Day 114: Haines to Whitehorse - Finished the Alaska Highway

August 6, 2014

We don't know where we will stop the next two nights, but we probably will not have Internet. We will catch up on the blog when we can.
 
We awoke this morning to another cloudy day, but again no rain. Before we left Haines the sun was at least partially out and some blue skies. The drive from Haines back to Haines Junction was mostly sunny and a very scenic drive. We did have a little misting rain as we were almost in the clouds coming across the summit. The remainder of today's drive was mostly sunny with blue skies and white puffy clouds. Morning temp of 58 with a high again in the mid sixties.

We had some business to take care of this morning before we left and then put everything away for a travel day. We also had to fill the water and fuel tanks on Fred and the truck as fuel prices are higher from Haines south. Today we paid $4.83/gal for gas and $4.77/gal for diesel with $4.70 discount for cash on the diesel at the Napa Store in Haines. (Yes, more for gas than diesel.) Higher prices than in Anchorage or Fairbanks but, the further away from those two cites you go the more you pay. It's just part of the cost of experiencing the wilderness areas. In Canada, fuel is just high. It doesn't matter where you are.

Forty miles north of Haines we re-entered Canada and had to stop for the required visit with the customs official at the border. The officer was again very efficient and polite and once again with just a few questions about weapons, money, and destination we were on our way.

As we told you when we drove to Haines, the road was quite good and the scenery wonderful. It was a very nice drive today.

Good roads ...

... make for a happy camper.

At Haines Junction we turned eastward again on the Alaska Highway. The Alaska Highway was not nearly as smooth as the road to Haines. There was only one section where there was a pilot car through the construction, 2 places that were gravel and lots of frost heaves, most of which were marked either by signs of flags.

Glad we didn't wash the truck before we left Haines

Shortly after returning to the Alaska Highway we came to the Historic Canyon Creek Bridge.  It was constructed in 1904 to allow the gold miners to cross the Alsek River.  It was dismantled some time in the 20's and later put back up.  The pioneer bridge was left in place when a permanent bridge was built just down river.  Restoration was done in 1986-87 and 2005.  It is a really cool structure.

 

In case you were not sure, read where the finger is pointing.

Between Haines Junction and Whitehorse we saw the first cougar we have ever seen in the wild. We did get a picture – but not a very good one. He was going into the bushes and we can tell he is there, but not good enough to use on the blog. We also saw trumpeter swans, pika, arctic ground squirrels and red squirrels.

Today we completed the Alaska Highway when we returned to the intersection of the Alaska Highway and the Klondike Highway - Highway 2 – the road to Dawson City that we took on the way up. We have now driven every single mile of the 1390 miles of the Alaska Highway – some of them twice. We are still approximately 4,200 miles from Remlap and as of tonight have put exactly 8,000 miles on the coach and 4,435 additional miles on the truck. (1,000 of the truck miles were the trip to the Arctic Ocean.) That's a lot of miles and a lot more to go.

One thing we noticed as we made the drive today is that fall is rapidly approaching the north country. They say that when the fire weed blooms out at the top, summer is over. There are certainly a lot of the fire weed plants that have bloomed out. Certainly not all of them and the very top blooms are still pretty on many of the plants but there are certainly those that are done for the year. We are also seeing a few yellow leaves and even a few red leaves on trees. Summer is such a short season here – and it certainly is not summer as we know it in Alabama since we have needed a jacket most morning.

Tonight we are again in Whitehorse. They must have had a wet summer here too because the river that runs through town is quite high. We enjoyed our visit here in the spring when we spent several days doing all the tourist things. This time it will be a one night stay at WalMart and then move on down the road toward Hyder. 

We did take time this afternoon to hit their walking trails again that we enjoyed so much in the spring.  Sure do wish there were more of these around Blount County.  Oh, and they have a new Tim Horton's completed and open since we were here in May. If we can't get internet at WalMart we can always go right down the street to Tim Horton's.

That's it for today. Sorry we didn't get a good picture we could share of the cougar. Hoping for a quiet night here at Walmart with over 40 other RVs. There are two interesting looking expedition vehicles here.