North To Alaska

I couldn’t remember where the Northern Rockies were in the trip, but today we went through them. It was amazing. We started the day off a little late. We gassed up, handled oil/tires, and got a nice cup of coffee – then hit the road at 7am. We were in thick fog for the first couple of hours – Sacramento Tule fog has nothing on this stuff. Visibility maxed out at 100’, with the norm being more like 25’. The road was pretty empty, though while taking a wilderness bio-brake Denise had an encounter with one of the few rigs on the road.

We saw amazing stuff today… Pics are up, or will be shortly, but here is the list:
Caribou (a small herd of what appeared to be some yearlings, and then a bit later a mom and calf).
Mountain goat w/ kid
LOTS of Bison ; we saw a small herd of about 5 or 6 first, then we saw several singles, then a herd of about 50 head, and then a few more singles, all this over 10 miles or so. The large herd was hilarious. The big bulls would come right up to the truck. Denise was about 1’ short of being able to pet them from the window. They are HUGE – the one that came up closest to the truck stood even with the top of the cab at his hump.
About 1:30 pm we got back into rain. At about 2 we made it into Watson Lake and the Signpost Forest. It was raining pretty good, so we just drove by and clicked a couple of pics.

For your reading pleasure, here is an excerpt from Anthony’s journal of yesterday:

Day 3:
Today I saw lots of elk**, buffalo**, and I saw a couple of deer and one coyote. Today I had my favorite food – McDonalds. Ya! I had a waffle for breakfast. Almost all day it rained today. Today we got our windshield cracked by a rock. When I was sleeping my mom and dad saw a moose. Mom and dad wonder why I am so tired because all I do is sit there. I saw something exciting – a bear! When we were driving dad saw him and pulled over and tried to take a picture, but it was too dark. We are still in Canada and today was our longest day.”

** The elk and buffalo he mentioned were on ranches, we didn’t see the wild buffalo until day 4.

We’re in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada, tonight. Took a walk and found a sushi place.

Tomorrow, we get home.

Picture link:

http://www.the1buba.com/photo/alaska-with-the-family-day-4/

A short update, as I’m about to fall asleep.

Great day today… Drove 14 hours, almost 800 miles, total time on the road was 15.25 hours. We went from just outside Calgary, Alberta to Fort Nelson, British Columbia. We were in Canada about half the day yesterday, all day today, all day tomorrow and will be a little over half the day on Friday.

Saw several more elk ranches today, a cow moose and some coyotes. Highlight was a 325 # black bear eating on the side of the road about 30 miles south of Fort Nelson, BC. There was no one around so we pulled over into the southbound lane and got to within 15′ of him. He started to turn and walk away, but i called him back. He was BEAUTIFUL. Big and round, and the fur was just amazingly thick and unblemished. It was too dark to get any good pictures, but we did try a few…

Weather was rainy most of the day and a bit windy at times. Temp says it is 50 out, but there is a bit of a bite in the air and you can see your breath.

Tomorrow will be a much easier drive. We had a lot of tough grades to pull today – definitely the worse day for mileage.

Picture page:

http://www.the1buba.com/photo/alaska-with-the-family-day-3/

Watching the sunrise in Idaho this morning thanking the Lord for a beautiful day. We have a shorter drive today and expect to cross into Canada early this afternoon. We have seen lots of farm country and now heading into the hills again. Saw a herd of antelope in a hay field yesterday and cows along the way. Anthony’s counting the golden arches when he’s not napping and Steve’s doing most of the driving. We love you all and keeping you close in our hearts.

Picture page:

http://www.the1buba.com/photo/alaska-with-the-family-day-2/

Started out with rain.
Then I blew a tire and had to have both rear tires replaced. Lost two hours on the tow and tires.

The day got better..
Drove through SEVERAL storms. The last one the sky was black and i got dumped on. Then hail. Lasted for about 15mins. It’s following me and since it is supposed to get here about 3am, i got a motel.

Sites for the day…
- instead of folks walking around with golf clubs like i’ve seen them do in our old neighborhood, the folks in Prince George were walking around with hockey sticks.
- two bald eagles in nests
- three bear eating by the road and one crossing it.
- 2 elk (possibly three in the group)
- almost hit a small buck

It was a good day, but went from an easy 10 hour drive to right at 15 hours. Oh well. Still a beautiful ride.

Beautiful campsite, and great weather when I went to bed.

Woke up at 4:30 with it pouring rain. Grabbed the tarp out of the trunk (thanks Gorgeous) and covered up the the cot. All was well until 5am when i found out that i hadn’t covered the foot of the cot well. Found that there was a low spot in the cot where my butt should have been. Got cold real quick.

Damage:
Wet: Sleeping bag, cot, chair and shotgun case (Mossy is fine).
No big deal really.

Packed up in 10 minutes, putting the wet sleeping bag in the ice chest. Hot shower a few minutes later felt real good. Was out of the campground at 5:45 and it had stopped raining. lol

Easy day today, only driving 10 hours unless i can find a place farther up the road to stop within 3 more hours.

I’m now in Hixon, BC at this place.

Customs was an experience. Frisking took close to 10 minutes. Then they proceeded to take EVERYTHING out of the car, then search the car, then all my bags. They did put it all back, but now I can’t figure out what they put where. The whole thing took 1 hour and 25 minutes. I can’t imagine how long it would take if you were driving a U-Haul up there.

The first part of Canada was very pretty, kind of like a rain forrest in a lot of places – however, there were radar guns everytime I turned around. In the first hour in CN I saw 7.

Then I got to the high elevations and thought i was in Nevada. It looked EXACTLY the same.

Then I into the area i’m in now – just beautiful. Following a couple of rivers most of the time. LOTS of hay fields and cowboys. There are tack stores EVERYWHERE.

I’m camping along side a stream now. Gonna try and skip putting up the tent tonight, but the skeeters are starting to come out.

Some pics of the camping spot:

Camp Spot in BC

And all the pics I’ve taken so far on this trip are here.