Three Weeks
We again woke to light rain. Cold light rain. Too bad. The section of road we were to travel is the most picturesque and has the most wildlife of all the Alaska Highway – on a sunny day.
Here is the road shortly after we left campground.
Gray and damp but still pretty. Note the darker gray area at the side of the road. That is the edge of the roadbed. It is not paved and is about 18 inches wide. It also slopes away from the paved portion pretty quickly. There really is no shoulder. ALSO, when it is wet it is down right scary. A tire drifting in to that would instantly sink in several inches of mud. All the roads leaving the highway are dirt and all have ruts that would cover the tire if not go to the axles of many cars. Even the graveled turnouts are very slick with a layer of muddy ooze. Needless to say you pay attention all the time to be sure you don’t drift even to the white line. See the lighter colored trees in the distance in the top picture? Here is the road a few miles further on and higher.
Note the windshield top left and bottom center.
The road was wet but no snow sticking and no problem driving.
The road goes over two summits in this section. Here is the view coming down the first and lower summit.
Most of that is cloud but it was snowing pretty good for a bit.
Here is a lake at the top of the second, higher summit.
The white in the middle is the very frozen and snow covered lake. There is a provincial campground at this lake. It was open. :)
Coming down the other side of the summit.
Pretty but still cold and wet.
We are staying at the Toad River Lodge RV Campground. Lodges along the Alaska Highway are a little different than lodges other places. They are small clapboard buildings with a gas pump in front and several ‘cabins’ (think motel room in a building) next to or behind. This one is a bit different. It has a small restaurant (three tables), a small store with some nice (but pricey) clothing and some interesting souvenirs. Most of the ‘lodges’ have some sort of gimmick. We passed one yesterday with a sasquatch theme. They advertise guaranteed daily sasquatch sightings. The Toad River Lodge gimmick is hats. You have probably heard of places that have dollar bills stuck to the ceiling. Here it is hats. They cover every ceiling in the place except the kitchen and the restrooms and part way down every wall. It is not random either. The hats are neatly folded and placed in an orderly way.
These three pictures are only a fraction of the collection.
I said this lodge is a bit different. It also has an airstrip. Looks to be 100 yards long. Not much more. There are two small planes parked beside it.
All of these small businesses along the highway have to make their own electricity. This one has a very large and very quiet power plant. The plant is as large as a 25 foot RV and the fuel tank next to it is even larger. The benefit to us is good solid to run heater, microwave, etc.
The campground is off the highway, very nice and backs up to a very pretty lake.
The lake has ducks.
Sue and neighbor identifying ducks.
A bit of Alaska Highway humor. Enlarge to read.
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