Soldotna, AK - Trailer Repairs

When we got to Soldotna, we discovered that we had taken a rock to the 2" pipes under the trailer that carry water to the gray water line. All of our gray water was running out onto the ground. God is good. He knew just what we would need when we got here and provided. We were assigned a camp site with our name on it in the camping area at Solid Rock Bible Camp. You will never guess what was lying on the ground in the camp site that we were assigned. It was a 5" length of 2" pipe, exactly the size pipe we needed to fix the gray water line. In addition, when Grant was packing up to come here, he put in a short bladed hand saw, that he was surprised that he brought, because he wouldn't have thought he had need of it, which was the tool he needed to repair the pipe as well.

We went to town Saturday morning to get the replacement 2" rubber elbows with clamps. He found just what he wanted and along with the 2" pipe from the camp site, he was able to repair the gray water line in short order. Thank you Lord.

Soldotna, AK

We did a little sightseeing in Soldotna today. We went to a chain saw carving display. They had a merry-go-round done with chain saw carvings. I most like Grant in the giant rocking chair. Next we went to the visitor’s center where they have a public walkway for salmon fishing. We watched the fishermen try their luck for awhile. We stopped at a coffee roasting shop where Grant got ¼ pound of Bolivian coffee to try for free. He is anxious to go back and try some more. We also went to the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge and walked on a couple of their trails.

We returned for the orientation meeting with the other couples and got the details of what we can expect this week. They have a Chuck Wagon Camp here for Junior High kids. There are big canvas covered wagons that have bunks in them for 8 kids + 2 counselors per wagon. There are 4 wagons. Near the wagons there are a number of old town style buildings including a “hotel”. Grant is to work on the electrical, insulation, sheet rock and spackling for that building. I will work in the office on a huge mailing.

Glenallen, AK to Soldotna, AK

We plan to make Soldotna today for the SOWERS project. We are supposed to arrive on Friday or Saturday to get set up, attend an orientation meeting, and be ready to begin work on Monday. We are driving from Glenallen, AK to Soldotna, AK along the Glenn Highway, the Seward Highway and then the Sterling Highway. There was a Musk Ox Farm along the highway. We stopped at the visitor’s center, where we got a good picture of a stuffed musk ox, and got a few pictures of the live musk ox from a distance through a fence. We didn’t have time to stay for the tour, where you get to feed them. The Nelchina Glacier was huge, and the river was muddy but beautiful. We stopped at Beluga Point on the Seward Highway. We didn’t see any whales. The tide was out.

We made it to Soldotna and got our trailer set up. We will be here for 3 weeks working the project and then a few days with Janine and Kristy here. This camp has electric but no water or sewer. It will be a challenge to not run out of water with our little trailer and it’s 16 gallon gray water holding tank. There are 5 couples here for this project. We will have our orientation meeting tomorrow.

Unstuck - Glennallen, Ak

This is Janine again.

Mom and Dad made it out of McCarthy today. The bridge was opened for limited traffic at about 1pm this afternoon. Up until noon today, they thought the bridge would not be opened until Monday!!!

They are in Glennallen for the night and will drive to the Camp in Soldotna tomorrow.
They are relieved to be back, but still had a nice 2 days while they were stuck.

Mom will probably post on Saturday.

McCarthy, AK to Glenallen, AK

It’s Thursday morning and they don’t believe the bridge will be repaired until early next week. The overhead cross members were bent by a piece of equipment that was too tall to cross the bridge. We decided to arrange to get a shuttle to the bridge where they are allowing foot traffic across the damaged bridge to a shuttle on the other side of the bridge. We need to get to our clothes and medications in our trailer, even if we have to leave the truck behind. When the bridge is repaired, Grant plans to fly to McCarthy and pick up the truck. Our shuttle leaves at 1:30pm. So, we walk across the bridge to McCarthy (about ½ miles) to pick up groceries at a little store and have a bite of breakfast/lunch.

