Trip Reflections

Hello,
We are home, arrived Sunday evening.  Kitty was glad to see us, he had quite the summer living in the garage with a family of raccoons that decided to move in and mess up the garage and eat Kitty's food.  Thanks to our neighbor, Denny, for rescuing Kitty and catching the raccoons and taking them for a long ride!  

Traveling along the Cassiar Highway was nice, the weather for the most part was sunny.  We did a day trip down to Telegraph Creek, a small, almost ghost town on the Stikine River.  River boats used to come up the river from the Inside Passage to there during the gold rush era. The road was the trip!!  Gravel, narrow, 20% grades up and down river valleys, traveled over a lava dike that was not much wider than the road with straight down drops to rivers on both sides!!!  Impressive scenery.

We also spent a couple days in Hyder, Ak.  We can drive there from the Cassiar Highway, it is the most Southerly  town in Alaska.  It is also an almost ghost town located at the end of the Portage Channel. There is a salmon spawning area where the forest service has an observation deck for bear watching. We went twice and watched a black bear and then a sow brown bear with a cub fish for their meals.  Fascinating.

From there we pretty much headed home.  We did drive through the Canadian Rockys, stopped at the Rocky Mountain House, a restored Hudson's Bay Fur Trading Post near Calgary, camped at Cypress Hills in southern Alberta, then crossed the border into Montana.  While in North Dakota, we spent a pleasant  morning visiting the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. A gentler kind of badlands that has good hiking potential. We were amazed at how green the landscape was from Montana into Wisconsin.  A lot of standing water was evident and the rivers were running very high.

All the while we were in Alaska, not a single person mentioned Sarah whats-her-name!  The name was no where to be seen in Wasilla.  We did ask the gal that transferred our van to the ferry while we were on the Copper River about her, and I think Alaskans are embarrassed. Her book was seen in two places, each a grocery store check out, it was marked 50% off and it was located next the National Inquirer.  We spent a lot of time this trip around the Prince William Sound and the Exxon Valdez and the aftermath of the oil spill of some 20 years ago is still up front in the minds and people were reflecting on what changes it caused in their lives.  Small town museums gave that event most the space in their displays, even more than the '64 earthquake and tsunami.

I'll add pictures, this time the internet connection should be ok!

When we get an idea for the next trip, we will let you know!!!

Thanks for traveling with us!  Carol and Ned

Wasilla visitor center.

Hyder, Alaska

Telegraph Creek road.

Edge of the lava dike, along the edge of Telegraph Creek road.

The other side of the dike and road!

Black Bear feeding at Fish Creek near Hyder, Ak.

Success!!

Mama Griz and baby.

Where is that fish?

Got it!

Now, how did mom do it??

Pictures from Fire

Hi, here are a few pictures of the road through fire. 

This is the line up, our van is 3rd on the left, and the next picture is what was behind us!

The line extends as far as I can see, the smoke makes the picture unclear. Some of these campers were in line for 24 hours and slept along the road.  We were in a campground and squeezed into a spot where someone left, so we were in line about 5 hours.  Then the heliotropes flew over to check the road and then gave the pilot car the go ahead.

We met the fire about 15 miles down the road.  We did see flames and evidence of a very hot fire along both sides of the road.

We are finding out that downloading pictures is troublesome to the connection and to me!!!  Takes a bunch of time and the connections cuts out and then stuff disappears!

We are in Hyder, AK now, and went to the bear viewing area along Fish Creek, saw a black bear feeding, then drove up to see Salmon Glacier, drove till the clouds closed in and we couldn't see anything!  We did see the lower parts of the glacier. 
Take care, Carol

Driving into the Fire.

Hello Everyone,
We did it! We are on the Cassiar Highway!!  We are back on our planned track.

We did travel the Robert Campbell Highway through Faro and Ross River.  Both towns are in the middle on nowhere, actually The Yukon and are former mining towns trying to survive on tourism, or just plain survive.  The road for the first 100 miles was paved/seal coated, then gravel with a chemical to make it firm. Then the last almost 200 miles it was gravel and very dusty, with construction where it was muddy.  We camped at two beautiful lakes along the way. A new road for us.  The Campbell meets the Alaska Highway at Watson Lake.

