All Good Things Must Come to an End...

Canadian Rockies – August 20-21

Jasper National Park – Saturday August 20

After completing the drive down the Cassier Highway, we drove back onto the Yellow Head Highway.  A mostly 2 lane road that goes from just west of Winnipeg to Prince Rupert on the Pacific coast.  On the drive out, we took the Yellow Head most of the way from its origin as far as Edmonton.  The Yellow Head took us from the end of the Cassier Highway right to Jasper.  Wow, what a beautiful area, but since it was at the end of our trip we only had enough time to be able to do a drive through.  There was no time for any in depth exploration.  Jasper National Park and the Canadian Rockies are definitely a place I want to come back to some day.  We dropped our trailer off at the campground and drove out to Melange Lake.  Snow-melt or ice field melt is different than glacial melt.  Snow-melt produces the icy cold, crystal clear fast moving streams and beautiful lakes that we all want our beer to be brewed from.  Glacial melt produces a lot of sediment in the water that will clog a water filter in a split second but is a beautiful milky blue color.  Melange Lake is a snow-melt lake with many kayakers and people just hanging around picnicking.  It was just breathtaking.

Being tired from the 6 weeks of travel, we took a short trip into the town of Jasper instead of doing any hiking.  To me, the town although pretty was nothing impressive just a gathering place for tourists.  Back at the campground, it was dinner and to bed early.

Banff National Park – Sunday August 21

We were up early and headed out onto the Ice Fields toward Banff National Park.  One of the really interesting things along the way was the road construction.  The entire highway was fenced, and I mean fenced with a 6-foot fence. The highway and access roads either had “Texas grates” the gutter-grate like things in the road so animals can’t walk on them or jump over them, thereby keeping them out of the towns and off the highways.  Across the highways, the road crews were building wide animal bridges every few miles.  These were also fenced and landscaped so the animals would have a place to cross the highway.  They were quite interesting.  I would like to see them once all of the landscaping is fully grown and naturalized.

On to the Ice Highway… What a beautiful drive.  Although we were much closer to other glaciers and ice fields during our trip, this drive has to be one of the most spectacular I have ever witnessed.  I was expecting the actual drive to be very harrowing but it really wasn’t too bad except for a couple of the passes that we had to drive through.  We couldn’t go to Lake Louise because there was a sign warning that the road was too narrow and twisty for trailers and RV’s and since we were camping in Banff, it wasn’t feasible to drop the trailer and drive back an hour.  Instead, we did a little driving around the Banff area, mostly by accident because we couldn’t find the campground.  We did find a very pretty glacial-melt lake.  The campground in Banff was nice as far as national park campground amenities go, it had electric, water and sewer at the site.  I have never seen that in a US national park.  It was a beautiful evening and I sat outside for what seemed to be forever and just kicked back.

Since I’ve always been a tent camper, one of the observations that I’ve made this summer is when there are RV parks, most of the people stay indoors.  Most RV parks where we stayed didn’t even have campfire rings, I guess because they never get used.  To me sitting around a campfires is what camping is all about…

Now it is officially time to head home and get ready to go back to work.  An added benefit this year is that I am finished with my grad program and won’t be going back to both work and school at the same time.

All Good Things Must Come to an End – August 23

I hope all of you that have been following my blog have enjoyed going on my trip with me.  I have enjoyed writing this blog and hopefully you have enjoyed reading it.  I decided to blog primarily because it has helped me to remember the amazing sites I have seen, many of the things I have done and some of the feelings I have experienced as well as all that I have learned about myself and the people I have met and the places I visited this summer. 

The trip was planned to be 49 days long, but it was cut a few days short by my choice.  Tom and I have parted ways and I have chosen to fly home from Bismarck, ND.  It has been an experience unrivaled to any that I have had in my 52 years.  I have grown immensely and have done things that I never thought possible and I have absolutely no regrets.

