Blogs from Alaskan Highway, Alaska, United States, North America - page 2

Je pars d'Anchorage avec ma Beetle fraichement louee en direction de portage Glacier. Quand je consultais mon guide de voyage et qu'il parlait de "scenic drive" en direction de la Peninsule du Kenai, j'avais du mal a imaginer ce que ca voulait dire. Je comprend des que je sors d'Anchorage. La vue est magnifique; des montagnes a perte de vue, la mer et des lacs... C'est une route en plein milieu de la nature. Je m'arrete a plusieurs reprise pour admirer le panorama et croise un groupe de Texan tous etonnes de me voir faire ce voyage en solo. Ils me prennent en photo et repartent dans leur gros pick up. En arrivant a portage lake, on m'apprend a l'office de tourisme que le trail que je voulais faire est encore trop enneige et que sur ... read more

The ALCAN (Alaska Canadian Highway) is a long, laborious, sometimes tedious, sometimes gravel, always exciting adventure. The road bumps, twists and grinds through British Columbia and the Yukon Territory beginning at Mile Marker 01 (Dawson Creek). Along the way unbelievable vistas jump at one from every new bend in the highway. Massive mountains, sharp peaks, flat expanses, pristine untouched forests, beautiful lakes, roaring rivers and wonderful wild animals. Throughout our trip including British Columbia and Alberta, Canada we have seen animals up close, on the road going about their daily survival. We’ve seen black bear and black bear babies, grizzly bears (one actually stood up and looked at the coach in front of us), stone sheep, long hair goats, Dahl sheep, Elk and elk babies, buffalo and their young and caribou. We have fabulous pictures of ... read more

When I was getting ready to depart Kluane Lake, I thought I would plug Fairbanks, AK into the "where to" on the GPS. It just said, "Turn in 443 miles." I guess I won't get lost. There's only one road to get there. I got an early start. After Whitehorse the road gets quite a bit rougher and the wilderness is deeper. There are more and more frost heaves in the road. The engineers call them thaw bulbs. They cause a roller coaster type ride and you better slow down or they'll launch you. They are usually about 50 feet across and you rise, then drop, then rise again. They occur because all of the land here is permafrost down a few feet which never thaws. The road itself causes an unnatural thaw in the permafrost ... read more

The teen crowd has mushroomed into 3 sports teams and they are all camping on the same deck as me… a big slumber party with teen boys and girls. This is going to be a long night indeed. Every square inch of the floor is covered with sleeping bags, but they are getting off in Juneau at 6 am. I am happy that I staked out my own aisle because some aisle because some of the aisles are 4 girls deep with their legs hanging out in the walkway. At this time the girls should be done braiding each other’s hair and doing their scavenger hunt which entailed them running around the ship. Squeals are coming from all directions so maybe if I close my eyes they will all go away. I bet that the Elder ... read more

Well… here it is, I am finally on the Alaska State Ferry, Malaspina, making the journey “North to the Future.” We left Bellingham last night and soon all the lights along the coast disappeared. We have left the confines of society and we are truly at the mercy of the elements of the wilderness, but hey! at least they remembered to bring movies to play in the movie theatre aboard! It is unusual in this day and age to be in such a remote place, hundreds of miles away from anything remotely civilized. I will take 40 hours to pass through Canada and reach our first stop, Ketchikan, AK. Ketchikan is where they proposed to built just one of the “Bridges to Nowhere.” I am traveling to Alaska to start a new job, but first I ... read more