Phil's Post-The Road

6/28/09

The Road

Being a son of Jim Duncan, I believe myself to be a road warrior. Though I tell Sandi for the mental convenience of it that I was six for each and every of the dozen or so long road/camping trips my Dad took us on, I know from old scrapbooks and scraps of memory that they occurred roughly between 1955 and 1965 or so, from age 4 to about 14 for me. We made it up to the Northwest Territories of Canada, west to New Mexico and California, south to the Carolinas, and east to New York. I had visited over 40 states by the time I could drive myself.

With that bug, I have lusted after the open road from my earliest memories. Many, many car, motorcycle, and even a few RV trips, but never, never ever one like this. To the moment, we have traveled an incredible 6030 miles in 21 days. But, that’s “only” 287 miles per day. We have camped now in the same place for more than one night on three occasions. Tonight will be the third of three nights here at the Chugach National Forest Granite Creek campsite near Moose Pass on the fabulous Kenai Peninsula.

The highways have all been beautiful and primitive throughout British Columbia, the Yukon, Northwest Territories, and, of course, ALASKA! All the highways have names, with the governments and residents not being satisfied with just “Route 1” or “Route 11” (I have yet to see a number higher than as 11 since British Columbia’s 97, which is the start of the Alaska Highway). These roads have too much character for that. In the Yukon, the Alaska or “Alkan” Highway is Route 1, the road from Whitehorse to Dawson, Route 2, is also known as the Klondike Hwy. Route 5 is the Dempster from Dawson City to Inuvit, Route 9 out of Dawson City to Chicken, Alaska is called the Top of the World Highway, and turns into Alaska Route 5, a/k/a the Taylor Highway as it turns south to meet up with the Alaska Hwy. We’ve also been on the George Parks Hwy (Rte. 3 from Fairbanks to Anchorage, but we got off at Palmer), the Glen Hwy (Rte 1 from Palmer to Copper Center), the Richardson Hwy (Rte. 4 from Copper Center to Valdez), the Alaska Marine Hwy (ferry from Valdez to Whittier on the Kenai Peninsula), the Seward Hwy (Rte. 9 from Anchorage to Seward), and the Sterling Hwy (Rte. 1 again, from Copper Landing to Homer. The Sterling is the westernmost point of the North American Highway system, precisely at the town of Anchor Point on the Cook Inlet side of the Kenai (59° 46′ 39″ N, 151° 46′ 13″ W), several hundred miles west of Seattle.

But, the ultimate road on this trip filled with fabulous highways, the Dempster Highway to the Artic Circle. This 460 mile stretch run over gravel north to Inuvit in the Northwest Territory, 60 miles from the Artic Ocean. Other than the Dawson Highway up to Prudhoe Bay, this road takes you farther north than any in North America. Inuvit is at 68 degrees + latitude, about 200 miles north of the actual Artic Circle, at 66 degrees, 30 minutes. The sun doesn’t set for just the one day as it does at the Artic Circle, it stays above the horizon for 21 days straight each year around summer solstice. We were there for the brightest day of the year, the 20 – 21st. of June.

Now, any road that would take me to such a place would be a good road, indeed. The Dempster, however, took my heart the moment we started out over the wooden plank surfaced bridge over the Klondike River, near Dawson City. It gave us: fabulous views, ever changing weather, challenging mountain driving, many wildlife sightings, and my first photo of a grizzly bear (I hesitate to say first sighting since a brother is likely to correct me, saying, “Remember the grizzly we saw in Yellowstone when you were six?”).

I’ve always liked taking the road to its ultimate end. When I was 18, for instance, I took my Honda 360 motorcycle from Portage, MI some 600 miles to the tip of the Kewanaw (sp?) Peninsula in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. At Copper Harbor, US 41 northbound comes to an end. That’s the same US 41, of course, that follows Lake Shore Drive in Chicago. Well, I rode that bike to the end of the pavement until it turned into a logging road, followed the logging road until it turned back on itself in the woods. I then parked the bike and walked the last 500 yards to the very tip of the peninsula.

So, the Dempster is my kind of road. It’s 460 miles crosses two mountain ranges and the Artic/Pacific continental divide, and includes two free car ferries, across the Peel and McKinzie Rivers. We tried like hell to get a charter flight to the Artic Ocean, and even considered hiring out a boat excursion to make the 60 mile trip down the rest of the McKinzie River Delta. But, short of renting canoes, it was not going to happen. I had to content myself with driving north out of Inuvit about six miles on pavement and about three miles of gravel until the ice road begins. The “road” that remained after the spring thaw looked like frozen ski moguls made of rock hard mud. The last trucks through must have dug deep into the mud, leaving the road impassable. No wonder the woman at the visitor’s center laughed at me when I asked how far north of Inuvit one could go. Well, it’s nine miles and about 20 paces. Sandi marked it on the GPS for me and I just sat there and sighed over the mere 60 more miles that separated us from the ocean. But we tried, and I had to be satisfied with that.