North - Part IV: Alaska, Alaska!

Chased Bear Day, March 16, 2011 - 251 km

While heading out of Whitehorse we came closer to the Elias Mountain Range, the highest mountain range in North America and the second highest coastal mountains in the world. I count this day as one of the most amazing on the trip as far as the beauty of landscape. The Alaska Highway follows the mountains for over 400 km, always keeping distance to the huge mountains as trying to show its respect and without ever making the attempt to cross them or find a way through. To the right, frozen rivers and lakes came in and out of side, home to herds of caribous that we spotted along the way.

Although the good weather of Whitehorse didn't leave us, we were not able to get a glimpse on Mount Logan, the highest mountain in Canada (5,950m).
We found a nice rest area with a great view on the mountains and the Kluane River where we spend the night.

Oh, yeah, the chased bear: ummh, guess there is not much to tell about that. Of course, we haven't seen a bear, probably because most of them might have been in hibernation still. Nevertheless, we imagined it would be funny as hell crossing a bear's way that is actually chased and attacked by a swarm of bald eagles.
You might not think this is funny, at all, but we laughed our heads off...I suppose these things happen when you spend a week in the wild without any other form of entertainment around.

-30 Day, March 17, 2011 - 390 km

We finally hit the border to Alaska. My concerns of being harrassed by the officers again- as it happened the two times before - proofed to be needless. In fact, the officers were surprisingly friendly and entertaining, asked us a couple questions about the purpose of our visit to the U.S. and finally let us pass.
Alaska, here we come!

We came to the little town of Tok, the first settlement after crossing the border where we were disappointed by the "high" prices on gas (4.19$/gallon)...who would have thought of that, in a state sitting on a huge amount of oil! Tok also has been the town where we decided to leave the Alaska Highway.

 

It actually continues to Delta Junction, close to Fairbanks in Interior Alaska but we checked the road conditions to Fairbanks. Due to the mild temperatures the snow started to melt but would freeze through the evenings again which made the roads really dangerous at that time. So we decided to take the route to Anchorage first, right at the coast in order to wait for better road conditions. 
With still mild temperatures of around -5°C, we found a neat spot to sleep along the highway.By that time we were so used to lower temperatures than that which made us sleep in underwear and t-shirts.
Damn mistake!
The sky cleared up throughout the night and all the cold air settled to the ground, dropping the temperatures to -30°C within hours. We literally froze our butts off that night and had a tough time getting up the next morning. This definitely has been the coldest night we experienced so far.

The Walmart Lie Day, March 18, 2011 - 592 km

In best weather conditions we drove further south passing by Mt. Sanford and Mt. Drum, both covered in thick layers of snow that didn't even show a piece of rock - white giants.

Through a wide plateau with only a few trees but lots of snow and ice we came down to the ocean with Anchorage ahead.

After all the small villages and towns we have been driving through - some of them not even exceeding 100 inhabitants - it was quite a shock to be confronted with Anchorage, a 400,000-residents city, right in the middle of nowhere.
We finally got a couchsurfing host, Kelvin, who agreed to host us for two nights some days after our arrival in town.
So we were trying to find a place to sleep which is damn difficult in a city like Anchorage. I heard a lot of people saying that camping/overnight parking on Walmart parking lots is allowed and pretty convenient. Anchorage Walmarts are probably the only ones putting on signs that explicitly warned not to use the parking lot for camping, otherwise all vehicles would be towed. I am pretty sure that this is the case with almost all other store locations in the country - ergo: the a.m. statement is definitely a lie!
After spending half of the evening searching for another good spot, we decided to drive into an RV park. Fortunately, we found one that was still open but without someone around to pay for the night.
Happy as we were, we fell asleep just to be woken up by the RV ranchers who friendly told us that the park is closed for camping in winter and open for day-use only. However they also suggested to spend the night right in front of the gates of the park where we should not be bothered by anyone.
And another lie: In the middle of the night, a police officer woke us up and told us that camping is absolutely prohibited. We explained the situation to him and then something weird happened. He demanded to get our names and dates of birth to check and  - at least this was our suggestion - to write a ticket for us. When he heard we were Germans however, he got back to the police car and headed off without returning that night.
He left us puzzled but glad and we got our rest that night, at last.

