Along the Frazier River

We've traveled east from Prince Rupert, BC, turned south at Prince George and are now traveling down the Frazier River Canyon heading toward Vancouver. I have downloaded a picture of the Frazier River canyon north of our night's stop at a tiny community named Boston Bar. This portion of our trip is very important to Garth as it is at Hell's Gate, (at the fish ladders installed there to aid the salmon migrating to their spawning streams) that Garth's grandfather, Senator Tom Reid was thanked for his years of service with a memorial plaque. We will visit there tomorrow and take many pictures.
After we visit for a day or so with Garth's cousins in Vancouver we head for home. IT HAS BEEN A GREAT TRIP!

Homeward Bound!

Here we are in Ketchikan, way far south along th Inside passage of Alaska. It is the totem center for the 3 tribes who made them. They were/are carved to tell a story, celebrate an event, or as a funeral totem. They were not worshipped and theyare not religious in nature. But they certainly are impressive. Ketchikan has several places where they are displayed along with many throughout the town.

To get into town from Wrangell we had to back the rig onto the ferry! Pictures tell all. The deck hands were very experienced and the 2 rigs went in rump first. I will try to upload a pic for you to see this! Well well, it worked!

We have spent our 3 days in Ketchikan and have come down on the ferry for our last trip to Prince Rupert, BC, Canada. We will separate from Jan & Walt tomorrow morning (our farewell BBQ is tonight) and we drive 900 miles in 3 days to Vancouver. After Garth has a couple of days to visit with his family there we drive for home, stopping only to pick some blackberries! Garth insists, he has such fond memories of this when the kids were small. No pies though as my arm is in a cast (doctor in Wrangell did a nice job on the cast. He was also very pleased to see an amazing amount of healing for 2 weeks).

So please come to the Clan picnic! Hope to see you there!!

Along the Inside Passage

The double eagle is on a Russian cannon atop Castle Hill in Sitka. It dates from the time Russia controlled this land. The ceremony concluding the sale of Alaska to the US is reinacted here on Caastle Hill each year. The original USArmy, the 9th Infantry, returned to Sitka 100 years later on the statehood year to participate again in ceremonies marking that momentous event.

As we work our way south down through the Alexander Archipeligo (named after Tzar Alexander of Russia) we are reminded of how much this land was influenced by the Russian-American Period. Place names, churches, family names... so many are Russian. Demetrioff is a very common family name here, and the Eastern Orthodox Church is alive and active in most communities along the Inside Passage. The town in the above picture is Sitka, grown a lot since 1965!

We have turned the corner of our trip and are on the homeward bound leg. This is a good thing as I am seeing a doctor today (we are in Wrangell, named after a Russian, what else?) to check on my arm. I suspect they will want to cast it, an event I hope to avoid!

Tomorrow we are on our penultimate ferry journey down to Ketchikan, and we will go through The Narrows, a water passage even more narrow than the one in the picture above! I hope to find internet again before we drop into Camp Pendleton for the Clan Donnachaidh Picnic.

Onto the Marine Highway

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As you can see we have begun a most exciting part of our trip! We have loaded both rigs onto the MV Malaspina for a 4-hr ferry trip to Juneau. This ferry was one of the 3 we were on in '65 when we came down the Inside Passage with my folks & 2 other rigs with family members. How exciting to be able to ride again on this elegant vessel!
The photo is of the rear of Jan & Walt's 5th wheel disappearing down onto what my 20-yr USN father insisted on calling "the tank deck".
And yet another glacier spilling down into Lynn Canal...
The less than exciting news is that in a hurry (there's a message there...) I tripped & fell inside the rig. Thinking to spare my knee I fell instead on my wrist and broke 4 bones in my hand & arm. Nice. Garth transported me 125 miles to the nearest Urgent Care where they decided the bones were nicely aligned, although quite broken, and I am the proud owner of a removeable-type cast, and a bottle of Make-Mary-Loopy Pills. It does allow me to unwrap it (well, it allows my RN mother to unwrap it!) so I can shower VERY carefully, with much help. All good for laughs. Well...maybe not.
I will not bore you with details, although there are certain elements of low humor.
We have really turned the corner here in Alaska. I said we were going to allow autumn to chase us out... and she is doing so ably! Temp overnight 2 nights ago was a very chilly 34 and days hover in the 50-60's. Gorgeous weather as the photos show but a decided nip is in the air indeed.
The bears gather at every salmon-spawning stream and our campground host in Haines said there were 20 bears living in the park vicinity. Makes you look carefully when you step out of the rig. And we don't leave the rig unlocked as bears can easily open the latch...and a bear would regard Pigs as a tasty alternative to a steady diet of salmon. Snack! Yum!
We are in a private park in the city of Juneau and the signs loudly state "Don't Feed the Bears!". Comforting, um?
In a day or so we will go as foot passengers out to Sitka (and Pigs will go to a Pet Nanny here in town) and we will stay overnight at a B & B there. We missed Sitka in '65 and are eager to see the capitol of Russian Alaska. Ghosts of cossacks and onion-domed churches.. how romantic!
Since this is all typed one-handed I will stop for now. We will be home in time for the Clan Donnachaidh Picnic. See you there!

