North to Alaska- 16 June 2009

Everything they say about the mozzies in the North West of the American continent is true- they make our flies seem inconsequential! Forget enjoying the midsummer sun from your outdoor chair over late night drinks. No, hunker down in your motorhome or “RV” and try to outwit them! We had one night where they just seemed to keep coming in, faster then we could kill them. It was not until the next morning that we found the culprit- 2 vents for the fridge that were not flyscreened.

We’ve been 3 weeks on the road, making our way north from Vancouver. We’re now in Fairbanks Alaska. We’ve had some great mountain scenery, lakes and raging rivers. We paddled for a day on the Yukon River out of Whitehorse, just to pay homage to the second largest river in Canada. There’s certainly no such thing as a to and fro paddle on the rivers here- there is no way you can paddle against the current. So you need someone to collect you downstream! We saw lots of bald eagles that day, high over the cliffs, and being harassed by ravens.

And the wildlife…. one day we sighted 6 black bears, just along the side of the road. Apparently they like to eat the dandelions. It does, however, diminish one’s enthusiasm for walking too far into the woods! We had one day in British Columbia where we saw moose, caribou, 2 types of deer and big horn sheep all in about 50km.  We later added a porcupine and a lemming to the list. Since then, it’s been a bit quiet. so we’re hoping for more tomorrow when we go to Denali National Park.

We experienced life from the goldrush era in Dawson City. Perhaps the equivalent of Kalgoorlie, except the temperatures were at the opposite extreme! A lot of the town buildings have been restored and it really does look like a town from the wild west. We followed the gold theme into Alaska where we did some tourist gold panning- and I scooped about $36 worth!

Now, who voted for daylight saving? Well come and experience the ultimate- 24 hours of daylight! With all the daylight and no specific schedule to work, the day loses its boundaries. We find we’re not even thinking of bed by midnight. It plays havoc with your sleep. We decided that as we were this close to the Arctic Circle, we’d drive to it. However (and this may be hard to believe) I made  a  slight error- I thought it was only 200km, it turned out to be 300! A thunderstorm, a fuel crisis and 2 tyres later and we had been to the Arctic and back! A pretty rough road for a  30 yr old RV!

From Vancouver we made our way up to Prince George and then followed the Alaska Highway. Fort Nelson to Watson Lake was very spectacular, but along the way we decided to stop at Liard River Hot Springs (how could you not). We pulled in to the camping area and was told there was a bushfire up ahead- and the road would soon be closed, perhaps for up to a week! We could “make a run for it” if we wanted. We didn’t! Anyway we had a lovely soak in the hot springs and tried not to think about the ash falling on us. As it turned out the road was only closed for a few hours so we were able to continue the next day.

From Watson Lake we made our way to Whitehorse and from there, left the Alaska Highway and headed up to Dawson City. We went a little way north from there- into Tombstone Territorial Park and then made our way over “the Top Of the World” highway into Alaska. And now we’re about to explore Alaska….