Fairbanks to Whitehorse: Crossing into Canada on the Alaska Highway

9 cycle days

961 km

6165 ascent

6 pilot cars

The wildfire situation did not improve much during our stay in Fairbanks. At least it rained one evening, which lowered the temperature noticeably. The morning we left Fairbanks, the AQI (Air Quality Index) in the city was at 150, which was not the worst they have ever had, but most likely the worst we both have ever experienced. Thick smoke was in the city – as if the smoke we had just escaped the other day had been waiting for us to leave. It got a lot better as soon as we cycled eastwards though. 

Before we left the city for good, we stopped at the LARS (Large Animal Research Station). This research station is part of the local university and was recommended to us by several people, as they have herds of Muskox and Bison. We have not been lucky enough to see Muskox on the Dalton Highway and even that morning we only spotted some Bison. 

We followed the Richardson Highway out of Fairbanks. We passed the small town of North Pole and had lunch right in front of a giant Santa Claus. It is supposedly quite the touristy place, must be busy in winter! Later that day we stopped for ice cream at “The Knotty Shop”, that was so good! We really should eat more ice cream… 

At Delta Junction, we turned onto the Alaska Highway, also known as Alcan Highway. It is 2232 kms (1387 miles) long and connects Delta Junction in Alaska, United States with Dawson Creek in British Columbia, Canada. It started with a stretch of roughly 60 kilometers straight road with just one light s-curve! There was a small free campspot at the bridge just after the first proper turn and we stayed there for the night. The cutest squirrel sat on the road the next morning – but the whole nine days we saw lots of ground squirrels and even some chipmunk.

The few days of cycling towards the Canadian Border were slightly uphill with fairly good weather. One day we met Jon, a cyclist from Denver. We have a pretty similar speed and itinerary and since then we have been cycling together for a couple of hours or days every now and then. We passed a lot of incredibly wide river beds and experienced the first sunsets on this trip!

On the last stretch in Alaska we also came across a few “pilot car sections” – sections of the highway that are under construction and are operated with one lane traffic. People with stop signs hold up traffic at both sides until the pilot car arrives from the other side, taking the waiting vehicles across. As we cyclists can’t keep up with traffic, our bikes are loaded on the pickup truck and we are transported to the other side. One time, the driver didn’t have enough space on the front seats and we had to ride in the back as well! Well that was a first… After another one of those sections, Sebi talked to the woman holding the stop sign, who turned out to be Loretta Henderson – a woman who cycled around the world for five years before getting bored and starting continental crossings by foot with a trailer. So inspiring!

Five days after leaving Fairbanks we crossed into Canada. At a rest area at the geographic border we met an Argentinian couple with a dog. The two (well, three) are traveling in a beautiful turquoise VW T1 Van and left Argentina six years ago. So cool! Here we crossed into another time zone and just like that our day was an hour shorter. The border control is located roughly 30 kms after the border itself. The officer only asked us if we have guns with us (which of course we didn’t) and without further questions we were in Canada! We continued cycling towards Beaver Creek, the first “town” in Canada after the border, and slept under a bridge for the first time this trip – right next to a beautiful creek.

For days we cycled through uninhabited landscapes with a lot of trees and rivers. In Destruction Bay we stopped for a longer lunch break and splurged on a shower. It’s the little things! The same day we camped at a campsite at the big Kluane Lake. The tent area at this campsite is located right at the shoreline and enclosed by an electric fence as the grizzly bear activity is particularly high around this area. Despite that we didn’t see one during our stay.

On the day we cycled to Whitehorse, we had the first really cold and wet morning. At a small gas station shop, Sebi got a huge cup of coffee for free and around noon the weather got a lot better. In the afternoon we spent around 20 kms trying to escape the rain – only to cycle into the next big raincloud. Oops. Rewarded with a double rainbow, it wasn’t that bad after all. We cooked dinner underneath a bridge and originally intended to sleep here as well. Due to an abundance of paw prints from wolves, we changed our minds and decided to just cycle the remaining 50 kms to Whitehorse instead. At some point my bike started to make horrible noises from the bottom bracket. We couldn’t find the reason for it and were left with ignoring it. At around 23:30 we arrived at a big RV park on the outskirts of Whitehorse and fell right asleep after a nice warm shower. 

I immediately liked the small city of Whitehorse, it reminded me a lot of cities in New Zealand. It is walkable, has a lot of beautiful buildings and cute little shops. We spent nearly four days here. Our days were filled with visiting the farmers market, going out for dinner, getting my bike serviced at the local bike shop (it luckily only needed some regreasing of the bottom bracket), working on the blog and making major decisions regarding our future route. Canada and the US are so big that we can’t cycle everywhere we would like to and with a heavy heart we decided against cycling to Vancouver Island and for cycling more inland instead. After two nights at the RV Park we moved to the hostel in the city for the remaining nights, where we felt right at home and even the bikes were stored safely.