7/12/17 And indeed we did. We woke to rain in the night and were cloud covered in the morning.  lucky to have had the dry day to explore McCarthy/Kennicott with a short hike thrown in. Knowing the weather was not good for a couple more days it would be silly to sit in the camper… so we drove out (of course encountering another break down …who after pushing their vehicle off the road, I found their battery had been loose in the tray …bouncing on the washboard and had thrown off both leads… just hanging there… fast fix and off they went) the 94 miles to the Richardson Highway… a road needing serious attention in this section north. We fueled up and had Tok Thai food takeout from a roadside hut at the gas station…go figure …understand everything is a tad rough on the edges here…(though getting too smooth daily) not too bad.I found a truck stop high pressure hose to blast the cemented mud off the back of the camper and truck doors… now we can get in and out without getting filthy. 

The Denali Highway: paved for 20 miles to The Tangle River inn… a place that was homesteaded by a man and his wife 56 years ago(Nadine…who we met over a beer and talked a good Irish roll) … a mountain nearby named after her…. We went on further onto the remaining 110 miles of dirt road (closed in winter)… it looks like Scotland highlands in the mountains… but different.. lots of glacier kettle ponds and bugs…. many many bugs… then there are more bugs. We popped up in a short spar off the road along a stream. Boondocking again just off the paved starting section of the road. Here is where we took out the small piece of smoked Halibut, Irish Kerry butter and black bread for dinner… with a half bottle of white wine from a good friend carried all the way here from New England. We tried a hike…did I mention the bugs? Retreated to the camper and pulled out the head nets. Tomorrow ..as it is raining now… will be a slow day… up late ..coffee and breakfast … and a leisurely departure as this road is packed with sights… and we will probably only go 20-30 miles and then camp again (Tuesday). It will be Wednesday..…the sun hopefully out and the views opened up… for the next 80 miles we will slowly explore maybe a day or two more. 

On a side note of being bear safe… our Black Bears of the Northeast seem like fluffy toys… seeing the photos on the walls of hunts or the skins on the wall and floors of a truly huge bear with claws 4-5” long…you have to respect that… a 1000 lb. bear who is hungry. I am or have food…bottom line. We took a good pointer from my nephew and it makes real sense: flares. We have bear spray with holsters that we wear anytime out of the truck and I have a marine air horn that is deafening as a first stage. But the flare… that is a great defense. A flare that has an instant pull cord ignition… point and pull. It is compact, bright and hot. I got two. 

Today met a man and his wife who used to live in Alaska 50 years ago and it is their first time back. He is more shocked than she as she liked having the amenities nearby but he did not. I could see in his expression as he spoke the sense of loss. The wildness tamed, the cell phone and the internet wifi in a place he held a gun and a backpack. He just kept shaking his head. Being in the moment folks always think it will be as it is. Almost never is. Forever wild is essential for some places. No roads, no planes on lakes, no nothing but foot travel. No exceptions. We need to save some corners. I am here and that means everyone else can be too. I would be glad to give it all back but that won’t happen either. 

Needless to say this trip has been on my compass for over forty years… I do not remember and am too lazy to check if I said before: I had a choice at 25 years of age. I had graduated from college and was working in the paper mill section of a newspaper… just factory work, long days of doing the same thing for 10 hour shifts. I did some research and found that Alaska was looking for teachers to fly in to villages and teach. The requiement wa at the time that you pay for the six months of food. The flight was free and the return as well if you lasted the contract. It was in the Brooks Range. I had done all the paperwork and had absolutely no idea what I was going to… typical youth. Then a phone call came in the middle of the night from a friend of a friend teaching in Paraguay, South America. This was in 1979. I was offered a job at the American School, American Embassy Asuncion. For no other reason than I had no idea what, where or how …  I said sure. My life’s direction changed in a word. Where would I be today if I had taken the Brooks Range position…. probably not in a camper here now. But why Alaska? Sky King. I dreamed daily of being a bush pilot in Alaska as a boy. 

