Exploring Alaska by RV

In the Rear View Mirror

2010-12-27T20:20:00.002-09:00

Well it's been a few weeks now since I started writing this entry and Alaska is still in our blood. We received the deposit cheque in US Dollars on the RV Rental, and the Aussie Dollar has hit record highs so it' worth less than what it cost when we paid the deposit :)

Some key thoughts upon reflection, learnings from the adventure include:

For the RV:

Check the kitchen utensils well before buying your food, so any specific tools like a pair of tongs, egg flip and the like are in the RV before you cook the meal and you can buy these cooking tools if they are missing.

We took our own Flannelet Sheets to add comfort in the expected cold weather as the RV only comes with those cold cotton sheets. The weight was an issue to manage but a months worth of comfort was worth it.

The Australian Commonwealth Bank Travel Money Card was perfect for a cost effective buying power. One or two service stations in the Yukon were not geared to accept it, so we had to use our credit card. To confirm our excellent choice, upon checking our Credit Card transactions where the Travel Money Card was not accepted, the bank fees were ridiculous, simply greed.

The Tomtom GPS with our researched 'favourites' from viewing Google Earth along our route prior to travelling in Alaska & the Yukon was excellent. It afforded us to navigate to these points for great remote wild places that we would have missed otherwise.

Ensure you buy a box of disposable gloves for dumping the waste waters, grey and black. It provides confidence in this slightly yucky task.

Accessing water became a problem toward the end of the trip, as camp grounds and other water points had turned their water off as the ground was freezing solid and of course so were the water pipes. Petrol (aka Gas) Stations often provided both water and dump facilities.

Trip Panning:

The freedom of having an idea of places to visit, without committing to a timetable was truly liberating. The research stimulated the senses, heightened our excitement and availed us of at least the ability of 'which way next'. However, we never felt pressured to head off from any spot until we'd satisfied our hunger of the wonders where we were.

Engaging with the locals enhanced our experience, affording us of 'local info' for what was best to explore in an area. Such conversations also allowed us to learn and understand Alaska and the Yuykon a little better.

Smart Buying:

We signed up for a Fred Myer Card and a Safeway Card, these are large supermarket chains. I think we only gave an Alaska address that fitted into their forms :). The cards gave us discounts on groceries and fuel, saving us 100's of dollars. We found Safeway to be the best place to buy (price) groceries, and Fred Myer for all those other items that made our trip comfortable, as well as some cheap tourist buys, as they have Alaskan Gifts.

The memories

For us the community of Haines made us feel very welcome. Journeying to remote places like Dawson City and up over the Top of the World Highway and driving up to the Arctic Circle were true achievements to remember. But most of all, it was the people we met, travelers and locals, that made the trip memorable. Spending time talking was very important, and made this trip far better than our previous. Having camp fires also made our evenings memorable for around camp fires, great conversations are had. Buy firewood and keep a stash in the RV for camp fires.

Live without fear, just get out there and do it. Enjoy.

Returning to Tranquility Base

2010-10-06T19:11:00.001-08:00

Having returned the RV in good order, no real evidence of its true travels, we squeezed into a Motel Room. This made us appreciate just how big the RV was.

Josh and I checked out a local car dealer that had the type of car that featured in the Movie Transformers - Bumble Bee. A five mile walk back to the Motel via the Police Museum and a lock-smith shop, afforded us some time together.

Luckily the Motel had a set of scales so we turned our focus to packing less than 50lb bags, not an easy task, sacraficed a few things.

4.30am saw us up and getting ready to catch the bus out to the airport for our 7.30am flight. You need to sacrafice so much of your life to getting through the security checkpoints when you are travelling these days. It's a reflection of the State of Fear that is being instilled by governments. This fear is driving expenditure, many people would not have jobs if it wasn't for all this fear. As a tourist, it seems a joke, as it lacks true integrity of process and considering not one person has ever been caught at one of these checkpoints, but the deterent factor is difficult to measure. Undressing in public becomes 'the norm' at international airports. removing jackets, shoes and belts, separating your carryon baggage, is just so time consuming, you feel like your in a processed meat factory. Being organised is the key, having no metal on you, having wallet and mobiles in your backpack, laptop set to be removed from its bag, and shoes that slip on help. Having the quarantined items at the ready got us through Customs OK.

The kids travelled extremely well for the 41 hours it took us to get from the motel to our home. With 3 hours in Seattle, 6 hours at LAX, and 3 hours at Auckland aiports, certainly added to the flight times. Travelling cattle classs didn't help, but we had an incident free trip home.

We had dinner at "Encounters" restaurant at LAX, it is the old Flight Control Tower, photo below. We also got to photo our aircraft - The Rotorua - Air NZ.

It was great to get back to our home - "Tranquility Base". The house had been set to "holiday mode". We took some time to put it back on-line to habitate. Unpacking and putting out those special collectables we gathered through our travels made the evening a joy before finding the comfort of our own beds. Sleep came fast.

Views from Inlet Tower Motel - Anchorage

Downtown Anchorage

Anchorage with Turnagain Arm in the background

Turnagain Arm - Anchorage

Knik Inlet - Anchorage

Encounters Restaurant - LAX

Relaxing and using up transit time - LAX

The Rotorua

How not to see Alaskan Wildlife

2010-10-01T21:34:00.000-08:00

After a wonderfully quiet night beside Rolly Lake South in the Nancy Lake Rec area, it was back on the road south.

At Wassilla, Fred Myer and Target stores were a big delay this morning, as well as the kids hitting a PC games shop. A quick call to the Musk Ox farm established they had closed early for the season (they were to be open until the end of Sept. So that dampened our spirits a little, but, we also had planed to go to the Alaska Zoo.

We had hoped our visit to the Alaska Zoo would avail us to view in a fairly pristine environment that wildlife we had not got to see in the wild ourselves. However, we found the animals in rather small enclosures, most had poor feet/hoof care and we were very much saddened, especially with a small grizzly cub that had apparently been rescued, seemed more like imprisoned.

After about 90min at the Zoo, we'd seen everything and it was late, so we headed to our overnight destination, being the RV rental firm grounds, were we could park for free and allow us time in the morning to sleep in a little, pack and ahnd back the RV, without any rush, and that planned work. We had agreed to one of their plans where all you have to do is return the RV, the fuel and gas refill was incorporated in the price of the rental agreement, so of course, we ran these two to the limit, the fuel light was on, on our way out to the Alaska Zoo, so we krept in on the fumes, to then recall the generator does not run if the fuel gets to low, needless to say, we had enough fuel for my coffee in the morning, but not for the toaster :)

The following morning we packed and handed back the RV with no issues, this firm was just great and I'd recommend 'Great Alaskan Holiday's' to anyone wanting to hire an RV to explore Alaska.

We then made our way to the Inlet Towers for the next two nights before our flight home, some shopping in downtown Anchorage and some quiet time.

These are photo's of wildlife at the Alaska Zoo, I think you'll agree, see this wildlife in their natural habitat is far more rewarding.

Bull Moose

Musk Ox

Bald Eagle

Wolves eating a carcas

River Otter - his usual home was being re-built, so no water here.

Rescued Grizzly Cub

Black Bear

Dall Sheep

Grizzly Claws

Grizzly Owner of Claws

The only "free" animal - a Squirrell

Josh having jumped the barrier to have some 'one on one' with the Musk Ox

Talkeetna - a "Northern Exposure" experience

2010-10-01T21:18:00.000-08:00

100928

We found cloud had moved in overnight at Susitna River when we awoke. Joshua drove the RV back along the river gravel bar to the edge of the highway and then we were off south again. We had a plan to get to the Musk Ox centre at Palmer today, but our stop at Talkeetna put an end to that plan, for today anyway.

Talkeetna is the town where those wanting to summit Mt Denali access their air charter to the Kahitna Glacier and commence their climb to the 20,320 feet summit. This year about 1,600 people successfully achieved the summit. It is also the small town that the TV show 'Northern Exposure' was based on. We did some shopping and enjoyed the quiet atmosphere with no tourists in town, ate lunch watching a DVD episode of Northern Exposure and then got back on the road south.

That put us behind and some road work added to our delay, so we decided to camp in the Nancy Lake Rec area, at Rolly Lake South. This rec area is a mosaic of lakes that are snow fed, not river fed and provide a tranquil spot, noted for Black Bear.

Armed with the Bear Spray and the kids packing their BB Gun, we explored the area into dusk.

View of Mt Denali looking north at the magestic mountain range.

Camp beside Rolly Lake

Ptarmigan - the State Bird - size of a chicken.

Looked like a Black Bear Den.

Tayla packing a BB Gun

Under the gaze of Denali

2010-09-30T14:43:00.001-08:00

100927 Under the gaze of Denali

We slept in this morning, it was even colder this morning, it was below Zero degrees F, it was about minus 22 degrees C. We had breakfast, cleared the ice off the inside of the windows (see photo of Linda) and then headed back out to the area where we knew the scent had been laid for the route for the Moose to enter the valley, hoping to see some Moose and look for the Urmine seen the evening before.

We took a slow drive on the approach, when up ahead was a huge male, crossing the road, at the same point as the group last night, but as we approached he was in the trees and we were not able to secure a photo.

While waiting, Joshua armed with the Bino’s spotted some Dall Sheep up on the side of the foot of the mountain, in the area we suspected was the pass through which the Moose were moving. The photo below is the best we could get with our camera, these sheep are very elusive and stay high in the mountains, or rocky edges as their defence against the Wolf.

The valley on the left we considered as the Moose route Denali NP

We left the park and proceeded south along the Parks Highway. This provided us with ever improving views of Mt Denali, also known as Mt McKinley. The Inuit call it Denali, the high one, so I take it as it’s original name. Below are some photo’s from varying spots along the road.

The photo below with the Trumpeter Swans on it in the foreground was taken, after driving past this lake, taking 5 miles to find a turn around spot for the 30’ RV, and then having to go about another mile past it on the return to find a safe enough spot to pull off the road. Then Joshua and I hiked back in a strong wind, the wind chill factor was almost unbearable. I saw an approach to the lake that avoided having to walk though the dying blueberry bushes and the mounds of Peat, however when we started on this ‘grassy area’ we were to find out it was in fact the lake, it was icy but I didn’t feel it would hold up our body weight and I did not consider falling through this ice to be a good option, so we had to scout around up and through the icy peat bog and blueberry bushes, but we got there, not as close to the waters edge as I’d hoped, due to the ice, but, felt the hike was worth the photo, though Joshua may disagree.

