Day 37

We got up at late o’clock and had a leisurely breakfast in the campsite restaurant, where we were served the best breakfast potatoes ever!!

The campsite owner told us that to keep the place open he has a real job, working 2 weeks on and 2 weeks off on a rig in Prudhoe Bay. Year round, where it gets to 60 degrees below freezing.

We had to find internet service to keep you guys up to date, ( didn’t want you worrying about us) so we drove to the nearest town, Glennallen, 35 miles away.

The library has free WiFi, so while Marlipops was taking care of bills and boring stuff online, I was chatting with the librarian, who told me they only get about 5 feet of snow here annually. It gets chilly, she said, so they only drive the 150 miles to Anchorage for groceries etc if it is 40 below, or warmer!!

Despite the fortitude, courage, valiantness and bravery displayed on the trip, your superhero Captain Cautious has caught a bug, and was poorly bad all day, so he went to bed early and Marlipops did the domestics.

So no wildlife watch today and no pix.

Day 36

We sat and waited for the sunset last night, and at 11.30 pm we were still waiting, the sun was still visible over the horizon, and so we went to bed. We still don’t know exactly when the sun set!!

Which brings us to…………Happy 4^th of July everybody!!!

We have posed ourselves a question, and wonder whether any of our readers can answer it.

Do they let off fireworks in “The Land of The Midnight Sun” to celebrate July 4^th, and if so, what is the point, when there is no darkness?

So, we left the pretty campsite of Cottonwood and trogged on our merry way. (Another new word for your travel dictionary)

We had been warned about the bad road conditions for the next 200 miles or so, and they were correct.

The worst driving conditions we have ever seen. The road is built on top of the tundra, which is marshy on the surface, and then has permafrost below. During the summer, some of the permafrost thaws, causing the road to buckle and twist. Consequently it is like driving on a roller coaster, with big cracks in the road both sideways and long ways. The cracks are repaired, although still very bumpy, but the roller coaster sections are just left as they are. It is easy to spot the bad sections because an orange flag is stuck at the side of the road to tell you “It’s bumpy!!”

And, for about the last 50 miles in Canada, before we crossed the border back into good ol’ USA, the road was under repair, and even at 5 mph, it felt like the coach was being shaken to bits. And there was the previously mentioned dust everywhere.

We actually traveled over 400 miles which under the circumstances was excellent, so I’ve given myself a pat on the back!

Once again, the scenery through the remainder of Yukon Territory and then Alaska is absolutely stunning. There are distant mountains, some snow covered, some tree covered and even one huge glacier, with streams and hundreds of small lakes and pools, in between. All different types of trees, with many shades of green and silver. There are areas which were destroyed by fire twenty years ago and are recovering, and there are areas which have been untouched for hundreds of years. Beautious, beautious, beautious. (Compliments of the Wilda Searight dictionary)

We saw, right by the side of the road, standing in a pool eating stuff, a huge moose.

In fact he was that big he could be described as enormoose!!!

We really tried to see a bear, but didn’t.

Marlipops came up trumps again with our stopover site.

After being quoted $ 18.00 per night, for a site with no electricity, no water and just a dump station and being told we would not be allowed to run our generator, She located another wooded site, for one third the price, 35 miles to the West of Glennallen, AK.

Check today’s pix, and there is a free gift for the first reader to correctly identify wot is in the mystery pic.

We were pretty tired after all the driving and conditions today, so early to bed.

Wildlife watch today was Mr. Moose, rabbits, white swans, bald eagle, rodent rat/ground squirrelly things, magpies, a hungry seagull who begged for my sandwich at a rest stop, and loads of ravens, who looked that hungry you could say they were ravenous!!!

On that particularly bad pun, we wish you a very goodnight!

Day 35

Today we had travel tip # 324.

Don’t go into an internet café who tell you they are having a few problems, because they will be!!

We spent 2 ½ fruitless hours trying to get service, and eventually gave up. Then we went to an RV park to get fresh water for our trip, and while I’m filling up and checking things, Marlipops finds out that there was WiFi available for $5.00, and gets all our E mails done in a flash.

Brill.

So, we left Skagway after 3 very pleasant days, which was all down to Marlipops and the fact that we are not on a schedule. I was not keen originally to go there, but so glad we did. The scenery and wildlife I may never see again.

