6/3/2007 - Heading North

Jeff and I parted ways this a.m. in British Columbia as he headed south and I headed north. British Columbia is endless lakes and rivers – no doubt a boater’s and fisherman’s paradise. Tonight I’m camping at Ten Mile Lake Provincial Park, and was quickly reminded of what goes really well with lots of water – MOSQUITOS! I haven’t slathered on this much bug spray since I spent a week in high school canoeing in the Boundary Waters area on the Minnesota-Canadian border (but that mosquito mass eclipsed this one).

Today I left the mountains behind for now and rolled pretty consistently through pine-forested hills and occasional ranch lands. Definitely rural Canada. I forgot to mention the other day the tourist mix up here – right now I feel like one of the very few if any Americans. There are LOTS of British tourists in the national parks, not surprisingly, and many Germans. Now that I’ve left the national parks behind, I seem to be one of very few tourists at all.

A few things I have noted about BC:

· LOTS of lumber mills, one just south of here which was unbelievable – thousands and thousands of logs on one side of a huge complex, and seemingly endless stacks of rectangular bundles of lumber on the other. It is all forest up here.

· BC doesn’t seem to allow those little catches on the gas nozzles, so you have to hold it the whole time you fill up. And as I travel north, “pay-at-the-pump” has disappeared completely – one time I came REALLY close to just driving away after pumping my gas then washing my windshield because I’m so used to paying first by swiping at the pump!!!

· I have never seen such pine beetle devastation as I have seen in southern BC. I saw it in Colorado, but at least in my experience not to this extent. A lot of areas look at a glance like fall colors, then you remember that it’s not fall, and pine trees don’t turn reddish brown – unless of course they are dead. The extent of it is disconcerting.

Anyway, it is very dark and very peaceful here; I think I’ll sleep well tonight.

6/4/07 - A Night in the USA!

I drove through hundreds more miles of BC today under overcast skies and occasional rain. North of Burns Lake and the not-too-far-off town of Smithers (no kidding – for all you Simpsons fans) things started to get really interesting again as far as scenery goes, but unfortunately it was mostly blanketed in fog. It is all very lush and green (which of course requires lots of rain like today), but every once in a while I could spy a tall snow-capped mountain poking through. The rivers are all raging and well over their banks, and in each town I drove through the locals were out on the bridges for a look. I hear they had record snow up here this winter (over 30 feet in some areas).

I finally saw the first indication that AK is ahead, though still a few days away:

Towards the end of today things began to look very southern Alaska-esque, and I realized I was running parallel to the very southern edge of AK although I was still in Canada. Then I discovered, after about 11 hours of driving, that I was only 40 miles from Hyder, AK to the west, so tonight I sleep in the U.S.A.!!! So you figure I’m almost there, right? Well, tomorrow it’s back to Canada to go up the rest of the way through BC and across the Yukon Territory to Anchorage.

It is funny to think I’m in AK right now, but still can’t get to Anchorage from here by car without going back into Canada, and still have over 1350 miles to go. The roads out here are not exactly Highway 70, and I’m totally at peace with that.

But, you know you are getting somewhere when you see nice blue roadside glaciers!

And this is DEFINITELY bear country. I saw 19 black bears right next to the road this evening in about 2.5 hours including this mom and her three TINY cubs:

– (please click to enlarge) they looked like puppies, and were about 1/3 the size of the cub we saw in Banff (pictured above). Real newborns. As I slowed down momma bear quickly had them scurry up a tree, and she stood at its trunk ready to defend them. This is the kind of situation I DO NOT want to see hiking, but from the car it was exhilarating. Sorry the pic is a bit out of focus, but I was taken by surprise and was in a real hurry to at least grab a picture and then move on. No need to linger and stress them out.

For comparison, I saw more bears today in a couple of hours than we saw in Tetons, Yellowstone, Glacier, and Banff combined.

Amazing.

6/5/2007 - West to Alaska?