Mt Denali

Trumpeter Swan's under Mt Denali

After thawing out back at the RV and checking Joshua fingers for frostbite, we turned around and headed south again. The road then ran along side the Nenana River for a while, so we were able to stop and wonder at this large river icing up. We also took a movie of it, as the river produced interesting sounds as the ice proceeded along the river.

Nenana River ice flow.

Ice Flow - Nenana River

Joshua and I were in search of a viewing point we’d seen Mt Denali from back in 2006. Having revisited the Veterans memorial and checked out Byers Lake, where we’d camped last time, in hope of finding water to fill the RV but again we were to discover the water turned off. Due to the freezing of the ground, campground water is turned off, hence why all the RV parks were closed. Soon after this, we found ‘South View Denali’ day use area and dry camping.

We found the spot, Denali View South. A hike up and out toward Denali provides the best view from this point.

Mt Denali from Denali View South

We decided not to camp here as our water was low. We stopped to get some fuel at Trappers Creek, to find that they also had showers and access to water. We spent a few hours here after refueling, enjoying hot showers with no time limit, ice creams and afternoon tea. We chatted to some of the locals. As Linda put it, it could get a bit scary here after dark, as some of the characters were fine in the daylight, but….

We were to learn that their power had only just come back on, as three days before there were winds of 125 mile an hour that had blown through and taken down the powerlines. Most of the area south of here was blacked out for 3 days. It explained the huge trees that had broken off about 3 metre off the ground and the other debris at the Veterans Memorial back up the road. We hadn’t experienced any of that back at Fairbanks.

Veteran's Memorial via Byers Lake.

A short drive down the highway and we found a gravel bar along side the Susitna River, to camp on, to enjoy a campfire and a warmer evening. It only got down to Zero Celcius and the river was not as yet starting to freeze.

Weather: Bright and Sunny Clear Sky. Morning Temp at Denali NP minus 22 C. High at Trapper Creek warm and sunny 5 C.

Wildlife: Bull Moose, Trumpeter Swans.

O/N N 62 10.282 W 150 10.921 (Yes this may appear we are in the middle of the river, we were out on the gravel bar, this would be under water in the thaw)

Camp beside Susitna River.

Moon Rise - Susitna River

A day in Denali National Park in September

2010-09-30T14:14:00.001-08:00

100926 A day in Denali National Park in September with no tourists.

Having gained an insight into the current wildlife sightings along the Park road in Denali, we decided to spend the day exploring. The other photographers commenced heading out a little after 7am.

We set off about 7.30am, however all but the driver stayed in bed, as it is about 13 miles to Sanctuary River, where two wolves had been sighted over the past two days, one black and one grey and tan. Travelling at 10 – 20 miles per hour for effective wildlife spotting, it was a slow trip out.

I’d noticed that it was a great deal colder then previous, it took a while to get the windscreen clear, however, once we stopped at Sanctuary River, it became clear how cold it was.

The RV has these pull down window shades, in two stages, the first stage is white and allows filter light in but affords privacy, the second is more of a block out and also has a thermal block as well. When Linda put the blinds up, to allow a view over the river while we ate breakfast, the usual condensation that we wipe clear was in fact about 5mm thick of ice, on the 'INSIDE'. The usual ‘wipe’ was met with total resistance and a sound of scratching. This was awesome. As predicted by Russ, it was about 0 degrees F, equalling about minus 18 C.

Also this morning, there was some low cloud. Mt Denali was not in view nor was the tops of the adjoining mountains.

Joshua and I explored Sanctuary River which was significantly icing up. We found an ice bridge to cross out to a further gravel bar. We took some photo’s and scouted around for a wolf and other wildlife, but nothing. Soon after it started to snow. This was the first snow of the season. If the day was to be cloudy, then enjoying it snow was a delight.

Just before lunch we drove along the Park road to Teklinika Camp ground and noted though it was shut, the gates weren’t locked, a plan was forming. Up past the camp is a parking area and ‘bus stop’ with toilets and a viewing platform overlooking the Teklinika River. We parked here and had a small walk, looking for Lynx. A few Lynx’ had been sighted in this area over the past two days, one had some kittens. The road was closed to us from this point, but hikers could proceed.

Tayla, Joshua and I took a hike down the steep embankment to the gravel bars of the river and walked out to the middle. Like the Sanctuary River, this river was also icing up. We had more than an hour of playing on the ice, testing ice bridges to access gravel bars further out, making it to the flowing river. The kids threw rocks to test how solid the ice was, some would go through, but many others would simply bounce off.

After lunch, I decided to hike along the road, up to the bridge that crosses the Teklinika and scout around for some Wolves that had a den up here. Upstream of the bridge had been closed during the season, as a wolf den was upstream a little. I took some great photo’s however, while taking the one below, I was in the prone position (lying on my stomach) to put the natural ice feature in the foreground and Igloo Mountain in the background, when I heard some ice cracking steps over to my right. After re-starting my heart, I looked over to see a Park Ranger, walking down the edge of the river. After enjoying a laugh, he explained he was removing the signs that prohibited venturing further up the river from this point, as the pups were old enough now to travel and he’d expect the mum and pups would be moving on for the winter.

While we were returning along the Park road, we discovered that Teklinika Camp gate had been locked, a plan foiled. Joshua and I had a very quiet walk around the camp, attempting to spot the Lynx, as it was late in the afternoon, but no luck.

We returned to the lookout where we’d had dinner the night before, and enjoyed dinner and hoped the sky might clear for a view of Denali. All the mountains were now shrouded in a cloak of snow. They were a beautiful sight.

It was starting to get dark as we headed back toward Riley Camp, when we came across two parked cars within the 5 mile road area posted by warning signs of Moose rutting in this area. As advised by Rus and his mate the Moose researcher, no Moose had moved into the valley as yet, they were late again this year, due to the warm weather.

However, things had commenced to change. The first Moose were coming through, three cows and one HUGE bull, this bull was so big, his ‘paddles’ (as the locals call the horns) where enormous. As he walked along he was grunting and from time to time attacking a tree to show off his fighting skills. If only there was another bull we’d get to see the full Rut ritual. It was quite dark, however I got one successful photo when he stopped to look around. The Rut had begun. We spent just under an hour watching them come through and cross the road.

In the middle of this, Linda, Joshua and Tayla spotted a slim white creature, bigger than a squirrel but acted a bit like a squirrel. It was too dark to get a photo as this animal was very active. One of the other photographers on the road with us advised them it was an Ermine, a very rare animal to see in the Park.

On returning to Camp we found Rus and advised him of the Moose sighting, so he was delaying his plans to return tomorrow and would go out again. He gave me some insight to a great camera I should get, another plan was forming.

Weather: Rather Cold Low minus 18 C High about minus 3 C.

Wildlife: Moose in the Rut.

O/N N 63 43.891 W 148 53.861

Sanctuary River icing over - Denali NP

Joshua standing on a small ice bridge - Sanctuary River Denali NP

Ice forming and river flowing underneath - Sanctuary River - Denali NP

Teklinika River with Igloo Mnt in background

The number of toilets let you know how many tourists in Summer Season

Tayla testing our an icebridge to get out to the flowing river.

Tayla and Ice

Graham testing out ice bridge - Teklinka River

Joshua testing how cold the water is.

Tayla testing how cold he water is.

Just shows how quick the cold came in at this drain under the road.

Another angle on the Drain Freeze Up.

First Snow on Igloo Mountain

Icing Up

A view of the Denali Range from the same dinner spot as the night before, with first snow.

The Park Road into Denali NP

Sunset

Savage River and First Snow

Park Road - First Snow

First Bull Moose into the Rut - Denali NP

North Pole to Denali

2010-09-30T13:50:00.000-08:00

100925 North Pole to Denali

After a sleep in, we washed our clothes, filled with water and headed across to the North Pole. Not the Magnetic nor True North Pole but a small town that lays to the East of Fairbanks, whom the early trappers named North Pole.

The main feature at North Pole is Santa’s House. Have a look at these two pictures. The first is taken in 2006 of our daughter, Tayla, the second photo was today. Some more pics below.

Tayla 2006 visit

Joshua and Tayla 2010

After popping into a quilt shop and restocking with food and fuel, we attempted to located the Uni of Alaska’s wildlife research farm to view musk ox and bison. We knew where the Uni was, found some research area on caribou, but could not find the farm. We rang the number but it went to an answering machine. Their advert in the Mile Post (travel guide) has no address. We failed to locate it, so we got on the road to Denali.

You can see Denali from Fairbanks which is about the same Distance, as if Denali was at the Bunya Moutains and you could view it from Brisbane. See photo below.

After nearly three hours of driving, having crossed and followed the Nenana River, we drove into Denali Park to find it empty at 6pm. The Park is open all year round, but it turns out in September the visitor centre closes at 4.00pm, that park is open as far as Teklinika Camp, there is no camping inside the park boundary, but Riley Camp Ground is open which is at the front. It is free to enter and to camp.

This is a vast difference to when the Tourist Season is on, it is quiet pricy, with camping fees, vehicle entry fees, you can’t take your vehicle into the park unless you are camping for a minimum of 3 days, and if your vehicle is over 21’ long, it can only travel on the road between 10pm and 6 am. So, it seems we have the park to ourselves, or so we thought.
For us this is heaven.
After driving into the park and enjoying dinner with a view of Denali in the distance, and establishing all this info from a German couple who had also pulled up at this point, we returned to Riley Camp Ground to find only the front section open (Bear Loop) and it was ¾ full. I spoke to Rus Gustep who is a video photographer and he enlightened me on why all the campers. Besides some coming down from Fairbanks for the weekend the rest were professional photographers who were here to photograph the Moose in their Rut and hopefully film some predation (wolves attacking moose calves). He also advised the weather for tonight, an expected 5 degrees F or a bit lower, maybe down to 1F. That equates to about minus 18 C. He kindly provided the kids with a copy of his video on Denali which we watched before lights out.

Enjoy the photo’s of Denali on our day 1 and some of Santas House at North Pole

Weather: Cold Low minus 9C High 5 C at Fairbanks.

Wildlife: Nil

O/N N 63 43.891 W 148 53.861

Dinner view of Denali N 63 43.635 W 149 21.450

Mt Denali (Mt McKinley) from Fairbanks - Zoomed in)

Savage River - Denali NP.

Moon Rise - Denali NP

Tayla in Santas House - North Pole

Tayla with Moose at Santas House - North Pole

Santas Reindeer - North Pole

Tayla in Santa's Sleigh - North Pole

Santa's House - North Pole

Arctic Circle - the journey back

2010-09-25T09:39:00.002-08:00

100924 - Arctic Cicle - the return journey

Had a lovely night of watching the Northern Lights and enjoyed the quiet solitude. Slept in and awoke to another wonderfully blue clear bright sky. Enjoyed a slow breakfast and potter around.

