August 23, 2005 (Tue)
Dease Lake RV Park, Dease Lake, BC #19 w/e/s $19c B+
Rancheria, YT to Dease Lake, BC (209/9063 miles) Q021380
Up at 6:30 (41°) clear beautiful skies. Off at 8:00 and continued down the Alaska Highway to the junction with the Cassiar Highway. We badly needed gas but the price at the only station in the area was the U.S equivalent $3.75/gal. We bought $20 worth.
Where we come from, the Cassiar "Highway" would have been considered a back road one step up from a dirt road and not a particularly good road at that. It wound and twisted its way into and through the mountains. It was smooth most of the time but there were frost heaves and broken, badly repaired pavement often enough to keep us from going much over 40 MPH. 14 miles of it was a true dirt road with pot holes and wash boarding. There were even a few mud holes that we had to negotiate! The scenery was worth it though and it was all scenery. We seldom saw anything, other than the road, that had been touched by the hand of man. Even the hills were devoid of buildings (houses).
Jade City is a wide spot in the highway with a jade jewelry and gift store on each side - not a village at all, much less a city. One shop was owned by the people who own and operate the jade mines 60 miles east. In addition to retail items for sale there were work areas outside where they were cutting up the jade. It would have been interesting to watch the craftsmen make the jewelry too but that was somewhere else. Jade City was supposed to have a gas station too but it was closed. The next one was 75 miles further south. We made it with the gas gauge on empty and optimism fading but there was over a gallon of gas left in the tank.
The price here was the U.S. equivalent of $3.52/Gal.
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August 24, 2005 (Wed)
Rainey Creek Campground and RV Park, Stewart, BC #41 elec $20c B+
Dease Lake, BC to Stewart, BC (244/9307 miles) Q021624
Up at 6:15 (44°) off at 7:22 High clouds and sunshine. At 7:35 a large bull moose wandered across the road in front of us and stopped to wonder why we slowed down. As we climbed up and over Gnat Pass (4072 feet) the temperature got steadily colder finally reaching 32° before starting back up again. The first part of the Cassiar Highway we traveled today was a lot like the section we on yesterday, rough and broken pavement and some rough gravel (dirt). We had expected some 45 miles of dirt and gravel but road construction this summer has reduced that kind of driving to about 20 miles. Where the road is finished it is silky smooth - or is that in comparison to the rough sections?
A lot of the road was between high steep sided rock mountains - beautiful and awesome but bordering on claustrophobic. At times it felt like the sheer rock walls would topple over on us. We stopped at a pullout overlooking Bear Glacier. It is possible to watch this glacier "calf" into Bear River from there but no ice broke off while we were there. There were several icebergs from recent calving, though, floating in the river.
We pulled into Rainey Creek Campground at about 3:00. Dinner was halibut fish and chips at the King Edward Hotel in Stewart. Delicious! Some of the best we've had.
Hyder, AK is about 2 miles further on and is where there is a area (Fish Creek) on the Salmon River where black bears (mostly) like to come to fish. We saw 3 or 4 bears. Non were fishing but there had been some earlier.
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August 25, 2005 (Thu)
Rainey Creek Campground and RV Park, Stewart, BC (2)
One of the main reasons people, us included, come to Stewart is to see the bears in Hyder. If that's all they do, they miss one of the most spectacular and scary drives in the whole northwest. The southern tip of the huge Salmon Glacier (the 5th largest glacier in Canada) is 17 miles out of Hyder on a very rough dirt road. It is a magnificent sight to behold in itself but getting there (and beyond) was more than awesome. We climbed nearly 4000 feet on a road without guard rails that clung to the sides of high steep mountains. At times we were looking almost straight down to a river winding through the valley a couple of thousand feet down.
The views down were scary but the views out and up were spectacular. The mountains were rugged and rocky. Glaciers of varying sizes filled most of the areas slow to get direct sun but there were glaciers also on the tops of mountains. Mines large and small were scattered all along the road providing periodic breaks in the natural beauty. At about 33 miles - we had no idea the road went that far - we stopped to view another large glacier and get more pictures. We were tempted to go on to the end of the road - we had been told it did end out there - but turned back because everyone was hungry and in need of sanitary facilities unavailable since we'd left Hyder.
We'd been told by some people who were coming back that there was a crew filming a Lexis commercial at the end of the road. We met them coming out (way too fast) as we went in. We came across them again on our way out, blocking the road to film in another location. It wasn't very interesting because, except for a camera mounted helicopter hovering overhead, all the action was taking place around a bend so our patience ran out rather quickly.
After about 20 minutes we ran their blockade to their excitedly expressed disapproval - one of the crew ran over and stood in front of the car. We claimed a partially true medical emergency. That got their attention! Several came running with food. They finally let us through when they were told non of their food was appropriate. Kathy is hypoglycemic and needs to eat regularly. She always carries snacks, but delaying her lunch for two hours could have been a serious problem for her and we were twenty-five miles from any kind of civilization!
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August 26, 2005 (Fri)
Glacier View Campground and RV Park, Smithers, BC #19 dry $16c B+
Stewart, BC to Smithers, BC (200/9307 miles) Q021824
Up at 6:00 off at 7:30 (58°) Raining. Our first stop was to get gas then back up the Stewart-Hyder Access road through misty mountain panoramas. On the Cassiar Highway again we sailed South on a smooth newly paved road. Off in the distance, barely distinguishable, 3 or 4 black bear ambled across the road. By the time we got there they were long gone into the woods.
