Camp 1: gravel pits offer solace to thrifty campers!
Morning coffee: Ty experiments with the
Beautiful moth at Camp 1
We crossed over the border into Canada at about lunchtime (~300 miles from Fairbanks). The first 150 miles or so of the road in the Yukon Territory required skillful maneuvering among the constant fissures and potholes over a road whose waves of tarmac resembled more a tumultuous sea. All day we passed under the most impressive raincloud we’ve seen, providing continuous rain for six hundred miles!
The last couple of hundred miles of Alaska provided views of stunted black spruce, marshes, and the vast spruce burns that characterise the Alaskan interior. The next several hundred miles traverse broad subalpine valleys around 3000 ft in elevation. Stunning peaks and varicolored rivers keep the driver entertained. Near the continental divide, after Haines Junction, we saw former burn areas completely dominated by young Aspen trees. In some places we noticed remnants of fallen burnt trees intermixed with hundred-year-old Spruce and a subcanopy of Aspen all stunted to the same height. Those examples seemed to demonstrate perhaps at least one hundred years of post-fire succession in which each stage still remained—the burnt wood, the Aspens, and the Spruce—demonstrating the very slow turnover of the boreal forest.
Typical interior Black Spruce and Sphagnum bog.
A scenic pit stop at Haines Junction
A very rainy day
The car system is working excellently so far, despite being packed to the brim. We’ve hooked up my subwoofer bass and computer speakers using a power inverter plugged to the car’s cigarette lighter for some quality sound. We’ve created easy-access locations for everything including hanging stuff sacks from a rope tied between the ‘OS’ handles, and a ‘kitchen in a basin’ neatly stored in the back. When we want to cook in the rain, we prop up the hatch and tie the camping tarp from the roof rack to a tree and stake out the corners for a quick and dry cooking and dining area.
BC seems to have the annoying habit of barricading their gravel pits, so finding a campsite required an hour of searching on dwindling gas in the dark (the absence of 24hr light is a novel aspect that comes with heading south). We camped on a muddy wing of some dirt road heading to a designated hunting area—it all looks the same once you’re in the tent though.
No comments:
Post a Comment