I’ll apologize up front, this one might be a long one since I’ll be covering numerous days in one sitting..  Hopefully the few pics I post will make it worth your while.

I’m not sure what I was thinking when I said we’d be heading for Whitehorse after leaving Fort Nelson. I knew we were planning a much shorter (150 miles or so) drive with planned camping at Muncho Lake. Before leaving Nelson, Radrod and I hit the local grocery store and picked up some provisions. We bought a couple good looking ribeyes for one night and some pork chops for another. We also bought some snack foods and some cheese as well as a few other eats for various meals while we are on the road.

The drive was quite nice. The sun was out, it was warm, the scenery was beautiful. The road itself was slower due to numerous construction stops, as well as it just being a winding road.

Muncho Lake was gorgeous. The waters of this glacier fed lake go from azure blue at its shallows to a deep, dark blue at its depths. It had some nice campgrounds on its shore as well. Luke and I stopped at the first camping area we can to and decided to look around and see what sites they had open. We chose a site away from the other campers, but before too long, someone took the site adjoining ours.

After getting a couple items unloaded we headed up the road in search of some gas, which we found at the Muncho Lake Lodge. After filling up Moses, Luke comes out making these hand gestures at me that I interpret to mean “Get out and come here.. Bring your camera..  A bird is fishing!” Thinking it would be cool to see a large bird of prey fish, I do as he asked, only to find out that I misinterpreted his signals, specifically the one about the bird..  What he actually said was that there will be a plane landing on the lake…

I had never seen a puddle jumper land before so this was pretty cool..  And did I mention the color of the water???

After the plane landed, we headed back to our site to unload and finish setting up camp. When we were done with the chores, I found some shade and had a sat down. There may have been an unplanned nap that occurred, but I can’t be sure. I do know that shortly after I got out of my chair, Luke went up and took a nap of his own.

While he was asleep, I took advantage of the alone time and photographed the area…

And I became fascinated with these little dandelion type flowers..

After Luke woke up, we got dinner going (pork chops, lightly seasoned with fresh-ground sea salt and lemon pepper.) We cooked the chops on Luke’s Cobb Grill, then added some hickory chips to the coals to give the pork a nice smokey flavor and they were pretty damned good.

That night, I slept out under the stars, making my bed on the soft sandy banks of the lake. There was a cool breeze blowing off the water and I slept like a rock.

For some odd reason, when I awoke I decided it would be a good idea to take an early morning dip in the lake..  Did I mention it was fed by glacial melt off? In layman’s terms, that means the water is and was effing cold! I’m talking bone aching cold. After spending between five and ten minutes in the lake my hands, feet, legs and head honestly hurt to the bone. Think along the lines of making multiple snowballs in fast succession with no gloves on..  It was that kind of ache. I have to admit though, I felt so much better afterward. I was awake, alert, and just felt pretty darn exhilarated and I’d do it again in a heartbeat.

Getting pretty tired now so I will continue this one in the morning..  Check back for an edit, not a new post.

It’s a new day and I really enjoyed sleeping in a bad for a change!  Now, back to the story…

After my “swim” we got packed up and headed up to the Laird Hot Springs.  Can you say “Mosquito Haven!?!?!” Them skeeters were patrolling in thick clouds! Fortunately, there were a bunch of people there. A proverbial ‘skeeter smorgasbord!  The walk to the springs was about a half mile long and was on a boardwalk that took us through a marsh, then into a tropical forest complete with numerous ferns, wild strawberries and wild raspberries too.

And here’s a small shot of one of the springs flowing into the main body of water.

While at Laird, we saw many of our neighbors from the day before and we met a few new friends as well. On our way back to the FJ, Luke had spotted some wild berries and stopped to take a picture. He first thought they were strawberries, and I commented that they were raspberries. A gent and his lady friend were walking past and overheard the berry interesting exchange and threw in his two cents as well, siding with me on the strawberry v. raspberry debate.