Just before turning onto the Yellowhead Highway (a real highway this time with actual cars and trucks and lane marker lines), we drove a quarter mile into the tiny Indian village of Gitwangak to see a pretty little Anglican Church and bell tower as well as some totem poles along the road nearby. We parked near a fifth wheel rig driven by a retired military man. He was apparently very unfamiliar with handling a large fifth wheel or incompetent and blamed us verbally and loudly for his inability to turn it around. He refused to listen when we told him the road looped back to the highway and he didn't even need to turn around.
We chose Glacier View Campground "on the fly" (without prior research) and it has turned out to be very nice. It's small but very neat and clean. The young woman who checked us in was very pleasant and friendly in spite of having to do all the paperwork for four units with a 4 month old baby on her hip.
We could look out at a glacier high on a mountain as we relaxed in the sun outside Q.
Down the Cassiar Highway - #52-20
Back to Skagway - #52-19
August 17, 2005 (Wed)
Hitch-Up RV Park, Haines, AK (2)
After breakfast we went into town, maybe a half mile away, to the Sheldon Museum & Culture Center where we learned a little bit about the history of the area. From there we toured Alaska Indian Arts gallery and workshop where we were supposed to see totem carving and silver jewelry making in progress. We didn't. Interesting place though. For lunch we went to The Fireweed Restaurant which seemed to be more a locals hangout than a tourist place. From the outside the building looked almost derelict and we couldn't tell if it was even open. The inside was fixed up though. Jazz was the background music and a drum set and music stands in the corner indicated that there is often live music (evening?) The food was very good.
After lunch we drove out to the end of the road south to a view point in Chilkat State Park. There we could look out over Chilkat Inlet and see see two huge glaciers. One high on a mountain, the Rainbow Glacier, sparkled pink and blue in the sunlight. Water was flowing off it at such a rate that it is hard to believe that it could last more than a couple of weeks, much less centuries as it has.
We have decided to spend another night here. The two state parks that we had been considering moving to are at the ends of roads 10 miles away in different directions - one out where we looked at the glaciers today and the other out near where we watched the bear fish last night. The weather forecast is 100% showers and the prospect of hanging out in the wet forest is less appealing than here in this nice campground.
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August 18, 2005 (Thu)
Pioneer RV Park, Whitehorse, YT #132 w/e/tv $22.00d B
Haines, AK to Whitehorse, YT (254/8509 miles) Q020819
Up at 6:00 to the sound of rain on the roof and it rained off and on as we went through our morning personal and break camp routines. While Bob was at the tire place getting a new tire mounted we went over to get the lowest priced gas in town, $2.94/gal. We got $99 worth - aaarg! We took off up the Haines Highway at about 9:00 (61°), cleared Canadian customs at about 10:00, and almost immediately plunged into heavy fog. (It's surprising how much like White Pass out of Skagway, Chilkat Pass out of Haines is in the fog.)
We had planned to camp in a roadside pull off overlooking Dezadeash Lake (it's done all the time up here) but thought it wouldn't be all that much fun in the rain so decided to push on to Whitehorse. It would put us a day ahead of schedule but we can find a way to make it up.
Back on the Alaska Highway southbound, we lunched in Yukon Government Pine Lake Recreational Area. Actually it turned out that it was a little tight for Ed and Kathy to feel comfortable parking their long rig so they went on and found a roadside rest area. We picked them up there later. We got into Pioneer RV Park, the Whitehorse campground where we stayed on the way north, at about 4:15 Yukon time. We are up on the hill in a more "state park" setting this time.
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August 19, 2005 (Fri)
Pioneer RV Park, Whitehorse, YT (2)
The first order of business was grocery shopping. The Walmart was not a supercenter so food items were rather limited. We got what we could and finished up at a regular supermarket. The fish ladder was next. This is a structure that is build next to the hydro dam to allow salmon to get upstream to spawn. The facility is also used to count the fish. They actually count every fish! There is a gate that opens only when someone is there to do the counting. Interesting.
After lunch at a not-too-good Chinese buffet we went to the Yukon Transportation Museum. There were displays on most of the various forms of transportation - airplane, train, riverboat, and dog sled. Joy wasn't feeling well and went out to nap in the car. Mark stayed and watched very good video about the Yukon Quest dog sled race.
When we stopped by the campground sometime during all that running around Chip and Kim's motor home was parked at the campground office but when we got back later, they were not around. In the late afternoon they pulled into a camp space near us. Apparently they had been asking for us when we saw them first and had been told we weren't here so they went searching in all the other campgrounds in Whitehorse. When they came back later they were told that we were here after all. Campgrounds are supposed to keep better track of their clients than that!
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August 20, 2005 (Sat)
Pullen Creek RV Park, Skagway, AK #24 w/e $25 A+
Whitehorse, YT to Skagway, AK (104/8613 miles) Q020923
Up at 6:30 (52°) off at 8:03. It rained a lot during the night and the weather didn't look much better this morning. The Seattle, WA forecast (via campground provided cable TV) was for a beautiful day in the 80s. We hoped to get a little of that up here but by 9:00 the temperature was down to 49.5°. But there was some blue sky.
