Tab-n-Deanna's Page: Exit Alaska

July 5, 2013 Friday

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We went down to Valdez on July 2nd and spent 2 nights but the weather was nothing but cold and dreary and rainy, not much to see or do in weather like that and Deanna's back was wreaking havoc on her from all the rough roads so we decided it was time to head for home and bypass the last half of our trip to get back to the lower 48 and better roads to ease some of her pain. We attempted to call her doctor for some meds but it was later in the afternoon back home on July 3rd so no answer and we left a message, our hopes were to get her a pain prescription before heading back but that obviously was not going to happen. So on the 4th in the morning we headed back to Tok which is the way out of Alaska and spent the night. Friday morning we started for the border which is only 90 miles away, the road there didn't seem so bad but after crossing the border inspection point it all went to hell, approximately a 100 miles of bad road lay ahead of us and a lot of it being dirt road again, slow and not so steady was the order. After exiting that portion the next was the road leading to Haines Junction, it was much nicer and a lot smoother, we spent the night in Haines Junction and then the next hurdle was heading down the Cassiar Highway, this is other way of in or out to Alaska by driving. I had read what I could about it on the forums and most said it was in good shape and all paved. Upon arriving the first 50 miles were terrible with frost heaves and pot holes like grenade pits, although we did get a nice picture of a black bear along the way. This road at this point is pretty narrow and no lines painted, we made it to a little spot in the road called Jade City where we found out that about 90% of all Jade is mined there and shipped all over the world. Of course there were all types of Jade carved items for sale :) Deanna did by a little memento for our mantle at home and when I inquired about camping they said it was free albeit dry camping but still a place to stay on a long road with no chance of communications. This was our first hint of darkness since entering the Yukon back in June and it was not darkness but dang close.

The Cassiar Highway is 450 miles long and we wondered what the hell we got ourselves into when our objective was to exit Canada with her back in one piece and her still mobile. The next morning we drove approximately 25 miles and stopped to fuel up at one of the few places to do so, should you ever travel this road to or from Alaska never pass an opportunity to fill your tank regardless of how much fuel you have because you just don't know if the next station will be open. Run out of fuel and you are in serious trouble as there is not a lot of traffic on this road. Anyway at the gas station someone coming from the opposite direction I asked about the road and they said gravel ahead..............Oh boy! Well it was gravel for about a 1/2 mile and then another 1/4 mile stint with a few intermittent 150' patches but they were smooth but rough at the same time due to the size of gravel they use. After this section the next 300 miles was like a dream, the road opened up and painted lines appeared and we sailed at 60 mph all the way to the other end!

We got off the Cassiar in one piece and now needed to find a resting spot for the night, we drove about 50 miles to a little town called Smithers in the BC and stayed at a campground called Glacier View which describes it well, across the road is the remnants of a glacier up on the mountain. This is the first place where we actually did see darkness and enough to see the stars at night. I had went out about 1am to check on a possible Aurora but was not fortunate enough to see it. We spent one night here and left the next morning for another 400+ mile trip into lower BC, this was the last night we would spend in Canada. the following morning we headed for Washington State.