Haines, Alaska (June 28, 2012) to Tok, Alaska (July 3, 2012)
We are sad to leave Haines, but are very ready to get to central Alaska. The Haines Highway starts out on a level plateau following the ?Chilkat? river and enters a Bald Eagle Sanctuary. The sanctuary is large and we spot several places along the road where cars can pull over and pedestrians can walk along a sidewalk area for Bald Eagle watching. We see very few Bald Eagles, but we do see a couple ?fish wheels? in the river where salmon are caught up into a basket and then retrieved, clever fishing.
We will change highway numbers 3 times on this drive, as we will be in Alaska (7), British Columbia (4) and then the Yukon (3) before we reach the Alaskan Highway. The road is a long steady grade up and we eventually reach the Canadian Border. The young fella asked a few questions like how much liquor, how long will we be in Canada and do we have more than $10,000.00 with us. I answered 2-6 packs of beer, not long as we are headed to Alaska and no?not more than $10,000 on us. We move on. We have yet to see a Canadian Border guard smile..must be the long cold winters.
The Haines Highway is very different from the drive down to Skagway from Whitehorse. The Skagway road was scenic, had lots of canyons and different landscape. The Haines Highway was almost bland and desolate and very cold. Most of it was barren and above the timber line which was less than 3,500 feet. We eventually turned on the generator and ran both heat pumps. For lunch we stopped at the top of the grade, and I made coffee to go with lunch just to warm us up. Getting nearer to Haines Junction the landscape changes with big trees and lots of overgrowth; we stopped to read about the ?Tatshenshini-Alsek Wilderness Provincial Park? area we were traveling through. This area is the home to the largest number of grizzly bears in Canada. We think we saw one. This is also the area when you can begin a 10 day float trip floating through glacier areas, seeing grizzlies and fishing opportunities finally coming out into the Pacific Ocean. We both think that would be a fabulous trip; maybe next time.
Coming down into Haines Junction was somewhat of a disappointment. We both expected lots more businesses and activity. We were planning on fueling up, but found the big Shell station closed, with a notice that ?Go-6? gas facility was going to open later.. There was another gas ?bar? as they are called, in with a campground; but we thought it might be a tight squeeze for us.
I took over driving after lunch and figured we could make ?Cottonwood RV Park? at the southern point of Klune Lake in short order. Well?.that came to an abrupt halt and reality set in. About 10 miles outside of Haines Junction we began seeing construction road signs and then hit horrible road conditions. The road was completely washboarded out with pot holes everywhere, and I mean, everywhere. There was no relief, you couldn?t miss them, you couldn?t avoid them and every man was for himself. Our speed dropped to less than 10 mph and the coach rattled and rolled for several miles?lots of miles. I was exhausted. Finally we got back on a paved road, but it was full of frost heaves, big holes and uneven road condition. I couldn?t get any speed at all and often could only go 25-35 miles per hour.
We finally made it to Cottonwood RV Park; a pretty place but it only had 15 amp service, no garbage collection, no sewer and you had to buy water and it was $32.00 cash per night to boot. We did have a beautiful site looking out at the lake, but the wind was howling and it only got to 49 degrees and dropped much lower through the night. In this situation we usually rely on our heat pumps; but this time it was the furnace. The cats loved it; they laid in front of the furnace vents on the floor and thought they had gone to heaven. Tim and I realized this is the first time in all the years we have owned the coach that we have run the furnace so much. We also had a bit of excitement in the campground. As you pull in, there is a slight down slope where you park to go into the office to check in. Several hours after we were all set up, we both heard this terrible ?thump? sound. I looked out to see a ?Gulf Stream? diesel pusher with it?s front end up against the two trees right behind us. Apparently somehow the coach rolled into the trees. We didn?t hear the details, but the front grill was broken and as we were watching they were checking head lights. It was moveable, as after a while they found their site and were settled in for the night. One of our biggest fears is that if we leave Charlie in the coach he is big enough to step on the air brake plunger allowing the coach to roll. These folks had a big dog, so maybe that is what happened. We?re hoping the event didn?t end their trip. As for Charlie, we block the driver?s seat and put something over the brake knob.
