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
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Thursday, July 29, 2010
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
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
Monday, July 26, 2010
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.
Take care, Carol and Ned
Kodiak, Island
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
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!
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!
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
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 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
The video wouldn't download.
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