Immense… The Denali road from Paxson off the Richardson is best west toward the mountain. The road was pretty much empty …perhaps a car once every half hour either direction ..surprising as the road by Maine standards was great. There had been grading and new gravel repairs in the first 40 miles… the next were as we expected … teeth chattering washboard or stretches of boxed out potholes again lucky to have rained the night before and were water filled to make them visible easily in time to swerve around. The truck is getting high marks… settled into the load it bears and manurers well. By the end of the day today it had explored many rock crawl side roads with mud holes and boulders… did great…in 4WD and staying in 1st gear. We must have discussed five different possibilities to camp the night… and each time went on until a fluke high elevation (back in the trees again on the mountain) little side road… roller coaster rock crawl through some deep mud to an insanely beautiful overlook (mile post 71 from Paxson on left... there is an easier one also  at MP 73). Mountains straight up behind us and a 60 mile 180º view 750 feet off valley floor that is covered in ponds, lakes and rivers. Hands down in the top 3  places I have ever truck camped.

This today is why I came here. I dream of places like this. Absolute quiet except for the bugs and breeze. I am looking out at nothing man has done. It is drop dead beautiful. Last night, our first on the Denali road, was by a stream 100 ft off the road and it was still quiet. Today though tops it all. The expanse gives one an idea of what the first people experienced all over our continent … endless wide open splendor so big it seems it could never be anything else then what it was at that moment. 

We are now just over half way to the end of the Denali road “T”-ing at Cantwell on the road to Denali Park where we might stay depending on the crunch of being back in the ‘road barn’ packs. A shower is needed as we have not been able to use the solar shower due to rainy days. Thereafter north to Fairbanks (passing through) to a stay at ?????

7/15/17 Never give a gabby Irishman a stage. I have much to say. Many decisions were made only after seeing where we landed. Coming out of the Denali road back to the epicenter of the tourist “fast see…bagged it”…AK trip… we stopped into the Denali National park. It was packed like Yellowstone mid summer…maybe worse. We drove up he road to the Savage River and then returned out. So glad to have driven the Denali Highway road… quiet and beautiful… so we went immediately north. As I type this I have been on the road four weeks, though because of the ferry have only clocked 5200 miles, (Luann with me 2000). This, by date, is the middle of the trip…not by mileage…. we have a long way to go. 

So we went on up to Fairbanks and got provisions needed. Not sure we saw the nice side of town but did have a nice halibut fish and chips at the Pump House brewery on the river…seeing the rear paddle steamer cruise by. Camping after a couple false leads north node Fox… on the Eliot Highway, a state park. Pop up…sleep and gone. Eliot Highway to The Dalton. A long day getting into the new driving conditions of paved, not paved good, not paved real bad… then paved worse. There are fort those who will nod their head a way to hit a 2 foot depression in the road at 45 mph… not a pot hole as those are there to see if the driver never lifts an eye away from 100 feet forward… but the ‘Dips’ as posted, are either single or multiple that drops your load then compresses the springs in a split second. Yahoo! A big frigging bounce! the multiple ones are interesting… The best thing to do on the big ones is to hit the break hard for a split second entering, dropping the nose of the truck, then accelerating to lift the front and drop the back…. what else is there to do but parse the problem and think of something to keep the stuff in the camper from being shaken up like a cement mixer. One learns to open the fridge door slowly.

We stopped at the Yukon River crossing and had a great visit with a local lady who was a homesteader who now does craft from birch bark, animal fur, skulls, …whatever was nearby to make things… one tough lady who with het husband had gone up the Yukon found a spot and with a chainsaw cleared the land for a cabin they built from the trees before October snows. The Interagency volunteer cabin was there to warn of the wildfires burning presently out of control…explaining the foggy haze obscuring the mountain views. Clear weather but no long vistas. She explained where to get artesian water on the way and a recommendation to take a spur road to Wiseman, AK… an occupied 110 year old gold miner village. 

A great walk around with very friendly property owners who go out of their way to explain their history living there for generations and still prospecting. We spent time with the man who moved there when he was five and his mom did the preaching in at the log cabin in-which we talked… her twenty years of hand written sermons still on the front table. Also a man there all his life prospecting named “Clutch” who has his own one room log cabin ’museum’  of his life's stuff… lots of dozers, pumps, pans books and old photos… he could talk forever.  He has been making a “white man’s totem pole” for some time (photos)… a lot of unique up here.

