AK to CO Travel Map

Here is a very rough map of my road trip (courtesy of AAA/ CAA). It's the only map I was able to find that included all of the areas I drove through. My approximate route is the thick grey line. Do you guys want more detail? I can provide it but it will have to be a state by state, province by province map. This at least should give you a good idea - just imagine it that I pretty much followed the spine of the rocky mountains all the way down (they go north-south until the Yukon at which point they turn and go east-west).



Photos are up finally! They're posted on the original posts. Let me know what you think.

Mile 2,282/ Km 3,673 (British Columbia & Alberta)

Photos of Alberta - that's a mountain goat top right

I'm over another time zone now and the vegetation has changed dramatically. Gone are the spindly little bog spruce and the quaking birches. At first they were replaced by aspens and pines but now I am into the wetter parts and the trees are huge and mossy and there are many species, too numerous to list. The disreputable Dog and I had a lovely day, humming along to the blacktop. I find it so interesting talking to all of the random people I run into and meet in a day of traveling. They are almost all friendly and almost without exception they start their conversation with a comment about the Disreputable Dog who is obligingly friendly. I am starting to run into tour buses coming north although the summer travel season is only just beginning up here and most of the campgrounds are busy getting last minute construction projects finished. I seem to be making faster time as the construction zones grow less and less. I've lost track of the days of the week and sit down to reckon it. Friday.

Photos of Alberta - bottom left is a wildlife overpass

As you can see I've finally found an Internet connection and so am now posting my backlog. I'm not sure I'm ready to glance at my email yet since I have been enjoying the oblivion from such real world intrusions. It's amazing how the bookstore, job worries, everything just fades away into the contentment of the here and now while on the road. A real vacation even though that is not what it was planned to be. Cheers!

Mile 1,834/ Km 2,952 (British Columbia)

Grizzly, Stone Sheep, and moose damage on Aspen Trees

This is the first time I've been able to type outside of my tent, where neither the weather nor the mosquitoes chased me away to type from my sleeping bag. Today was a good day. I was up early in the morning and once again sampled the delights of the hot springs where I was camped and swam away the morning chill just before setting off on the road again. Since the nights are still relatively chilly up north, despite the 24 hour daylight, the inside of my rain fly is damp with condensation and needed to dry out later along the road when I hit a sunny spot. This is part of my daily road routine - sometimes it's wet on the outside from rain, sometimes on the inside from clear, cold nights.

The Boardwalk is a picture of the famous Alcan hotsprings

The road was very interesting today, windy through mountains and valleys and over braided rivers and mountain streams. I saw lots of wildlife - bison dotted the road way early on - mostly sitting in the verge like great moss boulders chewing their cud. Stone sheep & their young crowded the mountain passes and at one point I had to pull over abruptly in order to avoid being creamed from behind by a semi when the vehicle in front of me suddenly stopped to gawk. I saw mule deer along the way sides - they seem larger here which is only to be expected as it is lusher. I saw some caribou too - they were lighter in color, almost tawny, in comparison to the bull on who stopped me several days earlier on the road, his coat dark and shiny. A few moose were to be seen, young bulls with their newly emerging velvety antler which look almost comical at this stage being smaller then their ears, and a female kneeling to drink from a puddle. There were the few requisite black & grizzly bears, mostly munching at the new vegetation on the verge a few sniffing marking stakes left by road crews.

A black bear & more stone sheep - geologists check out that mountain!

The Disreputable Dog and I walked longer and more frequently today after my aching hips and sciatic nerve from yesterday and we wandered through to a gorgeous mountain lake and up a hill side where the water flowed down huge slabs of rock like poured concrete and then through the woods. Interestingly, although we hiked more frequently and longer, and I started later, I made better time on my mileage then yesterday and stopped earlier too. From a bustling town I called my five year old niece to wish her a happy birthday and could hear her shouting over her birthday party to her mom "she's driving from Alaska to Colorado!". I'm doubt she understands what that means but she seemed excited nonetheless. Having cell phone coverage at that moment, I then called my mother who had eye surgery yesterday for cataracts and was relieved to hear she is doing well - the surgery had made her very nervous. Apparently the Disreputable Cat is disconsolate without us.

Moose & black bear & you guess who!

This evening Disreputable Dog and I have had a lovely camp-made super and took a walk down to a lake near our campsite where I caught a glimpse of deer mamma and her young to which, luckily, my dog was oblivious being focused on a thrown tennis ball. The wind is keeping the mosquitoes off but my battery is running low so I must go.

Mile 1,380/ Km 2,221 (Yukon Territory & British Columbia)

Yukon Photos - a grizzly & an elk

It was an on again off again kind of day. An RV pulling a truck careened across a graveled section of the road and dislodged a softball sized rock that went through my windshield. Thankfully it went through the passenger side as glass sprayed all over my dashboard even while the windshield itself stayed mostly intact. I saw wild bison two grizzlies, one black bear, a beautiful little porcupine by the side of the road. At one point I was feeling sleepy and pulled over near a grassy river bank and slept - only to wake up and find I had rolled my legs in some sort of animal feces. I washed in the cold river. Sore from driving, my hips aching and my sciatic nerve throbbing, we took a hike off into the woods along a dirt road and came across fabulous crashing waterfalls. I made the famous hot springs in BC for the night and enjoyed them thoroughly until two local boys took too keen of an interest in me. When they inquired after my tent site and phone number I took refuge with a bunch of German tourists, asking them in their language, which the boys couldn't speak, if it would be all right to walk with them until I reached the place the Disreputable Dog was tied up. Sure glad he's along. It was a long boardwalk to the springs and he wasn't allowed. I brought him as far as I could - lots of single men in the campsite who eyed me as I went to pay my fees this evening but with the dog, they won't bother me. Little do they know that they would also have to face a full bottle of bear spray. I'm sure it would work just as well on them (don't tell the Canadian Boder Patrol - they only let it in because it is stated clearly on the bottle that it is for animals - where as the US border will only let it in if it states clearly that it's for humans!).

My lovely windshield

I love being in my little tent, my home away from home, with the Disreputable Dog next to me - just the smell of the tent makes me feel at home. I've been listening to Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" on CD and I think it has been affecting my mood. It's a very dark book. Anywho, it's late again, I seem to always get to this very late at night, and I'm too tired to write more. I hope I get to post some of this before I return home! The internet connections are either very sparse or they insist that I have a local mobile phone company which, of course, I don't. Even if I do post pictures will have to wait until I return. Good night!

British Columbia Photos - wild bison & a black bear