 250 miles in the wrong direction. Since we didn’t want them to have to endure the same fate we had in Tok we decided to tow their rig to Whitehorse so they could be with their truck and in a civilized town. We made the 500 mile roundtrip in one day. We were going to part after two more stops anyway and since they were safe and we needed to get back to the states we said our goodbyes. It had been fun traveling with them and a real help when we both had truck problems.

We continued east to Edmonton over the Canadian Rockies where we saw more wildlife in one day than in a week in Alaska. Also some spectacular scenery and some scary roads. The Alaska Highway there is only about 20’ wide in parts with drop offs into water of the bottom of a canyon. Oh Yea, it’s under construction and dirt.