Travels of Geo Nova: Alaska Caravan Begins

We arrived in Dawson Creek, the start of the Alcan Highway, otherwise known as the Alaska Highway. We have joined 34 other Airstreams for our Alaska adventure. We know 3 couples from past caravans and hope to make many more new friends as we will all be traveling together for 2 months.

In Dawson Creek, a community of about 10,000 people located in British Columbia Canada, we learn the fascinating story of the Alcan Highway. We visited several local museums that told the story of the construction of the Highway. It was WW II that finally brought the governments of Canada and The United States to agree on the creation of the road. Before this point the only way to get to Alaska, a US Territory at this time, was by sea or air. The Japanese had recently invaded 2 of the Aleutian islands. The US government created a string of airbases in response to the invasion and now needed a more efficient way to supply the bases. In a period of 9 months 10,000 US troops and 16,000 civilians constructed a crude road 1500 miles long through a vast inhospitable and uncharted area. It was an engineering marvel. This was the forerunner of the road we will take through The Northern Canadian Rockies to arrive in The State of Alaska. Before the creation of the Highway the only way to transverse this wildernesses was by dog sled.

Our second stop was in Fort Nelson so named from the days when the Hudson Bay Company had a trading post dealing in pelts to be sent back to England. Here we visited another museum that was an enormous collection of stuff representing the area. This museum was the brainchild of a rather eclectic 86 year old man. Needless to say it wasn’t the Smithsonian, nonetheless it was interesting. We also managed to go for a short hike that was cut short by clouds of mosquitoes. This is when we understood how awful the conditions in the woods for the builders of the Highway were, they didn’t have bug spray and even with it they drove us out.

The third stop is in Toad River. The story is that the town gets its name from the days of construction of the Alcan Highway. Apparently lots of vehicles had to be towed from the river in the construction process. The population of Toad River is 50 people. There is no electricity here, however the campground we are at has a large generator humming away. Needless to say there is no internet here as well. We are well into the Northern Canadian Rockies and all there splendor. This section rivals the beauty of Banff and Jasper but in a more untouched setting. No tour buses make it this far. On our way to visit Liard Hot Springs we passed Muncho Lake, often compared to Lake Louise of Banff. The wild life is abundant, moose, stone sheep and Black Bears were sighted along the drive. The hot springs offered mother nature’s version of a hot tub. It was Delightful

Next stop Watson Lake Yukon Territory. This is our first stop in The Yukon. I can remember as a kid watching a TV show with fascination called Sargent Preston of The Yukon. This is a large area with a sparse population. This town was the site of an Airport that helped ferry planes to Russia during WWII within the lend lease program. By the way we are still waiting for the lease payment. Maybe Trump has taken care of that in Helsinki. By the roadside there is a Forrest of signs that people have left marking their journey along the Alaska Highway. This tradition was started by a US Soldier during the construction process and continues on today. These signs note people’s home origin and often distance to Watson Lake. Our caravan posted a sign. There are signs from all over the US and in fact the world. 86000 in all!

Whitehorse is the capital of the Yukon and is where half the people in the Territory live. This town will act as a spring board for a visit to Skagway Alaska on an old railroad. A bus picked us up at our campground and transported us to the train. This route passed through Carcross a small town mostly populated by First Nations People. This town was an important link in the travels of the miners involved in the Klondike Gold Rush. Canada was afraid of the thousands of miners invading during the Rush so they passed a rule that a person had to bring a years worth of supplies with him before he could cross into Canada. Thus a man had to trek the mountain about 20 times before he would have enough supplies to cross into Canada The train ride offered spectacular views of the stunning landscape. A section of the original Trail could be seen and it was so narrow it was hard to imagine men with full pucks traveling both ways on it. We were blessed with a picture perfect weather day. We were lead to believe these are far and few between in this area. Skagway was a typical tourist town however the National Parks have a great self guided tour of historical sits chronicling the Gold Rush History. In its hay day Skagway had no less than 80 saloons.