Returned to the Arctic Circle sign post and grabbed a better photo in the morning sun, than yesterdays setting sun. Steven and Maree headed off around 7am, we didn't get out of bed until about 9am.

The drive back was cold, a wind came up, from the north, so the windchill factor was about minus 20C.

The drive up was with no stops except the Yukon river for smoko. So we took a more leisurely drive back. We stopped at 'Finger Moutain' see photo below, where we enjoyed the full effect of the wind and its chill factor. Finger Mountain has a long history with the original Inuit inhabitants as this area is an abundant food area in the summer with caribou herds, moose, bear and berry fruits. It was a navigation marker and it is reported having been standing for the past 1,000 years or more.

Bush Pilots used it as a nav marker as it points /leans directly toward Fairbanks (life before GPS)

At one point along the road, at a high point, the air was freezing around the pine trees and then this ice like snow was blowing off the trees as a thick dust, an unusual effect on a bright clear day.

Lunched back at the Yukon River and deservedly purchased our "I crossed the Arctic Circle" T'Shirts.

Returned to Fairbanks late, dropped into our first Wallmart. Tayla enjoys a transviliquest who does this skit where the dummy would like to work at Wallmart as the greeter and announce, "Welcome to Wallmart, get your s..t and get out of here". So I tried to get her to have her 15 mins of fame, to no avail.

Found an RV camp open, it is where they host the annual international Ice Carving Chamionships. This is a very run down RV Park, not recommended, but it had hot showers, though pathetic and of course free internet, some relief.

We are heading to Denali today.

Weather: About minus 6 C or so, H 0 C

Wildlife: Nil

O/N N 64 50.740 W 147 46.240

You can see the road, this is just below the Arctic Cicle, typical landscape for many miles.

Linda and Tayla enjoying the fresh breeze and views at 'Finger Mountain'

Linda and Tayla taking a leisurely stroll back to the RV, with Finger Mountain feature in the background.

Crossing the Arctic Circle - Northern Lights

2010-09-24T22:50:00.003-08:00

100923Crossing the Arctic Circle

Headed off today for the Arctic Circle. It’s a fair drive but the real issue is the Dalton Highway, known as the ‘Haul Road’ as it is mainly used by trucks and the only Road Trains I have seen in Alaska, to service the North Slope Oil Fields at Dead Horse, it links the Top of the Alaskan Oil Pipe Line with the remainder of the State.

Out of Fairbanks is Bitumen up to the Start of the Dalton Highway then the first section is very rough gravel. I was concerned if it was going to continue like this, it was going to be enough to terminate our quest, but my research indicated the road should get better.

Soon we hit a great patch of tarmac that was great to drive on, and from that point until the Yukon River, was sections of good sandy gravel and then bitumen. After the Yukon River the road actually improved, both in Bitumen and the Sandy Gravel. Took it slow, the set speed is 50 miles per hour.

All along the road all ponds and small creeks were frozen. It had not snowed as yet, so it was green and brown foliage and some great views up toward the Brookes Range to the North.

Got to cross the Arctic Circle about 6pm, 2 hours before Sunset at 8pm. Did a Geocache while here :)

Set camp, and a camp fire and waited to see if we would be rewarded with a showing of the Northern Lights. We weren’t disappointed. Also enjoyed the Snow Shoe Hares near our camp. There was only one other husband and wife camping the night. Steven and Marie Weinberg from Luxumbourg. They are driving around the World in their 1951 Renault. See the picture below. Steven is a retired marine bioligist and science teacher. He is working on a book of his adventures and has a blog at http://www.weinberg.lu/ Enjoy the photo’s below.

Weather: Coolish Low unknown, about minus 9C High 0 C

Wildlife: Snow Shoe Hares.

O/N N 66 33.502 W 150 47.494

Made it, Arctic Cicle - Dalton Highway, Alaska.

Extra Proof and there was a Geocache here too, bagged that as well.

Steven and Maree Weinberg of Luxumberg, travelling around the world in his 1951 Renault.

Sunset at the Arctic Circle

aurora borealis at the Arctic Circle - this danced and went directly over the top of our Camp.

A photo directly overhead of our Camp.

Fairbanks Closed

2010-09-24T22:19:00.001-08:00

100922 – Fairbanks Closed

We started the day with Joshua and I visiting the Hunters, Richard and Kurt. They showed us some of their rifles and pistols. Last night at the camp fire, Kurt pulls out from under his jacket is 44 magnum. Today, they showed me their 30 cal rifle, the preferred choice for hunting Moose. I fired off a round, boy did this thing have some power. Then they bought out their 22 for Josh to play with and he shot 30 rounds or so, then they gave him a 247 if I recall right, it had a 'bang' not as big at the 30 cal, but Josh felt it. Kurt then bought out his bigger 44 Magnum Pistol, the one he wears all the time is a 6" barrel, this one was 8 1/2". Then they bought our some more guns. I fired his 44, it had some kick, I fire one once in my Police Days.

Us boys had about two hours of fun shooting. They spent time with Joshua showing him how to handle the weapons safely and confidently. It was fun. But we had to get on the road.

The drive into Fairbanks was on good tarmac.

We looked around for the Bison Herd at Delta Junction, but instead found Moose, see pictures below.

Our first choice to stop the night was at North Pole, but the RV Park was closed, so headed on into Fairbanks. Got into Fairbanks on dark, and found the RV Park we used back in 2006 was also closed for the season. It was a big drive today, so we crashed this place and camped by the Chena River and watched some Beavers.

Weather: Blue Sky and cold.

Wildlife

Moose, Beavers

O/N N64 50.475 W 147 50.172

Joshua was attacked by a large Mossie at the Visitor Info Centre at Delta Junction. Some of the Mossies we have seen have been the size of small Finches, really.

Moose just outside of Delta Junction

View of the Alaska Range along the road to Fairbanks.

The Hunters

2010-09-24T22:11:00.001-08:00

100921 – The Hunters

Woke at our Gold Claim to a very icy start to the day. The stream was frozen along the sides, so gave up the idea of doing a bit of panning before breakfast, and also after breakfast. Noticed on the drive into town there was no dust on these dirt roads, seems when they are frozen, so is the dust, cool.

Popped back into Dawson City and took some photo’s, found an internet café and posted a quick update on our wellbeing, and then faced the challenge of getting the RV across the Yukon.

They provide a free of charge car ferry, it takes about 9 cars, but the drive down the banks of the Yukon and the access gradient were a small concern. Alas, no worries, we were successful in getting on without any bum dragging.

I told the kids that we ‘Don’t Pay the Ferryman, until he gets us to the other side” but they didn’t recognise/know the song, the humour went over their heads.d

Did a bit of Geocaching on the other side, up on a hill that overlooks town, but didn’t find the cache, as we were working of memory and not LatLong’s, bugger, Linda later found the printout of the cache details, but it was 5 hours to drive back, bugger again.

The Top of the World Highway lives up to it’s name. While most of the other road travelled following the floor of the valleys and ran along side rivers and lakes, then road goes up along the top of the mountain range, with views for miles and miles on either side as you drive along, so we had many camera stops.

I decided this was a great place to Josh to have a go behind the wheel, to he took the helm for a bit, his first time in control on a public road.

Reached the highest point, added to the Cairn and did the photo thing, it was after lunch, but was still very fresh out, so didn’t spend a lot of time up there.

Then the crossing of the Border back into Alaska and the USA.

Crossed the border, which closes this Friday. The one US Customs Officer (only two on deck, one USA one Canadian, two lodgings provided to the side) asked, as usual, “What’s the purpose of your visit?” We’re in the middle of nowhere, in a 30’ RV, what did we look like, Commercial Fishermen, did we have towels on our head, they had, as usual, no humour, and were not a Tourist Information Centre either, we got through. They were doing lots of work, we were to later find out that they had apparently install last year all the high tech scanning gear that you had to drive and pause past, here, in the middle of no-where at the Top of the World, as they say, leave no stone unturned, no border crossing unprotected.

Then the road changed. The Canadians had a great road along this stretch. Some bitumen, most great smooth dirt sections, but the Yanks, this is where all the trouble had been with the recent rain. Eventually caught up to the current road construction and waited 45 min for the Pilot Car. Chatted to the lad on the stop go. The average wage up here is $9/hr and he was on $30/hr, so though the job was boring, it was the best money had had made all season. It was mid afternoon, so used the time for afternoon tea and made the kids some coffee and pancakes, which he greatly enjoyed, so much he gave me a beer. It came out of the boot of his car and was colder then our fridge.

Made Chicken, to find it closed. They had decided to close the town this week, as the three shop owners wanted to do something (so the Stop go kids told us) but they were going to be open again next week, after the border had closed, go figure.

There is also an RV / Gold Panning Park here, but it had a few in it and the access in was quite rough, so we decided to push on. The road was average, mostly bitumen with lengths of gravel.

Found a camp ground along the road, again, in the middle of no-where, called West Fork a few miles down the road from Chicken.

Set camp and met some local hunters. The Moose season finished the Friday before so the camp ground was almost empty, it was full a week ago. Only Caribou is still in open season.

We all ended up spending the evening until midnight beside a camp fire with two hunters, Richard and Kurt. They were wonderful to chat too. Kurt was a certified sea Captain and Richard was retired, but a former Air Force Officer. We had the opportunity discuss and explore some intricacies of each others countries.

Heard a Horned Owl very close nearby, stands about 3 feet tall and hunts rabbits.

Weather: Low minus 9 C High 5 C

Wildlife: Horned Owl

O/N N 63 53.246 W 142 14.646

The Ferry to cross the Yukon, we're next.

A view from the Geocaching site, across the Yukon looking back over Dawson City.

Lunch spot on the Top of th eWold Highway,

The highest point along the Top of the Wolrd Highway.

Entering back into Alaska.

The highest toilet in Alaska.

Downtown Chicken, all the shops in the heart of Chicken.

Gold Fever - looking to pay off the holiday.

2010-09-24T21:55:00.000-08:00

100920 – Gold Fever – Paying off the Holiday

Woke early to another minus 6, and got on the road, as it was a fair drive from here to Dawson City, the home of the Klondike Gold Rush, of which we had been following the stampeders trail, all in much more comfort J

Heading our of Twin Lakes we noticed that all the ponds, roadside streams and the edge of larger ponds were frozen. Then we came across a lovely view, so we told the kids to take the towel and wipe the condensation from the inside windows (a daily need) for them to see this view. We were met with a burst of laughter and excitement, as the inside of the RV windows were frozen. Linda then went to wind down her door window and ice cracked off, on the inside. I made an insightful comment, “It must be cold”. When we stopped, even though having been driving at 100 k/h there was ice all over the outside of the RV.

