Trip To Alaska Page  19

Day 21 Kluane Wilderness Village YT to Tok, Alaska Wednesday 26 April 2006

Kluane Wilderness Village RV Park YT to Tok RV Village Park 188 Miles

Tok RV Village Park

Today's Trip

The day started out most surprising. In fact when I looked out the window I could only laugh out loud with amazement. Yes, friends it was snowing again! :-) Check out the trailer steps, where have we seen that picture before?

So we clean off the snow and get going but first we stop to feed the horse. That job is done and we take off North pushing ever closer to Alaska.

The snow gets worse before it gets better but almost before we knew it sunshine appeared and another fabulous day opened around us.

About 30 odd miles along the road we meet our first large Canadian road repair crew and we stop as the #2 vehicle in line. A VERY chatty girl handling the Stop/Slow sign comes over to talk and tells us we are in prime bear country. Ah, at last a chance to see those elusive bears? We chat for a bit then out of nowhere steps this big guy who looked like a younger Barry Bonds.

"Hey, what is your name" he asks me politely but firmly? My heart sunk, had I ticked him off by driving too slowly? Had I cut him off at a pass someplace. Did he want to get back at a slow moving California driver? "Dave", I answer wondering what in the world did he want? "Dave who" was his quick reply? Oh, oh now what? "Dave Launchbury" I replied. "Very good" said the big bloke and he handed me my Visa charge card that I had unknowingly left as the last gas station!

I was absolutely flabbergasted! Yes, it certainly was my charge card. This kind gentlemen had seen me depart North and he was going North too so he told the gas station guy he would run me down and return my card. Can you imagine that??? What more can I say?

Only in the Canadian Yukon!

The road North of Kluane was just as advertised. Awful! Potholes abounded almost everywhere but many more had been recently repaired by the road crews. It must be an almost impossible task to stay ahead of the game. Just when you finish winter descends and you start the whole process all over again. The last picture on the left shows the little red flags that are everywhere letting the driver know that another bump in the road is about to surprise you. Gravel roads again but lots of activity going on around the roads. In a few years wider and smoother paved roads will be laid down.

Passing into Alaska was very emotional. Finally, at last I had actually made it! We stopped to take pictures at the welcome sign and prove to the folks in England that we actually did accomplish the task.

Wildlife report. To the right of Mum and Mabel at the Alaska sign is a picture of a moose(ess), elk(ess) or ???ess. Not sure what but we saw it and were very excited to finally see a four legged free animal in the forest. Later we saw what we concluded to be a couple of dozen wild horses too.

We stayed the night at Tok RV Park. I'm sure it must be a great place in summer but in Spring with no water or sewers it again was a real pain. The people were very friendly and were looking hard for Camper Workers to help out. Their summer help had all fizzled out for one reason or another and they were looking hard for help. I could have found a job there too but with the decision being Tok or Fairbanks??? Well I guess you first have to visit Tok to understand why this was such a no-brainer decision. Tok did have two restaurants though. Lets see they were called something akin to Doggie Diner and Ed's fast food... :-) Lots of gas stations though.

Click here to continue on with the story.