Back to today.

The long 11 ½ mile climb for 3500 feet was not as bad as I thought, we got back into Canada with no problems, and the weather has been clear and warm, so the views were even more awesome on the way back than on the way down.

We previously mentioned the area known as the moonscape, and if you look closely at the pic, you can see a definite change in the water color. This is caused by water from a glacier full of silt and marl, ( she’s there again!) the milkier color, meeting regular rain/snowmelt water.

The further Northwest we traveled in Yukon, the more remote and prettier it got.

We have though encountered some of the famous Alaska Highway road construction. We came round Lake Kluane which has some incredible views, through the worst loose gravel, wiggly wiggly roads we have so far encountered. Captain Cautious, driving ever so gently at about 10 mph, while Marlipops is oo ing and ah ing at the scenery that I have no chance of looking at, and then she is trying to take pix through 20 million squished bugs on the windshield, cannot focus on anything, ( except the bad ducks) so proceeds to open the window and let in half the dust in Alaska!!!

We have stopped at a beautifully located campsite on the lakeshore, so we can get some laundry done, but the place only has 15 amp hook ups, and as the coach draws 50, we have to decide which appliance we can have on at one time!!

It is wonderfully clean and a long hot shower after all the road dust was very welcome.

The cost is more than we normally pay, when we do pay, but the views of the lake and mountains are stunning.

Wildlife watch today was disappointingly nothing, though I did think about seeing a grizzly, and sorry no beer report either.

Day 34

No more superlatives, just amazement.

We were up at 6, and on the dock by 7.30, for our 3 ½ hour trip to Juneau, the State Capital.

What a trip it was.

I can start the wildlife watch early

We saw, in no particular order, hump back whales, both young and mature, the young doing the back flip out of the water, known as breaching, the mature whales doing the blowing water from their blowholes thing, and diving deep so we got to see their tails.

Orcas, better known as killer whales, very close to the boat, a pod of 5 or 6.

A colony of about 100 sealions, all on the rocks sunning themselves, out of danger from bears and orcas.

More harbor seals like wot we saw yesterday.

And more bald eagles than you can shake a stick at. They were everywhere, young and mature, in the trees, on buoys, on the rocks, on roofs, all over the place. We learned that the bald eagle is now off the endangered species list, and we are not surprised, the number we saw today.

We also saw some lovely water fowl called pigeon gullimonts, diving in and out of the water all around the boat.

This area is known as The Inside Passage, and is a favorite place of cruise ships from everywhere. Skagway had four docked this morning, and when we arrived in Juneau there were three docked and a fourth on the way in.

The voyage down here is mindblowing. All those documentaries and films and pix you have seen about this area don’t do it justice. Mountain after mountain, snow on the peaks all year round, both sides of the fjord, interspersed with islands, some of which have their own species of deer, waterfalls tumbling hundreds of feet from the ice fields above, and then the glaciers. There are over 100 around here, and they are something to behold. Blue and grey and white and black, you can see the way they have gouged and carved their way down the mountainsides.

We got into Juneau and had a 30 minute bus ride into the city, and there are float planes all over the place.

We sat and had fish and chips (again!), overlooking the bay, the cruise ships and Douglas Island on the other side of the bay, and watched with amazement as these float planes were taking off between the cruise ships! We wandered around the shops, and found out that there is not a high quality restaurant in the city, so there is a job for you ,Larry, and we also found out that Skagway has no hospital or doctor, so sister Karen, you could set up shop here and make a fortune!!!

I did find out one interesting fact. None of the men’s toilets had doors on the stalls!

I needed number twos, and had to go to city hall to find a toilet with a door!!

And of course, Marlipops was there to photograph the happy camper afterwards.

After lunch we were taken to the Mendenhall Glacier, which is receding by 150 to 200 feet a year, so the visitor center keeps getting further away!

There is a lake in front of the glacier, which because of the nature of glacial water, supports absolutely no fish, except for salmon returning to spawn in surrounding freshwater streams each year. These salmon don’t need food, because their mouths change at a certain point of their lives and they can no longer eat, just go up stream to spawn, then die.

We then went back to the harbor, got on the boat and had another picturesque journey back to Skagway. We were served some delish salmon chowder for supper on the boat, and guess who had two helpings?

