All members of the expedition are now home and back to their everyday routines--blah! Ken arrived home on Friday and Patte got home to Montana early Monday morning after an all-night train ride. It is now Wednesday, Sept. 8 and Patte wants to go back to Alaska!!!! As a way to relive the adventure, she and Ken are going to be adding info to the blog and sharing the stories that didn't get up here during the trip--remember, neither her or Ken are "techies." Patte did try to put info into word to cut and paste, but that's not working out so well either....So, over the next several days, or weeks, we will fill you in on our expedition and post more pictures, many, many pictures, if all goes well.
The last place we left off was Saturday, Aug. 29. After catching up the blog, Patte and Ken headed out of Tok and made it as far as Haines Junction--about 250 miles--and the most miles we had covered in 1 day! We got a late start that day and the road had a lot of "bumps" for about 100 miles. We learned that just before we started on the road after a stop at the visitor's center in Beaver Creek, YT. We crossed the border without a hitch after Ken finally filled out the paperwork for the shotguns when the border crossing was in site!
Along the drive, we stopped at Tetlin Wildlife refuge and checked out some of the Native history of the area. We also saw the Icefields Range of the St. Elias Mountains--the largest non-polar icefield in North America. And we also saw Mt. Logan--the highest peak in BC. It's a little over 19,000 feet, making it just a little smaller than Mt. McKinley. Spectacular scenery everywhere! We also stopped at Tachal Dahl, aka, Sheep Mountain, and managed to see a herd of Dall sheep waayyy up the mountain. Ken counted about 34 sheep; Patte managed to find about 12 of them! You can almost tell what they are in the picture! We cruised through Haines Junction and camped at Pine Lake Recreation Area, just a few miles outside of Haines Junction; the term "camping" is used lightly.
Sunday morning we got up early, so "we could put down some mile"--silly us. Our first destination was White Horse to re-stock some food. We went to a discount-type grocery store, because it was the first one we spotted. Patte went to grab a cart and they were locked--it was coin operated--you had to pay to use a shopping cart! Ken wished he had a picture of the expression on her face. Who knew?!?! We opted not to use a cart and found a couple of baskets that were free to use, but you had to pay for the plastic bags to put the food in. It was a new shopping experience for both of us. Hard to say who was more bewildered by it. After that is was a search for fuel, with a stop at McDonalds, which you all know is not a favorite of either Ken of Patte. But it was close and it was warm and they had flush toilets and running water, so Mickey Dee's it was!
While there, Ken started talking to a couple who were from Whitehorse and he found out where to get the best deal on fuel and some other local info. And then we were off again. Patte wanted to go through downtown, but Ken wasn't crazy about the idea. But that's the route "Gertie", our GPS Navagator took us. Made Patte happy! And we found the Klondike parked on the Yukon river--Yay!! From there we headed towards Watson Lake.
To be continued.........
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