While we are in McCarthy, we learn that they have decided to open the bridge from 1pm to 7pm today for vehicles less than 6,000 pounds. We quickly head back across the bridge to the hostel to cancel our shuttle and pick up our truck and head for the bridge, hoping to be among the first to get across. What a relief to be back across the bridge. We pick up our trailer in Chitina, and head for Glenallen to spend the night. We plan to drive on to Soldotna tomorrow.

Stuck in Wrangell-St. Elias Preserve and Wildernes

This is Janine - A quick update.

Mom and Dad are stuck till at least Friday afternoon in a McCarthy, in the Wrangell-St. Elias Preserve and wilderness, part of the largest National Park in the country (I think).

This morning, after a 3 hour drive on 60 miles of dirt road to do a hike on the glaciers, they found out a bridge they crossed to get there was out (washed out?, i don't know). The bridge won't be fixed before Friday afternoon.

They did not intend to stay overnight, so they have had to find accommodations and food. They talked a B&B owner into making them a pancake dinner because there was absolutely nothing else open. There is not much in this remote location. They only have internet because it just got installed today at the hostel they are staying in. There's no electricity in the hostel room, but they do have internet!!! There is no cell reception either. There is a very pretty view out the windows.

But. they still had a great day - 5 hours of walking, some of it on glaciers with crampons strapped to their feet. They are sore and tired, but saw some beautiful scenery. I'm sure Mom will update us when they get to Soldotna.

We can pray that the bridge gets fixed by Friday. They are supposed to be at Solid Rock Bible Camp by either Friday or Saturday. Its about 13 hours from where they are now to the camp.

Wrangle Mountain- St. Elias National Park (McCarthy and Kinnecott)

We left our trailer in Chitina and drove our truck from Chitina, AK to McCarthy, AK this morning. The road was dirt with a lot of potholes. One of the old railroad bridges that had been turned into a vehicle bridge was damaged yesterday evening, but they were allowing vehicles under 6,000 pounds across the bridge. The road from Chitina to McCarthy is about 60 miles. At the damaged bridge, we were about 12 miles from McCarthy. There is no road, available to the public, into McCarthy. We had to cross Jumbo Creek bridge once we got close to McCarthy, and then a second bridge, to reach McCarthy on foot. From McCarthy, you can walk or take a shuttle about 5 miles to Kinnecott. The glacier walking tour that we wanted to take leaves from Kinnecott.

When we arrived in Kinnecott, we learned that the Alaska Department of Transportation (DOT) decided to close the damaged bridge we had come across that morning! That left us stranded with our truck across the walking bridge from McCarthy and our trailer another 60 miles away in Chitina. We were able to secure lodging at a hostel across the walking bridge from McCarthy. Then we went on our ice glacier walking tour.

We used ice crampons to allow us to walk on the glacial ice. We really enjoyed the experience.

When we returned, we learned that they didn’t plan to open the bridge before the following Monday. That meant we would have to spend several days in the hostel with no change of clothes, no food, and no medicines. At the hostel, we had a cute little cabin with no electric and no plumbing, but access to wireless internet that had just been installed that day. We slept very well. We were very content to have a place to sleep.

Tok, AK to Chitina, AK

We decided to go to Kennicott/McCarthy to see the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. It’s the largest National Park in the United States. We were very interested in the possibility of waking on a glacier. So our goal for the day was to get as close as we could to McCarthy to spend the night and drop the trailer and drive into the park tomorrow. The road to the Park is unpaved. It is about the same as Italian Bar Road at its worst. We didn’t want to risk taking the trailer on that road. We left Tok and drove along the Glenn Highway which parallels the Copper River. We spent the night in Chitina in an unmanned RV park where you drop your money in a drop box.