I am home all safe and sound now and ready to pick up my life where I left off at the end of the school year.  Thank you for all of the thoughts and prayers for safe travels on this amazing experience J

Kate

On the road... a long way from home... Aug 16-19

Tuesday Aug 16 - Friday August 19

We left Skagway after I did some shopping and Tom did the laundry.  I got myself a Chilkoot Tee shirt and a photographic print of the Golden Stairs during the winter of 1898 and a bear paw bead for my Pandora bracelet as well as a little something for my kids.  I also went to see Tracy, a friend of Peter's who is doing an internship at the Westmark hotel in Skagway.

The drive out of Skagway was beautiful.  It would have been a whole lot more gorgeous had it not been raining AGAIN!!  But this is coastal Alaska so I do understand.  The drive up through the coastal mountains was beautiful there were uphill grades of up to 11% (one reason we drove to Haines and took the ferry from there to Skagway.)  We camped Tuesday night at a place on the Alaska Highway right near the continental divide.  They promised wi-fi... HA!

Wednesday we turned down the Cassier Highway, it was like a roller coaster at first, just chock full of frost heaves, but then it settled down.  There were sections that were very beautiful where we were still driving through avalanche zones in August.  The mountains rose straight up from near sea level to almost 4000 ft in some places.  The place where we stayed (also promised internet at $1/megabyte - HA!) It was pretty but we camped in the middle of a lake.  I mean that our trailer was in the middle of the lake.  But they had really nice showers so I guess that made up for the muddy mess.  This place was a center for heli-skiing in the winter, they must just get an amazing amunt of snow with all of the coastal moisture.

Thursday morning we turned off the Cassier Highway and headed toward Steward, BC and Hyder, Ak. This was to be out last stop in Alaska.  Steward seemed like an ok town, but Hyder???  Sorry to any Hyderians, but this was the biggest pit I have ever been to.  There is not one inch of paved road in the town, not even a gravel road, not even a dirt road...just all mud.  Once we crossed the US-Canadian border it was like going back in time 100 years, and not in a nostalgic kind of way.  But in the Tongass National Forest, there was supposed to be an awesome bear viewing place along the stream where the salmon were running.  I was exhausted, really, exhausted at this point and decided to have a hissy fit, a Kate kind of hissy fit... and only those that know me well have ever experienced one of them... Enough said!  There were no bears, I was tired and didn't want to wait 6 hours to see bears. I've seen anough bears for one summer.  After waiting 2 hours, (me sleeping in the camper) we finally left and said goodbye to Alaska. We drove as far as Smithers, BC.

Smithers actually felt like we were back in civilization.  There were real stores in town with names that I recognized and it wasn't raining for a change (at least for a short while).  There was only one place to camp in town and that was at a municipal campground.  It looked pretty nice and they promised free wi-fi (RIGHT!!)  I decided that when I have cell coverage, I am in or near real civilization.  Of course, it still rained...

Friday morning we left the campground and picked up a few groceries in Smithers at a Safeway and headed East.  It feels really good to be heading home.  We figured that groceries will be pricey in Jasper and Banff but we haven't had any fruit available for so long.  Tomatoes in Alaska were $3.00 each and even more expensive in the Yukon.  I got tomatoes, peaches, blueberries, apples and bananas :-)  Today we drove as far as McBride, BC (about 2 hours from Jasper) we're right at the base of the mountains on the Frasier River.  We are finally at an awesome campsite with wi-fi (YES!!!) that actually works :-).  I was finally able to get my tent dried out from the Chilkoot trail after packing it up wet on Monday since we've had rain everyday since at least in the evening while we're in camp.

I'm looking forward to seeing Jasper and Banff and getting a little hiking in, but I'm excited about getting home and seeing my kids and dogs and friends.  I'm even looking forward to a little heat and humidity.   Today was the hottest day I can remember since we 1st got to Wrangle-St Elias NP and the high today was 66.  We've had to have the heat on every night it's been so cold, in the hi 30's or low 40's.

