We are leaving Alaska in the morning.

It is bittersweet to be leaving Alaska.  We have had such a great adventure.  We love the people and the beautiful state.  We have felt very welcome here by everyone we have met.  They really know how to treat visitors.  If this old bucket of bolts will hold together for another year, we might just drive up here again.  I may feel differently after I drive that hellish 80 miles or so just over the Canadian border.

Today we drove up to Tok via the Tok Cutoff.  It is a little traveled highway.  At times we went ten to fifteen miles without seeing a car.  It is very peaceful to pull over and just listen to the silence and take in the gorgeous view.

I spotted all the wildlife today.  That is unusual because I am driving.  But the road was so empty I could take some time to look around.  I spotted a family of swans swimming on a lake next to the highway.  Later I spotted a bull moose having his lunch in a pond.

When we pass a place like this we say it looks moosie because this is where you see moose the most often.

See the grass on his horns?  He had his head under water eating when we came along.

We stopped in Tok and visited with some locals we met on the way up.  We are camped at the Sourdough Campground.  They have a sourdough pancake toss in the evening followed by local entertainment.  The idea with the pancake toss is to get one into a bucket for a free sourdough pancake breakfast.  We visited here on our way in.  We had a good time and thought it would be a nice way to say goodbye to Alaska.

Alaska has more miles of bike path than any state.  We are in the middle of nowhere and bike paths line the road.  I have a hunch they are snowmobile paths in the winter.  They go for miles.

For those who follow us, we will be out of touch for a few days while going across Canada.  Our phone and mifi doesn't work in Canada.  If we have a wifi connection somewhere, we will post a quick update.   Our planned route now is to go the Alaska Highway to the Cassier Highway south through British Columbia to Prince George and south on a yet to be determined route after that.  We will cross back into the states in either Washington, Idaho or Montana.

For those of you who pray, please keep us in your prayers through this part of the trip.  It is very remote and it is a bit intimidating when you think about it.  It will be a relief to get back into the states and be wired again.