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!
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