Fishing Bear

This evening, before we shared dinner with Rob & Sue we drove over to the other side of the Sound, closeby the Alyeska Pipeline Terminal and we were fortunate enough to see a black bear come down and fish for salmon in a pond beside the road. This evening we saw a couple of seals, an otter, an eagle, and the black bear (Ursus Americanus, as opposed to the grizzly or brown bear Ursus Arctus). And as long as I'm talking naughty, let me say that I did not approve of the change from the species of browns: Ursus Arctus, Ursus Toklatii (the Toklat blonde grizzly of Mt McKinley Park, and Ursus Horriblus (the incredibly large grizzly on Kodiak Island)... lumping all those lovely names into just one genus & specie of Brown Bear, Ursus Arctus. But oh well, since they didn't ask me...

We will travel with Rob & Sue back north on the Richardson Highway tomorrow to the junction with the Glenellen Highway, where they will turn southwest and return toward Anchorage and we will continue in a northeasterly direction toward Tok.

Hopefully the weather will lift and we will have better travel sights along the highway!

Valdez was charming, and Garth really enjoyed his trip to the museum with Rob. Sue bailed on yet another museum and chose to do that wonderful female activity... shopping.

We are not sure when we will reconnect with Jan & Walt, but since there are limited road possibilities (there is only one road, not to put too fine a point on it!) we are waiting to hear from them about their repairs and expected date for leaving Anchorage area. One suggestion was that they drive down to Valdez and take the Maritime Ferry over to Haines and save themselves 600 miles driving. We are scheduled to board the Ferry at Haines on Sept. 2nd so we don't have a lot of options available. I'll keep you posted on this exciting (read: expensive!) challenge to their travel plans.

The picture of the glacier was one I thought particularly nice with the evening sun striking the glacier through the clouds. Taken from across the Sound, I believe it's Valdez Glacier, but it might be any one of 3 glaciers hanging over the area!

Dinner was delightful and for dessert we had a second round of slices from the Raspberry-Rhubarb pie I made yesterday afternoon. We picked the rhubarb at the Matanuska Borough Park and the raspberries from a site along the Glenellen Highway where they grow wild beside the road. Fresh-picked made the pie especially nice we all thought!

Down the Richardson to Valdez

We traveled today down the Richardson Highway to Valdez. This relocated city was the epicenter of the Good Friday Earthquake of 1964. At 9.2 the city was pretty much destroyed and the US Army Corps of Engineers said the land was unstable so 52 buildings were relocated. The ones unable to be moved, owing to the extent of damage, were burned clear the land. More than half of the city slid into the ocean during the quake. The new city is a bustling community, with tourism, fishing, and the Alyeska Pipeline Terminal providing income.
The photos are of Worthington Glacier and Keystone Canyon. Both are on the road down to Valdez. You can actually walk right up to the glacier, but it's not recommended as the face is unstable, of course! Keystone Canyon was the site of a gun fight, written about in the book by Max Brand titled The Iron Trail. The gun-fight came about when several railroad companies were trying to build a line up through the canyon to the copper mining region (called Copper Center now).
So many of the mountains, rivers, and lakes were named by various expeditions of the US Army. A promising young lieutenant, named William Mitchell, who built a road up Keystone Canyon, really pushed for Alaska to be a state, recognizing it's military importance. He said, "Whoever controls Alaska, controls the North America." He is more commonly known as Billy Mitchell and is the father of the US Air Force. He was posthumously awarded a non-combat Medal of Honor.
There is a Mt. Mitchell on the Richardson Highway, named after him.
We walked within a few hundred yards of the face of Worthington Glacier, pictured above. There is a small lake and a quarter mile of glacial moraine now where the glacier had been in '65 when we were here before.
In a few minutes we will leave with Rob & Sue and go over to the other side of the bay where there is a bear that comes every evening to fish for salmon. And there are bald eagles there, too, who eat the parts the bear leaves behind. It will be neat if we can see them too. We took Rob & Sue to see the grizzly bears hang out and fish on the Kenai but only one came that evening so we are hopeful that we will see more bears today.
Our next stop will be Haines where we will board the rig onto the Alaska Maritime system and begin our journey down the Inside Passage. I'll try to find internet access and send along more pictures!

Glaciers at Katchemak Bay

These pictures are from our week down io Homer on the Kenai Penn. The glaciers pour into Katchemak Bay across from us. We were camped out on the Spit at a city camp ground. It was incredible.

Garth's brother Rob and his wife Sue have joined us for 10 days. They are traveling in a rented RV and joined us while we were on Turnagain Arm at Portage Valley. The day we took Mary Kasenberg to the airport after her week with us, they drove in from a week up around Mt. McKinley.

We've come north today, stopping at the Russian Orthodox Church, the oldest building on the Penninsula, built by the Russians before Steward bought Alaska from the Russians for 7.2 mil. What a deal he got! A retired priest was there to meet us and tell us about the community of Kenai, a town of 5000 here on the Kenai Penn.

