Day 76

For once we managed to get up and leave as planned, by 8 this morning.

Whitehorse is over 600 miles away, let’s see if we can get there today. Whitehorse is the biggest town in the Yukon Territory and we need to get some provisions ( notice how I smoothly slip right back into the local language!), and there is not much between our overnight rest stop and there, so there we headed, down the famous Alaska Highway.

We have been in Alaska for 6 ½ weeks, and we thought by now the roads that were badly bumpy on the way in would be repaired, and smooth and just wonderful. Not a chance. From Tok, about 100 miles from the border, to Destruction Bay, about 200 miles into Canada, we were shaken, rattled, rolled, bounced, and any other adjectived all over the place. It seems that the frost heaves which cause all the problems are a permanent feature of the Yukon. No wonder nobody lives here.

Still, we have discovered a new land, unclaimed by anyone. Heading out of Alaska, you go past the US customs post, and there are then 20 miles of nothing until you get to the Canadian customs, and enter Canada. So, we thought, who owns the 20 mile stretch in between?

We think it should be ours, and as we all know, to claim land you must have a flag. The only flag we carry, apart from the obligatory US and English ones, has a wolf logo and Gold and Black Army written all over it, so we claim the land in the name of The Wolves!!!

And, just as luck would have it, the only things living here appear to be wolves, and a few mooses.

We did see a coyote today, so it’s all coming together nicely.

Anyway, we stopped at several places along the highway today.

There is a viewing point of the Alaska oil pipeline where it crosses the Tanana River, though why anyone wants to stare at a pipeline is beyond me, it doesn’t do a lot, just sits there.

Then we stopped for lunch at Rika’s Roadhouse, an original inn from 19 something, which served truckers using the river ferry way back in the twenties and thirties, and then soldiers who built the Alaska Highway.

We pulled over in Delta Junction, and saw the best “animal” of the day, check the pix.

This beast was once a missile carrier, the owner is from Switzerland, lives in L.A., and the thing has Florida plates. It is converted into an RV, has four wheel steering, eight wheel drive and gets four miles to the gallon.

As the old joke goes, “ Where do you park it?”

“Anywhere you like!!”

Off down the road, through Tok, and into the Yukon. This country/province is stunningly empty and exceedingly beautiful. There are lakes galore, mountains and glaciers all over the place.

We saw the most gorgeous of sunsets, and yet, although the sun was down behind us, in front, the sky was still blue, there were pink clouds and the tops of the snow covered mountains to the west were still sparkling with sunlight. Very pretty.

We actually traveled 391 miles today, which given the road conditions, was pretty good, even though we were on the road for fourteen hours.

Wildlife watch today was a moose early, a coyote, lots of ravens and the “beast”!