We Made It to Alaska! Thank You Kickstarter Backers! A photo summary...

Hey All!

We made it to Alaska! Boom! Official Border crossing was 6:32pm Wednesday, August 4th, 2010!

We are currently in Palmer where we are planning our first youth film workshop later this month! We'll also be documenting some of the GIANT produce that is grown with Alaska's fertile soil and long hours of daylight.

We apologize for not being able to share enough photos on our journey thus far... not only have our showers been limited (average of 1.4 showers per week), but our internet use is intermittent too! We also just turned our phones back on after about 3 weeks of traveling through Canada! So give us a call if you want to!

We would like to take this time to acknowledge all of our Kickstarter backers who made this journey possible!

In no particular order of awesomeness:

Donna and Rich Bryden
Dianna Stano
Peter Stano
Jesse Pagtulingan
Lynn Malinoff
William Gray
Jeff Urbanowicz
Aaron
Erin
Brittney Scarlett
Kathryn Bawden
Amy Young
Nicole Hoppe
Judith Brake
Rob Stano
Marybeth Manarchy
Molly Manarchy
Johnny Sullivan
Adam Alpert
Sam Lemberg
Diane Gallagher
Halle Doenitz
Abigail Morris
Sean Bennett
Chris Cory Cosgrove
emrys7
Sean Dwyer
Alison
Margaret Barton
WINDATTACK
Jamie Shenk
Bernie J. Michael
Shoshana Hurand
Drew Dawson
Heathyr
Linsey Bowers
Christine Monte
Katie Blackmer
Carly Dodge
Janet D. McGraw
Jeff Adams
Jon Sandison
Geoffrey S. George
Marilyn George
Rachel Enoch
Carly
Katchen Schibilsky
Cara
Daniela K
Natalie Williams
Joey Ostrander
The Blanchards
Diane
Jenna
Kathleen and Dan Gallagher
Marlee Grace Cook-Parrott
Mike Berlucchi
Ali Hodges
Erica Calderon
Jim & Terri McCurry
Christine Grysban
Reese
Ryan Gallagher
Debashis Mazumder
Jenny McGraw
Eric A Palmer
Steve Sholtes
Emma Nolan-Abrahamian
Martin Stano Sr
Charlotte M Tisdale
Don & Lois McCurry
Emily Schleicher
Blaise Morrison
John and Natalie Rhaesa
Tiffany Alexander
Scott Gallagher
Will Brick
Adam Wilmers

WE THANK YOU!!!


And now a brief glimpse at our journey over the past month!


Day 1 departing the Gallagher cottage. Official time: Sat. July 10th, 2010, 4:37pm- 4 days late from original plan...

 
First stop Chicago. Karoake with Kiki, Pat, and friends. The night ended with some Backstreet Boys!


Milwaukee, WI. Kelly and her brother Scott at the farmer's market. Thanks for the righteous breakfast at Roots Scott!

[Missing Photo.]
We then stopped in Minneapolis, MN to stay with our friend Bruna. Sorry we didn't take any photos...


Next we stopped at a Prairie Dog farm right before Badlands National Park. You could buy peanuts and feed them!












Did a day hike in Badlands N.P.




Okay... so once you head west, you may see hundreds of billboards for Wall Drug in Wall, SD. They're known for a history of successful advertising gimmicks like free ice water, a giant T-Rex, and other stuff... It's worth a stop, but it's pretty much a tourist trap with overpriced gift shop junk. Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan of animatronics, but the T-Rex was a let down...


They do have some wicked cowboy boots though... but a lot of them were like $400-600...


We tried to save some money by cooking our lunch at a campground... but then a lady wanted us to register for using the facilities... there was no negotiating with her... we didn't want to camp there or use any other facilities... and it cost us $23 to rent their firepit for an hour to cook our own lunch with our own firewood... damn! It woulda been cheaper to buy lunch in Wall...


Marty thought about buying an overpriced cork gun in Wall Drug and going back to give her a piece of his mind.


After camping that night in Blackhills N.F., we drove the next morning through Big Horn N.P.


We hiked down the canyon in Big Horn to the creek.


After heard a deep grumbling sound echo in the canyon... When we hiked back up to the road we realized it was a large herd of cattle coming up form the creek as well!


We stopped in Thermopolis Hot Springs State Park to enjoy a free bath. The land was donated by the Shoshone and Arapaho Native American Tribes. We saw a bison heard here and also at...


Grand Teton N.P.


Day hike in Grand Teton


Hidden Falls, Grand Teton, NP


Inspiration Point, Grand Teton


Old Faithful, Yellow Stone N.P.


Yellow Stone N.P.


Yellow Stone N.P.


It's a big tourist trap to stop and try crystal meth in this small town in Montana.  We decided to pass and head for Glacier N.P.


The Going-to-the-Sun Road, Glacier N.P.  Incredible drive!


Mountain goat on the side of the road.





We had breakfast here.


Day hike.


Lunch at Avalanche Lake, Glacier N.P.


Leaving Glacier N.P.  Definitely one of our favorite parks!

