North, to Alaska

Just as we were leaving Yellowknife, the clouds began to break up and for the second time in a week and a half there was sunshine! We were not able to see the Aurora Borealis just yet due to the clouds, but we have some time yet ahead of us. As we drove south, the clouds returned and it began to drizzle on and off again. Most of the day was uneventful, we passed herds of bison on the road and saw the occasional photo shy black bear as it scampered into the cover of the woods. As we neared Fort Simpson we stopped to see the Coral Falls and Sambaa Deh Falls. The Coral falls were named appropriately. We found many fossils of coral because that area used to be a shallow sea. Both falls were beautiful!

After our little hike we drove towards Fort Liard, where we were planning on spending the night. It was 450 km from Fort Providence to Fort Liard. There was gas in Fort Simpson which was a little over half way between the two forts. It would have been a big time waste to go there because it was 120 km out of the way and you had to take a ferry across the river to reach it. We bypassed it, knowing we could make it with the use of our extra gas canisters. What we did not account for was how difficult it was to use the pour spouts (you would think it really easy to figure out, but it was not for us!) We ran out of gas and it was already dark and quite cold by this time. As Chris fumbled with the canisters, the cold and frustration began to wear him down. He kept spilling gasoline on the ground and himself, which further contributed to the panic he began to work himself into. Lauren nearly laughed at Chris because he was so mad that he had begun to mutter incoherently in his anger (Chris sounded a lot like "the old man Parker" while he was trying to fix the furnace in "A Christmas Story"). It only got worse as Lauren broke one of the canisters spout! Chris was extremely irritated by this and began to work on his spout again. He quickly broke his as well! At this point his anger was at a boiling point but fortunately the only thing he could throw was the gas itself, so he had to find another way to vent and he stormed off into the dark for a few minutes to try and cool off. We resorted to filling the Jeep by poking a hole in a Ziploc bag to create a funnel. We could not pour the gas directly in because the canister was too full, so we grabbed another Ziploc. We filled the Ziploc slowly and poured it into the "funnel". It was a very slow process and our hands were rather numbed from the cold of the gas and air. It would have been quite a sight if any other travelers were stupid enough to be driving along that desolate road in the middle of the night! Finally, we finished and drove into Fort Liard. Being too tired to  set up our beds we slept fitfully in our seats until morning. When morning came we filled the Jeep with gas and refilled our canisters and headed towards Yukon! We saw a few female bighorn sheep on the side of the road, as well as more bears, and Lauren saw a Golden Eagle! We joined up with the Alaska Highway in the late morning, and finally had a reliable source of fuel and food all the way to Alaska. We entered Yukon in the afternoon, and when 8:00 pm rolled around we found a pullout on the side of the road. We set up our Jeep to sleep in and made dinner. We are pretty quick with this process by now and can be in our sleeping bags within 15 minutes of stopping. 

The next morning we awoke and drove to Watson Lake where we explored the wonderful land of the sign post forest! There were road signs, license plates, and many random items with peoples names and where they were from nailed on the posts. There was even a toilet seat and a flip flop! It was fun to see all the different places people had come from, as far as Germany. In fact we met a couple that was there  from Germany! The crazy thing was that they had driven from Germany! They got on a boat in Europe and landed in Halifax, Nova Scotia. From there they drove west across Canada. They did not drive any typical car or RV. They drove what appeared to be a tank! Apparently, he (Michael) built custom made RVs specifically designed to handle extreme terrain! They were on their way to Inuvik in the Northwest Territories, right up against the Arctic Ocean. From there they were going to Fairbanks to visit their daughter in college. In December (they have already been traveling for 12 weeks) they were planning to leave their RV/tank in storage and fly home for the winter. In the spring they will return and head south to a destination unknown. They were quite an inspiration to us! If we ever have to buy an RV we will be looking them up! 

Welcome to Alaska...not! Apparently Alaska does not consider it necessary to welcome people to the state with a sign. Maybe the U.S. Customs is all the welcome you get? Either way, we passed customs without a hitch and are now back in the U.S.A. If you were not aware our phones did not work while we were here. We only discovered that as soon as we had crossed from Montana to Canada several weeks ago. Now we can offer a forewarning, that the next time we are in Canada we will not have phones again for a week or so! While we journeyed farther into Alaska, we saw a family of moose grazing near the road. The male was a puny thing to look at and ran away as soon as we pulled over. The mother and the foal stood watching us warily but allowed us to take some pictures. Afterwards we continued on our way towards Fairbanks. The scenery was spectacular! We drove around Glacial lakes lying at the foot of tall snow capped mountains, through autumn colored Boreal Forests, and across massive swift flowing rivers. Before we stopped for the night we found that we had driven so far north and so fast (Lauren) that we had reached the North Pole!

False alarm! It was only North Pole, Alaska. Still it was quite an oddity to find a few miles south of Fairbanks. It had a grocery store and a flat gravel spot on the side of the road for us to sleep, so we stayed the night. We are now in Fairbanks and will soon be headed to Prudhoe Bay, hopefully!