Whales-Seals & Trains

Saturday, June 28, 2008
We were out of touch for a few days, at least internet-wise, and now have to play catch-up. On Thursday we drove from Teslin, Yukon, to Skagway, Alaska - about 150 miles. On Friday we took a day-long sightseeing excursion on a catamaran boat from Skagway to Juneau. Saw numerous humpback whales, a seal rookery and quite a few different kinds of birds. A bus met the boat outside Juneau and drove us into the city where we spent a few hours eating and shopping. On the way back to the boat we had a chance to visit the Mendenhall Glacier.
This morning we took a train up to White Pass along the old gold trail of 1898. We left Skagway early afternoon and drove to Whitehorse, the capital of the Yukon where we are spending the night.
Haven't had much of a chance to write or work with the pictures the last few days, but we'll post more a.s.a.p.

Yukon Territory

Wednesday, June 25, 2008
If there’s anything we’ve learned over the last week or so of traveling through remote country it’s this: if there’s a gas pump, pump it; and if there’s a pot, pee in it. Don’t wait for the next one because there may not be one for hundreds of miles (or kilometers as the Canucks insist on having it.)

We finally finished the last leg of the Cassiar Highway this afternoon and got out on the actual Alaska Highway about a dozen miles west of Watson Lake. The Cassiar was a great alternative route. We don't regret taking it despite the white-knuckle experience of narrow lanes and steep dropoffs at the edges. The wildlife and the scenery were both remarkable. This morning we came across three moose breakfasting in a quiet roadside lake so we stopped to watch them. They apparently knew we couldn't get anywhere near them so they pretty much ignored us and continued their placid munching. It was so silent all we could hear was our ears ringing. Amazing! No traffic. No dogs barking. Nothing. Denise and I decided we'd like to come back and build a little cabin on that lake someday. Then a bit further down the highway we ran across a couple of bears - big shorty and short biggy - loitering in the roadside brush. The smaller of the two must have had some experience at begging handouts because he came right up to our stopped vehicles and sniffed around, waiting for us to supply a treat. He finally waddled off unfulfilled on that score. The picture was taken by Denise from the truck window, without using the zoom!

The Alaska Highway is like I-94 compared to the Cassiar. More traffic now, too, but at least we can drive along at 55 and not have to slow down every hundred yards or so for potholes or to cower over at the road's edge while a huge lumber truck roars by. Tonight we're at a resort/campground called Dawson Peaks near the town of Teslin, Yukon, and on the shore of Teslin Lake (pic) which looks on the map to be about a hundred miles long, give or take a mile. We hunkered around a smoky fire this evening eating beans from tin cans (actually popcorn from microwave bags) and listening to the Tigers whoop up on the Cardinals on our XM radio, while the wolves howled in the hills round about (actually trucks on the highway). Tomorrow we'll venture on to Skagway, Alaska. Yes! Alaska!

Into Alaska and Out

Rained all night and finally let up at daylight, but low clouds hung over the lakeside mountains when we got up and on the road. We took the spur road to Stewart, B. C. and Hyder, Alaska, and soon came to Bear Glacier, the one glacier along this route that does more than just peek at us over the top of the mountains and comes right down to road level, forming a small brownish lake at its bottom. Past there the sky began to partially clear as we wound down through the Bear River canyon, past avalanche areas where numerous streams of meltwater roped down the steep rock mountainsides.

Stewart was a decent town although somewhat down-at-the-heels in spots. We found a bakery that served muffins and coffee and an information office where we were informed it was somewhat early to expect any bears to be fishing at Fish Creek near Hyder, part of the reason we came this way. We drove on along the Portland Canal, the long, winding inlet of the Pacific that forms the International boundary, which looked to be at low tide and was choked with hundreds of old pilings, and other unknown industry of the past. It definitely smelled of the ocean, though. There was no U.S. customs office here so we drove into Hyder where the main street was dirt and full of potholes. It didn't matter much though, because there didn't seem to be a single store open for business of any kind. A sign on the front of some sort of general store read, "Hyder - home of about 100 happy souls and a few old s---heads". After a couple of blocks we turned around and headed back to the border, where a young customs officer posed the usual questions and waved us through.

