And Outside We Went: Part 1

When we last left you it was the end of October and we were prepping for our bittersweet exodus from Alaska.  A month has come and gone since that post and we have driven 8,210 miles through 18 states and 3 provinces, spent 27 consecutive days together in one jam packed Ford Escape, visited friends and family in 5 different cities, enjoyed 9 new (to us) National Parks, and learned a ton about the geology and history of our country.  In the end we are back in PA where our adventure began 22 months ago.  Looking back it is hard to believe how much we've experienced in just 22 months, while it is also difficult to comprehend that we've sustained this nomadic lifestyle for nearly 2 years.  But before I get too philosophical we've got a massive adventure to share with you! 

I’m pretty sure this 27 day escapade will be the most challenging experience we've had to write about due to the sheer number of places we visited and adventures that were had within such a compact amount of time.  With that said I have no idea where to start, but I guess I have to start somewhere…

How about we start with our last week in Homer?  It was busy and emotional as we packed our belongings, treated our last patients, reserved lodging in Canada, and said our goodbyes to the Homerites that helped make our time in Alaska truly memorable.  We cannot say thank you enough to those at Homer PT and Darcy, our amazing roommate and partner in crime.  We miss you all already. 

The healing crew at Homer Physical Therapy

Romo and Lelo kept us all under control

Clearly we couldn't leave Alaska without spending the last hours we had with the Spitler and Marshall families.  These are the friends who first welcomed us and provided a home base upon our arrival to Alaska in the spring.  To allow one last visit in Soldotna we turned in our Homer house keys and started our mega North American road trip on Friday, October 25^th…first stop just 75 miles away! 

We miss you!!

After one last evening of quality time we had to say “see you later” first thing Saturday morning.  As we drove away from Soldotna it started to really sink in that our Alaskan adventure was over.  Luckily we were ending one adventure while simultaneously entering a new one.  One that you hear people talk about, but very few people take on (voluntarily that is!) – a month long road trip to see and learn as much as possible about our large and diverse country.  We were psyched and ready for this voyage!   The only thing between us and further exploration of the U.S.A. was that huge mass of land we call Canada.  Canada, oh Canada…why must you be so large??

Winter in the north is totally unpredictable, especially at higher elevations.  We were told by many Alaskans that we better prepare for the worst, because driving the Alcan (Alaska-Canada Highway) after the middle of October can get pretty dangerous due to wintery conditions (blizzards, ice, etc), poor road conditions, wild animals, and fading daylight.  Thus, we prepared…

What you don't see are a 2 gallon gas can, tire chains, lots of clothing,
lots of food, many maps, and a first aid kit.
In case things got really bad we also had our wireless printer and my violin.

We planned for the first leg of the trip to be high on mileage, low on adventure.  The goal was to safely, but quickly, make our way out of Alaska and through Canada before winter could catch up with us.

So with day 1 of 27 under our belt we headed north from Soldotna to Tok, AK.  This day we covered 463 miles of highway that allowed beautiful scenery of the Kenai, Chugach, Alaska, Wrangell, and St. Elias mountain ranges, as well as the turquoise waters of the Kenai River, Turnagain Arm, and the freaking huge Matanuska glacier that makes you ask yourself, “why am I leaving this beautiful place!?”  There was no time for sulking though because we hadn’t even entered the country that divides Alaska from the lower 48.  

Simple, but beautiful.

After a quick layover in Tok, Alaska we expected day 3 to start out with a quick 90 mile drive to the border of Alaska and Canada, but the weather turned wintry and we were greeted by snow covered roads that made for a long day of driving as we headed toward Whitehorse, which is the Yukon’s capital city.

Farewell Alaska :-(

Frigid temps, slow driving.

Slowly, but surely we continued into Canada.  Our total mileage wasn’t too impressive at 386 miles, but it took close to 9 hours to negotiate the snow covered roads.  Thankfully we safely pulled into Whitehorse just before closing time at Yukon Brewing Company.  We took advantage of this excellent timing and filled our growler with some delicious Lead Dog Ale.  We ate a quick and classy dinner at McDonalds, watched a Netflix movie, The Sessions at the hotel, and got a good night of sleep in preparation for another day of driving.

401 miles of clear driving greeted us the following day, as did some wild life!  This was a nice change of pace as we weaved our way between the border of the Yukon and British Columbia.  We worked our way southeast toward Liard Hot Springs.  Multiple people had encouraged us to make a stop here and enjoy the natural hot springs so we did as we were told.  This place did not disappoint and was seriously healing.  I kid you not, an hour of soaking made some pretty painful neck and upper back pains disappear.  So if you refuse to get physical therapy for physical impairments, I highly recommend Liard River Hot Springs Provincial Park in northern British Columbia…it is worth the trip! 

Wild bison everywhere!

