Canada Here We Come

Whitehorse, YT, CA – Saturday thru Monday, September 17 thru 19, 2011

It’s Saturday and we realize this is really it, we’re on our way out of Alaska.  We have mixed feelings because we realize this may be the last time we’ll come this way and it’s so beautiful we are reluctant to leave. The flip side is things are closing and the weather is getting too cold for our Florida blood.

Delta Junction marks the official end of the Alaska Highway.  Although the visitor center is closed and we are not able to get a certificate saying we had reached the end of the ALCAN Road we took a picture of the official end of the Alaska Highway. Guess that will have to do.  Hey, only 4,695 miles to Miami!!

And of course a couple of pictures of the Alaska state bird.

We thought this was an unusual sign. Supposedly a bison herd roams freely around here. We didn’t see any though.

For the techno junkies, this is a pig.  It’s used to clean the inside of the Alaska Pipeline.  The oil contains some natural wax and the pig is used every so often to remove any wax build up on the inside of the pipe.

Say, these mountains didn’t have snow on them last time we drove by here.  Hmmm..better drive a little faster.

We stopped in Tok to visit the Three Bears grocery store and pick up some steak and pork.  This grocery store has a very tasty meat selection.  EJ had her eye on some jewelry from the last time we stopped here in Tok and had almost made up her mind to buy it.  But the store was closing up when we got there.  Then we stopped by Fast Eddies Restaurant to sit in the parking lot and post to the blog.  We finally hit the road and made it another few miles to the Tenana River Bridge roadside stop just before Tetlin Junction. This is where we’ll spend the night and cook out the New York Steak we bought at Three Bears.

Sunday morning it was cold in BG.  It had gotten down to 34 degrees outside last night.  As a rule, we don’t leave the heat on at night.  We may have to revisit that policy.

Well, this is it, we’re out of Alaska!  Even though the sign is behind us, we crossed the actually border about 100 feet ago.  From here we travel 20KM of the worst road on the ALCAN to the Canadian Customs check.  It’s all gravel and washboard.  Top speed is about 20mph.

No problem at the crossing.  Didn’t ask about the cats.  They did ask about the liquor this time and we answered only what we were asked.  They did have a special stop set up to inspect your wildlife bounty if you had any.  I’m not sure what they were looking for.  One dressed out moose looks like another as far as I can tell.  Maybe they were checking hunting licenses.

We made a quick stop at Pickhandle Lake for lunch and to feed some of the local wildlife.

For dinner we stopped at Burwash Landing Resort .  The dining room was filled with hunters.  They looked like they had been in the woods for days and eating a big dinner came before shower time.  The restaurant was in the middle of nowhere, run by an oriental couple, and the food was good and hearty.

At the end of the day we stop outside of Destruction Bay to spend the night in another roadside turnout.  We had 2 other RVs and two truckers as company.

Monday we wake up to a hard wind blowing off Kluane Lake.  It is really rocking the RV.  Only got down to 39 degrees last night.  We must be headed in the right direction.

We’ve been watching the clouds and what appears to be a snowstorm in the nearby mountains.

In Haines Junction, we stop at Medley’s General Store hoping to find some delicious baked goods.  Ended up only buying bananas. Then we remembered a bakery over by the visitor center and decide to try it.  Dang. Closed for the season.  This seems to be a recurring theme now that it is past the middle of September.

We drive on to Whitehorse straight to the Walmart parking lot where we spend the night.  We missed this brewery on our way through last time. We got there just before closing and had time to have samples of several of the local brews. Frank decided we needed some supplies for our trip through Canada.

BG Miles Today	507	BG Total Miles	7940
Eat Out total $	1215.20	BG Total Fuel $	4450.71
Entertainment total $	1387.63	Total Camping $	1162.03
E Miles Today	4.35	E Total Miles	2744.26
E Total Fuel $	575.82	Day # of Trip	109 to 111