Posted by Keith in Washington [108.162.246.30] on Saturday, August 13, 2016 at 19:20:59 :
My wife and I sent the last 2 weeks in July driving the Alcan and Cassier Highways. I have always wanted to do it. It was a fantastic drive on very good roads and beautiful weather. The scenery was great with lots of wild life. It was a lot of butt time as it it was lots of miles between things. We left Seattle and headed up central BC up the Fraisier River to Prince George. From Prince George we went on Hwy 97 to Dawson Creek to catch Mile 0 of the Alaska Highway. From there we went north on the highway stopping often at historical points on the way. They have rerouted the highway in many places but you can still find sections of the original road that are passable. We went through Fort Nelson and onto Watson Lake to see the sign post forest which is up to 86K signs. I also saw my first WC there. It was a WC 52 or 53 that had a civilian cab welded in. We kept on heading northwest and turned off the highway to go to Carcross YT which is at the down wind end of lake Bennette Lake which was used by the miners going to the Klondike. We then headed to Skagway and took in more history. If you go to any Aklaska town that has cruise ships, go on Saturday when the cruise ships sent there. I did find a WC54 ambulance in Skagway. It was almost all there but has been sitting for years.
We then backtracked along the highway to Watson Lake and headed south on the Cassier HWY. the road was decent and the views were great. We took a side trip to Stewart BC and Hyder AK. There is a great glacier to see out of Hyder (Salmon Glacier) which is the 4th largest in North America. We then met up with the Yellowhead highway which we followed back to Prince George where we turned south to return to Seattle.
Next year is the 75th anniversary of the building of the Alcan Highway. It might be fun to drive the Carryall up the highway next year in the celebration. I did finally find a picture of a WC53 during the building of the highway. I had only previously seen 1/2 ton carryalls. The WC53 was being used as a taxi in the Dawson Creek area and it had become very stuck on a street in Dawson Creek. Interesting that it still had the spare tire blocking the driver's door. Usually they were immediately pulled off as they were a pain.
Most of the trucks used in the construction of the highway were dumped into a lake as that was a lot cheaper than shipping them back.
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