Alaska or Bust: Day 8 and 9 on the road...

Day 8 on the road… Teslin, YT à Takhini Hot Springs (north of Whitehorse) 177 miles.

Today we left Teslin and continued our journey through the Yukon. We went through Teslin, a very small primarily First Nation community on the 78 mile long Teslin Lake and continued on to Johnson’s Crossing, past Marsh Lake where by the way is a 4.5 star resort where Martha Stewart filmed one of her shows. It is supposed to be a very beautiful lake but it was overcast and windy so we couldn’t see the pretty colors. Next we passed through Jakes Corner, this was essentially a gas station. Once we hit Whitehorse we were back into civilization and met the mighty Yukon River that is the essence of the history of the Yukon Territory. As an added bonus, I once again had cell service. Isn’t it interesting that at many campgrounds we have wifi at our campsite but no cell service? I had this same thing last year when camping in northern California.

While in Whitehorse, we did the normal touristy things such as a visit to the Yukon Tourist Office, they are incredible nice and helpful there as they were back in Watson Lake. I talked to the people there for a while about the school system with how remote many areas of the province are ad how they educate their youth. Most of the people live within bussing distance of a k-8 school. In Whitehorse, there is a residential school for high school students from outlying areas. All of the high school students from Dawson attend the residential program or are home-schooled. There is the Canadian equivalent of a community college in Whitehorse for the entire Yukon, one can get a bachelor degrees in social work and criminology through the University of Saskatchewan but any other majors the students must transfer out to another province after 2 years. Hospitals are few and far between. In some of the larger communities there is a family nurse practitioner that will deal with the normal colds and flu, immunizations, well child visits, etc. An interesting thing that I noticed is there are a lot of places to get dentures in Whitehorse, so perhaps dental care is lacking up here. Back on track after my deviation on what I learned at the tourism office, we visited the SS Klondike an old paddlewheel boat that allowed people to travel in comfort and style up and down the Yukon River, seasonal of course. We had lunch at the Klondike Rib and Salmon, we shared a bowl of halibut chowder – amazing, Tom had fish (halibut) & chips and I had a smoked sockeye sandwich (so-so) and we each had a beer for a grand total of $56.00. There is a reason we’re doing almost all of our cooking! The Walmart was really poor even for a Walmart but we did find an awesome grocery store, The Real Canadian Superstore. Food was much more reasonable but they didn’t have a deli so I couldn’t compare the price of deli turkey with the $12.20 lb price tag that we bought in Watson Lake. Our next stop was the Yukon Brewery to pick up some “beer worth freezing for”. They didn’t have any trailer parking so we couldn’t take the tour, I just ran in and bought 2 12 packs for $50!! Even Coors Light is $14.25/12 pack in the Yukon, the majority of the price is a government tax.

We arrived at Tahkini Hot Springs around 3:30 and got our camp all set up and hit the hot springs. It was not as natural a setting as Liard Hot Springs but very therapeutic none-the-less. The temperature range between the pools ranged from 98 to 108 degrees. The pool was very high in minerals, especially iron and very high in negative ions that are supposed to be wonderful to detoxify ones body. I kind of feel like mush right now so the jury is still out on that one. But I’m planning to go back down tonight before I go to bed. Seeing that the sun doesn’t set until after 11 there will be plenty of daylight to do that. We met a very nice family in the hot springs that were local and they taught us a lot about the area and the economy. The mother who is part First Nation talked about her ancestors and how they intermarried with the white settlers, all very interesting. Most of the people here don’t seem to mind the 9 months of cold and dark, they are very hardy people. The growing season here is only 2 months long, last frost is June 19, 1^st expected frost is August 19.

Tomorrow we are headed to Beaver Creek, YT, Alaska is just a stones throw away…

Takhini Hot Spring Pool

Day 9 on the road… Takhini Hot Springs à Beaver Creek, YT (@300 miles).

When our books said this was a tough stretch of road, they really mean it!!!!! I feel like I’ve been riding bulls all day. Although the drive from Whitehorse to Kluane Lake was pretty good driving, the rest of the way was not. The big problem was frost heaves in the roadbed due to permafrost. In Michigan, we have a constant series of freezing and thawing where the melted water goes into the small cracks in the roadway and freezes then expands the cracks and it continues until we get our man sized potholes. In the Yukon and Alaska everything freezes early and stays frozen for 9 months. There is permafrost and much of the soil along the north Alaska Highway is of glacial origin and doesn’t work well for road embankments, it’s mostly very graveley. Anything that causes the permafroast to melt will cause the ice-rich soil to liquefy, and liquid soil was little strength and will settle or subside. Then if this soil refreezes during lower air temperatures, it will expand or heave. The process wreaks havoc on the drivability of the road surface. It's like driving over waves and multiply the effect when there is a trailer in tow.

Once the US turned the Alaska Highway over to Canada in the 1940’s, the Canadians followed closely behind rebuilding the road from Dawson Creek to Haines Junction. Because most of the traffic between Haines Junction and Alaska are US citizens, the US has agreed to rebuild the highway to the Alaska border to a 60 mph highway standard. The project began in 1977 and was slated to end in 2010, but it still appears to be in process. It’s called the SHAKWAK Project, they also have some test roadway on highway building through permafrost regions.

Onto the drive and the scenery of the day. We passed the Kluane National Park, it is absolutely breathtaking and shares the 2^nd highest mountain peak in North America with Alaska, several of the peaks reach over 18,000 ft. The US-Canadian border runs through the mountains and on the other side of the border is Wrangell-St Elias National Park, the largest national park in the US. There are no roads in either park. We will be spending several days in Wrangell-St Elias here in a couple of days.

It was very cold today, cloudy off and on with temperatures in the low 50s but it feels much colder with the wind chill. Wait a minute, this is July, there shouldn’t be wind chill!! Down jacket for me tonight.

We are camping in Beaver Creek, YT, right near the Alaska border. Beaver Creek is a very quiet, small community. Tomorrow we have a very short drive (2 hours) to Tok, Alaska. We’ll get our campsite set up then head down to the northern end of Wrangell-ST Elias for a little hiking J. Till the next time!!

Kate