Miles Traveled: 590
Travel Time: WAY too long
Animals Spotted: Arctic fox, caribou, moose and buffalo (a lot of buffalo).
Longest we went without seeing another vehicle: 25 minutes
High temp: 31
Low Temp: -8 This high and low were within 10 miles of each other!
Follow this link to see today's gallery. http://gallery.me.com/bmulock/100077
What a day! We were up by 6 am and on the road by 7 for what was to be our longest day on the Alcan. Little did we know that it would be a lot longer than anticipated. We left Whitehorse in the dark, and once again enjoyed a beautiful sunrise, which was quickly followed by snow around Teslin lake. Overall, the road conditions were good, and we enjoyed wide shoulders and dry pavement for much of the drive. We encountered a small herd of caribou just before Watson Lake where we fueled up and bought lunch at a grocery store. I check the truck and trailer to make sure everything was functioning okay, making sure to check the tires. By the time we left Watson Lake, it was snowing again, but the weather cleared after about 20 miles. The trailer started handing a little different, but I chalked it up to the packed snow ruts on the road (more on this later). We passed from the Yukon Territory into British Columbia a few times as the highway wound back and forth through the Cassiar mountains, which is where we crossed the continental divide. We started spotting buffalo just before Liard Hot Springs and encountered a few herds, some of which were right on the highway. After Liard, we entered the Muncho Lake Provincial Park in the Canadian Rockies. The road started resembling a roller coaster with all manner of twists and turns (thankfully no loops). It's amazing that big rigs can navigate these narrow, twisty roads, but they do, all day long. I honestly can't imagine this road during the summer with the hundreds of motorhomes heading to and from AK. I'll take the winter drive anyday. Because we were making good time and were on track to enjoy a few hours at the pool/waterslide at the Super 8 in Fort Nelson, we stopped at the Muncho Lake lookout to take some photos, which is where the fun began. When I got of the truck, I noticed that the driver's side rear tire on the trailer was low. I used the CO2 tank I brought along to air up the tire, but found that there was a large gash in the tread section of the tire. The amazing thing is we had travelled on the tire for 200 miles! It was getting dark, I had no phone reception, traffic was scarce, and, of course, it was a little cold. I decided we should push on to Fort Nelson. The tire became separated from the rim around Toad River and proceeded to destroy the trailer's fender, which began rubbing on the good tire, so I yanked it off. The good tire was supporting the weight of the trailer okay, and prevented the rim of the rear tire from hitting the ground. We travelled (crawled) the last 70 miles in Fort Nelson dragging the crippled trailer behind us, (If only they came with spare tires!) We made it to Fort Nelson at about 9pm, 3 hours behind scheduled, our nerves a little frazzled, but safe and sound...and we got to swim for an hour and were also upgraded to a family suite with free movies, popcorn and soda. We will be getting a new trailer tomorrow morning, which means that we get to transfer all our belongings. Could be worse. We'll take some pictures and the process. Thanks to everyone who is praying for us, we needed it today,
The boys will provide updates soon. They are watching a movie right now, and are then off to bed.
1 comment:
Thanks for the update, and for the photos! Amazing that the buffalo are right there along the road. I was intrigued by the shots of the collection of what appears to be signposts - what's that all about?
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