The Middle of Nowhere

…or as They Call it: Fort Nelson

One of the stretches of gravel road we encountered. Fortunately, they have been few and far between.

When we talked to people about our trip they all said one thing: Be sure to stop at Liard Hot Springs. Today was our day. It was a pretty rainy morning but we pressed on until reaching the hot springs. They are part of a Provincial Park and the family day pass was only $10. The hot springs are about a quarter mile from the parking but we walked along a beautiful boardwalk to reach them. The springs form a giant pool with the water much hotter the further ‘up river’ you go. They were so beautiful and so relaxing. Based on the large parking lot and the signs for overflow parking we imagine they often are packed but on this day we only shared the area with fewer than twenty others. What a relaxing break from our drive. It was just as everyone had said. We had hoped to spend the night here but the rain and the many hours left of daylight prodded us on.

Liard Hot Springs. A true gem in the wilderness.

From Liard to Fort Nelson we drove across the Canadian Rockies. The road was so windy and often narrow that I had to wonder if we had accidentally taken a side road. But what beauty. Our pictures can’t do it all justice.

Just another beautiful lake in the Canadian Rockies.

We ran into a small herd of stone sheep who were trying to get over the guard rail and across the road. My heart was in my throat when Bob fell while trying to get the perfect picture. I could just see him sliding all the way down that stony cliff. I told him his life wasn’t worth a picture, even if it was a cute little baby. He laughed and said I had 100 feet of rope that I could use to rescue him… typical man.

Thinking they are like the sheep, Bob and Rebecca try for the close photo op.

Was it worth it?

The hotel we are staying is run by a guy who Bob says reminds him of Mr. Haney (extra points if you know who he is…) But this guy had his fingers in every pot and was always there making sure he got his money for everything.

Before leaving we were told to always keep the tank full and get gas whenever we saw a pump. This station, the only one we had seen in 50 miles, is one reason people often travel with 5 gallon cans of gas.

This is why some people carry extra fuel on the AlCan.

Tomorrow we will drive the last stretch of the Alaska-Canada Highway. We don’t know if we will stay in Dawson Creek or continue on…it depends on the weather, the day, etc., etc.

Traveling with Matthew

One of my concerns in making this voyage was how Matthew would do. He is pretty good natured and willing to go along with the plan, generally with minimal protest. But how would he do on a trip of this magnitude?

Note: after posting this it occurred to me that not everyone knows Matthew. I know, hard to believe. Matthew is well known to many. He is an adult who looks much younger than his age. He is non-verbal and has many traits on the autism spectrum, including a desire for strict routine (the mere idea of travel upsets the apple cart). But he also is engaging and compassionate and if only he would talk, might be a chatty Patty. One of Matthew’s most familiar characteristics is his way of connecting with others. He pulls a person into conversation through showing of another item. Often it is the TV Guide, sometimes it’s just what is in his pocket (and there’s always something in his pocket). He points to the item and you respond. Before you know it, you are having a conversation with Matthew…and he has never uttered a word.tw

While we haven’t made it all the way I think I can safely say Matthew has done well. He is sleeping in the tent far better than I imagined. Our decision to cook most of our meals has made this part of the routine easier. The good…and bad…part is that he gets up as soon as I move. It has made getting on the road early easier but there are times I’d like to have just a few minutes of quiet.

“Oh here, let me show you what I have in my wallet…”

One thing that has been good is the Canadian awareness of gluten free food.  Even in the tiniest of grocery stores we have found clearly labeled GF products. In fact, yesterday we enjoyed fresh poppy seed muffins picked up at a little store just out in the middle of nowhere.

Matthew has completely worn out all of his TV Guides so this morning when he found one at McDonald’s he was very happy. The good thing for me is this TV guide has new and different shows so he has been spending the morning just pouring over it. Luckily, he found they offer exciting programming that includes Gilligan’s Island and Stargate.

A town called Vulcan? Who knew??? (Matthew did.)

But though Matthew protests the idea of camping he has figured out his job in setting up the tent and he has done better than I expected sleeping in it. I also was very concerned that he would not use the ‘no flush’ toilets but that too has not been a problem.

Ah yes, this is the Matthew we’ve all come to know and love…

Many of you who have met Matthew know of his love for maps. He loves them so much that one year my sister asked what he’d like for Christmas and I told her an atlas. Sure enough, he spent the next year pouring over it, marking the places he’d like to go, scratching off the ones he doesn’t. Don’t ask me about his rhyme or reason because I don’t know. So, on this trip at every opportunity Matthew picks up a map…or several. But they’re not meant for sharing and he only gives one up under protest.

The truth is Matthew is mostly happy but sometimes adds his two cents worth by pinching Dad or Sister when we start talking about doing something with which he disagrees. Today, for example, he spent the afternoon holding his head with a fake ‘Oh, Boo Hoo’ cry because we were talking about some glaciers we would soon see at Banff. Matthew has decided he has seen enough glaciers. Yesterday, as we were deciding whether to camp or to stay in a motel Bob made a U-turn in the road. This also was enough to set the poor boy off. It seems it is hard to head home if we keep turning around…

Drying dishes.

