there are only three major highways (i use the term loosly, for reasons ill explain later) in BC. the 16 which runs east to west, the 97 which runs north and south but at a hard angle and the 1 aka the alaskan highway which really just clips the north east edge of bc but runs all along the yukon. so when the guy at the store gave me a blatant look of "dont be stupid" after asking "how to get to the Alaskan highway" it was understandable. there wasnt another highway.
taking the 37 north to the alaskan highway was hellish. it took me roughly 5 hours to go 100 miles. Snowy roads, no garter rails, deep in the mountains with no reception and even less traction lead to a long drive, at the end of the 37 you are already in the yukon and is where the alaskan highway picks up at. I stopped at watson lake and grabbed a buffalo burger. Around this time i started seeing signs for Klondike highway as well as license plates from Klondike so with the "what would u dooooo, for a Klondike bar" song stuck in my head i pushed on to Whitehorse. I stayed at Whitehorse for 2 days hoping to see the northernlights since the forecast was clear skys. However with no luck I pushed on to Fairbanks. All it did was snow not surprising for Alaska and not wanting to face bad roads I left after 2 days.
on the way back i avoided the 37 all together and took the Alaskan highway all the way to the 97. the Alaskan highway isn't that much better of a road but it does stay closer to ground level so that if i did go off the road it would be to a gentle ditch as opposed to a 90m/295 foot drop to the bottom. however it still comes with alot of black ice, gravel and a constant up and down that reminded me more of roller-coaster then a road.
most of the highways in Canada are pretty small. 2 lanes mostly and still run through their towns with a diligent effort. they are not always paved and dont have much in ways of warning signs or street lights. it was funny because there would be HUGE pot holes and all there was to mark them was a small, less then a foot high flag on the side of the road.
i kinda rushed back to the states. doing the trip from Alaska to Washington in about 3 days. not really any reason other then the fact that without the chances of seeing the northern lights (due to cloud cover and low activity) there wasn't any reason to delay. The only stop i did make was for Hope, BC. which is where Rambo: First Blood was filmed. however that was back in 1982 and the town has changed quite a bit. in fact the only thing left from the movie (a bridge at the edge of town) is scheduled to be torn down some time soon.
on the way back to sisters I drove past a town called Centralia. it made me think about the last book i read by Bill Bryson called "A walk in the woods". He explains that in Pennsylvania there is also a town called Centralia. However this Centralia has major problems. the town sits on a mine fire thats been burning since 1962. the mne houses anthracite coal which unlike normal coal is extremely hard to start and even harder to put out once started. "The underground fire is still burning and will continue to do so for an estimated 250-1000 more years." the town was evacuated and is now a ghost town. but some people do remain even with the poisonous gases rising from the ground and a forcast that includes a slight chances of instant sink holes opening beneath your feet.
im now in sisters again to pick up a few things and head back to the coast todo some fishing. i plan on getting a year license here so at least i can fish legal now and should have better luck with it.
mountains
road vistas
island in a lake
cool grass along the side of the hill
a river runs down it
avalanche damage
trees on the cliffs edge
small frozen lake
frozen cliff
frozen lake mountain side
Danger
lakes
big bridge and town
road to the mountain
sunrise/sunset
fake cop; it looks a lot more real from further distance
akira the bears fan
river through the mountains
bald eagle
mountain goat
I believe this is a ptarmigan
fox
hard to see but he is there
elk
big horned sheep
moose
I wasnt in alaska long enough to have many good pictures. these below are the only things i have from Alaska. really most of northern bc and yukon are very much the same as alaska except for the coast. which is what makes alaska.
vista
these people reminded me of that show where the hillbilly's go to hollywood after finding oil
