Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska AlCan Closed - - Updated

‘Tis…

Have made the drive in 6 one-ways, equivalent to 3 roundtrips from Missouri, Kentucky, and Florida.
Never get tired of it, both ALCAN and Cassiar.
First time: 13 days in August 1985, with wife and kids, Missouri to Anchorage.
Last time: 6 days and 23 hours in January 1994, solo, Anchorage to Kentucky. Kids got tired of it, spoiled brats.

I am overdue for another drive. Hope I do not have to fly.
May normalcy soon return to the beautiful ALCAN.
Amen.

My father drove the ALCAN with an Army buddy in summer 1950. He never forgot the bugs!

Had to wait for a small band of Caribou to clear off the road along through there once. (Northeast BC)

20+ years ago I was still logging all my kayak trips and we tossed our boats in every lake, stream and river along the Alcan and the Cassiar.
Lots of Grizzlies along those shorelines, made it a little dicey in some narrow stretches.

I drove the Alcan in July of 1972 on a 1971 Honda CB 350 twin took 9 days to get to Fairbanks from SD. The stretch above Ft Nelson was the worse still had some corduroy road. In places I had to use the wheel ruts as a slot to keep up right. That old Honda would go anywhere on a penny a mile till I got to Canada, the Alcan , and Alaska penny and a half to 2cts a mile up there. Traveled 9400+ miles in 29 days. I hear now days it's pretty much all surfaced. They had wash outs back then too...mb

Speaking of cheap velocity, Bob….
The CB 350 Super Sport would run a quarter mile in 13.8😲
Wasn’t until ’78 when Yamaha gave us their XS 1100 that we saw under 12 seconds.
(I only know this because I was in Junior High then and wrote my English Final as best plagiarized from my subscription to Cycle magazine 🤓)

Them CB’s were bullet proof machines.
——————————-

Back to ‘bender’s point about sheep in the road along that stretch.

Like Jeff said, I’ve seen Caribou running right down the edge of the road (north of the sheep-in-the-road cliffs).

I had built a deck slightly above my truck rails large enough to throw my tent upon so I’d have a quick, high & dry, spot to stretch out and sleep.
Coming from the north and approaching 10:00 p.m. I thought I’d give it a go around Watson Lake.
As I rounded a little grassy bend I figured that I’d pull over there…I mean, it looked like a good spot.
Well, apparently a particular Grizzly thought it was a good spot also, as it was loaded with dandelions.
I slept in the cab of the truck.😏

Stone Sheep, Mountain Goats, Caribou, Moose, Elk, Whitetails, Mule Deer, Grizzly Beras, Black Bears and Woodland Bison just to name a few.
I've also seen Hungarian Partridge in that area and I imagine there's Sharptailed, Ruffed and Spruce Grouse.

358 you bringing back the memories. I put 21,000 miles on that old cb in 2 years traded it off in the spring of 73 for a new leftover 1972 Kawasaki Mach 3 500 triple cylinder 2 stroke 60 hp as I recall. On the 1/4 it would leave the 750 4 Honda in the dirt but sucking air bad against kawasaki's new dohc 4cyl 900. I was young then and believed that Honda would take me anywhere....mb

I wanted one of those Z1 Kawasaki 900s in the worst way, just could not swing it and went back to school instead. They were a sharp looking bike!

Magnum Bob;
Good morning to you sir, I hope that you're getting weather you need where you're at and you're well.

Thanks for sharing your memories of the Alaska Highway as well as the motorcycles. Very cool on both topics.

The last time I was on the Alaska Highway was either '71 or maybe '72, but I was sick with the flu for most of the trip to Whitehorse and don't recall a whole lot of it other than it was gravel, but as we were from Saskatchewan that was standard fare.

The motorcycles bring back memories from a wee bit later as I spent the summer of '79 I believe it was fooling with what I recall was a 1973 Kawasaki 500 triple for my girlfriend's brother.

If I'm recalling correctly and I might not be, it was an early electronic ignition - as in no points - and though I got it working sometimes on some days, it beat my best efforts to get it 100%.

One night however, when I had it running really well, I was cruising a back dirt road in the neighborhood and one of my cousin's buddies who all rode CB 750 Hondas came up and we agreed to a quick run from about 30mph just for fun. For sure that 500 triple 2 stroke took it out easily on the short roll out, but I want to say the CB 750 likely had more top end speed?

Oh, I hit a crow on that bike too one day. Don't recommend that activity whatsoever, no sir, not at all...

Thanks for the memories and all the best.

Dwayne

PS;
Drive BC shows the highway is still open with one lane, pilot car control at the wash out.

My relatives further south in British Columbia have always referred to the highway authorities as, "The Ministry of Holidays". There may be a message in that bit of wit.