At Watson Lake we checked on the fire and highway conditions for the Cassiar Highway that goes south into British Columbia, south of the 60th Parallel. The fire is getting bigger and going right down the highway corridor, and the road is closed. They may open it twice daily with a pilot car. Maybe if the smoke is not thick.  So, we stocked up and got a camp site by the intersection of the two highways.  We washed the van there as it was really dirty from the last few days.  Campers and trucks were lining up for the wait for the opening of the road.  The line was over a mile long, It did open once on Tuesday, we hoped to go on Wednesday.  We joined the line Wed. morning, with the hope of a 9AM or so trip through the fire area, about a 50 mile escort.  The opening came at 1PM.  Helicopters were overhead checking the route etc.  Quite the excitement!  The smoke at the intersection was thick and we wondered how it would be on the drive through.  I'll try to explain via pictures.  Take care Carol and Ned

Pictures won't send AGAIN!!!  So will do it later.

You Won't Believe This!!!

Hi again!,  We are in Whitehorse, Yukon.  We checked in with the travel information place, and guess what????  Foiled again!  We are now on the rain shadow side of the St. Elias Mountains and it is dry here, (although it is sprinkling and cloudy right now!!!).  So dry that they have a fire ban and the road into British Columbia has a forest fire and is currently closed.  That is the Cassiar Highway we want to take south.  We also found out that the Demster Highway is also closed due to washouts. We weren't planning on that one anyway.

We do plan to go North from Whitehorse to Carmacks and turn east on the John Campbell Highway and travel a road we have not done before.  It is north of the Alaska Highway, is gravel most the way, goes through Faro and Ross River and connects with the Alaska Highway at Watson Lake.  There we can check on the Cassiar Hwy, and still be able to take it if it is open!!  We will probably be about 3-4 days taking the Campbell Hwy., so I hope by then the road is open!!! 

Will keep you posted!!  Take care, Carol & Ned

Rain foiled again!!

Hi,
 We are in Tok, Ak. where the Glenn Hwy meets the Alaska Highway.  It is a spot that everyone goes through twice, coming and going into Alaska.  We are 90 miles from the Canadian border.  Just down the road is the turn North on the Taylor Highway which goes to the Top of The World Highway that goes into Canada farther North.  The road to Eagle on the Yukon River goes north from that road also.  BUT The Taylor Hwy just opened today after being closed due to several washouts due to heavy rains about 2 weeks ago.  It is a gravel road to begin with, and now the road report and the visitor information place here says it is 40 miles of large crushed rock.  It is open, but travel at your own risk!  The road to Eagle is closed. SOOOO, I guess we are heading East on the Alaska Hwy to Whitehorse and then South on the Cassier Hwy in British Columbia to Hyder,AK.  We plan to see more bears eating salmon there.

The sun is out for the first time in many days.  We did not see Denali, nor did we see the Mountains in the Wrangell Range or the Alaska Range as we drove from Cantwell to Tok.  It is flat here, so go figure!!!
We did see a lot of Caribou along the Denali Highway.  We also met a couple from Michigan that happen to be from the same town as Ned's brother and they know him will!!  We were standing along the gravel road in the middle of nowhere looking at caribou and started talking about where we were from!!!  Small world!

Take care, will keep you posted on progress east.  Carol and Ned     

Rain bound in Talkeetna!

Hi, Rain, Rain, Go Away!!  We have had one sunny day in 7!!! Lucky, that is the day we hiked up toward the Harding Ice Field along side of Exit Glacier.  We had a nice hike, up switchbacks all the way, to a good overlook of the Glacier.  We kept meeting hikers with seeing bears along the trail stories, but we didn't see any!!  We had the bear spray ready just in case.  We went back to Hope, Ak, in the rain, and are now in Talkeetna, in the rain.  Our hope was to get a better glimpse of Denali, as last time it was raining when we were in Talkeetna for 3 days!!!  The forecast does not look promising, rain for the week.  Guess we will start to head east along the Denali Highway if that is the case.  We are sitting outside the Talkeenta Roadhouse using their wifi in the van.  Works.  Will try to upload pictures that wouldn't work last time from Kodiak and others.
Take care, Carol and Ned

Brown Bear along Hidden Lake Creek, along Skilak Lake road, Kenai, Peninsula.

