Sunday, August 31, 2008

Alaska Sunday XX

Trip Log - Part IV
June 15 - 25

The fourth installment of the actual trip log of 'The Drive from Texas to Alaska and Back'.

As mentioned previously, this log does not contain too much commentary. It is mainly sequential locations, dates, mileage traveled, photographs showing the trip progress, and how the landscape changed. The Alaska Trip Log is divided into two week intervals (parts) and I am posting it on consecutive Sundays. Past and future posts of Alaska Sunday (apart from the trip log) will have more detailed information, and more photos of each specific area. A small number of the photographs were previously posted when describing specific locations.

Most are new photos not previously seen.

We are resuming our posting of the trip log after time out out for the Olympics.
Last week I only posted one photo of a Large Moose crossing the road.

Be sure to click on the photographs for full screen views.


And so, on with the trip.

6/15 Bellingham, Washington, U.S. to Clinton, B.C., Canada 255 mi


One of 7 tunnels
Shot through a clean windshield.
Martha is a hard taskmaster.
I have to keep it clean for her photos.


Riding the tram down


Martha did not want to go down but relented since she needed to be stocking up on supplies for the journey across the wilderness. They had a store down there where she could buy dried beans, flour, rice, salt, sugar, extra rope, duct tape, extra spokes for the wagon wheels, leather for harness repair for the oxen, canvas patches for the wagon, etc. Instead I found her here at the following location giving in to modern advertising. We bought supplies at the following location.


Supplies here



6/16 Clinton, BC to Cache Creek (Prince George), BC 270 mi

6/17 Prince George, BC to Dawson Creek, BC to Ft. St. John 326 mi


Mile Post Zero
Dawson Creek on the AlCan Highway


6/18 Ft. St. John to Toad River, BC 360 mi


6/19 Toad River, BC to Watson Lake to Nugget City, Yukon 222 mi


If you come in with your hat on, they tack it to the ceiling


6/20 Nugget City to Johnson's Crossing 177 mi


Wild Horses (not mustangs)


6/21 Johnson's Crossing to Whitehorse to Haines Junction (Kluane Campground) 176 mi


Teslin - Johnson's Crossing



Kluane Campground


It was really cold here. There is a mile-thick ice sheet behind those mountains. The brochure for our TrailManor says it can be erected, leveled, and locked in 2 minutes. We did it quicker than that. The wind coming off of that ice was bitterly cold. This may have been one of the coldest places that we stayed during the entire trip. We turned on the propane and Martha went in and turned on the furnace. While she was organizing inside, I connected the water, electricity, and sewer. No cable TV here. After the trailer is warmed, which only takes a few minutes, we keep it toasty with two 1' cube, 1500 watt space heaters.


Destruction Bay
Notice the white sand blowing


6/22 Haines Junction, Yukon to Tok, Alaska 298 mi


Made it to Alaska



Martha cleaning the seals, on the bed rails

We ran through a heavy rain and it cleaned a lot of the road grime off.
We'll give the vehicles a good cleaning and wash tomorrow.

6/23 Rest Day (Tok area) - 3 mi

Go to the grocery store, wash vehicles, check e-mails, read a book, call home (cell service at last), organize maps. Put up the "Milepost Guidebook". The AlCan Hwy ends tomorrow at Delta Junction, AK. Tok is at Milepost 1313 on the AlCan Hwy. We will go towards Fairbanks tomorrow. Going South was out of the question anyway. The bridge was out going South. Big storm and flash flood. As it turns out, the bridge was out for about 2-3 weeks. We came back up that Hwy in about 5 weeks. The bridge was open, but they were still repairing the road and putting the finishing touches on the bridge.


6/24 Tok, Alaska to Fairbanks, AK 206 mi


The Alcan Hwy is really tough on vehicles. I think they were out getting repair parts for this one.


In need of repair



6/25 Fairbanks, Ak (River's Edge RV Park) Around the town 35 mi


Fairbanks at 1 AM



We left our Travel Trailer here for 8 nights as we traveled North to Prudhoe Bay(Deadhorse) and the Arctic Ocean. 1016 miles round trip, of which about 800+ miles were gravel, dirt, potholes, mud, rocks, construction, and repair work on the dangerous parts.

Next week will be the log of the trip North to the Arctic Ocean and back, then down South to Denali and on to Anchorage. Links will be provided to photos and previous post for that section of the trip with mileages.

Mileage for this section of the log ...........2328 mi
Mileage before 6/13 .................................5481 mi

Total miles to get to Fairbanks ..............7809 mi

(Mileage assumes we didn't miss some logs). It's easy to get caught up in the moment. In addition to the odometer, I have 2 separate trip meters on the console. One was for total trip and the other was for the day trips. A helpful service tech in Portland (where I had the 4Runner serviced and the oil changed), reset my trip meters. Grrrrrrrr.


Do you have a favorite photograph?
Comments are appreciated.
Let me know if you are keeping up with the trip, or are just a one-time visitor.

Troy and Martha

31 comments:

Daryl said...

My fav was the fudge sign . .. NO .. kidding sort of .. I did love the trailer camp sky .. skies like that give me chills .. good chills .. admiration and awe for the elements ...

I wouldnt have survived had I gone down that tramway .. I hate heights .. scares me to death

:-Daryl

Doug Taron said...

I'm not sure why, but this one was my favorite so far of your Alaska postings. I think that you really captured the wildness of the far north here. My favorite photo was the Kluane Campground, for that very reason.

kjpweb said...

