Part IV of our Alaska Adventure Begins

C

ckent323

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 31, 2008
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1,255
Location
Solvang, CA
We departed Solvang for Alaska on August 2. We are on day 52 and have completed three parts of our four part Alaska adventure.

Part I was our ferry journey to Ketchikan, Juneau, Sitka, Gustavus and Whittier. We experienced some rain but mostly had good weather.

Part II was our travels with our trucks and campers from Whittier to Palmer to McCarthy, to Valdez and back to Anchorage. We had mostly good weather.

Part III Was our round trip travels via our railroad track inspection car on the Alaska Railroad. We travelled over 960 miles of track in 16 days staying in Talkeetna, Denali Park, Fairbanks, Wasilla, Girdwood and Seward. We had more good weather for the most part. We arrived back in Anchorage on Sunday after a beautiful, relatively warm, clear and sunny day travelling from Seward. (we did experience heavy fog and cold temperatures around Kenai Lake).

We picked up our truck from the shop on Monday after having an exhaust leak at the turbo fixed during our 16 day railcar trip.

Tuesday we got our covid tests that are required for crossing into Canada. (that was an adventure in itself!)

Tomorrow part IV begains as we start our journey home.

Our present plan, depending on weather, is to depart Anchorage tomorrow morning, Thursday, for Tok and spend the night in Tok crossing into the Yukon on Friday morning. Our planned route home, weather permitting, is the Alcan highway to Prince George then cross over to Jasper and Banff and down through Glacier National Park. Alternatively we would drive to the lower 48 via Cache Creek and cross over at Abbotsford (as we did in 2018).

Anchorage is seeing an early winter (which may be a fake out). It snowed down to the edge of the city Monday night. The higher parts of the highway between Palmer and Beaver Creek had a few inches of snow accumulation on the highway which is melting off today. We will see light snow in Tok Thursday night and perhaps in Haines Junction on Friday night. We should be getting into warmer temps and light rain part sun by the time we reach Watson Lake on Saturday. We are trying to hold the distance to around 300 miles a day to minimize driver fatigue and to maximize the chance to enjoy the beauty along the way. If weather (and the Canadian Government) allows we may layy over a day or two on the way home.
We still do not know how the Canadian border crossing is going to go (we do not have our covid test reults yet) and if we will be forced to drive more than 300 miles a day because of a limiytt on the amount of time allowed to transit Canada (I hope not).

This afternoon the truck is back in the shop because one of the new wheel bearings has an issue. (most surprising as there is only about 2,000 miles on the bearing).z

Edit: Turns out the low frequency rumbling which led to evaluating the wheel bearings is actually coming from a broken transmission mount (there are two and the passenger side mount is proken). The situation is not a safety issue but is an easy fix if the shop can find or make a part. We will attempt to get it fixed first thing in the morning. If that fails we depart anchorage with a boken transmission mount.

We will adapt and endeavor to enjoy the journey.

P.S. I have talked to a number of long time Anchorage residents the past two days and none can recall a snow this early in many, many years. All think it is too early for winter and expect temperatures to warm up before winter actually sets in closer to the end of October (which is when they said winter typically sets in).
 
i visited mccarthy years ago, when 3 of us went fishing on the gulkana, and a few other places. my bud said we had to go to mcarthy, and i complained on the drive about how long it was going to take, etc. etc. boy, was i wrong. the place was amazing, and the views of the glaciers were incredible. we hiked up the trail a bit from the national forest lodge.. i wish we could have stayed a couple days for more exploring.
go
 
We got ourr truck into the shop for a new transmission mount at 8 Am this morning. Sean at Diamond Truck Repair in Anchorage got us out of there by 9:20 Am. After filling uop our propane tank and topping off the truck with fuel we headed back to the hotel on the north side of Anchorage to meet oup with our travelling companions.

Our covid tests arrived by email around 10 AM and all of us tested negative so we headed out for Tok. We stopped by Pinnacle Mtn Cafe near Chickaloon, AK but they don't open until Friday. We will miss visiting with Jill, the owner. We stopped by there twice during outr 2018 trip and not only enjoyed her lunch and pies but also enjoyed visiting with her.

Snow began falling while heading up the grade past the Matanuska Glacier viewpoint and we were in light snow all the way to Tok. Accumulation was about an inch at the higer elevations and wehen we stopped in Glenallen to eat and fuel up it snowed about 1/2 to 1 inch in the hour or so we were there. The snow tapered off as we entered the lee side of the Wrangle St Elias range and then it started snowing lightly again as we passed through the mountain gap on Hwy 1 past Slana. Is was still snowing lightly in Tok when we arrived at 5:30 PM. It is now 7:30 PM and the snow has let up.