The drive up to Dawson is on good tarmac, as the French speaking tourist information lady had indicated. Not an exciting drive, noticed the mountains had reduced to large rolling hills.

Many native villages enroute, all trying to carve a niche in the tourist market, but also notices, like Australia, a battle with alcohol and drugs was an issue, but all felt very safe and friendly.

Hit Dawson in the late afternoon. Lovely Tourist information Centre, staff in period constume, the town was as promised, only the front road along the Yukon river was tarmac, the rest were as original, dirt roads, timber sidewalks, and they have maintained the original buildings in very good repair, so it was like driving into Dawson City in its hayday.

Discovered that Diamond Tooth Gerties was both a Showgirls show and Casino so the kids were not allowed in, bugger, was hoping to take Josh to a showgirls show, you know to expose him to a cultural experience. Had a shower and refreshed water at the RV park, which was not appealing to stay at, and headed up 15k’s along the original strike headwaters of the Klondike River/Stream. Looked at one of the original Gold Dredges that is kept in great state as a tourist attraction, however it was, as so many other tourist attraction, closed for the season. Then looked over the site of the first claim, the first ‘serious’ gold find here that started the stampede and the result of 10,000 people living in this area, GR N 63 55.656 W 139 19.520 . Proceeded along to a Claim that has been staked for visitors. This is not a place to start looking for Gold on someone else’s claim, I only had the BB Gun and justice seems to be dealt swiftly around here.

We panned for gold in very tropical waters, it took what, about 10 secs for frostbite to start on the fingers. Tried gloves and then bugger it, we needed to pay off the holiday, so forgot about the pain and got to work.

As they say up here, it’s not about skill or luck, it’s about volume, hence they invented the Dredge. An hours work by the Dredge was equal to 156 men panning with sluice boxes. One day of sluice box, was equal to a week or more worth of panning. So, we didn’t put the volume through our pans in our hour before dark, so, hence, no payment gained toward the holiday.

Decided we should protect our little digging spots in our ‘visitors claim’ and camped there for the night, armed with our BB Gun.

Weather: Wonderfully blue clear sky.

Low: Minus 6C High 5C

Wildlife: At Twin Lakes, a lovely long tailed colourful bird, yet to be ID.

O/N N63 55.231 W 135 18.975

Main sealed road though Dawson to the Ferry

Historic Dredge

Joshua and Tayla panning for their fortune

The following morning, the river was freezing up.

Tayla standing on the Ice

Tayla taking Linda a piece of river ice.

Icicles in the water.

The main the street, dirt road and timber boardwalks and all.

Some buildings in an interesting state.

Joshua looking at using the roller on it.

Some of the better establishments

Exploring Beringia

2010-09-24T21:45:00.000-08:00

100919 Exploring Beringia – Land of the Wooly Mammoths

We woke to frost everywhere, it was a little cool. Around minus 2.

Scouted out Whitehorse. Found Tourist information centre and found groceries. Found our travel money card didn’t work at the grocery store, nor at the gas station. Loaded up with food, sufficient to head out up into the Yukon.

The ladies at the visitor centre were of English and Canadian French background. We researched options and chose to keep with our plan of going up through Dawson, over the Top of the World. For one thing, the highway tarmac was suppose to be better than the Alcan, of which its state of decay I wrote earlier.

Had lunch at McDonalds, and noticed that two languages were very predominant. While we had noticed everything in both English and French, it was in here we noticed that many people at the tables were speaking solely French.

No phone coverage and no internet in Macas, bugger. Seems global roaming has no provider in the Yukon.

Visited the Beringia Centre, and museum of Wooly Mammoths and the history of the Yukon area during and post the Ice Ages. This is a great museum. One of the staff took us outside and gave a demo and let us use the original inhabitants hunting tool, a tool very similar to our Woomera, and they referred to our woomera in their demo. It was amazing that indigenous Australians, the Azteks and the ice age peoples of this area, all used a hunting spear that was very similar in every aspect and engineering.

Beringia is an area from near Russia across the Bering Sea to the Yukon, that was dry and a narrow corridor existed during Ice Ages, that provided a route for animals and pre-historic man to traverse and populate. The Bearing Sea area was dry, because of the Ice that was 4 kilometres thick and its weight. It was a very informative.

Left Whitehorse enroute to Dawson and comenced driving up through Beringia. We decided to camp at Twin Lakes, providing a picturesque spot to stop and hopefully view the northern lights, but the moon is at ¾ full so a little bright. Expecting a cold night as we head north.

Weather: O/N Low: minus 2 Celsius High 10 degrees C.

Wildlife (stuffed): Wooly Mammoths, Saber Tooth Tigers, Giant Beavers and other pre-historic animals bones. A lovely long tailed colourful bird at Twin Lakes, name unknown.

O/N N 61 42.194 W 135 56.304

Up into the Yukon

2010-09-24T21:35:00.000-08:00

100918 Up into the Yukon

After loosening up those muscles after the hike to Devils Punch Bowl, and doing the clothes washing, we packed up camp and did one more round of the shops in Skagway as one Cruise Ship was in today.

Bugging out of Skagway, we headed up the Whitepass, following the famous railway line, that is still currently being run as a tourist rail trip.

We took time for some photo ops, and found ourselves back in Carcross, a small town we visited last time. We were surprised by the amount of development work. The road was being fully re-laid, a new carving centre was built and a First Nations elder was teaching kids to carve totem poles, and a new structure was being built, it is the Sustine vessel, a gold rush paddle steamer that burnt down, so they have the bow on land and building the ship behind it, encompassing the engines and other parts, as a tourist attraction.

The drive into Whitehorse was uneventful, but enjoyable. Explore Miles Canyon and found a camp beside the Yukon River. A neighbouring camper had a great tent, see the photo, he had his own wood fire place inside, awesome. We took a walk down to the river beside our RV and discovered two guys in rafting shoe type kayaks, one was a teacher and the other a student. Tayla and I tried keeping our hands in the river water and failed to keep them in longer than three minutes and these guys while in dry suits, their hands and faces were in the freezing water, obviously locals. The student tipped upside down a few times and got washed away in the fast flowing river, always rolling himself back into the upright position, but one time, we thought he was a goner, but he removed himself from the kayak and hung to its side until he got to an area where he could swim to the rivers edge and walk back.

Weather: Warm by day, freezing by night.

Wildlife: Ground Squirrels.

Low: -2 Celsius High: 10

O/N N 60 42.089 W 135 02.743

This Photo - leaving Alaska

Miles Canyon, Yukon River, Whitehorse

A Great Tent for the Cold.

The Greatest Hike

2010-09-24T21:30:00.000-08:00

100917 – The greatest hike

I bought a T’shirt that had a picture with the words, “let someone else climb the corporate ladder”, words that I thought fitting. Skagway is known for the Chilkoot Trail, one of the Inuit Trails that was later used by the Gold Rush crowd to get up to the headwaters of the Yukon River, where they then clear felled all the trees to make rafts to move their mandated by law one (1) ton of food and gear to raft to the Klondike area near Dawson City in the Yukon. People offered services from Skagway from shops to buy the required food and gear, porterage to help carry the one (1) ton of gear up the Chilkoot and of course there were some famous women that provided other services. So tourists to this area know of the Chilkoot Trail, a 33 mile 3-5 day trek. Last time we were here, Josh and I did a days walk at the bottom, beginning end of this hike.

However, we were armed with another hike for this trip, Lower and Upper Dewey Lake and Devils Punchbowl. This trail starts behind Skagway, so we parked the RV downtown to allow Linda and Tayla to have a walk around the shops, not that many were open, since there were no Cruise Ships in today.

I’m glad I didn’t read the trail notes until I was along the trail, as this was the steepest and most difficult trail hike I had ever done. Coming close second is the start of the ‘Walls of Jerusalem” hike in Tasmania and the climb up Spicers Peak on Main Range National Park, Queensland, but on both of those I had an overpacked backpack of gear. This hike was much more difficult with only a day pack, it would have been impossible for me and my current fitness for a full pack.

The trail starts at sea level and proceeds up to the towns reservoir, then Lower Dewey Lake. This part is ok, a little steep, graded as ‘moderate’. It has sufficient elevation to provide the water for the towns first Hydro-electric powerstation, which began in 1902 and is still running today.

Then the going gets very difficult, up to Upper Dewey Lake. Over two miles in track length, you gain 2,600 feet to it’s peak of 3,100 feet = 945 metres. The track is a series of switch backs that follows a cascading waterfall, but unlike tracks in Oz, where the track is moderately inclined, this track is about 70 degrees of the Azimuth, that is off heading directly up the mountain. The trail itself is rocky and wet peat bog, with tree roots everywhere. It is more like a set of irregular stone stairs than a path.

We came across one lone lady on her way back down, it was obvious she was training for the annual race next weekend, where they race to the top and on offer is a $30 helicopter ride back down. At the top we met four young ladies who had taken a helicopter to the top the day before and overnighted in one of the two cabins, one for rent from Skagway Town Council and the other older (original) one on a first come first served. The girls were to be picked up at 4.00 pm today. Josh and I had made good time, we had left at 11.00am, and taken three hours to get to Upper Dewey Lake, our original goal.

The cabin girls inspired us to continue on to Devils Punch Bowl, “an hours return from the cabin/lake”. This part of the trail follows the ridge line out toward the Lynne Canal. This whole area overlooks the Harding Ice Field. The hike out took us to our peak of 3,700 feet (1,130m) that meant we had climbed one (1) kilometre up and in total, taken 13k’s to do it, but that leg in the middle, up the waterfall, was a killer.

The hike down was faster but much harder on the knees. There is only one level part, a four metre long bridge over the waterfalling creek. When we hit that, our muscles didn’t know how to walk on level ground, it was an unreal sensation. We past the girls just before their helicopter was to arrive, and got a photo of it soon after. Then pasted two women, one from a Fur Store I had spoken too yesterday, enroute up, and when I told them a helicopter was about to arrive for the cabin girls, they rushed to seek a ride back, to no avail. Then we past a European girl hiking solo up, and it was getting late.

We bugged out at 6.30pm and it was a struggle to drive the RV back to the RV Park, where we both enjoyed sitting, for a long time.

Linda and Tayla explored the Cruise Shipdock area and found all sorts of bits and pieces dropped by the tourists, and enjoyed the township in a more ‘ghost town’ type scenario. What a difference having no cruise ships makes.