Tomorrow we leave the Kenai and return through Anchorage to the Palmer-Wasilla area. We will overnight in the same Borough Park (Alaska doesn't have counties, they have boroughs, instead) we stayed in when I went salmon fishing. Then we will leave and take a 2-day trip to drive to Valdez, traveling along the Richardson Highway, which is very scenic, we remember from '65.

Rob and Sue will leave us there and return to Anchorage to catch a cruise back down to Seattle and we will hook up again with Jan & Walt (who are traveling slower than we).

Tonight we will drive 7 miles away and see if the grizzly bears are still coming to the bank to fish for salmon. Rob & Sue would love to see them, so we have high hopes!

Fishing with the Grizzlies

Two nights ago, from 7-9 pm, along the Kenai River, we sat on the bank and watched as, across the river, grizzlies came and fished for salmon! They are magnificent animals, graceful and sleek as they walk. They seem to be lumbering along and then you realize that they've covered a lot of territory in such a short time; that's when you change your thought about how they move! First came a mother and what appeared to be 3 yearlings, and she feasted on salmon, the kidlets eating what she dropped. Then they wandered off and the 'big boys' showed up! These were individual animals, as many as 3 at a time, fishing in the shallows on the other side of the Kenai River.
We've changed location now, and have driven to the port city of Seward (named after the US Senator who engineered the purchase of Alaska from Russia... remember "Seward's Folly" from your history classes?) It sits on a deep inlet called Resurrection Bay, down on the south-east coast of the Kenai. We went yesterday to Exit Glacier and Garth hiked up the 3 mile, steep path to the edge of the glacier. I will post a picture of that, too!
There are many bald eagles here. Yesterday they were flying directly overhead as we walked along Main Street, Seward. Huge, imposing birds, with piercing stare and sharp talons...they come for the salmon fishing, too.
Tomorrow, or the day after, we'll return to the Portage Valley, to a US Forest Service campground named Williwaw where we will camp for 5 days. It's very central to the side trips we wish to take with Mary Kasenberg, and when she has to leave us, it's only 75 min. to Anchorage.

Kenai Lakes

Here is a lovely photo of one of the local lakes. Just thought you might like to see what the scenery looks like around here! Time for me to go start dinner prep. It's Jan's "Cook's Night Out" and I'm making dinner for everyone; I slow-cooked pulled pork yesterday and will serve BBQ pulled pork sandwiches, salad, and pineapple upside down cake. Dinner anyone? I sure am enjoying cooking in the RV. Had to buy a cookie sheet a couple of weeks ago so I could make chocolate chip cookies night before last. I needed to find a smaller size that would fit into the oven in the rig. That oven makes pretty good cookies!

Down the Rabbit Hole!

AS you can see, we've been exploring on the Kenai Penninsula! We discovered a gravel road which goes south into the wilderness. THEN we stumbled across this track leading down (the operative word, being DOWN!) toward what we thought was Sterling Lake. Since Walt's truck has 4-wheel drive, and he was in the lead, he got to go down and see what was at the end of the track. He popped right back up saying that there was a ratty trailer and a mean-looking pit bull. We found someone's favorite fish camp aparently!
The road continued for 11 miles and passed many lakes, most with a few fishermen and the occasional RV parked on an open spot lakeside. It's a whole different life here.
Today is a rest day with Garth washing the truck and I baked a pineapple upside down cake for dessert tonight.
Tomorrow we will drive 2 hrs. back to Anchorage and pick up our friend Mary K who will be traveling with us for a week. We've lots of fun things planned for her, starting off with a 3-hr float trip on the Kenai River. Garth will most likely pass on that, suffering from mal de mer, as he does. He may do something really exciting and wash the RV!
We DID see our first bear fishing for salmon a mile from our camp! He was on a riffle and the local fishermen were giving him plenty of room! It was so funny to see 20 men fishing the river not 100 yards from the bear who was doing the same thing!

