Day 38

You will all be excited to know we have found a use for the bumpy roads previously reported.

Marlipops and Captain Cautious ( who is still poorly but not poorly bad, thank you all for asking) decided to go to Valdez, well known for the earthquake of 1964 and Exxon Valdez oil spill of 1989.

So, in the dirty brown yellow peril, off we set, with Marlipops performing driving duty. The bumpy road shook loose all the rocks and stones and pebbles and boulders from the preceding 1000 miles!

Valdez is 150 miles from our campsite, and with a stop for a pic and a ooh and a ahhh every half hour, it took over 3 hours to get there. We passed so many wonderful blue and grey glaciers, countless waterfalls, tumbling down from the snow on top of the craggy topped mountains. The greenery was everywhere, and Thompson Pass, about 20 miles from Valdez, stunning. It is only 2600 feet or so high, but feels much, much higher because of all the surrounding peaks and ravines.

The 800 mile Alaska pipeline runs to Valdez, and comes over Thompson Pass. While in one of the stores I was watching the tale of the pipeline construction, and the workers interviewed all said that Thompson Pass was the worst place in the world to build a pipeline. They were working at 45 degree angles, in the 40 below temperatures, and even had to build a humungous series of overhead cables and pulleys to get the 10 ton pipe sections in place. Very informative. In places along the road the pipeline is right at the side, so if you need a quick oil change, bring your own cordless drill, and hey presto, instant crude oil!

The town of Valdez is geared for fisherists, hikists and oil terminalists. Not particularly pretty, but ideal as a base if you are into all that active physical stuff. We would have been, but we gave all that up as a new year resolution this year, so we had to sit and eat fish and chips again, watching all those fit type idiots.

We did the touristy shop thing, which was crap, and then, on the way out, went to the local stream to hopefully watch the salmon run, although we had been told it was a bit early.

Well, no one told these salmon the time, coz there was a gazillion of them, all trying to get over the rocks at the mouth of the creek, and then trying to swim upstream. Absolutely fascinating to watch them struggle, get so far, then be hit with a rush of water to end up back where they started. There really were thousands of salmon, and quite a few didn’t make it and were lying washed up on the rocks. There were about a hundred or so seagulls, perched on the underside of the road bridge, and none of them could be bothered to get the dead fish. That is the first time in my life I have seen a seagull too stuffed to eat.

Marlipops and I went right down onto the rocks at the mouth of the creek, where it met the ocean of the bay, to watch the fishermen. After about 20 minutes we decided to go back, and Marlipops looked and asked me which way did we come to get here, coz the tide was on its way in and another 10 minutes and we would have been swimming upstream with the salmon!!

There was even a couple of guys fishing by hand, just scooping the fish out of the water, there were so many of them.

We were about to leave, when we spotted an enormous sea lion bull making his way through the salmon, gorging himself.

He stopped for a while, obviously bloated as well.

Talk about an all you can eat buffet!

There were also several bald eagles hovering about downstream, probably picking up the leftovers.

All in all, one of the highlights of the trip.

On the way back, with the sun at a changed angle, (I wont say going down coz it doesn’t,) the snow on the mountain tops looked totally different from this morning, crisper and brighter.

Wildlife watch today was the eagles, sea otter, red squirrel in the campsite, sea lion, sea gulls, million of salmon, and a yellow deer…….honest, check out the pix.

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.