Recap and Further Thoughts . .

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Total trip days:  110

WE DROVE

• Motorhome    12,600 miles    1,438 gal   MPG 8.76
• Pick Up Truck  9,500 miles       487 gal    MPG 19.5
• States visited:  19     Provinces visited:   7       Cracks in windshields:  0
• Viewed all 5 of the Great Lakes

WE RAN

Steve’s Races:

• Spearfish Canyon Half Marathon, Spearfish, South Dakota
• Yukon River Trail Half Marathon, Whitehorse, YT
• The Anchorage Mile, Anchorage, AK
• Moose’s Tooth Marathon, Anchorage, AK
• Devil’s Dive Half Marathon, Traverse City, MI

Cathy’s Races

• Spearfish Canyon 5K, Spearfish, SD
• The Anchorage Mile, Anchorage, AK
• Spenard Roadhouse 5K, Anchorage, AK

Linda’s Races

• The Anchorage Mile, Anchorage, AK
• Spenard Roadhouse 5K, Anchorage, AK

WE ENJOYED THE WILDLIFE

Major Animals sighted:

• Steller Sea Lion, Harbor Seal, Sea Otter, River Otter
• Beluga Whale
• Bald Eagle, Ptarmigan, Loon, Puffin, Raven, Swan, Osprey, Turkey, Hawk . . . .
• Salmon (various), Trout (various), Steelhead
• Black Bear, Brown (Grizzly) Bear
• Wolf, Coyote, Fox
• Pronghorn Antelope
• Mountain Goat, Muskox
• Bighorn Sheep, Dall Sheep
• Arctic Hare, Alaska Hare, Pika
• Moose, Roosevelt Elk, Black Tailed Deer
• Plains Bison, Wood Bison
• Beaver, Muskrat, Marmot
• Porcupine, Woodchuck, Arctic Ground Squirrel, Red Squirrel
• Mosquitos, lots and lots of Mosquitos . . .

WE ENJOYED FAMILY

We met and travelled with both of my sisters, Barbara and Myrna at the start of the Alcan in Dawson Creek and we continued together through Anchorage.

We enjoyed extended visits with Michael and Jason in Alaska, then with Michele in Traverse City, Michigan.

Linda Thorlakson, (extended family) joined us for a couple of weeks in Alaska

WE LISTENED TO AUDIOBOOKS WHILE DRIVING

Since we knew that during a good portion of our trip we would be outside of normal radio or satellite reception,  we recorded almost 50 audiobooks, courtesy of the Hall County Library System, to listen to while driving.  During our travels, we completed 32 books!

WE COMPLETED THE TRIP SAFELY

Jason installing our “Trail of ’42” tag signifying the completion of the AlCan Highway (twice!) . . . .

MISC. THOUGHTS . . . .

• The drive to Alaska is every bit as good as being in Alaska.  We saw neat towns, villages, parks, rest areas, wildlife, gorgeous views of mountains, rivers, glaciers, sunsets, the Aurora etc and met a lot of wonderful people, including several from Georgia, Hall County and Braselton. It really IS a small world.Saw many oilfield operations shuttered in Alberta and in our northern States. These areas are in a recession . . . many businesses have closed in the small support towns.
• There are immense stretches of open/forested land in Alberta, the Yukon and Alaska that is wild and uninhabited.  The Northern Territory is VERY remote . . .
• A good amount of roadside businesses close for the season starting in late September / Early October. This is more prevalent the further north you go.
• Travel on the AlCan is best done very early in the morning.  By 1000 it starts to get more heavily travelled . . not Atlanta, (or even Braselton) but traffic definitely builds toward midday. Travel on the AlCan can be lonely in the later hours, and into the night.  We  sometimes went for 30 minutes or more without seeing another vehicle, home, light, business or any other evidence of human habitation.  Cell phones were unusable in these stretches. We will  be installing “Moose Lights” on our vehicles if we go back.
• If you want to see something “touristy” in relative solitude, get up early.  The tour busses start arriving about 0900 and everything starts to get crowded.  These same tour busses seem to stop about 1600 for the evening.  This includes Banff, Jasper, Denali, almost anything tourists frequent. Sometimes we just sat and watched the people.
• There is continuous road construction during the summer months, repairing frost damage.  Be prepared for delays.  Fortunately,  Canadian authorities do an excellent job in marking the heaves in the roadway.  This cannot always be said for the American roadways.  Sometimes the heaves are substantial and can cause severe damage in you don’t slow down appropriately.  Cathy was on “heave” watch . . Worst road travelled:  the stretch between Tok and Glennallan, AK (Northbound only) and the Destruction Bay (YT) area (Southbound).
• Canadian employees, especially government employees are professional, courteous and helpful.
• We experienced extremely high grocery prices in Canada, including very high deposits on beverage containers (which were difficult to recoup), paying extra for grocery bags and high fuel prices (at least DOUBLE) that of the US.
• Weather in June-Oct varied, from very hot, to extremely windy (Montana) to tornado conditions (South Dakota) to varying stages of mist (Alaska) to sunshine (Alaska), to snow (Alberta).  We enjoyed all of it!
• We did not travel through a state or province that was not beautiful.  Maybe it was just the routes we took (we did a lot of interstate avoidance) but we enjoyed everywhere we travelled.

We are now in the early stages of planning our next two trips.  First to the Southern States this Winter, then to the Maritimes next Summer . . .