We came to the Coldfoot, AK, a truck stop all in one ‘town’….last stop fuel before starting the long haul over the Brooks Mountain Range through Atigun Pass. The place is expensive…has a huge buffet of one meal daily…a bottle only bar and shipping container hotel. A has to stop.

It had been a long day getting adjusted to driving the Dalton road so was tired. I t is still sunny at 10:45 and the sun barely sets then rises again… We camped at a Marion Creek Camp sites (National)…bear boxes, super clean pit toilets, a hand pump spring water and a site to camp with a fire ring. Perfect, quiet and clean for 26 sites of which maybe 10 were used.

Up and out this morning to head over the Atigun pass. yea-ooooh… crazy big, jagged straight up cliffs, massive… 100% mountains. The road was a mix of very reasonable dirt and actual pavement… still potholes and dips but speed could increase. The pass was as expected: a stunning road engineering job, open all year, a wild climb and descent to a completely different biome. On the ascent were black and white spruce trees and the descent to open tundra… going on another 30 miles to and stopped after the Toolik Lake pass and were in open Tundra. A caribou laying down by the road….. hundred mile view to ….another 100 mile view. If we were to drive across this space it would be another 250 miles straight to Deadhorse, population 4 permanent…. 3000-6000 part time oil production workers in temp housing.  One needs to pre arrange to go to Prudhoe on the Bering sea. We never meant to do this last 500 mile trip as it ends at an oil camp and there is sea water… done. 

We returned to Marion camp sites this evening to fill the solar shower and wait … had a burger on the grill with charcoal brought with us. Gray Jays seek out your site and I had to convince on that the scrappy sponge he held in his peak was not tasty. He dropped it eventually from the tree. 

Four weeks and I am beyond full. Yet tomorrow we set out for Fairbanks again, passing through and south to Tok, and then Delta Junction where we go northeast again to Chicken, AK. A town named by folks who could not agree on the spelling of Ptarmigan… so instead settled on Chicken. From this place starts the “Top of the World Highway” on up to the Yukon border. On a map you can follow us to A side road…. 360 miles of dirt road (The Campbell Highway) to Watson River. From there later. Though I could have fished a thousand places I have not taken the time. From here that is the goal for me.   

7/16/17 Just a fast correction… We went through Delta Junction before getting to Tok…and before which we camped on Moon Lake for the night. A long day driving from above the Arctic Circle, through Fairbanks (washed mud off the truck) and resupplied beer. Another correction from last post is I left out Eagle AK. It is a town on the Yukon River north of the Top of the World Highway at the Canadian border.  Eagle is famous for a few things one of which is Jack London stayed here for a number of months writing his stories of the great north. It is a town that saw large population in the gold rush years after being used as a communications line to the northern forts. The area is rich in hardship history. These people, like those that built all the stone walls in New England were hardier than we. 

But I want to go back for the last few days. We have traveled a large number of miles and in doing so have crossed vast areas of wild, rugged country. It has gone from the hundreds of miles of stunted black and white spruce trees (due to saturated soil or frozen tundra) to Large forests and over the mountains to tundra that stretches literally hundreds and hundreds of miles, as is, on either side of where you stand. Finally seeing the Brooks Range, the mountains that run east-west in the Arctic are real mountains… massive and sharp rising out of nowhere. The Atigun pass allows the Dalton Highway, a roller coaster, tire puncturing, pothole riddled minefield, that is just nuts (mind you Bolivia and Peru have similar, but not as a highway with gargantuan trucks carrying other gargantuan trucks…fast…), seeming going on forever. I am carrying 1500 lbs on the truck and maybe a ‘tad’ more and the bounce one gets at 50 mph over a 2 foot “DIP” in the road is something to experience. (once would have been fine but all day for two 8 hour days has one digging the fingernails out of the steering wheel).

