Alaska Sunday XIII

Crossing into Alaska

June 20:
We spent the night at Johnson Crossing in the Yukon, Canada. We were about a week behind schedule (that is if you want to say that we had a schedule). The Johnson Crossing Lodge (historic Milepost 836) is one of the original lodges on the Alaska Highway and this business has been advertising in "The Milepost" every year since the first edition in 1949. The area is known for its wildlife - muskrat, porcupine, moose,eagles, wolves - also bugs and lots of rain.

Original Lodge

Camping spot
We heard a Boreal Owl,
in the tree next to our camper
during the night.
po-po-po-po-po-po-po

Mile Marker 836

I bought my first Milepost in about 1952. It was then that I decided that I wanted to drive the "Alcan Highway" some day. It only took me 54 years before I realized my dream. It was well worth the wait. Little did I realize back in 1952 that I would be on the road 16 weeks roundtrip. Also little did I realize back then that I would be married and have 3 nice Nikon digital cameras instead of my little Kodak Brownie box camera. I am still going through the 18.000 photos that we kept and burned onto DVD's. I now use 2 "1 Terrabyte" cross-referenced external hard drives for photo storage. It's just about time to buy another.

Four things ahead
(Muddy road, Mountains, Border crossing, and Alaska)

Fast forward to
June 22:
We had been driving hard all day and we were heading for Tok, Alaska and our campsite for the night. We had heard that they had been closing the Border Crossing station at night. We finally crossed at 4:30 PM Alaska time and after another 30 minutes found a nice turnout to rest a little before the last leg of the day. The first Tundra Swan of the day was only a couple of miles after we crossed into Alaska. Whoo-hooo. Also just after crossing into Alaska our Navagation system changed screens. For the 5 weeks we were in Alaska, all it showed was the Latitude/Longitude and direction. That was OK, I had a box full of maps.

Alaska Crossing
(only 4 degrees below Arctic circle)

Variable Darner
(A new Dragonfly for our Life List)
(Our first Dragonfly in Alaska)

Tune in next week for further adventures.

Troy and Martha