Last week, I helped my daughter Hannah and her husband, Nate, move from Boise, Idaho, to the Anchorage, Alaska, area. We spent five days driving the Alcan Highway with most of their belongings, including two pickup trucks, a camper trailer, regular trailer, and side-by-side four wheeler. Knowing that snow could come at any time, Hannah and Nate asked me to drive with them in case they needed help. We hit a few snowstorms, so I drove during those times, and we saw a lot of wildlife along the highway, so Hannah drove when I wanted to take photos.
Day 1
I flew from Minneapolis to Boise, where I met Hannah and Nate and began driving to the Canadian border of Washington state. It was a long day, but we made it across the border without any issues shortly after nightfall.
Day 2
We spent the day driving from the Washington border to Dawson Creek in British Columbia. That night, we arrived at our hotel in time to take a short hike while we still had daylight. A lifesaver for an old guy like me who’s not used to sitting all day.
Day 3
We spent our shortest driving day (only 7 or 8 hours) making our way north in British Columbia. We saw a lot of stone sheep and mountain caribou on the side of the road throughout our drive.
Day 4
We managed to finish the British Columbia leg of our trip and make it to Yukon after nightfall and during a snowstorm. Hannah and Nate were nervous about blizzards on the trip, and we hit our fair share of bad weather. But everyone stayed calm, and we made it safely to our hotel that night.
Along the way, we found a sign post forest at Watson Lake, British Columbia. There were 77,000 signs from all over the world that people who were traveling the Alcan Highway put up since 1942. No photo can do justice to what this forest of signs looks like. It was incredible.
Day 5
We finally made it to Alaska. We had a harrowing last day of our journey, with whiteout conditions and two flat tires. Boy, were we all glad to be done driving!
Coming Up Next: Deer Hunting and More Book Signings
Now that I’m back home in Minnesota, I’m looking forward to deer hunting. I usually like to stock my freezer with a three or four each year, so I have some work to do!
I’m also staying busy with book business. If you ordered a book while I was in Alaska last week, you can expect to receive your copy soon. I just shipped a batch yesterday. And if you’re in Minnesota, mark the following events on your calendars.
- November 26
- The Houston Arts Festival / Houston, MN
- Time to be determined
- December 2 and 3
- Art Barbarians Gallery / Rogers, MN
- 4 to 9 pm (Dec. 2) and 10 am to 5 pm (Dec. 3)
- December 10
- International Owl Center / Houston, MN
- 10 am to 4 pm
- December 18
- Wilmont Community Center / Wilmont, MN
- 9:30 am to 3:00 pm
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