On to Tok

We left Kluane Lake pretty early for our 210 mile trip to Tok.  We had been warned by a lot of folks including the Canadian Customs person that the road was going to be bad.  We wondered just how bad?  The good news was it was only going to last 60 miles!  Only 60 miles, cake, right?  It started off pretty good, fairly smooth with only a few frost heaves on our way to Burwash Landing where we stopped at a superb little wildlife museum, Kluane Museum of Natural History.  It is very well done with dioramas of various wildlife and displays of native custom and dress.  It is absolutely in the middle of nowhere, but on our trip 9 years ago right next door was a shop that made and sold burl bowls, so we had talked it up to Karen and she was anxious to buy a bowl.  Big disappointment as the shop was closed and the museum gift shop only had a couple left.  According to the person at the museum it seems the craftsman is more interested in booze than carving these days:-(

With the road still pretty smooth we encountered a brown bear along the road eating grass.  

Very cool, but just as we were getting pretty smug about all the warnings on the road not materializing, we hit the wall.  60 miles of horrible, frost heaves that would rip your vehicle apart if not just crawling along, miles of gravel which actually were smoother than the heaves and potholes, construction signs everywhere, and what?  Not a single worker anywhere!  It wasn't until we were about 10 miles from the US border did we see any active construction with folks actually working on the road.  I guess DOT's are pretty much the same whether in Canada or the US.  We just went slow, took our time, and managed quite well.  The biggest danger was the fact that the truckers DO NOT slow down!  So we tried and were pretty successful whenever we were on or approaching gravel and saw a truck coming we would pull over as far as possible and stop while he blew by.  And it worked, no broken glass!

Can't really see how frost heaved the road is

Some of the infamous gravel

And here he comes!

We bounced, bumped, and crunched up to an uneventful crossing back into America and Alaska, and the road got good, all the way into our campground in Tok.  Tok is the entry and exit point of Alaska.  If you are driving you have to go through Tok, both in or out.  The campground is large and set up with 2 wash stations which were lined up with people washing their vehicles and rigs, including us.  We had a farewell dinner with Tom who left us at 0400am to make the 320 mile drive into Anchorage to catch his flight to see Walker in a rodeo for the 4th in New Mexico.  And that set us up for our 2 leg trip on to Anchorage the next day.