Friday, April 26, 2013

ALCAN III

This is the last of a three part series of photos from my 3200 mile road trip up the ALCAN from Colorado to Cordova Alaska.  When we left off, I was just leaving Whitehorse, Yukon.  This is where the road really starts getting interesting.  Well, not so much interesting as rough. 

Just before the road got bad I stopped and got gas at mile 1083 of the ALCAN,  Destruction Bay.  I couldn't resist buying the following magnet:

Alaska Highway
Winding In And Winding Out
Fills My Mind With Serious Doubt
As To Whether The Lout
Who Built This Route
Was Going To Hell 
Or Coming Out!

Is that foreshadowing enough for the road condition?  And that's just the road, never mind the snow on it! From all the freezing and thawing the road just gets bumpy, not pot hole bumpy but maybe lumpy is a better description.

It only took me a second to wonder what those orange cones on the side of the road were for.  And in that second, despite slamming on the breaks and repacking my load like I was cuing up for pool, the Focus launched off a bump in the road that I didn't see coming in the flat light.  Next thing I know I'm flying through the air all Bo & Luke Duke style.  I did the only thing that could be done in that situation, I let out a big Yeeeeehaaaaw!

Can you see the deadly dip in the road?  I sure can't! But I felt it!

Dips, turns and the occasional launches aside, it is really a beautiful drive.


Ponies at Burwash, Yukon



The only cop car I saw in the whole Yukon.

Drive 1000 miles, hang a right.


Not flash but it'll do.

How could I pass up a place with a name like this?

Drunk poles

Uptown Tok.  Or Downtown, I always get those mixed up.

Caribou!  I promise.

Best food of the trip! At the Glenallen gas station

View out the kitchen window in Valdez

Got snow?  Valdez, April 8

Valdez, April 8 2013

Valdez, April 8 2013
Got snow...blower?



On the ferry going from Valdez to Cordova

Arriving on the ferry in Cordova!  
The next day when the sun came out, so worth the 3200 mile drive