Event Coverage North to alaska living the dream

Here are the rest of tonights pictures.

This is the train that was ahead of us heading up the hill.





This looking down from the trestle, it was truly frightening.





This one ain't being used anymore, Thank you Lord





Our train heading into the tunnell.





This is the white pass trail that some of the miners used to haul all of their gear up to the summit by hand or pack animal ( most of which died), the animals not the miners although many of them died also.





The White Pass Summitt, the US Canadian Border is marked by the Obelisk.





That's it for tonight, got a 10 hour drive to Prince George tomorrow and get to meet HAMBer,pg409 (Keith).


BB

 

As said many times already...THANK YOU for taking us along Bob!
Brett.

 

Bob, google up Jefferson Randolph "Soapy" Smith II. AKA Soapy Smith.

 

Bob and Maggie are broke down in Ft Nelson BC. See my threadhttp://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?p=9098119#post9098119

They need a place to work on the car.

 

BUMP to help Bob get back on the road!!!

 

Bump for Bob eh!

 

Hope you're making progress Bob. Looking forward to hearing the whole story when you get wrapped yup.

 

If you didn't read the other thread Bob has some help and will be online tonight. Thanks!

 

As some of you know from reading T-mans post

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=820166

we are currently broken down with a bad wheel bearing and are spending another night in Fort Nelson.

Let's see, when I went to bed last night the last picture I posted was of the Alaska Yukon border.

From there we started our return trip to Skagway.

That old trestle just facinates me. Sorry, nope I am not sorry.





Nice view of the rest of our train up front. That drop to my right is 1000 feet straight down.





Glaciers are some mighty powerfull things, they can grind down mountians.




Is this a duplicate? If so, who cares it is beautifull.





I'm thinking that these are the last of these type of pictures that we will see on this trip so here is one more of Clouds and Snow and Fog and Glaciers.





When we got off of the train we took a short 10 mile ride to the head of the other trail up to the headwaters of the Yukon river, this one is called the Chilkoot Trail and is was the most popular one and the one that has the famous picture of the long solid line of men climbing it in the deep snow. All that is there now is this lonley little sign. The completion of the railroad made this trail obselete.



This is the world famous that I just stole from wikiwhatever.






This is on the way out to the trailhead and it is for sale, you adventurers out there take note.





Before leaving Skagway, one last picture of the cruise ships in this deep water harbor.


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While on the train the tour guide mentioned that in order to prevent scurvy the men use to eat the tips off of the spruce trees but that tasted terrible so they made tea out of it. Than wan't much better so they then did the best thing of all and put it into some beer. Yeah Beer!!!!!

This is supposedly the original receipe and it is really good. Only available at the Skagway Brewing company, which BTW is a really good place to hang out while in town.





Don't that look delicious ????





They even have their own Harley Dealership.




Let's see if I posted too many pictures on this session.


BB

 

A few more from Skagway.

As we were driving around before dinner after coming from the chilkoot trailhead we spotted this guy driving ahead of us. We followde him home and talked for a bit, he says that they get so little rain there that he never puts the top up in the summer. (Which BTW will be on a Thursday this year.) That's a joke folk.





We had dinner at the Harbor House restaurant overlooking the Harbor appropiatley enough.





I don't think this is an old building but the town is full of this type of structure, kinda neat.





Parked on a side street at 0700, couldn't resist the shots.





Coolio with the mountians in the background.





The world famous single cantilever bridge, it won all kinds of awards many years ago when it was built.








It was really froggy at the white pass summit, what's new???





Not too much to see on the way from Skagway to Watson Lake but this looked interesting.





And it was not only interesting but beautifull as well.








Next stop, Watson Lake YT.

BB

 

Many of you may know about Watson Lake, the home of the Signpost Forest. It also has a neat welcome sign.





This explains what you are about to see.





This is only the front of the forest, it cover about 2 city blocks and is growing constantly.





We had to add our contribution to the mess, one for us and one for our buddy Mikey who made both the signs.





Stayed at a neat cabin and went north of town for dinner.





All american dinner in the Yukon territory. It was as good as it looks.





