Meow. Meow. Meow. This is all we heard at 3am. Thomas decided he was not happy in the motel in the middle of the night and was going to let everyone else know about it. Thus, it seems we have one unhappy cat by day, and another unhappy cat by night.
We woke up at about 8:30. It was 0°F outside and we had to pack up the car. I left my jacket out in the car all night, and learned that a North Face fleece makes a strange sound when it is frozen solid. Despite the cold, we managed to make some adjustments to packing the car, which made it a bit more comfortable. The passenger seat could actually push back! The cats would not be free to wander the car today. Stuck them in the back seat with the kennel door closed. Thomas seemed okay now, but Lucy sure was not happy. Meow. Meow. Meow.
Grabbed some travel mugs of coffee, took a right turn at The Intersection and we were off to the Canadian border. 15 minutes later: crap, forgot to fill the tank on the way out of town and we had a quarter of a tank left. One u-turn and a fill up later, and we were heading toward the Canadian border again. There is so little civilization in this part of the world; that I actually recognized the Shell station where we filled up. No actual convenience store here. No one even working the pumps. Just four pumps that triggered when one swipes a card. The station next door was boarded up. This was the same scene my brother, Chris, and I saw at the same place when I moved up the Alcan in 2007.
No civilization out here, but the scenery is spectacular. We made frequent stops to get pictures. Sam spotted a survey marker at a rest area, so we had to run through knee deep snow to get some pictures. Somehow when the car stopped, the meowing from the kennel ceased. It now seemed obvious that the car’s movement was the cause of the crying. No getting around that one. At least we didn’t have Lucy jumping up on the dash today. She was sticking her paw out of the kennel in an attempt to destroy anything within reach, though. She was given a roll of paper towels to appease her anger.
So, Tok isn’t the last stop before the border. There is another Northern Junction with an Alaska State Troopers station. We watched our speed. I can’t imagine the troopers have much to do this time of year. Not exactly hunting season. According to a sign, a city actually exists right on our side of the border. We stopped at Border City Lodge to fill up our tank with American priced gas. The car had burned exactly 2.8 gallons of gas since Tok. Off to the border. This is an interesting border crossing. Those who have crossed the U.S.-Mexican border would laugh at this. We blow through the American Customs and Immigration without even stopping. A few miles down the road, we saw the signs and flags welcoming us into Canada and the Yukon Territory. Naturally, we stopped for pictures of the signs of both sides. So, we are now in Canada with the passports out and ready. However, Canadian Customs and Immigration is about 20 miles down this snowy mountain road. Canadian Border Agents are really nice. Quick chat and the required document check and we were further in Canada (but through customs and immigration). We now lost an hour with the time change in the process. The next town was Beaver Creek, YT. No restaurants and I was starving. The gas station with the snow machines filling up at it said it had a deli. By deli, it meant the owner made up sandwiches with store bought Oscar Meyer meats. It was that or continue scarfing the granola bars in the car. One turkey sandwich to go. And, no really, the gas pumps were set up to be the size for snow machines to roll in and fill up!
At some point after Beaver Creek we finished the abridged Cussler novel. The action/adventure/sci fi story was fun, but good god man, drop the love interests parts of your books. “I want to know more about the ‘whatever.’” Clive, it is obvious that you want to write the next James Bond series, but just drop the forced love interest.
Meow. Meow. Meow. Shut up, Lucy.
Wow, the scenery is breathtaking.
The roads were great until I just couldn’t drive anymore. My butt hurt and my right leg was getting numb. Of course, right when the seats switched, the snow started coming. We were passed by a car with a local plate. A few miles later, said car was in a snow bank on the side of the road. We got out in the snow and single digit weather to assist the poor soul who wound up stuck in the powder. It was the least we could do after I fish tailed yesterday and almost did the same thing to our car. We tried kicking the snow to clear the tires out. I started to think this was going to take a while, when a truck with an Alaska plate pulled up behind. The driver, Thor (not making that name up), had chains to pull out the local (missing all his front teeth). Pulled into Haines Junction, YT at about 5pm Pacific time. Plenty of signs advertising the motels in town. The Cozy Corner sounded cozy. Pulled in and there was literally no office. Just a phone at the corner of the building. Picked it up and it automatically rang the owner. He came up to the adjoining (Closed) restaurant to check us in. We had our room for the night. Got the cats in and Lucy was instantly happier. Meow. Meow. Meow. Shut up, Thomas. I instantly tried to check the TV to find ESPN and the Georgia Tech score from the ACC Tourney today. There was no cell phone service for the entire drive. Um, where is ESPN. I see ESPN Classic and a bazillion other channels (including every hockey game with different announcers ) on a sweet satellite setup on a crummy TV, but no ESPN. After going through the hundreds of channels, I found a station called Score, which had a SportsCenter like program. Yes! GT beat NC State. GT v. the Dookies tomorrow for the ACC title! And it will be broadcast in Canada on this Score station. Score! Now to convince Sam that we don’t need to take off until after that game, which starts at 10am Pacific. It is only about 150 miles to Haines anyway…
Some facts on Haines Junction (thanks to the little booklet, made by the Village of Haines Junction, in the motel room):
It is “snuggled” beneath the Auriol Range and sits at the junction of the Alaska Highway and Haines Highway (like Tok, it has The Intersection). Haines Junction was originally the homeland of the Champagne and Aishihik First Nations. Its modern history started in 1942, when the Alaska Highway began construction. Another road was built the following year to connect Haines Junction with Haines, Alaska. Haines Junction is also the base for the Kluane National Park and Wildlife Reserve. In the summertime, this place looks like an incredible adventure site.
We took in the box of wine taken from Morgan and Anna’s. I recognized this box while we were housesitting. It was one of the many Bota Boxes purchased for our group outing to Sheep Mountain back in October. This box had never been opened. Seemed perfect for motel rooms and the ferry. Thanks, Morgan and Anna. It is ours now! We popped the cheap Cav Sav and watched cartoons for about an hour to unwind. Then, to dinner. Only one restaurant open in town after dark this time of year. We crossed The Intersection at the only stop sign in town. Anyone running the stop sign deserves a ticket. There was a large stop sign, a small stop sign and a flashing red light. The Alcan Restaurant seemed to have a modern day Jim Crow thing going on. There were two sections. We were seated in the main area with some other travelers at a few of the tables (we were all white). The smaller section had a group of Native Americans. This seemed a little strange.
We agreed that Haines Junction is nicer than Tok. The mountains are right on top of the town/village. There is also a nice central area to the town. Of course, this seems like it would be very touristy. According to our MilePost (the ultimate guide to the Alcan), there is actually some higher quality lodging and dining around here. Not all open this time of year, though.
Up Next: Hainesward Bound.
M.E.
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