The Atigun Pass. It separates two distinct biomes, forest on one side tundra the other. We drove up and over. An insane engineer’s project to get a road and pipeline from one side to the other. Going north was an adventure, following a big, very big tanker truck up and down. We went on for 36 miles into the Tundra to get the feel of the emptiness. We stopped at the Arctic research area… a caribou nestled in the Tundra a few yards off the road. A truck pulled in and we talked to the driver who hauls things to the oil fields in the north. He was gregarious and wanted to talk about the road and how the ‘Ice raid truckers were a bunch of yahoos’ and how the conditions he worked were fine by him. He did talk of things I would not want to do: like chaining up all his drive tires on the truck at minus 40… though he also said the cold and snow smooths out the road…its the thaws and mud season that are the nightmare.  We were still hundreds of miles across the tundra from the Bering Sea. It was not a trip I needed to do  adding nearing 500 miles extra to see the water so to say I ‘swam’ in the Bering sea.  One must stop at the town of Dead Horse and have a 24 hour pre-arranged guided tour thereafter as the Prudhoe Bay. It is an oil town of Temp workers. The lodging is in shipping containers stacked up for a hotel. 

The rig, How is it fairing? Constantly thinking about it…in a good way now that the “proof is in the pudding” run has gone. A month of putting the new truck/camper combo to a rough first trial run. I think the platform overall has been incredible. That is not pride speaking as what I did has faults to be improved but the truck as it was new has done exceptionally well. The mini-max diesel is a keeper. Tons of torque when needed and overall mileage around 22-24 mpg. The Prairie winds did drop the mileage a lot so the overall is low..I think the wind will be at my back on the way home to increase it. 

Most all things made, worked. I brought too much stuff. I could lose a couple hundred pounds. What I did was plan for all contingencies… mathematically stupid. There are things vital in some circumstances with the probability of an occurrence minimal. So the list has been made to reduce the stuff…but there are those things needed to be added. I have really enjoyed the solar shower. Stream water in the pouch and left in the sun for a couple hours makes a fine hot shower, vital to keep spirits high. I have the need to make a lightweight folding aluminum shower holder attached to the jack stand mounts. make a real fridge shelf that won’t bend under the weigh of a 12 pack of beer. 

On the road to Chicken. One has time to ponder things when traveling. A great opportunity to get philosophical as there is time to do so. One thought that has come up a bunch lately is the  retrospection of the years. It seems clear there is a tipping scale in life… when young, you experience new things and personally important people and accumulate much but after a smooth sail of years that seem to come and go without thought of …..wait a minute….. I am mortal…. shit….what?!…. and then the value of things grows greater…the reverse then starts in a slow turn around of the burn engine, like the SpaceX landing.  It then becomes now more the loss of both of those, weathered away bit by bit.. it is how it goes. We come….and we go. I am trying to enjoy each of these stages as best as my ability to adapt continues… that is the fun of it too…. a new challenge to parse out instead of dread and refusal to keep current in the society’s culture. Keep the old but select the new. Stay on the front of the train, not in one of the cars dragged behind.

7/18/17 Just a fast correction… We went through Delta Junction before getting to Tok…and before which we camped on Moon Lake for the night. A long day driving from above the Arctic Circle, through Fairbanks (washed mud off the truck) and resupplied beer. Another correction from last post is I left out Eagle AK. It is a town on the Yukon River north of the Top of the World Highway at the Canadian border.  Eagle is famous for a few things one of which is Jack London stayed here for a number of months writing his stories of the great north. It is a town that saw large population in the gold rush years after being used as a communications line to the northern forts. The area is rich in hardship history. These people, like those that built all the stone walls in New England were hardier than we. We were the only ones there. It is also a ‘dry’ town. Its original purpose gone … The drive to Eagle was great,… we saw 60 Caribou in 3 groups cross the road and run . The camp site up by the fort was wonderful. There is little to do in Eagle. 

