Alaska 45 & 46. Road Warriors August 23 & 24

August 23

We took a quick little hike around the lake where we were camped at, loaded up some firewood to take with us and hit the road. 

It was a long, boring drive day. On this leg we had to do some backtracking, having driven a few hours on this stretch on the way up. Dave even got bored enough to turn the wheel over to me. Remember Agreement #1? The one where we don’t speed so that we can get better gas mileage? That is flippin’ OUT THE WINDOW. We (and by “we” I mean “I”) don’t care anymore. To be clear, we aren’t speeding much over the limit. The limit is just high enough that we go from getting acceptable gas mileage (14-15 mpg) to unacceptable (under 13). 

Again, we no longer care — other than to watch it go down and comment on it every time we lose another tenth of a mile. WHATever.

When we calculated sort of where we would get to today (generally 500 miles or 7-8 hours of driving) we landed on Liard Hot Springs Campground. I know, I KNOW — who CARES! Hot springs are overrated!! But it was something to shoot for. Plus, a woman I met at the Chena Hot Springs told me that they had stayed at the Liard Hot Springs Campground and it was (WAY) better than Chena. Our bar has already fallen so low that we figured, “Why not?” And “How bad can it be?”

I was driving as we neared Liard Campground (we were also driving along the beautiful pale blue Liard River) when Dave said “Stop! Turn around!”. I kept driving. Because, I mean… really? But he really DID mean it. He saw what looked like a sweet spot to possibly disperse camp down by the river. So I pulled a U-ey and drove off the road to investigate. It was pretty nice, but we couldn’t get all the way to the river like he thought, so we would be exposed to anyone passing on the highway. Not usually a big deal, but we had no cell service, had no idea if we were on private land, or what the rules for dispersed camping were here.

So we continued a couple miles more to the back-up campground I had identified but it was closed with a gate across the road. Bummer. So we kept going to the hot springs campground. We pulled in behind a line of 5 campers ahead of us. Rangers in full mountie gear were standing behind an 8 foot tall electrified fence checking people in. To keep wildlife out? No idea. The place was CUCKOO! It was also full, obviously, and they were directing people to the overflow camping (a parking lot) across the street. We spun another U-ey and headed back to the dispersed site we had just rejected because we weren’t comfortable with it.

We set up, made a fire, made steaks and potatoes and enjoyed the solitude, laughing about how we started the trip with me researching how to disperse camp in Canada until my fingers bled. Never getting a clear answer and being too scared to take a chance. Now? After Alaska? No problem! There’s tire marks in the grass? That’s enough for us! Just a funny observation that we didn’t realize until we were sitting there eating.

We kept hearing a strange squawking from the trees and concluded it must be a crow, but as Dave started the dishes, the sound moved right behind me. I turned around and there was a HUGE owl in the branches above, checking us out. It was surreal. We just stood still and stared at each other. Eventually, it squawked one more time at us and noiselessly flew away. 

The only thing we were really worried about at this site was the campfire. We’ve been living in a rainforest for the past month and so had forgotten all about potential fire restrictions. A legitimate concern. So we finished cleaning up and put the fire out, brushed our toofers as we walked along the river…

And went to bed!

—– Later that night —–

Dave woke me up some time in the middle of the night. I had no idea what was going on but I was up and out of the camper in a matter of seconds — just like when he thought he heard a bear. (I didn’t know this about myself. But I like it! I’m a quick responder when asleep. Who knew?)

Happily, It wasn’t the police. And it wasn’t a bear.

It was the NORTHERN LIGHTS!! How exciting and amazing! I had hoped we might see them in Alaska, but the rain and clouds foiled any chances we had, so this was a cherry on the top surprise.

August 24

We packed up and hit the road for another long, boring drive day

The highlight was a stop in Jake’s Corner (a town) at the Cinnamon Roll place (can’t remember the name and my photo only shows ___Outfitters…. There were three semis parked on the highway because they didn’t really fit in the parking lot. We took that to mean that this place was legit. 

We also bought an egg salad sandwich for lunch and some salami. We like salami, even though we have read that it’s almost death itself.

I figure we’ve had a good life, so why not enjoy some salami.

Oh! And we also finally saw some Caribou. Cue the bad wildlife shot:

Our goal this day was Grande Prairie and Dave gave me the wheel again when he hit his “sleepy time.”

He gets real crabby doing the necessary route and camping research from the passenger seat, so he took back the wheel after waking up and promptly started ordering me around again. I was getting real crabby too, as options for camping the nearer we came to Grande Prairie were looking like slim to none — at least as far as ACCEPTABLE campgrounds. There was a KOA…. and we were actually thinking we might have to do that. 

Neither of us realized how big Grande Prairie was as far as urban sprawl — I think from as far away as Calgary. Doesn’t make for easy camping. It makes for URBAN camping.

So that’s what we did. We didn’t go to the KOA.

Hello Grande Prairie Rotary RV Park!

We found a spot, unhitched and left. Went looking for pizza and ended up at an Indian joint that was AH-mazing. 

We timed it such that we didn’t even have to hang out at the RV park. We got back after dinner and went to bed.