-----Our phones, unable to get reception throughout Canada, did not understand that we had effectively entered a different time zone yesterday upon our arrival in Saskatchewan. When setting our alarms for this morning, I remembered to set it an hour ahead of when we actually wanted to get up ... but my mom didn't, and hers went off at half-past six ... so I'm told. (I was still out.) -----What lay ahead of us was one of our longest drives yet, and it began northwest out of Saskatoon. Prairies
We escaped from our hotel at 9:48 and gassed up soon afterwards. We went along the Bow Valley Parkway north to Lake Louise and Lake Moraine. We saw more than we could yesterday as far as scenery went, but there were still too many clouds for a completely clear view. We saw a lot of deer as we traveled the Parkway. The clouds looked a little more clear so we pulled into the Lake Louise parking lot again to see what we could see. We saw a bit more of the mountain-lake scenery than yesterday, wit
We walked from our hotel to the REI in the Bend just a short time after they opened at 10:00. Our quest for hiking boots ended successfully an hour later after much trying-on and consideration. Thus armed with three proper pairs of footwear and socks, we felt fully prepared to break them in at Crater Lake. We checked out of the hotel at 11:30, got gas, and headed down the road to Crater Lake. US-97 from Bend to Crater Lake was a miserable experience. Stuck behind drivers going well under the s
-----Upon awakening in Fort Saint John, we knew an exciting day of adventure was ahead. Our first full day on the Alaska Highway took us northbound, and once we were clear of the outskirts of Fort Saint John, it was utter wilderness as far as the eye could see. Trees were cleared for many meters around each side of the two-lane blacktop in order to give us a clear sightline towards potential critters. -----As we went ever north, the temperature did not reach above the high 40s in Fahrenheit
-----Our alarms went off at 7:00 in the morning, and by eight we were out of our cabin and on the road to the Yukon border. The road out of Toad River led towards more epic mountain peaks, yet somehow the road felt even more desolate than yesterday. We went directly towards the mountain peak that had dominated the sunset last evening and saw ever more incredibly breathtaking vistas as we kept going. -----We dropped down as the road went around Muncho Lake, a mile wide and seven miles across,
We left the hotel around 10:30 and, after gassing up, headed out on the Yellowhead Highway to Kamloops, BC. Within thirty minutes we'd had a bear sighting - a momma grizzly and her cub. We pulled off the road and watched them for ten minutes, but the mother did nothing but eat and the cub did nothing but sleep and occasionally poke his head up above the grass to look at us. This sighting made the count eight bear in three days. Soon after we exited Jasper National Park. Within two minutes we
We meandered through Burlington at 11:00 and worked our way south along US 7, eventually getting out of the city and through countryside. We paralleled Lake Champlain as it narrowed, crossing over it into New York at noon. We continued south to Ticonderoga and traversed a surprisingly long unpaved road up to Fort Ticonderoga itself. The fort is exceptionally tiny, especially after seeing the monstrous forts in Halifax and Québec. It was built by the French during the Seven Years' War (or the F
-----We awoke in Whitehorse with a singular goal: reach the Last Frontier. By distance, we had conquered much of the Alaska Highway, but the roughest parts were to come. The Yukon's 511 service, along with the advice proffered by the ladies at the Watson Lake welcome center, told us that the roughest gravel breaks and frost heaves were to be found in permafrost territory north of Destruction Bay. -----Rain—steady but not hard—dominated the first part of the journey, and the mountain peaks were
We checked out of the hotel and passed the Saratoga Raceways on the way out of the always-packed Saratoga Springs downtown. We saw a few horses being groomed and ridden, but no races were slated, so we just looked around to see what we could see from the streets. Our first stop of the day was a little ways from Saratoga Springs at the Saratoga Battlefield. Despite being one of the most influential battles in the history of the world, the Saratoga Battlefield is not as well-traveled or built-up
-----Our alarms went off at 6:00. We snoozed it quite a bit, but by a little after 7:00 we went to Fast Eddy's for breakfast. We wanted to get a small sampling of breakfast goodies in anticipation of a late lunch outside of Fairbanks, and we ordered what we thought was going to be a small meal. We entertained the waitresses with our pre-coffee selves and ordered. What we did not know was that the Eddy's philosophy of Alaska-sized dinners would also be applied to their breakfasts. My two blu
Before we left our Kamloops hotel room, we saw what we believe was a marmot which had climbed halfway up a tree. He looked like he was standing guard. Just a little after 11:00 we left Kamloops for British Columbia via the Yellowhead Highway and Trans-Canada Highway 1. It was surprisingly sunny and the temperature was 14 (57). After no more than twenty minutes on the road we went up a massive hill at a high altitude. The engine gave it all it could but it sounded as if it was on its last leg
More pictures than the first week, enough to do something with BZP's BBCode parser near the end of day 11. As such, the remaining Week Two pictures will be relegated to a separate entry. Hover over pictures for background information. Day Eight | | | | | | | | Day Nine | | | | | | Day Ten | | | | | | | | | | Day Eleven | | | | | | | | | | | |
As always, hover over images for further information. Day Eleven (cont.) | | Day Twelve | | | | Day Thirteen | | | | | Day Fourteen My Parents' Thirtieth Anniversary | | | | | | | | | |
Our alarms went off at 4:00 in the morning and we dragged ourselves out of bed as fast as our bodies would let us. The temperature when we left at 4:40 was 73º. By 5:15, we could see the sun as it began to rise behind the clouds to the east as the temperature dropped to 60º. We went through the bottommost portion of the Sierra Nevada range. We passed an immense wind farm after 5:30 and the sun had already heated our surroundings to 81º. With the temperatures expected to get to possible record-
-----Our escapades in riding to the Arctic Circle had left us worn out, and so we slept in quite a bit. After getting up, we used what remained of the morning to do a much-needed couple loads of laundry and a small job of re-packing and re-organizing in the disoriented aftermath of preparing for yesterday. -----By afternoon, we headed out on the town to find the University of Alaska Fairbanks, home of the Museum of the North. After asking an employee of the museum to direct us to where Denal