Kenai Lake

Hello friends & family! We've moved down onto the Kenai Penninsula yesterday & today we took a short drive (15 mi.) to Kenai Lake. It was a gravel road and really wild, uninhabited country! We took a picnic lunch and enjoyed it beside the lake. It had been rain, rain, and more rain in the Portage Glacier Valley, but clearing now and today is beautiful with blue sky & small puffy clouds, and temps in the high 70's.
We're staying 3 days in a Princess Line RV Park. Didn't know there was such a beast, but with our discounts it's no different in price than the local RV Park, and it has lovely ammenities, internet access included! I'm sitting in the lodge (very posh, too) with huge windows showing me the mountain across the valley and the Kenai River down below. That color, a glacial greeny-blue, is so amazing. It is the glacial silt, with interesting color refractions.There are large flower baskets along the railing, and they are filled with multi-colored blossoms; daisys, pansies, geraniums, sweet williams, etc. The lodge has huge Princess Line buses coming up each day as this is a premier fishing, animal viewing, and sightseeing area in Alaska.
While we stayed in Eagle River (just north of Anchorage) we were able to visit the local Grace Brethren Church. The former pastor, Mr. John Gillis, was my pastor when I was growing up in Sunset Beach. His daughter married a local man and is still attending there. I used to babysit her. It was amazing that she remembered me! We missed Mr. & Mrs. Gillis as they were up here last month. Kelly will give her father the news that Garth & I were there in the church he pastored for so many years until his retirement.
We stopped to bird watch at Potter's Marsh, south of Anchorage, along the Turnagin Arm (think the big inlet that was so close to the 1964 earthquake and sank 6-8 feet, flooding two villiages, and causing them to need to be relocated). At the birding area we saw a red-necked grebe (a first for me!) and 3 bald eagles!
The salmon are running and every creek has signs of them spawning. I'm still waiting to see the bears coming down to feed on the salmon! I remember that from the trips in '63 and '65.
Our friend Mary Kasenberg arrives on Monday and we've plans for a raft trip along with a half-day salmon fishing expedition!
Garth has enjoyed the home-cooked dinners every night but I think I'm going to ask to be taken to dinner at the lodge tomorrow night. The cook needs a night off!

This massive glacier is the Matanuska Glacier. We went to see it a couple of days ago, before we moved the rigs down to Eagle River State Park, close to Anchorage.
Today we packed a picnic lunch and drove along the Seward Highway through Anchorage and down along Turnagain Arm. We remembered this road for the incredible devastation caused by the Good Friday Earthquake of 1964. Today it's lovely and the wreckage of homes and businesses is long removed. We will go back there to see the tidal bore later in the month, when the tide surges in, sometimes as high as six feet! We decided to eat our lunch at the Potter's Marsh Viewpoint. The marsh, created when the railroad constructed a huge long causeway in 1917, is home to many kinds of birds and animals. We walked out to the end of the boardwalk and sat at the viewing station, watching a red-necked grebe and chicks. Garth spotted a bald eagle and then we added 2 more! Turns out the immature one had just left its nest today and was sitting on a branch below the parents. There were kingfishers there also... lovely bird, and so brightly colored. The grebe I was able to add to my Life List in the front of my Peterson's Field Guide to Western Birds.
In the evenings we've been playing cribbage on the lovely board I purchased in Tok when we entered Alaska. Garth has had the devil's own luck with winnings and I'm trailing sadly in the overall count, but I did squeek out a win last night!
Tomorrow, after we go to church, we will move the rigs 40 miles of south of Anchorage to Bird Point State Park. Jan & Walt have driven down there this afternoon, both as a scenic drive and to check it out for us. Mother is with us for just over a week and then will return to Jan & Walt's rig in time for our friend Mary Kasenberg to join us.
We're off to go make sure we know where the church is... a recon mission, to be sure!

Salmon fishing!

I'd love to include a picture of my day trip salmon fishing (on a charter boat, on the Little Susitna River) but I managed to leave the cord at home that allows me to download the pictures from my camera to the computer. I'll have Tom send it along in a box to our next appointed mail stop.
But imagine Mary getting up at 3AM, yes, you read that correctly. She has made her lunch the night before and at 4AM she leaves with her bro-in-law, Walt, for a one-hour drive down a dirt road, praying that there are no wandering moose on the road! She and Walt meet the charter boat and with two other men, they all set out on the river for a 5-hr fishing trip.
The men all elect to done hip waders and to fish from the sand bars once we've traveled about 5 miles downriver in the misty and rainy pre-dawn light. Mary wisely elects to stay in the boat and fish from it's side.
See Mary catch the first fish, about an hour into the journey. It's a very small silver salmon, a female, and the men are all very happy for me, but comment that it's a pity it's so small.
As the rain abates, see the other men catch-and-release several chum salmon (they don't keep them as it's taste isn't as good as the silvers and others.
Imagine in another 30 minutes of casting into the river, Mary saying, "Oh, I may have a fish, or I may be snagged on a log on the bottom." The guide comes over when he has finished working with another man's line, to give me a hand... landing an over 9-pound silver. That turns out to be the biggest fish of the day, and I'm now at my limit.
Mary sits down and watches the rest of the men fish for 3 more hours.
Was Mary going to say, "Oh, I need to step ashore and find a convenient tree?" NOT on your life!! There were fresh bear tracks in the clean sand on the sand bank! BIG bear tracks! And when we changed to another place on the river, there were fresh moose tracks! According to the rangers at Denali the moose are more dangerous than the bear!
It appears that we are going to leave the Palmer area tomorrow. We've been up to see the Matanuska Glacier (that was impressive!) and we've been to the musk ox farm (fascinating ice age animals) and we've visited the Ididerod Museum, the start of the race, dog kennels, etc. All in all, we've had a great time right here around Palmer. It's right next to Wasilla and I kept my eye out for Sarah, but she must be away right now!
I promise pictures for the next installment of this journey!