Views from the highway coming out of Skagway

 Fireweed - my favorite wildflower

 Just east of the Alaskan-Canadian border in British Columbia

Chilkoot Trail Days 2-5

Day 2 Chilkoot Trail Canyon City Campground – Sheep Camp (5.2 miles)

I was expecting day 2 to be easier than day 1 since we had to cover less mileage but it was a really hard hike. Although we only had a net 500 ft elevation gain, the actual change in elevation was much greater since we were going up and down so much.  The trail was mostly up hill; some very steep and almost all was either on wet rocks or wet tree roots or mud; really squishy mud.  Just putting my backpack on 1^st thing in the morning was a bit of agony, but I did limber up after hiking for a bit.  The downhill portions really scared me, I kept imagining myself doing a face plant and either knocking out all of my front teeth or breaking my nose or jaw… Especially with my re-constructed right ACL, I was terrified of some of the down hills on the steeper sections of the trail.  I did concentrate very hard and spent a lot of time watching where my feet were heading.  My boots got to be a little boring to look at after awhile.

We stopped at what one of the hikers said was Pleasant Camp for lunch, it wasn’t actually the camp but hot Ramen Noodles with some dehydrated veggies and a packet of chicken added tasted like a gourmet meal J Our destination of the day was Sheep Camp; originally a base camp for sheep hunters, then during the gold rush it peaked with 16 hotels, 14 restaurants, 13 supply houses, 3 saloons, 2 dance halls and several other businesses.  The population of Sheep grew during the winter month when winter storms slowed or halted the stampeders from going over the Chilkoot pass.  All of the forest was destroyed at the time and has since grown back; there are few signs of the original camp.

My spirits were really low when we arrived in Sheep Camp but the whole group mentality and the excitement of climbing the Golden Staircase the next morning and going over the summit into Canada on day 3 was quite the rush.  We had a meeting with one of the park rangers that evening to prep us for the climb over the pass and the trip to Lindeman Lake Camp.  I had a Mountain House dehydrated dinner that was actually pretty good and went to bed really early. We were up at 4:30 breaking camp for the long day ahead.

I did find out later that the hike from the Canyon City to Pleasant Camp was considered by the prospectors to be the toughest on the trail and I definitely agree.

Day 3 Sheep Camp to Happy Camp (7.8 miles) elevation gain 2700 ft

I woke up at 4:30 and started tearing down camp.  Oatmeal was my breakfast but I found that I just couldn’t eat much of it.  I thought that maybe I was a little anxious about climbing the Golden Staircase and the long day ahead.  Today’s hike takes very experienced hikers about 8 hours, and the rest of us about 12.

I was feeling pretty good, I kind of felt “one with my pack”, it just felt good and I felt very energetic for the day.  The entire hike before we got to the Golden Staircase was uphill with numerous stream crossings and lots of mud and climbing over lots of rocks.  At the top right before the Golden Staircase was the Scales.  The Scales was known among the prospectors as “one of the most wretched spots on the trail”.

A tramway was built to carry the stampeders supplies over the pass, the prospectors were charged one rate, then when the load was reweighed at the scales, the rate was often tripled.  The prospectors were required to carry a “ton of goods” into Canada, enough to last a year in the Yukon.  Many stampeders became discouraged and discarded their equipment and turned back at the Scales.  During the gold rush, the Scales supported at least 6 restaurants, 2 hotels, a saloon and various other businesses.   Nearly all of them would end up buried in the snow. 

