Jason Lancaster

Well, it has been an interesting few days…. Where to begin?

We have not had mobile internet for some time, but now that we are back in BC it has returned… Some updates are definately in order!! The past couple days has been a real adventure. After staying in Edmonton we did not stop again until we reached Ft. Nelson in BC. We stayed at some generic motel called the Ft. Nelson Motor Inn. The next day we drove all the way until we reached Whitehorse, YT (Yukon). Departing Whitehorse, we pushed onward to the Alaska border. This is where things got interesting… We pulled off on a side road called ‘Craig River Trail’ and to make a long story short, ended up getting ourselves stuck (The full story will be posted when we return!) after a 6 hour digging session with the help of a local Alaskan named Mark, the van was free to roam the country again! The removing of the van entailed digging and being pulled by Mark’s 1989 Dodge pickup with chains (33+ inch tires, a real beast). Not to frown upon the van though, the only reason it was stuck was due to the fact that the snow was higher than its ground clearance (We took pictures of the whole thing, so you can see all the action!) This was something that neither us nor Mark ever dreamed was in our future.

Finally back on the road, completely drained both mentally and physically from the incident, we checked into Kelly’s Alaska Country Inn (Delta Junction, Alaska. 38 Miles up the Al-Can from the Craig River Trail adventure). This was BY FAR the nicest room we had stayed in thus far, we slept very well. The town of Delta Junction was very friendly, the locals were eager to chat with us and offer their advice/comments on the trip. Before we checked into the room we filled up with gas and met a local named Andrew. He was a cool guy and chatted with us a bit about the hunting/game situation in the area. I had no idea there was a issue in the community about rules regarding hunting of certain game etc. It also gave me a chance to hear/understand the towns opinion about it. In particular the owner of the inn and her sister were extremely kind and provided us with alot of good information on the conditions that were to come. Her son owned the Texaco next door and we met him as well. We stopped into that Texaco in the morning before we left to have a coffee. When we pulled up the parking lot was fairly full and there were alot of people inside. When we entered the Texaco, we were greeted by all and to our suprise knew most of the people there already from the night before. This really gave me the feeling like we were part of the their community, atleast in a small way. It was a nice feeling and raised our spirits a bit before we set off for Fairbanks.

Reaching Fairbanks, we stopped at the gas station refueled and filled the reserve tank we braught. Strapping the reserve tank to the roof, we were north bound for the Dalton. The Dalton highway is an extremely difficult road to drive on, full of big rigs, narrow bridges, and ice. While on the Dalton we passed through the Artic circle, this was truely an amazing expirence and gave us a real sense of accomplishment. We ended up deciding that Cold Foot, Alaska would be the final destination. This is around 200 miles south of Prudhoe Bay, but without a previously obtained permit we could not go to Prudhoe. We expireneced temperatures around -31F degrees *burr* !!! All I can say is, DAMN IT WAS COLD

We are on the return journey now, and have decided to take a slightly different route home which will bring us through Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, and Iowa. We are expecting some great scenery on the altered route!

The van has become so dirty on the outside you can hardly see through the backwindow! Thats OK though because with all the mud, salt, and dirty snow comes a sense of accomplishment. Not to mention it looks pretty hardcore! From this point forward we should have little if ANY interruption in mobile internet service, so stay tuned!