The Mat-Su Valley Region

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We've drifted south along the Parks Highway and stopped for 9 days in the Palmer-Wasilla area. It's in the Matanuska Valley through which the Suisitna River flows. You can see why they call it the Mat-Su! It's ringed with the Chugach Mt.s and I will try to send along a picture of these spectacular mountains which are visible from almost any window here in the library in Palmer.
We've been to the visitor center and then on to the Wasilla Farmer's Market where we bought some of the lovely produce grown locally.
In the early 30's the US govt had a program called Matanuska Pioneer where they moved 1000 people from the depleted farmland of Wisc. & Minn. They chose that area as those people had experience with cold climates! The families were given help (for which they were required to pay $6 an hour for a tractor/driver to clear land... not cheap in those days!) clearing land. They had to sell their produce through a local govt. co-op at set prices, too. The cabins were set plans, and the barns were too small for dairy purposes although they were expected to raise dairy animals. Hmmm. Govt. plans. It was a good idea but had too much oversight in some areas!
The produce is great though, since they receive 21 hrs of sunlight during their short growing season, the size and taste is wonderful. We'll enjoy the tomato, lettuce, chard, beets in the next few days.
From the visitor center we've found lots of interesting things to see & do. Here is the bronze statue of Balto of Nome, the lead sled dog in the Nenana-to-Nome sled rescue that has spawned the Ididerod Race. The team took the serum to Nome to prevent a diptheria outbreak in the dead of winter, and Balto became world famous. I have the book, needless to say! The start of the race is now Wasilla, although they do a media start in Anchorage and then a re-start from Wasilla.
We will stay in this area for 9 days, although the weather has changed on us. It's cold, in the 50's with a wind that feels as though it's coming right off the Matanuska Glacier! We've found a wonderful borough park (think County Park) which has RV spaces. It's just out of town and very lovely. Our walk this morning was fraught with bear-aware comments! Except the moose are more dangerous, which is kinda funny. There's a lot of moose-meadows and moose crossings signs on the roads. Hitting a moose will NOT be a fun day for you or your truck!

McKinley at Last!

We are delighted to show you this incredible photo of Mt.McKinley (or Denali, if you are being PC) which Garth took today on our 3rd 8-hr bus tour you must take if you want to see the mt. up close... well, 35 miles is considered up close! This photo shows the road we will continue upon as we finish the drive. Today we were all very fortunate to see a lynx, that most elusive cat, and we again saw caribou, golden eagles, Dahl sheep, and many grizzly bears. We even happened upon a wolf kill after the mother grizzly had run the wolves off and she and her two cubs were feeding on the carcase.. Many pictures later....and don't worry you don't see that it's a dead animal, you just see the two cubs 'playing'... learning fighting, no doubt! I wished to see wolves but we were not lucky in that. But the USFS Ranger said to us as we were coming here to get online that a lynx sighting trumps a wolf sighting so I guess we will have to be satisfied with our animal viewing.

We had seriously considered not taking this 3rd trip as it's so tiring to be jostled over 120 miles of gravel road, so we got up at 1:30 am, yes, AM, and drove 15 miles to the "lookout" place where you can first see the mt. if it's clear. It's the only place the private cars can go and when we saw that it was clear, we returned to the rigs, and some of the family got a bit more sleep then we took the 6 am bus, which requires that we be there at 5:15. Needless to say, I've been up since 1 am. and am a bit weary!

But it was WORTH IT. Only 30% of the visitors to the Park ever see the Mt. It is so immense that it makes it's own weather patterns and is most often cloaked in clouds during July. Last year during July it was only seen 3 days! We took tons of pictures, of course.

Tomorrow we will spend around the Visitor Center/Park HQ complex. They've some great movies (The Wolves of McKinley, for one) that we've heard about and want to see. Garth is hopeful of keeping me out of the gift shop but you all know how futile that will be!

Monday morning we pack up and drive 125 miles down toward Anchorage and the Kenai Penn. I'd really like to take a day-trip salmon fishing excursion but that's something that Garth can't do as you all know how badly he suffers from mal du mer. Oh well, maybe I'll get offered a salmon by an Indian as won't have to go to the trouble to spending a day catching one! The local tribes can fish for subsistence living and often sell their extra fish to tourists. Perhaps I'll get lucky!

Garth is going to treat me to an ice cream cone since we are out of ice cream at the rig. Have to get to a major store soon! Lots of errands for us to do in Anchorage area. Mail stop, buy ice cream, you know, life's important things!

This has been a wonderful week here in Denali and I'm thrilled to have been along while Garth & Walt saw The Mountain. Made it all worthwhile, believe me!

More soon. Mary

Denali Nat'l Park

We are staying here in Denali for two days longer than we'd originally planned. Mostly because it's so lovely, and of course, Garth is pleased to find that his 'Golden Age Pass' gets us a reduction in the nightly fee. He's looking at what Nat'l Parks will be on our way home, once we return to continental soil!

