Haines to Tok

5-30-06Well, so much for the best laid plans. We woke up at our usual 5:30 am and after showering and eating breakfast, it was only about 7. So we did the walking tour of Haines and found a bakery frequented by the locals. Yummy!!! I had a crousaint with cheese and blueberries in it, but it looked like a bear claw. It just melted in my mouth. Harold had his normal jalapeno cheese bagel that was a good 6 inches across. On our walk we bought milk so took that back to the camp and drove to the Eagle Foundation information center. What a great place to learn about wildlife. They had many stuffed animals that had died from accidents or disease and they were placed in a natural setting. I will include pictures. Then we drove around the old Fort Seward area. The parade grounds and most of the houses are still there. The houses have been turned into bed and breakfast, inn and private residences. It was only 10 by then so Harold washed the truck while I cleaned the inside of the trailer and we hit the road at 10:45. Good thing we travel by ourselves as our schedule would drive anyone else bonkers. Just down the road a ways I glanced up and saw a sign made by wood burning technique with crosses on it and the words "New Hope Fellowship". Made me think of our Christian brothers and sisters at New Hope Christian Fellowship in Anacortes.On our way north from Haines we drove through the eagle preserve and only saw one eagle. It is still a little early for them. Saw prairie dogs when we stopped at the Haines Highway summit (3,477 feet) for lunch. It was the most beautiful drive. We through the St. Elias Mountains. There are no trees and we are right at the base of the mountains that just go on forever. There was enough of the black dirt/rock showing through that it reminded me of those pictures of the appaloosa horses and you have to find how many are in the picture. We got to Haines Junction (161 miles) and didn't like the looks of the RV park so gased up and went on. Drove around one end of Lake Kluane which is mostly still frozen. What is thawed is deep jade in color. Across the end of the lake there was either dust or smoke blowing across the road. It was pretty weird. Then we hit construction and muddy/gravel roads for about 10 miles. You should see Harold's truck he washed this morning! The RV park at Burwash was pretty primative and isolated so we kept going. The road was not under construction, but because of all the upheavel from the freezing during the winter, it was very bumpy and we couldn't go very fast. Finally got to Kluane Wilderness Village & RV Park. Beautiful ad in the Milepost, but a dump. But had to stay here anyway. Just before we got here we saw a moose (small one) and have pictures of that. The guy at the park said the next 140 miles are worse than the 100 we just crossed. Hope we don't come back this way!! Off to bed as tomorrow will be another trying day, but we should be in Tok, AK (200 miles) in 5 or 6 hours. Left camp 5-31-06 and drove another 200 miles to Tok. Will write about this place on the next entry. Heading for Valdez tomorrow.

Pictures of Skagway & Haines

5-28-06 continued

These pictures are taking forever to download. Be thankful I am not sending all 169 I have taken so far!!! I brought along a printer so I can keep my album up to date, but have only used it one day because we had no electricity or I was too tired. Maybe I will have time in Fairbanks!! Anyway these will give you some idea of what we are seeing. We are so blessed!!!

Skagway and Haines

5-29-06
This morning it was beautiful and sunny so we hit the streets of Skagway before the cruise ships unloaded. So glad we did as four ships came in today with a total of 7,842 passengers plus crew. It was a mad house by noon. Anyway we had a pleasant walk around town for a couple of hours then went to the museum at 9:15. Went back to camp, had lunch then stopped to fill up with gas before getting in line for the ferry to Haines.

The ferry was not scheduled to leave until 4:45, but we had to be out of the RV park by noon so got in line. We were the second one in line, but the last one loaded as they back everyone up and turn around to get off. Since we had a double rig (truck pulling trailer) we didn't have to drive so far into the boat and were able to get off as one of the first rigs which was nice.

We are in a very nice RV park just a few blocks from town. They have wireless internet service for $5 for day which we can access from our RV which means I can use it as long as I like. (As I write it is 9:45 and Harold and Sheila are in their beds fast asleep.)

