Something (Ideas) for the Baja Road?

Along the way to Alaska, we visited this funky place on the AlCan Highway near Watson Lake in the Yukon.

It all started back in 1942....while building the Alaska Hwy, it was common practice for the US Army of Engineers to put up a directional post at their camps. A certain homesick GI from Danville, Illinois erected a mileage sign to his hometown and snowballed it into this.


A totally fun place to walk around and see some old memories, new adventures and good-natured wit. If you can spare a license plate, or any other 'sign', add yours to this forest. A local told me that there are about 75,000 signs in this forest...and counting.

I didn't want to lose a license plate from either the pickup or fifth wheel, so I stole a cookie sheet from Co-pilots kitchen, and 'posted' a painted cartoon of our rig bouncing over some 'moguls' on the Alaska Highway.

Great fun! Can you imagine a similar one for the Baja Road? I wonder what that might be like??






[Edited on 1-25-2014 by Pompano]

Ah, Great pic Pompano, Did the ride on my beemer to Arctic circle a few tmes and always stopped at the Sign post forest.

Likewise, BeemerDan....both of us have good photo memories from that great Road. Always reminds me of driving some of the more remote places in Baja.

I envy your 'lighter load'...

Thanks Pompano,
That pic was my 1st ride up, and unfortunatly just as I was leaving Watson lake my transmission started to squeal like a stuck pig, Made it into Whitehorse then drained the tranny fluid to find chunks of metal pouring out. ended up putting 180 weight motor honey in it then slabbing it down to Skagway to catch the Alaska ferry back to Wa state.
Which in retrospect was the highlight of my trip down the inside passage.
I couldn't afford a cabin, but they let me pitch my tent on the aft deck.
1st time on the trip I didn't have to worry about bears

Hah...as many times as I have made that trip, I always look forward to the next one. Always sure to be an adventure. Made the first trip in a beat-up VW bus way back in the day when there was far more gravel than pavement.

Hah...your motorcycle breakdown reminds me of yet another similar experience for me, BeemerDan. My Dodge 2500 Cummins had a complete transmission-rear end breakdown on the Yukon Highway just outside of Whitehorse. The Cummins diesel is bullet-proof..but the tranny and most all drive-support was bad, at least on mine..maybe I got a lemon.

We had to wait in Whitehorse (not exactly a tourist destination) for 10 days for a new one to be flown in..high $$$. And to top it off, while at a RV park, somebody stole our 2 brand new mountain bikes off the fiver's bike rack while we were gone shopping....used a bolt cutter. Got the bikes plus a big expensive cooler.

The RCMP officer we reported it to said to forget about finding that bike again..saying most likely it was over on the nearby 'reserve'....then said the native aborigine area was off limits to them. Shades of Hollywood...We'd been victims of an Indian raid!

He was a nice mountie, though, and gave Co-pilot a present to carry on her keyring, a 'Kojak'..a blunt aluminum stabbing spike for warding off molesters..or time-share salesman in Cabo! Along with some fun pics from the Alcan Road, here's the mountie and the gifted Kojak. Ouch..that thing hurts!!

10 days in Whitehorse?

Pompano

Hola,,Glad your back here....I've driven that road like maybe 11 times...Would that not be the entrance to "Whitehorse"....about the only place outside of "Dawson" you can find a beer !!! been up and down the Cassier and the Alcan...The USA Owes the Canuks for helping during WW2 with that one ! most folks don't know that we had hand to hand combat on "Dutch harbor and Attu" ( the most eastern point in the USA...Fact) But thanks to many canecks helping ......things changed for the better !!!K&T

OK...Me stupid !!

Tim Hortens?

I must a taken a wrong turn

Did someone say Hyderized?

Salmon Glacier

What a great post! Brings back so many good memories. My husband and I camped our way up the AlCan and down the Cassier (I have never seen so much mud as we got into on the Cassier)....The scenery was so breathtaking! Saw all kinds of wildlife, visited the hot springs...saw that fun sign post forest, almost got carried away by a vicious Mosquito !! We have already discussed doing that again some summer after we make the full time move to Baja...a great way to explore and get away from the heat! If you haven't had the chance to take this road...do it!

Dutch Harbor 53.8890° N, 166.5272° W One of the most WESTERN places in the USA. At 179 degrees 46 minutes East, Semisopochnoi Island is the easternmost point in the USA.

I believe THAT is a fact.

If its all the same to you Captain, I'll leave the navigation to the cook.


Semisopochnoi is west of Dutch Harbor, but in a different hemisphere, thus easternmost.

Jeeze..loureez

June 7 1942 the Japanese tried to take attu..Nope !!hand to hand in the fog..the us boys stopped them !!! it is the farest eastern part of the USA!!!....at 172.27 E and over the M line.. if your a pilot,,boat captain this is really simple...with Lats & longs broken down to hrs,,min.. sec..myself have never been there but had girlfriend that was a navy brat that was there for a week.there is Nothing there...anyway a good Party,,bar trick question...ATTU is the most eastern part of the USA....and somewhere in there is "Semisopchno" think I spelled that right !! Due to mag Dev. and Var. airports are now changing the numbers on many runways as this chunk of spinning dirt is changing !! Good Day !! K&T

No bridge to Attu

But the Dempster hwy is fun to ride!

Beemer dan ..WOW !!

That's a pic you can brag about,,,,good on you Mate !! Holys--t!! thars a bike ride !!

Beemer dan #2

Did someone mention Dutch Harbor? Here I am in Dutch:











OK. Sorry for the hijack!!!

Ateo

Ahoy Capitan...Check the map above. Attu is ~ 7 degrees west of Semisopochnoi. It doesn't even show on the map of easternmost parts of the USA. It is a good bar question IF you know the correct answer. Semisopochnoi.

As to your fictitious revisionist history of the battle of Attu, you are 180 degrees off course. The USA was not defending Attu, they were mounting one of the first amphibious assaults of the Pacific war, against a couple of Japanese units which had occupied the undefended islands a short time before. Historians disagree about the strategic goals of the Japanese, but tend to agree it was a blow to US morale to have their troops on US owned soil. There is no disagreement about whose military was attacking the island.

Any hand to hand combat that occurred on Attu was likely during the classic banzai charge the enemy mounted in their failed DEFENSE of the island.

Bots'n! Call the cook to the wheelhouse, the Skipper is way off course!

Vag

sigh......okay then, maybe a shoe tree instead?

(This shoe tree is on a highway called "The Loneliest Highway in the World." Anyone been there?)

[Edited on 1-26-2014 by Pompano]

Gone

silverstriketim, that news saddens me. We 'discovered' that unique tree on our way across Hwy 50 and donated our two pairs of worn sneakers. Unfortunately, we have lots of mindless and uncaring vandals in our land.

Too bad...