June 19 we are in Alaska!

Today was another long ride—328 miles over the worse roads so far! Without stopping except for fuel or for road construction the trip took over 9 hours. The roads from Haines Junction, where we spent the last two days to the Alaskan border are the responsibility of the US Government under an agreement with the Yukon Territory since over 85% of the traffic is American. The problem is that for about 130 miles, there is glacial soil along the road which is unsuitable for road embankments. The permafrost melt causes the ice rich soil to liquefy and then it refreezes and expands or heaves which “wreaks havoc on the drivability of the road surface.” True statement!

The image below shows a research project which is testing a construction technique that minimizes melting of the permafrost by allowing cold air to penetrate the road embankment –for several miles there are these poles with pipe going under the road surface. Well, to resolve this problem, we are heading north on the way back over the Top of the World Road to Dawson, Yukon Territory and we’ll miss the permafrost problem.

Fun things today—seeing two cars from Kentucky with their homemade trailers…1930 and 1931 Fords.

Catching Destruction Bay’s plywood police car greeting visitors entering their city, population 54! Didn’t get an image.  John spotted another grizzly, both mom and cub.

I spotted this moose in the wetlands.

 

We’ll be here in Tok, Alaska for two days and then head north.