The Park is now closed to private cars & the only way you can get about is a shuttle system. We all bought the 2-day pass which gives you a 3rd day free. That appealed to our Scottish hearts! The 8-hr bus ride can be long and boring or you can open your eyes and watch diligently for animals which we did. And our bus trips have been rewarded with grizzly bear, moose and caribou, Dall sheep, golden eagle, and fox sightings. Today the grizzly bear that was really close was so exciting... you could hear the click click of the digital cameras; it sounded like a continuous wave of sound as all the folks on the bus were busy recording that bear's every move!

But then someone yelled, "Stop!" (which is the accepted method for the driver to hear you, honest.) and there below us on a bench of the valley (really close!) were 4 kit fox playing rough and tumble among the low willow bushes. Garth got great photos of them and I'll have them for another post.

The camp where we stayed in '63 & '65 is now closed, except to those few hikers who have applied for a special permit to stay there at Igloo Creek. It was an unofficial camp when we visited before and only found out about it because we met, and were charmed by, an old man named "Russian Joe". He had been living in the Park during the summers for at least 25 years (was a Russian, actually, who had grown up in Sitka when Alaska had just been sold to the US by the Tzar. He was older than my grandfather who'd gone to Alaska in the Klondike gold rush)

Fairbanks Stayover

We've had a lovely time here in Fairbanks. It was a heat record a few days ago with temps in the 90's! Yes, I was glad to have a small storm move through and cool it off a bit!

Mother, Jan & I went to the Univ. of Alaska to talk with them. Their Librarian had set up an appt. with their oral history archivist who spent 2 hrs. this morning interviewing Mother about her time with her grandfather, his time here in Alaska, all she remembered of his life, etc. It was fascinating to hear her speak of this man who thought nothing of setting out for Alaska in 1898! They taped the intereview and will send us a CD copy each.

We leave here Monday for 5 days in Denali (Mt. McKinley) Nat'l Park. We have hopes of seeing The Mountain as the storm has moved on and it did cut the smoke from the fires. Alaska has a stated policy of not fighting fires unless they threaten towns, homes, farms, etc. The news reports that there are 86 fires burning in the state currently! The burnt areas regrow and the fires are needed for good forest management.

(I did manage to download a picture of the hotel built at Manley Hot Springs. It's pretty impressive, huh?)

When we were here in '63 you could drive a private vehicle in the park. Now it's tour buses only so we've made reservations for early departure times as that's best for animal viewing. Bears, mt. sheep, wolves, foxes, moose, wolverine, you get a chance to see them all. They've never been hunted in the park as the natives (First Nations) thought the area sacred & named the mountain Denali. It's been changed back to that from McKinley since '65 so I think of it as both!

From there we will go down through the Anchorage area, picking up our good friend, Mary K, who is to travel with us for 10 days. Garth's brother and his wife, Rob & Sue, are due to arrive in Anchorage mid-month and join us in a rented RV also. We'll be a real caravan then!

We've met some of the nicest folks here; helpful and gracious and delighted to show off their wonderful state.

Manley Hot Springs

We've just returned from our one day side trip up to Manley Hot Springs. It was amazing, just amazing. The original hotel was built by the man who assumed the name of my great-grandfather, when he went to Alaska one jump ahead of the marshall. The "new" Frank Manley built a huge hotel (think Victorian splendor/4 story/impressive) in 1898. That hotel burned in 1929 and a roadhouse was built and named the Manley Roadhouse. We stayed there lastnight and saw 4 moose while we were there. Great cooked breakfast! We were introduced to several folks at this town hundreds of miles from nowhere, one lady opened the school & let us investigate the library to see if we could find an unpublished manuscript written by a gal who researched the entire Manley Hot Springs area & especially about "Frank Manley". She did discover that he had assumed that name but did not know that there was a real Frank Luther Manley. The two ladies there at the town really want my mother to contact the library at the Univ. here in Fairbanks to talk with them and update their historical information. We may be able to do that within the next two days.
On Sunday we leave here and will take 1-2 days to drive 125 miles down to Denali Nat'l Park. We've reservations there for 5 days & I have to assume that they won't have wi-fi but you never know! You may be hearing from us while we stay in Denali, viewing animals & hoping for a view of the Mountain. The internet here is very slow so I won't try to upload a picture.

We've Reached Alaska!

