Driving though Canada to Alaska during the Covid-19 Pandemic

[MobileAndMonitoring]

I just finished driving from Southern California to Alaska and wrote a blog post about it. 3322 miles in just 4 days. Wish I could have seen Canada a lot slower but Canada and myself were taking the Covid-19 thing pretty seriously.

Feel free to check out my full write up on my website here.

The yellow markers show where I camped along the route up north. Black are the border crossings.


An early morning in San Francisco


First night in Canada camping next to a lake in BC


Along the Cassiar Hwy in BC


BBQing dinner around 11pm


A friendly local stopped by my campsite to say good morning


Beautiful Alaskan scenery


My final destination



I have a quite a few more photos on my website along with the write up of the trip. Feel free to check it out here.

 

[billiebob]

Canada thanks you for your conscientious travels thru our country and we too hope you return to enjoy BC.



The attachment is a great write, you should look into journalism.

 

[MobileAndMonitoring]

Canada thanks you for your conscientious travels thru our country and we too hope you return to enjoy BC.

View attachment 597751

Haha British Columbia's marketing department is always on point!

 

[MobileAndMonitoring]

I actually crossed at the Aldergrove crossing thinking it would be less busy. I then accidentially drove along the border along 0 ave and that's where I saw the people hanging out along the border. Amazing to see. I felt like I was witnessing history as well. Look forward to your post.

 

[MobileAndMonitoring]

Ahh yes, so they were not actually crossing that invisible line.

No just speaking over the ditch while a border patrol officer kept an eye on them.

 

[MobileAndMonitoring]

The history of the BC/WA Border is fascinating.

Google Maps will show the cutlines thru the forest from the Gold Rush when Canada & the USA rushed to define the line and collect royalties on resources extracted. At spots, Canadian & American surveyers met head on. At other places they were separated by a few hundred yards and made the compromise of cutting a third line up the middle. A lot of great stories exist along the longest undefended border in the world.

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Oh yeah reading about "the slash" is super interesting.

"The United States–Canada border is the longest in the world. It stretches 5,525 miles from Maine to Alaska, traversing land, sea, and untouched wilderness. As such, you might assume this colossal border would be left untouched by humankind, merely an invisible line on a map. But you’d be wrong.


Every year, the average American taxpayer pays half of a cent to the International Boundary Commission (IBC) for the sole purpose of deforesting every inch of the U.S.–Canada border. With an annual budget of $1,400,000, the IBC ensures that the boundary will never be just an imaginary line.


Known as “the Slash,” this treeless zone is 20 feet wide and covers everything from narrow isolated islands to steep hillsides. Spanning national forests and towering mountains, the vast majority of the Slash is so remote that it will never receive any visitors (aside from a handful of bears), yet it is still painstakingly maintained every six years with grueling hours of exhausting manual labor."

 

[GreggNY]

Looks like a great trip! I really enjoyed the write up and the other pics on your site as well

 

[MobileAndMonitoring]

Looks like a great trip! I really enjoyed the write up and the other pics on your site as well

Thank you!

 

[Arjan]

Very interesting - thanks !

 

[SDDiver5]

Great write up and pics!

I used to commercial fish in the Nushagak during summer in my college days. After the season was done and the boat and gear were cleaned and stashed away, we'd spend about 2 weeks travelling around AK boating, backpacking and hunting. I think about going back to AK all the time for an extended vaca. The scenery is some of the most amazing I've seen.

Best of luck with your aviation dreams and be safe!

 

[rgallant]

Your Border experience was the result of some people from the US "going" to Alaska who decided to tour BC on the way. Banff is not on the way nor is Jasper. There were not a lot but enough that border guards got more fussy about who got to cross.

Glad you got through and to you destination it looks like you had some long days but saw some beautiful scenery.

 

[RedDog]

Many Americans have caught on to the "headed to Alaska" line when they have no intention of going there. US plates vacationing/sightseeing/hiking in Banff and Lake Louise were issued $1,200./person tickets. That evidently wasn't enough so tougher new penalties are now in place.

Canada has virtually flat-lined compared to the spinning out-of-control mess in the USA. There are 3 places to cross allowed in BC; 1 in Alberta and 1 in Saskatchewan. Any deviation from an A to B route directly to Alaska means enormous fines and possible prison time.

Coronavirus: Feds crack down on Americans using ‘Alaska loophole’ to enter Canada | Globalnews.ca

As of July 31, the Canada Border Services Agency will require additional entry conditions and only allow such travellers to enter at five crossings.

globalnews.ca

Also, I learned from a BC motorcycle traveler in ADV that Alberta Park Campgrounds are open only to Albertans. Even other Canadians can't camp there.

 

[jhmoore]

Saw a news story where the leader (title?) of, I think, British Columbia was advising folks with non-Canadian license plates who were in fact legally in Canada to perhaps leave their cars at home and use public transportation--because otherwise it's likely that Canadians will call the cops on you.

 

[AggieOE]

Awesome pictures and cool stories! Amazing times we live in indeed. So what pushed you to the point of embarking on this new adventure? I envy those who can reinvent themselves and/or drop everything and chase after something new and relatively unknown.

 

[Todd780]

Many Americans have caught on to the "headed to Alaska" line when they have no intention of going there. US plates vacationing/sightseeing/hiking in Banff and Lake Louise were issued $1,200./person tickets. That evidently wasn't enough so tougher new penalties are now in place.

Canada has virtually flat-lined compared to the spinning out-of-control mess in the USA. There are 3 places to cross allowed in BC; 1 in Alberta and 1 in Saskatchewan. Any deviation from an A to B route directly to Alaska means enormous fines and possible prison time.

Coronavirus: Feds crack down on Americans using ‘Alaska loophole’ to enter Canada | Globalnews.ca

As of July 31, the Canada Border Services Agency will require additional entry conditions and only allow such travellers to enter at five crossings.

globalnews.ca

Also, I learned from a BC motorcycle traveler in ADV that Alberta Park Campgrounds are open only to Albertans. Even other Canadians can't camp there.

My daughters were in Banff / Lake Louise last week and noted police where patrolling parking lots. They said (my kids) that they saw a few vehicles with US plates parked there.