Weather: Wonderfully a high fog like cloud all day, until after sunset.

Low: high 30’s High: low 60’s.

Wildlife: Cabin Girls

O/N Bugger, didn’t grab it. Skagway.

Skagway Crowds

2010-09-24T21:26:00.000-08:00

100916 – Skagway crowds

I thought I had set my watch alarm, I’d calculated the time in OZ (as that was still the main time on my watch – using dual time function) and entered 12.01am for a 6am wake up for the Ferry. I woke at 5.45 and thought I’d steal the extra 15 mins. I next checked my watch at 6.20am, we were expected to be at the Ferry at 6.15, bugger. Taking he 30’ RV through the bends back to the Ferry Terminal, had us there at 6.35am, last to register, but lined up and all was good. Grabbed a quick breakie before needing to turn the gas off and load at 6.50am for a 7.15am departure.

We had met an interesting husband and wife from Homer, Alaska the afternoon before, he drove that RV I posted a photo of that we saw at Kathleen Lake. He and his wife back packed around the Himalayas with their two primary school aged girls, home schooling them, and had been to every continent. They settled in Homer to put their girls through high school the youngest now doing Uni. They were on the Ferry to Skagway, enroute toward South America before heading over the China to meet their Oldest Daughter who is working there. He gave Josh and I a great tip on a hike in Skagway. Another fellow came and joined out conversation, he worked for the Alaska Marine Highway and was on his way home for his days off, home being Skagway, and he concurred, it was a better hike than the 33 mile Chilkoot Trail, for one, we could do it in a day, but it was a hard hike.

Landed in Skagway before 8.30am to 3 Cruise Ships in dock. The town was crowded, but we hit the shops anyway. The atmosphere was a buzz with all the bargains that the stores were putting on, as this was the last day for 3 cruise ships in dock for this season, tomorrow would be the first day in 14 weeks that no cruise ship was in, then only one on Saturday. The staff were looking forward to a day off tomorrow. They were just about giving the stuff away, grabbed quite a bit and blew the budget, found a lovely ring for Linda.

Eventually made it to the RV park, which for the price was the worst RV park we had stayed at. Our preferred park had closed for the season, a week before. At the recommendation of the Indian born Jewellery shop owner, we enjoyed a great Butter Chicken at an Indian Restaurant and walked the quiet street, the Cruise ships had departed.

We settled in for the night in preparation for a great hike tomorrow.

Weather: Wonderfully clear blue skys.

Low: high 30’s High: high 60’s.

Wildlife: Cruise Ship Tourists.

O/N Bugger, didn’t grab it. Skagway.

Not many photo's, too busy shopping :)

Back with the Grizzly's

2010-09-24T21:22:00.000-08:00

100915 – Back with the Grizzly's

Woke early, didn’t get a great sleep, kept waking up looking for Northern Lights as we slept with the windows open, out on the isthmus at Chilkat Reserve.

Porpoises around again this morning and some otters.

We had a slow start to the day. Met three folk from New York, who camped nearby.

At the top of the road down into our camp area is an artist, John Svensen of Extreme Dreams http://www.extremedreams.com/. He is a lovely gentleman, he is seriously into rock and mountain climbing. He has a Climbing wall on the outside of his Art Gallery, and he has a ‘slack line’, both for the local kids and visitors to play on. The kids and I had a go on the slack line, very interesting. The pressure is now on for me to build one at home. We were enticed by a few pieces of his art. He spent a lot of time with Tayla as one of his styles is ‘stamping’ and Tayla did this style recently at school. He was very inspiring.

A shower, that was the next order of the day. We ran into the New York Campers and they gave us a tip of good showers at the local pool, so, we hit the pool for a shower. While the RV has a shower, long hot showers in a large shower recess with strong water pressure is appreciated, and for $3, that’s what we got at the pool.

The Hungry Moose had become a daily ritual while in Haines, it was one of those road side booths that sell ‘drive-thru’ coffee but they also did great ice-cream. The perfect place to be on another hot 70 degree day.

Being all refreshed, we picked he Chilkoot Reserve again (the Grizzly area) for our last night as it was fairly close the Ferry terminal for a 6am start tomorrow. Enroute we saw some Grizzly’s, parked the RV and walked back. Josh had the fortune of stepping in some Grizzly Crap, and did it stick to his shoe, the scat just wouldn’t come off, it stuck with him for the rest of the afternoon. So the question was answered about Bears and yes they do in the Woods.

The fish trap was pulled down today so the bears had moved further down stream. We came upon the sow with two cubs and they entertained us for the late afternoon. Then things got a little ‘hairy’ as they moved up from the creek where they were eating salmon, to eat the berries right in front of us. Because of the thick berry patch and other trees, we lost sight of them. A German couple were in their 4x4RV and were tracking them too. All of a sudden the cubs ended up right in front of Linda again. Luckily they then went back to mum, but she was only a few meters away. I tried getting a photo to give some perspective, with Tayla at the edge of the scrub and mum and cubs a few meter in. If you look in the photo below of Tayla, and look past her, you should see mum.

Weather: Wonderfully clear blue sky and very warm

Low: Low 40’s High: 70.

Wildlife: Porpoise, Otters and Grizzly’s.

O/N N 59 20.148 W 135 33.982

Sleeping with Glaciers

2010-09-24T21:16:00.001-08:00

100914 Sleeping with Glaciers

Having spent the night in the forest, we missed a good showing of the Northern Lights. We were woken (late) by cruise ship people going canoeing just down the hill from our spot, on the lake. The day was clear and blue. It didn’t take long to get hot.

We spent today looking around Haines, gained access to an internet café and uploaded the last blogs. Went back to Alaska Rod’s knife shop and bought s lovely knife, and had a wonderful chat, but today a cruse ship was in, so they were very busy.

Looked about the 100 year old Fort Seward – all original buildings and many in disrepair, while others have been well maintained. Four ex-World War Two veterans and their families bough the Fort after WWII and restored it with the view to setting up tourism. Some of their descendants still live in Haines. The Captains residence is a lovely B&B. The cruise ship certainly adds many pedestrians around town, yesterday was much more enjoyable without the crowds.

We found an artist, Tresham Gregg, who’s father was one of the four WWII veterans who owned Fort Seward. He had an apprentice working with him. They spent some time with us and in particular Josh. They were carving a small totem of a Bear and an Eagle. We bought it, but it wouldn’t be finished until tomorrow. Took a photo of Josh with the Artists and the Totem in it’s infancy.

Chilkat State Reserve is out the other side of Haines, so we decided to explore that area with the view to spending the night and looking for Northern Lights. We were not disappointed on the site. We camped on a small isthmus, a narrow piece of land between a mainland and a knoll, bound by water on both sides. We were across but under the ‘Rainbow’ glacier, a hanging glacier and also overlooking Davidson glacier, with Lynn Canal on both sides of us. This was a spectacular camping spot, and very very quiet with an open sky. Took some lovely sunset photo’s, and watched the moon track low across the sky.

Watched porpoises and seals, it was so quiet we heard their ‘blowing’ before we saw them.

Sat out until after midnight waiting for the northern lights, and only got a poor showing of a haze of greens.

Weather – wonderful clear blue sky, low: low 40’s, high: 70, warmest day yet.

Wildlife: Porpoises and seals, Bald Eagles.

O/N N 59 20.148 W 135 33.982

Heading to the Artic Circle

2010-09-23T13:19:00.000-08:00

Another long run with no internet access and have grabbed this link at McDonalds, Fairbanks.

We have a number of blogs and great photo's to upload, but will not be able to until we get a long link on the net. As a taste, in the past few days, gold panning, successfully traveled the Top of the World Highway and the family camping with hunters and Joshua and I playing with some awesome firepower, shot a 300 cal rifle.

Most of the camp grounds are closed in Fairbanks, the second largest City in Alaska, so we crashed one last night and camped by the shores of the Chena River.

Re-stocked today and are now enroute to the Artic Circle for tonight. Last two nights it's been around minus 9 degrees C. Tonight, who knows. We will have to deal with all the road- train trucks on this next drive, it is a gravel road, and the season is about to close the road.

We are all traveling safe and well and hope to update with some great photo's in the next day or so, when we head back through Fairbanks tomorrow, enroute to Denali National Park.

Top of the World

2010-09-21T10:58:00.000-08:00

We made Dawson yesterday, after travelling up fro whitehorse. Had problems with my computer in Skagway, and it now seems it was the wireless connection at the RV park in Skagway, but no wireless in Whirehorse, nor Dawson, but found this little internet cafe.

We are about to tr and get the 30' RV on the small cross river car ferry, to cross the Yukon and head up onto the Top of the World Highway. It is open to day ,with a pilot car for 70 miles of it. But the highway closes Friday.

Camped out at a Gold Panning site last night, it was minus 6 degrees here. The ground is frozen and the ponds freeze up until the mid afternoon.

Not much time, so will update more and photo's maybe at Fairbanks, but will make a plan at TOK,

All going well, should be in Chicken, Alaksa, tonight.

Sleeping with Grizzly's

2010-09-14T16:09:00.000-08:00

13 September 2010

Sleeping with Grizzly’s

The RV park we stayed in closes today, the owners bug out on the first ‘cheap’ ferry fare.

Spent the day pottering about Haines township, which is about 20 small shops. Met some nice folk, especially Alaska Rod the knife maker and his wife Ronda. I had had previous discussions with the Chief of Police here so Josh and I popped down to see Gary while Linda and Tayla hit the shops. There is a nice quilt shop here in Haines.

After an enjoyable ice cream at the ‘Hungry Moose’ one of those small boxes of a shop on the side of the road that does drive-thru coffee’s, we headed out for our campsite at the Chilkoot State Rec Park, and where we had seen the Grizzly yesterday.

As we went through the fish trap, no bears, so parked up and walked back, a bit further than we thought, but we were not disappointed, as there was a sow and two 2 yr old cubs on the far side of the creek, then we walked down some more and stood on the side of the road. A couple of minutes later another sow and two first year cubs came down the embankment just beside us and walked down the road a little (away from us, thank goodness) and then played and fished in the water. They did surprise us and being on foot, it was an interesting short period. We watched them for quite a while when another two bears came along.

Soon after that another sow came down with three first year cubs and they were full of action. So for two hours we watched and walked and followed all these bears.