White Pass into Skagway is beautiful as we mentioned when we were here in July but today it lived up to it's name - white. The fog was socked in thick. Even so there was a tour bus in one turn-out and the passengers were all out taking pictures. I can hear the slide show narrative now. "You can't see it but this is a picture of....."
No problems with US customs and the fog did lift some so the mountains around Skagway are again spectacular. After lunch we walked around Skagway a bit then came back for naps and reading. Dinner was at the Skagway Fish Co. The mermaid Burgers were delicious!
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August 21, 2005 (Sun)
Pullen Creek RV Park, Skagway, AK (2)
The first order of business today was to get our mail. Yes, on a Sunday -the post office was open to accommodate the larger tourist population from the cruise ships. There were no surprises in the mail i.e. no unexpected, therefore unpaid, bills.
St. Savior's Episcopal Church in Skagway is a very small church meeting in the Roman Catholic church building. Apparently everyone, or most everyone, was in attendance. Even so the six of us more than doubled the size of the congregation. After lunch Joy and Pat went off to a laundromat while Mark updated the computer financial records from the mail and Bob had a conversation with Cingular (wireless provider) about their bill.
We shared a spaghetti dinner with Bob an Pat and ended the evening with a game of dominos. We had wanted to go down to the docks to watch one of the big cruise ships leave like we did when we were here before - they usually leave about 8:00 and give plenty of warning with their loud air horns - but tonight they left silently early in the evening. We missed it all!
The word "skagway" or its root word means windy city. We know now why it was so named. The wind was fierce and relentless. It seemed almost like a stormy winter day although the air was relatively mild.
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August 22, 2005 (Mon)
Rancheria Hotel-Motel and RV Park, Rancheria, BC #18 elec $18c C
Skagway, AK to Rancheria, BC (247/8828 miles) Q021171
Our 46th wedding anniversary. It rained all night, although the wind died down some, and was raining this morning when we got up - 6:30 (56.8°). We marveled at the fact that there were already 3 new cruise ships tied up at the docks but went on and prepared to leave anyway.
Off at 7:50 to get gas and finally on the road at 8:10. The rain had let up some and the fog was not bad enough to hide the views of White Pass - well almost. As we neared the summit of the pass we came up on a double tanker truck struggling along at 10 MPH. It gave us plenty of time to enjoy the scenery until he pulled away from us on the down hill side. It was a beautiful drive through the mountains - dull and dreary where we were but the sun highlighted the far off mountains. We couldn't help but think of some paintings we've seen.
On the Tagish Cut off road a silver colored fox ran across the road in front of us and hung around on the bank long enough for Bob and Pat, following us, to see him. Tagish Cut Off joins the Alaska Highway at Jake's Corner. Although there's really no town (or village) by that name there is a sign announcing its existence. We took a picture of it to show nephew Jake.
We crossed the Continental Divide at about 2:00 and pulled into the campground at about 2:10.
To Haines, AK - #52-18
August 13, 2005 (Sat)
Westmark Inn Campground, Beaver Creek, YT #44 dry $17.12c B+
Copper Center, AK to Beaver Creek, YT (285/7919 miles) Q020229
Jeff's birthday. Up at 6:00 (53°) off at 7:15 (58°) Sunny - but hazy. (The temperature is 83° as I write this.) The mountains, as we drove up the Glenn Highway, had a beauty of their own. The haze made them look like flat paper cutouts in various shades of blue. As we approached Tok the haze became heavier and and we began to to smell a hint of smoke in the air. Apparently there are forest fires in the Eagle, AK area and we were down wind.
Through the luck of timing Chip and Kim ended up on the road ahead of us into Tok so joined us for lunch at Fast Eddy's. Great burgers! Don Marshall (the campground host from West Fork Campground near Chicken) was there eating lunch too. (Small world up here!) He said the smoke up there was unbearable. We had planned to camp in Tok tonight but we - all 8 of us - decided to get gas ($2.64/gal) and go on to a less smoky place.
The frost heaves and construction along the Tok Cutoff (from the Glenn Highway to Tok) were bad but nothing compared to those on the Alaska Highway south of Tok. There were times when we had to slow down to 20 MPH to keep from going airborne! We are told that the road will be even worse tomorrow! Going through Canadian customs (into Yukon Territory) was a breeze. The young woman was friendly and talkative. She seemed very interested in our "new" NJ licenses. She never asked if we had any fruit on board. We had carefully cut up the three apples we had into a fruit salad so we wouldn't have to dump them like we did coming into Canada the first time.
A sign at the customs booth read "Those who don't like speeding tickets, raise your right foot."
Westmark Inn Campground is a nice little campground. There are a few trees which spreads the spaces out a little so we don't feel as much like we are in a parking lot. There is water and electric at the site but we chose not to hook up, thus saving a few dollars.
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August 14, 2005 (Sun)
Cottonwood Campground, Destruction Bay, YT #N dry $22.00c A+
Beaver Creek, YT to Destruction Bay, YT (132/8051 miles) Q020361
Up at 5:45 (57°) Off at 7:01 (57°) The sun is a big red ball, it's still smoky. The Alaska Highway south of Beaver Creek is, in deed, worse than the the road from the north. We have discovered that we can identify the really bad frost heaves by the skid marks beyond them. Sometime in the past someone found themselves airborne, slammed on their brakes and hit the road with wheels locked. It didn't seem to slow some people down though. We were glad to let them pass us. It would have been a bonus to see a 40 foot motor home fly. We never did though. We followed a bicyclist through one bridge construction area. Her support van with yellow lights flashing and extra bicycles on the back displayed the lettering "PAN AMERICANA". We saw another support van, no bicyclist, parked several miles on down the road.
