Copyright 2019, CABS for Reflections From the Fence
June 30, 2019
Our 20th day.
Slow start. But we love our slow starts.
Man and Sir Winston take a stroll while I finish packemup of The Estate. Trust me, this is best for all involved. Man is outta my way, Sir W is getting some exercise and the silliness out and I have peace and quiet to packemup. Win-win-win-
Left Whitehorse area and decided to go directly to Tok via the Alaska Highway not the Top of the World Highway. Experienced what we consider to be our first official “frost heaves”, not to be our last, I am sure.
Wild horses spied along side the roadway, free ranging. Maybe someone’s stock?
At one of the pull offs I notice these tree leaves, which to me look like they are infected with some kind of worm.
Lots of sand dunes. Back in Alberta the soil was rich and dark. Here we see lots of sand, some of it a light beige, some tinted grey.
Haze, yep, smoke from the Alaska fire(s). The Sterling fire. Obstructed the view of the Kluane Glacier and Kluane Lake.
This is in the area of the Kluane Glacier, I think. The smoke prevented us from seeing it clearly.
Yes, we were a bit disappointed, this area looks as if it would be stunning if one could visit on a nice sunny day - -
Kulane National Park and Reserve. Stopped Visitors Center. Monument on hill. Past the capability of all of Sony III’s zoom. I need to do some more research to discover who and why the memorial. The docent on duty at the time was unable to fill in the details.
The area around the Visitor's Center showed distinct signs of "salt" deposits - -
The drive after our stop was scenic, when you love some water and mountains and such, as I do - -
Sadly, the smoke continued to obstruct - -
This map shows two localities underlined in yellow. To the left is Sterling Highway, where one of the current fires is burning in Alaska. To the right is Kulane Lake, where we were driving. Yep, the smoke went that far, at least.
More frost heaves. They are getting more frequent and larger/deeper/rolly polly.
Loads of purple/pink flowers along the road. Fireweed? And something else, seem to be two different flowers.
Even with the smoke, it's a beautiful land, and water - -
I just barely caught this, a memorial along side the highway,
About 100 kilometers before Beaver Creek the skinny evergreens grew taller and, skinnier. They are amazing. The photo does not do justice.
Stopped for night at Beaver Creek, 282 miles today, took us over 6 hours to drive those miles. And hot! At 8 in the evening it is in the mid 80’s outside. Running the air. I might have to break out the skort if this keeps up?
The frost heaves got progressively worse as we drove all day. We were down to under 40 miles per hour to traverse some of them. Rather go slow than bust up The Estate. As it is, things are shaking loose. Like door latches. And the bathroom mirror (again, had that issue last summer). Nope. Not unexpected, and we fully expect more. By the time we get home, this rig may be held together with double sided sticky tape and a few curses and a few prayers.
And we are ending the day with a bit of hail mixed with rain. The good thing is, Man had just finished checking the oil on the generator. He had a good sense of timing tonight. Ya!,
In the last 5 days, we have driven almost 1,250 miles. The scenery, is in the majority, the same, green tall pine trees and road, more tall pine trees, more road, toss in a bunch of mountains, roadside flowers, streams, rivers, lakes, some teal, some a dark blue/almost black.. To say the land is vast is simply an understatement. There are few words that will capture - - huge, large, vast, overwhelming, stretches FOREVER! No description will relay to you the reality, 1250 miles of Mother Nature and not much else. The towns, are small, saw one with a population of 450 year round. I was actually shocked it was that high. Some times we are driving for 5 to 10 minutes without seeing another car, camper, RV or truck. Like I said, vast is an inadequate description. Vast on steroids does not even do justice.
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