Traveling with someone who has any special need requires some advance planning and a realization that there will be some compromise…sometimes a lot of compromise.  But it’s doable.

Back to Whitehorse and Watson Lake

So we set the Mario Andretti speed record for packing up this morning. Breakfast could wait until we found an area less inhabited with mosquitoes and once again we were off. –Rebecca tells me not everyone will recognize the name Andretti. I’m betting you will.

Kluane Lake, the second time around, is still very beautiful. I think it’s about 70 miles long. You could fish to your heart’s content there.

We made our way back to the busy Walmart in Whitehorse, again noting all the RV’s using the parking lot for their camp. I suppose it is a mutually beneficial relationship. Too bad they won’t let us tent there. Or let us roll out our sleeping bags in the display tent inside.

Anyway, today we are going to win the battle of the mosquitoes. We bought the Thermacell. Everyone we have talked to swears by this pricey little gizmo. I’ll let you know if it works.

Matthew in front of a fossilized bison. It’s much easier to imagine the back hump after seeing those vertebrae.

After our restocking at the store we visited the Beringia Museum. This museum specializes in the time when there was a land bridge between continents and the world was much cooler. The growing glaciers took away enough water mass so that from Japan to Southeast Alaska the ocean levels were low enough that these areas were grassy plains. This was the time of the wooly mammoth, the Yukon horse and the sabre tooth tiger. We got to see fossilized bones from all these animals and of course Matthew was happy to see them but sad to remember that they are all dead (he’s a compassionate one.)

Friends of my folks and part time Quartzsite residents Larry and Moira at their home in Whitehorse. Friendly and generous they opened their home to us. Next time we’ll take them up on it.

My folks have friends who live in Whitehorse and winter in Quartzsite so we took a few minutes to visit them. Imagine a home on a forested hill with a front deck view of the mighty Yukon. Yep, that’s their house. We had a good visit with Larry and Moira and discovered a key fact, one that explains everything else. That is this province has only 33,000 residents. (No, I didn’t leave off a zero.) 23,000 of them live in the Whitehorse area. Now we understand why there are no McDonald’s in the Yukon Territory outside of Whitehorse.

We also learned that while there are many citizens receiving government assistance, businesses within the Province, like Walmart, actually recruit workers from other countries as they cannot find residents willing to work on the lower scale. It gives me pause to wonder how similar this is in our own country as our food stamp participant and Medicaid numbers continue to break records.

But no politics today.

Lunch on the bank of the Yukon River. Looked like a good fishing spot.

Remember this time we are going back on the actual AlCan highway and that we joined the AlCan from the Stewart-Cassiar Highway just outside Watson Lake. We headed back on the road finally reaching Watson Lake and the famous sign posts.  This is a very popular stop on the road. The signs history began when a homesick GI, working on the AlCan, nailed up a couple of arrowed signs with distances to home and loved ones. The tradition grew and people began to post their car license plates and it grew from there. Today there are over 70,000 signs posted by people from all across the world. It’s a fun stop on the route but I was a bit disappointed that most of the old signs are gone. What we saw was mostly dated from the 90’s and 2000’s.

There are no tent areas close so we stayed in one of the lodges here. A cute place with pink flowered bedspreads and vintage blue bathroom fixtures. You would like it.

We reach the North Pole!

Okay, not the actual North Pole. But apparently, we found Santa’s home. It’s just outside of Fairbanks. The road from Whitehorse to the Alaska border was the most challenging thus far. Back in the far recesses of my mind I remembered traveling on roads affected by frost heaves. Frost heaves occur when there is melting below the roadway and above the permafrost. They cause the road to buckle and rise up and down reminiscent of Magic Mountain’s best roller coaster ride. Or as Rebecca called it: stomach churning. After a few miles of this crazy road Bob allowed me to drive. Not that he thinks I’m a better driver…or more experienced…but because he knows I am a firm believer that the faster you go the less time your tires are on the road, thus smoothing out the ride. So, it maybe didn’t work out quite that way but we did get across this wild and wooly stretch. I’ll try and video a segment on the return so you can share in the fun.

Our first grizzly.

Just after I started driving we saw two Grizzly bears! Rebecca managed to capture one looking at us rather fiercely before it headed off into the woods. Wow! We have seen eleven or twelve bear already! (So here’s what I learned today. Black bears come in other colors besides black. But they are distinguished from browns by their lack of a shoulder hump. Brown bear and grizzlies are the same bear. Grizzlies live inland while browns are found along the coast and are primarily fish eaters. So, we likely saw grizzlies. In any case, they were a LOT bigger than the black bear we had been seeing.)

