Discovery Yukon Lodging, MP 1169 to Tok, then Delta Jct, winding up in Fairbanks

This is the telephone connection for the Discovery Yukon Lodgings [nee White River Campground] which is aimed at a  mountaintop somewhere over there. Internet apparently comes through something buried as it worked while the phone didn't.

Amanda gave a recommendation for the next stop at Delta Junction, AK. She also said we'd been through the worst of the permafrost heaves. That may have been true, but not by much. The road was pretty lumpy.

The White River. There is no shortage of gravel up here.

We occasionally used the other side of the road to avoid rough patches.

 

We passed a few sections of experimental road construction techniques aimed at preserving the permafrost underfoot. These appear to be vents or heat pipes to reduce thawing.

This is a joint Canadian - US project since most of the traffic is US based traveling from Alaska to Alaska through Canada.

The last town in Canada is Beaver Creek, YT. Canadian customs is located here, about 30 km from the border. After we passed this, Ginnie asked if I felt funny, like we were in no-man's land. I did wonder how we'd be treated if we turned back before leaving Canada. Just keep driving.

We got through the gauntlet at the U.S. border, minus our citrus, including a lemon we bought in South Dakota. Apparently they are afraid for all the citrus grown in Alaska.

While the road was a bit rough at the north edge of Canada, it was smooth as silk after entering into the U S of A - for about 10 miles.

Showing off? Nice driving, though.

Ah, Tok, Alaska.

We've been quite careful to keep a good supply of gasoline in the tank, mindful of how far it can be between potential gas stations, watching how many former gas stations there are along the way - many failed and abandoned businesses. All that said, we did manage to cruise from Whitehorse, YT to Tok without buying gas.

I did a lot of mental math on that leg. Let's see, the tank holds 55 gallons, we're probably getting around 8 mpg for planning purposes, it's 200 km to the border, must be a gas station near the border even though the GPS doesn't show one, Tok is another 100 miles from the border, the gauge is at half staff, etc.

We made it to Tok without running out, filled up and got change back from $200. Have a nice day.

We stopped in the Tok visitors center where we had heard that a woman I knew from work in Vermont years ago worked. She wasn't working that day, but I left her a note.

Heading north out of Tok. There was a nice bike path alongside.

We noticed many birches in this stretch. A few days later, our guide in Denali mentioned the north spread of birch as an indicator of climate change.

We drove to Delta Junction with first priority being lunch at historic Rika's Roadhouse a bit beyond Delta. We opted for some warm soup given the drizzly conditions outside.

From the parking lot, we saw the Alaska pipeline where it was coming off a bridge across the Tanana River.

The day started off almost as good as the one before with sunny skies and great scenery. The forecast wasn't as good for the north, and we eventually ran into rain. The recommended RV park was closed in spite of it being the start of a holiday weekend. From Church's guidebook, I scoped out a couple of parks further up our route and figured out that Fairbanks wasn't that far away (100 miles) if all else failed.

The first potential stop was closed, and for sale. Oops. We ended up in a state campground in Fairbanks that was just fine. The rain kept us in, and kept me from the grill.

So we drove more than planned, but we're closer to Denali. Miles for the day 363 out of a total 3926.

I'm not sure where this fits, but in our days driving the Alaska highway, we've seen dozens of U-Hauls: trucks, trucks towing cars on trailers, cars and trucks towing trailers.  It seemed that more were heading south than north, but we could be wrong. Here's a suggestion for future work, or a kid's game: keep track of the count, north vs. south, trucks vs. trailers. I envision ships loaded with U-Hauls coming to Alaska in the spring to supply all the hardware heading south. Maybe there's a reverse migration in the fall. Maybe U-Hauls are made here?