DRIVING THE AL-CAN HIGHWAY

Well, Krista and I are in Seward, AK once again (after 5 long days of driving)...

We began our drive in Tacoma, but had a layover in Bellingham to visit with my friend Josh. The next morning we were off and headed north. Smooth sailing the entire day. Made it all the way to Prince George and stayed the night in an RV campground. After some breakfast at Tim Hortons (my goodness do Canadians love Tim Hortons) we were on our way yet again. This time our goal was the small northern BC town of Fort Nelson. We made it with time to spare and spent the night at yet another RV park (this one far crappier and more ghetto that the last). Let me just say that northern BC is quite boring. The terrain is VERY flat, with lots of trees. Day three was a solid 11 hour driving day to Whitehorse, in the Yukon. This day we also saw quite a bit of wildlife including: Bighorn sheep, blacktail deer, caribou, elk, moose, buffalo, and a bald eagle, oh and partridge in a pear tree. So far we had been driving at least 60 or 65 miles per hour, I mean 100 to 110 kilometers an hour. Day four shut that trend down. The road conditions had been excellent (bone dry), until a little ways outside of Whitehorse, then the fun began. Snow+ice+road=SLOW. The road was coated in snow and ice. And yes, it was extremely slippery. With only all season tires, we were forced to 30 mile an hour crawl for hundreds of miles. Our day four destination, Tok AK. (Pronounced Toke). Day 5...about 20 miles outside of Tok, the check engine light came on. As you can imagine, I was not pleased. Fortunately, it was nothing and we were able to proceed at 30 miles an hour over ice glazed roads. Finally at Glenallen the roads cleared and we drove the final 5 hours to good ol' Seward. We were met by 6 foot high banks of snow surrounding base camp, but thankfully, our boss had already cleared a pathway. So, there it is. We're in AK, we'll be here until October, then back to WA. Here's some pictures to explain everything I just said.