Saturday, September 11, 2010

Redding, CA to Jamestown, CA

Home at last. We started from our daughter's house in Jamestown about 2 months ago, and our finishing up our trip at her house on September 11th. We have driven 11,500 miles. That is about the same amount of miles as it would be to travel clear across the United States and back twice. We believe we have traveled 90% of the roads in British Columbia, the Yukon Territory, and Alaska that you can reach by road.


The dogs and our girls are glad to have us back. We are thankful to God that he kept us save from harm, with no troubles at all. We are truly grateful for this wonderful experience He has blessed us with.


And thanks to all that helped make it all possible by caring for our responsibilities while we were gone.

Friday, September 10, 2010

Boardman, OR to Redding, CA

We saw a number of tugs and barges while we were camped at Boardman on the Columbia River. We drove along the Columbia River and then we headed South on Hwy 97 towards Weed and Mount Shasta. We spent the night on the Sacramento River in Redding. This makes 4 nights in a row that we have camped alongside a river.

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Radium Hot Springs, BC to Boardman, OR on the Columbia River

There were lots of beautiful mountain scenes today but we just relaxed and enjoyed them and didn’t photograph them. We stopped for the night on the Columbia River. We had a view of the river from our dining table.

We took an after dinner walk along the river and photographed an old tug boat. Later, we watched the sunset.

For the first time in two months, we didn’t have to run our heater last night and we were able to put on short sleves in the morning. The sun was shining. We plan to be home by Sunday night.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Jasper National Park - Athabasca Falls

The falls are so beautiful, you can't really capture them with photos, so here is a video of the falls. Hope you enjoy them.


Click on picture to play video. Sorry for the poor quality.



From Sep 8

McBride, BC to Radium Hot Springs, BC

We drove through Jasper and Banff National Parks today. The mountains were in the clouds most of the day and we had small amounts of rain off and on during the day. The highlights of the day were the mountains, the waterfalls, the ice fields, and Lake Louise.


Lake Louise is one of my very favorite places. Besides being beautiful, I have been here a number of times in the past. I was here in the late 50’s with my parents, with Grant and my parents in the 70’s when Janine was a baby, and in the late 80’s with Janine and Kristy. Grant and I had a late afternoon tea at the Chateau Fairmont Lake Louise with a view of the lake and the glacier across the lake. What pleasant memories I have of that place. Having tea there with the lovely view was very special to me.


We spent the night in Radium Hot Springs. We pulled in after dark and the camp was essentially full; we had to camp in a dry tent site. It was quite difficult making our way into the site in the dark.


Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Kitwanga, BC to McBride, BC

We decided not to go to Prince Rupert, BC. We had been there before on the Alaska Cruise we took a few years ago, and we decided that the main thing we would have liked to see there is the Railroad Museum. We decided it wasn’t worth a 300 mile round trip to drive out there. So, we headed East on Yellow Head Highway (H 16), which stretches from Prince Rupert on the West Coast of British Columbia and passes through Prince George, BC on to Jasper, Alberta. Jasper is in the Canadian Rockies and is probably our favorite place to see mountains in all of North America. So, we will be driving through the Canadian Rockies on our way home.
We spent a couple of hours at the Railroad Museum in Prince George. It was a very nice museum.

We got our first views of the Canadian Rockies coming into McBride, BC.


Monday, September 6, 2010

Dease Lake, BC to Kitwanga, BC

We are still on the Cassiar Highway (H 37). We left Dease Lake at 6am because there were 30 Airstream Trailers there in a Caravan, and we wanted to get out before the Caravan. At least that’s why we thought we were leaving so early. I think the Lord had plans for us. About 10 miles South of the campground, we were flagged down by a young woman (in her 20’s) and her sister with a 2, 3, and 4 year old in the car. The temperatures were in the 30’s and they had been there all night without gas. We drove to the next town for gas, and waited for the store to open at 8am. The store owner’s boy friend drove the young woman back to her vehicle with 5 gallons of gas. We were the first people to stop to help her. They had had had an interesting experience with an Indian Woman that was an Indian Elder that didn’t help them but said and did some strange things that made them nervous. I think the Indian Woman was watching out for the sisters and the 3 toddlers, even though she did not help them.