After the Scales comes the Golden Staircase.   The 45-degree climb from The Scales to the summit of the pass became known as the “Golden Stairs.”  Two entrepreneurs carved steps into the snow and charged a toll for their use.  It took the stampeders from 1 to 6 hours to make the trip.  Many could only manage one trip per day and some needed 30 trips to get their outfits across the pass.  His sight remains one of the icons of the Klondike gold rush.  The Golden Stairs is a massive boulder field, with many of the granite boulders the size of cars.  The kicker is that it is at a 45-degree angle and one must scramble up and over and between the boulders carrying a backpack.  The total elevation from Sheep Camp to the summit is 2700 feet; the elevation change from The Scales to the summit is 1200 in ½ mile.  Believe me, it was really steep, but I LOVED it!!  I think it brought out my “inner mountain goat”, lol. But seriously, the steeper sections were actually easier because I was more upright rather that leaning over trying to scramble over the boulders.  The depressing part is that everyone knows that there are 2 false summits, I could see what appeared to be the summit, but once I got there, there was another summit, then I had to go down hill and cross an ice field.  This was really tough since it was downhill, then finally I crossed the summit.  I’ve got to say that I have never been so happy to see the Canadian flag in my life.  There was a nice warming hut at the summit where everyone hung out and had a late lunch and whooped it up a bit as each person crossed over the summit. 

At this point I was feeling rather nauseous and couldn’t eat any food.  Tom was starving and also very cold as I hung out with him for a while.  Once at the summit, the hike for the day is only half over but most of the hikers are really mentally spent since the hype is all about the Golden Stairs!  There was still another 4 miles to go almost all above the tree line with lots of tough stream crossings.  I was getting more and more nauseous and couldn’t even eat a snack.  I really struggled with the last couple of miles of the hike; it was an extremely long day, 12 hours total.  Once we got into Happy Camp, everyone was helping everyone else get their camps set up and some great folks helped us get our tent set up.  Tom climbed and was out like a light.  I hung out in the warming hut with some newfound friends and drank tea trying to get my stomach to settle down.  I finally slept well and was able to sleep in a bit in the morning even though we woke up to a rainy, misty fog.  But our summit day had absolutely perfect weather with great visibility J

Day 4 Happy Camp to Lindeman City (5.5 miles) net decrease in altitude 1000 ft

I woke up feeling really miserable, I went to the warming hut just to get out of the rain and mist and fog.  I pretty much sat there with my eyes closed and was crying.  I felt really sick an knew that I really needed to eat but I felt so sick that I couldn’t even brush my teeth (eeewww!!)  The Juneau ladies (bless them) started pushing electrolyte replacement stuff at me.  I had two packs of it, plus a pocket full for later since we were going to be at different campground the next night.  I still couldn’t eat but I did feel a little better.  We hit the trail which immediately went uphill for what seems to be a long time, again lots of rocks and tree roots, followed by lots of downhill.  About mid morning I started to get hungry and by the time we got to Deep Lake Campground I was starving and ate plain Ramen Noodles in the rain.  They didn’t have a warming hut there, just a cooking platform.  But in any case I was mostly cured of whatever was bothering my stomach.  I do think it my electrolytes were out of whack. 

We continued on to Lindeman City Campground.  During the gold rush, Lindeman was a bustling town; they cleared the land of just about every tree within hauling distance to build boats to haul gear up to Bennett Lake and onto the Yukon River.  There were about 4000 residents but there were essentially no permanent buildings unlike some of the other campgrounds.

I felt much better in the afternoon.  Just as we got to Lindeman there was a torrential downpour.  We weren’t sure if it was going to get better or worse so we went ahead and set up the tent in the rain.  Sure enough, as soon as we were finished it stopped.  We got our rain gear all dried out and had an enjoyable evening with the hikers.  Lindeman is a pretty camp, right on a pretty lake with a nice stream for getting water.

We went to bed early at 8:00 since we were planning to get up really early for our final hike since we had to hike out to Bennett Lake, the end of the trail and catch the train back to Skagway at 2:00.

