June 27. We crossed back into Canada stopping again at Congdon Campground on beautiful Kluane Lake where we saw the unmistakable grizzly bear after our glacier flight a couple weeks ago. With bear spray in hand we didn’t venture off too far as this is high alert grizzly territory and a well used wildlife corridor. And for those who want to camp in a tent, read those signs!
We continued south until just before Watson Lake where we opted to head for new territory on the Cassiar Highway. The far north is certainly not excluded from wildfires. Lots of bears here. We ended the day at Kinaskan Lake campground.
June 29
From Kinaskan Lake CG traveling on Cassiar hwy, (which I’ll remember as Bear Poop hwy because there is a lot of poo on that road). Lots of wildlife on this drive. The beaver ponds are impressive. The one pictured has 4 dams with 4 lodges. Stayed the night at Pipers Glen RV Park with a not so bad view.
June 30 -July 3
The last leg of this fantastic journey! From BC Piper’s RV park to Skihist CG back to the lower forty eight. Washington through North Cascades to Lone Fir Campground. Great views of Liberty Bell mountain which I had soloed in 2012.
 |
| Liberty Bell on right with Early Winters Spires on left. |
On to Oregon camp spot for the night. Another unplanned event. I got a text from my old co-worker and friend Mark. They happened to be in Bend. We made a meet up and met them for coffee at their hotel. It was great to see Mark and Reva. Afterwards we took a nice walk to the dog park river play with Wyatt on the Deschutes River and then off to camp at Winter Rim.
 |
| Dog in background is sporting a shark fin. :)) |
July 4. After
8,136 miles and 34 days out we made it home. We're looking a little wild and shaggy, but
it’s all part of the adventure. We loved everything about this trip!
Wyatt was a trooper and never ran out of enthusiasm! And our 20 year old camper rocked it!
Final thoughts.
We didn't plan a single thing on this trip with the exception of seeing Randy and Cathy in Anchorage. This gave us the freedom to move when and where we wanted without having to think about any time constraints to get to/from anywhere. The only thing we had to reserve was the ferry, and we did that on arrival. That said there is absolutely no chance of getting a camp site in Denali NP without advance reservations in high season. Not a problem for us, we just moved on.
I did do a lot of pre trip maintenance and preventative maintenance on the truck and camper hoping to avoid problems. We had the roof leak early in the trip but "patched" the problem. We didn't have much rain until near the trip end when we again got a bit of leakage. I have since done a full roof re-seal but haven't had enough rain here in Nevada to say positively it's fixed permanently. We had zero mechanicals, not even a flat tire.
The roads and in particular the Alcan highway are much better now than they were in the 70's and have wide open areas next to the road where all the trees and brush have been cut back. This much safer for both travelers and wildlife as there is more view space to see the wildlife before suddenly being on them. Frost heave is still a thing and we had to drive at appropriate speeds to avoid bottoming the suspension and over stressing camper tie downs.
Fuel was never hard to find but in general along the Alcan and Cassiar hwys I would always fuel up before getting much below a half tank. There were some spots where I was glad I did being in a not particularly fuel efficient rig. Prices were quite high along the Alcan and high in Canada in general, but I thought very reasonable in Alaska where I had definitely paid a premium in the 70's-80's.
Bugs. Maybe we were lucky, I don't know. We took head nets but I think only used them 3 times. Twice in Alaska and once in Canada. We used repellent often. The worst places were McCarthy (where we did not need head nets, but used them at our campsite) and the Denali hwy, especially in the calm morning hours.
This was the trip of a lifetime! (Along with many others. 😄) We saw and did everything we wanted to with one potential exception. On the way back we passed the junction leading north toward Eagle and eventually the Brooks Range. Not.Enough.Time.
Thanks for the story of your guys trip, it’s one of my bucket list items
ReplyDeleteIt was a great trip!
Delete