We saw a moose and her calf on the way to get gas, but with our priorities on the women and children, we didn’t stop for pictures. We stopped for gas for ourselves in the town of Bell II. It was $105 for 22 gallons!!!! I think that is the worst that we have paid on the trip.
We took the side trip to Stewart, BC and Hyder, AK. The road is called the Glacier Highway (H 37A) because there are so many glaciers on both sides of the road. The views are amazing. Stewart, BC sits at the confluence of the Bear River and the Salmon River at the Portland Canal. We figure there are bear in the Salmon River and salmon in the Bear River. There is a nice estuary in Stewart. You go though customs to get between Stewart, BC and Hyder, AK, but there is no U.S. Customs here, only Canadian Customs. Hyder has a long wooden bear viewing platform on the Salmon River. It is getting near the end of the salmon run season. We were really excited about seeing the bears, but the bears didn’t come out to see us today. From Hyder, there is a 26 mile road to Salmon Glacier which comes right up to the side of the road. You only have to step out your car door to walk on it, but we didn’t go. The 26 miles resembled Italian Bar Road, at it’s worst, a little too much for us today.

We went on to the town of Kitwanga, BC, where we spent the night. We did some research on Prince Rupert in order to decide if we would drive there tomorrow. We decided to skip it. The thing there that most interested Grant was the railroad museum. There was a salmon counting operation going on near our campground that night. The woman at the campground said it was a 20 minute walk. We walked about 15 minutes out and decided it was a little to remote given the number of bears we had seen locally. A truck drove by with two of the men doing the counting. They said that a mama grizzly and her 3 cubs had come up to them while they were counting. They scared her off with a horn. Glad we didn’t come across her on foot. We went back to the campground and got the truck and went out for a look at the salmon counting operation. The counting is being done by Gitanyow Fisheries. They guys doing the counting say their company is on Facebook.

Sunday, September 5, 2010

Whitehorse, YT to Cassiar Hwy (H 37), BC

We drove the Alcan from Whitehorse, YT almost to Watson Lake, YT. We turned south on the Cassiar Highway, just before Watson Lake. The Cassiar Highway is beautiful with lots of mountain and lake and river views and it is a very infrequently traveled road. Grant though we weren’t going to get any pictures today, but the Cassiar Highway proved him wrong.

Be sure to see the picture of the sign entitled “South to Alaska”, “Hyder, AK 669 KM” ( 416 miles). Hyder is the town farthest to the South in Alaska that you can drive to. It is 2 miles from Stewart, BC. It is about 40 miles west of Cassiar Highway. We are going to go there tomorrow…

We saw a bear on the highway. He walked along the highway next to the truck for about 100 ft before turning off into the woods. We stopped at Jade City. 95% of the worlds’s jade comes from the Cassiar Mountains. I had to see some of the intricate jade carvings. We spent the night at Dease Lake, BC. The campground was full, but the owner let us park next to the house, where we had electric and water.


Saturday, September 4, 2010

Dawson City, YT to Whitehorse, YT

We are headed towards home. We still plan to see some places we didn’t see on the way up. Last night we had dinner at Sourdough Joe’s. This morning we got pecan sticky buns at Cheechako’s Bake Shop to eat later as a morning snack. It’s quite appropriate that the two food establishments are next door to one another. In Alaska and the Yukon, Cheechako is a newcomer, greenhorn or tenderfoot, and the opposite of a sourdough or oldtimer. The word originated from Chinook jargon, a trade language that combined English and Indian dialects. The name sourdough comes from sourdough bread, a staple of early homesteaders. Originally, the term meant early settler or prospector who probably used the hardy mixture; but today, a sourdough may be anyone who as lived in Alaska or the Yukon for most of their life. I also heard that since they ate sourdough bread every day that they actually took on a sourdough smell.


It was a beautiful crystal clear day driving from Dawson City to Whitehorse. There is so much Fall color and the mountains were beautiful. Since this makes three times over this drive for us we just relaxed and enjoyed the scenery and didn’t take pictures of the drive. We have put 8230 miles on the truck so far!!!


Friday, September 3, 2010

Chicken, YT to Dawson City, YT - Top of the World Highway

We were up bright and early and in line for the 8am convoy at about 7:40am. The convoy didn’t leave Chicken until a little before 9am. The starting point for the convoy was at “Lost Chicken Creek”. We hoped that wasn’t too descriptive of our upcoming journey. While we waited, we visited with the flag woman. She told us that the night before a big rig had come in with a large piece of excavating equipment, and he couldn’t negotiate a turn in the road. He got into a precarious position where he nearly lost both the rig and excavator over the side. They had to bring in other equipment to stablizie the rig and offload the excavator before they could move the rig. We were glad to have the pilot car as it let us drive down the middle of the road. The edges of the road were still muddy in places from the repairs. And, we knew that the pilot car new the road and would keep us safe. The pilot car and convoy of about a dozen vehicles traveled about 20 miles together. Many of us ran into each other again at the Canadian Border Crossing and at the ferry that crosses from Top of the World Highway into Dawson City.