We had a beautiful ride. The hills go almost straight up from all sides and the glaciers are beautiful. There are waterfalls everywhere. Then with the sun out it was gorgeous. There is a river just north of town where the grizzlies take their young to teach them to fish. They are pretty thick later in the year when the big salmon runs arrive, but right now there are some kings going up the river and a large grizzly was spotted last week. We will probably drive out there tomorrow evening as we are staying here for two nights since it is so beautiful and peaceful.

The pictures I loaded yesterday had such small writing I am not sure you can read it. Anyway the first picture was of the snow, the second picture was showing that the day turned out beautiful after all. I am having trouble loading pictures now so will post this then try to just post pictures.

Watson Lake to Skagway

05-28-06
Started out today with freezing rain and snow after it blew and rained all night. Thought we might as well hit the road since the wind was from the east and we were heading west. I had been wondering what that area would look like in the snow so I found out the hard way. Last night almost everyone with a BIG motorhome washed their rigs. About 30 miles down the road we hit an area of gravel for 10 miles. The front of the trailer was totally brown. After we got back on the blacktop the truck tires threw up enough water to wash most of the mud off. We had thought about washing our rig, but decided to do other stuff and never got around to it!! The snow turned to rain after about 100 miles. We didn't see any wildlife except crows and rabbits until just before Skagway where we saw a beautiful black bear. His cost was just glistening in the sunshine. We saw a lot of area that had recently burned, some of the lakes still had quite a bit of ice on them. We crossed over the continental divide so now all the rivers except two empty into the Yukon River. Testin Lake is 86 miles long and 2 miles wide. We drove along side it for some time. Had cinnamon rolls at Johnson's Crossing and paid only $1.09 per litre at Testin. Arrived at Skagway at 1:30. This is what I always pictured Alaska as looking like. Of course this is our first sight of Alaska on this trip. We have explored most of the town and will do some more tomorrow before we catch the Alaska Ferry to Haines. $204 for a one way one hour ferry trip!!! But we would have driven an extra 300 miles to see Haines if we went back up and around. So plan to stay in Haines tomorrow night since we don't get there until about 6 pm. Drove 324 miles.

May 27, 2006

5-25-06Left Dawson Creek at 7:45 am in the rain after having Tim Horton donuts for breakfast.. Through more cattle country. Could look across the hills and see our highway ahead. Had rain and sun all day. More places of the road are patched with dirt and gravel. Our rig is filthy, but no need to clean it now! Arrived at Fort Nelson at 2:30 and stayed at Blue Bell Inn. Pretty much a bare lot wit hookups in back of motel. Gas is up to $1.249. We paid $1.349 just south of Fort Nelson so only got $30 worth. At 1 pm a sign said "Welcome to Northern Rockies." Not as impressive as the Rockies in the states. Many natural gas wells around. Although we cannot see them, we see the swaths cut through the trees where they bring the gas lines to the main lines along the highway. Have seen two black bears and four deer total but none close enough to take a picture.

5-26-06Finally a day like we have been expecting - left Fort Nelson at 8 am and about 10 minutes down the road saw three cariboo. No place to stop and on Harold's side so no pictures. Then came a herd of bison that are being raised for food. There was a great gray owl sitting on a stump on the far side of the road and a chipmunk went running across safely.We were in the mountains most of the day. Views of snow covered mountains, green valleys with trees of all different colors of green. The white spruce were brown on about the top foot of the tree. I thought they were dying until I saw new growth above the brown. Finally at a stop I was able to walk up to a tree and discovered the top foot is covered with small cones about 1 inch long and very soft. Summit Lake was still frozen over. Lake Muncho (7 miles long & 430 ft. deep) was still partly frozen and the lake is green. So the ice is green also! A lot of the road has been reworked and is very wide with nice shoulders. There are lots of pull outs and most of them have litter cans (bear proof, of course). When the summer rains come, there is so much water that it washes down the gravel from the mountain. This is deposited at the river spread out like a fan about 100 ft. wide and 50 feet deep. You can see this gravel on both sides of the road as it has been washing down for many years.Today we started seeing the wildlife. After the cariboo there were two groups of four of Stone Sheep, a grizzly down by the river, another stone sheep, several deer with a large white area on their rear and the tail is totally white except for the black hairs on the very tip. Carol saw a moose, but it took off as soon as he saw us so we were not able to stop for pictures. We camped at Liard Hot Springs Provincial Park. There are two large ponds about a ten minute walk from the parking lot. We soaked about 20 minutes then got caught in the rain on the way back. Put our towels over our heads and acted like northwesterners!! Came back and played some gin then slept for a couple of hours. Today we traveled only 192 miles in 5 hours and 10 minutes, but we saw a lot of beautiful scenery and God's creatures out in the wild.