Fall is coming to the north country. The leaves of some trees (willows?) are turning yellow and the wild flowers and grasses along the road are displaying the softness of fluffy seed carriers.
The woman who took our money at this campground said that there is a grizzly bear around but they haven't seen him for a couple of days. We're not sure if this is comforting information or not. It's a nice little campground though. It's clean and obviously cared for. We are parked right on the shore of Kluane Lake facing the water. There is supposed to be quite a view from here but it's hard to tell because of the smoke in the air.
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August 15, 2005 (Mon)
Cottonwood Campground, Destruction Bay, YT (2)
The haze (smoke?) lifted a bit last light and this morning we could see hazy mountains close behind us and the mountains across the lake are in silhouette. It looked like it might be a nice day so we decided to take a break in our traveling and "re-up" for another night here.
It's hard to think, as we sit here in this well maintained campground with RVs parked here and there, that we are really out in the boonies. The nearest villages, very small, are 18 to 20 miles away. There may be homes between but not many. For electricity, the campground generates its own and until 6 weeks ago they had no conventional phone service - they relied on radio contact with the outside world. We can pick up only one radio station (not worth listening to), no TV station, no cell phone service, and no internet. We are parked overlooking a beautiful lake but there are no boats - although Ed reported that a couple of kayaks went by as Mark snoozed in his chair on the bluff. Except for an occasional car (RV?) on the road and some rather bad country music coming from a rented RV last evening, the only sounds are natural. A good place to relax and we took advantage of it.
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August 16, 2005 (Tue)
Hitch-Up RV Park, Haines, AK #49 w/e/s $26.90 A+
Destruction Bay, YT to Haines, AK (204/8255 miles) Q020565
Off at 7:20 (56.7°) Hazy. The road by the campground is under construction so the going was very slow for a while. But once through it the road was fine. The mountains were beautiful, as usual, in a hazy kind of way. Kluane Lake stayed out our port window for several miles. After leaving the lake we entered a spruce forest that has been heavily damaged by the spruce beetle, a pest that attacks only spruce trees. Some scientists are saying that the recent increase in beetle populations is due to increased global warming. The lady in a Haines Junction gas station told us that Hillary Clinton had been in town yesterday to see the damage. She's in the area to learn about the effects of global warming.
The wild flowers along the road are beautiful. Some, and there were thousands of them, looked very much like dandelion fluff balls. Some hill sides looked almost snow covered with them.
Bob and Pat commented (via walki talki) that they were feeling a shimmy in the wheel of their motor home. When they stopped to take a look, they found the left front tire in very bad shape and ready to go flat. After some discussion about whether to drive it that way the rest of the way into Haines (30 miles), change it there (difficult for 3 old men), or get help somehow (no cell phone signal there). We all decided getting help was the best option. We and Ed & Kathy came on into Haines and called their road service provider from here. We are camped at one of the more expensive (and better looking) campgrounds in Haines because it was the best located for Bob and Pat to find us when they got here. We may move to a less expensive place for tomorrow night.
After dinner, we piled into toads and headed out to the Chilkoot River north of Haines. We had been told that sometimes grizzly bears will come to the river to catch fish. After waiting for an hour or so one did - right across the river from us. He caught at least two (maybe more) and ate them while we watched with binoculars.
To Valdez and back - #52-17
August 8, 2005 (Mon)
Anchorage, AK to Palmer, AK (46/7252 miles) Q019557
There was a caravan in the campground and leaving this morning so we weren't in a hurry to get off. Also the campground provided WiFi was having problems with download/upload of email and the DSL cable was locked in the office until 9:00. The temperature was 54° when we got up at 6:30 and up to 62° by the time we pulled out of the campground at 9:15.
After getting set up in the campground in Palmer we all piled into Ed and Kathy's toad and headed for the musk ox farm. It was an interesting tour and we learned a lot about musk ox - their fur is combed and spun into yarn - but barely worth the $7.00 fee to get in. After lunch we drove (in two cars) up into Hatcher Pass to the Independence Mine State Historical Park. This is the site of a large hard rock gold mining operation, now defunct, deteriorating, and being restored. The interpretive displays were very interesting and the drive up was one of the most spectacular of our trip. On the way back we stopped to sample the self proclaimed "best ice cream in the world". It turned out to be an old soft ice cream dispenser (chocolate out of order) in a convince store. We didn't get any.
Matanuska River Campground, Palmer, AK #71 dry $10 B
Matanuska River Campground is a municipal campground and quite small. But it is very nice. Palmer is known for its giant cabbages and there are some being grown in the park. There is also rhubarb, red and yellow raspberries, squash and other vegetables. We are free to harvest what is ripe. Only the rhubarb and raspberries are.