No, you are wrong, it was the man sitting next to me!!

A wonderful, instructive, eye opening trip today.

Day 33

Today we saw new wildlife!!

We took the FastFerry to the small town of Haines, which is 350 miles away by road, and 35 minutes by sea! On the way, the boat stopped so we could take pix of some Harbor Seals and we saw several Bald Eagles soaring in the mountains.

The fjord between Skagway and Haines is the longest and deepest in North America, varying in depth from 500 to 1700 ft. There are numerous snow-melt waterfalls tumbling down from the virtually sheer mountainsides, all covered in trees and capped with snow.

Several times this past couple of days we have stood in total awe at the way the afternoon sun comes shining through gaps in the clouds, with the blue sky beyond, and just sparkles off the snow. And because the snow has partially melted, the bare rock of the mountain tops poke through creating an almost black and white picture. Sometimes we stand for minutes on end, just gobsmacked.

Anyway, the sun was hitting the peaks this morning, and viewed from the different perspective of the sea, was brilliant.

Haines is small, but quite hilly, so we walked a lot today. Of course, your two heroes having completely lost all track of time, forgot it was Sunday, and virtually nothing was open!

We eventually found The Bamboo Room, which advertised fish and chips. So, being hungry and not having a lot of choice, thought we should at least try it.

I had the best piece of fish for many a year, and I’ve been back to England several times, but this halibut was superb.

Marlipops pigged out on a halibut salad, which she said was delish as well.

Afterwards, we had to find a local fisherman’s store and bought, yes you guessed, some fresh salmon!

We did buy some halibut as well, together with some of the biggest scallops we had ever seen.

We then visited the local Bald Eagle Natural History Museum. Apart from looking at the hundreds of stuffed animals, birds and fish we had an informative talk from a local person type man, who told us that because the water in Haines valley comes from deep underground, courtesy of a very old glacial deposit thing, it is warm, never freezes and the three square miles of valley supports an amazing abundance of wildlife, including over 3000 bald eagles in the fall who feast on the spawning salmon, for about a week, and bird watchers and others come from all over the world just to watch bald eagles feed.

I had that at home for years without going all the way to Alaska! (My Dad’s nickname is Bald Eagle.)

On the way back to the ferry we happened to see, sitting at the top of a tree, a bald eagle, who it turns out lives nearby and tolerates us mere mortals taking pix very near. So check out the pix.

Sitting on the dock waiting for the ferry, we observed, with our highly honed wildlife spotting skills, yet another bald eagle being dive bombed by some seagulls. Now, a bald eagle is over 3 ft tall, and has talons that would rip your face off, and a seagull is a wimp in comparison, so they were either brave or stupid.

Back in Skagway, we went again to the lost town of Dyea, earlier than yesterday, to see if there were some people around. I forgot yesterday to inform you that when we got there yesterday, we were the only ones about, it was darkish, and in the wooded area was very Hansel and Gretel- ish, and them woods is full of bears!! So I wimped out and said I didn’t think we were being clever out in the woods surrounded by grizzlies and black bears, so we did a runner back to the car.

Well, tonight, when we got there, the ranger lady we had met yesterday was there, just leaving, and no one else. She said we should be OK, but if we saw a bear, to stand shoulder to shoulder, not look it in the eyes and let it have the path, and for goodness sake, don’t run. She also said to shout out at intervals, “Go Bear”

So, off we went, just as last night, no one around, Marlipops striding away in front, me behind thinking there was a bear behind every tree, shouting “Go Bear” as gruffly and as loudly as possible. We got about as far as yesterday…………….and did a runner back to the car again!!

When we lived in Florida, we knew that snakes would slither away at our approach, and gators stay in the water where they should, but here, bears are bigger than me, and their claws are longer than mine, so yes, I am a wimp. Also, we discovered, contrary to what I informed you several letters ago, Bears do not always s… in the woods, we saw bear crap all over the road in several places.

The salmon we bought was grilled, and was heaven.

Wildlife watch today was sea otters, harbor seals, bald eagles, and a squirrel.

Day 32

The highlight of today was a car wash.

We drove into Skagway, and on our to do list was get the car cleaned.

