Glamping Days

The other folks camped at the rest area left early, so it was quite peaceful there this morning.          There are many rivers in the Yukon, & their water flow varies a lot, so they are often fairly empty. The spruce in this forest is a variety that grows tall & spindly.  This memorial explains that James Quong designed & oversaw the building of the original temporary wooden bridges on the ALCAN in the early 1940s, then he designed the 133 permanent bridges in later years.  The section of the ALCAN I drove last evening & this morning is notoriously the worst section of road in Alaska & the Yukon, but I managed to escaped with no noticeable damage - whew! A display outside the museum tells about a wildfire that threatened the town in 1999; I love that the display boards are posted on the charred remains of the trees. Most of the local museums in Alaska & the Yukon are very good, & this one is no exception. The wildlife diora...

In Tok this morning, I did laundry, & ran a bunch of errands. The gift shop there is interesting.  The drive from Tok to the Yukon border is mostly through a couple of wildlife refuges.  The drive was very slow due to a 30-mile section of construction which took about 1 1/2 hours to navigate. Then it took about 45 minutes for the border guy to process the 4 vehicles in front of me; I was through in about 3 minutes.  Once in the Yukon, I followed this rainbow for the 2 hours in took me to go about 40 miles. This is the worst section of road in all of Alaska & The Yukon - more of it tomorrow.   I'm camping tonight at a rest area (a gravel lot) on Pickhandle Lake with 5 other rigs. When I came in at about 8:00, there was only 1 other rig here, but 4 more have come in during the last 1 1/2 hours; it seems like folks who use these informal spots tend to travel late.  It took me a minute to figure out what this piece of equipment is. It's a pump to bring water...