Masters of RVing Adventures

We boondocked at the tip end of Kluane Lake instead of going further to Destruction Bay for our last night in the Yukon before entering Alaska. This lake was so peaceful with the snow caps and clouds. Gentle waves lapped the shore. Before morning, several other rigs had pulled off into the space. We took up the shoreline with our doors facing the lake.

Last Stretch

With overcast skies and the threat of rain, we excitedly headed down our final section of the AlCan Highway in Canada toward the Alaskan border. After passing Destruction Bay, we finally realized where all the talk about bad roads and horror stories of broken windshields, blown tires, bent axles and chassis problems originates. This part of the highway is most challenging because of the frost heaves – permafrost deep underground that freezes and thaws unevenly, creating unexpected dips and rises in the road’s surface. We felt like we were on the kiddie coaster Woodstock Express at Carowinds for 5 hours!

Border Mishaps

Mark and I make it to the border check, get in the lane marked for trucks and buses. The other lane is marked for passenger vehicles and has a 12’ 10” clearance under the awning. Jackson sits at 13’ 2”. The border agent signals us to move to the vehicle line. Mark attempts to shake his head no and points to our roof. Border agent signals again for us move, so we don’t attempt to argue and move to the assigned lane. That’s when our roof cab rubs the clearance sign. The border agent says we won’t clear it (which we already knew) and tells us we have to back up and get in the truck lane again. Now, y’all already know we can’t back up without unhitching Cheeto. So, here we are working as fast as we can to unhitch while the border agent is backing up cars. Of course, everyone arriving at the border thinks we are the idiots that got in the wrong line!! Next, the border agent sends me on through the vehicle line while Mark goes through the truck line. They didn’t even check Timber’s papers nor run through the list of typical border questions! Two border agents apologized to us and said they have very few rigs like ours come through. Once we were on the other side, they held the line until we re-hooked the Bronco.

Liz & Mike arrived at the crossing as we were backing up and joked to the agent that we were greenhorns in our rig. The agent admitted it was their fault and then told Mike “They can’t be greenhorns; we’ve never seen anyone unhitch and re-hitch so quickly.” That made us feel better!

Arriving in the Land of the Midnight Sun

Tok

We arrived at our first Alaskan campground in the small town of Tok (pronounced with a long “o” and rhymes with poke). Tok RV Village & Cabins is a very nice campground with a friendly staff. Our spaces were a tad narrow. But we had full hookups, which was a relief for those of us that wanted to get laundry done. While Jackson came through the rough roads and kept our things mostly neat and tidy (all the clothes in the closet bounced off, but that was the worst of it); several folks in our traveling group had broken dishes, faucets that jingled on with water going all over their floors, pipes that came loose, photos crashing to the floor and glass shards, and more.

Going to Chicken

Yesterday (August 2), we took Timber on a section of the Top of the World Highway to the quirky hamlet of Chicken, AK. It is only 75 miles from Tok, but it took us almost 2 hours in the Bronco! The ToW Hwy is twice as bad as the above description regarding our drive on the last phase of the Canadian side of the AlCan.

Chicken has a winter population of 20 hearty Alaskans, but the tiny community swells to about 50 people in the summer coming to try their luck at panning for gold. They had two souvenir shops, a small cafe where we ate lunch, a hole-in-the-wall bar, four campgrounds, a dredge tour, a post office, and a grass airfield (weather permitting, the plane delivers mail twice a week).

Trip Map

I had a request to add the trip map for helpful reference. Our stops begin on the map at Teslin, then Kluane Lake, into Tok with a side trip to Chicken. We’ll spend the next 10 days in Fairbanks with an Ice Road Truckers trek to the Artic Circle, then to Trapper Creek, Anchorage, Homer, Seward, Palmer, Valdez, back to Tok for an overnight, then maybe another Bookdock at the upper end of Kluane Lake, near Destruction Bay or we’ll go all the way to Whitehorse, and down to Skagway. That takes you through the map I’m posting. I’ll reference this in the next posts involving these stops. Then I’ll create another map for you to reference later.