Friday, September 26, 2008

breakfast at Nairn Falls Provincial Park

 

Nairn Falls

 

Fraser River canyon along B.C. 99

 

municipal falls at 100 Mile House

 

Friday, September 26, 2008: Whidbey Island, Washington

We've made it back to the lower 48...and now truly understand why Alaskans and north Canadians call it the "Outside". It's so very different and no where near as peaceful. In the North, yes, there were roads but on almost any road, to the left or the right, one could go for hundreds of miles and only be in more wilderness. It's a very special place that we'll never forget.

Since Prince George, B.C., our last blog, we've had many campsites. On the 21st we were at the municipal campground at a little town called 100 Mile House (yes, and there are towns called 70 Mile, 50 mile, etc...all stops along the gold rush trail). The site itself was pretty normal but a short trail led directly from it to a gorgeous waterfall.

From there we took BC 99 south toward Vancouver. At the very beginning, Harley got caught in a RCMP road block and caught for not wearing his seat belt...to the tune of $165. Needless to say he wasn't in a very good mood after that but the scenery was absolutely spectacular...wonderful mountains, the deep Fraser River Canyon, the tumbling Coyoos Creek and even some snow (a bit scary given the weight of YOW). We stayed in two Provincial Parks, Nairn Falls and Alice Lake. At Nairn our site overlooked the rushing Green River and we hiked to Nairn Falls, an important spiritual site of the Lil'wat Nation. The trail would through a mixed forest of huge Western Red Cedar, Western Hemlock and Coastal Douglas Fir. At Alice Lake we'd come closer to the coast and the forest was wonderfully dark, green and dripping...a real rain forest. We took about a 4-mile hike called the Four Lakes...really special. Fortunately our campsite had power so when we got back from the hike we were welcomed by bright lights and electric heat resulting in dry clothes.

Alice Lake is only about 30 miles from Whistler and the drive from there to Vancouver was amazing...the Winter Olympics will be there in 2010 and the Canadians are building an incredible four lane highway through about 40 miles of solid rock, along the steep coast of Horseshoe Bay and all built by Peter Kiewit & Sons (a U.S. company)...hard to believe but we never had to stop during all that construction although the travel was a bit slow, 30-40 mph.

Yesterday we crossed over the border into Washington...the customs officer was amazed by my thick passport and asked what I did, especially since Harley's is so thin! We got on I-5, took it to exit 320 and then followed Washington 20 across Deception Pass and on to beautiful Whitbey Island. We'd searched out possible campgrounds and settled on Fort Casey State Park which is located on the grounds of one of the former naval batteries set up to protect Puget Sound. We're right on the water with great views, including snow covered Mt. Rainier. Not only that but we're walking distance to the Washington State Ferry and plan to walk on for a trip to Port Townsend sometime in the next three days as we plan to stay right where we are...it's such a perfect location!

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Bear Glacier on the road to Hyder

 
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the "penthouse" at Atlin, B.C

 
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Saturday, September 20, 2008 Prince George, British Columbia

Some of you may have thought we'd disappeared from the face of the north...not so, we just were totally out of cell range and therefore air card range for almost ten days!

Since Valdez, we've been so many places and driven so many miles...about 2,000. It's so difficult to even begin to describe all that we've seen and done since then excapt that it everything was awesome.

After Valdez, we spent two nights in the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park...you may remember the Wrangell Mountains from one of John Denver's songs. Like Denali, it only has one road in, the McCarthy Road, that runs 90+ miles from the main highway. The road itself was about 2/3 horrible but the views great. and the little town of McCarthy at the end we had to reach by foot bridge over a torrent. Harley's decided that for his 75th birthday he wants Wrangell Air to take him from McCarthy somewhere into the wilderness for a week or so of fishing, tenting (you're right, I won't be going on this trip!) and hiking. That's about 3 years off so hopefully one of you will go with him!!

