A Legendary Roadtrip

Another timeline blog post… my college professors would call me lazy.

9/20

We fixed up Huckleberry. A long day of finding the supplies, spending the money (oofta), and setting up the car. Preparing for car camping for 2 weeks in my Subaru Outback. Preparing for the worst scenario on the road (but hoping we never have to use it). Jack and stand, spare fluids including oil, gas, etc.

Speaking of oil, I took my vehicle in for a fluid check at the Subaru dealership before leaving. The same place that had changed my oil when I got into Alaska now trying to tell me I had a leak and wanted to charge me $3500 just to find where it was leaking from.

Spoiler: drove 3,500 miles and never had a single problem. Not driving 80mph, not tugging a trailer, not at all.

9/21

ON THE ROAD.

The cooler was packed full of clif bars and bananas for breakfast, pbj for lunch, and the essentials for veggie wraps that even a professional chef would be impressed with. These are the goods that fueled our road trip. Oh, and kombucha. Can't forget about the kombucha.

The beautiful fall colors and snow peaked mountains in my rear view mirror, I was smiling ear to ear. How cool to be driving the AlCan! A dream.

We always managed to find a great spot to camp for the night. The first night overlooking a lake where we saw Trumpter swans soaring above, scoping new territory as they made their way south.

9/22

Lots and lots of driving is essentially what the next 10 days consisted of. However, a hay day compared to the miles my aunt and I put under our belt by the day going northbound.

We made a stop at Destruction Bay a place I had wanted to stop at coming north but didn’t have the time for. Soldier Peak was spotted with white Dall sheep and we took a nice walk to the top of Soldier Peak to stretch our legs and read a bit about the history of the area. It was where the held the official ceremony when opening the AlCan on Soldier Summit, ribbon cutting and everything. The trail we had walked on was the old trail… we listened to an old radio clip. Something that stood out to me here was that the broadcaster wasn’t allowed to share the exact temperature outside.

Maybe something to do with WW2? This was in 1942. If anyone has any other theories on why they couldn’t share the temperature I’m all ears.

There were two red Adirondack chairs overlooking the Bay. We sat here briefly, taking in the land and all the history it’s been a part of.

That night we spotted a trail leading up to a cell tower. Prime real-estate right there. Gaining elevation, we slept above the fog, bidding goodnight to the snow capped peaks, a beautiful sunset, and even a rainbow. We chowed down on veggie wraps and bundled up for the night.

Big Bertha kept me warm, at a -35 degree Fahrenheit sleeping bag. Some say it induces claustrophobia, some say it keeps you warm during the chilly Yukon nights. To each their own.

9/23

As we descended back to the main road early in the morning we were greeted with lots of wildlife.

Man I love early mornings when no alarm is involved. The only thing that could’ve made this morning more magical is coffee.

We saw a bunch of Willow Ptarmigans having an early morning stroll in the fog.

TOUR GUIDE SQUEAL…. Even though they’re not that smart.

About 5 minutes later… elk!!! Our first large game wildlife sighting of the trip. We parked the car and watched the one bull and five doe for about 10 minutes. The moment was eerie, seeing his breath as he bugled at the females to move along.

Good morning :)

Then. Chaos ensued.

Only briefly.

I drove in road construction for what seemed like half the day before finally reaching the border to Canada.

Apparently two people, from two different states, just heading to Nevada to visit my family is suspicious.

Not to mention when she (the border control officer) asked me to roll down my back window I misunderstood what she said and responded with “No.” to which I got, “ma’am?”

I literally chuckled when I wrote that.

Of course we didn’t have anything to hide. But we did stop the entire entry to Canada from that checkpoint for a solid 20 minutes while the car got searched.

On the road once more we made our way to a famous stop on the drive: the sign post forest. Carl Lindley started the traditional in 1942, although at the time he didn’t know what he was starting. Missing his partner, he put the sign up signifying the distance from Watson Lake, back to his home and his partner. It started a traditional, where people come from all around the world to “leave their mark”.

Of course we left our mark by leaving a souvenir carved wooden moose... Our small part in a massive sign forest.

We had been seeing signs all day to watch for Bison. FINALLY we saw some. Reminiscent of all the trips I took to Yellowstone growing up. I captured a really neat moment of the bison shaking dirt off his body.

Towards the end of an eventful day we had one more wildlife sighting. From afar we noticed the movement of the small animal, but the color took us off guard.

“A…. A… FOX!!”

Two of them to be exact. Playing!

We were nervous to approach them in the car because we didn’t want to scare them away. Quite the opposite! They continued playing, and were even curious about us.

Don’t worry, we’re not like the idiots who get out of their vehicle.

This was my favorite wildlife sighting of the entire trip.

To end the eventful day, we spotted a camp spot not far from the road, right by the water. It was tucked away between the trees. We had our veggie wraps and read a few chapters of Journey To a Dream… I was tingling with excitement knowing that the next day we’d be going to Liard hot springs- a pit stop the Lovel family had made on their journey up to Alaska in the 1960’s.

9/24

When we arrived in the morning it hadn’t been hit with a rush yet. It was nice and quiet, beautiful, and a nice start to the day.

The hot springs had bursts of EXTREME heat. Almost unbearable. But we found a spot to sit that didn’t seem to have those waves of heat.

We continued over the Liard River Bridge, the last suspension bridge on the Alcan.

We saw more wildlife today… sheep! And lots of bear. Although we didn’t see all the bear on this day, we saw a total of 14 bear on the trip, 12 black bear and 2 grizzly.