Day 5  Lindeman to Bennett (7 miles) slight elevation gain

We were up at 4:45 AM and on the trail at 5:40.  I felt great!!  Another one of those “one with my pack” days.  The weather was overcast and cool but dry J.  Shortly out of Lindeman was a lot of climbing for the 1^st 2 hours, then a lot of downhill.  Some nice trail through pine forests without rocks and tree roots.  We arrive at Bare Loon Lake Campground at 7:30.  I had jokingly told the Juneau gals that I would see them for breakfast the next morning, and we arrived just as they were eating.  They couldn’t believe the change in 24 hours.  They truly did save my Chilkoot experience!  We took a short break there then continued on to Bennett.  It was a great hike, both Tom and I felt great and we made it in record time.  We arrived at 10:15, even before the train station opened for the backpacker lunch.  Just after we got there the fog rolled in and the rain started once again!  Perfect timing. The dining room opened at 10:30 for lunch and it was the best lunch I have ever had in my life.  Beef Stew, whole grain bread, hot tea and apple pie.  The pie wasn’t all that great, but wow the hot stew and bread just hit the spot!!

At 2:00 the train left the station bound for the 2 ½ hour trip back to Skagway.  We really couldn’t see much from the train because of the fog but I was warm, dry and happy J  And what an experience!!!!

The campground where we were staying had pay showers.  I think I used $5 worth of quarters until I finally felt human again.  Chilkoot was definitely a major highlight of my trip to Alaska; it was such an amazing trail with such history…

 The steep, rocky trail

 Stream crossings

 Ice field just below the Golden Stairs

 This is the Golden Stairs, note the orange poles that mark the route up and over, and the people on the stairs.

 Yeah!! The warming hut at the summit

 Crater Lake on the Canadian side of the summit

The Bennett Lake Train Station where the White Pass and Yukon Route Railroad made the Chilkoot trail obsolete 

Chilkoot Trail Day 1

Chilkoot Trail Day 1 – Trail Head  to Canyon City Campground (7.5 Miles)

The Chilkoot was originally a trail used by the Tlingit people as a vital trade route between the coastal areas and the interior indigenous groups.  The Tlingit carried fish and seal oils, preserved salmon and plants over the pass to trade for copper, moose, caribou meats and hides as well as furs.  Although they controlled the trail, they couldn't hold back the masses of people trying to gain access to the Klondike gold fields when the gold rush began.

Thursday, August 11 – This morning it was windy and rainy in Skagway with more rain and cold weather in the forecast.  I really had my doubts about even attempting the Chilkoot Trail.  When we arrived off the ferry in Skagway the night before we had to set up camp in a total downpour and it rained all night.  We talked to the folks with the parks service and they confirmed that the weather forecast wasn’t going to be very good.  Although we had all of our food and gear packed and ready to go, we didn’t make the decision to actually do the hike until 9:30 AM and we were on the 10:30 AM shuttle to Dyea (pronounced die-ee) where the trailhead is located.  Dyea is a ghost town today but during the Klondike gold rush it was quite the hopping town with a population of 8,000-10,000 people!  Dyea died after the White Pass and Yukon Route railroad opened in 1899.

We got dropped off at the trailhead at the end of the Dyea road (really a goat path) a muddy, slippery, bumpy excuse for a road, but it keeps Ruth from the Dyea shuttle service very busy since no one wants to drive out there and at only $15 a pop it’s a great deal.  When we got dropped off, it was pouring down rain and I still wasn’t sold on the idea of backpacking for 5 days being wet and cold.  Within 5 minutes I had to take off one layer under my raincoat because I was warming up.  Between my raincoat, rain pants, gloves, baseball cap and hood, I was actually staying quite dry.  The only problem is when using hiking poles, I was getting some rain coming up my coat sleeves but not too bad.  Honestly though, it’s no fun wearing glasses in the rain!  My pack cover kept my gear nice and dry in my backpack too.   One good thing about the rain is there were no mosquitos :-).

