Monday September 28th (From the Plains to the Rockies)

Dawson Creek to Grande Cache

205 miles

The 1^st thing we did after hooking Cassie up this morning was go to the car wash, should really be called motor home wash. All the rain and brown muck from the road made Cassie and Chevy extremely dirty, we got both rigs relatively clean. Yesterday after going to the Dawson Creek Visitors Center we decided that we would drive south through Jasper.

Today on our drive to Grande Cache the wind was blowing the leaves were coming down everywhere it was really lovely to see. We drove through Grande Prairie, a community of 50,000; it’s kind of weird now driving in urban areas after coming down the Alcan. 

We arrived at Grande Cache and went to the visitors information, got loaded down with things to do in this area, we knew we had to stay here 2 nights.

We went to the Grande Cache Labyrinth in the early evening and we had to walk it, it was kind of interesting going everywhere but going nowhere to get to the center.

We are staying in the Municipal Camp Ground here; each site is nested in the woods, just a lovely and private. Another day surrounded by beautiful foliage blowing in the wind

Monday September 27th (A wet Mile 0 Alcan Hiway)

Pink Mountain to Dawson Creek

144 miles

We had another light day of driving mostly heavy rain. Drove through some beautiful farm land. Crossed the Peace River, an amazing uphill climb out of there.

We arrived in Dawson Creek about 1.00pm and camped at Mile 0 Camp Ground just off the main road. We went to the visitor center and picked up maps and watched a PBS Movie on making the Alcan 1200 miles of road in 8 month an amazing engineering feat. This evening after supper we went for a nice walk along the Dawson Creek Trail

Sunday September 26th (Caribou day)

Laird Hot Springs to Pink Mountain

350 miles

We got away to an earlier start this morning not really sure how far we would drive today. The hiway was miles and miles of straight roads. It parallels many rivers and lakes and it was a extremely pleasant drive. We drove through Muncho Lake Provincial Park and Stone Mountain Provincial Park. There were caribou grazing along the side of the road and licking minerals from the road surface. They were very casual about getting off the road. Stopped at Summit Lake, every where you looked was beauty.

We stopped briefly at Fort Nelson population of 5000, we bought gas there the most expensive gas we have bought on this journey. The colors of foliage today were probably the best on the journey. With lovely lakes in foreground and snow capped mountains further away. Tonight we are camping at Pink Mountain, a spot on the road between Fort Nelson and Dawson Creek

Saturday September 25th (Back to beautiful weather)

Watson Lake to Laird Hot Springs (A wonderful spot on the road)

132 mile

A beautiful days driving in idea conditions sun shining on a lovely hiway with little traffic. We saw several bisson grazing beside the hiway. Everybody we know who has driven the Alaska Hiway, have said Laird is a place that you must stop at, and now that we have been to Laird we happen to agree. Arrived here about 11.30am and found a camping spot in the Provincial Park about a ½ mile walk to the hot springs. We spent a couple of hours soaking in the pool, really didn’t want to get out, we did start feeling like prunes, felt we better get out while we still had energy to walk back to our campsite. We meet a couple from Eagle River in the pool and had a nice chat with them, they have limited time and had left Eagle River on Thursday, and they are putting in lots of miles in a short time. Its make us feel fortunate that we are not restricted by a schedule. We have seen and heard lots of sand hill grains, doing what we are doing heading south.  In the evening we went back to the pools to soak some more. The Provential Park Camp Ground is beautiful each site is among the trees on level gravel pads which seemed to be racked daily.

Friday September 24th (Blizzard)

Whitehorse to Watson Lake

285 miles

We woke up this morning open Casies door to  the world, and what we say was quite the surprise it was snowing, with a couple of inches already on the ground. The 1^st words spoken were dam, followed by what’s the problem; the reply was its snowing.

We had unhooked Cassie from the truck last evening as we thought we would spend the day exploring Whitehorse. Our thought was not such a good idea under the circumstances, as we were concerned about get stuck in Whitehorse longer than we would like. So we headed off to Watson Lake. We were driving in blizzard conditions over some pretty hilly terrain. Visibility at the most was ½ a mile for at least ½ the way, we found out later from folks following us that the conditions got much worse. We had discussed going  down the Cassiar Hiway which is closer to the coast. We changed our mind due to the less than pleasant driving conditions. We drove by the Cassiar junction staying on the Alaska Hiway.

We camp at Down Town Camp Ground in Watson Lake. The owner there Archie share lots of good information with us. After supper we walked around Wye Lake, across the road from the camp ground. The walk is about on a trial which boardwalk and interpretive signs around it. We were looking online and discovered Anchorage and the Valley had some winds, so we made a few calls to find out how things were and to find out if our property had any damage, but everything was fine at home. 

Thursday September 23rd (What a difference a day makes)

Thursday September 23^rd (Whitehorse YT)

Beaver Creek to Whitehorse

Distance 285 Miles

An overcast day with some snow flurries, what a contrast from the weather from the beginning of our travels.