August 9, 2005 (Tue)
Palmer, AK to Copper Center, AK (180/7432 miles) Q019737
We forgot to have the fresh raspberries on our cereal! Oh well, there'll be another day. We took the Glen Highway east along the Matanuska River stopping once to take pictures of the Matanuska Glacier in the distance. Although we could have taken a walking trail to the glacier from another turn out, we chose not to. The scenery was spectacular. But the views going south toward Valdez on the Richardson Highway were awesome. We began to see the Wrangell Mountains - Sanford, Drum, Wrangell, and Blackburn - as ghost images of white on white. The snow covered peaks only slightly whiter than the hazy sky and the rock below only slightly darker. Barely visible, they seemed to float several hundred feet above the hazy horizon.
Kenny Lake Mercantile and R.V. Park, Copper Center, AK #9 dry $14.00 B-
We chose this campground "in Copper Center" because one of the promised village attractions was a garden model railroad layout. It turned out that the campground is some 25 miles south of Copper Center. We drove back after setting up camp only to find that the layout is in a bar that is open only between 6 and 12 pm. The campground fees are "ala carte". We are paying $12 for a basic no hookup site (really quite a nice site in the woods) plus $2 for permission to dump our holding tanks. Another $2 would have allowed us to take on water (we didn't need it) and for another $4 we could hook up to electricity. A $4 token would buy 7 1/2 minutes of shower time.
August 10, 2005 (Wed)
Copper Center, AK to Valdez, AK (110/7542 miles) Q019847
Yesterday afternoon the temperature got up into the 80s (much appreciated!) This morning when we got up at 6:00, it was 50°. Quite a change! As I write this the thermometer reads 75°. In keeping with these latitudes, it's too warm for sweatshirts in the sun but the breeze makes it too cool to not wear them.
The consensus of our maps and personal judgment indicated that our best route could be found by turning left out of the campground. It took us 5 or 6 miles to determine that the one guidebook (The Milepost) that indicated that we should turn right, had it right. Even Henry mislead us because we were closer to the "turn off" than we thought. The campground drive was actually on the road we were looking for. He would have complained had he been on duty, but he wasn't. Turning around was easy for Q, not so easy for the larger motor homes with cars in tow.
Once headed in the right direction we found the Richardson Highway with no trouble and turned south. What a beautiful drive it was. It seems like I say that about every road we go on - because it's true. We were completely surrounded by glacier bearing mountains, some with slopes coming right down to the road. When they were further away we could see the oil pipeline snaking through the forest not far away. We stopped at Worthington Glacier State Recreational Area to take pictures and hike out to the glacier - well, all but Mark hiked. He's having a back problem - and Joy actually got to touch it. She retreated rather quickly, though, when it groaned loudly.
Valdez is one of many places where salmon come to spawn and die. We stopped at a view point on the way in to town and saw hundreds of dead and dying fish. Interesting, depressing and smelly!
Sea Otter RV Park, Valdez, AK #59 w/e $25 A+
This campground in Valdez is like those in Homer and Seward in that we are right on the water - an arm of Prince William Sound here - where we can look out and watch the sea life (wild and otherwise). There are mountains with glaciers all around us. Across the water we can see the huge tanks that are used to store the oil coming down the pipeline from up north and with binoculars we can even see one of the supertankers in port to be loaded with the oil.
August 11, 2005 (Thu)
Sea Otter RV Park, Valdez, AK (2)
The Valdez Museum is showing the 21st annual Quilt & Fiber Expressions exhibit "Stitches in Time" that goes all summer. The quilts were all of excellent quality. Among the museum's historical displays were two horse drawn fire engines beautifully restored. One was a 10 man hand pumper and the other a steam powered pumper. The museum annex had a 1:20 scale model of what Valdez looked like before the 1964 earthquake. The village is now four miles from where it was at the time of the earthquake. We also saw movies about the earthquake and the building of the oil pipeline.
After lunch we went with Ed and Kathy to the site of the old Valdez (nothing there now except for a few interpretive signs) and the operations control facility for the pipeline (closed to visitors since 9/11) On the way back we stopped to do some grocery shopping and dropped Joy off at the quilt shop in town while the rest of us went back to the campground. Joy walked the mile and a half back glad for freedom to shop without feeling rushed and for the exercise. Watching the sea otters play in the sound by a (smoky) fire was our late afternoon entertainment. Dominoes in the evening.
August 12, 2005 (Fri)
Valdez, AK to Copper Center, AK (97/7634 miles) Q019944
53° @ 6:30, 59.7° @ 8:00, 94° @ 4:00. The smell of dead fish in the sound was particularly bad this morning making leaving this beautiful place a little easier. The drive back over Thompson Pass and through Keystone Canyon was as beautiful as it was on the way in. Finding the Kenny Lake campground was much easier this time so we all arrived in better spirits.
Kenny Lake Mercantile and R.V. Park, Copper Center, AK #11 elec $14.40p B
After lunch Mark, Bob, Pat, and Ed took off to find the fish wheels in the Copper River in the tiny village of Chitina, at the end of civilization 30 miles on down the road. Fish wheels, powered by the flow of the river, rotate scooping salmon out of the water and shunting them into waiting baskets. Native Alaskans are allowed 500 fish (per person per year?) for their own use. To get to the fishing area we had to drive over a very rocky dry river bottom and park some distance from the wheels - there were 8 to 10 of them. As we stood there watching, a woman who was working alone at one of the wheels filleting fish waded through knee deep water over to us and asked if we wanted fish. It turned out she was offering to give us some fillets - if we wanted whole fish she was required to sell them to us. We chose the free fillets. She waded back out to her filleting table and returned with about 5 - 6 pounds of them! We had barbecued salmon for dinner and there's enough left over for another meal or two.