In the afternoon we finally hit the smoke. I had been worried about this. The Cassiar Highway (the same road I took coming north) along with several other areas around us, was burning. The smoke was horrible.

As the day ended we were still within the smoke. I really wanted to drive out of it before we found a place to sleep. So, it was a late night. But,

“We always manage to find the best places to sleep.”

It was well past dark when we found a spot near a closed bridge. It was a bridge that was part of the old AlCan road. We locked the doors and slept a few hours after the eventful day.

9/25

We had to check out the bridge. Nothing crazy, but there was a lot of graffiti. Whoever the “artist” was, clearly didn’t like Keppler, whoever that was.

By the end of the day we finally made it to Jasper National Park. We went to the famous Maligne lake, ate our dinner, and ended up camping near Medicine Lake. Medicine in the Native language was another word for magic, because the lake “magically” loses water and gains it again. This is due to underground rivers.

This was the only day we saw moose. Two mangey looking things, who didn’t seem too pleased with each other.

9/26

Hike, hike, hike!

We hiked Mount Edith Cavell within Jasper National Park.

MAN what great views. Roughly 5 mile hike, ending with about 11,000 feet elevation. We stopped before the final ascent for a pbj and banana and some Ritz crackers.

After the hike, we found a few waterfalls and blue water to sit by. I would’ve loved to spend more time here, but there were too many tourists for my liking.

We spent the night near a trail head within Banff National Park where we had a secret out house that reminded me of shrek. It wasn’t much… but it’s the quiet place we needed for a few hours of sleep before heading out.

9/27

The most beautiful view of the whole trip was this day. The most disappointing part of the whole trip was also this day.

Most beautiful… I could live here:

Most disappointing: Lake Louise. I didn’t even take a photo here. $20 to park the car, and so many people I felt like I was in Disneyland. 20 minute drive you can find another lake, just as beautiful but not disturbed with loads of people.

The Icefield Parkway is probably the most stunning, and shock worthy drive I’ve ever done.

We stopped in the town of Banff and had our first hot meal the whole trip. We shared a veggie pizza and spinach artichoke dip. It was so good! We checked out the cute little town, walked into a few art galleries, stopped for a cup of coffee, and made our way on the road again.

This was probably the most difficult night we had finding a spot to camp. We were close to a lot of Native Land… when we finally found a spot it was near a little bridge that led to a deforestation site. Sad… I know.  But, we made do for the night.

9/28

We made our way into Calgary where we were able to stop for a shower, groceries, and got to have lunch with a friend.

The scenery changed quite significantly, not as many peaks. Much more of a Midwest, flat land feel.

It was time to cross the border back into the U.S.  had to throw away our fresh bell pepper and avocado that we had JUST bought. Literally that day. Turns out you can’t take seeds from Canada to US. We also had to throw away an our cuties, but we’d had those for several days and they were going bad, so I wasn’t as bothered with those. Overall, went smoother than our last encounter at the border.

The next 2 days are filled with detours. The detour, to the detour, to the detour. But. It was all worth it.

We had time, and we were close, so we went to Glacier National Park. With Glacier National Park in our backyard, we found a place to camp with a unique sunset after the storm that shut down the roads within the park.

9/29

In the morning we made a new plan… basically…. No plan! We saw as much of the park as allowed. It was COLD. The first time the whole trip I felt that my parka, and hat, and gloves, was necessary. The wind. Whew.

We spotted a few sheep near the road. Matter of fact, in the road. It blended in with the siding block, so I didn’t notice it at first. Even though it was closer than a pebbles toss away.

We found a spot to sit and just enjoy the views while I drank a cup of coffee. An artist seemingly painting a peak in the distance.

Speaking of distance, it was time to get some under our belt. We drove through lots of road construction, and lots of self chosen detours to stay as close as possible to the mountains.

We had a good laugh over some car driving WITHIN the road construction. Several miles deep, we see a little vehicle going the wrong direction than all other traffic. Driving on the fresh pavement… that was still closed off. He stood out like a sore thumb. I would’ve loved to be a fly on the wall when someone finally caught up to him and told him he wasn’t where he was supposed to be.

Our camp spot was the pretty well off the beaten path. It sounded like an elk bugle was not far away. And man, he bugled all night long (if that’s what it was).

9/30

We started the morning by going to Lewis and Clark Caverns. Another nice plus to the trip we weren’t planning on at the beginning.

Turns out, we were on the VERY LAST tour of the season.

The history I learned from the caverns: Dan Morrison sucks and the caverns are cool. Of course, there's more than that... but that's the gist of it all.

We met my aunt Haily and family in Bozeman for dinner which was a special treat! We haven’t seen each other in years. And although it was a short visit, it was better than nothing at all!

This was our final night car camping and we found a turnout spot just off the road, near a river. We were in Montana, so it was windy, luckily the trees surrounding us provided some protection.

10/1

A brief stop in Yellowstone… Ole Yellowstone. Of course, saw Old Faithful. And honestly, that’s about it. We we short on time and cared more about Grand Teton National Park.

The peaks, the weather, the beauty. Mother Nature is incredible.

And then of course, one night in Pocatello. The cherry on top of this incredible road trip, was finally closing the chapter in my college town and renting a U-Haul to get my big belongings out of the old house that I called home during the end of my undergrad.

10/2

We made it back home, car loaded, tugging a trailer, with my mom, Bill, and Charlie waiting patiently to greet us in the front yard.

Ah, to be home.

Cheers,

Tay