Walkabout Canada-Alaska
23 stories, in order from the beginning of the trip.
1March 1, 2011
Before the First Mile
How we went from a tent at Anvil Campground in Williamsburg to a 22-foot Roadtrek on a Mercedes Sprinter chassis, and how a thread on a Roadtrek forum about a 2011 caravan to Alaska turned into the trip we came to call Walkabout Canada-Alaska.
2March 25, 2011
Dateline March 25, 2011, Florida to Oregon: Two Weeks Across the Country
Two weeks on the road from Florida to Oregon to start our adventure, with stops in Texas, Arizona, and California along the way. Family visits, two birthday parties, our first Walmart night, a water leak in the rain, and a roll into wine country.
3May 1, 2011
Dateline May 1, 2011, Some Time Has Gone By, Whidbey Island
A pause on Whidbey Island at John's brother Will and his wife Cathy's home overlooking Mutiny Bay. The Roadtrek needed a new radiator part, Janice and Will took care of it, and the Walkabout was about to begin in earnest. A look back at the months that bridged the gap: Clay's wedding in Hawaii, the Lake Jovita home selling, and becoming officially homeless.
4May 6, 2011
Dateline May 6, 2011, Vancouver Island, British Columbia
A week exploring Vancouver Island: Victoria's waterfront, Sooke on the river, Butchart Gardens in spring bloom, Parksville's mile-wide beach at low tide, and golf at one of the oldest courses in British Columbia. Eight days now until we meet the group at Dawson Creek.
5May 11, 2011
Dateline May 11, 2011, Vancouver to Prince George: Wine, Golf, and Pine Forests
From the ferry at Vancouver up through Hope and the Okanagan wine country, with stops in Kelowna and a round at Tobiano Golf Club outside Kamloops, then north through Cache Creek to Prince George. Three days now until we meet the Walkabout group at Dawson Creek.
6May 14, 2011
The MilePost: Our Guide North
If you have never driven to Alaska, there is one book every veteran of the road will tell you to get. The MilePost rode in our glove compartment from the first mile to the last.
7May 15, 2011
Dateline May 15, 2011, Over Pine Pass to a Three-Day Welcome at Farmington Fairways
From a casino parking lot in Prince George up over a snowy Pine Pass, then a chance find that turned into the best three days of the trip so far: an RV park with a golf course, run by John and Melanie Rigsby, who pulled us into their opening weekend like we were old friends.
8May 16, 2011
Dateline May 16, 2011, Dawson Creek, BC: Mile 0 of the Alaska Highway
We reached Dawson Creek, Mile 0 of the Alaska Highway, and met the rest of the Walkabout Canada-Alaska group. Twenty-five Roadtreks from across North America, organized by Wendell Nunes of the Western Chapter, ready to head north together.
9May 21, 2011
Dateline May 21, 2011 - Trip to Prince Rupert
We left Dawson Creek for Prince Rupert and the Alaska Marine Highway ferry, back down Highway 97 through Pine Pass, then west on Highway 16 past Smithers, Hazelton, and Terrace to the coast.
10May 23, 2011
Dateline May 23, 2011, Tracy Arm Fjord and Sawyer Glacier
A day on the Adventure Bound from Juneau through Tracy Arm Fjord to the face of Sawyer Glacier. Mountains rising from the sea, bears and eagles and seals along the shore, icebergs floating thick, and the kind of day you remember the rest of your life.
11May 30, 2011
Dateline May 30, 2011, Juneau to Sitka to Skagway
Glaciers in Juneau, Russian history in Sitka, totem poles and ferries through the Inside Passage, and a drive over White Pass to Carcross with three grizzly bears along the way. A week on the Alaska Marine Highway.
12June 5, 2011
Dateline June 5, 2011, Haines to Tok to Valdez
Off the Marine Highway at last, with the Roadtrek group reuniting in Haines and Tok. Wonderful drives through the Yukon to Kluane Lake, the Sourdough RV Park's pancake throw, fishing in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, and a long beautiful road down to Valdez.
13June 9, 2011
Dateline June 9, 2011, Valdez: A Picnic, a Glacier, and Jack Wilson's Salmon
A week in Valdez on Prince William Sound: a fresh halibut picnic with the locals on Memorial Day, the 1964 earthquake history, a glacier cruise out to Columbia Glacier through ice flows and sea otters, and a salmon barbecue using a recipe John's father, Jack Wilson, perfected decades ago.