A couple minutes later, two somewhat inebriated Inuits walked past and spied our cameras. One of them stopped me and checked out out my D200. We got to talking for a while and then made introductions..  The one interested in the camera said he was Barney, with two “E’s” (Barnee) and the other was Albert Webber. They talked with us about our trip and made some suggestions of things to see. They also confirmed some advice we received back at Muncho regarding taking the road down to Skagway. Everyone seems to think that it is a beautiful drive.

Luke and I then make our way back to Moses, only to find three guys checking him out. As it turns out, the three were from Italy. I’m not sure if they were living in Canada or only there on holiday. They were also off roaders and were very interested in seeing all the bells and whistles on Luke’s FJ. Introductions were again made..  They were John Mario, Mateo and Mateo.. As we were leaving Luke looked at me and said “Hi, I’m John Mario and this is my brother Mateo, and this is my other brother Mateo..”  We both laughed over that one for quite a while. The three Italians were cool though and it was great to meet them and talk for a while.

I almost forgot to mention that on the way to Laird, we had our second large animal sighting..  a large mountain buffalo. Luke then informed me that there’s only around 250 of these beasts left and that they lose around twenty each year from getting hit by cars. I don’t even want to imagine what hitting one of these bad boys at ninety kilometers an hour would do to your car’s front end…

Another highlight from the drive that day was a fantastic piece of “Bumbleberry” pie from Donna’s in Coal Creek. If you ever drive through, be sure and top off your gas tank and go in for a quick bite to eat. And don’t forget to have some pie for desert! We also saw a second buffalo who crossed the road right in front of us and showed us just how clean he was by creating a small dust storm just by scratching his head with his rear hoof.

I think the biggest thrill of the day was crossing into the Yukon Territory.

And a few shots from along the way..

That night found us camping at Marsh Lake. We had a tasty dinner of grilled ribeyes and baked beans. With the exception of Donna’s pie, I can honestly say that the best food we’ve had on this trip has been what we’ve made for ourselves.

The next day, we headed into the third “major” city we’ve hit on this trip, Whitehorse. Breakfast was on our minds so we stopped at the first place that caught our eye, Doc’s. We both ordered breakfast and once again, the meal was less than stellar. After breakfast, Luke tracked down the local Toyota dealer and went to see if they had a gasket for his Inchworm. Fortunately for us, they did. When we headed back out there were two employees checking out his rig. Within minutes three or four more joined them and Luke gave them the complete tour. He sure does put on one helluva Dog and Pony show!  LOL

We from Toyota we headed to Canada Tire to find some Lucas Oil for the transfer case. While Luke was looking for that, I walked over to the Walmart across the way to see if they had a grocery store. Unfortunately they didn’t so we would have to make another stop while in town. We needed more supplies.

While I was waiting for Luke to get done, a guy walked up, intrigued by Luke’s HAMM radio antenna. As it turns out, the guy was a HAMMer as well and I asked him to wait a couple minutes so he and Luke could HAMM it up. Well, they talked turkey for about an hour and Luke finally got to use his radio for the first time. Brian (the other HAMM) also hooked Luke up with a list of frequencies to monitor along the way. While they were talking, I was getting the sight seeing scoop from Brian’s wife. She too recommended taking the road to Skagway. Everyone who had mentioned it stated what a beautiful drive it is. Chances are good we will make a detour and drive the 100 miles down to Skagway, AK.

Which is exactly what we did and because of that drive, I have dubbed this day “Our Day of Reflection.” You will see why shortly.

I’m not going to try and tell you about the drive. My words won’t do it justice…

And the views just got better…

And better…

And better..Every turn opened up new and incredible vistas. I am very glad we took this detour!

Anyway, I think you see what I mean about this being well worth the time it took to drive.

While at one of our numerous photo stops, a car pulled over and a familiar face gets out. It’s the raspberry guy (John) and his friend (Miriam). As it turns out, they are following a similar track as we are. We talk more and he tells us about a great campsite just before you get to Skagway. He also tells us about the Haines Highway. When Luke and I get back into the FJ, we talk over our options and decide to make a big change in plans. the Arctic Circle is out. The Haines Hwy is in.