Big sign by the fire station “ Car Wash, $ 10.00 donation”

So Marla driving, we zoomed round to the back street, where we saw Chippendale Fireman doing his dance in the street, with a big fireman’s boot for the money.

I was unceremoniously dumped from the car as Marla opened her window to be chatted up by Chip.

She then drove between two fire trucks, one on each side of the road,

which were spraying water all over with their big hoses, then she stopped while several firemen and women washed and scrubbed the crap off the car, then drove between two more fire trucks, got the hosey treatment again, and emerged clean as a whistle, with a big grin all across her face. It was really cool, and there were dozens of cars going through, and lots of tourists taking pix, so we were lucky to be here today, coz it was not a regular occurrence. And all proceeds were to a very good cause.

We then wandered around the town and had lunch at The Red Onion Saloon, which was originally a brothel, back in the gold rush days.

Marlipops had a Madam’s Martini, which was pomegranate infused Pearl vodka, served cosmopolitan style, ( Janet, you would like this one ) and which seemed to go down with little problem, and your brave writer risked a Red Onion Brothel Brew, which was reasonable.

The brothel had a brief colorful history for a couple of years, the barman kept a doll for each of the “hostesses” at the back of the bar. When the girl was busy, her doll was put on it’s back, and when the fee was sent down the copper pipe through a hole in the floor, the doll was returned to the upright position, signaling the girl’s availability.

There was also a wonderful collection of used bedpans on the wall.

Later, we went into one of the two info places, and were given some wonderful tips by one of the National Park Rangers.

First, we were directed to Reid Falls, a stunning waterfall, only 5 minutes from the town center, and to get to it, we had to go through a small graveyard, full of people who died around the turn of the last century, all gold rush type people. Most of the gravestones were wood, and lots of graves had small picket fences around, and some had what looked like bed frames. All set in the most picturesque sunlight dappled wooded area. Very pretty, if you can use that word with a graveyard. It’s our travelog so we will use wot we want!!

Then we drove around the adjacent mountain to Dyea, which is no longer there!

It was the original city of the gold rush, built on mud flats, and had a catastrophic avalanche which killed lots of people, and very soon after the survivors all left at once, most of them taking their wooden houses with them.

The area now is flat, treeless and full of beautiful blue irises, and bears. We sat on the sand dunes overlooking the bay, waiting for the bears, but none showed up. Must have been our car blending so well into the background that confused them.

One thing which struck me as highly amusing, but might not be funny to everyone, was that there was a cruise ship in from Japan, and the passengers were doing the usual touristy stuff, and I saw a local Skagway man, getting into a truck, and he was obviously in his seventies or eighties, his license plate said US Navy Retired, and he was wearing a cap with a United States WWII Ship emblem. I wonder if they had met before, 60 years ago.

There is a tiny airstrip here, and to land, the planes must first fly up the valley, do a u turn right before the mountains and come in very low over our campsite. Very cool to see these little planes flying so low, with the green mountainside behind them as a backdrop.

Wildlife watch today …………zero.

Day 31

Today we made it!!!

We are in Alaska!!!

After an all you can eat breakfast at the campground in Teslin, and making full use of the dumping and fresh water facilities, off we went Northwestwards.

Now I have to give a big thank you to the red ninja rubber duck.

As some of you know, we collect rubber ducks, and across the dashboard of the coach sit the ducks who behave themselves the most, so they get to see the sights.

On the extreme left is red ninja, who is actually my left side marker. I line him up with the yellow line in the middle of the road, and I don’t hit anything!

We had to go over the Teslin River bridge, which was under repair, and very tight, so red ninja did his stuff, and Captain Cautious came through, again.

Check out the pix, even the ducks were scared.

We arrived in Whitehorse, which is very RV friendly, causing the unforeseen problem of so many coaches and trailers, the parking lots were jammed and difficult to navigate.

We changed our route, and decided to come to Skagway, down the Klondike Highway.

We stopped at Emerald Lake, which is colored by light reflecting off the bed of the lake, known as marl.

She is everywhere!

We came through a town called Carcross, which boasts the smallest desert in the world.

Sand deposits left by a glacier gazillions of years ago, combined with winds blowing down the valley make it impossible for vegetation to grow, says the book.

There was an area further along which looked like the surface of the moon, hence the name Moonscape. The ground was all rocky, but rounded and smooth, interspersed with lots of small lakes, which apparently freeze to a depth of 3 feet in the winter.