Always love your trip reports!
And a funny thing with the hats - right next to my office is Jack's BBQ. Looks exactly the same - Thousands of hats at the ceiling - though they don't take 'em away anymore - no more space....
:)
Cheers, Klaus

Cicero Sings said...

Years ago we lived for a short time in Dawson Creek ... the mile post sign brought back memories. We also lived in Taylor Flats for two years of my school life (half way between Dawson Creek and Ft. St. John).

Ah, the tunnels ... every time we go to or return from the coast, I count the tunnels ... 7 of them ... we know them well. A VERY familiar stretch of road.

Tess Kincaid said...

So many flavors of fudge...so little time! :D

I love the old truck!!!

Hope you are enjoying the holiday weekend!

Ivar Østtun said...

Wonderful report :-)
Beautiful pictures from a beautiful country :-)

This Is My Blog - fishing guy said...

Troy & Martha: What a super post both in narration and photos of a great state. Thanks for taking me along.

Louise said...

I hope someday when our girls leave the nest Prince Charming and I can take a trip like this. I don't think I've been farther north in Canada than Banff.

What I loved about this post--other than traveling vicariously through you:

-Martha is a good taskmaster. I didn't realize it was MARTHA giving the orders and TROY keeping the windshield clean. Of course that is exactly how it should be! =)
-The wild horses were gorgeous. Their coats were so shiny it looked as if they had caretakers.
-The last picture of the trailer in front of that incredible sky.

Wonderful post!

Rune Eide said...

Very interesting and instructive for a foreigner. The the tunnel reminds me of home, so the favourites must be the white sands blowing or the car in need for repair.

Thank you for sharing!

Michael Palmer said...

great report - esp that bit about the ox

dot said...

Beautiful scenery! My favorite is the hat picture. I hope you didn't lose yours.

storyteller said...

I enjoyed all your photos and info here. My sister and her husband spend 31 days with and RV Caravan tour of Alaska a couple of years ago … so some of this is familiar. I just had to say … the SKY in that final photo is AMAZING!!! Thanks for sharing.
Hugs and blessings,

Unknown said...

Hi Troy and Martha, thanks for stopping by the blogs. I started that travel one since I didn't think everyone would want to read about my trips and the Seguin blog is suppose to be about Seguin really. :)

I am catching up on your blog. I enjoy the Alaska drive series. Mark and I would love to do that one day. Today actually. LOL. Esp. after reading your posts. I liked the moose shot; always amazed by their size. I also liked that Fairbanks at 1am shot. Cool! It looked amazing.

Brad Myers said...

Good report, I was waiting what seems like forever since your last post. Don't make us wait that long next time.

Did you hit the Chena Hot Springs when you were in the Fairbanks area? We met friends there and they took us to it to relax in the hot spring. It is toooo hot for me to relax.

Unknown said...

Man, this would be my dream trip. Thanks for sharing

Larry D said...

Excellent post, what a trip!

Bob Johnson said...

Lol, I'll do anything for fudge, even going down the tram, excellent story and pics, love the old truck.

Love the white sands, did you get out to look for meteorites?,lol.

Michele said...

Very nice post... entertaining. My husband remembers Dawson Creek well as he had lived and worked there as a young man. Not a favorite place for him for the winters were long and cold. =D
Very nice photos.
~Michele~
Mountain Retreat

Unknown said...

Through another blog not sure which one

Louis la Vache said...

hehehe
The part that caught "Louis's" attention was the 182 flavors of fudge....
;-)

Dewdrop said...

The fudge sign was awesome... 182 flavorsof fudge, do they need a full time sampler? Awesome shot with the mountains and fair weather cu. Beautiful.

Daryl said...

FYI .. I tried to reply by email to the comment you left on my blog but it got kicked back by your ISP .. I think your ISP doesnt like me or Gmail ..

:-Daryl

Shelley said...

The fairbanks photo at 1 am was my favorite - the lighting in the sky was beautiful!

Kirstin said...

What beautiful pictures. where was the tram picture taken? When my hubby and I got engaged we drove to BC for the day and went to the top of grouse mountain and had to ride a tram. wondered if it was the same one.

I liked all the pictures. (C:

The gal we live with right now has a daughter and son-in-law who live in Haines, Alaska during the summer (he's a commercial fisherman).

Michelle said...

I love the picture of the place you can leave your hat. My hubby would so love that. Looks like your on the adventure of a life time.

myonlyphoto said...

182 flavors of fudge, wow, where is this place, lol, I can only tase one, lol. Troy and Martha, these are amazing photos, and some fun trip. Anna :)

Rima Staines said...

How wonderful to be travelling in Alaska :) Great to see the sights along the way. I liked the wild horses :)

Anonymous said...

great post. It looks like a fun trip. 182 kinds of fudge... WOW

Shimmy Mom said...

182 flavors of fudge?!! That's worth the trip right there! I love the last pic of the sky above the campers. Hope you had a great trip!

Kathie Brown said...

How can I have a favorite photo when they all speak to me in different ways? I love the wild horses. How did you know they were wild but not mustangs?

I liked the photo about the fudge because it made me laugh.

I always love photos of mountain granduer. You have a couple of those.

The photo of the cable ride down made me dizzy. I also liked the bridge across the river and the rusted old truck on the side of the road. The fact that that ancient vehicle is still there speaks volumes! (Besides, it's a good photo!)

This post is giving me itchy feet. Time to travel on and see what I can see!

becky aka theRAV said...

Loved the clouds at sunset in this - the Fairbanks rv park one.