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| The Route |
From Miami to Jacksonville, Florida, I'll be following A1A north or parallel routes. In Jacksonville, I switch to US Highway 17 north. I'll be following that through Georgia and into southern South Carolina. About 30 or 40 miles into SC, I'll be changing to US Highway 15 north. I'll take it through the rest of SC, all of North Carolina and Virginia to Frederick, Maryland. I'll be turning west in Frederick on US Highway 40. I'll follow 40 through western Maryland into Uniontown, Pennsylvania; then Brownsville, PA to Washington, PA. In Washington, I'll switch to PA Highway 18 for a wee bit until it merges with US Highway 30. I'll follow 30 west through what's left of PA through all of West Virginia (about 8 miles), all of Ohio and Indiana. When I get near the Indiana/Illinois border, I'll be looking for the safest route to get me to Lake Shore Drive (possibly US Highway 41) in the Chicago area. Lake Shore Drive will turn into Sheridan Road and I will follow that road or a parallel road. Sheridan will lead me to Illinois State Highway 137 north. I will follow that until it intersects with Illinois State Highway 173 just south of the Wisconsin border. I'll turn west on 173 and follow it to US Highway 12 west. I'll figure something out at that point. I'll be using USH 12 and USH 14 to get into the Madison, Wisconsin area, ending up on 12 or a parallel route to Minneapolis/St. Paul. I'll probably take Minnesota 55 west to US Highway 75 North over by the North Dakota Border. I'll follow USH 75 to the Manitoba boundary.
USH 75 turns into Manitoba Highway 75 at the border. I'll follow that loosely to Canada Highway 1 in Winnipeg. Following Canada 1 west to Canada 16 and then north and west on 16 for a very long way. All the way to Edmonton, Alberta, after crossing all of Saskatchewan; including, of course, that super city of Saskatoon. From Edmonton, I'll switch to Alberta Highway 43 west to Grande Prairie into north eastern British Columbia to a town by the name of Dawson Creek. Dawson Creek is Mile Zero of the Alaska Highway. Locals call it the ALCAN (combination of Alaska and Canada). It's numerical designation is BC Provincial Route 49.
In Watson Lake, Yukon Territory, it becomes Yukon #1. It's still called the ALCAN or Alaska Highway though. When I reach Johnsons Crossing, I switch from walking to paddling on the Teslin River. I'll paddle the Teslin to the confluence with the Yukon River to an abandoned site the natives call Hootalinqua. From there, I paddle to Carmacks and Dawson City in the Yukon Territory. About 30 miles downriver from Dawson, I re-enter America and will howl for my home state of Alaska in the metropolis of Eagle. I continue through Circle Alaska and other communities to Norton Sound on the Bering Sea. At the mouth, I'll switch from a canoe to a sea kayak, paddling another 300 miles around the sound until I'm about 40 miles south of Nome. From there, I'll walk about 40 miles into Nome, Alaska, fly back to the capital of the Yukon Territory, Whitehorse, walk back to Skagway, Alaska (my home town) via the famous Chilkoot Trail and call it good.
The estimated total walking distance is around 5,500 miles or so and the water portion is under 2,450 miles. It should be fun and challenging. I hope to finish by the last day in September of 2006. I have to be back at work for the City of Skagway on 1 October, 2006. If I have to, I'll stop wherever I am to get back by that date. I hope to eventually work up to a 25 mile a day pace on the road and as many miles as I can on the water. The slowest part will probably be on the lower Yukon and the Bering Sea stuff.
I hope the walking distance goes down. As I learn more about the areas I walk through, I'll look for short cuts. And remember, I'll be taking some parallel routes to those given. It's only a rough guide, but I'll be making updates as I go along.
Most of my planning was done on mapquest. You can follow my progress on my site and go to mapquest for more details on the route. Their stuff is very, very good and dependable.
Take care and keep on howling! Buckwheat
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