But I want to go back for the last few days. We have traveled a large number of miles and in doing so have crossed vast areas of wild, rugged country. It has gone from the hundreds of miles of stunted black and white spruce trees (due to saturated soil or frozen tundra) to 

large forests and over the mountains to tundra that stretches literally hundreds and hundreds of miles, as is, on either side of where you stand. Finally seeing the Brooks Range, the mountains that run east-west in the Arctic are real mountains… massive and sharp rising out of nowhere. The Atigun pass allows the Dalton Highway, a roller coaster, tire puncturing, pothole riddled minefield, that is just nuts (mind you Bolivia and Peru have similar, but not as a highway with gargantuan trucks carrying other gargantuan trucks…fast…), seemingly going on forever. I am carrying 1500 lbs on the truck and maybe a ‘tad’ more and the bounce one gets at 50 mph over a 2 foot “DIP” in the road is something to experience. (once would have been fine but all day for two 8 hour days has one digging the fingernails out of the steering wheel).

The Atigun Pass. It separates two distinct biomes, forest on one side tundra the other. We drove up and over. An insane engineer’s project to get a road and pipeline from one side to the other. Going north was an adventure, following a big, very big tanker truck up and down. We went on for 36 miles into the Tundra to get the feel of the emptiness. We stopped at the Arctic research area… a caribou nestled in the Tundra a few yards off the road. A truck pulled in and we talked to the driver who hauls things to the oil fields in the north. He was gregarious and wanted to talk about the road and how the ‘Ice raid truckers were a bunch of yahoos’ and how the conditions he worked were fine by him. He did talk of things I would not want to do: like chaining up all his drive tires on the truck at minus 40… though he also said the cold and snow smooths out the road…its the thaws and mud season that are the nightmare.  We were still hundreds of miles across the tundra from the Bering Sea. It was not a trip I needed to do  adding nearing 500 miles extra to see the water so to say I ‘swam’ in the Bering sea.  One must stop at the town of Dead Horse and have a 24 hour pre-arranged guided tour thereafter at the Prudhoe Bay. It is an oil town of Temp workers. The lodging is in shipping containers stacked up for a hotel. 

The rig, How is it fairing? Constantly thinking about it…in a good way now that the “proof is in the pudding” run has gone. A month of putting the new truck/camper combo to a rough first trial run. I think the platform overall has been incredible. That is not pride speaking as what I did has faults to be improved but the truck as it was new has done exceptionally well. The mini-max diesel is a keeper. Tons of torque when needed and overall mileage around 22-24 mpg. The Prairie winds did drop the mileage a lot so the overall is low..I think the wind will be at my back on the way home to increase it. 

Most all things made, worked. I brought too much stuff. I could lose a couple hundred pounds. What I did was plan for all contingencies… mathematically stupid. There are things vital in some circumstances with the probability of an occurrence minimal. So the list has been made to reduce the stuff…but there are those things needed to be added. I have really enjoyed the solar shower. Stream water in the pouch and left in the sun for a couple hours makes a fine hot shower, vital to keep spirits high. I have the need to make a lightweight folding aluminum shower holder attached to the jack stand mounts. make a real fridge shelf that won’t bend under the weigh of a 12 pack of beer. 

On the road to Chicken from Tok. One has time to ponder things when traveling. A great opportunity to get philosophical as there is time to do so. One thought that has come up a bunch lately is the  retrospection of the years. It seems clear there is a tipping scale in life… when young, you experience new things and personally important people and accumulate much but after a smooth sail of years that seem to come and go without thought of …..wait a minute….. I am mortal…. shit….what?!…. and then the value of things grows greater…the reverse then starts in a slow turn around of the burn engine, like the SpaceX landing.  It then becomes now more the loss of both of those, weathered away bit by bit.. it is how it goes. We come….and we go. I am trying to enjoy each of these stages as best as my ability to adapt continues… that is the fun of it too…. a new challenge to parse out instead of dread and refusal to keep current in society’s culture. Keep the old but select the new. Stay on the front of the train, not in one of the cars dragged behind.

July 17

Tok… home of Alaska’s cleanest vehicles…That is right…. they are known for it…a free carwash with fill up…and who doesn’t need both of those?… In the middle of nowhere where mud clad cars and trucks are the norm…. everybody is sparkling clean…even the ATV’s!

On top of that I see a real well run town.

