August 20, 2010

Some days bring a constant battle with perspective.  I think I came out of the day a winner, but not without a little struggle.

As we head south, my expectations are dropping.  I know that every day of travel brings us closer to civilization, as it is in the lower 48.  Whitehorse seemed to be a step toward that civilization, with a big town sprawling out into a surrounding area with frequent homes, then an area with weekend cabins lining the shores of otherwise spectacular lakes. 

I seem to have a distaste for human beings and their structures and I need to explore that part of me a little more.  That, more than anything, is something I hope to change on this journey.

As we finally rounded the corner and headed south, I found myself on the tiniest of highways, with no lines whatsoever, and virtually no sign of humans.  It was a delightful surprise.  I hadn’t researched northern B.C. so I didn’t know what to expect, but this unexpected dose of nothingness gave me at least another day to prepare for the masses of people that lie ahead.

My perspective was skewed, though.  The road has been closed on and off for a couple of weeks now due to forest fires.  Yesterday no cars travelled through.  When we arrived at the junction a little before lunch, cars were already lined up for a half mile along the Alaska Highway.  We pulled over and took a place in line.  Word travelled along that we were expecting an opening in an hour, then it was a couple of hours.  I was sitting in traffic, but I was in the middle of nowhere. 

I walked to the front of the line and then counted vehicles as I walked back.  I chatted with a few people as I passed, letting them know what number they were in line.  Everyone seemed to have a sense of humor, but some had schedules and couldn’t risk delaying.  The line was full of empty spaces where people, mostly in long RV rigs, had reconsidered their options and simply headed down the Alaska Highway.  I was expecting a few hundred cars, but Kris was exactly the 100^th car by my count and I was 101.  I didn’t count the few cars behind us as the line was starting to move just as I returned.  Our wait was just over two hours.

The closed section of road was about 40 miles in length.  The middle 15 or 20, were the obvious fire zone.  The fire has not been completely devastating, but it hops about, and flares up when the conditions allow.  We drove through sections of smoldering trees, with a few small areas of near complete devastation.  In a couple of places, I noticed a glow and even some small flames.  We saw evidence of trees that had fallen in the road.  It was a surreal experience to drive through a forest fire.

The convoy of vehicles moved slowly through the closed section of road.  This skewed my perspective.  I was driving in traffic in the middle of nowhere.  When we reached the other end of the closure, cars were lined up, waiting for a northbound convoy to be released.  I counted 44 cars in line on the road and estimated another 30-40 pulled over in a rest area.

As we continued through 150 miles on this tiny little road, the traffic started to dissipate.  Several vehicles passed us on the rough and narrow road with a difficult to maintain 80 km/hr (~50 mph) speed limit.  Their rush continued to skew my perspective.  I began worrying about this massive rush of vehicles heading down the road, all looking for a place to overnight.  We picked a campground to target and wondered if we would find a space.  We began worrying about finding a place to stay in Stewart tomorrow, the main attraction on this part of the road.

We pulled in to this nice wooded campground along a lovely creek and found one other RV and they left shortly after we arrived.  Another RV arrived a little later, but perspective has returned.  We drove 150 miles today on a tiny road.  We know that only a little over 100 vehicles headed southbound and less than 100 headed northbound in the last two days.  That is pretty light traffic.

We also know that Stewart will be hurting for business.  Every vehicle that pulled out of line was a visitor that won’t happen this year.  Many others, I am sure, didn’t even get into line as their travel plans wouldn’t allow for an unknown waiting period.  The assembly of two days worth of traffic into a relatively short line has renewed my sense of isolation and set my expectations high for Stewart.  The scenery and the experience of driving through a forest fire, added to my sense of adventure for the day.