#7 Alaska Trip - Whitehorse, YT to Tok, AK

7/4/12
Miles: 395
Starting to catch a whiff of the home stables and thinking of the USA on this Independence Day.  Nice to be able to celebrate both Canada Day and the 4th in their respective countries.  The road on this leg is definitely the worst of the trip with large potholes and gravel portions for 10 mile swaths.  This was also the area where the road washed out in 2 spots from 50 year flooding and closed it for 2 days last month.  The contractors brought in a temporary bridge while they rebuilt the road next to it.  Food was flown into the 3 cities' grocery stores cut-off by the flooding by an National Air Guard C-130 airlift.  Just before 1 spot of road construction, we came across a beautiful, big grizzly bear right out of central casting.  He was about 50 ft. off the road (pictured below).  He gave us a few poses before backing into the bushes.  Construction workers and bicyclists really need to keep their heads on a 360 degree swivel for an attack that could realistically happen at any time.
We got to the US / Canada border and stopped at a road side area to get pictures of the actual border and memorial before heading to the checkpoint (because there are no pictures allowed) which was very secure with multiple cameras and electronic measures in each lane.  They stop you 100 ft from the booth and look at you with binoculars and then wave you forward for passport checks and interview.  As we sat there, there were some explosions that turned out to be other border agents celebrating our arrival back to the US with fireworks.  Nice touch.

#6 Alaska Trip - Liard Hot Springs, BC to Whitehorse, YT

7/3/12
Miles: 415

Got an early start to Whitehorse, YT.  Saw a few bears along the way including a black bear standing next to a camper on the shoulder of the road.  There was a motorcyclist standing in the middle of the road because the bear was not letting him get back on his bike.  When the biker tried to move toward the bike, the bear gave a false charge causing the biker to stumble backward.  The bear was letting him know he could have him for lunch.  We thought we were going to witness a mauling right on the center line of the road.  The camper inched forward and honked it's horn.  The bear backed down then started walking down the line towards us.  The biker jumped on his bike and tore out of there.  We got our pics and moved on as well.
Saw some bison and then hit the sign post forest in Watson Lake, YT, a place where they have signs from all over the world.  The quick stop was made even more magical by 2 local natives walking by the girls saying "How do you like Watson Lake? Beautiful."  the girls replied "Huh?".   Magical indeed.
Also watched a guy drive up in a truck from O_H_I_O  so when I saw him later walking around I yelled O-H!  He replied meekly i-o and then he and Leanne had an awkward conversation about doing jail time in Cambridge.
We later saw our friend Don Walker the biker in a restaurant in Teslin.  Called Hotels.com (yes, I'm a five star member with exclusive benefits) and had them book us the last 2 rooms in Whitehorse.  Hotel was shabby but well maintained on the interior. When travelling on this road, you begin to notice the same people experiencing the same things at the same time over the whole trip.

#5 Alaska Trip - Dawson Creek to Liard River Hot Springs Provincial Park

7/2/12
470 miles
Hit the road early at 8:30am to beat a caravan of 25 motor homes from our campground to Ft. Nelson 281 miles away.  A long day with some closed gas stations letting us down.  Luckily, we had a 5 gallon gas can along and made the next station with no lost time.  Saw a few bears, bison, sheep along the road.  At the hot springs we saw a moose.  We got in late in the day and they let us camp in the day use area in the parking area.  Got set up in the rain and was eating dinner off the fire pit when Don Walker rode up from Kentucky on his BMW 1100 motorcycle.  He got off the bike and we had him eating with us within 1 minute.  Don's a real good guy having retired from school teaching after 37 years.  He was going to ride to Fairbanks with a friend but the friend had emergency back surgery 1 week before the trip kick-off.  Don made the trip alone. After dinner, DE and I went to the springs and soaked in up to 126 degree water.  It felt good and we met a 14 year old boy from TX who was riding bicycles from the US border to Fairbanks with his grandpa.  They planned to cover approx. 40 miles a day.  Some great stories travelling the AK highway.  We all finally had a good nights rest.