We left this morning just north of Tok, AK and had a good time in Tok itself. A very interesting place who’s people are very proud of their history, as it is pretty recent, and pretty spectacular. A base camp for those that made these roads through these miles that we whisk through. Get out of the car and walk a mile of the same road and look where it went and why as one walks, what they had to cut through in wood or blast and dig in the rock, It is an incredible engineered job in wicked nasty conditions. The bugs alone would drive you crazy. I talked to a man who was half Athabaskan and half Irish. He loved to tell stories and told me about his time working on the pipeline as a welder. He said the bugs were so bad that as a man walked there was a tear drop shadow that followed him…the clouds of black fly and mosquito. He said he learned quite quickly of how to rid himself of the cloud…by walking fast, then stepping in front of another man…leaving your cloud with him for at least a few minutes reprieve. Every aspect of the day seemed a lot of work. This is a tough place and makes tough folk. 

We went up the Taylor Highway. A dirt road which goes up to a remote American border crossing at the end of the Top of the World Highway, with which it connects.. I will see that tomorrow but if it is a 10th of what I saw today I will be overwhelmed (again). The Road to Eagle is as the owner of the dry (no booze) town’s cafe says: on average 1 or 2 people out of one hundred that pass the 65 mile “ride” to the town of Eagle turn north to Eagle. Arriving at Chicken is enough of a hoot to do the day with the dredging machine that sat in a pond of its own creation and scooped ground with 32 metal scoops, 700 pounds a piece, on a massive and complex, heavy machine that sought gold. Crazy in weight and design it was all brought up these roads at the turn of the century … tons and tons of metal machines and pipe hundreds of miles. Like cutting up a steamship, hauling it up over a mountain range then reassembling it…. nuts amazing.

The road to Eagle was also incredible. After the Dalton it was work but not as nerve wracking… but the drop offs were like both of our experiences in Bolivia and Peru… bus rides across the Andes where the rear 5 seats of the bus actually do air time over the cliff edge hundreds of times… thousand feet down. 

It was a photo road but at many times a single lane road on a ledge …no turn off for some time… no stopping…. too dangerous. So photos came out the window or on straightaways.

A long first 40 miles… then the turn off for 65 miles at 30 MPH….eyes on the road surface 75 feet ahead. The sway bar paid for itself as did the shocks. I have come to a conclusion that the add-a-leaf was a bad idea..too much of a patch when a better thing was out there. I will most likely get a progressive spring pack at the Boise Spring works on the way through. Mind, the truck has done great with very rough road but I just think the progressive will make the truck last longer with less shock from rough road.

We came finally to Eagle. A town on the Yukon. Too much history to explain why it is here and more importantly why it is here now. That is the tougher part. It is here because of the past… still holding on; but as a place far removed struggling to be, not sure what it is. But man… what a view.!

I am here too, to drop into the Yukon River a rock brought with me from Massachusetts. A friend and co-teacher for a long time and with shared ideals and projects… passed. A science teacher and geologist. He would have loved to have thought that one of his specimens was coursing its way to the Bering Sea carried by the Yukon River. So I brought one of his to do so tomorrow…and being luckily Irish I just happen to have a shot of fine, single malt Irish Whiskey to salute him and his travels.

This will be on our way to Dawson City, also on the Yukon in Canada. We will make the border tomorrow at the end of the “Top of the World Highway”.

7/19/17 Too much to write about. I do want to state for the WTW (Wander the West) and FWC (Four Wheel Camper) folks that I will be writing a camper/truck… route report on the WTW site when I get home. There are details that I know are specific to the planner of a trip that are not so interesting to those who read this blog. 

We came down to the Yukon River and did stop first at the camp sites on the western side and did walk down the river towards the steam ship graveyard. We did not stay on that side of the river but took the crazy ferry across…so efficient and fast though it looked treacherous at first with the current swinging the ferry boat. We opted for a camp site on the edge of down town Dawson so we could walk around the town and then sleep.