We stopped at the visitors center in Haines Junction, a real nice center with a lot of interesting stuff in it. We also watch a 15min video of the history of the region. Tomorrow is the last day they will be open for the season. We felt that we lucky to get to places before they close for the season, but how much longer can this happen we are wondering . We thought we better high tail south before all the places are closed. We were recommended a camp ground in Whitehorse, yes that closed for the season. We had to look around a bit to find a camp that was open. There were about 16 spaces to park with electric hook ups, and we got the 2nd to last vacant spot. As our cell phone does not work in Canada we used Skype to call some folks and that seem to work out o.k. We did have a few problems with both our computers but Holly spent some time and got them sorted out. We also watched the live streaming of Channel 2 News In Anchorage.  

Wednesday September 22nd (We are in Canada)

Slide Mountain to Beaver Creek

Distance 330 Miles

It was a tad chilly last night; the temperature when we got up this morning was 21 F. This morning before we left Slide Mountain Camp Ground we visit with Dave the host, and he showed us some of the fossils that were collect from Slide Mountain. Note in the photo of Dave that the logs in the house are going vertical as oppose to the more common horizon log construction. The reason for this he explained is that the trees in tha area grew short and stubby, so that is why they were are used vertically, also 2 or 3 men could place them in position without the use of a crane.

We had another pleasant day’s travel, driving from Slide Mountain thru Glennallen, Tok to the US Border (Port Alcan) into Canada. When we walk in the door at the visitor’s center at Beaver Creek, Sid the host greeted us with an introduction and a hand shake. Sid has been living in Beaver Creek for nearly 50 years, and is extremely friendly and a wealth of information. While we were taking with Sid, we saw this white dog sprinting down the middle of the highway. He said oh that's Snowball, he does that sprint several times a day. We thought man that dog is lucky to be alive.

We stopped at Beaver Creek for the evening at the Westmark Inn Campground. This evening we hooked Casie up to electricity and immediately plugged in the electric heater; it is much quieter than Casie propane furnace. The camp ground had shut of there water and closed down the sewer for the season to the sites, before it gets really cold. They still have the community wash room and toilet facilities open, and I believe those will be closing up towards the end of the week.

I thought we may be able to have driven from Anchorage to Tok on tank full of gas 330 miles; well I was wrong by about 10 miles, before we completely ran out, and we pulled over and poured in 5 gals from our fuel container that we carry for our generator. We were very please with the trucks fuel consumption as we got almost 14 mpg.

Tuesday September 21st (We are on our way)

Anchorage to Slide Mountain Camp
Miles today 135

Today at 1.11pm on the autumn equinox we left our comfortable warm home in Anchorage, and headed for the road on a beautiful sunny day, hardly a cloud in the sky. The traffic was light and the driving enjoyable. We followed the Matanuska River along the Glenn Hiway to Mile 135 to Slide Mountain Cabins and RV Park. Here we had a WiFi connection, but had to walk out to the guard rail on the hiway for cell phone reception. In the early evening the camp ground host Dave allowed us to use his printer as we had to get some information printed as one of our tire pressure monitors has to be sent back to the manufacture as it is malfunction.
We are sitting in a dinning shelter with a fire blazing. Holly is writing our journal manually as I am adding to this blog. The temperate this evening will drop several degrees below zero which we can expect for several more days on this trip so the heater will be going in Cassie this evening. 

Monday 20th September Anchorage (We are closer to leaving)

   When we decided to go for a road trip we choose the 20th of September to be to be the day we would leave Anchorage and be travelling down the highway. Well we missed that date. Today has been an extremely  busy day, organizing, reorganizing, packing unpacking repacking, trying to figure out the best place to put stuff, and there is a lot of stuff to put. We have pretty much got the bed of the truck loaded and Cassie packed for the journey South. Now to figure out what we need to take in the way of personal gear as we must be prepared for the complete weather spectrum, from extremely cold to extremely hot and everything in between. When you are not sure were you a heading it makes it makes it a bit more difficult to pack clothing.
When Holly and I hitched hiked to Alaska in 1973, all we had with us was a small back pack each with all our camping and cooking gear. What a contrast to the way we are travelling today. It took us 10 days to hitch hike from Ottawa, to Anchorage a distance of 4500 miles.
This photo was taken in front one of Holly's gardens today. When we get back the garden will be covered in snow, and the webs will be gone from the trees

Sunday 19th September Anchorage (final days of preparation)

We are working hard to get everything done we need to do in Anchorage before heading down the highway. Lots of yard work has been done to get things as prepared as we can before winter. Mowing lawns, harvesting apples and cherries then canning them. Picking peas and zucchini from our garden and turning the soil in the plot over and mixing in compose. Every time we get one chore done another pops up, things are starting to look good now.  Had to make sure our truck would be in good order so we had a 60,000 mile check up on it, there were a few parts needing to be replaced. We had Cassie our tent on wheels hubs creased and brakes changed.
  We have gather our gear in the garage, and sorting out what we would like to take and on what we ready need to take. Our spare bedroom is the sorting room for the clothing we will take. Our truck and Casie is parked in the driveway waiting to be loaded for the trip.

Kayaking at Bear Glacier Alaska, August 1st 2010