Further down the road we go, and we find ourselves at the international boarder between the US and Canada.

And a hundred yards further, we are in Alaska.

That night we stayed at the campground John mentioned. About an hour or so after we arrived, John and Miriam pulled in and took the site next to ours.

John came over and talked with us as we roasted our trout over the campfire. He let us know the skinny on getting over to the Haines Hwy. As it turns out we have to ferry across a sound. There’s only one ferry there each day and it leaves at 7:00 AM. Here’s the catch..  In order to get on the boat, we have to be there no later than 5:30. Needless to say, neither Luke nor I was happy to hear that.  After hearing the news, Luke and I ate our trout along with some sauteed mushrooms and onions that he whipped up, got the dishes taken care of and loaded up as much stuff as we could so we wouldn’t have to do as much packing in the morning, thus letting us sleep a little later.

Luke climbed up to the Master Suite around 23:00 and I crawled into the FJ’s passenger seat around midnight. What seemed like just a few minutes later, my alarm sounded and let me know that the dreaded 4:10 AM had arrived. And with it, started Radrod’s Day from Hell!

Luke never really seemed to get going. While we were on the ferry for the hour long crossing, he ate some breakfast which didn’t sit well with him. Once in Haines, he had second breakfast in hopes it would help settle the issues form his previous meal. It didn’t. The change in Rad’s mood was visible as was the overall change in his demeanor. I could see that he was spent. He was done. That’s all  there was to it.

He spent the better part of the drive sleeping. Having had little sleep the night before as well, I eventually got tired and pulled off at the Million Dollar Falls campsites. I took a short hike to see the falls. Luke elected to continue napping.

After the hike I headed back to Moses and found us a shady area. Luke, almost as if in a hypnotic trance, gets out of the FJ, goes to the back and pulls out a tarp, his mat and a pillow and stretches out in front of the vehicle. I got comfortable in the driver’s seat and took a nice ninety minute siesta.

The rest of the drive was uneventful and the sights less than awe inspiring. Our hopes of seeing bald eagles and bears fishing for salmon were dashed along the way. We pushed on up to the campground at Snag Junction where we made camp for the night.

About twenty miles before the camp, we had to stop for gas. The “station” owner came out to greet us. He was an old timer named Jim and he ran the combination gas station slash rock shop. He was a real character too. He loved to tell tall tales and Luke and I just played along. We went in to check out his shop only to fund that it also seconded as his living room. LOL.  I guess Luke and I spent a good half hour there talking with Jim and his wife and petting his dog Buddy. We have been quite fortunate to meet some great people along the way. I think Jim was my favorite.

That “night” (it doesn’t get dark until well after midnight this far north) we ate some salmon I poached over our camp fire and Luke made more onions and mushrooms. He went to bed as soon as the dishes were done. I stayed up an hour or so longer, finally heading to claim my spot in the FJ a little after midnight.

We didn’t get up until almost 9:30 AM and I could tell almost immediately that the extra sleep had done Luke some good. His spirits were back up and I was happy to see that.

We didn’t get on the road until a little after noon. One of the campers in the site had ripped a hole in their oil pan by hitting a stump. Luke and I offered some help and ended up driving the thirteen miles into town to see if there was a mechanic or possibly a welder. As luck would have it, there was. We headed back to the camp to let them know about the welder and we offered to give one of them a lift. They declined the offer, noting that one of the other campers had offered to take them both to Beaver City, but they appreciate the offer and us driving back to let them know about the welder.

Luke and I headed back into town and stopped at Buckshot Betty’s for lunch. The service was lacking and it took a month and a half to get our burgers. Fortunately we were sharing a table with another friendly chap (Glen) and we shot the shit with him until he had to go back to work. All in all we were there for over ninety minutes and the food wasn’t all that good. Guess we will bypass that stop if ever we go through there again.