Upon returning toward the RV, not expecting any other action, the sow with the two cubs who had left the creek earlier, having walked up through the forest, came back down to the creek beside our RV. Linda and Tayla were walking way ahead, so Josh and I called out to them. They saw the sow, not knowing who she was and walked up to us. The sow was out swimming and bobbing for salmon in the middle of the creek and Linda was not aware that the way she was walking up to us, she was right on top of the cubs, just down below her and behind some light scrub. When one of them moved by having a small spat with the other and some growls, both Linda and Tayla got a surprise, the sow got grumpy and started huffing, and the cubs got the message from mum and they moved along toward her and she started swimming back toward the shore. We decided to move a little bit them everything settled down. We spent another hour watching these three and the light got low and the bears headed off back into the forest.

This was an awesome experience, we counted 9 bears in all, and the last encounter was the closest, it was awesome. Add to this, as we were watching the bears, there was an Avalanche just off the the side of us, it sounded like the biggest thunder storm right over our head, and when we walked around the corner we saw where the slide was, on the other side of the creek, up fairly high, it was awesome.

Have a look at some of the 525 photo’s I took, Josh also took some video.

We can’t head out of Haines until Thursday 16th, that is the next Ferry, so have booked on it to Skagway. So, some hiking and relaxing is now in order.

We missed the Northern Lights last night, apparently 3 hours of them from 10am, we camped in the dense forest among the bears, so tonight we’ll be out looking as going to a different state park on the other side of town.

Weather – very hot, low 70’s.

Wildlife : Grizzlies, Bald Eagles, Red Squirrells.

O/N couldn’t get a true reading, will update this later. Haines.

The Shack and the Grizzly

2010-09-12T22:49:00.000-08:00

12 September 2010

Grizzly

Up early and back down the falls for an early morning photo, breakfast, pack and we headed back along the road about 6 miles to the other Grizzly area river, Klukshu. There is a First Nations peoples Fish Camp there and we went in to see their camp. They have an interesting history, and this fish camp is part of that. They are part of the original Tlingit.

Their little shop was not open, I was hoping to purchase a pair of Moose Hide slippers, but we looked around their area of the Klukshu River, noting all the Salmon, some spawning. We spoke to some locals and then heard some movement over in the brush, noting evidence of bears. Saw nothing and left.

We made our way toward the British Columbia state border. Soon after we stopped for morning tea at a little shack, in the middle of open plains, surrounded by ice capped mountains. The shack was unlocked, and it was a refuge for cyclist and hikers hiking this highway. We noted the many bits and pieces in the shack and that many visitors had left a little something of themselves, including signing in a book. So we left a keyring kangaroo, a Kangaroo Sticker Road type sign, and all our firewood, for the next person needing the small wood fire pot belly in the shack. See the photo’s. The location of this shack is N59 42.778 W140 09.176

We continue through the US Customs Border and back into the land of imperial measurement, and down through the Bald Eagle Reserve into Haines. Checked out town, and decided on a paid RV site to access internet and showers. We discovered that down at the Chilkoot River Fish Trap, some Grizzly Bears had moved in, this morning there were two bears, one with 2 cubs and the other with 3 cubs. So after dinner, we headed down, as this early evening time was best. These two sows were not there but there was a huge male Grizzly, happily parked up against the fish trap and eating salmon to his hearts content. We watched him for nearly an hour. See the photo’s below.

The RV park we are in closes tomorrow, many businesses are shutting up shop along our route. So our plan is to camp in among the Grizzly’s up at the Chilkoot river. Not sure when we’ll head over the Skagway, but will check with the marine feries tomorrow.

Weather: low 30’s while up in the Yukon overnight, higher 60’s while down here by the water.

Wildlife : Grizzly Bear, Bald Eagles, Salmon.

O/N RV Park N 59 14.107 W 135 27.655

Million Dollar Falls

2010-09-12T22:41:00.000-08:00

11 September 2010 – Soldier Hill & Million Dollar Falls

September 11, a date none of us will forget. Josh and I hiked up to a point along today’s route, called Soldiers Hill, it was one of the significant base camps for the military and private contractors that built the Alcan Highway during World War II to give US troops access to the North in the event of a Japanese invasion through Alaska. That was our solemn occasion to reflect on this date.

If the landscape of the past few days was spectacular, today left us overwhelmed. A postcard shot around every corner. We tried to photograph it, but, there is no way a camera could capture the stunning beauty and the magnitude of the vision as you gaze on huge ice capped mountains cloaked in fall colours. The lower landscape was a blanket of golden yellows, flame reds and greens, the fall colours.

The road continued in its decaying form too Haines Junction. It was from Haines Junction where we turned off the Alcan onto the road to Haines. This road has received a huge overhaul, significant money to improve it. I heard the tyres on the RV rejoice as we head out along a ‘perfect’ tarmac, smooth as silk.

We explored Kathleen Lake and the mountain feature of The Kings Throne. See the photo below with Tayla in the foreground. We then continued to explore the route toward Haines, and decided to camp at Million Dollar Falls. This powerful waterfall greeted us with its thunderous roar.

A quarter of the Grizzly population resides in the Yukon, and of that, the majority live around the Klukshu and Takhanne Rivers which run parallel to each other. Million Dollar Falls is on the Takhanne. We were camped in the heart of Grizzly country.

After the whole family checked out the falls, Josh, Tayla and I went down to the river to pan for gold. After diner I went down by myself to do some low light photography. Armed with the bear spray and a keen nervousness, I enjoyed an hour of photography. The interesting thing was, down by the edge of the falls is a narrow path, for those who have jumped the barrier rail, and with the noise of the falls, you’d never hear a Mack Truck come up behind you, let alone a bear. It was a pristine place though. See the photo’s below. Note the Bear Proof caches for campers to store their food in, Bear Safety for the human's food, but those soft sided tents, mmmmm, and there were two of those camping here, Snack Packs for Bears :)

Million Dollar Falls. The Falls location is: N60 06.507 W136 56.812

Weather: Sunshine and rainy spots.

Low: low 40’s High: mid 50’s.

Wildlife: Nothing new.

O/N: N60 06.440 W136 56.745 Million Dollar Falls Camp.

Into the Yukon

2010-09-12T22:33:00.000-08:00

10 September 2010

Into the Yukon

Leaving Tok this morning, all fresh from showers and clean clothes, we headed toward the Canadian Border. The area around Tok is a wildlife preserve by the local First Nation people of Telin. I spoke with a local who was filling with fuel, he was heading out hunting with mates, but they need to go close to the Canadian Border for Moose.

The road to the Border was enjoyable, and in good condition, though got stuck at some road works, 30min wait, as they have a Pilot Vehicle escort each line of vehicles through, the road works were 14 mile long. Then we enter the Yukon Canada, metric again, lots of signs detailing 9k/h in miles.

This road was built by the American Army during World War II, when fear of the Japanese attacking from the north, meant gaining access to these wild areas. They took 8 months to clear some 1500 miles of road (dirt road) for military access. The reason a road had not been built was the environment is all liquid, water, a lack of solid surface, and the current road proves that.

This is the worst road (if you call it that) I have driven on. It is over permafrost, and on a base of water, so it heaves and ho’s, dips and the repairs are patches. You will gain elevation and find rock, nice piece of road, to then descend where it is full of potholes. You sort of line the RV up with what appears the smallest pot hole to hit, while also calculating subsequent potholes on your point of departure. You don’t actually steer through these, as the frost heaves take you where they desire, so you sort of set a course and hope. It feels like steering a boat in heavy surf. Then of course a truck or RV comes the other way, also “surfing” and murphy’s law prevails and as you point away from the oncoming, the road points the two of you toward each other, so, wide eyed you both struggle to ensure you pass safely, and as you pass, you note a mirror of your expression on the face of the other driver.

As evidence of this, the photo below was taken where it was safe to stop, this is not the best evidence, as those spots, it was not so safe to photograph, but I hope it gives you some insight. You will note the guard rail (not much in existence) has sunk into the ground and the road has been repaired around it. We potted along between 20-70 k/h in this 90 k/h zone.

Stopped in Beaver Creek, Yukon at Buckshot Betty’s for lunch and relax. She had free internet, so checked emails. Wonderful, in the middle of nowhere in the Yukon, well, not nowhere, Beaver Creek, and they have free internet, wouldn’t the early settlers have loved that. Along the route there is a series of Microwave Repeater Towers the bring communication this way. Initially each site had a small crew living at the station keeping power and service maintained, it was call the Cantell System.

Found another unusual type of RV, home made again, different quality. French Canadian I think.

We kept an eye out for a camp, and found Lake Creek. On the Koidern River. Very relaxing area. But note, we kept the bear spray out on the table handy while enjoying a beer by the camp fire.

Weather: Sunshine and rainy sots.

Low: low 40’s High: mid 50’s.

Wildlife: Nothing New.

O/N: N61 51.253 W140 09.176

Turning 14, First Shave and Moose

2010-09-10T09:37:00.000-08:00

Turning 14, First Shave and Moose

Thursday 9 September 2010

This morning welcomed in Tayla’s 14th Birthday. This remote pristine spot was also a perfect spot to introduce my son, Josh to his first shave, Alaskan Style, in the waters of the glacier feed Matanuska river, it has that certain temperature that you can’t get just anywhere.

Now that the children were awake, we set forth for TOK, pronounced ‘toak’, a six hour drive plus stops. The initial drive was unbelievable up past the Matanuska Glacier and running along side the Chugach Mountains, and onto Glennallen. This more northern part of Alaska, than where we had been, was in the middle of changing into fall colours. Words could not describe the wildness of this beauty, and a picture could never do it justice.

After doing our best with the huge meal, a “Yukon Burger” at a diner in Glennallen, our next leg took us to Tok. This route goes along the northern side of the St Elias Wrangell National Park and the spectacular Wrangell Mountains, where we were shadowed by huge snow and glacier topped mountain ranges, if the scenery before was a wonder, this was breathless. We had not been along this road in previous travels and we are now entering new territory.

During the spectacular ranges, the roads rose very high, needing to ‘pop our ears’ quite often, and the road was victim to significant Frost Heaves. Frost Heaves are where the permafrost thaws in summer and produces significant rises and dips in the road. At one point, I’m sure I got the front wheels off the ground, with a response from Linda to ‘slow down’, she didn’t need to ask.

As we approached Tok, the area looked prime for Moose, and we weren’t disappointed, spotting a Cow and her Calf. As luck would have it, just past them was a pullout, sufficient for us to turn around and sneak back, hopped up and did a stalk, grabbed some photo’s (Tayla’s photo below), then the challenge to do a 3 point turn in a 30’ RV on a single lane highway with sharp drop offs at the shoulder.

