Alaska Highway

I am moving to Fairbanks from Georgia in February for a job, I am trying to see the hazards of driving myself or highering a moving company and flying. What are risk and precautions I might endure while making a drive across Canada?

My apologies for being vauge in the following post. Among many reasons. This is the main reason why I'll be vauge: I love exploring abandoned structures, especially around the Yukon/Alaska. There is so much cool stuff to see and find and I am a strong believer in preserving the places I explore. I do this so I can both revisit it at a later date and enjoy it again AND so the next guy can also enjoy it. There has been a few extremely distressing cases where I would bring a friend to a spot I found only for them to destroy it for fun at a later date. A great example would be the buildings/old video store close to the Klondike highway corner. For a very long time the shelves inside still stood and had the movies on them still for the most part. There was some vandalism but nothing like how these former friends left the place. I found it absolutely disgusting and that was the last time I ever shared my hobby of exploring places and leaving them as I found them.

I'm a 3rd generation Yukoner who has mo ved away. I have been away for quite a long time and miss home very much. There are things that I miss vs others as everyone knows how the Yukon has its own special issues sometimes. One of the big things I miss is hunting for structures/mines/geographic features, etc. Alot can be learned from old photographs, books, journal entries and many other things. I have had enough experience successfully tracking down things that likely people haven't seen in decades and it is something I take pride in. Sometimes the hunt for something starts at the Library, and frequently leads to one of the few Archives the territory maintains. The biggest asset in my hunts are the archive of aerial photos spanning over many years and has frequently been the source of my success after knowing the general area to begin my search.

One of my biggest achievements and partly one of my biggest secrets is a WW2 bunker along the Alaska highway. It started as a retelling of a childhood story from a late relative of mine. They would explain how they and their brothers/sisters would venture out for extended periods of time and play inside this structure and how they would dare eachother to go further and further into the darkness of the building

I immediately was interested in finding it, however at the time of telling over 60+ years have passed and I knew it be difficult or impossible to find and that's if it even existed. I started my search by physically venturing out into the wilderness using things I knew about the local geography to explore clues. The information given to me was already vauge. But here's what I knew.

-Location of old family home. -Age of my relatives at the time (to help determine rough distances. -Geographic features. -Knowledge of existing abandoned structures in relation to the area.

My first few hunts were unsuccessful overall but I did eventually come across a footprint of an old building. Nothing remained except some scrap metal and the sunken remains of foundation. Given the size/ location/remoteness of the building it seemed to be a clue. Though knowing I had more than my fare share of ground to cover I made a note of it and kept exploring.

This would go on for countless years. Hunting the things that are built to not be found. With nothing to go on but a retelling of a distant memory. Throughout these year's my attempts would get more detailed along with the ever growing stack of documentation on the subject. Old Ariel photos, civic maps, literature about the Alaska highway and other war efforts plus other things like my own digital maps including map pins, GPS data, photographs of almost unidentifable vehicles or other equipment, depressions of old buildings, irregular or peculiar growth patterns of trees in a localized area, I went wild and admittedly a little crazy.

Over time, I had it narrowed down to a few specific areas which I thought I might have luck but my search had slowed down significantly as I believed I may be hunting things that didn't exist.

That's when I found it.

Not super far from the place I originally started looking were some clues I overlooked. These clues, I believe were specific to ventilation and air exchange within the structure and only because evident after I learned more about bunker construction and how some of the problems of fortified/hidden structures are overcome. The clues in question were on some exposed rock faces in a remote part of the woods slightly further than I expected young kids to travel. It was still within a reasonable distance from the old family home yet out of my estimated search radius (which I extended a few times at this point.).

The discovery of these unique man made features in the rock in the middle of nowhere quickly reignited my search. It was not long after that that I was able to confirm there was indeed a structure there and through thermal imaging. I was able to locate what I believe to be an entrance which was largely inaccessible due to being buried loose boulders and rocks plus anything else that might be in the way. I camped the night on site and continued my survey of the area to see if there were anything else I could have missed. Besides some weird shapes/heat differences found with the thermal camera the biggest and most promising was the place I believed to be the entrance.

Solo excavation is hard work, especially when 90% of the rocks are heavier than me AND buried in dirt and tangled by roots. I was only able to get to a point where I coud see into a cavity of empty space met by cold musty air. Shining a light into the space revealed a concrete structure/room filled with atleast a few mm of water. There was alot more obscured by the limits of my view and the rubble; To go any further I would have to both come better prepared with tools and equipment plus a friend I could trust. I had work the next day so I sadly had to leave with plans to come back and finish the hunt. I was extremely happy with myself having finally found something I have been hunting for for over 6 years.

Unfortunately, shortly after my discovery I mo ved out of the territory unable to return at all since then. I have told only 1 person since my discovery and have been itching to share ever since. By biggest fear is for me to share the location or details that would lead to either it's destruction/sealing by a government body or the extreme vandalism I have witnessed by others. Im not old by any means but it's a secret I don't want to completely die. There's likely other people that know about it's existence, even if it's a fringe memory of theirs buried deep in their brain.

Anyway, that's my story. There's bunkers in them hills.

Edit: few spelling mistakes.

Edit² : Please don't pm me asking for info on the whereabouts. This is a very sensitive topic with lots of room to be exploited. It's likely that some sort of government entity in the Yukon knows about it still.. Or atleast has information regarding it that it does not know it has.

Will be driving up from gulf coast in 8 weeks. I've previously only done the drive after snowmelt. Quite inexperienced when it comes to heavy snow and such cold conditions. Investing in block heater is a number one priority, Any tips??

Edit: Toyota 4runner, 4th gen