Back on the wild Cassiar we continued north through rugged terrain, the road being in very good condition for the first section, but gradually becoming narrower and rougher with patches of gravel. Crossed innumerable rivers and creeks, large and small and all generally rushing headlong with their load of snowmelt, boiling toward the sea. Saw several bears along the way, and a moose couple - the bull with a small pair of velvety antlers poking from his forehead (pic). Stopped for a short rest where the Bell-Irving river crossed, and for gas at the Bell II resort ($1.45/liter). South of Iskut the road skirted the east side of Eddontenajon Lake, which figured into a chapter of the Edward Hoagland book I was just reading.

We checked into the Mountain Shadow RV park, a few miles north of Iskut, about 2 p.m. The park is in a meadow at the base of several large mountains and on the end of a small lake which is the first in a series that, along with the Eddontenajon and the Kinaskan, form the Iskut River, which runs south and joins the larger Stikine and eventually empties into the Pacific near Wrangall, Alaska. Windy and cool.

Meziadin Lake--British Columbia

Monday, June 23, 2008

This morning started out bright and beautiful even though the temp was only in the upper 40’s. Cold last night, but under the sleeping bag we were cozy. Started out helping a fellow camper jump start his truck. He apparently used too much juice in his pop up camper last night and ran the battery down. Been there, done that.
Got on the road about 9am. Not too much to report. Stopped in the town of Smithers. We had lunch at McDonalds. Just a little bit of home for us. We had to pick up a new grill, ours finally bit the dust. Then it was on to the Cassiar Highway. Our first Alaska sign (as you can see on our post). This evening we are perched on the shore of Meziadin Lake listening to the drizzly rain on the roof of our camper and watching a loon dive for his supper. When we first arrived the mosquitoes descended upon us like a hoard of winged sharks. We tried to have a campfire but the rain has put a damper on that plan, at least its not snowing. Only 1500 more miles and approximately 7 more days and we’ll be in Alaska. We actually we’ll be in and out of Alaska for a short time tomorrow. The little town of Hyder has a big attraction for bears, so we are going to be there tomorrow during the day. Hopefully we’ll get some pics for you.

Onward and Upward

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Cloudy this morning when we got up. Spotted an elk at a nearby campsite (pic) and tried to get close for a few pics, but not too close as we were warned about a cow elk with calves that had been frequenting the park and would attack without much provocation. As we left the campground we saw several more elk just outside the entrance. Gassed up in town then got on the Yellowhead Highway (Hwy. 16), headed west. After about fifteen miles we left Alberta and entered British Columbia again, gaining one hour as we passed into the Pacific time zone. Low clouds hung over the mountains, obscuring the peaks, and we ran into several areas of light rain. Stopped for a short time at the Mt. Robson viewpoint, the highest mountain in the Canadian Rockies at about 12,900 feet, the peak of which was not visible for the clouds (pic) . Further west, past the town of McBride, the sun finally came out. As I write this we are travelling along through the valley of the Fraser River between McBride and Prince George, with the peaks of the Caribou range to the south. The Krupps are in the lead today and just had a black bear run across the road in front of them. We have yet to see a moose even though we’ve seen numerous hazard signs for them. Plenty of time left though.

Tonight we’re at a bucolic little campground called Dave’s outside the town of Vanderhoof. No mountains hereabout, just rolling, peaceful countryside. We’re thinking of all our friends and family back home and wherever they may be, and hoping you are all well and happy tonight.

Icefields Parkway

Saturday, June 21, 2008
Drove through Banff and Jasper National Parks along the Icefields Parkway - 140 miles total. No words within my vocabulary can adequately describe the majesty of these Canadian Rockies. We're still in awe. I'll keep the words to a minimum today and post a couple extra pics instead. Peyto Lake is outstandingly blue-blue-blue, took a steep 10-minute walk to get there, but we all agreed it was prettier than Lake Louise. Denise and I are at Mistaya falls, a cataract to rival the Grand Canyon, on a smaller scale of course. The snow field I'm standing on is the Athabaska Glacier. Tonight we are at Whistler's campground just outside Jasper, Alberta. Tomorrow we'll be heading west and north from here along the Yellowhead Highway (Hwy. 16) toward northern British Columbia.