We left Dawson this morning in a leisurely way mostly due to the fact we did not sleep well as we still are distracted by the light at 11 PM thing and being in a cool place and Dawson we just stayed up… Dawson was not what I expected in a good way. Almost everything I had preconceived was wrong… never believe the advertisements in travel magazines. What I had thought would be a garish tourist place turned out to be a place that has done it right. Cultural museums of the native people were incredible. The history of the insanity of the lust for gold… the engineering feats all were there with the harsh details that one would ask “how did they deal with that?” e.g. the mortuary on a main street showed how the minus 51 degrees below zero for over 30 days and a flu epidemic was dealt with. Then there is the theater and cultural history of the money days. All this was displayed in a subdued and proud way. The businesses that deal with the crowds of tourists (in a Yukon dimension) did so in a friendly laid back way. Seeing what the local government provided the residents was also wonderful: recycling, a heated swimming pool, a curling club, a gym, a theater, lots of children activities…. baseball… parks… it looked like a great place to settle in. 

We left around 11 AM and headed out on the Klondike Highway along the Klondike river past the miles of tailing fields left behind by the monster dredges for gold. Where the Klondike river comes into the Yukon. Twenty miles up the Klondike highway the Dempster Highway goes forever north to the Arctic Ocean 14-16 hours drive north (road and weather permitting). It was tempting but there are a lot of forest fires before the Tundra and the air is thick with smoke as they continue to fight fires into the fall. This apparently is happening in western BC as well. So we continued with the plan to travel the Klondike Highway to the town of Carmack  where the Yukon River appears again and where we went Northeast on the Campbell Highway. It is paved for the first 70 miles and thereafter 300 miles of gravel and dirt. There are two small settlements Faro and Ross River. The last fuel with over a couple hundred miles to go. I had wanted to drive a discontinued road to a now unworked mine in the Northwest Territories off the Campbell (not recommended for tourists). An extremely helpful connection with the WTW who happens to live in The Yukon at Watson River (aka Robbie)(steered to him by Frank on WTW!) has helped me over the last few months find fishing and camping spots along the highway. He even offered to drop fuel where the road headed north should I make that attempt. At this time in writing this, I sit by the Little Salmon Lake in a campsite only 46 miles up on the Campbell highway. The Canadian camp sites so far are super and well taken care of. A bargain price of $8 US or $12 Canadian.

I have a full tank of 21 gallons diesel and at Ross River I will top off the tank and also fill the three 2 gallon fuel tanks on the roof (easy on and off). This will give me the option of heading up the Nahanni Range road … though not the planned 300 mile return exit mileage…. maybe 120. It all depends on time…fishing .. tiredness… need to just veg out or hurry up. We’ll make that choice when it arrives. We are so lucky the weather has been good. The roads are always in repair and that just needs to be figured in on travel time. I found a good site that lists the work being done at what mile post and what to expect. Worth it in planning distance.

I am still amazed at the ‘road barns’ …the massive Greyhound bus size “mobil homes” not ‘campers’ on the road in the thousands up here. I hear folks retire to these and it is cheaper all told w/o taxes etc. Still it is a huge thing to move around. I feel like a ground squirrel on the road beside them. The Mini-max diesel sails by them when needed … that is the fun part of this truck combo. 

7/20/17 Nix the Nahanni road. We have traveled 250 miles over the Campbell Highway road over the last two days. Spoilt by the first 90 miles of pavement the last, 160 miles (with a 110 to go) is a crawl of 30 mph mostly due to the heavy rains and huge potholes, mud, and washboard. If you have traveled the roads of the North Maine Wood’s logging roads it is similar. One’s eyes are glued to the 100 feet in front and weaving to avoid the slam of the  suspension bottoming out, praying the tires didn’t pop. We are at an incredibly beautiful Frances Lake. We did not arrive until 8 PM but thankfully it won’t get dusk until midnight. We set up and had smoked salmon, Irish butter, rye bread and a beer. Can’t beat that. These lakes are monsters. This one has two arms each very wide and 20 miles long. The water is ice cold and filled with huge fish. Probably will too, until more people can access it. Canadians seem to love and feel at ease in the wild areas. They take great pride and support the Parks and camp grounds. The out houses are spotless and with paper, bear trash cans as well as free marked firewood. All of this for $8 US ($12 Canadian). Wow. 

Keep thinking of the Top of the Word Highway (again that word “highway”…. ignore what you think… it is a road…. not even necessarily paved). The road climbs through scenery that is beyond descriptions….mountains that go on forever in 360º. If I had been transported here and opened my eyes I would think I was in heaven.