The one and only Liard Hot Springs

For kicks we decided to try our hand at some cold weather camping after our delightful dip in the 107-125 degree Fahrenheit hot spring.  The outside temperature was dropping and forecasted to be in the 20’s.  We set up shop, turned on the Pocket Rocket stove to boil some water, and then chowed down on a delicious meal of dehydrated chicken teriyaki.  We didn’t have fire wood, but conveniently had a filled growler and Fig Newtons that kept us warm while we recapped the previous days and game planned for the days to come.  We slept like babies, but I must admit that I’m not very hardcore.  I had about 10 layers on and slept in a 15 degree sleeping bag, within a 0 degree sleeping bag.  This did result in some perspiration.  At least I wasn’t cold!  Charlie managed with toe warmers, fleece lined pants, and a hoodie…he’s much tougher than I.

Needless to say, we were the only people tent camping.

Healed and well rested we continued driving 552 miles southeast the next day.  The excitement of day 5 included: (1) a full day of new roads as we had not driven on this section of the ALCAN when heading to Alaska in May and (2) entering a new province – Alberta.  A bonus for the day was driving through Dawson Creek, British Columbia where the ALCAN begins.  Constructing the Alaska-Canadian Highway was a huge undertaking with the purpose of connecting Alaska to the contiguous United States.  Construction occurred during WWII and finished in 1942, but was not open to the public until 1948.  This highway is infamous for being a challenging, bumpy drive; however, its 1,387 miles are now 100% paved.  Thank goodness for that!

There you have it!

Our destination on day 5 was Grande Prairie, Alberta.  The driving was challenging at times with extreme inclines and sketchy road conditions as we drove through the Canadian Rockies.  We slowly worked our way up to Summit Pass, which is the highest point along the Alaskan Highway at 4,250 feet.  You might not think that sounds too crazy, however our fully loaded, 4 cylinder vehicle can only crawl up hills and thus we were frequently passed by big rigs.  A moose could have out run our speed of 30 mph.  At least we had good wildlife viewing this day including caribou, elk, fox, and a mother moose with a calf.  This all came together as our longest day in the car thus far, around 11 hours.  We were very ready for our arrival in Grande Prairie.  We arrived in the dark greeted by an extensive city of lights as we entered the largest metropolis (population 55,000) we’d seen since leaving AK.  Strangely our GPS guided us to turn onto a dirt road which almost put me over the edge as we seemed so close to our hotel.  Charlie remained cool, calm, and collected and rode out the 2 miles of dirt road that just as strangely lead us to an updated Days Inn Hotel just off a main road.  Dinner and a drink at Mr. Mike’s Steak House were well-deserved after a long day of driving.    

A magnificent sunset ended a long day of driving.

Day 6 led us to our last stop in Canada.  We had 645 miles to cover until reaching a small ski town called Fernie in British Columbia.  First we had to get up and moving which was a challenge since we’d changed time zones twice in 2 days.  We did pull ourselves together though and were on the road by 7:15 am leaving Grande Prairie before the sun had a chance to rise.  This day of driving was full of ups and downs.  We were finally traveling on smooth, fairly flat highways with a speed limit of 65-75 mph; however, we were driving through large cities including Edmonton (the capital of Alberta) and Calgary which unfortunately meant we had to deal with traffic.  At this stage in our trip we were not in the mood for traffic.  We were so close to the second, outdoor adventure stage of our road trip that we needed donuts to help cope with the stress of city traffic.  Just as I thought we were on the home stretch of the drive the GPS decided to take us on another off road adventure.  This time the darn thing took us literally into the middle of nowhere on a pot-hole-filled farm road called Ridge Road 290.  I was driving, but refused to go this ridiculous route.  Therefore Charlie took over and continued driving on Ridge Road 290 for about 15 miles until we finally met back up with the regular road that took us back into British Columbia over the beautiful, but never ending Crowsnest mountain pass.  We then finally worked our way to the quaint town of Fernie, BC.

That's what I think of Ridge Road 290!

Crowsnest Pass crosses the Continental Divide
of the Canadian Rockies.

An unexpected stop in Sparwood, British Columbia.
Charlie NEEDED to stop and check it out.
The Terex Titan is one of the largest dump trucks in the world.
It stands 23' tall, weighs 260 tons, and can haul 350 tons of rock.

The tediousness of driving hours on end, day after day was definitely getting to both Charlie and I because we are people who thrive on and are stimulated by activity.  You can only do so many jumping jacks and switch kicks when changing drivers every 2-3 hours.  Arriving in Fernie felt like we’d overcome a huge obstacle…Canada.  We were now <50 miles from the U.S.A. and able to take a breather from the relentless driving schedule we’d kept for the last 5 days.  That night we both slept hard, allowed ourselves to sleep-in past 8 a.m. the next morning, indulged in a continental breakfast at our hotel, and explored downtown Fernie.  Before leaving Fernie we had to spend our remaining fake, I mean Canadian, money.  Conveniently Fernie had an excellent brewing company that allowed practical purchases of glassware, a t-shirt, and a growler fill (Big Caboose Red Ale)!  We had $9 to spare and used it towards gas, which got us about 2 gallons, if that.  Tip: Don’t go to Canada for cheap gas.    

Just one of our many Canadian memories

With a full growler and smiles on our rested faces we excitedly found ourselves back in the car for a <3 hour drive to Kalispell, Montana.  A successful border crossing was a good omen for phase 2 of our North American road trip. 

Stay tuned for much, much more…