After that we were back at the Tok River Campground and then Wolf Creek Campground outside of Whitehorse, Yukon...wonderful sites. Then down to the tiny town of Atlin, B.C. where we stayed in the "penthouse" at Norseman Adventures RV Park, an incredible location out on a spit of land totally surrounded by gorgeous 90-mile Atlin Lake. It was great fun watching Atlin Air take off and land on the water... looked as though he was coming straight into our living room/cocktail lounge.

After Atlin, we had our last night in the Yukon at Big Creek Campground and,yes, the Creek was large...we'd call it a river in the States. Then down BC 37 the Cassiar Highway with two beautiful lake side campsites. At the second, we unhitched Babe and drove the 40 miles to Stewart, BC and Hyder, AK...beautiful drive past glacier after glacier, many, many waterfalls, a roaring river that made its own steam, and finally to these two tiny towns that shared a location on the Portland Canal, a 90-mile fjord. At Hyder, we went out to Fish Creek in the Tongass National Forest but the salmon had stopped spawning so there weren't any bears to watch.

We now feel like we're headed home...nice campsites (two so far) but so much civilization. We're "decompressing" as our friend Phil Eherenman would say...what Harley calls being back to the Us and Rs (fences and rules)! Can't believe all the stoplights, shopping centers, fenced pastures with cows, etc., etc. But at least the roads are good so we can average 300+/- miles/day.

Except for my trip to Chicago October 2-3, teaching in Seattle on the 7th and heading home (1,400 miles) on the 8th, our calendar is indefinite. I'm sure we'll find some lovely places yet to see in British Columbia, will take a tour around the Olympic Peninsula and will do two days with the Meyers on the 4th and 5th but other than that, who knows. It'll be great fun whatever it is!

Monday, September 8, 2008

Sunday, September 7, 2008 Valdez, Alaska continued

Most of you reading this know that I don't give up easily but, as you can see from the attempts that follow, I just can't get photos uploaded from Picasa2 to the blog so I'm going to stop trying. So, from now on the blogs will just be the written word and hopefully I can describe things well enough that you can imagine what we're actually seeing.

Sunday, September 7, 2008

West Fork campsite south of Chicken

 
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Deadhorse/PrudhoeBay no tolerance for alcohol/drugs

 
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Dalton Hwy: Antigun Pass, Brooks Range

 
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grizzly in Toklat River, Denali NP

 
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Harley & Gail at oe of the many waterfalls

 
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Sunday, Septeember 7, 2008 Valdez, Alaska

Well, darn...another lesson in nothing is free! I've been frustrating for better than two weeks because the 65+ photos I've uploaded from Picasa2 to the blog haven't been open-able. It's been absolutely maddening! But, this morning we think we have the answer...I've run out of "free" space. It would have been nice if a pop-up scree had issued a warning and offered an upgrade of more space for $X but they didn't. So, I'll be going back to old posts (beginning with "Harley picking blueberries") and deleting the photos hoping that frees up some space since I forgot to record my gmail username so am unable to buy more space. But, enough of that.

As you can see from the title, we're now in Valdez at the Sea Otter RV Park (and the office is closed so we're currently hooked up for "free" and facing right on to Prince William Sound). But we've seen a lot since Seward (no, it never stopped raining so we didn't see Exit Glacier.

From Seward, we drove about 100 miles to Williwaw campground (USFS) on the Portage Glacier Road, a large but very privately sited CG just 11 miles from Whittier. There'd been so much rain that the rivers and creeks were to flood stage but apparently that's not unusual as much of the trails were built on boardwalks and only a few of the sites had standing water.

Thursday it was still very overcast and occasionally raining but we decided to go to Whittier and a cruise anyhow. The 11-mile drive included a 2.5 mile, one-lane tunnel built by the U.S. Army during WWII since Whittier is a very deep,ice-free port. Not only vehicles but also the Alaska Railroad use the tunnel so it's on a strict schedule to accommodate all uses. It was no longer raining when we reached Whittier, just heavy overcast. We bought cruise tickets from Major Marine and walked around "town" while waiting for departure...Whittier consists of a wharf with a few tourist shops and a 5-story hotel like building that houses the 150+/- residents along with their grocery, etc. store and various entertainment choices.