As we were leaving Chicken, it was VERY foggy. We hoped that we were going to be able to see the views from Top of the World Highway. No worries, the fog cleared.


The Taylor Highway goes to Eagle. We didn’t go all the way to Eagle, we turned onto Top of the World Highway at the junction and headed for the Canadian Border and Dawson City. There is a nice free ferry from the Top of the World Highway into Dawson City, with good views of the Yukon River. The ferry had broken down and they were making repairs on the Dawson City side. We waited nearly 2 hours to cross on the ferry. We arrived in Dawson City about 4:30 pm. It was a long but rewarding day.


We had dinner at Sourdough Jack’s and we went to Diamond Tooth Gerdies, where Grant did the can can with a can can girl. See the pictures; I have proof!!!


Thursday, September 2, 2010

Fairbanks, AK to Chicken, YT

Grant got up early and caught the sunrise in Fairbanks this morning. But, the real treat for the day was that we got a view of Mt. McKinley as we were driving out of Fairbanks. Now we belong to the 30% Club!!!


In Delta Junction, we went to the Sullivan House Roadhouse and Historical Museum. Grant took a lot of pictures of antique equipment. He likes antique vehicles… He was particularly impressed with the 6x6 vehicles that had 3 axles, with the back two axles each having 4 wheels. There are roadhouses all over Alaska. Travelers used them for lodging. Roadhouses were spaced apart so that it wasn’t more than a day’s journey from one Roadhouse to the next. Delta Junction is the northern terminus of the Alcan Highway. It’s southern terminus is at Dawson Creek


From Delta Junction we will travel the Alcan Highway to Tok. From Tok, we are going to head north to Chicken and then try again to cross the Top of the World Highway into Dawson City. We tried to take the Top of the World Highway from Dawson City to Tok on our way to Alaska, but the road was closed due to a massive slide that took out a major portion of the highway.


When we got to Tok, we checked the road conditions and found that they road was open. The vehicles would be driving out of Chicken by caravan with a pilot vehicle. There were two scheduled caravans a day, one at 8am, and one at 2pm. We decided we wanted to be on the 8am crossing and that it would probably be wise to drive to Chicken tonight so that we would be sure to not miss the 8am crossing. The visitor’s center in Tok had some pictures of a couple of washed out areas of the highway. I have included two of them. The first is on Taylor Highway milepost 81. A culvert washed out leaving a hole approximately 20 feet deep and 60 feet wide. The hole extends downhill to the Walker Fork River approximately 150 feet away. The second is on Taylor Highway milepost 115. The "Big" slide is 750 feet long, and the road is totally buried 20 feet thick in debris. This happened because of all the rain in July, while we were in Dawson City, which prevented us from crossing at that time. A man lost his life going off the road, at that time.


The campground we stayed at in Chicken had wifi, but it only had electricity from 7am to 9pm. It had no water or sewer. It was situated right next to a gold dredge. I thought I had the blog done for the day and could post it before bed time, but Grant had a fine time taking pictures of the town of Chicken and the gold dredge…


Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Dalton Highway to the Arctic Circle

There were stars visible in the sky at 5am, so we decided to give it a try. We could always turn back. We didn’t turn back. We made it to the Arctic Circle!

We didn’t know what to expect. With all the permafrost and tundra, we thought it might be a wasteland. We were wrong; it was beautiful and gave us spectacular view of mountains and Fall color.

It was 170 mile drive, mostly on gravel - one way. It took 12 hours. Temperatures were quite reasonable during our drive, probably in the 50’s, but before the sun rose, the temperature was 27.

The Alaska pipeline crosses back and forth and parallels the Dalton Highway all the way to the Prudhoe Bay on the Arctic Ocean. So, we got lots of views of the pipeline snaking its way back and forth and up the hills.

We found the tundra to be quite beautiful. Low growing shrubs that grow in small amounts of dirt above the permafrost. The plants freeze in the winter and grow again when the tundra thaws in the Spring.

There were Tors out near the Arctic Circle. There were also some on the road to Chena Hot Springs. They are created by volcanic action and get heaved to the surface by the permafrost. One Tor is called the finger. It points towards Fairbanks and bush pilots sometimes use it to point the way to Fairbanks.

When we crossed the Yukon River, the fog had settled in low on the river, and we couldn’t see the water, and could barely see the bridge or the road. On the return trip, however, we got some good views of the river.