We left Kluane, Yukon at 8:10a.m. We heard the road may be quite rough today. We will find out in a short time. We are now at the Kluane National Park. The Glacier-fed rivers and streams are very beautiful. The water must be soooo cold. We are not stopping to find out. There are millions of acres of northern spruce forest. We read an article on them in the milepost book we have and it tells about the beetle that has destroyed them. Damage to the tree begins when the female spruce beetle bores through the spruce bark and lays eggs in the tree’s tissue layer-called the phloem-although the tree dies within weeks of the initial attack, the needles may not fall or turn the tell-tale reddish-brown color of a beetle-killed tree for a year or more. Dead trees may continue to serve as hosts for the beetles. The process just keeps repeating itself. It’s sad to see so many gray and dead trees.
Kluane Lake is the largest lake in Yukon Territory, approx. 154 sq miles. So beautiful and most of it is still frozen. We kept going and came to Destruction Bay. It earned its name when a storm destroyed buildings and materials. We then came to a place named Burwash Landing. Its name came about from the fire in June 1999. The charred trees and fireweed go on for miles.
We have now come to the road damage from frost and freeze. Permafrost is the correct word. Some places we are moving at 10mph all the way up to 30mph. Here’s my favorite part: I saw a bear!!!! I rolled down the window and took a million pictures. I’m so excited. A black bear, just waiting on the side of the road for me to take a picture. WOW!!!!
We didn’t go far and a Moose came right across the road for me to get a million pictures of him too. Now I’m waiting for the Grizzly Bear. That is the next one on my list! Slow going today. More frost-heaved roads. They even have places that test the Permafrost temperatures and monitors them during the winter to improve the roads.
We are now at the US Customs. One of the questions was: How long will you be in Alaska?????? Isn’t this part of the United States? Why would it matter? Oh well! We answer him: 60 days. WE ARE IN THE USA AND US CITIZENS! We have stopped for the night in Tok, Alaska. We will travel onto Anchorage tomorrow and see if we can get Dave some help for his back. WE ARE IN ALASKA! WooHoo!!
Here is just a bit of information about our traveling friends Jerry and Reva Boian and how we met. David had been transferred by CSX from Evansville, In., to Corbin, KY in 1987. By the way, this is where Colonel Sanders of the famous Kentucky Fried Chicken started. Anyways, Corbin is a town of about 10,000 people. I was so sure I wasn’t going to like Corbin because it was so small. As the days and years went by we met the best friends of a life time. At the time David met Jerry we didn’t know that this would be a life time friendship. We had asked around about a dentist for the kids and we soon heard Jerry’s name again and again. We took the kids and ourselves to Jerry and it wasn't long and we fiqured out that Reva his wife worked in the office. Pretty soon we were going back and forth. Then David became Jerry’s flight instructor at the London, Ky airport. Our friendship developed over the next few years. After we moved from Corbin, we kept in touch by phone and Christmas cards, updating each other on the kids and our own ventures. We went to their lake house in Tennessee. They came to our house in Ridgeley, WV. We reconnected when we moved to Florida. They are in Fort Meyers and we are in Sun City Center, Fl. We see each other often and they spend the night and we then go to their place and spent the night. After all these years, we chuckled-we never discussed going to Alaska until about a year ago. We are so excited to be together with these wonderful people and experiencing this trip. Who would have guessed 20 years ago that we would be driving to Alaska together!
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