Otter Falls, YT to Tok, AK

We left Otter Falls, YT (near Haines Junction) this morning. It was 42 degrees outside. However it warmed up into the 70’s by afternoon and evening. We saw the Kluane Range Ice Fields. When we arrived in Haines Junction we saw the Our Lady of the Way Catholic Mission built in 1943. It was built from an abandoned quonset hut left there by the Army when building the Alcan Hwy. There are quite a few buildings up here that use abandoned quonset huts. In Haines Junction, there was a monument with statues of native animals. The monument is affectionately named “The Cupcake” because its base looks like a cupcake paper liner. When we reached the Donjek River Valley the road was really bad. The road is built on permafrost. It looks like dirt, but when you put a hot highway on top of it the permafrost melts and the road sags, then the water freezes and expands and pushes the road up in a different place. This was also a major problem with construction in Dawson City. Here in Yukon Territory, Canada, they gave up on maintaining the Alcan Highway between Haines Junction and the border because it was mostly used by people from the U.S. headed to or from Alaska. So, the U.S. Government agreed to repair the road. Only they were met with quite a challenge when they discovered that none of the usual road construction techniques worked. There are currently experimental areas where they put pipes under the road with elbows out past the shoulder with stove pipes on top of them. They are trying to take the heat away from the pavement so it won’t melt the permafrost. The road was really bad for about 120 miles. In addition, we had taken four rock chips and a number of scratches to the windshield and lost a rear running light on the trailer. We had the windshield repaired when we arrived in Tok, AK, where we are spending the night.

Dawson City, YT - Dredge Number 4

We checked early in the morning on the "Top of the World Highway". It was still closed with no estimated time for reopening. We weren't sure what to do. Should we try to wait another day and check tomorrow morning. We decided to have hot cross buns in town and think about it. Next we decided to go see Dredge No. 4 and then come back and check again on the road closure.


Dredge 4 was very interesting. It had to sit in water. It had a long arm in the front that had 38 - 2 1/2 ton dredge buckets that would scoop the gravel out of the ground up to about 50 ft deep. The gravel would drop in a hopper at the top and then go through a separator that had holes in it up to 1 1/2" to trap the placer gold dust and nuggets. The rest was dropped out the back as tailings. The material that the separator collected was dropped into sluice boxes where it was scooped up for processing.


After the tour we went back to check on the highway closure and decided that we would leave Dawson City and retrace our steps back to Whitehorse. We hope we will be able to try the Top of the World Highway on our way home in September.


We will try to make the Alaska border crossing tomorrow.

Whitehorse, YT to Dawson City, YT

Our goal for the day was to drive from Whitehorse to Dawson City. We had planned to go from Dawson City by ferry to the Top of the World Highway and then to Chicken and down to Tok. We learned that the road was out on the U.S. side between the border and Chicken. We were hoping it would be repaired and that we might be able to drive on through on Monday morning. In the evening we took a two hour city tour. Then we drove to Midnight Dome for a spectacular view of the city and surrounding valley that was dredged for gold. We were pretty late getting to the campground for the night. At 11pm it still looks like 6pm outside...

We plan to check in the morning for the status off the “Top of the World Highway”.

Whitehorse, Yukon Territory

We spent the day in Whitehorse and saw a lot of things. We had a really good time. Next to our campground is a lot of equipment that was abandoned here when the U.S. Army built the Alaskan Highway. Grant took pictures of many pieces of equipment. Next we drove to Miles Canyon and took pictures of the Yukon River. The walls of the river canyon are basalt columns. From there we went to the Beringia Museum to learn about the migration of man and animals across the Bering Strait during the time when the water between North America and Asia was at a much lower level because so much of the Earth’s water was amassed in the glaciers. They have remains of many animals from that time and quite an interesting and informative movie. In addition, they taught Grant how to throw an ancient atlatl lance, that would have been used for hunting at that time. I got a picture of him hurling the lance and instructions how to make one. Then we went to the Transportation Museum, and among other things, saw the World’s Largest Weathervane

We had lunch at a Subway in town. After lunch, we went to the Fish Ladder by the Schwatka Lake Dam. It’s not time for the salmon to be here. They are up near Dawson City right now, and should be here in another week. There were white fish using the ladder. They tell me you can see the fish entering the ladder here in Whitehorse on a live camera at www.yukonenergy.com. After that, Grant went to the White Pass Yukon Railway Station (train no longer comes to Whitehorse; ends at Frasier Flats), while I went to a quilt shop and bought “Northern” half quarters for a quilt!

