Toni's Tribute to All Countries, But Mostly America

Finally we encountered our first grizzly bear. In fact, we spotted three grizzlies feeding alongside the road. My, but they are daunting animals; makes my hair stand on end to see them.  And finally we arrived in Tok, Alaska...1228 miles and five long adventuresome days later along the Alaska (aka Al-Can) Highway from Dawson Creek, Alberta to  Tok AK.  The scenery became more beautiful the closer we got to Alaska, but alas the road worsened markedly. We’d heard that the Al-Can Highway was one tough ride with frost heaves and winter ice damage, but so far for 4 days we’d encountered remarkably great roads. That is until today when we traveled for almost 5 hours on the worst roads I’ve ever driven. Wow, it was worse than we’d imagined with potholes, sink holes, frost heaves, long construction delays, ferocious washboarding, and long stretches of washed out gravel roads. But Bambi held together and our only casualty was a broken stabilizer arm holding one side of the bike ra...

It’s not the destination so much as it is the journey along the Al-Can Highway that constitutes the real adventure.  We’ve scooted along the eastern border of the Rocky Mountains for countless miles, the forests and rivers stretching out endlessly in front of us.  It sprinkles enough rain to dirty the windshield briefly every few hours but is otherwise quite warm, the skies clearing from the dreadful British Columbia wildfire smoke the further north we travel.                                                                                           Villages are far distanced, gas is sparse and outrageously priced, and the highway can be quite rough in spots.  Fairly 80% of the traffic on the highway in either direction are campers, trailers, and vans....

Within the first 90 minutes of todays sojourn north we encountered 14 black bears along just the sides of the road. Wild how quickly one becomes accustomed to the truly unique and remarkable; we quit stopping and photographing after about encounter number 4 with the bears.  Also in abundance are herds of bison complete with adorable romping wee ones ne’er venturing far from mama’s side. And there was one more moose sighting to boot. In one small hamlet we passed was a display of signage and license plates from visitors traveling here from all corners of the globe.  The road stretches as far as the eye can see in both directions with sweeping vistas, massive lakes, and ginormous rivers round every bend. The iconic Alaska Highway beckons to many. Tonight finds us at the only spot where we’ve had cell coverage in two days…the thriving village of Whitehorse in The Yukon Territories. Oddly, we are only about 200 miles north of Sitka, Alaska, where we found ourselves on the cruise o...

 After attending a lovely wee branch meeting with faithful and most welcoming fellow saints in Hinton, Alberta, we headed north - Alaska bound.  The Al-Can Highway officially begins outside of Dawson Creek, British Columbia.  Distances are long, towns are sparse, gas even more sparse, and we're only 50 miles in on the 1257-mile journey.  Apparently there are multiple wildfires up north; the air is smoky, the mountains blurred.  We could be delayed or rerouted; we shall see.  Our first real wildlife siting was smack dab in the middle of the busy highway leaving Jasper National Park.  A herd of bighorn sheep were licking what we can only assume was salt from the median stripes undaunted by the traffic passing by. Our next siting was of a rather large horse dead and bloating on the shoulder of the highway.  What schmuck leaves their horse rotting on the highway, methinks! On closer inspection, however, I discovered it to be a cow moose.  And my ...

 Lovely Jasper continues northward along the Rockies with the same breath-taking scenery as did Banff. We took it somewhat easy today; we were a tad bit tired from biking and hiking at such high altitudes. Instead, we made a short hike to Cavell Glacier and became so entranced that we stayed all afternoon, exploring different angles and vistas of the dangling glacier, her emerald lake below filled with icebergs, the massive moraines surrounding her, and the mystical waterfalls plunging off cliffs on all sides.  We heard a dozen cracks and booms as ice and rock fell thousands of feet from the glacier and even witnessed a small calving event. We hiked along moraines, across meadows, over rock fields, past high mountain ponds, watched pika and marmots play, and enjoyed lunch on a lookout with such spectacular views we couldn’t pull ourselves away. Such beauty brings tears to the eye and defies expression.