The roughest stretch? Alaska! Construction.

Welcome to Day 10 of our EV journey.

After a blueberry lemon scone and walnut sticky bun (and coffee) at the Village Bakery we were off to an earlier start than usual.  There we had a fascinating conversation with Charlie and Erin and learned of Charlie’s recently published memoir.

Yummy Village Bakery

enjoying my walnut sticky bun

Charlie and Erin

Stoped to take a short hike at Soldier’s Summit in Kluane National Park.  Nice to stretch the legs and learn a bit at the visitor’s center.

speaks for itself

A shift in the glacier upstream cut off the water supply of this once river

Summit Lake

Soldier’s Summit – where US troops building the Alaskan Highway during WWII met (crews started in the North and South and worked toward each other)

Then we got to experience what we kept hearing about the Alaska highway that heaves with the frost.  Yesterday I first learned to watch for the orange flags at the side of the road warning of rough patches.  Today there were those and sandbags on top of signs that had been blown over in the wind.  And the orange and black striped loose gravel signs, and rough road bumpy symbol signs.  Then it seems that the road just kept getting worse and they got tired of making every spot, so I learned to watch for the dark places and tire scrapes that indicated wavy road.  It was long and slow-going with a couple very long gravel stretches up to Beaver Creek – the last town and the last charging stop in Canada.  We’d had a short respite in Burwash Landing with a short charging stop.  Both this one and the one in Beaver Creek were both 20 KW vs the 50 KW fast chargers we have gotten used to in Yukon.  But both were welcome stops to have a break from the intense concentration of driving on rough road where you have to be constantly watching for the next place to slow down and dodge the holes.

flag warning of road hazard

Finally!

And then we are in ALASKA!  Only to be stopped by the lineup waiting to get through the one-way construction zone.  There was a short stretch of new wonderful pavement, then back to construction zones and rough road – at least the rough patches are pretty well marked.  Especially the orange spray paint circling the giant holes that are unavoidable.

Continued slow going to Tok where we stopped for some supper and realized we didn’t have the energy to keep going, so we stopped at the RV park and took a tent site with a standard outlet to just top us off to make it easy to get to Glennallen the next day.  Slept in the car to save tent setup.  The Camping Mode in our Tesla makes it quite comfortable – we can turn on the fan for a bit of air circulation (and heat or AC if needed).

– Mindy