AFTER SEVEN WEEKS, HOME AT LAST

First, let me cover the basics: Seven weeks on the road, almost 6,200 highway miles through British Columbia, Yukon, and Alaska, about 10% of which was on gravel highways or just plain dirt roads, and maybe 200 miles was ongoing road construction. We stayed 14 nights in federal or municipal campgrounds, 14 at private homes (including the time we were gone to Juneau and Sitka), 6 at church camp in Wasilla, 6 in commercial RV Parks, once in a parking lot and once at an auto dealership. and six times just along the road in remote locations. And we slept well every night!

Let me briefly review the whole trip. we left Vancouver and took I-5 to Bellingham and then straight north to cross the border at Lynden, WA. We took the Frazier River Canyon route north into central B.C., the Cariboo Region, passing through Prince George to intersect the Alaska Highway above Fort Saint John. That's where we had the mechanical troubles! Then it was up the highway as far as Haines Junction and south to Haines, Alaska. (2,380 miles)

We took the Alaska Marine ferryboat to Juneau and were quickly into the whirl of Geoffrey and Dana's wedding plans. The Happy Deed witnessed, Betty and I flew to Sitka for three days, returned to Juneau on the ferry system, and returned to Haines to rejoin our rig on June 14th. The next few days were spent driving through lower Yukon and portions of Alaska to Anchorage (another 800 miles) after which we drove to the Mat-Su Valley to help in a church camp. Leaving Wasilla, we stocked up on groceries, headed for Tok, and began the infamous Taylor Highway arriving in Eagle (via Chicken) dusty and rattled, but delighted to be there. (3,762 from home).

I'll detail the time in Eagle in another blog or two later, but after a truly wonderful two weeks we retraced half of the Taylor and took the "Top of the World Highway" a gravel highway where it is safe and actually smoother overall to drive about 45 to 50 miles an hour, dust and all. It crosses upper Yukon and ends at Dawson City, the site of the famous Gold Rush of 1896. Beginning to head south at last on pavement most of the time, we drove a couple of days to reach Whitehorse, another to get to Watson Lake where the famous "Signpost Forest" is located. We opted again to take the beautiful but somewhat primitive Cassiar Highway as an alternative to our northbound route through B.C., and a couple of long days later arrived in Smithers, one of our favorite towns. We took a rest day there to enjoy the quaint scandinavian character of the area before continuing home through Prince George again and duplicating the beginning route home from there. (Total distance 6173 miles).

We pulled our 22' light-weight camper/trailer all the way with the GMC Safari Van. Mileage varied - depending on speed, grade, road conditions, wind direction - from lows of 10.8 mpg to highs around 12.8 mpg. Gasoline prices ranged as high in Alaska as $3.87 per gallon, and it was even worse in Canada where the price of $1.28 Canadian per liter converted to the USD equivalent of nearly $4.50 a gallon. Ouch!

On the other hand, we were comfortable and completely self-sufficient. Staying with friends was always fun and we were well fed during the week at church camp. In wilderness locations, we always had good food, usually fresh, thanks to well supplied markets in the larger towns and our efficient propane refrigerator/freezer in the camper. Cooking on the road while camping always tastes good too.

We had almost no rain until we left Eagle, and then it was never severe but enough to hold down the dust and clean smoke and haze from the air. We only got "slimed" once and that was expected on the Cassiar. That is what happens when the combination of ultra-fine glacier dust found on most road surfaces plus the topping chemicals applied in construction areas make a mud spray that completely obscures the lower and rearward surfaces of a vehicle to the point that it is impossible to recognize any feature of color, make, style, or lighting at all. If it is not removed before it sets up dry it can become the most miserable job of car washing you can imagine. We lucked out twice as rain almost immediately removed 90% of the grime within minutes of collecting it.

By next blog I will have all the pictures available and can begin to illustrate some of the things I will be writing about. I'll cover a few more topics, but I don't plan to relive the entire trip here. Maybe I'll have a CD put together someday that you can ask to see.