Cernek.org Blog

It is June 21, the Summer Solstice! Sunrise happened at 4:28 a.m. and sunset will happen at 11:36 in Canada. We cross a time zone tomorrow; so we could adjust that to sunrise at 3:28 and sunset at 10:36. Either way, it is a long, long day. Of course, it doesn’t actually get dark. There is a twilight that happens all night long. One doesn’t need a flashlight at all to walk around outside. I’m not sure you would need one to read a book either!

We leave Whitehorse behind us with the advice that we be sure to stock up on everything before we do. Since we will be crossing the border tomorrow, we are cautious about having too many fresh meats, vegetables, fruits, and alcohol on board. The border guys might get touchy about that stuff.

The Kluane (pronounced Klu-wan-ee) National Park and Preserve is in the distance to our left. It is a park filled with glaciers. The view along the highway is absolutely stunning.

We were pretty excited when we walked on the glacier two years ago. It is starting to look like we are going to have a lot more glacier experiences. These mountains are rugged, wild, and gorgeous.

We are fortunate to have a clear day. Frequently the mountains are completely obscured by clouds. Today clouds flirt with the mountains, lying softly on the peaks, whisping along the heights, or clearing away for a spectacular look at the majesty. A camera cannot do this land justice.

Haines Junction was established in 1942 as an army barracks for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.  The engineers were given the task of building a spur highway from the Alaska Highway to the port of Haines. The spur was completed in 1943. So not only did the folks manage to get the Alaska Highway built in an incredibly short time, they also managed to get the spur road built to allow access to a port. This story just gets better and better.

We stopped at the General Store to see what they had and to pick up some extra cans of beans to enhance the chili that is dinner tonight. The General Store has it all. They didn’t have a lot of anything, but they have a little of everything!

These poor folks have to look at this view every day! Of course, in winter it might be a bit more chilling, but the magnificence isn’t going to go away.

Kluane Lake is a very large lake carved out by glaciers.

The road to Destruction Bay wraps around the lake. Destruction Bay was named when a storm destroyed buildings and materials during the building of the Alaska Highway. It was one of the many relay stations that were spaced at 100-mile intervals to give truck drivers a break and a chance to repair vehicles. Most of the relay stations were out in the middle of absolutely No Where. The men who were at Destruction Bay had a beautiful place to be with some fine fishing.

The mountain range in the background keeps grabbing our attention. As quoted in the Milepost “The Icefield Ranges include the highest and youngest mountains in Canada. They form the main group of peaks in the St. Elias Mountains and include Canada’s highest mountain, Mount Logan, at 19,545 feet plus six other peaks over 16,000 feet.”

Continuing with a quote from the Milepost “The largest non-polar icefield in North America extends over most of Kluane National Park and Reserve, sending long glacial fingers into the valleys between the peaks. The ice is more than 2,200 feet thick. This icefield is the remnant of previous glaciations. The latest was the Kluane Glaciation between 29,500 and 12,500 years ago.

We have been looking at wild sweetpeas and white dwarf fireweed lining the highway. It has been the icing on the cake.

These two plants together make a beautiful border down the highway. The colors are so rich.

 

The reflections of the clouds on Kluane Lake are breathtaking.

The glacier capped mountains are mirrored as well.

There are wild sweetpeas all over the RV park.

A short walk leads to one of the rivers that feed Kluane Lake. It is 8:15 in the evening. The sun is low in the western sky, giving the water a silvery color as it rushes over rock and ground to add to the quiet shimmer in the lake.

A garden of wild sweetpeas!

Dwarf fireweed is so named because it is one of the first plants to reestablish itself in a burn area.

The blue lupine and purple sweetpeas give this fence a quaint quality.

Well maintained, trimmed to the nines, and clean as a whistle, the Cottonwood RV park is a jewel. We are enjoying our stay here in this beautiful place.

June 22 we are on our final leg to Alaska. Little did we know that today would be the day we learn about frost heaves and dips. All of the literature I have read about roads to Alaska talk about poor road conditions. There are tire repair places all along the route. Now we know why!

Where this section of road traverses was described by one of the engineers in 1942 as being terrain that was not suitable for building a road. It is over permafrost — land that is usually frozen and contains a high percentage of ice. When the permafrost thaws, the roadbed liquifies and causes the road to sink. When the permafrost refreezes, the road heaves up into large bumps. The pot holes seem, in part, to be what is left of the dips when the road grader has been over a section of road to level out the heaves and dips.

When the RV goes high on its shock absorbers on the heaves and bottoms out on the shocks in the dips, it doesn’t take us long to see the value of slowing to 30 miles an hour, 20 miles an hour, and even sometimes 5 miles an hour. 16,000 pounds is just too much weight to be rockin’ and rollin’ with.

In most sections of road through this area, the blacktop is long gone. We are traveling on mostly gravel with pot holes, kettle holes, soup pot holes, skillet holes — you get the idea. It is frequently not possible to miss all of them. One has to pick and choose which to hit and which to miss.

Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse. . .

We have arrived into Alaska! Woo hoo! It has proven to be an even larger accomplishment than we first thought it would be. Not to flaunt our good fortune in the face of fate, but we currently have all six tires under the RV, all four tires on the Jeep. All pieces and parts seem to be where those pieces and parts are supposed to be. We have traveled about 180 miles averaging 30 miles an hour with intense concentration on the road. Whew!

One of the things Sarah Palin did right as Governor of Alaska was to designate Alaska’s Highway 2 from the border with Canada to Fairbanks as the Purple Heart Trail. It seems a small tribute to all those men and women who were wounded in the line of duty. With deep appreciation we add our thanks.

The have actually cleared a strip of land along the 141st Meridian that is the border between Canada and the U.S. There is no fence here, folks. This is wilderness. Those surveyors had their hands full!

We were thinking of shutting it down at the Border City RV Park; however, after gassing up and assessing the situation, we have decided to press on to Tok (rhymes with “poke”). It has been raining constantly for the last several days. The RV park is a large mud hole. We have decided to drive hard today and take a longer rest in Tok.

The road from here to Tok is supposed to be vastly better. We will need to be careful as there will still be some heaves and dips, but the speed will be a more reasonable 55 for the most part.

We are in one piece. We have met the challenge of the road. We have decided that the rain isn’t all bad. I can’t imagine what that stretch of road would be like with blinding dust. The dust here is like powder, very fine and pervasive. It can take the visibility down to zero in a flash.

We are happy. Life is good!