Days 1 – 4 “The Drive to Heaven”

All in all not bad. However, it’s not for the faint of heart that 2,500+ mile drive from Lake Tahoe to Haines, Alaska on the Alaska – Canada Highway. All’s well going up 5 through Oregon and Washington, but after crossing into Canuck land and finally getting on 97 / Alcan Hwy, it’s just one big high desert for about 1,000 miles heading up through Prince George, BC and finally getting to make the left turn to AK up at Fort Nelson, BC.

Heading west from there it definitely hits you that you are miles from nowhere. I’ve talked to some locals up in the Yukon in places like Watson Lake and Whitehorse and heard some horror stories of this stretch of the Alcan – like people attempting to drive it in -50ºF with 3 feet of visibility in a pounding, white-out blizzard.

So why the drive you might ask? Even with high fuel prices this is the 21st century and we’ve got fancy-dancy things called planes that could wisk me from Reno to Seattle to Juneau and then puddle jump to Haines, AK. Well, when you’re a sledhead like I am, you’ll clearly go to great lengths to have your snowmobile with you up here. Forget the fact that you could be grounded from flying in the heli 6 out of 7 days sitting out the weather up here – that alone is worth the effort to have a sled here – but the riding is sooooo sick here in and of itself that you could come JUST to snowmobile.

I know that might sound sac-religious to heli skiing and snowboarding purists, but dude – with sleds today you can rip powder turns both up AND down the hill – and you can do it on those 6 “down days” that would normally turn into a true “daze”.

Your body can only take so much tequila and scrabble and watching VCR tapes of Raiders of the Lost Ark day after day waiting for some bluebird weather…..

Some quick highlights:

- Left Tahoe at 2pm Monday, 4/7/08

- Three of us – Chappy, Gardner, and Dean – in a 2500 Chevy with 4-sled trailer in tow

- Stopped to see grandparents and dad in Oroville – and snap a bitchin billboard photo

- Gardner drove to Mt. Shasta City, I took over there at 8pm

- I stopped driving 11 hours later at 7am just before the Canadian boarder after powering all night up I-5

- After breakfast, a stop for chains, a 3 ton jack, and a thorough grilling by the usually friendly Canucks – we finally got back on the road about noon and Dean rolled us into Prince George, BC about 10pm for a hot shower and a nap…..32 hours after leaving home

- Wednesday, 4/9/08 we wake up and shove off with Gardner at the helm

- No joke – to blend in with the Canucks, throw on a Peterbilt camo trucker hat and end EVERY sentence with “eh”

- A&W Double Teen burgers with a root beer float…….mmmmmmmmm

- There ain’t shit between Prince George, BC and Fort Nelson, BC – not to mention no shit between Fort Nelson and anywhere else up there to be honest

- Pulled into Watson lake, Yukon about 1am for another hot shower and nap

- Woke up Thursday early for the final push for Haines, AK

- First we stopped at “Sally’s Café” at the junction of Hwy 37 and 1 in the Yukon – and I MOWED through a bacon heavy breakfast that was truly “home cookin” – all time good I tell ya

- Another 6 to 8 road hours and…….voila…....you officially and almost literally enter heaven once you finally see the coastal mountain range

- We even had "Stairway to Heaven" come on the XM just as we made the final turn at Haines Junction for the last hour of our drive.....scroll to the bottom of this post and you'll see what I mean

Labels: Alaska, Snowboard, Snowmobile, Winter

Comments: Post a Comment

Links to this post:

<$BlogBacklinkTitle$>  
<$BlogBacklinkSnippet$>

<$I18NPostedByBacklinkAuthor$> @ <$BlogBacklinkDateTime$>

---

Create a Link

<< Home