It appears right now that winter has come about a month early to Alaska.

Tomorrow morning we will head for the Canadian border crossing at Beaver Creek. Fingers crossed that we get through. We have already encountered wo people who could not get through for one reason or another.
 
Frank,

We drove the Stewart-Cassiar highway Northbound in mid-August 2018 and took the side trip to Hyder where we enjoyed watching a young Brown Bear chase and eat Salmon at the Fish Creek observation site. We returned via the Alcan highway in late September. I'm glad we did because we saw lots of animals when passing through the Canadian National Parks. We saw few animals along the Stewart-Carriar, however the scenery was great.

We have been discussing this for the past couple of days. I think the chance of seeing woildlife ios better along the Alcon but we have to pass thorugh more cities and towns than along the Stewart-Carriar. It is not an easy decision.

The decision is that we will again drive down the Alcan again, this is primarily because we have seen a number of places that are closed this year due to covid and the Stewart-Cassiar route even in a normal year has far fewer places to stay, refuel and eat than the Alcan.

At Prince George we will decide if weather will allow us to go over and down through Jasper and Banff and into Glacier National Park or if we will drive to the abbotsford border crossing (in 2018 weather did not cooperate and we got out just ahead of a big snowstorn that dumped 2 feet of snow overnight).

We are presently at Johnson's Crossing, YT for the night (Saturday night) after a beautiful driving day today travelling from Haines Junction, with a 2 hour stop in Whitehorse, YT.
 
We made it into Canada.

The border officer was quite nice and friendly. I handed him all our paperwork (printed out which made it easy for him). He asked the typical questions about firearms, marijuana products, alcohol and cash then waved us through. Quick and easy less than 5 or 6 minutes.

We are in Haines Junction, YT for the night (Friday night).

We drove on snow coverd highway for about 2 to 2-1/2 hours this morning when leaving Tok. There was about an inch or two on the ground in Tok and the snowfall got progressively heavier as we made our way South and up summit where the road was competely covered and there was maybe 4 - 6 inches of snow on the unpacked snow outside the tire tracks.

The weather continually improved all day after creting the unnamed pass in the vicinity of Alaska highway 5 and bythe time we reached Beaver Creek the roads were dry and we could see clearing skies ahead. The rest of the drive to Haines Junction was beautiful. We saw (high up on the mountain slope at a large distance) a heard of Dall Sheep on Sheep Mountain next to Kluane Lake. The snow covered peaks of the various maountain ranges, particularly the St. Elias Mountains were stunning.
 
Bypassing the Cassier this time of year is a good choice.
We tried in 2011,after a night at Boya Lake CG we headed
south and when we were about 150 miles south the road
had closed earlier that morning due to very bad slides.

Expected opening NA,so we backtracked to Skagweay
got passage on the AMH to Rupert then boarded the
Northern Expedition to Port Hardy and headed home from there.

Always something different.

Thanks for the update.
Frank
 
The Stewart-Cassiar highway (hwy 37) was signed as closed when we passed the turnoff on our way to Watson Lake. No idea why it is closed.

We spent the night at Watson lake (not much open) and yesterday drove to Muncho Lake. It was Wendie's birthday and I got us a room at the Northern Rockies Lodge at Mucncho Lake. We had a nice birthday dinner for her in the lodge. It was cloudy all day and was snowinhg lihtly on the pass just north of Muncho Lake. Wendie wished for snow on her birthday and got it! Along the way we saw Wood Bison close to the highway in four different herds ranging from 6 or 7 animals up to about 40 animals. They are smaller than the Plains Bison and beautiful animals.

Today we will drive to Pink Mountain. Wednesday we will drive to the Summit lake area North of Prince George. We are taking our time and will probably lay over at one of these places so we can make the drive to Jasper and Banff in good weather that is forecasted for Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday.
 
Seeing the "wood bison" that's nice.
We saw some at the wildlife center near the turnoff for Whittier.
They do a breading program there. Cool animals.

No telling why the Cassier is closed.Time of year but they usually
try to keep it open during the winter.

The road is very prone to mud slides in several areas especially south of Dees Lake.

How does the Ak railroad schedule your rail car tours around normal rail traffic?
Thanks.
Frank
 
Frank,

Our rail car group is treated just like a train when we are on the rails. The hy-rail pickup in front has a railroad radio and is scout for track issues (rocks, mud, animals, etc) and the Hy-rail that follows us is in contact with dispatch by radio. Dispatch treats us like a two mile long train. We go into a siding for passing passenger traffic and for some freight trains. We often passed work crews and work trains and occasional freights who have been put into the sidings.