The touristy brochures say that the drive to Skagway across the border is gentle and relaxed.

We came down an 11% descent, the steepest yet on the trip, for 11 ½ miles, through White Pass, very wiggly wiggly, and a lot of it was freshly repaired, so loose gravel and dust everywhere.

It was 20 minutes or so of intense concentration, but no problem, using the gears, brakes and engine brake.

There are several truck runaway ramps, which appear to be at 90 degrees to the road, and some strange colored poles above the road. We found out that these are markers for snow ploughs to find the road during the winter!!

So, into Skagway.

The town is nestled at the bottom of a valley, surrounded by snow capped mountains, with the open sea passage at one end.

Very picturesque and quaint.

On Wednesdays in the summer they have seven cruise ships at once, and 15,000 people descend on the town. Guess who is leaving before Wednesday.

There are only 4 RV parks here, and they are all full coz it’s a holiday weekend, we of course have totally lost track of time, so Marlipops went into the police station, chatted up the chief of police, and got us a pass to stay at the city park, free of charge.

Marla has been incredible with campground finding, she has researched and come up trumps every time.

We were worried originally about whether we should book ahead, but decided not to, which has turned out so well, since we change our itinerary as we go. This is the beauty of this kind of travel.

Today’s beer trial took a new twist. They sell a variety pack, so feeling it would be rude not to buy one, I tested Alaskan Summer Ale, Alaskan ESB, Alaskan Amber, and Alaskan IPA, all brewed in Juneau, AK.
All were good!!!!

We have some kind of internet availability here, so tomorrow we will go into town and see if we can transmit.

Wildlife watch today was a squirrel.

Day 30

Day 31 ( it’s day 30 actually, just seeing if y’all are paying attention!)

Today’s travelog is being written at 11.00 pm, and the sun has not yet set, so it will not be dark before it gets light again in the morning!!

Marlipops summed up today, by 9 o’clock this morning.

“Gobsmacking.”

We left our dust filled overnight rest area at 7.15, and by 7.30 had seen a bunch of wildlife we had not seen before.

A big sign on the side of the road said watch out for caribou, and next thing, right around the corner at a rest area, was a small herd of caribou. They were like all the other wildlife, disdainful of us humans, as if to say get out of our territory.

Then, we went down a lovely wiggly bit of Stone mountain, and all across the road were a bunch ( herd/flock/gaggle/school/swarm….pick your own collective adjective) of Stone Mountain Sheep things. And they didn’t give a rats wotsit about us, either. I had to completely stop the coach, and it aint easy to stop 40,000 pounds of mobile home on a 9% slope in the mountains. But, you guessed it, Captain Cautious was at the helm, so no lamb for supper.

The journey through the Northwest part of British Columbia, especially along Muncho Lake was absolutely spectacular.

The road by the lake was very wiggly, and also as it went up and down roller coaster style, it shifted camber very quickly, so poor old Marlipops was flung all over the place!!!

The thesaurus now comes into it’s own.

The scenery today has been stunning, enchanting, splendid, magnificent and on and on and on.

There are so many lakes, rivers, creeks, and streams that a lot of them have no names, and 99% are totally unspoilt by man.

As we are driving along, Marlipops reads from our Alaska bible, The Mile Post, which gives so much information about every aspect of the Alaska Highway.

Most of the named creeks etc are named for engineers, pioneers, trappers and Indians who worked and helped on the highway when it was built 60 odd years ago.

Another nugget of info is that since there were no maps or charts, young, inexperienced pilots flying supplies etc were given hand drawn maps showing the lakes and were sent on their way with a cheery “You can’t miss it!!”

The more we read about this area, and the history of this road, the more fascinating it is.

If you want to teach your kids history, geography, economics and biology, this is the classroom to bring them to.

The rivers and streams meander down from the mountains, through culverts under the road, and on down into the lakes and big rivers. Mostly they are shallow, so the water foams over the rocks, and the water is clear and turquoise.

The mountains still have snow on the peaks, and this morning, some brilliant white clouds were below the tops of the mountains, with the sun gleaming on the snowy peaks, it was breathtaking.

