5/11/2011-5/14/2011

Well. I am here! So it took about 3.5 days to drive up and we drove about 16 hours (give or take a few) each day. I managed to get tonsilitis on Wednesday morning when we left and by the afternoon had lost my voice. By Friday I also had a lovely cold as well.
If you can ever road trip from the lower 48 to Alaska... DO IT! But be safe and aware- there are a lot of things that can go wrong and to be stranded here isn't the same as being stuck on the side of I90. The AlCan Highway is amazing and the views are something you may never, ever get to see in your life.

So lets start from the beginning picture wise.

6am Wednesday morning. Notice the small amount of stuff we have-the blue rubbermaid is camping gear and shoes, the green duffle is all my clothing, the black container has a blanket and pillow and whatnot, the cooler and the white is my Dad's stuff. 

That panoramic is from somewhere in Saskatchewan, Canada. The entire province looks just like North Dakota. Seriously boring. We peed in the parking lot here because Canadians apparently don't have bladders. Also, YES they do have cardboard cut outs of police cars. All their road signs are also a pictionary game and half of them don't make sense. And they say eh more than I thought they would.

Once we got through the boring parts of Canada, we hit mountains... and a lot of them. The Northern Rockies were the majority of Day 3's drive (Friday). They were stunning! And cold and snow. The pine trees look like a carpet of green- so much that you can't even tell they are pine trees till you get closer. Also, Geology people, the structural geology as well as just plain old rocks will blow your mind. So much crazy folding!

 

We also hit the Wrangell-St. Elias chain in the Yukon Territory which is the National Park that borders Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge. Its actually 4 mountain chains that converge in that park and contains 9 of the 16 highest peaks in North America. I am pretty excited to head over there. I can see the mountains every where I go here, my cabin, work, the highway and Tok.

Within 5 minutes we saw Buffalo, Elk, Goats, Moose and Bears.
The total count for the drive= 4 Black Bears, 2 Grizzly Bears, 5 Goats, 1 Elk, 3 dead Moose (one was being eaten by a bear), 4 or 5 living Moose, and enough Buffalo to feed the entire country of Africa... twice.

I hate Canada's bridges. Especially when I am driving over them!

That would just so happen to be the shadiest Hotel/Motel I have ever been in. It was in Rancheria, YT and we stayed there on the 3rd night. The first two were cheap but nice, chain motels. This was in the middle of the mountains... the woman running it gave me medicine for my cold, a little leary but I took it and luckily I got majority of my voice back on Saturday. Towns in the Yukon Territory are typically a one family establishment with a bunch of crap in their front yard. This one, which somehow got a dot on the map, had a hotel/motel, RV park (i.e. a parking lot), 2 old school gas pumps, a restaurant and a play ground. That was the whole town.

The big juju Mountain! Awesome view.

 Proof that the road seems to never end!

Watch the storms rolling in!

Well I am now here safely in my cabin/commons. I sent my Dad off around 2:30 today to catch his flight in Fairbanks tonight. I am 3 hours behind everyone FYI. Tomorrow (Monday) I start work with a whole day of Bear Safety, Tuesday is my Firearm training and range certification and Wednesday, Thursday and Friday are all CPR/First Aid as well as Wilderness Survival Medicine. I have around 21 hours of daylight and that will soon be more. The birds are out till about midnight or so and the sun comes back up right around my nightly pee, so like 4am. Even when the moon is out, it is still pretty light.
I'll be honest. It is totally a culture shock, but it is a good one. Tomorrow I will publish my cabin/commons and where I work!