Soldovia, AK

Kachemak Bay, from ferry leaving Homer.

Kodiak, Island

Kodiak City, Kodiak, Is.

Kodiak, The Emerald Isle

Hi Everyone,
We have returned to Homer on the all night ferry from Kodiak.  We loved Kodiak Island!!  The hills are green with wildflower/grass cover, very few trees, but the ones growing are open grown and full foliage.  This gives a park like setting everywhere on the mountains. The most beautiful and enjoyable part are the crescent shaped black sand beaches with rock cliffs on the sides. We walked many of them at low tide.  We drove all the roads and explored all the state parks and hiking trails.  Most the trails were in the rain forest with moss handing from the huge Sitka Spruce. We did not go inland via boat or bush plane to see the Kodiak Bears, we spent our wad already for that sort of thing on this trip.  Maybe the next time!!!  We did see huge bear tracks along the Buskin River near where we camped, the salmon are coming into that river.

We did take a day boat trip to Soldovia from Homer, a delightful community and lots of sea bird and mamals along the way.  We are heading to Seward and then on to Denali, we have made the turn to the East.

Any emails from you would be appreciated!!!  Guess, we are a little hungry for news of your adventures and events of the Summer!!

Take Care, Ned and Carol

Pictures won't load this time!!!!  maybe later!

The Sounds of 4th of July and the founding of Cordova, AK

Hello Everyone, 

We have returned from our second wilderness outing of Rafting on the Copper River from Chitina to Cordova.  The highlight of the trip was rafting past two very active glaciers.  The Miles and the Childs.  The mountains and sand/gravel bars along the way were fantastic.  There were many Grizzly tracks on all of them!!!  A first for us is to set up the tent within a few feet of some pretty huge tracks!  Yes, Carol survived that!!!!!!! We only saw a Black Bear one morning by the privy, and he ran off when he became aware of us.  Now for the glaciers.  Again words or pictures will not do justice to the experience.  We were in 3 rafts, we tied them together to use a motor to go  up to the face of the Miles Glacier and past house sized icebergs that had recently calved off.  Then we used the motor to go against the wind to the Million Dollar Bridge from the old Copper River Railroad where we put on wet suits under our many layers of clothing for the row past the face of the Childs Glacier.  The River hits right up against the face of the glacier as the river curves to the west. The river is about a half mile wide there and the rafts went down the center in the stronger current.  It took about 10 min. to go past the active face, with the hope that nothing really big came off at the time.  It was a long 10 min.!!!!  It was breath taking and beautiful and scary at the same time!!  We made it past with a few small bits of ice crumbling off.  The 6 day river trip was a mix of rain and wind and lesser amounts of rain and wind.  It was colder in southern Alaska than in the Arctic!!!! It was a fantastic trip.

We had the van ferried to meet us in Cordova, that all worked out.  We drove the Copper River Highway back to Childs Glacier and camped there overnight. There is a very nice National Forest Service campground/picnic and viewing area there.  It was 4th of July Weekend and it seems most of Anchorage came down to do glacier calving watching.  Who needs fireworks when the sounds the glacier makes is much louder and more vibrating!!  The Glacier would rumble, crack, sound like thunder and gun shots all wrapped together. What a way to spend the 4th!!!!!  It seems that when we went back to the van for food the caving would be huge and even shake the van in the campground, then we would go back to view and not much would happen, it would wake us up at night with the thunderous sounds.  On Monday, we went to the viewing area before we drove out and finally saw a really big calving with waves and all.  I got it on movie video and will send it as an attachment if I can. Please mute the sound as I said "Oh my gosh" way too many times.

Tomorrow morning we take the Ferry from here to the Kenai Peninsula and then head to Homer and the trip to Kodiak Is.  The weather has been constant rain and rain mist with wind since we came south from Fairbanks.  Even the locals say it is rainier than usual, even though it rains all the time here!!!!