At 4pm we treated ourselves to a cruise on the Yukon River on the Schwatka River Boat. The river is amazing. The Yukon is a huge river, but it squeezes through narrow canyons just out of Whitehorse. There are white water rapids and eddies on the river. We really enjoyed our 2 hour ride. Saw a mother bear and cub on the hillside. Since the dam was built, the average depth of the river is 28 ft. When the river was lower, before the dam, it was much more dangerous.

Off to Dawson City early tomorrow morning…

Whitehorse, Yukon Territory

We left Watson Lake at 7:15 Am. We visited the Watson Lake Sign Post Forest on our way out of town. There are many thousands of signs left by people with their names and the town they come from. The town has added more posts, making room for more signs.

We drove through the Little Rancheria Valley. There were many beautiful viewpoints. Next we stopped in Teslin. We went to the George Johnston Museum. George was a Tlingit Indian. His parents brought him up from Juneau to Teslin as an infant in a papoose. As a child he ordered a camera and developing kit and became quite an accomplished photographer. He bought a 1928 Chevy 4 Door Sedan and had it brought up the river to Teslin. There wasn’t a single road in the town. He had carved 3 miles of road and used the vehicle as a taxi. In the winter when the lake froze he drove his taxi on the lake. He returned the Chevy, without a single dent in it, in the 1950’s in trade for a pickup truck. The Chevy dealership restored his Sedan and later donated it to the museum. There was a very informative movie at the museum of the effects that bringing the Alaskan Highway through the area had on the Indian People.

From there we headed to Whitehorse, YT. To be this far North in the Yukon Territory is just amazing to us. We will be spending two nights here so we can see the sights in Whitehorse tomorrow before heading to Dawson City early on Saturday morning.

Yukon Territory

Took pictures of Toad Lake near our camp site. Grant loves to get pictures of the mountains reflected in the water. Next we saw Folded Mountain where the layers of rock are literally folded under each other as the continental plates shift and push each other up. We saw an Alluvial Fan which occurs when the material from the mountain slides down into the valley and makes a fan shape at the edge of the stream or river. We traveled along the Toad River for quite awhile. At Muncho Lake we saw remnants of the old highway that went up over the mountain.

Besides the beautiful scenery, we got to spend some time at Liard Hot Springs, which was recommended to us by Tom Bashor. Thanks Tom, we had a great time. In the smaller pool, there were benches in the water where you could just sit. At the upper pool the water was 9 feet deep and you could swim in it. The upper pool was very warm and comfortable with respect to temperature. The lower pool was comfortable for me, but a little warm for Grant. At one end of the pool it was about 108 degrees. At the other end it was 138 degrees. That was too hot to even put your foot in.

We made it to the Yukon! We are staying at Watson Lake tonight.

Toad River, BC

We slept in a little this morning and left Fort St.John at 8:30AM. We are spending the night at Toad River – Mile 422 of the Alcan Hwy. We have driven 2, 444 miles since we left Kristy’s house a week ago today.

We found the 30 Ft lumber jack that must have left his gold pan and skis in previous towns we have been through. We took a picture of Suicide Hill as it looked when the Alcan Hwy was first built. First sign approaching the road used to be "Suicide Hill". The second sign used to read “Prepare to meet your maker”. Thankfully the road is a lot better today. We do keep running into road construction sites where we get led a distance by a pilot car. Waits are usually about 15 minutes.