Got into Tok before Dinner, did the touristy thing. Tayla had one request for her birthday, and that was a long hot clean shower (amazing how their priorities can change with the environment J ), so we got into an RV Park and enjoyed hot showers. A walk to ‘Fast Eddies’ for Tayla’s birthday dinner, where we enjoyed a huge, and I mean HUGE dinner. Just happened to mention her birthday to the waitress, who put on a free Chocolate Ice –Cream Sunday and brought all the waitresses out and they sang Happy Birthday to her. I know she hates any attention, bummer.

Clothes washed and grabbed some ZZZ’s.

Weather: Rain, rain and some sunshine spots.

Low: low 40’s High: low 40’s.

O/N: N63 20.130 W142 57.913

Lastg Day being 13

2010-09-10T09:33:00.000-08:00

Last day being 13.

8 September 2010

Well, woke this morning with this being Tayla’s last day of being 13. After chatting to our neighbours last night, the Monster RV family had just sailed up from Valdez on the ferry and said it was spectacular, as there were numerous icebergs and the ship had to sail slow. Our original plan was to sail from near here to Valdez, but the cost we though prohibitive, as it’s only six hours. So we started the morning working on the plan of sailing, the ferry departed at 2.30p from Whittier. The Monster RV was $450 to sail, but when we did our costings, we realised their kids sailed free, ours are adults, so it was a $650 cost, so we reverted to our second plan that we were most recently running with, drive around, it’s two days.

We headed north and got as far as the Alyska Resort at Girdwood, took the cable car to the top of the mountain and Tayla and I then continued our hike up to the small glacier. En-route down, we took a different and very steep route resulting in Tayla sliding down on her butt, it was quiet funny. Quite a few Black Bears in the area but spotted none.

Headed north, and when we reached Turnagain Arm, we spotted Beluga Whales. Continued north and stopped again to view Beluga Whales when the Bore Tide came in, so witnessed this phenomenon.

Headed past Anchorage and onto the Glen Highway toward Tok. Found an absolutely wonderful camp beside King River, at the junction to Matensuska River (Glacial fed) and set a fire and relaxed, the kids enhancing their skills with the BB Gun. This is a fairly remote and very enjoyable spot to camp, no tourists.

Weather: Low – low 40’s (didn’t realise the window was open, bugger, High mid 60’s.

Wildlife: Beluga Whales.

O/N N61 43.970

W148 45.175

Monster RV

2010-09-10T09:30:00.000-08:00

The Monster RV

7 September 2010

After a sleep in and a potter around camp, we visited the Alaska Sealife Centre, on the other side of town away from the Port. Lovely centre, learnt that during the

Exon Valdez oil spill over a 1,000 Otters were found dead and many more are thought to have perished as well. The Otter is a very entertaining character, floating on his back eating his fish he has caught. The Centre had a huge Stellar Seal who knew we were photographing him. We then explored the “township” of Seward (not the port which we did yesterday). The township is about a ¼ of a mile from the Port. We found an internet café and hence loaded the other Blogs. Josh and I explored a viaduct that was gushing water (photo below), and did a Geocache. Found a different/better spot on the waterfront and set camp.

We met two lovely families, one from Bellingham with their son the other from Wisconsin, but originally he was from Toronto and she was from Russia, they had their two children (2,4) in Singapore and we currently driving around the world in their specifically designed RV (see photo of Monster RV), home schooling their kids and running their internet based businesses, one each.. This Monster RV is a Ford F650, our RV is an F 450, in Australia we only have F250;s.. Jay the owner built it from recycled or renewable sources, inside the kitchen and fitted out from bamboo. We sat around our camp fire until near midnight, it was one of the most wonderful evenings we have had in Alaska. We swapped details, both, though having been to Australia, are planning on returning.

Weather: Beautifully clear blue sky, warm day.

Temp: L low 40’s, H mid 60’s.

Wildlife: Other than the huge sealife in the Centre, we saw Otters and an Eagle.

O/N N 60 06.05 W 149 26.06

Seward - Tourist Mecca

2010-09-07T14:09:00.000-08:00

Monday 6th - Labor Day Holiday.

Seward – Tourist Mecca

Scooted out of Skilak Lake nice and early (10mph huge potholes) (see photos of lake below), though the fishermen were up and out way before us.

Looked for a nice place near Cooper Landing for a breakfast stop, enjoyed the fast flowing river with drifting row boats chartering fly fishermen, lovely area.

Made it into Seward, a little tired from the night before. This is a Cruise Ship Port, and Tourist Mecca, and don’t the tour prices state this. $160 to do a 6 hour tour out to the Kenai Fiord Glacier area, or, to helicopter up to Bear Glacier and dog sled ride for 90 min in total, $439. The last Cruise Ship was in, Royal Princess. We ate Halibut (fish) and chips on the wharf at a nice restaurant and overlooked the trawlers and surrounding glaciers and walked the shops in a beautifully warm and sunny day.

We were told that a black bear had walked down the boardwalk there the day before, and was being a bit of a nuisance, so they shot it this morning. We're OK, we have our BB Gun!

We then headed out to Exit Glacier. Linda took this time to have a rest, while the kids and I hiked up and out to the Glacier. It’s an awesome feeling standing before the bottom of a huge glacier, great views. I took a drink from the ancient water supply. I wanted to hike up to Marmot Meadows, about a 1 ½ Mile hike, but a gain of some 1200 feet in elevation, quite steep. It is a bear area and I noted the Park Ranger also carried bear spray. It was getting late and so we chose to head back and go look for a camp for the night, down by the waterfront.

Scored a great spot, hot showers, right on the beach, overlooking the trawler fleet and Resurrection Bay activities. Made a camp fire on the beach, drank beer and ate chips, looking out over the water, watching otters play and looking up to the surrounding glaciers, now this is the life.

A great night sleep, some rain came in early this morning.

Weather: Wonderfully warm and sunny – brilliant day. Showers overnight.

Wildlife: Ravens, Seagulls, Salmon, Otters.

Low mid 40’s warm night High mid- high 60’s F

O/N : N60 06.376

W149 26.043 ( You can put these into Google Earth and Google Maps, it should put you right on our camp).

Buying guns

2010-09-07T13:58:00.001-08:00

Sunday 5 September 2010

Buying guns

Woke early and hit the road toward Soldotna, no plan. Explored Bird Point en-route. Great place to view the Bore Tide, maybe Tuesday. This the only place in Alaska to have a Bore Tide. Looked around for a lunch spot by the Kenai River, poked down some narrow roads, came across some fishermen well armed, one had a huge handgun strapped across his chest, must have been an 8in barrel 9mm or bigger.

“Land of Living Trees” was closed, that was so disappointing, as that is where we bought out hand carved Bear last time. This was the first sign of the Tourist Season closing, as this was the first Sunday closed in 3 months, new Winter hours. Had a look inside, did the photo thing, some carvers were working in a back shed, had a chat and went into Soldotna, looking for Fred Myer.

Fred Myer, now this is a department store, where you can buy your groceries, undies and a 50 calibre hand gun in one place. Josh and I left the girls to seek out our hit list of food, now that we knew how much storage was left from the last shop, while we checked out the guns. The guy on the counter let Josh handle a Glock 17, my last pistol in the AFP, and a 50 calibre 10inch barrel hand gun, this thing was awesome. He informed us if you’re a local, you can purchase hand guns, but anyone can buy a riffle of any size, “did I want one?” , no paperwork, no licenses, you can have as many guns and ammo as you like. I recalled the fisherman earlier, yes they do wear their guns around here. The sign on the Bank simple says,” no guns inside, please”.

We bought a toy for camping, a BB Gun and 2500 rounds, for $10, though there was a nice BB/Slug gun pump action for $39, but it was keeping Linda in a comfortable space with our choices.

Headed back toward Seward and headed out to where the locals go, as it was a long weekend (Labor Day) here, concerned it would be busy and we weren’t disappointed, as we grabbed the last pull-in by Skilak Lake, some 5 miles off the highway on a very average dirt road. Lots of fishermen, the boat ramp area was full, the soft sided tents area was full as well. Mmmm, soft sided camping in a wild-life protection area, with bears.

Enjoyed sunset at the lake, and then a long long twighlight, shot some photo’s and the BB Gun. At bed time, the quiet old foggies next to us, opened up their pick-up truck doors and at full volume played Country Music, reminded me of “Deliverance”. I was going to ask if they would turn it down, but that gun counter at Fred Meyer replayed in my mind, and I knew I was now only packing a BB Gun. The Ear Plugs helped.

Weather: Showers out of Anchorage, fine and sunny Soldotna.

Low 40’s cool night Mid 60’s

Wildlife: Red Squirrels, Loons and Locals.

O/N : N60 28.257

W150 28.027

Didn't escape Anchorage

2010-09-07T13:51:00.000-08:00

Saturday 4 September 2010

Didn’t escape Anchorage

Woke early to do all the briefings and paperwork with the RV. Did a practice drive going round and round the carpark at the RV place, adjusting to driving on the wrong side of the vehicle, and understanding what 30 feet of 12 foot high RV was like. Weather was raining/ showery.

Hit the road, chose not to use Tomtom and asked locals for the shops. Loaded up with food and goodies and headed down town to 6th Ave Outfitters (with Tomtoms help) and the tourist shops. Parking a 30’ RV in a downtown area becomes interesting, luckily it was a Saturday arvo. Grabbed some Bear Spray, noted their stocks were low, bought an MSR water filter for half the price in Australia, found a shop with $5 T’shirts, and some very tasteful tourist shops, whoops, there goes the budget.

The afternoon saw us hit a barrier with Jetlag and so we headed to Centenary Park Camp Ground, lovely woodland setting, but 1 Star bathrooms, showers. Average for $25.

Weather: Rain periods, showers in Anchorage.

Low 40’s F High mid 50’s F

Wildlife: Red Squirrels

O/N : N61 13.651

W149 43.429
No photo's too busy shopping :)

The Long Haul

2010-09-07T13:48:00.000-08:00

Long Haul

Friday 3 September 2010.

Kingaroy – Brisbane – Auckland – Los Angeles – Seattle – Anchorage = 37 hours

4.00am bolt out of Kingaroy, then being the first on the scene of a traffic accident at the Esk turn off at 5.00am between two builders (both utes and trailers written off), gear, screws and pop rivets strewn all over the road put that instant conflict of mind when on a schedule to be on an international flight, but, with no injuries, and dodging a flat tyre, saw us in Brisbane on schedule. Some mix up with seating, turns out we booked too early, and we should have re-checked our seating, but all was good, but ended up the back with all the other families, bugger.