Lake Louise

Friday, June 20, 2008
Slept in on this our first day off from driving. Lake Louise beckoned, so the four of us hit the dusty trail. Backpacks full of trail mix and PB & J we headed out into the bear ridden country. 3 ½ miles later and a little more weary we landed in the "Disney Land" parking lot at Lake Louise. We elbowed our way out to the edge of the lake for a view of the 2nd most beautiful lake in the world. (According to the Discovery Channel.). WOW, its definitely something to see and worth every step of the hike. Rested a while and ate our lunch in the shadow of the Lake Louise Chateau, accompanied by the squawking nutcrackers who flew down to beg scraps at our feet. Connie was even able to hold food out and they came and took it from her fingers. The trail back to the campground was a wearisome trek, but at least it was mostly downhill and us old timers appreciated that.
Then it was off to town to do laundry, exchange American to Canadian monies, find a WI FI spot, and buy groceries. Mission accomplished on the wi fi, and money exchange only. We were told there was no laundry facilities within 1 hour of this tourist trap, groceries cost too much (pop tarts were 4.49 a box).
Tomorrow we hit the Icefields Parkway to Jasper Alberta. Stay tuned for more of our continuing saga.

Glacier to Lake Louise

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Another long day of driving, but through some of the most jaw-dropping country any of us have ever seen. Almost never out of sight of snowy summits and icy rushing streams we drove around the south end of Glacier Park (the Going-to-the-Sun road route being still under feet and feet of snow from recent avalaches and the winter's accumulation), startling and being startled by a large black bear who'd been taking the morning sun along the roadside, and then stopping near the Flathead river to watch and photograph a herd of mountain goats up high on the slope. As we watched, a momma and two kids came down the slope toward the bridge we were on (see pic), to feed on something (perhaps the mineralized soil) under the bridge, just like the "goats gruff" of the fable.
We had no trouble at all crossing through customs into Canada, the all-business official only asking us of our residence and (twice) whether or not we had any alcohol or firearms. Same easy passage for Leo and Connie. So we drove on north into this province of British Columbia, which none of us has ever been in before. At Radium Hot Springs we gassed up at $1.40/litre (about $5.20/gal) and headed up into the Kootenay National Park. Very near the entrance we were greeted by a herd of bighorn sheep on the roadside and we snapped a few shots from the truck window, not daring to get out and face the wrathful expressions on those ram's faces. The weather through this area was cloudy and somewhat threatening, but the scenery was more incredible than any of us had expected. Actually this was just going to be another route to get to Banff and Lake Louise, but it turned out to be some of the most awe-some (I don't like that word but I'm running out of superlatives) country we've seen yet.
Made it to Lake Louise about 7 o'clock, later than we'd hoped, and were fortunate to get two adjacent campsites in the campground here, which is nicely sandwiched between a busy railroad track and the mighty Bow River, rushing down from the glaciers high above.
Tomorrow we'll hike up to the lake itself and determine for ourselves if it's as lovely as advertised in all the tourist brochures.

Note: In case you hadn't tried it, you can click on the photos to make them larger.

GLACIER NATIONAL PARK

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Leo and Connie surprised us this morning by bringing over a tiny cake with a match stuck in it for a candle and wishing us a happy anniversary, which reminded us that it was, indeed, our 14th anniversary. What a great way to start the day.
Left Havre at about nine o'clock and continued on west, where at Shelby we caught our first distant view of the snow-covered Rocky Mountains. At Browning we turned toward Glacier Park and wound our way up into the mountains to Two Medicine campground, a magnificently situated place on the edge of two pristine lakes and surrounded by lofty peaks that are still shedding their snow cover in the form of rushing waterfalls almost everywhere you look. On the way in we stopped and walked a short distance to the spectacular Running Eagle falls.
After setting up camp we walked around the campground and spotted a group of four goats or sheep that seemed to have lost their way and were nervously making their way through the campsites looking for escape. We walked on down to the general store where we looked through all the fabulous tourist trash and bought nothing. Hobos for supper. Cooled right off after the sun went behind Standing Wolf peak to our west, which made for great sleeping.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Up early this morning but didn’t get on the road until after 8. It was another long day of driving across the Great Plains, rolling and relatively treeless country, which some people find boring, but it has its own charm in my view.
Before we left the campground we met some fellow RV-ers from Michigan who are also heading to Alaska. They were from the Houghton-Hancock area, so the change in climate won’t be much different for them.
About noon we crossed into Montan’s Big Sky country, where we gained another hour and also had our first view of mountains (see pic). No snow-capped peaks yet, but by tomorrow we’ll have plenty of those. Looks like our planned drive through Glacier National Park will have to be postponed until our return trip as we are informed the plow crews are still trying to fight their way through 30-foot snow avalanches and aren’t making much progress. Oh well, it’s ONLY mid-June!
We found a simple little campground for the night which sits in a grove of trees in the middle of a vast expanse of praire about four-miles south of Havre (pronounced HAV-er), Montana. Good night.

