August 12th, 2012: Tok to Kluane Lake

August 12^th, 2012: Tok to Kluane Lake

Of all the roads we have driven so far the stretch from Tok to Kluane Lake is what I expected to find when traveling the Alaska Highway. It’s a stretch of almost constant frost heaves, punctuated by construction, and beautiful kettle lakes.

The border crossing was almost anticlimactic as we answered a few questions and were easily waved through. The border guard listened as I told her how I had my guns locked and the ammo saved and she renewed the permit, saving me twenty five more dollars.

The road itself was pretty good until we crossed the border and then the frost heaves were so bad that we had to slow to ten miles an hour. Washboard gravel and some big holes and we both thought that it was going to be a long day.

So we slowed down, averaging about thirty miles an hour and while it was still bad it was drivable Tiring form the constant strain of watching the road, Renita took over driving and of course she ended up driving the worst piece with a long construction section. Even this stretch was wide however, and so I got to enjoy the beauty of the kettle lakes, the subarctic tundra, and the stunted forests of drunken black spruce, (drunken forests are forests that are on unstable permafrost and point every which way).

Often trumpeter swans swam, serenely in still and dark clear pools of water, stained by the tannin a color of black tea. WE Crosse several large rivers, one of which, the White River, milepost warned, do not attempt to float!

Stained a dirty brown white, with volcanic ash, it was filled with snags and rapids and looked about as scary as the warning said, (Now we have carried a canoe with us on this trip and haven’t launched it yet, the rivers are too scary and we have been sightseeing too much to have time for simple pleasures).

The construction ended and the road improved. Renita sped us to forty five miles per hour and we reached Kluane Lake and Burwash Landing. We had hoped to meet our friends here but when drove to Cogdon Creek Campground, we found out it was closed due to habituated grizzlies. The mother and cubs had found garbage sacks left by careless campers and the campground was closed for the season.

So we drove a little further and stayed at Cottonwood Rv Park. It is one of the most beautiful little campgrounds, fronting middle Kluane Lake, that we have stayed in on this journey. Tomorrow we plan on heading to Whitehorse and then beyond to the Cassier Highway. That is if the truck continues to run as good as it did today. Clear skies