roadquill1

Since it was early on Monday morning when we de-camped and headed into Haines, nothing was open – except the Tourist Information. The library and its wifi didn’t open until 10:00 a.m. so once again, we are on the road without sending blog notes. They are really beginning to pile up and I wonder if they will be left unread as too time-consuming.

The highway out of Haines follows the Chilkat river estuary for a number of miles until the “Eagle Nest Park” where the road begins a long climb to a summit above the tree line. (Wrong time of year to see eagles, apparently.) Near the top of the climb, we were also very near to the base of the clouds, and suddenly we were in dense fog. This lasted only a short while until we dropped a bit into a fabulous valley that was the “Chilkat Trail” – an alternative to the Chilkoot Pass on the Skagway side. At 3 separate small lakes we saw pairs of beautiful swans – as advertised in brochures.

This highway, once again, is almost deserted, and we had an almost great run all the way to “Discover Yukon RV Park”, an hour or two south of Haines Junction.

Kluane Lake

We stopped at an information centre just before Kluane Lake. There, we were able to spot a herd of Dall Mountain sheep high on the slopes above us.

The good highway suddenly ended, and frost heaves and potholes began to occur way too frequently. Finally the pavement gave out, and we found ourselves on VERY dusty gravel. I fought my way to the head of the line, and then led the convoy through a series of flag-car stops and starts. Watering trucks put down a spray to reduce the dust, and the resultant was that Truck House ended up being the same colour as the road.  Finally, we were somewhat relieved to find “Discover Yukon RV”.

The proprietor of this RV site hails from Manitoba, and comes out each year to run the place. It is a museum for old abandoned equipment – mostly from the US military – equipment that was used in the building of the Alaska Highway in the early days of World War 2. The next day, at the museum in Tok, Alaska (that is pronounced like the pot-smokers’ “toke”.) we read about this project which took 8 months to complete. What a horrendous experience this must have been to young troops out of south-eastern US with no warm clothing, improper equipment, no bug protection, and no experience in muskeg country.

The military machine bone-yard

Tuesday, August 11 – Stoned in Alaska

Okay…I hope that this entry will be a short one since the day was NOT! We left Discover Yukon RV at 9:00 a.m. (PDT) = 8:00 a.m. Alaska Daylight Time, and didn’t arrive at our next campsite (King Mountain State Recreation Park) 69 miles northeast of Anchorage until 5:00 p.m. ADT.

King Mountain

This was by far the longest day of travel that we have encountered so far. Once again, this was a mix of paved road followed by construction stops and following pilot cars. The temperatures floated around 7C all day (getting to 13C as we got nearer to Anchorage) and rain was heavy at times. About two hours before stopping, a rocketing camper truck tossed a very large rock at us which almost burst through the windshield. The windshield will require replacement, but I don’t think that it leaks. My partner was showered with windshield glass! The rain finally ended and by the time we encamped, we were under blue skies and sunshine. We will probably try to keep the windshield until we are back on full paved roads.

Moral – You shouldn’t throw stones!

So today, Wednesday, August 12, we plan to head into Anchorage, get an RV site with wifi and hookups, and explore the city (Pop. of 200,000!)

A couple of hours later… we have found an RV Park – Anchorage’s “Ship Creek”. (“Roada”, our Garmin GPS, makes this sound crude!) We have paid for the site and are happy to announce that this is the second closest that we have ever been to a busy railway…the closest being “Whistle Stop” campground out of Hope, BC. Aren’t we excited! Today, we will explore a bit. 

Much love to all and a note: all photos show sunshine. This is not reflective of the daily weather, but only of my desire to take pics!

Tony, The Quill, and Sandy, The Quilter

p.s. We will hit about 3 quilt shops today in Anchorage.