This was in the gift shop it reminds me of the Painting on the side of my hippie van, the world famous "MR MUSHROOM"







Gotta load some more from Watson Lake.


BB

 

The trip yesterday from Watson Lake to Fort Nelson was one of the prettiest long hauls so far plus we saw lots of wildlife. I saw 3 black bears but was only able to get pictures of this youngster after crossing the road in front of us.








We had 4 or so of these stops waiting for pilot cars, the longest was about 45 minutes so it wasn't too bad, got to talk to a bunch of nice folks while waiting though.




This young lady had driven all alone from Homer Ak in one session, she had it looked like everything she owned in her 94 Astro van and was going to Vancouver. We saw her sleeping later in the van at Laird River Hot Springs.




This guy was all alone just a walking on the shoulder of the road.





They have improved the hell out of this place since 1979








Underwater benches, what a cool idea. Well no, it's actually a HOT idea.





I wasn't about to change clothes to go in and neither was Maggie.








This is where it empties into a little stream that flows into the Laird river.





Folks from the Waukesha Wisconsin area who are senior citizens might recognize this picture as a take off of a beverage that was bottled there in the 40's through the 60's. I believe it was called White Rock. And yes I did get her permission to take the shot.





I sure hope the bear can read so that he stays on the other side of this fence.





2 big bulls just a chowing down, we saw at least 4 herds plus that lone one.







Is it on Canada that lakes with square corners???




A whole Fam Damily





More mountians and clouds but no Glaciers.




Too many pics again, I gotta learn to count.


BB

 

Here are the rest.


Guy with his Porsche and all his belongings going back to the lower 48





Somebody took a hunk out of this tree and with something large judging from the size of the tire in the 2nd picture.






I used to see a lot of these but not so much anymore, it seems that the motor homes we saw were really high end. Maybe the economy has something to do with that. Regular folks can't afford to go anymore, I know we had saved for 4 years to do this trip. Lots of folks on bikes also.




A small bunch of a herd of 50 or so critters.

To be continued.


BB

 

What are pilot cars and why do you have to wait for them?

 

Pilot cars are used many times in construction zones which have one lane only traffic. You don't go until the pilot cars leads you. That way they know there's no oncoming traffic

 

The last herd we saw before we hit Fort Nelson.





The Rocky Mountian Lodge at Lake Muncho, I thought the small float plane on the sign was cool. Got gas here, it is about half way to Fort Nelson from Watson Lake.





Love the contrast in colors on lake Muncho






This young caribou was trotting along aside the highway not paying any attention to us at all. He was all alone and had only one antler on the left side of his head.





I shot this of the Museum on the way into town last night. Didn't think that we would have the oppertunity to do it as we had planned to leave at 0 dark thirty in the morning. Little did we know what lay ahead for us in the morning.





Gotta load the pictures from today and will post later.

BB

 

Wow, what a great trip. Bob, thanks so much for posting these and taking us along. Great stuff! Hope your breakdown will prove to be not too much of a pain. Safe travels

 

So in this field just out side of Fort Nelson is this whole bunch of beaver or muskrat lodges, with no water around. Maggie says that maybe the subscribe to the line from " Field of Dreams" "Build it and they will come". Personally I think the woman is daft. Must be from hanging around with me for 40 years.







For those of you that didn't see my distress thread here is a brief synopsis. About 27k south of FN at 0615 this am we lost a right front wheel bearing.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=820166

While waiting for the roll back I checked the GPS and see that we have covered almost 8300 miles this trip, and we are still over 2000 miles from home.






The rollback finally arrives after a 2 hour wait.





Rob gets the ol girl aboard.





It don't look pretty but lets hope it's just a bearing.





Damn it looks horrible from this angle.





The spindle looks rough but the race surface is ok.





Anybody wanna buy a slightly used bearing race.





The good news is that the car will be ready at 9am tomorrow morning, hopefully Maggie can change her appointments to Friday and then we can continue being only one day behind.

Al is a gearhead as evidenced by his willingness to work on a Kustom on a Sunday and his Galaxie and his Mini.








So with having to spend the day in FN we now had a chance to visit the Museum and meet Marl.