We saw quite a bit of wildlife today. We saw a cute fox on our way out of Fort John. We saw our first bear near the Steamboat Mountain Summit. We saw a young caribou. We saw stone sheep at Summit pass.

The highest point on the Alcan Highway is at Summit Pass (4,250 ft). That’s about the elevation of Mi-Wuk, we’re thinking. You would think it would be much higher. There is a lovely lake there called Summit Lake.

We plan to spend some time at Liard Hot Springs in the morning. I think we might be in Yukon Territory tomorrow…

Dawson Creek - The Start of the Alcan Highway

We left Prince George at 7:40AM. When we drove through Pine Pass, we got our first glimpse of the Canadian Rockies. Next we saw Azouzetta Lake. On our way through Pine Valley, we were stopped for a dynamite blast related to road construction. We even got a photo of the blast.
Next we went to Chetwynd, the chainsaw carving capital of the world. The artists compete every June. Some of the carvings were very beautiful and quite amazing. It was recommended that we take Hwy 29 to the Alcan Hwy, instead of Hwy 97. The route was very beautiful along lakes and rivers with some steep windy grades. We joined up with the Alcan Hwy at Fort St. John, where we dropped the trailer at a campground for the night, and drove about 50 miles South to Dawson Creek – the start of the Alcan Hwy. We got a photo of the 0.0 marker for the start of the highway and visited the Alaskan Highway Museum. On our way back to St. John, we took a portion of the Old Alaska Hwy across the original curved wooden Kiskatinaw Bridge, which is an engineering wonder.

We will be headed up the Alcan Hwy tomorrow.

Quesnel BC and the Fraiser River

We drove from Williams Lake to Prince George today. We spent most of the day in Quesnel wandering around. We went to the Quesnel Museum. I got a picture of Grant pretending to pump gas from an antique gas pump into a White Motor Car. Apparently, the company is most famous for the trucks that it produced later. The town is sort of a peninsula between the Frasier River and the Quesnel River. The town has a River Walk which we took. The Frasier River is a big river. On the River Walk were some pieces of antique equipment like a water wheel and pump and a steam donkey excavator. Grant took a pretty picture of the Frasier River through a Cottonwood Tree. There was also a Crafts Fair in town. We wandered through, but resisted the temptation to buy. The town’s fire hydrants are painted to resemble different tradesmen and women. Grant took a liking to photographing them. He got 6 out of the 23. One thing I have noticed in BC is there are flowers and huge flower baskets everywhere. I had to have a picture of some of them. On the way out of town, I had to get a picture of Grant with the huge gold pan. He needed it to go with the huge skies from 100 Mile House. He needed the big gold pan to hold the gigantic gold nugget he plans to find. However, he pointed out to me that at the mining museum, all he found was fools gold.

Off to Dawson Creek, near the border with Alberta, tomorrow…

Williams Lake

We left Whistler, BC at about 8 AM, continuing on the Sea to Sky Highway. Our first picture is of Green Lake, set in the mountains near Whistler. There were several places in the highway with 13 % grades. It wasn’t always relaxing, but it was certainly well worth the extra effort. We stopped at Joeffre Lakes to view the glaciers, and at Seaton Lake. We crossed Cayoosh Creek many times on several one lane wooden bridges, often crossing over or under the train tracks. We stopped in Lillooet to see the railroad and station and the Seaton Lake Reservoir Hydro Plant.

We left the Sea to Sky Highway and took Hwy 97 North out of Clinton.

We stopped at 108 Mile Ranch Heritage Site, where many of the log buildings from the gold rush era had been relocated. There are 13 historical buildings there. We toured several of them. We also witnessed the end of a wedding letting out from the church in the rain. 108 Mile Ranch is one of many stops on the Road to Gold Fields. The 0 mile marker was at Lillooet. The towns in this area are called 70 Mile, 100 Mile, 150 Mile etc. The towns established as rest stop houses based on their distance from Lillooet. It’s funny to see towns named after mile markers in a country that is metric all the way.

