Kluane Lake to Fairbanks—June 10, 11, 12

These last three days have been primarily taken up with driving or weather, so I have decided to combine them into one blog. 

The drive from Kluane Lake to Tok required some slow driving due to the many frost heaves that I encountered as well as the more than 30 miles of gravel roads and highway construction.  For the un-initiated a frost heave is cause by the freezing of water below the road surface forcing the pavement up.  When driving over frost heaves think of a boat going over waves which is what it is like.  This makes for a very undulating ride and cause one to slow down, especially when you have a 27-foot trailer behind.  At any rate, it does affect the speed at which you can drive.  Then you encounter long stretches of gravel road where they are working to repair the frost heaves and make the road more suitable for driving.  This work must be done in the late spring, summer and early fall before the weather changes to winter up here.  One thing I did note as different from my first drive to Alaska in 1998 is that there was much more pavement and much less gravel road.  On the earlier trip one had to wash their car and trailer at each stop along the way to remove the heavy mud which had accumulated.  This trip I have only washed my vehicles once, in Whitehorse before we headed north on the 10^th. 

Just beyond Beaver Creek (the last Canadian town) I encountered a nice roadside lake that had two Trumpeter Swans close enough to get a good picture (see pic on my Facebook page).  Then shortly afterward there was another pond with Pacific Loons and several duck species.  I hoped to camp at the Tetlin NWR before getting to Tok but upon checking the sites out I determined it was much too difficult to get my rig into either one, so I headed on to Tok River SP just short of Tok.  There I found a nice campsite and set up there for two days.  By the time I arrived it was late in the day and I needed to go to town and get fuel.

On the 11^th I headed north to do some birding, checking some of the locations noted in George West A Birders Guide to Alaska.  The first stop was Tanana River Road where there is a small airfield.  The book suggested that I might find Upland Sandpipers there, but I did not.  I did find a small pond farther along the road that held several duck species, Rusty Blackbird, Common Goldeneye, and a bird that was calling that I could never figure out.  My final stop that day was at Moon Lake SP north of Tok.  There, as I entered, I encountered a black bear which did not give me the opportunity to get a picture of him .  I went on into the campground and warned those camped there that a black bear was in the neighborhood.  They were very appreciative.  From here I headed back to camp.  By noon the rain had set in and it rained all afternoon and until the very early hours of the 12^th.  Rain in Alaska is usually just a few drops falling wide apart, but this was a slow and steady rain I have rarely encountered here.  So in the afternoon I worked on photos.

Then today (the 12^th) I woke up at five and while having coffee was going to do this blog, but for some strange reason my MS 365 was not operable.  So I spent the next 2 ½ hours with a MS technician getting that fixed.  By now it was near 9:30 and I started getting ready for departure.  Actually the sun was coming out when I left but not far up the road it began to rain on me again.  It rained on me all the way to Fairbanks and while I set up camp as well.  I asked the camp host if they knew any place in Alaska that needed rain and if so they could contract me to come there because the rain has followed me 15 of the 20 days since I crossed into Canada.  Tomorrow I will bird the Fairbanks area, an area I have only been in once in my 18 trips to Alaska.  Should be interesting.