The Summer of 1967 (I was 15) my Boy Scout Explorer Post took a high adventure trip to Alaska. We left Ada, OK July 4th in a 1958 retired school bus which belonged to the First Methodist Church. Our 8000 mile trip began straight north through Kansas, Nebraska, SD, ND Sask, Alberta, and BC. We had WWII surplus tents, sleeping bags and camp gear. The 10 of us young men were sponsored by our Post leader (an accountant) and three volunteers, a college Biology prof, a college business prof, and a rancher. We explored at every stop, and learned all about the flora & fauna along the way. Once we reached the ALCAN highway, the fun began.
In those days, this was 1400 miles of narrow, two-lane gravel road through the BC wilderness. The hills were straight up, and straight down. There was a gas station with a small cafe, and a couple of rooms for rent about every 200 miles. I remember stopping at one place in the middle of nowhere, and the owner read the side of our bus, and said, "Ada, Oklahoma. I went to college there".
About the middle of each afternoon we would find a place to camp, and see if we could find anything wild to eat. A perfectly thrown rock by me landed us an unusual tasting dish one evening. Grouse is Gross!
Almost to Alaska, we blew the engine, and were towed to Dawson City, Yukon. We spent several days in while our rancher sponsor was rebuilding a used short block for the bus. We were taken in by an Anglican Church. Dawson City had a population of 90,000 in the mid 1800s but was then down to about 2000. the gold rush left many abandoned dredges to explore, and creeks to pan. All the buildings of old downtown were still standing, complete with the wooden covered sidewalks........the church services were strangely weird .
Once up and running we Ferried across to Anchorage, for our stay at Elmendorf Air Force Base. We bunked in the barracks, and had morning bunk check the same as the Airmen. The food was fantastic! (remember, we had been camping for 3 weeks).
On our trip home, we made it only as far as Whitehorse, Yukon with another blown engine. This time, we were treated to a stay in the basement of a Methodist church. They just happened to be having a youth fellowship week, and we were invited to join the group. Those Canadian girls were wicked groovy!.
The rest of the trip home was relatively uneventful, but still fun as heck. Six weeks, and 8000 miles of high adventure was absolutely the trip of a lifetime!!!!!!!!!!!!!