After leaving 108 Mile Ranch, we were stopped behind an accident in which a truck towing a travel trailer burned completely. The fire started with a short in the wiring in the truck. Thank the Lord that no one was hurt. We were there on the scene for approximately 2 ½ hours. There was fear that the trailer’s propane tanks would explode. Thank the Lord that they did not. A helicopter was sent out to drop water on the grass fire that was started. It reminded me that we are spoiled with the fast emergency services in the U.S. First police car didn’t arrive for 45 minutes. Ambulance didn’t arrive for at least 1 ½ hours, and they never sent out a fire truck.

We are spending the night at Williams Lake on Hwy 97.

Sea to Sky Highway

We drove around Birch Bay and Draydon Harbor one last time in Blaine. The tide was in. We love the water. Then we crossed the border into Canada. We traveled on Hwy 99 through Vancouver up the Sea to Sky Highway. From the Vancover, BC side we could see Vancouver Island across the Strait of Georgia. The Strait of Georgia has these huge islands that are literally mountains in the water. It was awesome.

Next we stopped at the Britannia Copper Mine and took a tour. It was an exceptional mining tour. We got to ride in a train on the rails through the mine. Next they showed us how early miners hammered the rock by hand to get the ore. They operated several of the air pressure driven drills that were invented later. Then they operated a mucking machine that throws the rocks over the top of the machine into a bin. The Britannia Cooper Mine was the largest copper mine in the world. It also produced gold and silver. It was the first mining tour that we have been on where they operated the equipment.

We continued on the Sea to Sky Highway after lunch. The mountain and water views are spectacular. We walked down to the Brandywine Falls. We stopped for the night in Whistler, BC. It was the site of the 2010 Winter Olympics. We are going to check out the site of the Olympics this evening.

Tomorrow we will finish the Sea to Sky Highway. From here we head towards Cache Creek on Canada Hwy 1. Mileposts, which we are using for this trip, warns of sharp switch backs and 14% grades. I will be a little nervous.

Blaine, Washington

We decided to spend a second night here in Blaine, Washington. We visited Mt. Baker this morning. It’s the second largest volcanic mountain in Washington – the first being Mt. St. Helens. It spews steam at times but hasn’t been a cause for concern since the 1990’s. It has two high peaks – Grant Peak and Sherman Peak. Of course Grant was thrilled that Grant Peak is the tallest. The mountain drive was beautiful. There was a magnificent 100 ft high waterfall on the Nooksack River that we walked down to.

This afternoon we visited Birch Bay and then Drayton Harbor. From Drayton Harbor you can see Mt. Baker about 100 miles away. You can also see British Columbia and Vancouver Island and the U.S. Customs station and the Peace Arch. The tide goes out about ½ mile everyday. Swimmers play in the water that remains. Boats are attached to buoys, but they are out of water on the beach when the tide is out.

On to Canada tomorrow…

Blaine, Washington

We arrived in Blaine, WA about 9PM last night. The traffic through Seattle was brutal. Blaine is right on the border with British Columbia. It has two bays with views of the ocean. We have decided to spend a second night here and see the area. We will cross the border into Canada tomorrow morning.

And yes, the cinnamon roll is good. We are still eating it for breakfast, lunch and dinner...

North to Alaska

We are off and away at last. Our destination is Soldotna, Alaska. We were planning to leave on July 10th, but apparently the truck had other ideas. It spent a week in the shop getting it's frozen spark plugs changed. Well better at home than on the road.

We left Kristin's house at 6:45AM. We were advised that we needed to stop at a restaurant called "Heaven on Earth" at Exit 86 on Interstate 5 in Azalea, Oregon for their famous cinnamon rolls. I have included a picture of Grant taking a bite.

We spent the night in Seven Rivers RV Camp in Canyonville, Oregon.  I thought you might like to see a picture of our rig.