Alaska Highway, Day 8: Haines Junction, YT to Eagle Trail State Recreation Site, AK

(cross-posted to http://1lap.tumblr.com)

Today: ~300mi from Haines Junction, YT to Eagle Trail State Recreational Site, AK

Approximate Route Map:

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By this point in the trip we had worked out a pretty consistent driving rotation: Nathan would take the first shift until lunch, JT from lunch to dinner, and I had the third shift. We deliberately planned to front-load the driving during the trip so that we'd have more time to see the more-exotic sights in the Yukon and Alaska. Thus, today didn't really involve a whole lot of driving - less than the distance between the Bay Area and Los Angeles. This also meant that my shift was a whopping 32 miles. Oh well.

There's something pretty cool about waking up in your motel, and this being the first thing you see as you walk out the door: a sign directing you to either Anchorage or Fairbanks, set against the mountains of Kluane National Park.

We're not in Kansas anymore.

We deliberately took the morning pretty slow. Tracking our DMV package on the Internet (in the fits and spurts of connectivity we were able to eke out) revealed that it had arrived in Anchorage on Friday the 22nd - which meant that the Post Office might get rid of it before we arrived on Wednesday. Unfortunately, the Post Office to which we had it delivered didn't open till 10am (11am Pacific Time), so we couldn't even call them and ask them to hold the package for quite a while. We settled down to a lazy breakfast at the Cozy Corner Motel (one of the few other establishments in Haines Junction). As we walked in the door, we overheard the following exchange between the elderly proprietor and a customer settling his bill:

Customer: "Yeah, it was all great. Hope to see you again sometime!"

Owner: "Hope not. Hope not to be here. Probably will be, though."

Despite the negativity, breakfast was pretty good. After eating we were able to call the Post Office, who were quite willing to hold the envelope an extra day, and then chatted a bit with the staff at our motel, the Alcan Motor Inn:

Motel: "So where are y'all from?"

Us: "Oh, California"

Motel: "What? Why would you want to leave that weather?"

Us: "Well, [joking] sometimes you get a little bored and want to see something else?"

Motel: "Yeah, come back when it's 40 below and we'll see how you like it."

Hot real estate tip: You can probably buy land in Haines Junction real cheap, because apparently no one wants to live there. At all.

Since we still had plenty of time to kill and really hadn't done anything of significance on the road yet, Nathan suggested we go hiking in Kluane (pronounced kloo-ah-nee) along one of the trails on our way on the Alaska Highway. On the way to the park, we stopped by Kluane Lake and took a bunch of pictures over the glassy-smooth water surface. Nathan also managed some epic rock-skipping.

Looking out over Kluane Lake. There's nothing to see thanks to the clouds, but I'm looking anyway.

We stopped at the Tachal Dhal (Sheep Mountain) Visitor Center, where the friendly rangers suggested we hike the Sheep Creek trail and check out the nice viewpoints. Here's the view; it's nice:

View of Slims River Valley in Kluane National Park, from the first viewpoint on the Sheep Creek trail

The trailhead and first part of the trail were mosquito-infested. Thankfully, we were able to run past those quickly, and head back to the visitor's center for lunch. The rangers joined us and told us lovely stories about bear encounters and how we had just missed one on our way down. Nathan, ever intrigued by and terrified of bears, was dismayed that we didn't get to see it...and immediately blew $50 on a big bottle of bear spray, just in case. More on the bear spray later. By the end of lunch, around 3:30pm, the sky was beginning to clear, which made everything look far more impressive:

O Canada! (Tachal Dhal Visitor Center, Kluane National Park)

One constant along the Alaska Highway (and, indeed, most northern highways in the summer) is road construction, and where there is construction there are usually flagmen controlling traffic. The quality of equipment can vary quite a bit, though. We weren't entirely sure whether this flagman (actually, flagwoman) was actual road staff, or just someone who decided to have a bit of fun with a stop sign and electrical tape:

Oh yes, that sign looks very official.

Soon enough, we came to very exciting landmarks. Beaver Creek, YT: the westernmost city in Canada, marks the "almost" point to Alaska:

So....close...

Of course, very shortly thereafter, we saw the signs that we had been waiting for for days: "Welcome to Alaska"!

Drove to Alaska!

Yeah, we're all pretty stoked about it.

Right leg in Canada, left in the USA

At the border crossing, the one item in the car that we were concerned about was a load of firewood from BC - we had bought CAD5 worth of wood at Liard River, but only burned about half. As expected, the border agent confiscated the wood, but then promptly exchanged it for some birchwood from the Alaska side! Apparently the Forest Service (or USDA, not quite sure) was doing a study of incoming bugs, but they were happy to supply people with extra wood to compensate. This was probably the friendliest border crossing guard I've ever seen when coming into the US.

I also decided that I wanted my passport stamped coming in, and requested it of our friendly agent. The standard Homeland Security stamps (which I've gotten at airports) have a small indicator for which border crossing you used. I figured it would be cool to at least get that standard one with a really weird code. We lucked out, though, with probably the coolest stamp I've yet acquired in my passport. Just a small perk of driving the Alaska Highway:

Yeah, that's right. That's a BEAR. And a MAP OF ALASKA.

The road into Tok from the border runs along the eastern edge of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, the largest (by land area) national park in the US. There are a number of overlooks from the highway with absolutely stunning views. Pictures can't do them justice (I took hundreds, and ended up deleting most because they're completely inadequate), but here's an attempt:

The valiant Subaru, overlooking Wrangell-St. Elias National Park

Dinner in Tok (pronounced "toke") was at Fast Eddy's Restaurant, recommended by the AAA Tourbook and apparently the only game in town. Small serving sizes and health food haven't hit Fast Eddy's yet. We ordered a plate of nachos as an appetizer, and got something which, even divided among three people, basically kept us from eating much dinner:

Gigantic chicken nachos at Fast Eddy's in Tok

After Fast Eddy's, it was a (blessedly short, for food coma comes fast) 30-ish mile drive south on the Tok Cut-Off Highway to Eagle Trail State Recreational Area, a very nicely appointed yet very empty campground. We saw only one other group, consisting of two cars, in the entire area. Pitching and staking the tent was significantly easier here than in Liard River: rather than a hard, rocky soil, we were finally in the land of tundra, which in the summer has a soft, spongy top layer. Easy to drive stakes into, and really pleasant to walk on! We did get a bit of a raw deal on the firewood, though. The wood from Liard River was basically like gunpowder - very dry, and would burn easily. The birchwood we got at the border (packaged by a Boy Scout troop from Wasilla) seemed a bit damp; it didn't catch easily (except the bark). Our lack of kindling didn't help, but Nathan's skills got us a nice warm campfire eventually.

Tomorrow: Anchorage, AK!