Ocean Walk Day, March 19, 2011 - 174 km

Since we had a couple days until we could stay at our host's place in Anchorage, we decided to drive down to Kenai paninsula for the weekend. Alaskans I met in Canada suggested to visit the town of Homer for seafood and the great view that the town is supposed to provide.
The highway leads along the coast following an arm of the Cook Inlet that narrows more and more the longer you drive on the highway. The water at the coast was still frozen and icy so that we actually could walk on the ocean at that point.

Suddenly a strange wave stretching from one side of the inlet to the other came from the ocean and made its way through the narrow straight. We couldn't figure out what it caused but it we tried to follow it in the car. It was moving pretty fast until it reached the far end of the inlet.

We continued on the highway and spend the first night 80 km out of Anchorage in the mountains.

21 Pieces Day, March 20, 2011 - 384 km

After we left the Kenai Range towards Homer, the landscape, for the first time being in Alaska, became kind of boring. Flat land with farms and small towns, some moose occasionally crossed our way and we spotted more and more bald eagles as we came closer to the coast again.
10 km before we reached Homer we came on top of a hill and were blown away by the scenery that suddenly opened up before us without a warning: high-up mountains, a coast line that bend around the neat town of Homer to the foot of the mountains and the rough ocean (the weather changed dramatically that day).
We were driving through town and reached the Spit, a small strip of land in the sea, where all the fishing boats come in to unload the catch. That was exactly the spot where we decided to have seafood. Fresh Alaskan salmon with Parmesan, actually the best salmon I have ever had, and loads of deep fried cod (we ended up eating 21 pieces of it).

After that we drove to town trying to get into the Pratt Museum. It was almost closing when we arrived, so they let us in without paying and we rushed through the exhibits of Alaskan history and nature before leaving the town again.
And again we chose the same spot we spend the night before to sleep under a star covered sky.

Chill-out Days, March 21-22, 2011 -  50 km

We came back into Anchorage and even within these two days the mild temperatures caused a lot of melting of snow, walking on the ocean was not possible any longer.
Kelvin, our couchsurfing host, has been really hospitable and amazed us with his huge collection of movies - the number of DVDs should be around 1,000 by now, he told me!!!
Guess what we did while being in Anchorage these two days?!
Besides walking through downtown there is not much to do in town. There are some really interesting museums about the native history of Alaska that I was quite interested to visit. Unfortunately, most of them were closed.
We said goodbye to Klevin, not knowing that we were going to see him again pretty soon.

Spring Day, March 23, 2011 - 219 km

Spring was completely arriving in Alaska the coming days: day-time temperatures were around 10 to 15°C and only -10°C overnight. This was exactly the reason why we decided to drive to Fairbanks in the Interior Alaska.
Since we couldn't move our butts off the couch while watching some more movies, we only got half way close to Denali NP.
The question that I asked this lady at the gas station if we could spend the night on the parking lot behind the house, came so surprisingly for her that she agreed before even noticing what she was saying.

"Magic Bus" Day, March 24, 2011 - 361 km

This day has been pretty exciting for me because it was the day that we would be driving through Denali National Park which is important in two ways at the same time: it is the place where Christopher McCandless decided to "live off the land", where he found the "magic bus" and where he finally died of starvation; secondly it is also where Mount McKinley is situated, with an elevation of almost 6,200 km the highest mountain in North America.

As far as the bus, we already read blogs and other information on the net saying that it is a pretty tough hike of around 50 km round-trip and is best to be done in winter because a hiker could easily walk over the ice of the river. On the other hand, winter in the Interior Alaska means hiking and most of all sleeping at temperatures around -30 to -40 °C. Obviously we decided against it; nevertheless, it has been an interesting feeling to be that close to this particular spot.
In the late afternoon we arrived at a rest area with a great view over the vast valley below and the mountains in the distance.

