7. Day 2 – We crossed the border from Alaska into Canada
Tuesday 9 May 2006
Dick up at 7.30am and started driving, it was fine and sunny. We joined the Alaskan Highway at Tok and shortly after stopped for breakfast.
Dick making breakfast
Pip was given tea and toast in bed and Dick put the special Australian stickers on the outside of the Earthroamer. Soon after a couple pulled up behind us in a mobile home and after recognising the stickers they came to say hello because they were Aussies too.
We turned off the highway and drove south west to Northway airport for sentimental reasons. In 1995 we had landed here in the Sikorsky VH SHW on our world flight due to bad weather. We wandered into the old airport cafe and I saw the phone that I had used to ring my sister Susie all those years ago.
Cafe at Northway airportPip using the phone inside the cafe
The airport was built in the 1940s as part of the north west staging route for Lend Lease planes that were being sent to Russia. They were brave ferry pilots in those days. We have now crossed two of the Smith world flight routes.
Northway airport with the Earthroamer
Dick spoke to two Canadian pilots of an Aussie made G8 Airvan that was being ferried back to Canada after being displayed at the Anchorage Aviation Expo, which of course Dick attended when we were in Anchorage.
We headed north east back onto the Alaskan Highway where we noticed the old telegraph poles still in existence even though they were disconnected and many falling into disrepair. We glanced at the GPS and it told us we had 51 hours and 45 minutes to go if we kept driving to get to Denver! We stopped at the border line and took the obligatory photo.
The Alaskan Canadian border looking south showing the famous cut lineEarthroamer parked underneath the Alaskan border signA bear ran across the road in front of us
We saw moose and geese on a lake. We’re glad we had purchased a telephoto lens for our new Olympus camera.
Moose and Canadian Geese on the Alaskan Highway between the Border and Beaver Creek
Then to the Canadian Customs post. We had been illegal immigrants for the last 35km. The friendly lady customs officer wanted to know if we had any firearms or commercial products. When we said no she stamped our passports and waved us through with a relaxed smile. We weren’t asked who owned the vehicle, where it was registered or whether we had insurance or not.
Canadian border
The road after we crossed the border had notably deteriorated with big bouncy bits caused by the permafrost melting after the sun is absorbed into the bitumen.
St Elias Mountain Range with the permafrost buckled highway
The reason the Customs Post is not on the border is so the officers do not have too far to travel from their hometown of Beaver Creek.
Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church, Beaver Creek
We are now in kilometers per hour country – Canada is metric like Australia. Ninety kilometers per hour seems to be the maximum speed limit on this part of the highway.
The trees are magnificent with pine, aspen and spruce. We pass through Snag, reputed to have Canada’s lowest temperature of a mild -63 degrees C in 1947. We liked the fact that some of the very old and rundown buildings were still in existence with plenty of junk around.
Old building surrounded by past treasures with the owner’s dog out front
Michael Ball would have them listed for the National Trust if they were in Australia!
Since we have been on the Alaskan Highway there have been a lot more big trucks, obviously heading for Fairbanks or even to Prudhoe Bay.
Big trucks passing us on their way to Alaska
There were even more motor homes passing us, some huge and by huge we mean 40 feet long with a car attached and a boat on the roof of the car. We thought our Earthroamer was big but it really is “a midge” compared to these. We stopped every now and then to make a cup of tea, yes with proper Bushells tea in our metal tea pot from home.
View out of the window of the Earthroamer when we stopped for a breakThe Mountains were magnificent as we travelled south
At Kluane Lake we stopped at the Soldiers Summit memorial plaque and climbed onto the old Alaskan Highway to the actual location where the highway was officially opened with a ribbon cutting ceremony on a blizzardy November 20 morning in 1942.
Original photo aboveThe site with Dick today
The old highway – called the Alcan, was an extraordinary construction at this point pretty well only suited for 4WDs.
Cutting on the old Alcan Highway
We then continued on and stopped at Kluane Base Camp, at a small airstrip known as Silver City where Andy Williams, the famous Welsh/Canadian glacier pilot lives.
Kluane Base Camp airstrip
We called in and saw Andy and then drove down and parked on the shore of the ice covered Kluane Lake.
Edge of the Kluane LakeWe stayed the night beside ice covered Kluane Lake
Andy assured us that within 20 meters of the shore it was Queen Elizabeth’s land and we couldn’t be moved! We ate our dinner of a Pip made stew and vegies and watched the beautiful sunset over the Lake. That night’s DVD was Mrs Henderson Presents.