Back to Anchorage - #52-16
August 2, 2005 (Tue)
City of Seward Campground, Seward, AK #00 dry $12.00 B-
Moose Pass, AK to Seward, AK (26 miles today 6997 total) Q019302
The sound of rain on the roof and the occasional mournful sound of the Seward to Anchorage train not far off made for a cozy and restful night. There were high clouds when we got up at 6:30 (53°) and it looked as if it might clear. We could see the mountains around us draped in garlands of fog. Beautiful. After a 3 mile walk around the campground we got off at about 9:30 for our long grueling 26 mile drive into Seward.
Ed and Kathy, who had stayed in Kenai last night, pulled into the campground 10 minutes after we got here. Our three units are parked side by side on the water front. We can look out at the small boats (and sea otters) out in Resurrection Bay, and the mountains, glaciers - and right now the clouds and rain!!
After lunch at a Chinese Buffet we all went to the Alaska Sea Life Center. It was a fascinating place. In addition to the usual and expected displays of former (dead) sea life there were habitat simulated enclosures and tanks of live sea animals and birds - sea lions, harbor seals, dozens of interesting fish, crabs, sea urchins, etc. It was well worth the cost of admission.
It has been a peaceful afternoon with rain on the roof (again) and the soft sounds of nature and piano music from the CD "Spirit of Alaska" we bought today.
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August 3, 2005 (Wed)
City of Seward Campground, Seward, AK (2)
The wind came up just after we went to bed last night so Mark had to get out of a warm bed and get dressed before going out to pull the awning in. He didn't put the rug away though (it was already soaked anyway) nor roll up the table cloth. We're going to need a nice sunny day sometime soon to dry everything out!
It rained off and on most of today too. Joy went with Pat to the post office and to check out a few of the stores while Mark and Bob puttered around their respective homes. Later they went to sit outside the Breeze Inn Motel where they had found a free Wifi signal. After lunch we all went out to Exit Glacier, about 9 miles outside of Seward. There is a half mile plus trail there that leads right up to the glacier itself. What an awesome experience it was to stand so near the huge field of ice and realize that the water that formed it had fallen to the earth as snow thousands (maybe hundreds of thousands) of years ago. It's hard to know if the rain added to or detracted from the experience. We do know that we were quite waterlogged by the time we got back to the car and the hot chocolate back at camp really tasted good.
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August 4, 2005 (Thu)
Williwaw Campground, Chugach National Forest #54 dry b-
Seward, AK to Girdwood, AK (147/7118 miles) Q019423
We're back in Williwaw Campground in the Chugach National Forest near Portage Glacier. It's not where we planned to stop but is better. We started out at 7:53 (54.7°) for the tiny village of Hope at the end of a road on the south shore of Turnagain Arm. None of us liked the looks of the one private campground in town and the spaces in the nearby NFS campground were either taken or too small for big rigs. We knew this was a nice place so we came back here.
The drive here was beautiful. The sky was overcast, as it has been the last several days, but wisps of fog lay across the mountains like huge cotton fluffs making the greens stand out in brilliant contrast. We got in and were set up by 11:30, time for lunch.
In Girdwood we found another bake shop/restaurant - a cheeseburger for Joy, fish and chips for Mark, and an ice cream cone each for desert. A good long walk would have been appropriate. Instead we spent the afternoon reading and napping.
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August 5, 2005 (Fri)
Williwaw Campground, Chugach National Forest (2)
We discovered a problem with the black water system this morning. Although we had dumped and flushed the tank yesterday, it appeared and acted as if it was full. Since there is no dump station in this park we had to drive out in search of one. I won't go into the details about what might have happened but it seems OK now. When we got back we went for a 4 mile walk on a trail out toward the Portage Glacier Visitor's Center. The trail kind of petered out before we got there so we didn't go all the way. We'd been there the last time we were here anyway.
After almost two weeks of cold dreary, sometimes rainy, weather the sun finally came out enough today to warm it up a bit. 71° here seems warmer than it does at home - are we developing Alaskan blood? - and as long as we are in the sun it is quite comfortable. We took advantage by sitting outside to read, knit and nap. We also put the patio rug out to dry in the sun. It got pretty wet in Seward when it rained unexpectedly.
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August 6, 2005 (Sat)
Golden Nugget Camper Park, Anchorage, AK #96 e $22 B+
Girdwood, AK to Anchorage, AK (88/7206 miles) Q019511
We're back in Anchorage in the same campground we were in two weeks ago. And the weather has improved greatly. So warm in fact that we have been sitting outside in shorts.
It wasn't so warm this morning when we got up though - 50°. Actually it wasn't bad for a brisk 3 mile walk on the path around the campground. The sun struggled to burn through the heavy haze but the glaciers high above us sparkled. There were salmon in the small brook beside the path and watching them work their way up stream was fascinating.
The Seward Highway to Anchorage was amazingly beautiful with high mountains on both sides and the flat water of the Turnagain Arm between defining the course of the road. Some of the mountain slopes plunged directly into the water and had to be cut away for the road. The layers of rock in the cuts made decorative roadside walls much more interesting than the man made sound barriers we see so often.
