[21/08/2024 – 28/08/2024]

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Our last week – Whenever You Read IT

While we cut our time in Alaska a little shorter, due to weather, what we have seen was very impressive. I really do like mountainous terrain. When there are glaciers or snow capped mountains, even better. While marveling at the landscape, I could not help but wonder how this looked 20 years ago, and what the landscape will look like 20 years from now. At the first – up close – glacier we saw, it was very apparent where there had been ice not too long ago and where it receded quite a while ago, due to vegetation taking possession of the newly available ground.
One of the more interesting spots was the sign forest at Watson Lake. While the tradition was started way back when the first Alaska highway was built, the variety of license plates and city limit signs you can find there is amazing. Oh yeah and there is a strong German presence there.
And then there were the northern lights. While I have seen them twice before, at Summit Lake it was Stefan´s first time and the intensity was mind blowing. This was the first time i was able to see the greenish coloring without my cheat device (aka known as cellphone), it was pulsating and ever moving through the night sky.
And now the animal life. While travelling the first time through BC, Yukon, the North West Territories and Alaska, wildlife was a bit scarce – we have seen brown bears, one cinnamon bear, a polar fox, lemmings and various birds. The second time on the Alaska highway in Canada was much more “crowded”, bison herds, caribou, bears and sheep, all in one day. Combined with the landscape between Watson Lake and Summit Lake, that was pretty good.
One last thing on Wednesday, on our way to Palmer at around Trapper Creek we have reached the most western point of our journey. From now it is only eastwards towards New York and the end of the road for this one.

Wednesday: Fairbanks – Palmer

The start to the day was relatively dry, and for 200 km it stayed that way. There was low cloud cover, but no rain. The wind started to pick up 50km before the Denali National Park, and half way through it, it started to rain. Basically we were soaked by the time we reached Wasilla. Anyway due to the state fair in Anchorage, many hotels were fully booked, and moved on to Palmer.

Thursday: Palmer – Tok

Sadly not everything got dry during the night, but at least it did not rain right away. It actually only rained for about 20 minutes midday. And by the time Stefan had put himself into the rain gear and we were back on the road, the rain died down and the sun came out. The rest of the day was just smooth riding towards Tok with beautiful Alaskan landscape.

Friday: Tok (Alaska) – Destruction Bay (Canada)

Ah border crossings, yeah we took a circle around the American border crossing as you do not have to do any out processing, it is just incoming processing. The Canadians then told us that we can actually stay 6 months in country, which I believe is the first time any country on our journey grants that long of a period to stay. Destruction Bay is one of those former Alaska Highway work camps, located at the Kluane Lake. Kluane Lake is one of those, that want to be an ocean once they grow up.

Saturday: Destruction Bay – Whitehorse

The Alaska Highway what more to say. Kind of cool to get into a place you have been before and remembering where to go without having to split your attention between the road and your navigation system.

Sunday: Whitehorse

Easy day. Basically we stayed there as it was intermittently raining in Whitehorse, and towards the east it was raining more. Went for a run and did 10k in 51:52 minutes, no idea where that came from but i was pretty pleased about it, and still wondering how I managed to pull that off. I believe that this was an even faster time on 10k then back when i was running half marathons.

Monday: Whitehorse – Watson Lake

Towards Watson Lake we followed the Liard River for about half a day, which led us to the Liard Hot Springs. And even though the temperature got higher, the Hot Springs where really nice. Embedded in nice landscape, and good cautious architecture, it was a delight to slip into the 36°C warm water. In Watson Lake the Sign Forest was as well rather interesting and as said, a lot of German signs there 😉

Tuesday: Watson Lake – Summit Lake

The last ride of the week, and … well, even though i have not been overly happy about camping at summit lake (elevation of 12XXm) It would have been a shame not to be there, the lake and the surroundings, and then during the night, the most stunning northern lights i have seen to date. Stefans first time anyway.

This concludes week #39
Till next time
Happy Hacking everyone