We decided to drive to Fairbanks the next day (the town was only 40 km ahead).
After we had dinner, an old guy on a bike approached us and we started chatting a bit (it turned out that his German was pretty good).
Right after he left, two police cars drove onto the rest area and Richard and me were sure they would tell us that over-night parking and camping was not allowed and send us away. Instead, they asked us for our passports, about our travel plans and finally asked us about a white van with three black guys in it that they were looking for (that was when we also spotted the helicopter in the air).
We denied seeing them and tried to get to sleep, even though the fact that three criminals were on the run didn't really help to calm us down.

Nice Lady Day, March 25, 2011 - 120 km

In the morning while still being on the rest area, Richard told me about the nightly visit we apparently had: Someone stopped his car right next to ours in the middle of the night, knocked on the roof of our camper calling for us and finally went away; additionally, some animal surrounded our van at night but Richard couldn't figure out what it was. He tried to wake me up while these occasions took place but was able to do it. :D
Without being harmed by both animals and humans, we came into Fairbanks, checked out the town (we found out about the International Ice Sculpture Championship that was going on at that time) and really needed a laundry and a kitchen to wash our clothes (this being the first time on that trip) and to precook pasta and pancakes (you can see: our culinary menu was pretty diversified).
That's why we made it to the next hostel to ask for these things.
We ended up meeting the owner of a Bed and Breakfast Hostel who immediately allowed us to use the laundry and the kitchen for as long as we would like to. She only asked for 7 bucks!!! Sweet little lady.
In the evening we drove back to that same spot because it was still close to town and we could sleep there undisturbed - well, kind of, haha!!
We decided to visit the ice sculpture championship the next day. We also got a message from a couchsurfer in Anchorage who agreed on letting us stay. We thought spending some more days in Anchorage would be quite relaxing. We should soon enough find out that this was in deed the case - but in a different way than anticipated.
We ended the day with a badminton match on ice.

The Ice Question Day, March 26, 2011 - 160 km

As planned, we went to the ice sculpture championship which was amazing. Some of the artwork is made out of one ice block only. Sometimes we were wondering, if some of the sculptures were actually made out of glass instead of ice. But let the pictures tell you more.

After that we were heading out of town back on that particular spot for the third time where we spent the night in order to make it to Anchorage the next day.


Bad Couchsurfer Day, March 27, 2011 - 560 km

When we hit Anchorage in the afternoon after a long drive through Denali NP, we still had no answer by that couchsurfer. In order to do the final check, we decided to get back to Kelvin's place to use his internet access.
He welcomed us and - after finding out that we had no answer and with that no place to stay - he offered us right away to stay again for a few days.
And that was how the marathon of movie watching went on.
While watching we talked about food in Alaska and I mentioned that we were really stoked on eating moose meat as we heard it's supposed to be very lean. "Hey, you know what?! I still have some moose meat in the freezer! Why not make it for dinner tomorrow?!".
And that was exactly what we were doing. We had moose steak with mashed potatoes and veggies.

Chill-out Days vol. 2, March 28/29, 2011 - 20 km

Besides watching DVDs, eating moose and relax we actually didn't do anything. I went to the Anchorage Museum of History and Art one day just to find out that it is closed Mondays.
On March 29 we decided it was time for the way back to the Yukon. We planned on staying in Whitehorse with the option of applying for jobs. But this will be part of my next update.

North - Part III or pure awesomeness

Finally, our Alaskan adventure began. Meanwhile we successfully made it to Whitehorse, the gate to the northern part of Canada and capital of the Yukon Territory. With more than 2,600 km and lots of beautiful landscapes behind us we are more and more enjoying what the great north has to offer.
Our pickup camper truck is a surprisingly reliable vehicle and didn't cause any problems so far - at first glance however you might not think you can even make it out of Vancouver with that jalopy.
By the way: we named the car "Alex Supertramp" (everyone who watched the movie "Into the wild" will know that name).
We are also accompanied by our little road buddy "Bertie" - for good fortune, I suppose. :D

The camper in the back is equipped with lots of blankets and sleeping bags and we tried to keep all food and especially the liquids in the front to keep it warm - I will tell more about that issue later on.