#4 Alaska Trip - Drayton Valley to Dawson Creek

7/1/12
340 miles
  Happy Canada Day.
Updating blog a few days late since we have been in dark territory with no internet to use.  Started at 11 am and arrived in Dawson Creek early evening where the Alaska Highway starts.  Noticing the sun dips below the horizon for 4 to 5 hrs then rises, so it is always light out making it hard to sleep and messing with our internal clocks.  As I write this, its 10:30 pm and the sun is behind some clouds but it's not dark at all.  Experienced a great steak dinner and remembered that Canada serves gravy with everything and somehow it just feels right.  Stayed at a very nice, quiet RV park in DC but the oil and lumber rigs ran through the night using jake brakes at every chance.  A poor first night of camping.
Animals spotted: 1 Coyote

#3 Alaska Trip - Helena, Mt to Drayton Valley, AB

6/30/12
Miles: 620
Departed Helena at 8:30am & headed towards Pigeon Lake Provincial park SW of Edmonton.  A long day of driving but there was no line going into Alberta and the driving was easy, Canada easy.  We made it to the campground where LE had reserved a campsite online with the Canada Day weekend holiday in effect.  We got it and drove in but the site was 20 ft long and 8 ft wide with campers on both sides and no separation between sites, let alone, nowhere to park the truck and trailer.  It was way too tight so we went back out to the check-in booth and told the conservation officer thanks anyway.  She surprised us by escorting us to another campground 15 km away and checking for a spot for us.   The officer eventually mapped us the way to yet another hotel 40 miles away, which was on the route to AK, because the second campground was packed as well. We could have forced a tent spot next to the bathroom with the officer guarding the perimeter for us as we set up but felt we should move on. I find it strange that Canada has the most land & the least people yet they tend to camp in the smallest of areas as a group.  
 It is true that Canadians are extremely helpful and nice.  At a gas station earlier, a lady came out to make sure I was OK pumping gas. 
Calgary is a large city which mixes ranching / farming with big city, kinda cool.  Finally got into a wicked downpour for the last 20 miles of today's drive.


 Tomorrow Mrs. Evans sniffed out a Canada Day parade to watch at 10 am outside the Holiday Inn Express.  She just gets so excited about parades, how could we possibly disappoint her.  Even if the parade was just 1 drunk banging curb to curb down the road with a Canadian flag hanging off his car, it would make her day, which would make my day (happy wife, happy life).  


Tomorrow headed for Dawson's Creek, BC.
I have moved photos away from the blog and will update a Google + album when I can.

#2 Alaska Trip - Utah to Montana

Friday 6/29/12

An early morning visit from M.A. Fornelius to the hotel room in SLC.  Always good to see the man.  Departed north to Montana at 9:30am.  Somewhat uneventful driving day with the goal of camping at Holter Lake campground outside of Wolf Creek, MT.  We stopped in Butte and picked up a bicycle to take to AK.  On the hillside in Butte is a huge statue of the virgin Mary, below is a shot of her overlooking Butte.  We made it to Helena after 500 miles and decided one more night in a hotel would be perfect before we hit the dark territory of Canada and forced camping.  A decent Pizza Hut meal and a newer La Quinta hotel fit very nicely to end the day.  We saw a herd of elk, a few gophers which LE ran over one of expertly.  Hoping to make it to Red Deer tomorrow.

#1 Alaska Trip

6/28/12
Today starts the the journey to Sterling, AK.  After a few moments of fighting with sis, (some things never change) she and I got the trailer packed and padded. Officially on the road at 6:40 pm local time.  Road conditions were fine with no wind.  We passed through the New Harmony fire area which had been 70% contained as we passed and also came within 30 ft of Danyelle's cousins house.  Their garden suffered a bit of singeing.  The fire jumped I-15 and torched 22 buildings and homes on the West side of the freeway.  We also passed through a fire area near Scipio which ran the whole mountain ridge West of town.
We reached the Pavilion Inn in Murray, UT around 11:40 pm just as our contact pulled into the parking lot.  We loaded 5 boxes and some PVC pipes that you can only get in Utah?  Relaxing with a rum and coke(s) and preparing for tomorrow's journey to Butte, MT to pick up a bicycle then onward toward Wolf Creek, MT.