We were so glad we'd decided to take the cruise. It never really rained and the captain and USFS Ranger were excellent in showing and explaining all that we saw: two glaciers up close, many others from a distance, rafts (= groups) of sea otters, a harbor seal lounging on a small iceberg, many eagles two black- legged kittiwake (a type of gull) rookeries and literally hundreds of waterfalls. Even if there'd been bright sunshine, it wouldn't have really made much difference.

Friday morning we had a wonderful 3 mile walk to Portage Lake and back...I remember the first time I saw Portage Lake about 20 years ago when the Lake was more like an iceberg filled pond at the base of Portage Glacier. So many of Alaska's glaciers are in retreat. The rest of the day we drove toward Valdez, most of it on the Glenn Highway. It's amazing, we keep saying we've already seen "the most beautiful" part of the state and then we see another that's even prettier. The Glenn goes through the Chugach Mountains with the Wrangell-St. Elias mountains to the east. The western part is along the broad, braided Matsanuka River until it reaches the Matasunaka Glacier. After that the land plateaus and is filled with innumerable lakes surrounded by deciduous trees in their fall (mostly yellow) glory and scattered dark spruce. Absolutely gorgeous!

We spent Friday night at a high pullout above the highway that was also used by some of the many moose hunters. We chose it because of the incredible, unobstructed view of snow-covered peaks. Another treat was a cup full of blueberries Harley picked for dessert.

Saturday we finished the drive to Valdez, this time on the Richardson Highway... another road that elicited one "ah" and "oh" after another, although the highway itself had lots of frost heaves and repairs. But now we're at Valdez and will spend the rest of the afternoon walking around town. Tomorrow we'll be off for the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park.

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Tuesday, September 2, 2008 Seward, Alaska

For the first time we've had more than two days of rain...but it's still beautiful. We're currently camped in a City of Seward lot facing directly on Resurrection Bay surrounded by mountains, glaciers and the cutest sea otters swimming on their backs...well, we're not exactly "surrounded" by sea otters but have seen one within about 20' of YOW! Hopefully the weather will lift before we leave for Whittier and we'll be able to hike to Exit Glacier.

The trip from Denali to here has been generally peaceful (with one exception which I'll describe later), beautiful and most enjoyable. We've camped at Byers Lake in Denali State Park, 3 nights at Eklutna Lake (an Alaska State Recreation Area about 25miles north of Anchorage), a night in a gas station parking lot (same story as above) and now 2 nights, or maybe more, here in Seward.

The most enjoyable thing we've done was visiting with our friends, Phil & Sandy Eherenman; Sandy is EO of the Alaska Association and Phil manages the Petroleum Club. Phil and Harley had gotten to know each other while at the NAR meetings in Las Vegas in November so this was a great opportunity to really expand the friendship. Friday they had us over for grilled salmon (yummy!) but most of all we just enjoyed talking and seeing their gorgeous landscaping (Sandy is a Master Gardner and it really shows). Saturday they took us for a drive over Hatcher Pass (just north of Wasilla and you all now know where that is!!) which was really gorgeous, then to the State Fair in Palmer then back to YOW for a campfire. What fun!!

After Anchorage we'd thought about going to Katmai National Park to see the bears fish for salmon...put decided against it for very practical reasons. The cost per person ranged from $589 to $3,100 and that was just to fly over and come back the same day!

Now for the "exception" to our perfect trip...Sunday as we were driving around the Turnagain Arm, we stopped for fuel...and managed to put in 17+ gallons of unleaded gas instead of diesel! That required taking out the gas tank, emptying it and reinstalling the gas tank. Harley found a small repair shop just 1/4 mile away that could do it on Monday but I called AAA and arranged for them to pick up Babe and do the work Sunday night (amazing given the holiday weekend). However, when we got to the shop in Anchorage that would do the work we both had serious questions...a real mess, very grubby and no lift. But, long story short, after about 4 hours and $270 (plus replacing all the fuel) the job was done and we returned in the rain to YOW,

From here we're planning to drive to Whittier, take a day cruise around Prince William Sound, hike and then return to Tok and on to the Wrangall-St. Elias Mountains.