We couch surfed with some great people in Calgary.  A friendly mix of Canadians, Aussies, and Kiwis.  They we're so much fun that we didn't even make it over to the Stampede and didn't take many photos... Although they showed us Olympic Park where the film Cool Runnings was shot!  The bar fight scene was filmed at Ranchman's, a large cowboy bar where a lot of our couch surfer host's worked.


Top of the bobsled course.




Feel the rhythm... feel the ride...

We went to Banff. It's beautiful there and we did a day hike or two. We may not have taken any photos... It was pretty rainy most of the time we were there... and everything was pretty expensive... We felt pathetic, dirty, tired, and poor... the morale was low and we didn't really have a place to camp...

We got a morale boost shortly after heading North to Jasper- one of our favorite spots next to Glacier N.P. We slept in the car the night before Marty's 24th birthday. We woke up to see two rainbows over the mountains- a good sign! The day only got better with an excellent dinner and a night in a motel, a birthday present from Mom! That was a most excellent present- thanks Mom!  Marty also made $140 playing djembe on the street where we met friendly locals with good travel advice- thanks Joe for the advice on heading north!


Double birthday rainbows!


Birthday champagne on the house!


Word of advice:  Don't always trust dinner recommendations from a AAA tour book.  The place wasn't so casual and the price range definitely means the lowest number is for a piece of lettuce and the highest number is the normal price of a meal a la carte.  Thanks for picking up the bill Mom!


We camped here one morning at the trail head to Whistlers Mountain.


You can take a tram up to the summit... but the view and snow is feels much more worth it after the 16 mi round trip hike with an approximate 3,000 ft elevation gain.




Lunch break.


Lunch view.


Diving football catch!


Mile 0 of the ALCAN Highway in Dawson Creek.  We met a bar owner in Montana while repacking our overloaded car.  When we told him we were driving to Alaska he laughed at us and said, "In that little car?!"  His response made us a bit wary of the road ahead...


Liard Hot Springs is a place you must stop.


We met Maverick and Aaron from Texas who already made it to Alaska with this radical van.  We had a peanut butter and jelly lunch and traded instant pudding for cheese crackers.  Good times guys!


The one thing for travelers to do in Watson Lake is to put up a sign in the Sign Post Forest.  I think one of the early travelers put up a sign from their home town and it just became a thing.


A lot of people improvise a sign.  We used a scratched CD, the people below us used sandals.



We went to Whitehorse, YT next but didn't really take any photos... from there we headed north to Dawson City.  We made a detour to Mayo and Keno, a couple of small mining towns.  When we pulled up, a wild party was going on with some of the local miners and a family and friends from Colorado who invited us to their lodge for the weekend.  It was a riot of time!  Unfortunately, what happens on Mayo Lake, stays on Mayo Lake.  Thanks to all participants involved for showing us a great time!


Rainbow on Mayo Lake, Yukon Territory.


We then made it to Dawson City for a few days.  Here's Kelly panning for gold- no luck...


Everyone from Dawson City and who travels to Dawson City must do the "Sourtoe Cocktail" available from 9-11pm at the Downtown Hotel Bar.  It's a shot of Yukon Jack with a real petrified toe in it.  You buy your shot and it's $5 for the toe. 


Back in the day, you were able to select one of five tows... but apparently, people we're swallowing the small toes.  Now, they only use big sourtoes and they have two that they rotate when one gets too soggy...


The sourtoe.  "You want a toe?  I can get you a toe!"


Begin Marty "Sourtoe Cocktail" sequence...




To properly take the shot, the toe must touch your lips.  If you're Canadian or us, the toe must go in your mouth...
 

This is a face you may make after a combination of whiskey and petrified toe has been in your mouth...


Begin Kelly "Sourtoe Cocktail" sequence...




Make us proud Kel!







After completion of the "Sourtoe Cocktail," you receive a certificate of honor, and a Sourtoe Members club that grants you respect a free sourtoes for life at Downtown Hotel.


Overlooking Dawson City.  Just crossed the Yukon River on the ferry.  About to start the Top-of-the-World highway to Alaska!


We did it!  Crossed the Alaskan border!  The station is right behind us.


We stopped at the Worthington Glacier while driving south to Valdez, AK.


It's a short 10 min hike up to the Worthington Glacier off the Richardson Hwy.


Did an over night hike in Kennicott, AK, an old copper mining ghost town.

There it is!  A brief summary from our journey!  The route we took was incredible!  The places and people amazing!  Each stop deserves it's own blog post...  So... when we catch up on sorting through our thousands of photos and making the rest of our trip happen... we will do a retrospective post in more detail along with some handy tips we've learned.

This is a road trip everyone must do!  The great thing about it is once you get on the ALCAN highway, you meet several travelers, young and old, at the rest stops with the same goal:  What are you doing?  We're going to Alaska!  Oh yeah?  Us too!

We might be rich if we had a nickel for every time we heard from travelers, "You gotta do it before it's too late..."  (i.e. jobs, family, other responsibilities, old age...).  So, if you're even thinking of something like this... JUST DO IT!

We'll continue to keep you updated as best we can.  We wish you luck with your current travels or future travel planning!

And if you haven't already done so, please follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and our Youtube page!

Cheers!

-Marty + Kelly