NORTH POLE, ALASKA to STEWART,BC

After leaving Fairbanks, we stopped at North Pole just 22 miles south of town en route to Tok which is 209 miles south.  This will be the first leg of our journey home.  The North Pole had the Christmas store and visitors center and that was it.  We stayed overnight at the same RV park in Tok that we did in May when we entered Alaska.  We had now made a full circle and we were on our way home, but first to Stewart, BC and Hyder Alaska for the Bear Viewing.  This leg of the trip will be 1280 miles.  We made the drive in 3 days of hard driving with overnight stops in Haines Junction and Watson Lake.  The roads from Fairbanks to Whitehorse (over 500 miles) were in as bad condition as they were when we drove up in May.

Road Construction

Digging down to Permafrost in Road



Frost heaves and gravel was the norm.  I had met one gentleman who had his headlamps busted and another that had replaced his windshield in Fairbanks and a week later at Watson Lake was repairing another rock chip on the new windshield.  After Watson Lake we had a 409 mile journey down the Cassiar Highway, which is a very narrow winding road with one lane wooden bridges through the Cassiar Mountain Range.  One stop on the way was Jade City where the largest supply of Jade in the world is mined.

We saw a black bear along the side of the road on this highway but had sighted a moose in the lake the day before. The last 14 miles into Stewart was road construction where they were repaving. We passed by another glacier just a few miles before entering Stewart. 


They had just put fresh gravel on the road and when I pulled into the RV park the host said they heard me coming before they saw me.  I had picked up a piece of gravel in the wheel of the jeep and it was making a loud screeching noise, but in checking where the screeching sound was coming from I discovered grease inside the wheel rim of my right rear tire of the motorhome.  I unhooked the jeep and drove it to determine the screeching was in the jeep, thus the rock.  Removed it and no more screeching and now to have the wheel on the motorhome checked.  Compared to others we have been very fortunate not to have any mishaps until now.

Moose with Ducks