Thanks for your memories Dwayne long time back for me. In 1972 Kawasaki made 2 versions both featuring orange paint and tank stripes but one version had drum frt brake chrome fenders and electronic ignition. I had the other with painted fenders ,disc frt brake and a 3 points and 3 coil ignition system. They were explosively fast , mine would just about hit top end at the quarter mile. Danged near learned the hard way that if you wanted to hammer it off the line or a low speed crank on your balls better be up on the back end of the tank to keep the frt end down instead a reaching for the sky. You know it's a miracle I survived that bike and riding it as hard as I did. Quit riding bikes at 25 so I could make it to 40. Still miss it though, it was a mechanically addictive drug..mb

flintlocke;
Good afternoon sir, I hope the day's behaving for you and you're well.

If you're okay sharing, what part of BC is your family from?

For sure in the south Okanagan here it's been called the "Department or Ministry of Holidays" since we moved here.

It used to be that the Ministry did all the road maintenance, but then in 1988 then Premier Bill Vander Zalm privatized that portion of it which changed a few things up. That said, depending upon the winter I'm not sure that we're getting the best job from the lowest bidder always, you know?

Sort of like when folks throw around that "military spec" term when really it does mean that they were the lowest bidder to just make the requirements - but I digress...

As far as highway repairs go, it'll be contracted out and if it's a major highway blocked, BC governments of all political stripes usually throw everything including the kitchen sink AND the dishwashing machine at repairing it. Sort of like fighting wildfires that way - the residents seem to have a pretty high tolerance for silly spending when it means that our towns don't burn down or that we can keep eating.

Funny how that works isn't it?

Nowadays with the labor shortages we're seeing in all industries it'll depend on how many companies have the manpower to do it, but the Ministry in all probability will throw as much money at as many contractors as required to get it open.

All the best.

Dwayne

Truly one of the most kind and considerate people on the Fire... you should teach manners classes to some of the others. Thanks for being "you"

Magnum Bob;
Thanks again for the reply.

My goodness do I hear what you're saying about it's a miracle we're still here. That's absolutely true in my case as well.

When I was 15 I was in a significant wreck that very nearly caused me to cross over, so when I got out of the 7 week stay in the hospital with a body cast on, I promised my family I'd endeavor to do better and sold my snowmobile. I'd sold my last bike to finance my first car, so I didn't have one of them at that time.

Then this Kawasaki came along and I rationalized that it wasn't a dirt bike and hey, since I didn't have a bike license I wouldn't take it on too many well traveled roads, right?

I remember the orange Kawasaki bikes from that time period, in fact my then girlfriend's oldest brother had an orange Kawasaki 900 which again now that I think of it was likely why the middle brother got the one I was fooling with. It was a dark green maybe? With a different tone on part of the tank??

Can't recall all the details now through the fog of years, but I suppose it was a couple days/decades back.

After I hit the crow - one out of a flock on the road that I was "sure" would get out of the way in time, but again I was incorrect - anyways after the crow incident I slowed down a fair bit on that bike and returned it to the owner in defeat a few weeks later.

Thanks once more for dredging up some recollections of a time that's long passed and like as not never to be seen again.

All the best.

Dwayne

Sasha and Abby;
Good afternoon to you down in South Carolina sir, I hope that the day's been as kind to you as you've been to me and that you're well.

Thanks for your kind words, I do appreciate them and will do my utmost to deserve them in future posts.

All the best and thanks again.

Dwayne

I think it was mentioned above, that it was caused by a beaver dam washing out.

6-8 weeks for repair.


https://www.alaskasnewssource.com/2022/07/04/part-alcan-highway-destroyed-after-road-washes-out/

ironbender;
Thanks for the link and good afternoon my old friend, I hope you and your family are well.

While a lot of people think that beavers are cute and cuddly, they create a whole lot of mayhem all over Canada with their proclivity for altering water courses and flow rates.

Personally I believe they're bitter and vengeful seeing as the country was founded on killing them for their fur.

It's their version of repatriation payments....

Yah, that's it.

All the best.

Dwayne

I love looking at a cute beaver!

We’re finally getting a little much-needed rain. It remains to be seen if it’s not too little, too late for this years hay.

Hope y’all are well Dwayne.

ironbender;
Good afternoon to you sir, I hope you're still getting some of this rain that's hitting here in Whitehorse.

It seems our wet Okanagan spring weather followed us all the way up the Cassiar Highway and if that's the case - you're welcome...

We talked to a chap today from Fort St. John who came up the Alaska Highway and said that it's open now - still with the pilot car but semi's are making it through so RV trailers are no big deal.

We're hoping to head home that way just to see some different country. The last time I'd been up the Cassiar was '87 and it was like a decent logging road back home, but now it's all hard surfaced.

All the best.

Dwayne