Destruction Bay was the next little community after we pulled out of the park, if you can call it that; a gas station and a campground. We fueled up and began the trek to the Alaskan border. Our destination was Tok, 225 +/- some miles if the road was good, but we agreed if we got tired, we?d stop for the night. Well, we got tired. The road was terrible, long stretches of pot holes, frost heaves and large uneven road. Finally we reached the Alaskan border and are glad to be there. I was driving, answered the agent?s question and yippee? we were back in the good ole US. The US road was FABULOUS?beautiful?smooth. Any adjective you can use! We stopped at the visitor?s center and found there was a campground just up the road called ?Deadman?s Lake?. They told us we could fit with our size coach, it was free camping and we were ready. There was a long parking area close to the turn off for the campground which enabled us to unhook the car. This area is the Tetlin National Wildlife Reserve, and Deadman campground is owned/operated by the Fish and Game. It was 1.2 miles off of Alaska Highway. The road was supposed to be gravel, but it was a mixture of hard packed dirt and gravel with some soft mud spots; but easily passable. We originally chose one site, but had a hard time leveling. Found several nice level spots where even a 40? could get in. There are no facilities, but the lake is pretty and the camp hosts very nice.
That evening there was a ?host/ranger? talk about Permafrost?, so Tim and I joined in. We learned quite a bit. Did you know that north of Fairbanks, Ak the permafrost goes down somewhere between 300? to 400?? It never thaws. Also if you build a structure and don?t take the proper precautions, that the heat of the house will melt the permafrost under the house and the land will sink along with your house. We had noticed during our miles of driving that often we would see areas where the trees were stunted and it looked like nothing was doing very well. Well, those areas are permafrost. However, across the road the forest can be green and rich with growth. That?s where the permafrost is not so prevalent.
We climbed into bed fairly early that evening, but with sunrise at 3:30 am, it?s hard to sleep in. The campground hosts had mentioned that more rain was forecast, so as a precaution and to avoid more mud in the road to the campground, we pulled out early and went right back to the parking area. We left the coach and then drove about 10 miles to hike a trail that we had read about. It was good to stretch our legs and Charlie loved the exercise. The lakes we visited at our campground and this hike have life jackets for kids to use when they are close to the water. Also the lake we hiked to (Hidden Lake) had a rowboat for anyone to use while they were there..no cost). The boats are called "John" boats, and to keep people from taking the paddles, the Fish and Game people constructed paddles by using 2 x 2 pieces of wood with a 12 x 12 square piece of plywood. The screwed the plywood onto the bottom of the 2 x 2s and voila` a paddle of sorts. They told us the paddles worked very well.
Tok, Alaska was a few hours from our campground and a very easy drive, so we pulled into the ?Three Bears RV Park & Campground? in Tok about noon. Tok is basically a cross roads town, with one highway going down to Anchorage and Valdez; the other going to Fairbanks. We had originally wanted to stay at ?Sourdough RV park?, but when I called they did not have any full hookups sites, which we wanted. The Three Bears campground is not bad and only $26.00/nite full hookups. The sun has been shinning off and on all day with a couple of thunder showers in between. It is supposed to be in the 70s in the next couple of days?.wahoo!
Tomorrow we drive to Chicken with the little car.
The drive to Chicken, Alaska is about 65 miles. For many miles we drive through a burned Spruce forest which burned hundreds of thousands of acres of trees in 2004. By the time we pass through this area we climb above the timberline and after several rain showers we finally arrive at the town of Chicken. Many arrive here by taking a 400 mile trip from Whitehorse, Yukon to Dawson then to Chicken of which the last 50 or so miles is an unpaved-dirt, narrow road with large drop-offs. We opted to take a different route with the motor home and just drive our car from Tok to Chicken. Seeing the unpaved dirt road going through Chicken toward Dawson in a heavy downpour made us glad we decided to skip the route from Dawson to Chicken.
We did however catch a glimpse of a Northern Hawk Owl, who is the only member of the owl family that hunts during the day. At first we thought it was a large ?Great Horned Owl?, but learned later that it was the Northern Hawk.
The town of 30-50 people was named Chicken by miners a long time ago when the town was first settled. They subsisted by eating Ptarmigan which is the Alaskan State bird. This was what they intended to name the town, but they couldn?t spell or say the name so they settled on Chicken. There is nothing there now except some touristy stuff and everyone leaves town by late Fall. There is a good place for desserts.
Tonight we splurged and ditched our diet for some excellent pizza and tomorrow we start our trek towards Anchorage and Valdez, Alaska.