Last Couple Days in Alaska

We will catch the ferry back to Bellingham, Washington tomorrow and arrive there the morning of the 25th. It is about 80 degrees here in Haines today and in Alaska one can sunbathe for about 15 hours as some have been in and out of he sun since about 7 AM this morning. We slept in the truck last night due to not doing enough homework when we planned our dates. It seems that there is an international bike relay race every year about Fathers Day from Haines Junction, Yukon, Canada to Haines, Alaska. It is a 240 kilometer event, which is 150 miles. We followed or passed bicycles for almost the entire way. Then when we got to the border it was a two hour wait as we inched toward the customs checkpoint. We assumed that the race passing the border is what clogged it up, as well as everyone who left from Tok that morning was arriving about the same time, however it was not like that on the way up, so it was probably the bike race alone causing the bottleneck. The participants book rooms and campgrounds a year in advance and all were full including the fairgrounds and a park. We drove 12 miles out to a state park and they had a primitive camp ground that was very scenic and private, however they had strict fines if they found any cooler, food item, or grill left out to invite bears. We could not have put everything inside the truck, and David thought it looked like bears could be everywhere, so we drove back to town and slept in the truck at a picnic area on the bay that had outdoor restrooms. Virtually every rest area in Alaska and Canada had either porta potties or similar permanent facilities.
One difference between the USofA and Canada is that in the US there are signs warning of a fine if one litters the highway, in Canada they have a bear proof container by the road at a pullout about every 20 miles. One provides a way to dispose of trash, the other a fine but not necessarily a place to drop off trash.
I am so glad that we decided to leave the camper in Washington. After talking to folks that had made the trip before, I figured it was the best decision. After watching trailers bounce all over the place at very slow speeds, and having to pass them time and time again, the trailer would have never been the same again, and it would have taken twice as long to see less. David talked me into the ferry, and taking the fifth wheel on it would have cost several thousand dollars round trip, so leaving it was a good decision for us. For others with more time and patience, pulling one through Canada and Alaska may be a great idea.
The roads in Canada and Alaska are an enigma, some stretches are fantastic, as good as ever seen, and then suddenly worse than a nightmare. I drove 80 at times and other times 30 was too fast and bouncing all over the place. The stretches of gravel were some of the smoothest we saw as they keep road graders and rollers to keep those places smooth. The asphalt was either better or much worse. I mentioned this before but I can see several possible reasons for this. Obviously the extreme weather in the 7 month winter is a reason to break up the road. There are no concrete roads at all here, probably due to the weather. Another reason for wavey roads is the lack of clay here, there is a bit of top soil and then mostly volcanic or other rock, so the road beds we saw being established to widen a road is topsoil mixed with cedar chunks. Many cedars have died here in recent years, so that may be why they are chopping them up and using in the road bed. And lastly a contributor may be the super size trucks they run in Canada and Alaska. They haul two full size trailers, both tanker or full size standard trailer with large tractors pulling them. They seem to run at high speed even over the worst roads, so I assume that the cabs have springs and shocks in them too. Their tires have white stripes across them, but I have no idea what the stipe tires means yet. The RVs that are here have mostly Canadian or Alaskan tags on them and many are rentals. The big bus looking rigs seem to make the journey well from the lower 48, and many fifth wheels too, but those folks must have lots of time to pull them over the slow rough roads. I suspect that most visiting here are for the whole summer and have no required time to get back, or foreigners and others who fly here and rent cars or campers. (We taked to A German couple that spoke little English. I let them send their daughter a message with my Email, and David was able to discuss a bit of the trip with them as some of his German came back to him.) Lastly there are those on cruise ships who only visit the coast and go ashore at several places and them reboard for the next stop or back home.
Again, David and I are quite satisfied with what we saw and did. Both of us would like to return and do a bit more but this trip was very satisfying and fun. Our trip to Denali could not be equaled, much less improved on, but there may be other things we missed, glaciers and fishing, etc. Those will be future decisions to be made.

Tomorrow we leave the lynx, moose, and bears and move back to where the whales, porpoises, and more eagles are seen. Back to where things are less harsh, and more familiar...