We had a wonderful (and soggy) time in Valdez, but it was time to hit the road again and this time with three! Next destination: Whitehorse, Yukon! The picture sequence tells our story on the road, from ...
hitching with 3 and A LOT of stuff...good thing everyone in Alaska has a truck and/or trailer!
workin' the thumb to get out of Valdez
Two rides later we made it out of Valdez. Our first ride was from a young woman heading to work at the airport. It was only a few miles down the road but it got us to a much better hitching spot. It wasn't long before Lisa, our second ride showed up. Lisa had a sweet ride (the sportsmobile) that we were able to squish us and all our stuff in! Thanks to those two ladies for getting us out of Valdez.
Once out of Valdez we had a 3hour wait until our next ride...snoozin'
The moment we left Valdez we saw our first glimmer of sunshine!
We were picked up by a very knowledgeable and kind man called Chris who gave us the
lowdown on the building of the infamous 800 mile Alaskan pipeline. He took us as far as the Glenallen junction and then we were back in the waiting game.
The addition of our sign scored us our next fantastic ride with killer accomodations to boot! Thanks Melanie!
Hitch-hiking lesson learned: Never practice first aid scenarios on the side of the highway, especially if the scenario involves CPR. People will stop. Oops.
Short bus adventure with Don, the driver.
we serenaded Don all the way to Tok. Thanks for the ride Don!
The wait begins...
and continues...
The only ride we managed to get in Tok was half a mile down the road to our new friend, Chris' place. We accepted the hospitality under the condition that our fellow hitch hiker, Tomo, could join us.
Chris has created a successful business building beautiful wood stoves with recycled materials.
We headed out early, hopeful of making it all the way to Whitehorse, but...
We thought seeing these moose first thing in the morning was a good omen, little did we know...
we would continue to wait...
and wait...even our clever signs were passed by
We did make it 50 miles to Northway thanks to Kim, who thought we were crazy for traveling in bear country with no gun...
Northway, where we continued to wait...
and wait...
and spend the night...waiting...
New day, new optimism!
MELVIN, OUR HERO!!!!
Welcome to the Yukon! It wasn't as easy to enter Canada as we thought. We thought that once Melvin entered our lives, our troubles were over. Melvin had already been turned away at the border the evening before. He was kind enough to pick us up, only to be turned away at the border once again (apparently you can't enter Canada with bear skulls and Alaskan dirt on an ATV). After being deserted at the border, thoroughly searched and questioned, we had to walk a mile into town, where we commenced waiting once again...
MELVIN RETURNS (with a clean vehicle and no bear skulls)!!
While happily snacking on Melvin's kind offerings of spicy moose sausage, wild game jerky and Milk Duds, we saw 5 Brown Bears, 20 Elk, and 2 Mule Deer.
a beautiful sunset, as we finally entered Whitehorse!
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