Okay, let's relive the trip that we had so far:

Wiper Day, March 9, 2011 - 390 km

We were leaving Vancouver at 11 a.m.on that day after we packed all our stuff as efficiently as possible. We felt pretty much prepared for the upcoming trip as we spend the last two days organizing equipment - especially those things that will either keep us warm at night or might help us in case of emergency.
Speeding up on Highway 1 East towards Kamloops (we just wanted to get out of rainy Vancouver), we soon found ourselves within the first snowfall of our journey. Due to heavy snow and bad road conditions they closed Highway 1 north of Hope, so we were not able to take the road through Hell's Gate that would lead to Cache Creek immediately.

Instead we followed Highway 5 to Kamloops where we changed our wipers.
You wonder why I mention this? Well, because it took us the better part of the day to get them. Finally, we ended up buying crap wipers that were too soft to do their job properly.

Moving on with limited visibility caused by the inefficient wipers, we got new ones in Kamloops that worked. It's funny how wipers can get yourself in a good mood when you really need them. We still enjoy them intensively!
Half way between Kamloops and Savona at Kamloops Lake we found a nice spot hidden behind a hill that we chose for our overnight stay.

We struggled to keep the camping stove working because the wind was blowing heavyly.

Temperatures already dropped to -5°C. The clouds were gone by that time and we had an amazing star covered sky.

Swiss Day, March 10, 2011 - 433 km

The wind was still blowing the next morning so we went on to a nearby rest area at Kamloops Lake where we enjoyed our first breakfast (temperature still at 10°C).

We continued on Highway 97 always following the old gold rush trail that thousands of adventurers and fortune-hunters traveled in the 19th century after they found the first gold nuggets at Klondike River, Yukon.
Passing through Caribou Country and all the old towns that were once booming cities during the gold rush era we felt a bit disappointed by the dessert-like landscape. We wanted to get to the north as soon as possible where we expected to find what we were looking for: endless forests, high, snow-covered mountains, wildlife all around us, etc. Nothing of that was to be found in the part of BC we were driving through.
When we came to the town of Quesnel, winter hit us right away. The roads were snow-packed and slippery. We decided to get ready for the night and find a nice spot to park the car.
Since we met people along the west coast in summer, offering us their properties to sleep on, we thought that the same should be possible here.
We found a house past Quesnel where a huge dog came running out of the house barking and snarling at us. A lady came out of the house and asked us what we were doing on her property. We explained the situation and asked for a place to stay. She pointed at the next campground and made clear that we were not welcome on her property.
When we tried however to drive off her front yard we realized right away that we were stuck in the snow. The tires dug themselves in the snow and ice underneath. While still trying to get out of this situation, the woman's son came out of the house and asked us where we were from. After he heard we were Germans he ran back into the house and soon after came back out with his mother following.
"I heard you are Germans!", she said and continued in German, telling us that she was Swiss herself and that we were more than welcome to spend the night on her property. She even told us to be ready at 7:30 the next morning to have breakfast! And once again Swiss hospitality blew me away. I can honestly tell you that Swiss became my most favorite nation on this trip.
Richard and me spend the rest of the evening with Florin, the son who was born in Canada, talking about Germany and Switzerland, Canadian and American politics and of course beer.
He then mentioned that he gotta go to a football match in Quesnel where he wanted to play in a hall. We spontaneously decided to come along and follow the game.

We spent the night in the car to get our bodies used to the extreme cold temperatures.

Snow Chain Day, March 11, 2011 - 355 km

As promised Theresa served breakfast for us in the early morning. Florin had to leave for college not without leaving two bottles of Guinness on our van. Very thoughtful guy!! :D

However when we tried to leave, well, guess what: we were stuck again. It had snowed the whole night so that on top of the ice we had a thick layer of snow that prevented us from either moving forth or back. Finally we had to put on the snow chains already, although we wanted to try them in good weather conditions first.

So with still -15°C we had to figure out how the snow chains worked. We made it out of the snow within an hour and hit the road again.
We drove through the northern parts of British Columbia, that being the first time in BC when we were really impressed by the landscape as we came through the north range of the Rocky Mountains. We came through Prince George, the last big town before reaching the Alaska Highway up north.