After an incredible drive (unpaved & almost unimproved!) over The Top of The World Drive from Dawson City to Tok, Alaska, we spent the holiday weekend at the Tok River State Park, just a mile outside Tok. As you can see from the photo, it was a lovely spot, with our picture window overlooking the fast-moving river. Now, Sunday, we've moved our rigs to Fairbanks, to the State Park here, along the Chena River.
The frost heaves on the paved roads make for a very bumpy ride. The gravel roads don't suffer from frost heaves, although you pay for that with the dust, dirt, and mud!
We will stay here for about 5 days, using this as our base camp for day/side trips. We will go north up a gravel road just to the Arctic Circle (have to have that photo!), and a special overnight trip out to Manley Hot Springs, named after my great grandfather. We will leave the rigs here as that road is gravel and there are no accomodations for RV's out there. And of course, a visit to the University of Alaska Museum here in town. It's recognized as one of the best in the state.
Good things we got great pics of the Alaska Range while in the Tok State Park. Today, as we drove along them, there was a fire with smoke covering them totally. We stopped at Delta Junction to lunch, visit the museum and the famous Sullivan Roadhouse (moved to this spot courtesy the US Army of all people!). My great-grandfather would have stopped at that Roadhouse on his 2nd, of four! trips to Alaska, as it was on the Valdez-to-Fairbanks trail. The trail was 10 feet wide and 268 miles long. He told my mother that he walked the entire way and as it was winter trail, he did it on a snow-covered trail! As best she recalls, it was either 1904 or 1908.
Contrast that with our trip today.... I prepared my mini-crockpot with a roast to slow cook, and gave it to Jan. Their 5th wheel has solar power and she puts her crock pot in the sink, lets it cook while they drive and voila! a meal ready at dinnertime. Since it's Sunday it's my turn to host the whole group. We will have broccoli/cauliflower/carrots for a veg, boiled Yukon Gold potatoes, the pot roast done in the crock pot, and I baked a mincemeat pie (last night) for dessert. Life on the open road....
Garth hung the clock I gave him. All it has are days of the week on it so we know today is Sunday. Had we not been traveling we'd have found a church to attend for services but that didn't work out today.
It's warmer weather now, in the high 70's in Fairbanks and we've opened every window in the rig to cool off. We'll do some shopping here in town and do laundry (of course!)
Garth says he's having a great time. We have walkie-talkies to use while traveling so we are always in contact with Jan & Walt. He likes to hear Walt's pithy comments about the roads and the other RV drivers. Whoever is in the lead gives warning of upcoming stops and the following rig gives notice of cars needing to pass. That arrangement seems to work really well.
More later!

Crossing the Yukon

Let's see if I can download the picture of this ferry crossing the Yukon. As you can see it's a very small ferry. It runs 24/7 except for two hours on Wed. morn. when it's down for maintenance. It takes 2 cars abreast and has a max length that just barely permits our rigs to occupy one aisle. We will cross over tomorrow early as the line gets long and RV's take up a lot of space. Then we will return in one truck and take a river 2-hr. cruise. Then we are off to the Top of The World drive and we will curve north into Alaska. Be back in touch in 3-4 days, probably. We spent the day in Dawson City, visiting the Robert W. Service cabin where the docent was really great and we learned a lot about the man himself and about his love of the Yukon. Then we went to the city museum and really steeped ourselves in the history of Dawson and the Klondike Gold Rush. It's incredible to think that my grandfather was here as a young man when those 'old-time' pictures were taken! I still have the nugget of gold his father brought home from the mine they worked on the Iditerod River. The history of this region is so fascinating. Garth has really enjoyed seeing all of this, having heard about "when we were in Dawson in '63" from my family for years! Time to get dinner on the table for Garth & Mother. It's leftovers tonight... leftover beef stroganof... with cold salmon salad on the side. Yup, life sure is tough here in the gold country! Having the time of our lives. Miss you all.

Crossing the Yukon River

Let's see if I can show you all a picture of the ferry that will take our rigs across the Yukon River tomorrow. If I wait to show you a picture of the rig on the ferry it might be a week before we have internet access again as we are off into the wilds after tomorrow. We will spend the day in Dawson City & tomorrow we are to take a boat ride on the river itself. I will take lots of photos, to be sure!

Along the Yukon River

Third time is supposed to be a charm! Let's see if it will finally accept this photo!

Five Fingers

Let's see if I managed to get the photo of Five Fingers into the blog!
We are today in Dawson City, home of the Klondike Gold Rush. It certainly has upgraded itself since we were here in 63 & 65! We stay here two days, seeing sites of interest (Robt. W. Service's cabin; the poet called The Bard of the Yukon, wrote The Cremation of Sam McGee and others of that ilk) then we will put the rig on the ferry across the Yukon River. The ferry will just only take one rig at a time & I'll be sure to post a picture of this teeny little ferry with our rig crossing the Yukon, a quarter mile wide at this point!
It's so lovely up here, pity the winters are so bitterly cold and LONG!

When we cross the River we start out upon a road called The Top of The World drive. We drove up to the Dome this afternoon (a knob that overlooks Dawson City) we could see it climbing and climbing away into the mountains across the river from us. It's gravel and narrow, with steep climbs and drops. It takes us close to the Artic Circle in fact. We curl around on it and enter Alaska at it's northernmost entry point. We will be back into cell phone range in 6 days, we figure! Either that or send the Mounties!

Five Fingers

This photo is of the famous passage on the Yukon River, formed by knobs of rock called congomerate, which the steamers had to navigate on their way from Whitehorse to Dawson City. It is amazing to see it looking the same as it did 110 years ago, from historical pictures of paddle wheelers threading those channels. The safest is the once closest to our side of the river and not really seen in the picture. My grandfather and great-grandfather went through there... it boggles the mind!
Pigs is traveling well, although he didn't want to come out from under the covers this morning, it was a chilly 45 inside the rig! Great mornings for hot cereal and hot chocolate!
We walk almost every morning with Jan & Walt... sometimes it's pretty brisk! I guess it will warm up later in the season.
Saw a fox yesterday... she'd been out hunting and had caught a ground squirrel.
Incredible scenery, to say the least.