We had planned on driving out to the Top of the World after leaving Beaver City, but our new friend Glen mentioned that the drive would take over six hours one way. Since the plan was to drive out there and then turn around and come back the same way, we were looking at roughly twelve hours round trip. To make matters worse, the border crossing closed at 8:00 PM so we wouldn’t be able to get back until the following day. We decided to drive out to Chicken Alaska instead.

That plan changed as well when, twenty miles into the drive, we decided that the dead forest wasn’t scenic enough to warrant the time to make the additional forty-six mile drive, and then have to drive back out again. We turned Moses around and headed back to the AlCan and ultimately to Fairbanks, AK where we stopped last night.

We had dinner at Soapy Smiths, located just behind the hotel. The place had a cool decor and our waiter was flamboyantly gay.. He was pretty funny though and kept us entertained. Luke’s meal wasn’t all that great, but my Alaskan halibut was pretty good. We both had a slice of pie for dessert, Radrod opting for apple and me, strawberry-rhubarb. I loved it!

After dinner we headed back to the hotel and went our separate ways. I made a few calls then spent the rest of the night working on getting the blog caught up.

Today, we are probably heading towards Denali National park, though I’m not sure how long we will have there. It’s already after 11:00 AM and I need to get showered and ready and Luke is doing some laundry..  We will be in a hotel again tonight so I’ll post more later.

Sorry for the long post..  Hopefully the pics make up for all the reading.

Mornin’ everyone..  I meant to post this last night, but ended up going to Dan’s Lounge in Fort Nelson for some dinner and a beer..  Well, one beer turned into six or maybe seven and I really didn’t feel much like typing when I made it back to the hotel.

Yesterday (July 25) started with a great meal from De Dutch restaurant which was connected to the Best Western where we stayed. The food was really good. Luke had this apple-topped dutch pancake and I had their hash. After breakfast, I made a quick trip to the bank across the street to convert some USA greenbacks to Canadian. Right after that, we hit the road. I think it was around 10:00 AM.

And we drove…

And drove…

And drove… Until we finally reached Fort Nelson at around 8:30 PM. We put over 600 miles behind us in that time and made very few stops for photographs. I will post some up when I get them resized. All totaled, we covered just over 1000 miles in two days.

The scenery was very different from that the day before. We still followed rivers and there were numerous lakes, but we were no longer traveling through the Rockie Mountains. Most of the drive was through rolling hills and the occasional low lying mountains, but none were nearly as impressive as those from Friday’s drive. We did see a moose cow and her calf, but they took off back into the woods as soon as they realized we were stopping. I didn’t even get a chance to snap a pic. Hopefully we will see more before the trip’s end.

Once we finally reached Fort Nelson, we found a hotel and went in search of some food. The lady at the front desk suggested two place, but neither sounded good to me so I asked Luke if he cared to drive through town and see if anything else catches our eye. We settled for a little cafe at the north end of town, but it was closed. We then asked a couple of locals what they would recommend and they all answered “Dan’s” so Dan’s it was.

Luke and I walked in and we knew immediately we had done good. Instead of a table, we bellied up to the bar and I ordered a beer. It was an amber ale and quite good. And boy did it go down smooth! Way too smooth because I ended up drinking a few too many. But hey, I’m on vacation, the music kicked ass, conversation was good and so was the food. Why did we need to leave?  LOL  Anyway, Luke and I stayed until the lovely bartender (Louise) let us know it was last call. We both looked up at the clock and was surprised to see it was only 10:50. I had already had enough so out the door we went.

Here’s the trippy part..  It was still light outside. The sun had set about an hour before, but it was still dusk.  I know that the further north we go, the longer our days are going to be. It’s just kinda cool to see it in person.

Today should be a short drive (around 150 miles) to Muncho Lake which everyone we have talked to highly recommends we visit. Luke and I plan on setting up camp there and stay the night. While there the plan is to do some fishing, perhaps a little hiking and take a drive up to the Laird hot springs. Who knows, we may even do some wheeling. One thing is for sure, we will be taking loads of pics, especially if this place is as gorgeous as they say!

Tomorrow we will hit the road again and try and put another 500+ miles behind us. We’d like to get to Whitehorse tomorrow night then head north another 450 miles to the arctic circle and the Berring Sea. We shall see how things play out.