We have lived in the camper 4 weeks and 1 week visiting sleeping in real beds. The camper has become home, slowly cluttered in a way that works. We have our system for arrival and departure down and it only takes minutes. Great in the rain. Everything still works. The mud from the roads is thick on the truck and the camper back is nuts….usually have to hit it with a pale of water to get to the door. I took a couple shots of the inside of the camper that I will post too for those unfamiliar with it…. remember when looking at it imagining just standing in the back of a small pickup truck bed. It seems bigger in than out. Lots of tweaks to make it work efficiently absolutely like a cabin on a boat. A place for everything and everything in its place.

From here we hope to arrive at Watson Lake perhaps tomorrow or the next…. The wild backroads are nearly done and we enter the civilized wilderness of paved roads and restaurants and fuel not at a tank in the woods with a card slot. It will seem pretty smooth sailing. We will cut over from the southern Yukon into British Columbia, south on the Cassiar Highway and I was thrilled to be reminded that we will be near the sea again at Stewart and Hyder (AK)… so there is the hope that I may procure more smoked Halibut. BC has been having a terrible forest fire year. Hoping that the smoke is not too thick to see (or breathe). 

On the WTW site there is a topic called “Mods for under $5” … This is where the ‘Maguivers’  report their solutions to tight quarters living; ways to use space by adding a bit of this and that. Time is spent irritated at a problem until the ‘light bulb’ goes off and eureka moment arrives. I love the Isotherm fridge I replaced the top opening Engel fridge with. Very nice access to all food and additional counter space opened up. The big “PITA” is that if the fridge is not tightly stuffed with things the contents gets scrambled when driving the back road washboard and pothole express. The shelf rack front snapped  off from the impacts. The wire rack shelf is not that stiff that a bit of weight creates a sag. A proper sized slides in tupperware box and a vertical fence in the front has to be finagled as well a a number of other tweaks upon returning home to be ready for the next trip.

7/23/17 Wake up at our remote spot on the Campbell hwy. at Frances Lake … a great spot before the road is improved as we found it is in the making from Watson Lake on the Alaskan Hwy. Once the road is improved … the ride is too easy for the masses. As is, it was a remote spot of incredible beauty … we left and were surprised how the road was so good after the last 160 miles of wicked bad. So on we went to Watson Lake a few hours… a nice town with great services for locals and an incredibly helpful info place for travelers. We met our WTW helpful ‘agent’ and talked on places to come. He had  great idea south on the Cassiar Highway on which we now camp at Boya Lake… water like Tahiti and beautiful mountain views. We will stay here tomorrow  (21) as well. For those in WTW The Campbell is not now recommended by us as a good route. We have to say it is a too off road ride at this time from Ross River to Frances Lake… drivable but not enjoyable even in 4wd. Granted I went there for fishing but due to heavy rains the streams and rivers were near flood so not good for fly fishing…. so maybe later. 

We saw 2 bear today both black but one cinnamon in color… sitting happily by the road eating. Went on down to the end of the Campbell Hwy. at Watson Lake. Stopped in to the “Sign Post Forest”, an obligatory rite of passage, hanging the Buckland duo’s red oak sign. 

On down the Alaskan Hwy. to catch the Cassiar Hwy. heading south into British Columbia. Our WTW guide in these parts sent us to the Boya Lake Provincial Park camping. The old glacial till silt, now settled, makes the water a Caribbean blue. Hands down the most beautiful lake I have ever seen…. the ultimate kayak and canoe lake. Google Earth it and see why. Our first site was on the water facing north and it was beautiful though our neighbor was close. This morning Luann, back from her walk, told of a site in a much better spot on the lake (#5), quiet and a spectacular lake and mountain view. Here I happily sit in the shade as the solar shower bag heats up in the sun and Luann is out exploring the lake in a kayak rented by the park.  This second day here is a wonderful relaxing day, cleaning things out and hanging in the kermit chairs. A fine day paddling and cooking on the fire pit. Rested and ready for the next leg down the Cassiar Highway…. hoping to see the Grizzlies feeding on the salmon starting their run to spawn.