2005/07 Alaska Trip - North to Alaska - Tok, Alaska |
|||||
Tuesday July 19th
We had steady rain in the morning and the road became even worse. There were many sections where the blacktop had broken up with frost heaves and been replaced by gravel, so we’d be porpoising along the blacktop and then crash into the pot holes where it transitioned into gravel. The potholes were tough to spot in the rain, so despite taking it easy we burst a tyre, with a great hole in the sidewall. We had to change it in the middle of one of the gravel sections, getting shotblasted by passing trucks. The next “town” was Beaver Creek and we stopped at this ancient repair depot, and by some miracle the ancient owner had a tyre of the right size stashed away in an old trailer, so we replaced the spare and continued on to the border with Alaska.
 |
Alaska Highway to Tok |
|---|
The Yukon-Alaska border has some good displays and we took pictures of our entry into Alaska, and sighed with relief: we’d made it this far, at least. A half mile up the road we came to the Alaskan border post and John and Edna had to go inside to persuade the American government that their entry into Alaska was in the national interest. Our entry into Alaska didn’t improve the weather, as it continued to rain, but the roads became a little better. The breaks were filled with light-coloured gravel, so it was easier to spot the bomb craters.
Like last year, we stopped at the Tetlin wildlife refuge. We could see across the valley to the Tanana River, but the mountains on the horizon were obscured by clouds. I heard an American talking on his cell phone, complaining that he’d been in Alaska for a couple of hours but hadn’t seen much sign of the “abundant wildlife” yet.
We continued on to Tok, noting that the price of gas was around $2.50, more expensive than last year, but still cheaper than Canadian prices. Tok is truly the gateway to Alaska as it’s on the Alaska, Glenn and Taylor highways and leads to Anchorage and Fairbanks. We camped at Tundra RV as we remembered that their washers and dryers were first class, and the washing of clothes was high on the priority list. They also have a free Internet connection for us to pick up e-mail.
From the weather channels, we could see that there wasn’t much relief from the rain: it was supposed to clear up 
in five days! The only place in Alaska that looked to have sunshine was Fairbanks. I’d planned the trip to go clockwise around Alaska, but we quickly replanned to go anticlockwise or widdershins and to hit Fairbanks first.