We pulled into the campground at about 10:00 and got set up in the site that Ed and Kathy had reserved for us when they came in yesterday. Laundry was the first order of business, then lunch at Red Robin and a shopping foray to Sam's Club, Safeway, and Costco.
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August 7, 2005 (Sun)
Golden Nugget Camper Park, Anchorage, AK (2)
St. Mary's Episcopal Church here in Anchorage is a beautiful modern building with friendly enthusiastic people. When we walked it at about 9:45 the music ensemble - guitar/mandolin, flute, and voices - was practicing, creating a nice backdrop for the friendly conversation we had at the door with one of the parishioners. The sanctuary was more or less square with the altar in a corner. Large windows covered the walls on either side of the altar giving a panoramic view of the mountains. Beautiful! At the end of the service those with birthdays were asked to come up to the altar for a special prayer and blessing. Today is Joy's birthday but she elected not to go up. She may well have benefited anyway.
After church we went downtown to the The Alaska Experience Theater. There were two movies showing. One, on a huge 180 degree domed screen, was about Alaska in general - people, scenery, animals, etc. Many of the scenic shots were taken from airplanes flying over the crest of mountains, and along winding rivers. (Mark could have used some dramamine!) The other (on a smaller screen) was about the 1964 Good Friday earthquake and included "quaking" seats at appropriate times.
Lunch was on our own but dinner was a birthday celebration compliments of Bob, Pat, Ed and Kathy at the Royal Fork Buffet. Ed and Kathy's friends, who were in Homer while we were there, joined us.
The Homer Spit - #52-15
July 26, 2005 (Tue)
Homer Spit City # dry $15.00 C-
Soldotna, AK to Homer, AK (83/6795 miles) Q019100
We woke at 5:00 to a beautiful sunrise. This wasn't an unusual hour for a sunrise but it had been going on for a while. Although it's light when were go to bed and light when we get up in the morning, there is some darkness during the night now. It makes waking in the middle of the night more natural. The office was supposed to open at 7:00 so the three guys walked down at 7:15 to pay the bills - so as to avoid having to drive through the motel parking lot on the way out - but the office was still closed. It was just opening at 7:30 when we returned with the motor homes.
Homer (The Halibut Capital of the world) is at the southern end of the Sterling Highway on the Kenai Peninsula and almost at the end of the road in that direction. It's an arts and crafts oriented village with many fine galleries. After setting up camp on the spit (more on the later) we went with Bob and Pat to do some errands and explore the town - which included lunch at the Jen and Dave's (no relation) Cafe Cups. We also hunted up the local free WiFi site and took care of some email and internet stuff. After our work was done we set out to find the end of the road. It was a beautiful drive out into the hills east of Homer. We got a spectacular view of the huge glacier in the Mountains across Kachemac Bay.
The Homer Spit is a four mile (or so) very narrow spit of land that projects out into Kachemac Bay. On it are two or three private campgrounds, dozens of little tourist businesses - shops, restaurants, fishing charters, etc. and associated parking lots. The city also allows camping on most of the left over space (what there is of it). Most areas are suitable only for tents. We are in an area crammed full of RVs but we were lucky enough to find a spot overlooking the Bay. If we didn't have a big Winnebago right outside our dining room window, we'd have a great view of the mountains and glacier too. We can see them by stepping out our back door though.
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July 27, 2005 (Wed)
Homer Spit City, Homer, AK (2)
The fellow next door, a fisherman, started banging around at about 4am. Since his rig, a pickup camper, was only about 6 feet outside our bed room window, it was hard to ignore. Even so we stuck it out until 6:00. The weather was rather heavy, low clouds and fog - we could barely see across the bay much less see the mountains - and a light sprinkle in the air. We watched sockeye salmon jumping and a little harbor seal hunting in the bay as we ate breakfast and by 9:00 the weather looked as if it would clear.
We and Bob and Pat bicycled down the spit toward town (about 3 miles away) to check out the Wednesday farmers/flea market. It was a disappointment and it rained lightly for some of the return trip. Actually Mark didn't go all the way. There was a big exodus going on when we left and he thought we should take advantage of it to move Q to a better spot. Now we can see the mountains out our dining room window as well as the bay out front. Better yet our neighbors (new) are 12 - 15 feet away on either side.
For lunch we ate at a great restaurant, Land's End, at the end of the spit. Delicious salmon & halibut fish and chips. Expensive! This afternoon, after a quick trip into town for a few groceries and email, we spent relaxing and watching the seals, eagles, and fishermen from the stone "beach" in front of Q. There was one young girl, 12 or 13, who was going at it like a real pro - out casting the men and most of the boys along the beach. A young fellow, 14 or so, caught a nice sized salmon but lost it just as he had it beached.
In the evening; six handed dominoes.
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July 28, 2005 (Thu)
Homer Spit City, Homer, AK (3)
A nine mile bicycle ride got our day off to a good start. We rode out to the end of the spit then back to the base. The shops were closed at that time of day so we made no stops. It was a good ride and warmer than yesterday.
The Pratt Museum in town features Alaskan History - especially the Homer area - and local art. We learned about the big earthquake in 1964 that destroyed much of Homer and lowered the harbor area, including the spit, 6 feet and about how the Valdez oil spill affected Homer and the surrounding area among other things. The art exhibit featured the works of local quilters, painters,sculptors and potters - all excellent.
