Rough Road

Robert, Thursday, September 4

We drove to Destruction Bay today. The road was generally bad. We had driven this part of the road on the way to Alaska so it was no surprise. Actually, the road was not as bad as I remembered. Either that or we have become “hardened” to lousy roads or maybe they improved the road while we were in Alaska. From Tok to the border it was OK. From the border to Destruction Bay was the worse. The road has numerous frost heaves, short gravel stretches, and just rough pavement. We had wanted to go a little further to a campground where we stayed on the way to Alaska but after repeated attempts to call them we decided they had probably closed. From the border to Destruction Bay, the campgrounds we passed were all closed. I guess, after September 1 the season is over. Actually, some of the campgrounds were closed when we went north and they looked like they had been closed for years. Crossing the border was a breeze. They asked 4-5 questions about things like tobacco, firearms, and alcohol and waved us through. When we got to Destruction Bay, the campground was a parking lot but there were only three rigs in a campground that could hold fifty so it was no big deal. We just wanted an electric hookup for the freezer. It is interesting that this part of the Alaska Highway is notorious for being so poor. Years ago the US gave something like $200 million to Canada to fix it as 80% of the traffic is US citizens driving to and from Alaska. They are still working on road construction. They are places where they have pilot cars to lead traffic one-way through the middle of bulldozers and road graders working on the road. Once we got to the campground, we ate dinner and crashed.