Wednesday, May 18th.  Got out of Tok at 7 AM, or 8 AM Pacific time.  Spent too much time in Alaska looking for a proper Alaska ball cap.  Finally, in desperation, bought one today.

Customs was all good.  Nice guy, no silly questions.

Spoke to two motorcyclists, both traveling into Alaska and alone. Their timing was probably better than mine.

Cold, partly cloudy.  Just a touch of rain on me, but lots around me.  Snow too I think.  There is new snow on the hills/mountains.  All in all, it was a fabulous view for hours.  Hills, mountains, lakes, rain squalls.  My words cannot describe the beauty.  Sadly, I wasn’t feeling especially eager to take pictures because it was cold and . . .

I had to drive through 30 miles of gravel, then 20 miles of mud.  Horrible.  The gravel of two weeks ago had had another layer applied.  The mud was insane.  They even had a grader pushing some, but not all, of the mud to the center.  I’m not an engineer so I didn’t understand their intent, other than to provide financial assistance to car washes.  And stress out motorcyclists.  I think a bicyclist got hurt on the road, but I had my own concerns and can’t be sure.  My shoulders are in pain.

Anyway, I made it to Whitehorse as per plans.  First thing I did after checking into the hotel?  No, buying a drink was the second thing.  First thing was washing the bike.  The capital of the Yukon Territory is mine to explore tomorrow morning.  I’ve got a much easier drive tomorrow.

No pictures worth posting.  No animals seen.  I think I’ll be out of wifi range for the next few days.  We’ll see.

Tuesday, May 17th.  Rainy day.  Views would have been great in sunshine.  They’re not half bad even in clouds, but don’t translate well in pictures.  Drove through mining town with nice display of old equipment.

Rough road in spots, perfect road in others.  No rhyme or reason (seconded by a local construction worker).  One construction site with muddy bypass; slippery!  Tok hotel manager (Golden Bear Motel again) said a blinding blizzard passed by in the morning.  Roads seem a little more crowded with RVs.  Season coming to life.

Got about 75 yards from some moose, which is the National Park’s standard safe distance.  The moose apparently agrees, for when I tried to get closer, they departed.

For the next two days I retrace my steps out of Alaska.  Tomorrow I will attempt to reach Whitehorse.  387 miles, including 30 miles of lose gravel (unless things have changed in the past nine days).  It’ll be difficult, but the shorter alternative is reaching Haynes Junction, which didn’t impress me coming west. I get to enter Canada again.  I still don’t have any brass knuckles, so I should be okay.

Monday, May 16th.  Took the Alaska Railway Tour train to Seward. Upper deck seating with an open-air balcony.  Beautiful sights!  Commentary along the way.  Train would slow/stop for good scenes and even stop for wildlife sightings.  Moose, eagles, no bears.

In Seward rushed to boat for six hour cruise.  Sea otters, sea lions, whales, eagles, goat, various birds.  Saw large pieces of ice fall into the sea from a glacier.  Crew hauled a piece of glacier ice on board.  Crystal clear.  National Park ranger, who neither talked too much nor too little, admitted we were lucky to see all the things we did.  Began to rain towards the end.  Cold.

Return train was under clouds.  Views not so good.  Arrived at 10:15, still daylight!

Nice day, way too many pictures.

Sunday, May 15th.  Just walked around town.  Visited souvenir shops, had a reindeer dog, sat in the park.  The city has its history written on many walls and signposts.  I didn’t go to the museums because they appeared to be more art than history.  I wasn’t in the mood.

It’s clear the city is preparing for summer.  Three stores were training new employees.

Went over to the seaplane lake to watch some takeoffs and landings.  They’ve really got to put the pedal to the metal to get up.  The lake is adjoining the real airport, which must make air traffic controllers nervous.

Learned that the large mosquitos are preferred to the not-out-yet small ones.  Easier to kill.  It’s been years since I’ve had to deal with mosquitos.  I’ve got to say that this new bug repellent is vastly better than the old stuff.  They hover, but they don’t land.  The old stuff would smell bad and work worse.

Few pictures today.  Tomorrow I’m doing a train-boat-train tour.  I should be loaded with pics.

Made in Davenport, Iowa. I had lunch there last month!

Saturday, May 14th.  Marvelous day.  Packed up in a leisurely way in almost cool weather.  While driving along the edge of the National Park I’d see Denali and stop for a photo.  Five minutes later the view would be better, so I stopped again.  Repeat several times.  Fantastic war memorial at a rest/scenic stop.  Also a memorial to two military air crashes in Alaska, with the background stories.  I learned a lot more about the Park from the outside than in it.

The road was busy northbound.  This is a dusty state.  Too much gravel at gas stations and elsewhere, though not as bad as Canada.  A lot of ATVs on trailers.  Many ATVs driving alongside the road.  I’m not sure, but there might be a gas discount if you have a long beard.  Duck Dynasty wannabes.

Alaska Transportation Museum, which sounds fancier than it is.  Private.  A good start at something.  Old equipment rusting in fields mostly, but what they have on display is way worth the $5 admission.  They’ve certainly got the stuff, just need to organize it all.  Someone hang glided off Denali? A Department of the Interior “Mine Rescue” train car?

Camping at the air base.  A bear problem.  The camp host has actually used bear spray!  $12.  No showers yet.  Maybe Monday.  I’ll have stayed 6 out of 7 days in my tent.  Good on the budget.

Downtown looks promising for tomorrow.  Lots to see.

Quiet place indeed. Excellent idea someone had.