We talked to a local about the area and he said that long ago when the natives came down the Copper River, it was raining so hard that they decided to pull over and wait till it stopped raining to go on, well that is how Cordova was founded, they are still here!!!!!

Take Care, Carol and Ned

Can you find the two rafts ahead of ours? Just under the bridge and one a dot by the glacier.

Childs Glacier

Childs Glacier from Viewing area, we rafted in the middle.

Copper River Reds!

The video wouldn't download.

We Survived the Trip of A Lifetime!!

Hi Everyone, This will be a quick update with more to follow sometime.

 Words, pictures, stories of this adventure will never do justice to the wonderful adventure we just completed.  It was indeed a TRIP OF A LIFETIME!  It was a rugged trip, with more whitewater than I have ever paddled in, that includes Ned, he said now I can do the Wolf River and it will be easy!!!  We had all kinds of weather, except snow, from warm the first few days to rain, 30 mph winds blowing us up stream, to cold fog off the Arctic Ocean.  The river ran swift, totally clear and very cold.  It comes out of ice. The Brooks Range was totally AWESOME!  We started in a narrow canyon the paddled 40 or so miles down to where the mountains broaden out and the river became braided with many channels and gravel bars, about 20 miles from the Arctic Ocean.  This is the land of nameless mountains and tundra.  Hiking in the tundra is like walking across an alpine flower garden with every step impossible to avoid crushing something beautiful and in full bloom. The animals are there but hiding most the time, most the space is a vast emptiness of sky, green tundra and rock.  The perpetual light, with the sun circling the sky, is a phenomena to behold.  I loved it, Ned and the guys  took a midnight hike to the top of a mountain to over look the Arctic Ocean on the Solstice. The pictures are awesome!
    Animal life did make appearances on their terms.  The most unexpected species was the Muskox, we saw two on a gravel bar along the river.  When we arrived closer to the coastal plain, we did see waves of Caribou traveling in groups of 30-40 males, heading to the coast.  They were magnificent animals in full dark brown velvet.  At times we would see the tops of the antlers moving across the landscape. We spend part of an afternoon sitting high on a rock outcrop and watched several groups of caribou pass below us.  We also watched a Grizzly wondering around a willow water way looking  for food from there.
      The flights in and out of the Kongakut River basin were what Alaska is all about. We went from Fairbanks to Arctic Village, a first nation village with an air strip, by small 7 passenger airplane.  From there we transferred to a small bush plane with big soft tires that can land on a gravel bar.  These landing strips are hardly noticeable on the landscape!  It took 4 flights to get us all to the starting point on the river, we went in three and gear at a time.
     
      Now it is off to Valdez and the Copper River.  We get to ride on this trip!!

Carol and Ned     

  YUP, Packer fans everywhere even a native in Arctic Village, Alaska!!!!

Up Date from Fairbanks

Muncho Lake, BC Taken at sunset around 11pm!!!!

Arctic Lupine, grows under trees!






Pasque Flower, also grows in shade!!!

George, this one's for you!!!!  Teslin, Yukon, a really nice pioneer museum.

Alaska Highway, Yukon Territory

ALASKA AT LAST!!

Sullivan Roadhouse, Delta Junction, AK  reminds me of home!

The alpine tundra is blooming!!!!  Taken at Eagle Summit along the Steese Highway, on the way back from Circle.

Watched bird banding at the Alaska Migratory Bird Lab.  Fairbanks, AK

Old Packer Fans are everywhere!!  Even at Pioneer Park in Fairbanks!!!!

We have been in Fairbanks for the past 4 days and have been visiting places we missed 3 years ago.  This is a very interesting and alive place.  The Museum of the North at the University of Alaska campus is well worth the second visit.  The university does large animal research on Muskox and Caribou and they have tours of the facility, went there today also.  The smoke has cleared, it has been raining some, so that has helped.  Still can't see the Alaska Range to the South.

We head out on the first wilderness adventure on Wednesday.  So, will update after we return!!  It should be an something!!!     Take care, Carol and Ned