Day 3

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Up early this morning but didn’t get on the road until after 8. It was another long day of driving across the Great Plains, rolling and relatively treeless country, which some people find boring, but it has its own charm in my view.
Before we left the campground we met some fellow RV-ers from Michigan who are also heading to Alaska. They were from the Houghton-Hancock area, so the change in climate won’t be much different for them.
About noon we crossed into Montan’s Big Sky country, where we gained another hour and also had our first view of mountains (see pic). No snow-capped peaks yet, but by tomorrow we’ll have plenty of those. Looks like our planned drive through Glacier National Park will have to be postponed until our return trip as we are informed the plow crews are still trying to fight their way through 30-foot snow avalanches and aren’t making much progress. Oh well, it’s ONLY mid-June!
We found a simple little campground for the night which sits in a grove of trees in the middle of a vast expanse of praire about four-miles south of Havre (pronounced HAV-er), Montana. Good night.

Day 2

Monday, June 16

Well, we put in 469 miles today leaving behind the big woods of Wisconsin and Minnesota and entering the wide open expanse of the Great Plains. You can see so far here you almost expect to see wild Indians and herds of buffalo. But, of course those things are long gone. Speaking of wild life we’ve already seen some of the bear variety raiding the adjacent campsite in Wisconsin this morning. We were waiting for Connie and Leo and Mike saw some movement out of the corner of his eye. He thought it was just a big black dog, but soon realized it was YOGI BEAR looking for picinic baskets. Evidently the nearby campers had left some of last nights supper out and the bears none too gently disposed of it. Slam banging pots and pans in their greedy effort to gorge themselves. Who’d of thunk we’d see bears so soon. While everyone rushed to get their cameras the camera shy bears made a quick exit.
Tonight we are ensconced in a mildly pleasant roadside RV Park in Rugby North Dakota (which has the distinction of being the geographic center of North America). Looking forward to Connie’s bean soup for supper, the winning Tigers baseball game on XM Radio and then a nice hot shower in the morning before taking off again.
Hope everyone is well. Tell Kaylee to try and stay safe and that Gramma and Grampa hope her arm is healing well. And also hopefully Katie forgives Gramma and Grampa for not calling on her birthday. We’ll try and make it up to her later. SORRY.
Tomorrow we push on to Montana and hope to make the foothills of the Rockies. We will post again as soon as we are able.
No pictures to share yet, but will send some as soon as we get them. Love to everyone

Day 1

Sunday, June 15

We left home around 8:15am and stopped for the night at 8:00pm Michigan time. A 12-hour day to do about 517 miles. We have already crossed over into the Central time zone so we’ve gained 1 hour. The trip so far has been pretty uneventful. Gas has cost us $145 dollars, but we still have ¾ of a tank. We paid $4.39/gal in the UP and $4.19/gal in Wisconsin. We found a National Forest Campground just inside Wisconsin, so that’s where we stayed. Hopefully the mosquitoes won’t carry us away. Just trying to put as many miles as possible into a day at this point. Just getting us closer to Alaska. The highlight of the whole day was a scrumptious ice cream cone in Florence, Wisconsin.

Here we are 24 hours before leaving. After 2 years in the planning we are packed and ready to go. We are heading out towards Montana and then up into the Canadian Rockies and further north into Alaska. We'll be keeping everyone up to date as we can. The connections may not be available everyday, but we'll send as often as possible.

"Talk" to everyone again from the road.

Mike and Denise

Here is a pic of the inside of the camper in the process of packing. I tried to post this yesterday, but had trouble. Better late than never. Still working out the bugs. Bear with us.

Only 7 Days Left

Only 7 days left before we leave. The camper is on the truck and we've started packing it. Hope there is room for everything. Connie & Leo woke to a big roof leak this morning. Hopefully this won't hold us up. Also found out that the "Going to the Sun Road" at Glacier isn't open yet. They are still plowing the 35 foot drifts off the road. We may have to find a different route around that area.