Canada – The Crossing Northbound

And here we are!! We made it to Canada… What a beautiful country. Because this country is so large, we will have to split the chapter into 2 different sections… Northbound crossing ( towards Anchorage) and Southbound Crossing ( towards Calgary)…

But here’s a little dialogue and someone wants to say something:

Scotty: Dad???

Dad: Yes sweetheart?

Scotty: May I have a word with you?

Dad: of course!! What’s up

Scotty: I’m mad at you

Dad: Oh man… now what have I done!!

Scotty: Well, you put me that thingy on my face and now I look like Anthony Hopkins playing the role of Hannibal the movie and I don’t like it!! And to make things worse, they call it BRA!!

Dad: oh boy.. it’s for your protection Scotty… Canadian roads can be rough in places

Scotty: Oh well… but don’t make me wear it too often!! I like to put a smile on my face

Dad: Okayyy … fineeeee

For obvious reasons if we want to visit Alaska and if we are already in Washington state, it means that we will cross the border to Vancouver and follow the highway to Anchorage. That “crossing” is 2,195 miles ( or 3,500 KM)… what a task!! It will take us a week just to get there driving 350 miles every day!!

Vancouver was sensacional. We spent 3 days, did some maintenance, visited a couple of good restaurants and saw a few landmarks like the old Steam Clock which we didn’t have any idea about!!

Speaking about maintenance, the steps of the RV failed us in Bakersfield, CA. After doing some troubleshooting we found out it was the electronic controller. I found it online but then delivery is an issue if you are moving from campground to campground frequently; so what we did was to have the new part sent it to the campground in Seattle, WA, but before moving out, Amazon had cancelled the delivery. Long story short, we were already in Vancouver when I received a message from Amazon saying that the package had been re-scheduled and delivered in Seattle….. that meant to cross the border Canada to US, pick up the package and come back to Vancouver… 6 hours and 300 miles. But finally!! After climbing up and down using a plastic step stool for nearly a month, the steps work now!!

Fish & Chips are always welcome!!

And this is White Rock, a granite made, 486 ton rock that was once part of a glacier that moved to shore some 15,000 years ago and was left abandoned just there as the ice melted. Interesting!!

And Vancouver downtown had a well kept secret… the Steam Clock

Vancouver’s Gastown Steam Clock was built in 1977 by Raymond Saunders and Doug Smith to cover a steam grate and to mask the sidewalk steam vent. The clock is partially powered by a steam engine, with steam shot into the clock through a vent in the street below. The steam drives chains and balls, which turn the clock hands. The clock’s mechanism is actually driven by electricity, with only the pipes on top being steam fueled. The clock sounds every 15 minutes, and marks each hour with little whistling symphonies. 

So, planning phase to get from Vancouver to the border of Alaska. The idea is to split the long journey into legs of between 350 and 450 kilometers a day so first stop will be Cache Creek.

The road is excellent, a few tunnels, rivers, lakes and lots of trees is what you see.

5 motorhomes on the way to Alaska!! It is the time of the year where many many RVs from the Lower 48 visit the northern state

Second leg will be from Cache Creek to Prince George

Incidentally we met a couple from Germany driving a 4×4 Mercedes Benz camper that crossed the Atlantic to Mexico; after visiting Central America ( Guatemala, Costa Rica, Mexico), they made their way up through California, Oregon, Washington and Canada again, with final destination Alaska.

Just a note about Rest Areas in Canada…. there are, you see them split between pull outs and proper rest areas but what we noticed is that some small Rest Areas marked as such, are dead ends !! meaning not through areas with entry and exit; we’re glad we didn’t go into those as that would have represented to unhook the toad, move the RV back and forth several times, connect the tow car and exit…. not good!

The next leg was from Prince George to Smithers and the campground ( Glacier View RV park) was in a great location.

Then another few hundred miles to Izkut. Here the RV park selection wasn’t great: difficult access to large RVs and no wifi but it was located next to a lake so the location was of a wondeful wilderness

The 5th day of crossing will see us arriving at Watson Lake and this is where HWY 37 meets the famous Alaska Highway leaving behind British Columbia and stepping onto Yukon for the first time!!

It breaks our hearts as we drive along the areas devastated by the fires of last summer….. hectares and hectares of burnt trees and vegetation

But on a more welcoming mood, we celebrate so much the moments when we see bears!! To this point in time, we’ve seen 4 bears !!

The sixth day we arrived at White Horse, again, a Must Stop city for those going or coming back from Alaska. The campground, though cramped, is conveniently located near the town of White Horse, capital of the Yukon Province with around 32,000 inhabitants.

I could count more than 15 coaches lined up at the campground belonging to people who go to Alaska or are coming back.

This town receives visitors not only from the Lower 48 states but also from different countries; here’s a good example of all-terrain motorhomes from Germany and Netherlands. I’ve seen from France as well!

And here’s another interesting story. The area we have been passing by is part of the Yukon Gold Triangle. In August, 1896, Skookum Jim and his family found gold near the Klondike River in Canada’s Yukon Territory. Their discovery sparked one of the most frantic gold rushes in history. Nearby miners immediately flocked to the Klondike to stake the rest of the good claims. Almost a year later, news ignited the outside world. There are gold-rich veins beneath present-day Dawson City. Millions of years of uplift eventually exposed this gold to the surface where ice and rain could erode it. Millennia of weathering broke up the vein gold into smaller pieces: nuggets and flakes of gold dust known as placer gold. Many people still spend time digging for gold!!

Not that Scotty wants to dig for gold!!

The 7th day takes us through a road that has been under maintenance therefore there was mud, lots of it. We made it to the campground in Beaver Creek, Discovery Yukon RV Park; excellent!! Beautiful setting, nice staff ( actually a few of them are young people who come from Europe to spend summer working in the park). This RV park came with a couple of surprises: an airstrip and a few old military vehicles used during the construction of the road. There is an aircraft there, but the story behind isn’t as nice: a pilot had to make an emergency landing and it ended up hitting a tree with the wing so that was the end of it.

The Ford ( and Scotty) have seen better days as far as cleanness is concerned!! This was after the White Horse – Beaver Creek road journey.

Campground with an airstrip included!! Nice !

And this is the collection of military vehicles used during the construction of the Alaska Highway ; it looks like they decided to just finish it and leave this equipment behind for the entertainment of future generations!!

But definitely one bear made our day !!

Now, to finalize this chapter, meet Steve and Jan, a couple from Massachusetts who are riding a tandem bicycle to Alaska!! They have actually been to several countries in Europe with the same bicycle!!. Interestingly enough they say that in average they ride in one day the equivalent of driving a car at a speed of 60 MPH in an hour… in the early days they’d camp in tents but now they enjoy the comfort of a bed at a lodge / hotel / etc.

Alright!! So in the next chapter we will show Alaska and its splendor …. and we’re yet to find where are we going to plant the tree for Canada!!

Stay tuned!!