About 100 yards into the trail and we hit our 1^st hill.  The day was mostly up and down, over a swampy area, numerous creek crossings with 10-inch boards that were “bridges” and very slippery (actually more slimy than slippery) the trail was also very rocky in places and of course quite muddy.  I fell twice, once I did a nice butt slide on some wet scree, the 2^nd time was on one of the lovely plank bridges.  My foot just slid out from under me and I landed gracefully (yeah right!) across the plank like a turtle on it’s back.  It could have been worse, I could have landed in the water.  I had to get out of my pack to get up.  But no harm done.  My feet stayed completely dry, considering that my boots were totally wet.  My old boots would have totally soaked through.  There were lots of mosses and ferns, actually much of the hike reminded me of my hike last summer in the Redwoods National Park with all of the giant ferns and everything being very green.  The rain let up just before we arrived at Canyon City Campground long enough for us to set up our tent.  We got our food put away in the bear proof storage locker and headed into the warming hut to try to dry out our coats and make some dinner.  At this point we started meeting lots of other hikers, all really nice folks and over the next 5 days we really would become a community and help each other out.

It was off to bed early where it rained all night, the bottom of the tent got a little flooded but our sleeping bags stayed dry since we had our air mattresses keeping us up off the floor of the tent. I didn’t sleep well.  I think I was just too worried about our sleeping bags getting wet and having to turn back.  At this point, I decided that it is a whole lot easier to go up hill than down and I really didn’t want to have to hike out.  Once again, the rain stopped long enough to drain the water from the tent and get everything pack up and ready to roll for day 2.

Because of the really slow internet in the Yukon I have to break this up into shorter sections.  More pictures later when I have decent internet...

Beginning of the trail

Trail head

Haines and preping for the Chilkoot Trail

Haines, AK - Aug 8-10

We’ve spent the last couple of days in Haines, Ak  After arriving on Monday, we found this really cool spot along the Chilkoot River that bears like to frequent.  In addition to the bears, it is just plain beautiful here.  Chilkoot Lake is a snowmelt and glacier melt lake that feeds the river and right now the salmon are running by the thousands therefore the bears are also frequenting the river.  The fishermen are after the trout since salmon don’t feed once they hit fresh water. Alaskan citizens can dip net for salmon, meaning that they can just stick a big, really big net into the water and pull out salmon.  Think pulling fish out of an aquarium with a net, but only on a much bigger scale.

Haines is a nice, quiet little town that is the 1^st stop on the Alaskan marine highway where one can actually get to the Alaskan highway and into mainland Alaska.  There is also a cruise ship stop here on Wednesdays.  It isn’t a typical cruise ship town in that they don’t have all of the jewelry stores, souvenir shops, etc.  I have enjoyed the past couple of days, just chilling and getting our packs ready for the Chilkoot Trail that we start tomorrow morning.  Honestly, I am terrified!  I am not in the kind of shape I need to be to do this hike; my boots aren’t broken in enough, my pack weighs way too much, but it is now or never.  At the very least I can try and fail or not try and never known if I could actually do it.  There really isn’t anything that I can eliminate from my pack to lighten my load since the nighttime temps will be dipping down into the 30’s and we are pretty much guaranteed rain.  At least some of my food will be gone by day 3 which will be the most challenging of the 5 days.  Much of the hike on day 3 is at a 45-degree angle through a boulder field.  The 8.5 miles typically takes 10-12 hours. I am thinking it will be probably the biggest physical challenge that I have ever attempted.  Thursday will be about 8.5 miles, Friday about 4.5 miles, Saturday (please pray for me day) 8.5 miles, Sunday 8 miles, and Monday 4 miles.  At the end of the trail at Bennett Lake, the White Pass & Yukon Railroad has a depot and we will have a big lunch there and take the train back to Skagway.  Hopefully the weather will be good because they make the backpackers ride in an outdoor car. I can totally understand this!  If I were a tourist I don’t think I would want to sit near me after 5 days on the trail either.  Once back in Skagway and after a long hot shower, a couple of beers and a good night’s sleep we will begin the long trip home.

From Skagway, we will go back into Canada and drive the Cassier Highway south through British Columbia, then head east on the Yellow Head highway into Alberta to Jasper and Banff, then time allowing down to Glacier before crossing the border in Montana and booking it home through ND, MN, WI to arrive back in Ann Arbor on August 27 with plenty of time (2 days) to get ready to go back to work.

