Day 10… on the road. ALASKA FINALLY!!! Beaver Creek, Yukonà Tok, Alaska (150 miles)
Today was a very short day on the road. I woke up this morning to temperatures in the high 30s with rain and wind, very cold, supposedly abnormally cold for the Yukon. We were on the road, too early especially since we gained an hour when we the Alaska border. We made a beeline for gas, it was a bargain at $4.16/gal after paying more than $5.00/gallon in Canada and even higher in the Yukon. We arrived at the campground by 11:30. Today is a designated day of rest and laundry J
Tomorrow we head to Copper Center in the Wrangell-St Elias National Park area. This park is bigger than Switzerland. The Mountain scenery is supposed to rival the Himalayans or Swiss Alps – there is a substantially higher difference between the lowest and highest elevation. There are also more glaciers here than anywhere outside Greenland and Antarctica. Friday we will take a 60-mile shuttle on a bumpy dirt road into the park and stay at the backpacker hotel in McCarthy for 2 nights and do day hiking in the Kennecott area. There was a large copper mine that operated in Kennecott until the 1930s when the price of copper crashed and the town abruptly closed down. Everyone left virtually at the same time on the last train out of town. Back in the 60s when people started exploring the area and found that many things were left as if they were coming back to work the next day. All of the tools in the blacksmith shop were organized and lined up, there were still medical supplies in what was thought to be the hospital, etc. Once people started coming back to explore the area, vandalism was rampant and it was closed up. Much of the town has been restored back to its hey day back in the 30's. The mine is supposed to be very interesting and the hiking in the area spectacular!! In any case, I will definitely be off the grid for several days.
The weather in Tok today is partly cloudy and 65, a real heat wave for what we’ve had for the past week. Sunrise is at 4:11 and sunset is at 11:03. It’s really hard to get used to it looking like 3:00 in the afternoon when my body is telling me its time to go to bed.
Kate
Alaska at last!!
The actual border, notice the line where all of the trees have been cut down, this goes as far as the eye can see.
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