Saturday 12th April, Sutton, Alaska.

We arrived. Reflections on the whole trip to come later: here's day five.

Last night, we miscalculated rather: it was light until maybe 10pm, but we stopped quite early at Destruction Bay. This morning, the sunrise wasn't due until 6.45am. We set off around 6.30am - dawn was certainly happening, but it was snowing lightly!

How different the road looked in snow. It was just a light dusting, and the ground was cold enough that it was not particularly slippery. But it did make the carriageway (pavement, in American) look quite different, and a little disconcerting to an Englishman no longer used to seeing snowy roads. We made fair progress over it, slipping slightly only once.

We did encounter a bridge construction project, with a severely rough road. It shook the whole vehicle quite a bit - we feared for the picture frames riding in the back, but in the end they don't seem to have fared too badly. Even where the road wasn't being re-made, it needed it. There were jumps and holes and "frost-heaves" galore.
Some were marked with an orange flag; most were not. Some even gave rise to a "rough road" symbol, though those weren't necessarily the bad ones. The snow on the road made it harder to judge the worst of the holes.

The snow kept falling as we reached the Alaskan border. The US border guard didn't seem particularly happy to see us, but sent us on our way quickly enough, with only a handful of questions. It must be a lonely job up there, especially at this time of year: we saw probably just a couple of vehicles per hour actually on the highway
that crossed the border.

On the whole, the roads were much improved when we reached Alaska. The snow kept falling until we turned off the Alaska Highway onto the Glenn Highway - the road to Anchorage. Gradually, the cloud lifted, and as we drove the last 100 or so miles to sutton, the sun came out. The views on that last leg are as impressive as anything we'd seen, with a mighty glacier filling the valley below us.

A warm welcome awaited us at the camp, with about six or so pairs of hands helping us to unload the trailer really quickly. The house is now full of boxes. Some are even in the right rooms.

Two very tired travellers will sleep soundly tonight, I think.


Statistics

Miles covered today: 446

Fuel purchased: 46.25 gal, at a cost of $200.

Listening

The Arctic Monkeys, various compilations, Fat and Frantic