We started this morning with another breakfast at a truck stop / multipurpose store place and then ran across the street to check out the Sign Post Forest, one of the most notable roadside attractions on the Alaska Highway.
During road construction in 1942, soldiers erected a signpost for other cities along the route and a couple US cities back into the States and beyond. One soldier who was tasked with painting the sign had become homesick and asked to add a sign to his hometown of Danville, IL. In the time since, motorists the world over have added their own signs.
After poking around, we ran over to the Visitor Center where George struck up conversation with a woman named Button who gave us the greatest hits of today’s segment and some local history. I read up on their presentation of the history of the ALCAN Project in their gallery.
Originally, the Northwest Staging Route was a series of small air fields and radio stations that stretched from the from Alberta through Alaska and into the Soviet Union. In December of 1941, the attack on Pearl Harbor inspired an urgent need to be able to access and defend Alaska by land, so the “Alaska-Canada Military Highway” project, or ALCAN, was started. With Canadian cooperation, President FDR authorized the start of construction in February 1942. By October 1943, the road was officially completed. It was officially renamed The Alaska Highway that same year. After the war in 1946, the road was transferred to the Canadian government to operate.
We walked back over to the Sign Post Forest and I decided to pull the trigger on an idea I’d been mulling over. You see, the Great State of Texas has determined that each car needs a front and a rear license plate, but who up here is going to know that?
After our little moment, we got ready for the drive today. I popped the hood on the Celica to check on the oil situation and discovered something terribly embarrassing. The oil cap was off, though thankfully it hadn’t fallen out. For the life of me I cannot remember when I removed it. Had I started to do an oil refill this morning and got interrupted? … Was it still off from yesterday? Thankfully (and surprisingly) I didn’t lose much oil, so I added just a bit and closed up. I can’t believe I did that. I was hoping to get away with it until…
Our first stop was about an hour out, the Rancheria Falls Recreation Site. We pulled up, shut down our cars, and … all three were smoking. The Volvo and the Tracker because that’s what they do sometimes, and I’ve had a lot of schadenfreude about it. But because of the oil spill in the Celica’s engine bay, that I caused by being an idiot, the Celica was smoking, too, burning off the spillage. I got exactly what I deserved for that from the other two. As the Celica vented, we strolled down to the waterfall on a nice forest trail that opened up onto a boardwalk.
Back on the road, we went over the Continental Divide. Which I thought I’d already done back in New Mexico… But unlike the Continental Divide in the US, which separates the Pacific and Atlantic Ocean watersheds, the divide we passed today separates the Pacific from the Arctic. Today’s autumn colors were even more stark.
Also we each hit odometer milestones today. The Volvo overtook the Celica’s total mileage and they both crossed 169,000. (Remember how the Celica has slightly larger tires than are spec? That means my spedo/odo are about 3% slow.) George hit 178k. I missed the photo…
Our next stop was the George Johnston (Johnstone? seen it both ways) Nature Trail. He was a local tribal elder and his story is so cool, it is worth repeating directly from the page our George found about him:
George Johnstone was a local leader of the Tlingit First Nation people. George was a trapper and then a leader of innovation completing his life as a well known photographer of the Yukon Territories. [… Before the Alaska Highway,] the transportation routes for the First Nation people consisted of the Yukon River, Teslin Lake and the Nisutlin River. In 1928 that all changed. George went out and bought a Chevy and barged it to Teslin.
George Johnstone Trail, Eh Canada Travel.
Soon later he built a 6 kilometre road to Fox Creek to transport people from village to village operating as a taxi company. In the winter the sedan would be painted white to camouflage with the snow covered Teslin Lake so George and his buddies could go hunting for wolves.
Later on in life his road was used as the foundation for the Alaska Highway near Teslin. Today the trail is a reminder of the George Johnstone highway.
Back on the road and just over an hour from Whitehorse, we stopped at Johnsons Crossing; Button told us they made some of the best pastries in the Yukon.
The cashier there saw us, asked us about the cars, and immediately jumped to the conclusion “oh they’re just junkers for a one-way run, right? sellin’ ’em when you get there?” She says this is actually quite common, a rental for the trip would be horrifically expensive. And for locals, new cars don’t survive well up here anyway. Everyone prefers to buy an old beater, fix it up a bit, and ditch it when it becomes too much trouble.
Well, these two are Northern cars, they’ll sell easy. But… eh, you might lose some money on that little white car though. It’s not a Northern car…
Cashier at Johnsons Crossing
As we rolled on toward Whitehorse, I did see a small handful of smaller cars on the road, and even three convertibles, so I may not be Northern as if I rolled up here in the Xterra, but at least I’m not alone. Also this was the first time we saw Fairbanks, AK on a distance sign. Today, we hit our half-way point, both in mileage kilometerage and days, which is a bittersweet thought.
We had dinner at a pub with live music that was actually pretty great. Also it was walking-distance to our rental townhouse. As it got dark and colder, we watched a little football (Tulsa won, but Texas lost) and a little tv before George noticed something amazing happening outside.
We sat and watched the lights ripple across the sky for a while, then turned in for the night. Tomorrow is a day off in Whitehorse!