It’s time for me to get going. We need to get on the road so we can see some more of this beautiful country. This will be the last post for at least two days, possibly many more…

Today was another long one..

Luke and I met up in the hotel lobby a little after 8:00 AM and headed out to reload Moses. After a few minutes of situating our gear and making sure everything we needed was easily accessible, Luke broke out the old impact wrench and tightened up the screws around his transfer case. He’s been getting some leakage from the TC’s rear and it smells as it drips onto the muffler…

By 9:00 we were on the road and headed into the Banff National Park.. What a beautiful drive and let me tell you, the wildlife up here is in abundance. We had barely gotten on the road when I spotted a deer. A few clicks further up the road and Radrod is mumbling something about “lumbering” followed a few moments later by “That was a bear!” Unfortunately, we were already past and I was unable to see it as well. I have never seen a bear in the wild and I’m hoping this trip will remedy that.

Further up the road, we (barely) made the transition from the 1A to the 93 North towards Jasper. Immediately we passed a small pond in a scenic setting and literally, right around the next turn was a larger one with one of the many peaks that comprise the Canadian Rockies reflecting in its glassy pool. I’m still kicking myself in the ass for not turning around and getting a few shots.

The road up to Jasper is filled with nothing but beauty. The entire length has some sort of water running or pooling along its western side and frequent creeks or waterfalls can been seen to the east. If we were to stop and take pics of everything we saw, I doubt if we would be able to travel more than twenty miles in ten hours. Luke did manage to talk me into stopping occasionally though..

My guess, he was snapping a shot of this…

And a little further up the road was this little gem..  Welcome to Bow Lake!

Along  with the water, the roads are lined with wild flowers. Purples, whites, yellows and occasional reds can be seen as you travel to Jasper.

Immediately after leaving Banff NP, you enter the southern boundary for Jasper NP and just a short way up the road you come across the Icefields. These are amazing. If I ever make it back to this area, I want to explore these further.

By this point, we began to smell the transfer case again, but only when we were driving up hill, which was most of the time. We also started hearing some noise coming from the 4×4 gear shift. Luke was pretty concerned by the new sounds and called Inchworm as soon as we pulled into Jasper, only to get their voice mail.

We grabbed lunch at a pub adjoined to the Astoria Hotel. The food was OK, but that’s as good as I’ll give. Luke and I started with some dry rib bits and some hot wings smothered in the House’s “jerk” sauce.  For the main course, Radrod had a salmon sandwich and I had their “Big Game!” burger which consisted of ground moose, elk and something else..  Probably squirrel or some other small rodent. Regardless, the meat was good and had a slight gamey flavor. I do think that the food was too expensive for what we ordered and I doubt I’d eat there again.

When we got back to the FJ, Luke was happy to find a message from Randy over at Inchworm. What transpired from that point is a long and drawn out tale that culminated with Luke finding out that the people who installed his “Lefty” filled it with automatic transmission fluid instead of the necessary 80/90 oil. Needless to say, Luke was not a happy camper and who could blame him!?!?

When it was all said and done, Radrod had to drain and refill the Inchworm. We found out that it will hold right at a liter of the 80/90 and when he drained out the “original” fluid, he had about 8 ounces left in the transfer case. One freakin’ cup of ATF is all that remained! That was a LONG time to stay in Jaspe; Between the lunch and repairs, I bet we were there for between four and five hours.

After Jasper, we headed out the 16 West towards Prince George, British Columbia and we finally left the Rockies. We covered the 180 miles in roughly four hours and pulled into PG at 9:20 or so, just as the sun was setting over this large and winding river. What a great end to our day!

Over all, I think we covered just over 400 miles in about thirteen hours. The drive was beautiful and I would highly recommend coming out to see Banff and Jaster NPs.

Ok, I’m starting to fall asleep as I type. It’s already almost 3:00 AM local time and I’m supposed to be ready to roll by 8:00…  Good luck with that!