For more information on Chilkoot Trail and the Goldrush National Historic Site, see http://www.nps.gov/klgo/index.htm.  

 Hey! What happened to that fisherman?

The Golden Staircase on the Chilkoot Trail (day 3) during the goldrush

Close encounter of the BEAR kind!!

August 8...  Happy 22nd birthday Hanna!  I miss you!!

Yesterday we drove from Fairbanks to Haines Junction, Yukon.  Haines Junction is the gateway to the Kluane National Park of Canada.  It is an awesome area and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  It backs up to Wrangell-St ELias National Park in the US (our largest national park).  I liked Haines Junction except for not having any cell service.  We had a trail head into Kluane NP right in our campground :-).

Today we drove down to Haines, AK, making yet another US-Canada border crossing.  It was a beautiful drive even with overcast skies.  The border patrol guy was really nice and had Tom fill out some extra paperwork so the halibut that he caught in Homer wouldn't be confiscated when we cross the border into Montana in a couple of weeks.  Much different from the border agents on the bridge to WIndsor!

Haines is a great little town and very friendly.  We are in a nice little water front campground, the owner lady is very sweet and is a gem at directing people backing up campers, BLESS HER HEART!!  I love the smell of the ocean and watching the fishing boats come in with their catch.  An added bonus today is that the salmon are running on the Chilkoot River just a few miles down from the campground and the bears were out feeding.  I was able to get some shots of a sow with her twin cubs that are in their 2nd summer.  After watching them for awhile, they came right up on the road, I kid you not, they were 5 feet from Tom's truck.  Wow to watch people scatter!  There was an Alaska Parks Ranger there and when the bears started coming close to shore, the ranger asked everyone to move back and let the bears pass.  I was IN the truck by that point!  There is a short section in the road where people are not allowed to walk or stop their vehicles so the bears can walk up the road to the fish wier.  A fish wier can be different things but is used to block the passage of fish, in this case it is a fence of wooden slats meant to slow the progress of salmon going out to the ocean so the Alaska Dept of Fish and Wildlife can get an estimate of how many salmon will return to to the river to spawn in 5 - 7 years.  The bears love it since they can hang out by the fence and easily catch fish.  But when we saw them they were out in the open river actively catching fish.  The wier does come down before the salmon run in the fall when the the mature salmon are returning from the ocean to spawn.

To top off a very good day, we went to the outskirts of town (ok, so Haines is really a mini skirt so we didn't have to go very far) to a place called Dalton City to visit Haines Brewery.  Dalton City was built as the set for the movie White Fang and it has since been taken over by small businesses from Haines.  There was the brewery, the Klondike Restaurant, a knitting shop, a massage therapist and a couple of other places.  Speaking of movies and tv, as we were coming into town, we saw the area where part of the show Gold Rush was filmed, Porcupine Creek...  All very cool.

Tomorrow we're on standby to go on a fjord trip to Juneau for the day, 90 nautical miles.  I'm guessing that we're not going to get on the trip so we'll have to find something else exciting to do.  Wednesday evening we're taking the Alaska Marine Ferry from Haines to Skagway.  It's only 15 miles but will save us about a 350 mile drive around the mountains.  On Thursday, we start our 5 day backpacking trip on the Chilkoot Trail out of Skagway.  Then we will begin the trip back to Michigan...

Kate

 Sow and her yearling cubs fishing the Chilkoot River

 Alaska Range between Fairbanks and the Yukon border

 Glacier on the way into Haines, Ak

 Cub waiting for salmon

 Momma bear

 Cubbies

 Chilkoot Lake

Dalton City from the set of White Fang

On the Road Again… August 6

On the Road Again… August 6

Today we slept in a bit and visited Pioneer Park in Fairbanks.  It is the Alaskan equivalent of Greenfield Village in Michigan or Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts.  They had a lot of old Alaskan cabins, hotels, brothels, things from years and era’s gone by that were moved to the park in Fairbanks.  It was interesting and we spend just a short time there.

