The 98 Alcan "Virtual
Route"
A day-by-day description of the 1998
Alcan
5000 itinerary
Participants will have already arrived and finished preparing their
vehicle for the trip. The afternoon might
be filled with some last minute shopping in Seattle,
The Emerald City, a quick lunch nearby at Redhook
or Cafe Veloce, or a cruise
past Bill Gates House, Lake Washington's most popular
construction
site. Teams will gather at 8pm at Bothell's Wyndham Garden Hotel for
a
reception and final registration details.
-
Saturday August 29 (Day #1)
From Wyndham Garden, the rally will start north on Interstate 405.
Soon leaving the Interstate behind, rallyists will wind their way
through
the Cascade mountain foothills before crossing into British
Columbia, Canada,
near Abbotsford.
Joining Canadian Highway 1, the route winds north through the
rugged
Frasier River Canyon. At Cache Creek the rally finally joins
Highway 97
North and the rolling prairie of BC's Cariboo Country. One final
TSD out
of Williams Lake, and as evening falls we enter Quesnel
. This first day has covered 540 miles in about 12 hours.
-
Sunday August 30 (Day #2)
Departing Quesnel, we take an alternate route on the Old Prince
George
Highway for another TSD section, then rejoin Highway 97 North. Time
for
a quick burger and gas in Prince
George, then we push on quickly while checking the Central
Interior of British Columbia Weather Forecast. From
Prince George
the route turns west on the Yellowhead Highway, turning off at
Hazelton
for a late afternoon tour of 'Ksan
Historical Village. This area of BC is the "totem pole
capital
of the world", and 'Ksan features a carving shed with native
artisans at
work.
From here we start a long TSD on forest roads, then join Highway
37
north. At Meziadin Junction we head west again to the twin
costal
towns of Stewart, BC and Hyder, Alaska. Hyder has a
population of
100, and the title of the "Friendliest Little Ghost Town in
Alaska".
The dinner menu features halibut, the local drink is Alaskan
Amber, and
all transaction are in Canadian currency since the only bank is in
Stewart.
-
Monday August 31 (Day #3)
We depart Hyder via a TSD that ends with a great photo opportunity
at Bear
Glacier. From there the route returns south and west to Prince
Rupert, BC. We'll arrive by early afternoon with
plenty of
time for shopping and dinner before departing at 9pm on the Alaska
Marine Highway System ferry M/V Matanuska.
-
Tuesday September 1 (Day #4)
This day will be spent on the 408 foot M/V
Matanuska, with stops in Ketchikan, Wrangell,
Petersburg, Juneau,
and Haines.
-
Wednesday September 2 (Day #5)
We depart the ferry at 7am in Skawway, Alaska. The stores here
cater
to the cruise ship and ferry schedules, so we'll have time for
shopping
or breakfast before departing town with a TSD near the old Chilkoot
Trail.
After this, a stop for lunch and sightseeing or shopping (Yukon
Artist Jim Robb) in Whitehorse before a final TSD for
the day
and 300 miles north to Dawson City. After checking in at the
Eldorado
Hotel, we finish planning activities for an "off" day here.
-
Thursday September 3 (Day #6)
A day of optional activities in the northern Yukon! Some
possibilities
are:
-
Arctic
Circle
round trip via the Dempster Highway
-
Goldfield TSD & tour.
-
Other local attractions. Visit Midnight Dome,
the sternwheeler
graveyard, the Gaslight follies, Diamond-Tooth Gertie's
gambling hall,
etc.
-
An 11-hour round trip on the Yukon River to Eagle,
Alaska via a 45' jet boat. (One can also
combine a 1-way
jet boat to Eagle with a 30 minute return by air charter..).
-
Friday September 4 (Day #7)
This will be the first of 2 fairly long days. Today we'll drive from
Dawson
City to Watson Lake with a brief stop for lunch in Whitehorse.
-
Saturday September 5 (Day #8)
A 600+ mile driving day from Watson Lake through the highest and
most rugged
part of the Alaska Highway, past Summit Lake, Muncho Lake and the
Liard
River. The day ends with a long after-dinner TSD out of Fort
Saint
John through the Kansas-like rolling hills of the Peace
River Region. A photo stop in Dawson Creek at the Alaska
Highway "Mile
0" marker, and we head for our hotel with some lasting impressions
of this
northern farmland Scenes
from
the Peace Region.
-
Sunday September 6 (Day #9)
An early
start from Dawson Creek, heading south to Jasper. The
highlight of
this trip is the new Bighorn Highway, a new paved route through some
great
scenic, remote, and empty country (the 1987 Alcan made it's way
northbound
here through 150 miles of mud and gravel).
The event will finish at the beautiful Chateau
Jasper about 2pm local time, with an afternoon to catch some
local
shopping and sights before the 8pm awards banquet.