What a long day..  I am exhausted and ready for bed.

I was up and moving by 5:40 this morning and my Dad was at the houst to pick me up by 6:35.  I’m glad I got everything packed last night because it sure saved time today.

We made it to LAX in plenty of time and I was happy to see that the Delta terminal wasn’t all that busy. In fact, I made it to the gate with a little over an hour to spare before boarding. To kill some time, I broke out the iPod and watched the latest Underworld flick. We started boarding just as it ended and thirty minutes later we were taking off for Salt Lake City.

We arrived in SLC about twenty minutes early which was good because I had to hump from the ‘C’ terminal all the way over to ‘E’. I managed to get over to E fairly quick and then realized that the last leg of the trip was going to be on a small commuter jet. Ugg.. I really do not like those. Fortunately this one made the trip and we didn’t have any real issues other than taxi-ing to the runway. It literally took close to 15 minutes of continuous driving! I actually thought we were going to DRIVE to Calgary. LOL

I arrived in Calgary shortly before 4:00 PM local time and survived Customs with no problems what-so-ever. By 4:30 I was sitting outside of baggage claim and by 4:35 Luke was rolling up in Moses (his Toyota FJ Cruiser). He immediately asked if I was hungry and, having not eaten all day, I answered in the affirmative. At that point, we fell in behind another FJ and I was introduced to a great couple, Jeff and Emily.

We followed them to a place called Ric’s Grill located somewhere in downtown Calgary. The food was good, and the service was excellent. The meal was a little pricey, but not too bad for a steak house. Over dinner, we discussed the trip and places to see. Luke had spent the better part of the afternoon discussing routes and whatnot so they were getting me up to speed. Jeff also suggested that we try and get out of town tonight and head to a little town called Canmore, which was only 50 or 60 kilometers away.

We heeded his advice and after dinner we set out for Canmore. The drive was scenic and we made it in good time. Canmore is located at the base of the Canadian Rockies and just south of Banff National Park. The closer we got to our stop for the night, the worse the weather was looking. The wind was ripping across the road and it was whipping Moses around like it was a little toy. Based on the clouds and the occasional lightning strikes, it is looking like we will be in for some fun weather tonight and possibly into tomorrow.

Tonight, we are hotelling it at a Best Western. I’m guessing that tomorrow we will be camping and possibly the night after that too.  I will keep on posting whenever possible, but for now, I’m going to sleep!

This is the hotel we stayed in…

It’s 12:17 AM and I’ve just finished packing so I decided to do one last internet check before heading to bed. Physically I’m exhausted, but my mind is moving at a million miles per hour. I’m going over check lists in my head, making sure I packed all the possible camera equipment I *might* need..

Passport, check.

Video camera, check.

Chargers, check.

Extra socks, check..

It appears as if I have everything I need and by the looks of my bags, and then some!

I really need to force myself to head off to bed. I have a long day ahead of me and a few hours sleep will do me good. 5:45 AM isn’t all that far away.

g’night everyone!

Title: Road Trip!
Location: Calgary, Canada to Fairbanks, AK.
Description: Radrod and Kokopeli hit the road and spend 10 days covering the 2200+ miles from Calgary to Fairbanks!
Start Date: 2009-07-23
End Date: 2009-08-02

Yep, you heard right. I’ll be flying up to Calgary, Alberta Canada tomorrow morning and meeting up with Luke (Radrod). From there we will be driving west headed for Fairbanks, AK.

We have a tentative route planned, one that takes us through some incredibly scenic areas, but nothing is set in stone. The only thing that we MUST do is have me at the airport in Fairbanks by 20:00 hours, Sunday August 2nd.

I’ll try and post updated along the way, but I really have no idea when I’ll have an internet connection. We will probably spend most of the nights camping, grabbing a hotel every third night or so. I’m sure we will both need showers by then!  As long and the hotels offer free WiFi, I’ll be posting updates.

If any of you have any suggestions of sights to see, places to eat or know of some good fishing holes, be sure to shoot me an email – brian@brians4x4adventures.com.