We saw deer, we saw elk, we saw all sorts of birds, including our friendly lost seagull, and we saw so many buffalo at the side of the roads we gave up picture taking. They just sat there, chewing the grass ignoring everything else.

We saw a big cat loping across the road, somewhere in the wilderness, which we are convinced was a mountain lion.

And we saw the mostest biggest moose in the world!!

We came to the town of Watson’s Lake, and they have a place called The Sign Post Forest, which was started by a pioneer working on the Highway in 1942, and now boasts over 50,000 signs of all sorts from all over the world.

Of course, today there were 50,000 and one, ( for a moment ) but The Wolves gospel has to be spread far and wide, so the flag has to be shown elsewhere!!

After 418 miles of travel today, we came to the little town of Teslin, with the longest remaining iron trestle bridge on the Alaska Highway, over 1900 ft long.

It is on the end of Teslin Lake which stretches for nearly 75 miles.

I saw a sign which said free RV parking, so we followed it for ten miles up the road, and sure enough, free overnight parking, free dump station and fresh water fill, and free boat rides on the lake, and a wonderful little restaurant, with expensive dinners.

They have only been open for a year or so and we feel they have hit on a winning formula, give free parking to travelers, and at least half of them will feel obligated to eat at the restaurant, and will spend more than if they paid for the parking.

Of course, your dynamic twosome took full advantage of everything, and cooked dinner in the coach!

We are parked facing the lake, with the snow capped mountains on the far side, and the view is stunning, check out the pix.

Wildlife watch today as yesterday, see above!!

Day 29

If this is Wednesday June 27^th, we are still in B.C. Canada

On the move again, after a very nice 2 ½ day break at Farmington Fairways.

We headed North on the Alaska Highway, and with all the stops we had, a very pleasing 352 miles was achieved, well past Fort Nelson.

Another magical day in our adventure.

Before that we finally encountered the dust we had been warned about.

There was 46 km of road repairs, which held us up for an hour. They redo one side of the road and provide a pilot truck to take the traffic through the contra flow system.

The roads are made from grey gravel and the dust clouds are ginormous. It was that bad I was expecting to see Lawrence of Arabia riding out of the gloom on his camel screaming “ No Prisoners!!” ( I liked that movie)

Anyway on we went, the road getting ever narrower and ever bumpier. We had read all the books so we knew that our speed was not going to be as good as previous, but as we aint on a schedule, who cares?

Up until now, we had encountered downhill wiggly wiggly, steepy steepy grades of 7% maximum. Today we had a 9% and a 10 %, quickly followed by a bridge across the Peace River, which had a metal grate type surface, and was a real pig to keep the coach going in a straight line. This was right before the town of Taylor, which says it all!!! ( Taylor is our grandson )

Needless to say, Captain Cautious came to the rescue again and all was well.

We stopped for a light lunch ( Marlipops has put me on rations) and I sat down in the recliner after stretching my legs, looked up through the front screen, and there is Mrs Moose and baby mooselet strolling across the road. I was actually quick enough to get some good pix.

Then, later in the day, on a nice straight bit of road, Mr Bear comes ambling out of the woods to our left. I slammed on the brakes, Marlipops picks up the camera, screams that it will only focus on the bugs splattered on the windscreen, unfastens her seatbelt, unlocks the door and dashes out and still manages to get some great pix.

Then I get told off coz the screen is full of squished bugs!!! We had a clean screen when we left, and within 5 miles it was filthy, but it was my fault !!!!!

But honestly, Marlipops and I are having a blast together on this trip. We never fight or argue, she keeps me laughing, keeps me going when I’m tired with the driving, and we love each other to bits.

We saw another bear later, both of them were black bears, as well as a elk, but as I stopped at the side of the road to take pix, someone overtooked us, and the elk did a runner. Marlipops saw a hawk/harrier/falcon type bird which was pretty stunning, but we have been unable to identify it, yet.

In this part of the world, some of the trees are conifer pine things of one sort or another. At one point today, we saw a pine tree, about 6 ft high, still growing and alive and everything, fully decorated for Christmas. Bizarre. Perhaps there is too much snow in the winter for Sanity Clause to get here!!!

Wildlife watch today….see above, plus a few deer.

We are in the wilds, so, no new beer, no internet, no cell phone just animals. Great!

Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible, when and if we get back to civilization.