The Great Alaska Trek

July 6-29, 2001

This is a highly abbreviated version--the full (and not complete) version weighs in at 13 MB and clearly isn't going to be on the web any time soon!

Stage 1

Getting to the Alaska Highway (Clifton Forge, VA to Dawson Creek, BC)
2700 miles in 3 long days.

Highlights (loosely speaking):

• Tallest structure in North America--radio tower near Blanchard, ND
• Geographic center of North America, Rugby, ND

Stage 2

The Alaska Highway (Dawson Creek, BC to Delta Junction, AK, with a detour through Dawson City, BC via the Klondike, Top of the World, and Taylor Highways)
1500 miles in 3 days.

Probably the biggest hazard is the limited visibility in construction zones. (Alaska Highway near Muncho Lake, YT)

Hiking to the top of a knoll on the Top of the World Highway (Yukon Territory)

The Gerstle River and the Alaska Range. We saw large brown (grizzly) bear tracks here.

Stage 3

Inside Alaska: Fairbanks, Arctic Circle, Denali, Talkeetna, Seward, Valdez, Skagway and all the highways that connect them!
2900 miles in 12 days--not too bad!

The van accumulated a HUGE amount of mud on our trip up the Dalton Highway to the Arctic Circle. Mosquitoes were bad, too!

Caribou in Denali National Park didn't believe in sharing the road!

A flightseeing trip out of Talkeetna was limited by low ceilings. We still got to see some great views of glaciers.

Exit Glacier in Kenai Fjords National Park. An opportunity to get "up close and personal" with a glacier.

Ptarmigan Lake: the end of a 3 1/2 mile hike near Seward. The picture doesn't do justice to the cold rain!

Seakayaking among the ice bergs (well, actually, brash ice and growlers) near the Columbia Glacier in Prince William Sound.

The White Pass and Yukon Railroad goes up White Pass from Skagway. The 4% grade is steep by railroad standards.

Stage 4

The Alaska Marine Highway (Skagway, AK to Bellingham, WA)
900 miles in 3 1/2 days--but no driving!

The Columbia had just come back into service after a $10 million rehab following a fire last year.

Yes, you really can "camp" on deck, but no cooking, and tent stakes are replaced by duct tape.

Lincoln Rock Lighthouse

Sunset over the former "Ripple Rock"--a navigational hazard that was blown to bits in the 50's in the largest non-natural non-nuclear explosion.

Stage 5

The Mad Dash Home (Bellingham, WA to Clifton Forge, VA)
3000 miles in 57 hours.

With drive-by photo-shots of:

• Berkeley copper mine in Butte, MT
• Devil's Tower, WY
• Mt. Rushmore (SD)
• Wall Drug (SD)
• Badlands National Park, SD
• Corn Palace, Mitchell, SD
• Gateway Arch, St. Louis, MO