14June 13, 2011
Dateline June 13, 2011, Across Prince William Sound and Down the Kenai
Ferry from Valdez to Whittier across Prince William Sound, the single lane shared tunnel into the Kenai Peninsula, six glaciers in the Portage Valley, musk ox and Kodiak cubs at the wildlife center, the old gold rush town of Hope, an orca pod off Seward, sockeye fishermen at Cooper Landing, and a few rounds at the Salty Dawg with Navy sailors in Homer.
15June 18, 2011
Dateline June 18, 2011, Homer to Soldotna and Diamond M
Six moose along the highway up the Kenai Peninsula, six days at the Diamond M Ranch in Soldotna with patriarch Carroll, salmon fishing on the Kenai River, a drive out to Captain Cook State Recreation Area, a razor clam dig that yielded over 200 clams for Friday night's soup, and a bald eagle's nest at the heart of the ranch with parents feeding their eaglets.
16June 21, 2011
Dateline June 21 (Soltice, Sun is bright at 11:30 pm), Soldotna to Anchorage
While in Soldotna we did get the opportunity to play golf, you probably forgot that was part of the trip since we haven't played since being in Dawson Creek at John Rigsby's Farmington 9 hole course. The first 9 hole ...
17June 27, 2011
Dateline June 27, 2011, Anchorage to Denali
Eagle River nights and 18 holes at Eagleglen on Elmendorf Air Force Base, up to Hatcher Pass and the old Independence Mine, then on toward Denali by way of Talkeetna, where the three great peaks of the Alaska Range, Foraker, Hunter, and McKinley, were as clear as a bell. Plus Pete Warenski and John taking on a two-pound Seward's Folly burger at the West Rib Pub.
18July 1, 2011
Dateline July 1, 2011, Denali National Park
Denali National Park, the highlight the whole trip had been pointing at. The Fanny Quigley dinner theater show, Kitty the barmaid collecting dollar kisses, an international potluck with Hal's Hungarian goulash and Bunny's Polish perogies, three days camped at Teklanika at mile 29, and a 6:20 AM bus run out the Park Road where we joined the 30 percent club and saw the north face of Mt. McKinley clear as a bell.
19July 4, 2011
Dateline July 4, 2011, Fairbanks, Alaska
After Denali, a few days in Fairbanks: camping on the Chena River, eighteen holes with Pete and Bunny Warenski and Patrick and Anna Carney at the most northern USGA course in America, the story of Fairbanks' swindler founder E.T. Barnette, our 12th anniversary at the Pump House Restaurant, and the Aurora Ice Museum at Chena Hot Springs.
20July 7, 2011
Dateline July 7, 2011, Leaving Alaska via Chicken and the Top of the World Highway
Leaving Alaska by way of Delta Junction, Tok, the rough Taylor Highway up to the town of Chicken (named because no one could spell Ptarmigan), the all-gravel Top of the World Highway, a stop at the Boundary station, an easy border crossing into Canada, and the Yukon River ferry into Dawson City.
21July 13, 2011
Dateline July 13, 2011, Dawson City and Whitehorse, Yukon
Dawson City brings the Klondike gold rush stories back to life: Jack London's cabin, a personal connection to his grand-nephew Milo Shepard at the Jack London Ranch in Glen Ellen, Diamond Tooth Gertie's, a German Rotel Tours sleeping bus, the drive south to Whitehorse, Mom's famous family-sized cinnamon buns, the restored sternwheeler S.S. Klondike, the MacBride Museum, and the world's longest wooden fish ladder at the Whitehorse Rapids dam.
22July 15, 2011
Dateline July 15, 2011, Our Safari Whitehorse to Dawson Creek
Down the ALCAN from Whitehorse with Pete after Bunny flew home, a wildlife safari that turned up nine bears plus moose, bison, and sheep, the Sign Post Forest at Watson Lake, an evening soak at Liard Hot Springs, the rig stuck in the mud back at Dawson Creek, and a final goodbye to John and Melanie at the spot where the Walkabout had begun eight weeks earlier.
23July 19, 2011
Dateline July 19, 2011, End of Walkabout Canada-Alaska: The Canadian Rockies, Jasper, Lake Louise, and Banff
As the Walkabout Canada-Alaska wrapped up, a final swing through the Canadian Rockies. Grande Prairie in the rain, two days in Jasper with Park Day and Maligne Canyon, the Icefields Parkway south past the Columbia Icefield and Athabasca Glacier (water flowing from there to three oceans), Lake Louise, and a lunch view from the patio at the Fairmont Banff Springs.