Wednesday, August 19, 2009

We Crossed The Alcan Highway And Survived


A few months ago we arrived at Dawson Creek, British Columbia with no real idea of what lay ahead of us. We've read some stories about the Alaska Highway and all we really knew was that from Dawson Creek to Delta Junction, Alaska was about 1500 miles of some of the worse highways man can believe.

Construction of the "Alcan" Highway, Alcan was the military acronym for the Alaska-Canada Highway, officially began on March 9, 1942. It ended 8 months and 12 days later on October 25, 1942.

All of the Alaska Highway is paved although highway improvement projects often mean motorist have to drive a few miles of gravel road. That's what they tell you but don't believe it. There are sections where the gravel road covers 30 to 35 miles and the dust from the gravel is unbelievably high. You can only safely drive 10 to 15 miles per hour. If there has been rain then the gravel roads turns soupy and you have to slow down even more.

Some of our friends that have been here before recommended that we carry extra tires, hoses, engine belts and maybe even some extra fuel. They told us that services were few and far between, but that turned out not to be true. We found that about every 50 to 60 miles we could get fuel and even repairs if needed.

We drove the Alaska Highway at about 40 to 45 miles per hour so that if we happened to come upon animals in the road we could safely stop and take pictures. Also because the roads have a lot of "frost heaves" which are like going over Large Speed Bumps and if you're going too fast you can become "airborne" in a hurry. Fortunately they are well marked with red flags before you get to them but you still need to drive over them very slow and carefully.

This may sound like the trip was a "bummer", but not indeed, we had a wonderful time and saw some of the most beautiful wild country you can imagine. We enjoyed the trip so much we're thinking very seriously about make the trip again in a couple of years. We've traveled all over the great State of Alaska and have seen some beautiful country and met some really nice people. It impossible to see all this great State in just a few months, even the people who live here will tell you they haven't seen all the wonderful sites of this State.

We've driven the Alaska Highway from east to west and now we're driving back across from west to east. Since we've been over it once, I'm quite sure we'll have no problems getting back to Dawson Creek. We'll just take our own sweet time since we're in no hurry.

We can't wait to get back up here sometime soon and see what we missed on this trip.

2 comments:

  1. Wonderful! Jerry and Bob. I hadn't realized that it was so special a trip that you would want to do it again. I have heard others say that they didn't want to go back. It is all how you view things! I am enjoying your journal, journey and the pictures. Happy Trails, Penny, TX

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  2. We sure have enjoyed reading about your trip to Alaska and hope to do the same in a few years. Thank you for sharing with us.

    Ron & Sue Worden

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