Moving to Alaska: Day Twenty

It was a chilly night camping in Kitwanga plus it rained overnight so it is a good thing we set up our tent mostly inside the picnic shelter in the park. We figured since we arrived so late and were leaving so early, it wouldn't really matter anyway since no one would even know.

We hit the road very early, well before daylight since we knew this was one of the longer mileage days, and we were still trying to make up for lost time from the tire issues. And we were going to make it to Alaska  today!!! Just not where we wanted to go.

We were taking a side road that goes to Hyder, the easternmost town in the state and probably the most non-Alaskan town in Alaska. What I mean is that the only way to get there is to take a long drive through British Columbia. No roads connect it to any other part of Alaska; you can only drive back a couple miles to Stewart, BC. The local law enforcement is provided by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The local fire and EMS is from  Stewart. Hyder is the only town in Alaska NOT to use the 907 area code (they use BC's 250). They are on Pacific Time, the only town in Alaska that uses it. They observe Canadian holidays. Their kids go to school in Canada. It is about as Canadian as you can get. Anyway, we were really going there to attempt to drive up to the Salmon Glacier which is supposed to provide wonderful views since the road takes you on a ridge above it but after about half way, we bailed out since the trailer was going to make it pretty much impossible to navigate the rutted forest service road. So our detour really did not pan out other than some pretty views on the drive in to town since there are multiple glaciers visible from the road.

This stretch of the drive is long and empty. Very few towns, just lots of scenery. More than once we passed those "94km to next gas station" type of signs. At one point we did make a letterbox planting stop that turned out better than expected. It was a trail at a provincial park that we went down and after about 3/4 mile found a huge lake and flocks of trumpeter swans flying and honking; it was pretty awesome just watching and listening to them.

After our short break we hiked back out and continued driving. But about 4pm, and probably 10 minutes after I took over driving, we found the road ice and snow covered. Enough that it was an issue with the trailer and tough traction. I had purchased some "AutoSocks" before coming up which are a chain replacement (as my car cannot take chains) so we put those on to try and help. I am not sure if it did or not but at least psychologically it helped. But what followed was white knuckled, ice driving for the next 4-5 hours at about 25MPH. It was a long, slow drive for sure, though we only had one slide. Where did this weather come from?!? The forecast had it clear. This was not only not clear, it was miserable. The snow was coming down and the road was rough. We reassessed our sleeping goal for the night and just wanted to get off this side highway and back onto the "real" Alaska Highway.

First a flight delay. Second  a blown tire. Then an ice storm requiring ~150 miles of 25-30 MPH.

Finally we did get to the end and even found a hotel for the night but as we were pulling in, the pressure sensor on my car went off. Great, more fun. But we will ignore that until tomorrow morning. The other annoying thing for the day; remember the AutoSocks? Well, when we parked for the night, they were no longer on the car!!! I have no idea when they came off but I will be voicing my displeasure with the company since I literally used them for at most 5 hours and about 150 miles and they are gone.

Start: Kitwanga, British Columbia

Stop: Watson Lake, Yukon Territory
~550 Miles Driven

~2.4 Miles Walked
1 Letterboxes Found

0 Letterboxes Not Found

1 Letterboxes Planted

Pictures will be posted on Facebook in this album (and the link will be included in all future posts for this trip):

Moving to Alaska Photos