Along the Whitehorse-to- Dawson Trail

We've been on the road, traveling northward.. followed by hordes of mosquitos. Which is why we don't see moose this time of year; the bites on the antlers-in-the-velvet are dangerous to the animals so they stay high in the mt.s until after skeeter season.

Tomorrow we will arrive in Dawson City, home of the Klondyke Gold Rush of '98. That's 1898! My great-grandfather was in Dawson, and so was my grandfather when they came north to work a gold mine on the Iditerod River. This is so exciting to see it all again, 'way different from when we visited in '63 with my folks, and that same grandfather who'd been there in '06.

The photo is a roadhouse, now abandoned, obviously, on the Whitehorse-to-Dawson trail. The interior walls were covered with canvas to help keep the wind out and to keep the chinking material (moss, mostly) from falling into the food, etc. It was in use well into the 30's. A 2-story log building with out buildings for the horses & storehouse. This truly was the frontier! It's still pretty wild when signs are posted by the Yukon govt. telling you how far it is to the next fuel stop! But beautiful.. words do not describe it. If I can figure out how to load a pic of the Yukon River I will

Meziadin Lake side trip

This is looking out of our picture window as we are camped here at Meziadin Lake up on the Cassiar Highway. We drove down to Stewart, BC today, a short side road trip to the coast. It's just 1/2 mile along a road and you are into Alaska, but only to the town of Hyder (pop. 100). VERY interesting. There is even a border crossing back into BC, but none into the US. We saw many glaciers, a bear, and even an eagle (flying back into Alaska while we waited at the border for the RCMP to stamp our passport). This is an interesting road, constructed during WWII to enable supplies to get to Watson Lake, Yukon Terr., a supply point in the landing-strip-to-landing-strip way that was used to ferry fighter planes to the USSR. Once the planes got to Alaska, then Russian pilots came over and took over flying them across the Bering Strait. Women in the Army Air Corps were the transfer pilots and it was a dangerous risky job with miles of trackless wilderness between each tiny landing strip. It's STILL miles of trackless wilderness, believe me! We took a picnic lunch and ate it in Stewart, sharing our picnic spot with a dozen Bohemian waxwing... a lovely bird I now can add to my Life List (of birds seen).

Glacier View

Here is that glacier across the valley from us.

It's as cold as it looks, too.

Glacier View

Here we are at Glacier View RV Park outside Smitters on the Yellowhead Highway (between Prince George & Prince Rupert, BC). That is a real glacier in the photo, too. I spotted the first moose today, a young one just munching on willows. It's been raining & chilly, so we are glad we did bring jackets from Land's End! Temps in the low 50's. Jan & I have decided that they will dine with us on Sundays and we with them on Wed. each week. Mother will ride with us until Sunday and then switch back with J&W. Whoever has Mother in the truck is the lead truck as she is the Official Trip Planner & Navigator. This way it gives everybody a chance to see everybody, too and not so confusing once you get going. After church tomorrow we start up the Cassiar Highway toward the Yukon but we've a day visit first to an interesting historical Indian (First People) Encampment and the day after tomorrow we've a lay-over to visit 2 small towns, Hyder & Stewart, 20 miles down on a sound which separates BC from Alaska. The only way to get to Hyder, Alaska is through BC or by float plane! From. now on we never allow the tank to get below half as fuel stops are few & far between. Having a grand time, as you can see. Miss you all.

Here is a photo taken as we drove north toward Prince George, BC. Big swift-flowing rivers and lovely meadows.

Northward through BC

We have made it to Prince George today. It must have been incredible for the early settlers to get this far north through what is basically trackless wilderness once you leave the settlements along the highway. We turn west tomorrow toward Prince Rupert and the turn-off north on the Cassiar Highway. That will take us north again into the Yukon Territory. It's all gorgeous scenery, of course with big swift-moving rivers. Walt saw a lynx in our camp a couple of nights ago... chasing a ground squirrel, probably. They don't attack humans. That's good as we were on the lookout for the bear that had been around camp!

Onward Into Canada

After 3 very long days we drove into Surrey, BC and were able to do the paperwork in order to leave his mother's remains there at the family plot.
Returning to the US for the weekend, we found a camping site at Birch Bay State Park on the sound north of Bellingham WA. We've moved the rig into Ferndale for Sunday so we could hook up the cable and watch the Lakers WIN!
Tomorrow it's into Canada to Kamloops where we will meet Jan, Walt, and Mother. The picture is of Garth at Birch Bay, sitting at the campsite reading. He needs that sort of relaxation.

We setup the blog!

Today, Tom helped us setup the blog that will be the on-going record of our roadtrip to Alaska! WE have been loading the rig and will be on the road Wed. at 0-dark-thirty in order to miss the traffic through LA.