Welcome to Alaska!

Today we drove to from Kluane to Tok (Pronounced 'Toke'), Alaska.

The drive was slow. Within Kluane, we had to wait an hour as the construction crew was widening the road around Kluane Lake. The road that followed was a veritable roller coaster, by far the worst we'd encountered on our travels so far. We had much excitement swerving into the other lane to avoid massive frost heaves. Apparently this was one of the most difficult sections of the Alaska Highway to build (more difficult than through the mountains). The act of constructing the road would disturb the delicate frozen state of the permafrost, which would then start to melt and become a bog. Construction equipment such as bulldozers were apparently swallowed whole during the construction process.

The border itself is at the 141 meridian, and although there is no actual dotted line, the perfectly straight slash through the forest comes quite close. As we were crossing the border, I pondered the irony of the fact the first town after the US border is named 'Toke'. I also pondered the irony that Bear Bangers are considered firearms by US customs. In a country were you can buy a semi-automatic weapon at the corner store, it seemed oddly incongruous. Fireworks maybe, but not firearms. It almost seems they would prefer you shoot the bear, rather than scare it off.