Today I FINALLY made it all the way north through British Columbia, and am officially heading west to Alaska! I am currently well north Juneau, AK (I figure about 100 miles) and a bit east in the Yukon Territory of Canada. The first couple of hours today the two-lane highway was in excellent condition, so much so that I commented to myself that it was surprisingly smooth and must be pretty new. OOPS!!! That’s what we like to call the “gooch” (aka jinx). For many, many hours after that the road devolved into a mix of pavement that was either pot-holed or just plain missing about every 100 yards, and dirt/gravel roads. Totally worth it for the scenery, but slow going for sure. I think overall I averaged maybe 50 MPH. It’s nice to get to the Yukon Territory – I feel I am officially in The North. Seattle is very near the British Columbia border, but to get to the Yukon from there is over 1300 miles and takes days.

This morning, for just a couple hours, I was still running parallel with and close to the Alaska border, and the landscape continued to be very Alaska-esque. But, for most of the day, I drifted a bit east as I trekked north (I drove about 10 hours), and it was still pretty but looked less and less like Alaska. I’m not sure exactly how to describe the Alaska “feel” from this morning, but it’s something about the forest composition, the deep, dark color of the earth, something about the sky. I don’t know, but I felt Alaska knocking, and I cannot wait to get there.

It is 11:30 PM here in Teslin, Yukon Territory, and it is still quite light with an orange glow on the horizon.

Trip Odometer: 4794

States covered: Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, Montana (NE, UT, and ID being new to me, bringing my total state count to 37)

Canadian provinces covered: Alberta, British Columbia, Yukon Territory (all new to me, bringing my total province count to 4)

Bear Tally: 36

6-7-2007 - The End of the Roadtrip, but Not the End of the Road.

The last couple of days I drove across the Yukon, stopping briefly in Whitehorse, and then down to Anchorage. I would qualify it as “tough sledding” – a pretty arduous journey by modern standards. I loved the way the official sign on the highway described it: “Every time a road is constructed the ground surface is disturbed. Disturbance of the insulating layer of vegetation allows additional heat to penetrate below the surface, thawing permafrost and creating a zone called a thaw bulb. Thaw bulbs, so called because of their shape, are responsible for the big rolling dips and bumps that make you feel as though your car has become an out of control porpoise as you travel down the highway.”

I’ll let you guess which part of that description I find hilarious!

So you pretty much have to stare at the road for hundreds of miles and hour after hour to avoid bottoming out and gouging out chunks of pavement (as I could see many vehicles before me had done), which gets a bit tedious after a while, especially since you can't really relax and enjoy the scenery so much. I'll admit I got frustrated at one point, but then I again ended up laughing about it, and even started whooping and hollering every once in a while like that guy riding the bomb out of the plane in Dr. Strangelove.

I'm definitely glad to have my truck, and pulled it over at exactly 5000.0 trip miles, which just happened to be at the doorstep to Kluane National Park in the Yukon.

I was very happy to re-enter the USA again today, and obviously to be doing so in AK.

Finally, I'm back where ordering a "liter of cola" is funny (I know at least one of you gets that reference).

As when I went through customs into Canada on my out of the lower 48, I had “Born in the USA” playing on the stereo, and screamed “YEEEAAAAHHH” at the top of my lungs about 6 or 7 times after I crossed the border and realized, after much pondering and doubt and fear over the last several months, that I AM HERE. I don’t want to get too mushy, but I would really like to thank all of my friends, which I won’t try to do by name, who helped me get through the last few years, and indeed the last couple decades. I would especially like to thank my parents who have been so supportive, and hope I can carve out an existence up here which will make us all proud.

I will make this the last post on this blog, but will share some photos from later adventures around Alaska on a different blog for those who have expressed an interest. Thanks to all who have followed along and to all who commented. A few final pics on the way to Anchorage:

After midnight near the Yukon/Alaska border:

Two glaciers off the highway within a couple hours of Anchorage:

Another miles-long glacier off the highway shows they really are rivers of ice, and displays where it once was and how far it has receded:

My first "apartment" in Anchorage (at 10:45 pm), with a touch of home glinting on the picnic table bench:

Final Trip Odometer: 5628
Days: 18
Highest Gas Price: $4.93 (Dease Lake, British Columbia - adjusted to US dollars/gallon).

So, that's it. Now to find an apartment and job. And to head out into The Last Frontier.

To Be Continued

Continued on http://www.lastamericanfrontier.blogspot.com/