Date: 29 June 2001 (Friday)

Start: River’s Edge RV Park, Fairbanks AK

End: Tok RV Village, Tok AK (again) (206 miles)

The temperature was 60f when we got up, and the skies were clear. By the time we got to Tok, the temperature was nearly 80f.

After I composed yesterday’s notes, I talked briefly with the guy next to us. He owns an Itasca motor home and some small car he tows behind it. The front of the Itasca is in terribly shape, but the unit is still driveable. He hit a moose. The small car he tows was on a dolly and that, too, got beat up around the grill area when he hit the moose and the belts broke that hold the car to the dolly. He says the moose got up and walked away after he hit it doing about 50 mph. He said he never had a chance to avoid it; it just leaped up out of the ditch and was in front of him. Wow!!

We ate, hooked up, dumped the tanks and hit the road fairly efficiently. The run from Fairbanks to Delta Junction on the Richardson Highway is flat and easy.

Fairbanks claims the Alaska Highway is 1422 miles from Dawson Creek to Fairbanks. Actually, the Richardson Highway from Valdez to Fairbanks already existed when the Alcan Highway was built, so they built to Delta Junction and that was the "end" of the road.

Delta Junction is even smaller than Tok, just a crossroads and an airstrip. We didn’t stop, but just kept going to Tok. That road is not as flat, but it’s easy. Most of the vegetation along here is small birch, small black spruce and brush. The streams are all a mile wide and an inch deep; glacial runoff streams heavy with silt.

The farther you get toward Tok, the closer the Alaska Range mountains approach on the right (southwest). This range has a weird shape. It runs southwest to northeast along the road from Anchorage to Fairbanks(this part includes Denali), east-west below Fairbanks, and northwest to southeast along the road from Delta Junction to Tok. Sort of an upside-down "u" shape.

This time it was more clear near Tok than when we entered, so we had a chance to see more of this part of the range, including 13,832 foot Mount Hayes.

At Tok, we pulled in to the RV campground we used when we were here three weeks ago, Tok RV Village. It’s clean and friendly, and has modem connections, so we’re staying here again.

We had had a large breakfast, so we waited "lunch" in favor of an early dinner.

Tomorrow will be the run over "Top Of The World" Highway to Dawson, YT, so I hiked down to the information center to check the conditions of the highway. On my way there, a big cloud of smoke started up into the sky from not far away. I noticed there was a black cloud and storm front moving in, and the breeze had picked up significantly.

When I walked in and asked what the smoke was, I was told it was a forest fire on the northwest outskirts of town and it was being fought.

I asked about the highway and was told it was no problem, just go slow, and pull way over for the fuel trucks that hog the road. The lady telling me this said she’d been up to the border yesterday on a survey and we would be ok unless it is raining. She also said it should be fun in Dawson this weekend, since they’ll be celebrating Canada Day on Sunday (July 1).

I hiked back to the little house in the campground. I sat outside watching the smoke, which was drifting directly overhead. That had me a bit nervous, since any fire drifting downwind would come the same way. We hadn’t unhooked the truck from the trailer so I knew we could get out in a hurry if necessary.

The wind died down first. A little later, we noticed at least two of those big prop-driven tanker aircraft making passes over in that direction. After another half-hour or so, the smoke died down considerably (you could clearly smell it at the trailer by now). Then it went away, almost entirely, and the sun came out. It turned back in to a nice afternoon. The lady in the office said the cause was small boys playing with fire, and that two houses had burned down. She also said it’s under control in our direction, but is still burning in the direction of the river (planes were still making passes).

About 6:30 pm, the planes went away, so I guess it must be out.

After the smoke had died down some, we did the steak on the grill and the potatoes in the microwave, and opened the wine. Dinner was very nice.

We relaxed after that.