We headed back on the Alaska Highway to complete the short stretch that we missed on the way up when we hit the Glenn Highway to get to Wrangell-St Elias National Park.  We even got a certificate for completing the highway, well we had to pay $1.00 for it.  The highway officially ends in Delta Junction, AK at mile post 1422.  I must admit that the driving conditions were much better than what I expected!  Other than the frost heaves, the road was in great condition.  We are good at predicting where we needed to slow down based on the landscape.  Anytime we see black spruce trees that looked half dead and half falling over, that definitely means permafrost is underneath.  Those  “forests” are called drunken forests because the frost heaves have also displaced the roots of the trees.  The roots are very shallow since they can’t get below the permafrost.  Some of the trees can be 50 to 100 years old but are only a few feet high due to the poor soil and short growing season.  I was able to look at the growth rings under a magnifying glass, it was amazing how little they grow annually.

We had originally planned to stay in Tok tonight (the place where we had the awesome breakfast with the reindeer sausage) where we stayed on the way up, but it was a beautiful day (finally) so we kept driving.  We are in Port Alcan, of course you’ve never heard of it!!  It’s right on the US-Canadian (Yukon) border and is nothing more than 2 gas stations a couple of campgrounds and the border crossing.  We have to go back through Canada to get to the Alaskan panhandle.  Tomorrow night we plan to stay in Haines Junction.  First thing Monday morning we’ll call the Alaska Marine Highway to see if we can get a ferry from Haines to Skagway (only like 20 miles), if we can then we’ll head to Haines for a couple of days.  If not then we’ll head to Skagway.  They are very close together as the whale swims, but far to drive.  If we can get to Haines, we are planning to do a daytrip down to Juneau on a ferry.

Today is the 1^st day is 2 weeks where I haven’t had to wear a coat.  The temperature got up to 64.  Yeah!!

Kate

PS My apologies for the poor quality photos - really slow internet...

 Moose antlers - unbelievable heavy

 amazing flowers in Fairbanks

 Mile posts in Fairbanks

 up close and personal with bear claws

 North Pole

 Alaskan pipeline crossing a river (it's 3 feet in diameter)

 Mt Hayes in the Alaska Range

 Finally competes last segment of Alaska Highway

Healy, Alaska to Fairbanks and Chena Hot Springs (Aug 5)

We are into the 2nd half of our 7 week road trip at this point.  Thursday was day 25 of our 49 day journey, we've driven 5300 miles at this point more than half of what we are expecting to drive.  Today we drove from Healy, just north of Denali National Park to Fairbanks.  It was a short drive, relatively speaking.  But nothing here is a short drive!!

I have heard mixed reviews of Fairbanks, but so far I really like it here, much more than Anchorage.  We are in the best campground of the trip so far, that's a blessing considering 2 of the campgrounds that we were in this week in Anchorage and Wasilla that were absolutely horrid.

We went to the Chena Hot Springs, about 60 miles northeast of Fairbanks.  These were the best of the 3 hot springs we have visited so far.  Chena is a very cool place.  Not only do they have the hot springs pools, but they also harness the thermal energy to heat greenhouses to grow all of the vegetables for their resort year round.  They get so much sunlight here, much more than the southern part of the state, that the flowers and the summer crops are huge!!  They have a lodge that is over 100 years old.  It's an absolutely beautiful place.  It was a perfect day for the hot springs at 45 degrees.

Tomorrow, we are going to spend a little time in Fairbanks then head back out on the last stretch of the Alaska Highway (Fairbanks to Tok) that we skipped on the way up when we headed off to Wrangell-St Elias NP.  We are hoping to make it to the Tok area tomorrow.

Chena Hot Springs outdoor pool

 Steamy pool-open even at 40 below 0

 Cabin at the Chena Hot Spring Resort

 Amazing flowers - 20 hours of sunlight/day 

More flowers... really pretty place