The neat sculpture of a Stone Sheep in front of the place.





Remember the McGlaughlin from Bonanza Creek?? Well, Marl has a 1908 that he drove to Whitehorse over a 3 day period on it's 100th year.





Here is a close up of a grille shell emblem on a McGlaughlin hanging on the wall. It looks just like the one on the Phaethon up on Bonanza Creek.





I have lusted over one of these license plates for years and Marl has a bunch of them. Nope he didn't offer me one so I am still lusting.





A 1942 Harley to celebrate the 50th year of the Alaska Highway, evidently the 50th anniversary celebration was quite an event.





There was a song a million years ago called "The Surrey with the Fringe on Top". Not really a million but in the early years of the 20th century. This one still has the original side curtans.





How's that for an early 2 person chain saw.





Neat old oil can.






I'll be they tell me that I got too many photos posted.


BB

 

Well I'll be damned, I was under the gun this time.

This last batch will catch me totally up to date. Hell of a way to have it done though. Actually the days rest kinda felt good, we have been hitting it pretty hard for 5 weeks.


This is the front end of a 1908 Brush, it has an underslung suspension made of flat coil springs. It also has a wooden frame and a wooden front axle.





When the telephone company converted to modern equipment they just gave all of this neat old shit to Marl, he happily accepted.





Engine from a DC3 that obviously crashed, it again was donated to Marl.





What the hell kind of a truck is this???





Our loaner for the day courtsey of Al.




That is all there is Folks. For today that is.

A few observations.

The roads are much improved over 34 years, they have been straightned and widened and for the most part are smooth. Of course in this part of the world frost heaves can work havoc and there are plenty of them. The Yukon has them well marked and Alaska has fewer of them on the paved sections but the unpaved sections are full of potholes that are not found in the Yukon.

There is so little traffic that we were amazed, on the rural section we could sometimes travel for almost an half hour without seeing another vehicle.

Folks seem to ignore double lines and speed limitsl we generally drive 5 to 7 miles over the limit and were passed almost constantly by everyone including double bottom trucks in both countries.

With the exception of Denali and Glacier Bay we saw a lot more wildlife in Canada than in Alaska.

Alaska has become much more urbanized than before ( surprise, surprise) many of the old roadhouses and tourist traps have been abandoned are that seems to me a shame. They make great pictures though.

Tomorrow we try again for Dawson Creek and Prince George if Maggie can get her appointments changed, if she can't we will go to plan B or maybe C.


BB

 

What the hell kind of a truck is this???




That would be a REO, Bob.

 

I think The REO was called a 'Speed Wagon", ain't sure.
Davo.

 

Happy to hear things are working out. We are in Quesnel tonight about an hour south of Prince George BC. We will be heading back to Dawson Creek tomorrow. Not sure when we will be on the road but I will keep an eye out for you.
Sean


Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!

 

Glad your back on the road Bob

 

Glad to hear Al hooked you guys up.I'm sorry I missed you two.Have a safe enjoyable trip back home.

 

Yeah me too Eddie, that Saturday morning that we were gonna come to your work, we left Fairbanks at 0 dark thirty to get too Circle and back in the same day. We sure are sorry that we missed you and missed those plates too.

BB

 

Sean:

We will try make DC and then overnight in Prince George tonight, then down towards Calgary and homeward bound on the queens highway on Wednsday.

BB

 

Good stuff, Bob !!! We are still game to meet for supper if you are........

 

Bob and Maggie, Just caught up on your trip. We had a swap meet and car show the last three days here in town. It's probably a good thing you took the back seat out. With all the Hamb kids that wanted to ride along. Some of us would probably would have been told. Don't make me stop this car! Thanks for the ride and updates. Your trip is dream for alot of us, Take care and be safe. Steve and Barb on HWY 2

 

Hi guy's, good to hear from you, you didn't sell my Studebaker Grille Pans did you? Or my inline manifold? Ha Ha. We won't be using Hwy 2 this time, we need to get home after almost 6 weeks on the road.


BB

 

I'll call you later Keith but from the looks of it we won't be there until about 9pm, a little late for supper, maybe a beer or twelve.

BB