2019 Alaska Trip - Day 2 - Safe & Sound With Friends

Well, we survived the winds and snow and cold in our makeshift campsite in front of a gas station. Actually, I slept pretty well considering I slept in my clothes anticipating an early morning "Get your butts up and move" wake-up call.

The call didn't come, but we got up early on our own as we wanted to assess the situation, and see how the roads were. We noticed a few cars moving at a pretty good clip out on the highway, and we watched as a snow plow parked on the frontage road next to us. Thinking he might want to plow the gas station pavement, we kicked into gear.

Well, I bundled up and took pictures, ....

 

 

 

 

 

and then we kicked into gear. Fortunately, the snow had stopped, but the wind was still blowing and it was bitterly cold.

The first order of business was to unhitch the Jeep. We did this for two reasons. First, I was going to scout the roads with the Jeep before we took the motorhome out. Second, there was a large snow drift in front of the RV and we needed to back up to get around it.

I started disconnecting all the cables and the tow bar. We use locking pins to connect the tabs/pegs on the Jeep baseplate to the tow bar, and the locks were frozen. Linda brought out a cup of warm water, and I poured it over the locks. That did the trick. My key went into the locks and I was able to get the locks off the pins and remove the pins.

With some observation, we determined that we would be okay to go out on the road, but I was still going to lead with the Jeep as our biggest concern was that 7% downhill grade going into Cochrane. But first, since we were there and they let us spend the night, we decided to top off the gas in the motorhome.

By the way, the $1.19 on the sign is per liter and is in Canadian dollars. There are about 3.8 liters in a gallon, so that comes out to about $4.50 per gallon Canadian. But, the Canadian dollar is currently worth about 75% of the U.S. dollar, so when it shows up on our credit card statement, it will be about $3.40 per gallon U.S. Actually, that's not bad considering we paid more than that last summer on the west coast of the U.S., and I have budgeted up to $5/gallon while in Canada.

Back to the story. I guided Linda as she backed up and pulled into the pumps. But there was another big snow drift in front of her, so after fueling, I backed her all the way up and helped her get turned around. We left around 7:00 a.m., and we used our walkie-talkies to communicate.

The frontage road was icy and crunchy, but we made it to the access road back to Hwy 1A. Turning onto the highway, the road wasn't quite as good as I'd hoped, but one lane in each direction had been salted, and it was much better than last night.

There was little traffic on this Sunday morning, so we just took our time and felt pretty safe. At the dreaded hill, it looked like more salt had been used, and we felt comfortable going down. It actually seemed steeper than 7% and there were a few curves in the road that made us very, very thankful that we didn't attempt to go down it last night.

We made it safely to the bottom and turned into the little town of Cochrane where the roads were decent enough. We slowly drove the last two miles to Bow Riversedge Campground, and pulled in on the icy driveway. It was about 7:30 and the office didn't open until 9:00, but our map was still taped to the door, so I grabbed it and figured out where our site was. 

The campground roads weren't great, but they were driveable, so Linda followed me. Our pull-through site, Site 80, was covered in a few inches of fresh snow, so I used the Jeep to plow through it. Then I backed up and pulled forward several times to make a wider set of tracks for the motorhome.

Linda pulled in and put the jacks down, and I plugged into the electrical pedestal. It felt good to be in a campsite with electricity.

 

 

 

  

This campground leaves the water on, but our water spigot was frozen. And there is a sewer connection, but I had no idea where it was. It didn't matter though, as we're only going to be here a couple of nights, and due to predicted temperatures in the teens again tonight, I  wasn't going to hook up the water anyway.

We have pretty good Wi-Fi here, so we connected and fell into our usual morning routine feeling much relieved.

Now, the main reason we came to this particular campground was to meet up with our friends Steve & Esther. Though they now live in Ontario, they lived in Calgary for 35 years and they have family here. They are in their Class C motorhome which is a bit smaller than ours.

In recent discussions to meet up with them, they began thinking about their summer. And less than two weeks ago, they asked if we minded if they joined us on our Alaska trip. Now, there aren't many people we would be comfortable traveling with for an extended time, but we spent six weeks with them in Costa Rica a few years back. So, we were happy to have them join us.

I had emailed them our proposed itinerary which has a lot of flexibility, but which also includes several reservations that were necessary. I explained what we were doing and why I made the reservations I did, including the ferry and the multiple stops in the Inside Passage. I was thinking they might just meet us on the Alaska Highway, but they decided to see if they could join us on the ferry leaving from Prince Rupert, BC. Sure enough, Esther was able to get the exact same reservations on the ferry system. The shorter length of their motorhome helped.

They will be taking leave from our itinerary after we finish the Inside Passage to take care of some personal matters and do a side trip, but after that three weeks they'll hook up with us again.

So, we came here to meet up and discuss plans as they finished up with family visits in the area. And with last night's blizzard, we decided to give it an extra day to let the road conditions improve. Therefore, we're going to be here two nights and then begin the adventure on April 30 hoping to drive up the Icefields Parkway on Hwy 1 and connect to Hwy 16 heading west to Prince Rupert where we board the ferry on May 10.

 

Now, when we arrived early this morning they were gone. They had a family function last night and decided to stay with their son rather than take chances driving back on the treacherous roads.

After 9:00, I walked up to the office to pay for our two nights. They were gracious and didn't charge us for last night. This is a very nice RV park along the Bow River, and there is a good walking path along the water. But we'll wait for it to warm up a bit to do that - we're not as hardy as some of the Canadians walking around here in shorts this morning.

Steve & Esther arrived a little later, noting that there were at least 40 cars off in ditches from last night's storm. We spent the rest of the morning getting caught up as we hadn't seen them in two years.

The sun was shining, and though it was cold, the snow started melting rapidly. It warmed up, and by the end of the day it was pretty amazing to see how much snow was gone.

After the four of us had lunch together, Linda & I took a much needed, short, but effective, nap. Then we all got together again to chat about our trip.

 

So, once we arrived here this morning, we had a great day, and we're all looking forward to heading out on Tuesday. Steve & Esther are doing their last-minute preparations tomorrow, and it looks like we won't have any more weather worries in the near future. 

Well, that's Day 2 in the books. Even spending a couple nights here, we're ahead of schedule, and we'll have eleven days to make the 923-mile journey to Prince Rupert. Stay tuned.

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Comments

[Bill and Nancy]

OK you two....that's enough excitement!!! So glad you and the vehicles are OK!!! Wishing sunny skies and warmer weather!!!

Safe Travels and Happy Trails....

[JB]

Don't worry you will find that $5.00 gas before you leave the country this fall, safe travels and those folks in shorts well that is just proof that Canada as well has crazy folk.

[Patricia Musso]

Wow! What an adventure, so unlike your usual travels. Great read. I think this is just setting the tone for this summer's adventures. Gonna be a blast!

[Al & Sharon]

So glad you are safe. You definitely made good decisions to not go down the steep hill in the snow.
As one who crossed into Canada on April 27th, 2016, I have been an advocate to ignore (with caution) the naysayers who urge no one to cross into Canada before late May. I need to add the caution that if you are going to cross in very late April or early May. They may want to cross in western WA/BC instead of Montana/Alberta.

[Colibabas]

Good advice from Al and Sharon. It’s 21C/70F today in Victoria, BC! Glad you guys made it safely to your site. Safe travels!

[Tracy Perkins]

How nice that you have travel buddies and really glad your safe!

[Tom]

Getting stranded at Timmy’s isn’t necessarily a bad thing unless they run out of Iced Cappuccinos!