But first, I have to tell you about last night. As you recall, we had a rainy tent and a cool evening. (In fact, it was 41F when we left this morning.) But after the whole hoopla was settled we all jumped into our sleeping bags. (Oh, and I figured out the solution for Matthew’s and my claustrophobia of being zipped up in a bag. We zipped two together, making a double bag with plenty of room for both of us. It worked great. I wished that I’d remembered this option before.)

The beautiful Kluane Lake just outside Haines Junction. It is HUGE!

Anyway, back to my story. Rebecca has been entertaining us with her rendition of the first Harry Potter book. We all enjoy it and it’s a nice way to end the day. Last night, as Rebecca noted, there was no need for a reading light as it was still very light…even at ten at night. By the time she finished Bob was already sound asleep. I have been telling the family about the midnight sun. I know they hear and understand what I’ve been saying, but to actually experience it is completely different. About 1:30am I hear Bob sit up. I tried to get his attention but he didn’t hear me. I thought maybe he heard somebody trying to steal our prized coffee pot, which was sitting on the table outside. Slowly he moved over to the tent door and I watched him carefully open it just high enough so that he could slide out. He looked very much like a beaver scooting out from underneath his home or maybe the Grinch who, you remember, slithered and slunk around. Anyway, I didn’t hear anything further except for some people talking so I figured I didn’t need to assist against the burglar. A few minutes later he slunk back in and returned to his sleeping bag. This morning I asked what he was doing and he sheepishly told me he woke up and saw it was so light so he wanted to get the coffee made for me. Then he saw some people and asked one what time it was only to learn it was truly the middle of the night. Ha.

It could be that we are becoming road weary as this afternoon Rebecca hollered out that she saw a ‘mule’. Well, having seen many mules before none of us paid any attention to her until she said it again…when she realized it was really a moose that she saw. Of course, I won’t tell you about the person who made reservations for the hotel in Fairbanks only to learn that the reservation was for the next night… (You’ll be interested to know that the Solstice is a very busy time for hotels when you’re so near the Arctic Circle.) And yes, thank you Best Western for working with us to find a room, which in the end, turned out to be the King’s Suite.

No wonder we’re tired. This looks like a long stretch. Whitehorse to Fairbanks.

Tomorrow: The Great Land…Better Known as Denali

Whitehorse, Klondike and a Near Disaster

We drove the rest of the Cassiar Highway without incident. We had heard from several friends that this road was challenging. While we did run into a few patches of gravel road we did find it mostly paved. As I said yesterday, we did find it desolate and an accident or breakdown could mean a lengthy wait. I don’t think there was any cell service either. Still, it was truly a beautiful drive and I would recommend it. BUT. You must not let your gas tank get under half full (an old Alaskan rule) and you must carry a spare and know how to change a tire. The rest of the rules for remote driving also apply. When we were at the closed gas station we talked to a family headed south also looking for a fill-up. The man was very distraught to know that the last station we had seen was more than 100 miles ahead. The gas station pumps are mostly the old fashioned kind without a place to prepay with your credit card. The station has to be open to get gas. So…there’s my warning. Travel prepared.

Beautiful, but isolated cabin along the Cassiar Highway.

We did arrive in Whitehorse late in the afternoon. Just in time to visit the MacBride Museum, a small museum dedicated to the local history, including the gold rush, some natural history (Matthew’s favorite) and a whole section on the poet Robert Service. When I was growing up we loved to listen to some of his most popular poems and in particular one called, “The Cremation of Sam McGee”. It’s a rather morbid story about a prospector who found the Klondike too cold and was always complaining until he caught cold and was near the end. He asks his friend to cremate him on the shores of Lake Labarge. The poem is really more fun than morbid. I’ll share it if I can find the YouTube version. You’ll like it. We learned that there really was a Sam McGee. He was a friend of Service and we got to see his real one room cabin. All you homeschoolers, notice how we added History and Language Arts to our trip.

Sam McGee was a real person and friend of Robert Service.

After we picked up some groceries and long johns (to keep us warm at night) we found a campsite just out of town. Bob, Matthew, and Rebecca began setting up the tent while I worked on supper. It appeared the three of them were poking around with their job so I told them it was going to rain in three minutes and they’d better hurry up. Well, I was wrong. It began pouring, a hellacious downpour, just moments after the words left my mouth.

Oh my word.

All our stuff was sitting outside waiting to be put in the tent. The food was all outside on the table. Just about everything we owned was outside the truck. It poured and instantly we were all soaked. I yelled at Rebecca to get the packaged stuff back to the truck while I helped Bob. It didn’t matter. everything was filled with water…and sand from the campsite. Finally we got the tent up and emptied it of water, got the rain cover over it and it quit raining.  We reheated the food, found dry clothes and then made some hot chocolate because our hands were frozen and finally made it to bed. Thankfully, it did not rain again but we decided we need to pay much closer attention to those threatening looking rain clouds blowing in. And yes, we were grateful for those warm unders.

Finally: North to Alaska