The rally cool part is that our 15 cars spread out over 1-1/2 to 2 miles of track so we are widely separated while underway. We bunch up for grade crossings and when we go into sidings. Our cars do not set the crossing signals so grade crossings can be very dangeous. We flag each other and will put flaggers out on each sid e of a busy crossing. In some cases for multi lane highway crossings the railroad will "shunt" the signals to close the crossing gates for us to pass safely.
 
Last night we stayed at Pink Mountain RV camp (not so noce but adequate).

Toinight we are in Dawson Creek at the Mile 0 RV park. Nice park!

The fall colors since we left Anchorage about 1500 miles ago have been spectacular! (except for the afternnon we left Anchorage and the morning after. We were in snow.

We saw Caribou in both Mucnho Lake Provincial Park and in Stone Mountain Provincial Park. We also saw a single Rocky Mountain Sheep ewe as we were exiting Stone Mountain Provincial Park. We saw a single cow Elk in a field just before entering Ft Nelson yesterday. This morning we saw three deer by the side of the road as we left Pink Mountain.

We think that because it is hunting season that may be a big reason we have seen few animals outside the parks.
 
ckent323 said:
Frank,

Our rail car group is treated just like a train when we are on the rails. The hy-rail pickup in front has a railroad radio and is scout for track issues (rocks, mud, animals, etc) and the Hy-rail that follows us is in contact with dispatch by radio. Dispatch treats us like a two mile long train. We go into a siding for passing passenger traffic and for some freight trains. We often passed work crews and work trains and occasional freights who have been put into the sidings.

The rally cool part is that our 15 cars spread out over 1-1/2 to 2 miles of track so we are widely separated while underway. We bunch up for grade crossings and when we go into sidings. Our cars do not set the crossing signals so grade crossings can be very dangeous. We flag each other and will put flaggers out on each sid e of a busy crossing. In some cases for multi lane highway crossings the railroad will "shunt" the signals to close the crossing gates for us to pass safely.
Click to expand...
Thanks Craig.This has been a great adventure you are sharing with us.
Continue to have a great and safe trip.
Frank
 
We are in Hinton, AB after a beautiful day of driving over from Prince George B.C. where we spent last night. The fall colors are still vivid and the peaks are covered in snow. It is absolutely gorgeous here right now.

Tomorrow we drive to Banff and then down to Radium Hot Springs where we will spend the night. If the weather continues to hold we may linger in the Banff area another day.

We have travelled about 2,000 miles since leaving Anchorage and the fall colors the entire journey have been spectacular, better than we saw in 2018 when driving back.

I will upload some photos when I get time. Our travelling companions who also have a 1993 Dodge W250 Diesel with an older 1984 FWC Keystone have developed a transmission problem (he has an NV4500 in his truck). The transmission shop mechanic in Prince George who looked at the truck and drove it this morning thinks the transmission will get them home so we are pressing on. FIngers crossed.
 
We had a lovely drive yesterday from Hinton, Alberta through Jasper, Banff and Kootenay Parks to Radium Hot Springs, where we spent the night last night.

It was sad and sobering to see the long lasting damage from the fires of 2003 in Kootenay Park.

We saw a large flock of Rocky Mountain Bighorn sheep just before reaching the hot springs and Sinclair Canyon. We saw a another flock in town at the traffic circle (a regular occurrance we were told) while we were having breakfast.

We took hwy 93 from Radium Hot Springs to Whitefish, MT then hwy 2 around the bottom of Glacier Park following the old Great Northern Railroad hi-line route now operated by the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF is the combination of the Burlington Railroad, Great Northern Railroad and Northern Pacific Railroads which later merged with the Atcheson, Topeka and Santa Fe railroad).

We waved goodbye and parted with our travelling companions of the past 62 days at the "Y" of hwy 93 and Hwy 95 in British Columbia. They went southwest toward Idaho and we went southeast toard Montana.

Tonight we are in Browning, MT (middle of the Blackfeet reservation) on our way to Billings to see my cousin and then onwards to see Wendie's Daughter, who is pregnant with twins, Janessa's husband and their 3 yr old son (Wendie's only - so far - Grandson).

It is in the 70's here in Montana and usually there is snow on the ground by now. In the meantime winter has arrived in Alaska and the Yukon a month early. The weather is wacky this year.



We are on day 63 of our Alaska Adventure.

Someday we will drive home.
 
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