At the north western tip of the Rockies we chose a rest area where we spent the night at -20°C and listened to the horror stories of a lady leading an over-sized truck through the mountains. She strongly advised against moving further on to Alaska Highway since a lot of people died on that route throughout the last years, murdered by nutters or crazy hitchhikers. Before she left she told us about the "highway of tears" (highway 16 that is). Of course, we had heard about the stories already: more than 30 women disappeared on that highway trying to hitchhike north to Alaska. None of these cases could be solved by the police so far.
Since we were neither women nor taking highway 16 up north, we were only slightly impressed by her warnings, promised her to be careful nonetheless (she was in fact a very sweet lady!) and said goodbye.

Alaska Highway Day, March 12, 2011 - 257 km

 Yeeehaaa! We hit the world famous Alaska Highway! After driving through snow packed and icy roads through the Rockies, we finally arrived in Dawson Creek where "mile 0" of the Alaska Highway is to be found.

The town is dead in winter without the thousands of tourists driving through in summer. We decided that after spending the last nights in the car the time had come to find a warm place for the night. Assuming to find a hostel in Dawson Creek we were told pretty soon that there are none and we should try it in Fort St. John, the next town along Alaska Highway.
Even smaller and even more dead Fort St. John was without a hostel as well, so we ended up spending the night in a motel which gave us the opportunity to go on in planning our trip, to check weather and road conditions, defrost our food and water and precook noodles, beans and pancakes (our basic nutrition on the trip).
Btw: In Dawson Creek we met the first guy on the trip so far who's reaction on our trip up north in winter was "Awesome!". All the other people were rather puzzled by the fact that there is in fact someone going up to Alaska in Winter!

Moose Day, March 13, 2011 - 544 km


Driving further north towards the town of Fort Nelson the landscape became more and more "Yukon-like". That was also the first day we saw a moose - giant animals in deed!

Well, by now, seeing a moose is not that exciting any longer. We would be seeing dozens of more moose as the trip continues.
Fort Nelson was the last town in northern BC before reaching Watson Lake, the first town in the Yukon Territory. We became more and more excited.
We spend the night at -20°C on a high-up mountain pass near Summit Lake.

Bison Day, March 14, 2011 - 512 km

 The drive to Watson Lake has been pretty uneventful except for all the bison buffaloes we spotted along the highway - unlike moose, bison are pretty relaxed animals who are not bothered by passing cars in the slightest.

Watson Lake also contains the famous sign post forest, a large collection of signs from all over the world. Guess what we found... .

As we came into Yukon all our expectations we had about this wild and mostly unpopulated land (with almost 1.5 times the size of Germany Yukon's population only is 32,000, more than three-forth of them living in the capital Whitehorse), all expectations had been full-filled: endless roads, vast plains covered by huge forests and high mountains on the horizon. We both agreed that our trip...no, our adventure just started with entering the Yukon.

We were heading towards Yukon's capital Whitehorse that we would reach the next day and where we expected to find a couch surfing host instead of spending the night in the car or in a hostel.

Meth Day, March 15, 2011 - 400 km

Whitehorse is a really neat place to live in. It provides all the amenities of a town (including grocery stores, wifi, running water, electricity, etc.) but also offers the wild, untouched nature around it.
Unfortunately, all our possible hosts declined to crash on their couches. However, we got in contact with two of them who promised to be able to host us on our way back south - whenever that would be.
Since we really needed a warm place to stay, we decided to spend the night at the LeadDog Inn, one of two hostels in town.
Our biggest problem at that time was that due to the cold temperatures at night all our water was frozen and we ran the risk of not having enough for the upcoming part of the highway (after Whitehorse there is pretty much nothing until you reach the border to the U.S.). Understandingly, we wanted to be prepared.
We needed some time to feel comfortable around the managers of that family-like hostel who definitely were under the influence of drugs (meth, we assumed).
Nevertheless, we had done everything needed and decided to leave town the next day in order to spend more time in Whitehorse on our way back. We also heard that the mining companies in Yukon pay a lot of money for the jobs they offer (e.g. diamond drilling). When we come back into town we'll definitely try to get a job for two weeks or so - enough time as we found out to receive the money to cover the expenses of our whole trip.
As we left town the next morning, temperatures rose to -5°C what we considered to be really warm by now.