Sorta obligatory. Muddy.

I’d like to see someone put these on a horse!

This trip (by an 18 year-year-old) is so much cooler than mine. But makes me less crazy.

Caption said “Pupmobile”

Love this shirt!

This was a planned picture that turned out MUCH better than I expected. Scares me!

I’m too early.  The 92 mile road into Denali isn’t open yet.  The buses aren’t operating either.  I was able to drive 30 miles up the road, 15 on very dry gravel.  You can’t see the mountain during the second 15 miles, and the scenery is nothing spectacular.  At the endpoint scenic view I asked a threesome talking loudly about nothing important to take it elsewhere.  After a 15 mile gravel road, my patience was thin.  They did indeed take it elsewhere and everyone else expressed their appreciation.

The Mount Denali is extremely impressive, from any angle and any distance.  I put it up there  with Mt. Fuji for beauty and majesty.  The park is less so.  They may have wildlife, but it wasn’t present today.  The hills are brown.  The air is dusty.  The campsite, for the first time on this trip, is full and noisy.  Overall, it hasn’t been a good day.  I’m leaving tomorrow for Anchorage.

Fairbanks

Toured the Museum.  Very fancy, extremely professional layout.  A lot of nature, a little light on recent history.  A video about Aurora Borealis went a long way towards teaching me what it is, though I was surprised to learn that scientists aren’t exactly sure themselves.

A free museum downtown about dog sledding and the gold rush days was more to my liking.

Saw Mt. Delani for the first time.  Hope to see a lot more of it.

Worked briefly on the details of my trip home from here. I’m first going to visit Denali NP and Anchorage.  Then , just getting back into the US will require driving 2,300 miles.  From the border I’ll probably use the “Historic 101” as much as I can.  The entire trip will be about 3,700 miles, so it’ll take several weeks.  But much of this leg will involve retracing steps already tread, so my pace might be quicker.

That’s Denali in the distance

Very fancy outhouse

The Museum had a lot of artwork. This was my favorite.

UA is the only university with it’s own rocket range.

Incredible!

From here I’m returning home.  After much thought I’ve decided to hit the Northeast in the Fall, when children are back in school and the leaves turn color.  I’m not eager to search for available campsites/hotels.  I’m also not excited about sharing my fun with misbehaving kids or, more distressingly, parents that let them misbehave.  So sometime in September I’ll head to the Northeast.

I’m not going to rush my return home, though with Victoria Day weekend in Canada and Memorial Day weekend the following week, speed may be called for.  I’ll probably do the coastal route.  Been there, done that, but it’s worth revisiting.

Drove towards the Dalton Highway, also known as the Haul Road.  It goes all the way to Prudhoe Bay and is mostly gravel or mud.  Got within 46 miles of Mile 0, or 65 degrees North.  Far enough.  Nice view.  Lots of trucks, all extremely dusty.

Visited a viewing pint for the pipeline.  The technology is really interesting.  For instance, when above ground the pipe lays unattached to it’s support.  The pipe can slide around.  The posts have radiators to deflect heat from the permafrost so it doesn’t melt.

Learned a lot about mining gold.  (An Italian named Pedro discovered the gold near Fairbanks.)

Pioneer Park has a bunch of old houses and shops, which are mostly closed until the 15th.  One shop was open and I had a fun conversation with the operators.  They’re snowbirds from Florida.  They gave me several good tips.  The Park also has a rail car used by President Harding and a steamboat that was used in the area up until WWII.

Had fried cod for dinner.

I’m changing my itinerary.  The next post.

The upper beam is not attached to the lower one.

For those scientists among you.

The brown is almost certainly dust thrown off the trucks as they pass by.

Everyone needs wolf head mittens.

The first picture below is the scenery I had when I hit the road this morning.  Shortly thereafter a caribou (Moose? Elk? Whatever) crossed the road just a few hundred yards in front of me.  In seconds he disappeared into the bush.

The sun was out and the views were marvelous.  75 degrees at midday.  Arrived in Delta Junction, the end of the Alaskan Highway to have lunch.  Wrong.  The visitor’s center has a sign: “Closed for 2015!  See you next year!”  Most restaurants are closed permanently.  Others are open only for dinner.  Delta Junction is nearly defunct.

Proceeded onward to Fairbanks, again with a view to die for.  It was hard not to stop every few minutes to take pictures.  Briefly drove around North Pole, another city seemingly on its last legs.  Finally got to Fairbanks and discovered that I’ve arrived a week too early.  RV Parks and many other tourist locations open May 15th.  Found a State Recreation Area.  No showers, no wifi.  It’ll do.  The stress of finding a place to camp wore me out emotionally, so I took a break from tourism and went a movie.

Fun fact: In 1902 the community’s founders agreed to rename the place Fairbanks, to curry favor with Washington DC.  The name was that of Senator Samuel Fairbanks, of Indiana. (I’m thinking some town somewhere is thinking that “Trump” has a nice ring to it.)  The city has lots of historical markers and fun stories, which I enjoyed reading until 9:30.  (It’s now 10:45 and I’m not close to needing a flashlight.)  There is truly a lot of history here.  Among other things, it was the changeover point for airplanes headed to the Soviet Union in WWII.  Americans flew them in, Russians flew them out.  I’m looking forward to spending at least one full day here.  Maybe more.  I’m going to skip any kind of excursion to the Arctic Circle.  Too much time and money for too little reward.  I’ll save it for the cruise trip.

Mosquitos are out, but my repellent is doing it’s job.