Sunday, 8/6 – Tok, AK to Haines Junction, YT

The mosquitoes at the campground were voracious, so we decided to pack up and go to Fast Eddy’s for breakfast. I ate here a couple of times in 2016. The food was good, but Fast Eddy was pretty slow. Nevertheless, we finished as Lynne and Mike pulled into the parking lot to join us for the day’s grueling journey.

This stretch is the worst part of the Alaska Highway. I dubbed it , “Destruction Road” in an earlier post. Riding it again was no easier than the first time. It takes a lot out of you mentally and physically.

At our rest stop we opened the camper to get some Gorilla Tape to shim the clutch and mirror bracket on Beth’s bike. It was shaking pretty badly and the screws were as tight as they could go. The tape worked as well as we’d hoped.

We used the camper floor as our picnic table.

The border crossing went easily with no issues.

Took a break at our gas stop in Destruction Bay. Beth and I had coffee and a piece of carrot cake to celebrate successfully completing our second passage of the Destruction Road.

We rode the final weary miles to Haines Junction and registered for campsites. Just when we thought an RV Park couldn’t be more mediocre than the Klaune RV Park in Haines Junction, the Fas Gas RV Park in Haines Junction is was even more mediocre. The sites were packed together, the hookups were on the wrong side, and the “grassy area” was weeds. Also, there were no picnic tables, so we improvised.

This site made it clear how much our setup/take-down processes rely on a picnic table to hold stuff and keep it clean while we unpack and pack and cooking. Mind you, we weren’t helpless – we made it all work.

Our heater has been temperamental. It runs for a bit then shuts off. I watched a video on YouTube showing how to clean the pilot light tube with a cotton swab. Well, I tried it and made it worse. I had no choice but to take it apart and see what the problem was. It turns out I left a wad of cotton in the tube. I removed the offending swab, put the heater back together, and tested it. It works!