I already wrote a posting about our drive down the 120 miles dirt and gravel Denali Highway, which is not the Denali Park Road, which I still owe a posting on. There is no doubt, this is probably one of the most scenic roads anywhere, especially in the fall, but one has to weigh that against the terrible condition of the road. Not a moment on the road is without some fantastic visa, the one photo I hope to attach s a small sample. By the way, I took the photo with my ipad and in the process of climbing back down the steep, rocky slope on which I took the photo I slipped and fell. My main concern was protecting the ipad with all my photos, but avoid injury myself. The photo depicts the Alaskan Mountain range.
I learned on my way out of the highway the next day that all the hunters I saw in their camps along the road, with their ATVs all gassed up and ready to go,care laying in wait for the Nalchina caribou herd. I was trying to figure out some way to warn the herd, but decided to move on. I reasoned that those hunters have guns, but inonlybhave bear spray.
In the process of moving on, I almost hit another stray dog, 12 miles in one direction from any settlement, and 20 in another. Fortunately, he or she escaped unscathed into the brush. My hope is that it wasn't a stray but a wanderer.
I camped at a pleasant state park called Tangle Lake, although the wind was a little too much for me in trying to set up my new tent. (It is a three-person tent, which means it takes three people to set it up.) On Tuesday morning it started to snow and so I made haste to get out of there. Eighteen inches were expected.
My plan for Tuesday was to drive at least half the 730 mile trip to Skagway so I could spend some time in Skagway before my midnight ferry to night, Wednesday That would put me near Destruction Bay, Yukon, on the ALCAN, where I camped once before. But I did not want to be on the ALCAN, an extremely empty road during the day, at night, especially with the risks of driving that road. Charging my satellite phone again just in case, our trip followed the contours of the awesome Elias Wrangell mountains, and again I was treated to a magnificent experience, despite the low clouds. But on the ALCAN, I had to come to a screeching halt three times to avoid hitting a deer, a moose, and a little creature that looked like a cross between a mongoose and squirrel.
Although it was getting past dusk, I pushed on to make Destruction Bay just as usuable daylight was disappearing, but also just as the cold and very high winds set in. I was not particularly looking forward to setting up camp in those conditions. Fortunately, I fed Leben and Erde at a rest stop earlier on the ALCAN, so that chore was out of the way. After experiencing the thrills of the ALCAN that resembled a broken roller coaster, when I got to cold, windy Destruction Bay, I was told that all the campsites in the area were closed to tenters because of the high bear presence. So, tired and not thrilled about driving the ALCAN alone in the dark, I decided to push on to the next Yukon camp, 60 miles on. Half way there, I lost one of my headlights. Although I have a spare with me, I was not about to stop to change it, so I drove on using my brights, which you do not want to use anywhere where there is opposing traffic, especially on the ALCAN with its narrow shoulders and steep drop offs.
After an hour of very slow driving, when I came to the Spruce Beetle rest stop just before Haines, I decided to call it quits. Instead of pitching my tent, I decided to sleep in the Defender, sitting up in the driver's seat since all other space is already occupied by he dogs. What a mistake, even though I had my sleeping bag to help ward off the freezing temperature. Most of my night was spent trying to figure out which body part I could move where to maximize the comfort and minimize the pain of sleeping in an already cramped seat, as well as trying to maneuver portions of my sleeping bag to block the Defender's many entrances for cold air. Several times I turned on the engine to get the heater working, knowing - or not caring - that asphyxiation is not a risk in the well-ventilated Defender, but the quirky heater works only when it wants to and not when I want to. (Nice, huh? In Alaska in their winter.) And when I did finally mange to get some shut-eye, Erde starting to run in her sleep as she is wont to do, banging her paws into everything that makes noise in the former front passenger seat. The list goes on and on, but I did manage to get three hours of well-earned sleep and several occasions of dramatic night skies, as the clouds lifted, the stars came out, and the full moon jumped out from behind the clouds, reflecting on the bay the road bordered. I thought for a moment that maybe all I went through to get there was worth it, but I am not ready to say that yet.
The drive down the ALCAN to Whitehorse along the edge of the Wrangell mountains was impressive, as was the drive down the South Klondike Highway to Skagway. But as I neared Skagway, climbing the same mountains the Klondikers climber a century so, thinking that all the adventure (read risk) was behind me, WHAM, I ran into a wall of heavy fig that lasted for 10 miles on an already treacherous mountain road. I found myself cursing the Klondikers, saying that I wished they had pursued their dreams of getting rich by pushing AMWAY goods or selling Florida swamp land instead of hustling for gold. After getting a grip on myself, I reached the bottom of the same mountains the Klondikers climbed (in less luxury, of course) and paid a visit to the cemetery holding the graves of several dozen Klondikers killed in the April 3, 1898 avalanche here. Leben and Erde also paid their respects for the second time, the first time being in 2001 when they were pups.
So, here we sit in the one-hesd-light Defender waiting for the ferry and the real start to our trip home. Leben and Erde are going to have to remain in the Defender for the four days, but I'll be able to walk them at the ports. But since my rule is to treat them like I treat myself, I'll hang out on the deck instead of getting a state room for myself. And since I'll be cutting back on their meals for the next few days for an obvious reason, I'll lose another pound or two myself.
There may not be internet on the ferry, so I may not blog four several days, but I will write up the most important posts of this trip I still owe. And maybe I'll even try to get past page 11 in the first of a dozen books I brought along.
Photos include...
The Alaskan range from the terrible Denali Highway
Dinner is served at a rest stop on the lonely ALCAN
Erde finally shows an interest in the views and not smells
The wall of fog for 10 miles going into Skagway
Leben and Erde pay their respects at the Slide Cemetery
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