5-27-06
We saw black momma and baby bears and a beautiful fox today. More pictures later when I find another hookup. We are in Watson Lake tonight.

Days 2 & 3 May 24 & 25, 2006

Left LacLaHache at 7:50 am - overcast & cool. The owners wouldn't allow us to connect to the internet again unless we paid $5.00. Figured it wasn't worth it. Lots of lakes and rivers on the whole trip. Not much agriculture except cattle so lots of pastures and hay.
Wuesnel - lots of saw mills, Canadian Tire, WalMart, Century 21 - CIVILATION!!! Stopped at Bijoux Falls for lunch. A lot of water coming down. Will add picture when I can. Arrived at Dawson Creek at 4:45. No internet working there either. This picture at left is of mile zero on the Alaska Highway.

Thursday - Went out for Horton donuts for breakfast. Our camping neighbors from Campbell River, B.C. said we were officially honorary Canadians if we start out the morning at Hortons. Got on the road at 7:45 in the rain. Stopped at Pink Mountain for lunch and hooked up to the restaurant's computer, so didn't get a chance to post then. Long drive just the road going and going through trees - but they cut back the sides for about 50 feet so you don't feel closed in and the animals cannot jump right out in front of us. As we get farther north, there are more gravel patches in the road. Our whole rig is totally muddy!!! There are natural gas wells everywhere, but all we saw are ocassionally installations and see swaths cut through the trees to run the pipes out to the highway to hook up to the mainline pipes. At 1 pm we passed a sign that said "Welcome to the Northern Rockies." Gas is now at $1.24.9 per liter or about $5 per gallon. We got some sun today. The trees are mostly decidious but the evergreens are about 20 years old, very skinny and only about 15 to 25 feet high. Guess the growing season is short!! We got to Fort Nelson at 2:30 and will stay here and on to Liard Hot Springs tomorrow.

Wild animal count - two black bears, four deer - no pictures - yet!!!

Forgive my spelling as I am being rushed and this doesn't have spell check!!

First Day May 23, 2006

We left home at 8:35, emptied the holding tank, stopped at Bakers Cookies in Bellingham to stock up on breakfast cookies. Crossed into Canada at 10:30. Bought our permit to take the shotgun with us ($25 canadian) and were on our way. Drove 340 miles today and we are parked at Fir Crest RV Park just north of Lac La Hache, B.C. ($25). Followed the Fraser River to around Cache Creek then it went west and we more north. We will pick it up again later. It was cloudy to sunny and dry all day, very little traffic and beautiful roads. Lots of water falls around Abbotsford - reminded us if I-90 on the west side. North of Hope the terrain started changed to the dryer climate and lots of tunnels. About 45 miles south of Cache Creek more like central Washington then as we climbed to around 4,000 feet we were back in the pines and birch. Looks as though this area had a forest fire in the last couple of years. Gas has been from $1.12.8 to 1.14.8 per litre. Tomorrow is Prince George and north.

Six more days

We are in the count down mode. Six more days to double check our lists. Today I put the files on the laptop so hopefully we can keep in touch. I am posting this so those of you who are trying it out will know whether you can access this site.