After lunch we piled into Ed and Kathy's toad and took off to explore another road to the east of Homer. This road went along the ridge high above Kachemac Bay. Again the view of the mountains and glacier were spectacular. This time we went to the end of the road - dirt and very rough for the last 8 miles. Surprisingly someone was building a house out there. Wonderful view but a long way to groceries (and medical help) in the winter.
For supper we grilled a piece of halibut from Chip's fishing trip yesterday. Fantastic! We spent a quiet evening at home drying out after getting wet cooking dinner. Quiet evening but excitement later. When we took our last restroom walk before going to bed we saw large groups of people around "The Fishing Hole", a tidal pool near where we are camped. It turned out that a brand new Dodge pickup truck had rolled down the the bank into the 15 foot deep water. A scuba diver was in the process of trying to locate it. An hour and a half later it had been found and pulled from the deep. It's going to be a while until the poor fellow is able to get his fifth-wheel back home to Maine.
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July 29, 2005 (Fri)
Homer Spit City, Homer, AK (4)
We have decided to stay here another couple of days. The Kenia Peninsula being where all of Anchorage, to say nothing of the rest of the world, comes to fish we thought it best not to try to compete for campsites on a weekend. And this is a great place to hang out - right on the beach and all. A beach site (albeit with full hookups) in the private campground next door goes for $91 a night! We're paying $15.
After breakfast we all piled into Ed and Kathy's toad and went into town. Among other things we checked out a discount grocery store that we found quite interesting. It turned out to be like a mini Costco (or BJ's, or Sam's Club) with a little of everything (even some Kirkland and Trader Joes brand things) and prices almost as good. When we got back we walked up to the shops at the end of the spit - interesting but not spectacular. There was an ice cream parlor though and we went back there after lunch. The rest of the day we just "hung out" and enjoyed. Dominoes at 7:00.
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July 30, 2005 (Sat)
Homer Spit City, Homer, AK (5)
The day started out with the promise of being sunny and maybe even warmer than it has been. Joy and Pat went into town to do laundry. Bob went along take care of some internet business - the Laundromat is where the free WiFi is - while Mark stayed home and kept Thandi company.
The Sat/Sun farmer's market was small but there was some good stuff. We got a rhubarb danish, a blueberry scone, some raspberries which were more than we intended to buy when we went there. While Bob and Pat were doing lunch in the next town North (Anchor Point), we and Ed and Kathy did the National Wildlife Visitor's Center, very nice and well done, and took another drive into the hills east of Homer. We discovered a small Russian community at the end of the dirt road with a Russian Orthodox Church, a school, a graveyard and several houses.
St Augustine's Episcopal Church has no building, so the worship services are held in the Methodist church on Saturday night. The service was the familiar Rite II and the people very friendly. We felt right at home. The priest is a summer fill-in from New Orleans with a very good, though long, sermon.
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July 31, 2005 (Sun)
Kenai RV Park, Kenai, AK#?? w/e $20 C+
Homer, AK to Kenai, AK (90/6885 miles) Q019190
Up at 6:00 (54°) to heavy clouds, and some spritzing rain, but there was some blue skies peaking through too. We got off at 7:45. The trip back up the Sterling highway was uneventful. The scenery was muted by the haze and low clouds and non-existant along what we thought might be a scenic detour - too much distance and too many trees.
We pulled into the tiny Kenai RV Park (17 loosely packed sites) with Bob and Pat. Ed and Kathy chose to go to the more expensive campground where they could park on a bluff high above Cook Inlet. They hope to sit in their motor home and watch Beluga whales swimming up the Kenai River. We hope to see some too.
After getting set up we drove out 27 miles to the end of the Kenai Spur Highway in Ed and Kathy's toad - just to see what was there. There wasn't much! The Capt Cook State Recreation Site campground (52 sites) was all. We saw a moose very near the road on the way back.
Kenai RV Park is a very nice campground in spite of its size and location (in the middle of town). There is a well trimmed grass strip with a large flower pot between most sites and the tent area is like a lawn and the small picnic tables are nicely painted. The rest rooms and showers are very clean and well maintained. In all a pleasant place to be. A fisherman was cleaning a fish at the cleaning station near where Bob and Pat parked their rig. Bob, looking very hungry, allowed himself to be talked into taking some filets off the fisherman's hands. He ended up with a couple of large pieces of sockeye and king (chinook) salmon. We're going to eat well tonight!
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August 1, 2005 (Mon)
Trail River Campground, Chugach National Forest #19 dry $5.00 B-
Kenai, AK to Moose Pass, AK (86/6971 miles) Q019276
Up at 6:00 (54°), showers, breakfast and a walk through "old Town" Kenai. There were some nicely restored and preserved buildings from the early days of the community (mid 1900s frontier) and a small Russian Orthodox church. We also walked over to the bluff near where Ed and Kathy were camped hoping, but not expecting, to see some Beluga whales in the river below. No whales.
The Kenai Spur Highway intersects the Sterling Highway in Soldotna where we stopped for gas and provisions before heading north to the Seward Highway then south. The Trail River Campground in the Chugach National Forest, about 24 miles north of Seward, is a pleasant respite from the crowded and busy campgrounds we've been in for the last couple of weeks. Instead of RVs we see trees out our windows. The only RV we see is Bob and Pat's across the road. There a few other campers here but they are some distance away. We spent a restful afternoon reading, napping and listening to the rain on Q's roof.
