Veggie Voyage, Part 3
Crossing the last Frontier
in vehicle fueled by used veggie oil

By Vered Kleinberger
Leah and I have been on quite an adventure since departing Georgia more than two weeks ago in a veggie-oil fueled vehicle heading to Alaska by way of Oregon.
We are currently in Anchorage, Alaska getting ready to head down to a ferry to take us along the southern Alaska coast, south along Canada, to end in northwest Washington state. But, to recap our trip from Calgary to the present...
We left Calgary and headed into the Canadian Rocky Mountains. We visited Banff National Park and Lake Minnewanka (where Leah went swimming), then went north into Jasper National Park via the Icefields.
The mountains, turquoise lakes and rivers, and wildlife were beyond anything we could have imagined. Snow covered the peaks, brilliant water was everywhere, and we saw elk, bear, porcupine, caribou, deer, moose, fox, and mountain sheep. We continually reminded ourselves that what we were seeing was real; every curve we rounded brought incredible views.
Our journey took us north to Dawson Creek where we picked up the Alaskan Highway. We headed west and drove, and drove, and drove. Eventually we reached Whitehorse, the capital of the Yukon Territory. I had miscalculated the enormity of northern Canada, so we ran out of vegetable oil just before reaching Whitehorse (our car runs on used vegetable oil - see the previous two issues of the Progress for more information). We drove through town looking for a restroom and as we pulled into the parking lot, Dan, a local of Whitehorse followed us. He saw the sticker on the back of my car and wanted to speak with us about our travels. He was the only person in the town running his vehicles on grease, and as luck would have it, he had enough to share to get us to our next destination.
Leah and I left Whitehorse after refilling the car at Dan's home and headed to Alaska.
We stopped several hours before reaching Anchorage for a nap, where we received our first introduction to the mosquitoes. We slept completely covered in our sleeping bags (we didn't pitch our tents because we were only sleeping for a few hours), but they viciously kept swarming around us, buzzing over our heads even though they couldn't touch us.
The number of mosquitoes in Georgia doesn't compare to those in Alaska!
We made it to Anchorage to fill up our used vegetable oil supply and then headed north towards Denali to visit our friends Barak and Kim. We have known Barak's family since we were kids, and he and Kim moved up to Alaska a year ago.
For the past several years, they have been learning to live off the land. They hunt, fish, and gather most of their food, they make their tools and work on crafts, and are always working and learning to be more self sufficient.
They are currently care taking some property for a woman who works on the North Slope (oil fields), and are in the process of moving to a different cabin further in the woods without power, running water, or any of our modern amenities. Eventually they plan on purchasing their own land in the area.
Alaska is truly our last frontier. There are few roads throughout the state, the water is crystal clear, and the population is low and mostly concentrated in the southern part of the state. The mountains are amazing, and Denali Mountain (Mt. McKinley) is immense. Barak and Kim took us canoeing and fishing just up the road from their current residence, and even though it was cloudy, the visible mountains were breathtaking. Leah and I are eternally thankful that they advised us to get headnets. I bought them and thought that I would never wear one because they looked so silly (a net you wear that completely, but loosely, covers your head), but the mosquitoes drove me to put it on.
Without them, we would have been eaten alive by the bugs. Any piece of exposed skin was lunch for the bugs, so we wore pants, jackets, gloves, and headnets. We were safe from the bugs and could sit back to enjoy our tour of the lake.
Barak and Kim went ocean fishing today and we are getting ready to head to the southeastern part of Alaska. We will pick up the ferry in Haines, a small port and fishing village, and take it to Bellingham, Washington.
The journey will take four days, and we'll see glaciers, mountains, and much more. (I truly have no idea what else...) These sights are not visible any other way since there aren't any roads, so we're in for quite a treat!
For additional information and photos, visit www.homeschoolexcursions.org and follow the Veggie Voyage link.

Previous installments of the Veggie Voyage are available on www.pickensprogress.com.