Exiting Brisbane, Customs fails to have reasonable logistics, Transit in Auckland was OK, a couple of shops to look at, clearing customs in the US was again stagnant with logistics, the Tom Bradley Building LAX has a suitable area to kill 3 hours, transit in Seattle, lovely pizza place gave us a ‘pick-me-up’. The flight to Anchorage, having sorted out our seating again, had us on the starboard side so we had the views of the ice capped ranges. It wasn’t until the Seattle – Anchorage leg that I noted the Cabin Crew briefing did not include “how to use the life vest”. Upon closer inspection of the Safety Card, I discovered this airline does not have Life Vests, they use the seat cushion of your seat as your life raft. Flying across the gulf of Alaska and no life vest, I suppose they figure it wouldn’t help much anyway.

The taxi driver en-route to the Great Alaskan Holidays RV Rental place, where our keys were hidden for us to O/N that first night, informed us that the Cruise Ships were down some 140,000 passengers for this year, and many tourist businesses were suffering. He hadn’t heard of ‘independent travellers’ when I ask how their numbers were doing, they seem to forget us independent travellers, everyone always says, “are you going on a cruise?” The bed was welcomed, but the excitement and sleeping beside a highway had its impact on sleep.

37 Hours straight through, a tough one on the kids, but I must say, they kept in great spirits throughout, and the trip went rather well, considering “cattle class” lacks some comfort. Welcomed sleep. Arrived 11.00pm, Friday 3 Sept (Local Time)

Weather: Showers and rain periods.

Low 40’s F

Wildlife: Red Squirrels, Loons.

O/N : N61.13169

W149.86496

At the starting gate.

2010-08-30T02:54:00.000-08:00

With four (4) sleeps to go, our research indicates a few problems on the ground in Alaska. They have had significant rain and some of the highways have been blocked due to damage. Top of the World Highway was washed away two months back, it was then repaired, then suffered large wildfires, then rain washed the road away again.

Down in the Haines area, out at a camp area in Chilkat, so many bears have moved into the area that word has got out and sightseers are flocking to the narrow access road, that is causing what the locals call a “Bear Jam”. Our planned camp is at the end of this road.

Our bags have been packed for the 4th or 5th time, still refining both the load weight and the essentials, leaving room for those unique purchases that visiting Inuit villages and tourist spots affords.

Our principal flight over and back has been moved and this now creates a fairly long time on the ground at LAX, 5 hours over and 6 back, we have to wait around this quiet little spot in Los Angeles, oh yeah!. We are too short a time to rent a room, and too long to sit. LAX offers no showers to freshen up. The new reLAX centre at LAX, pay per hour to sit and watch planes in 5 star comfort, while enjoying complimentary coffee and cakes at $10hr pp for first hour and $25 pp for 3 hours could be worthwhile, but with a family of four, mmmmm.

I have set up the ‘auto-email’ service on this blog, and trying the approach to type and save in word, and then cut and paste to post, allowing us the ability to write Blogs while in Wild areas, and then a speedy process to upload them when we get into a town with WIFI.

Still working out the final plans, our research since October 2009 has provided us great insight, but the real test is when we head out the gate at the RV rental mob, do we turn left or right, down to Seward or up toward the Yukon and do Seward upon our return. The weather I feel will dictate this, as we need to get over the Top of the World Highway while it is both open and not frozen over if we leave it too late, and yet all the tourist attractions at Seward, like Ice Climbing, wild life cruises, close on 15 Sept, so a start toward the Yukon means surrendering the touristy things when in Seward and relies on a self climb up Exit Glacier.

That’s it for this blog, now to see if this system works, and how to insert photo's, I'll grab some from last trip.

Graham

Drawing on the Last Trip

2010-07-10T02:39:00.003-08:00

The beauty of traveling is the lessons you learn. The benefit of returning to a favourite destination, is being able to draw on what you know works, what doesn't and what you want to explore that you couldn't fit in last time.

Our last Trip to Alaska was in 2006. We spent six weeks exploring, and our mode of travel was RV, Alaska State Ferries, Light Aircraft and Commercial Aircraft, and rental cars. Our accommodation was RV, Log Cabins, Berths on the Ferries and one or two motels.

Starting in Anchorage, we grabbed our RV from Great Alaskan Holiday's, followed the directions they provided to do the shopping and headed out of Anchorage. Camped first night on Nancy Lake, then:

Byers Lake
Cantwell
Denali National Park - Riley Camp Ground 3 nights.
Fairbanks - Rivers Edge RV Resort
Up on the Chena River to observe the Northern Lights
Back via North Pole and Santa Clause House - camped out along the Richardson H/way
In to Valdez (via Worthington Glacier - A big days drive) 2 nights - sailed on a tour out among the icebergs and Glacier in Prince William Sound - Awesome
Up out of Valdez and camped at Blueberry Lake - our daughter's 10th birthday and tried to get as high up the range as we could for snow, missed by 50m :) But the Ice on the RV was awesome.
Back along the Glenn Hwy, camped outside Anchorage
Into Anchorage for the Markets and down Sterling Hwy
Ninilchik to Homer 3 nights
Flew with Bald Mountain Air over to Brooks Lodge, Katmai NP to walk with the Grizzly Bears
Anchor Point for the night
Russian River - Camp Ground
Anchorage - return RV
Flight to Juneau - Motel
Ferry to Skagway, Log Cabin at Skagway Bungalows for 3 nights rented a wreck a Sourdough Car Rentals - a TBird. (loved it) Drove up to Carcross in the Yukon
Missed Ferry back to Juneau, so chartered a light plane up from Juneau, collected us at 5.30pm, and flew down the Inside Passage, the pilot was great with the kids, it was a 6 seater, he took us over Rainbow Glacier and a hanging glacier, saw some Bow head Whales bubbling/feeding, awesome.
Rental Car up to a Log Cabin - Alaskan Williwaws on Tee Harbour about 40min north of Juneau for 9 nights - very relaxing, went Ice skating in Juneau, Mendenhall Glacier, we drove to the end of all main roads in Juneau.
Overnight Ferry (had a lovely cabin, the Ferry had a Restauant, a lovely Bar and a Movie Theatre - why would you want to be on a cruise ship?), sailed down to Ketchikan - at Cape Fox Lodge wonderful accommodation.
Flight out to LA and home.

So, where too on this exploration, the planning commenced a long time ago.

Planning Your Trip to Alaska

2010-07-05T00:07:00.001-08:00

Booktopia - The Milepost: Alaska Travel Planner, Kris Valencia, 9781892154262

Planning your trip to Alaska is made easy with "The Milepost" a unique publication that provides a 'mile by mile' account of every highway in Alaska, that is detailing every look out, every business enroute, quality of the bitumen (or not), each twist and turn is accounted for as well as a detailed account of each town from beginning to end. This publication makes it very easy to gain a true insight to your possible travels, as it is updated every year. They have a team of writers that scour the countryside for edits to their publication. It's second to none. It is a large publication, but worth the weight in your travel luggage. Of course it's cost is offset by paid advertisements, but even they are welcome to the reader, as you gather information on tourist attractions, accommodation, and all those things to do on your travels. It helps you plan how long you could/should stay in an area, and how long to drive a leg with all the lookouts and sight-seeing along the way.

That's how we started, we grabbed our old raggy copy from our previous trip, looked at what we did last time, and planned what we wanted to see that was new and what we wanted re-visit. The Alaska Milepost also includes the Yukon Territories, so this publication will suffice for our expedition.

Journey's in Alaska seems to take on a challenge, of not wanting to travel the same road twice which can be an issue. The Kenai Peninsular to the south of Anchorage with destinations of either Homer (a great destination) or Seward with Exit Glacier, means a one road in, one road out. If visiting Denali National Park and maybe followed by a leg up to Fairbanks is in your sights, again, unless you then desire to head down to Valdez via Delta Junction (and possibly seeing the Bison Herds), it's a return trip along the same road. So, for RV'ing, planning to cover the most ground, with the least miles is the challenge.

The other part of planning is whether you want to build in 'flying' or 'sailing' as a method of travel. You can fly into remote Inuit Villages to see Polar Bears, fly to Katmai National Park to walk with Grizly Bears and of course, if the Alaskan Panhandle takes your fancy, then a flight to Juneau, Sitka or Ketchikan. If you want to build in an 'Alaska Marine Highway' leg or two, this is a great way to explore the Alaskan Panhandle or simply link Wittier to Valdez, without the cruise ship crowds. These Alaska Marine Highway Ferries are a fantastic way to explore the Alaskan coastal shores. The Ferries take vehicles, including trucks and RV's and some have a Cinema and Bar / Restaurant onboard, cabins that sleep up to 4 or more, comfortable seating with great views and on some Ferries, backpackers can set their tent up on the top deck under a roof structure that has gas heating, unbelievable.

Google Earth, and GPS, what a paradigm shift in holiday planning. Each Saturday and Sunday morning we spend going over planned legs of routes looking for Boondocking spots. Boondocking is the term in North America for freedom camping, camping in public locations that don't cost anything. From Shopping Centre carparks to the shores of wild rivers.

Google Earth affords us the opportunity to look down those side roads that you'd never drive down usually, and explore if there's a great spot to camp or explore. We often find one or two RV's down these roads that lead to the shores of picturesque lakes, which confirms for us some sort of access. We then put the GPS Coordinates of the turn off into our Tom Tom navigation device as a favourite and put in our own description. Then sometimes we also put in the GPS Coordinates of the spot we suspected as being suitable, in case there are side tracks and the like.

So the independent traveler has a world of choices that cater for freedom, avoiding the crowds and avoiding being treated like cattle. Freedom to choose activities, freedom to choose which shops to use, freedom to spend your money. Many of the Cruise Ship Companies actually own the shops in the town they use as a port of call, for example, Skagway, and as such, take income out of the local community, and that's an ethical issue for us. As a further example, in Skagway, there is a lovely restaurant down on the pier, a family pizza restaurant in town, a pub or two and in the back of a electrical shop is a hotdog stand. That's it for eating. Skagway has 4-5 Cruise Ships per day during the summer months, unloading some 20,000 tourists per day. Why isn't there a huge number of food outlets?, because they all get their meals on the boat, so locals won't make any money out of food.

Planning, that's where the real joy is for us, researching what's possible, reading up what's interesting, learning the culture, understanding what's possible, all the facets you don't get when you book an organised tour. Being treated like cattle is not for us.

"Drawing on the last Trip", in the next Blog.

Getting Started

2010-07-03T17:59:00.000-08:00

Choosing a reputable RV rental company, choosing when to go, choosing where to go all adds to the enjoyment of planning your own adventure. For us, Alaska is the ultimate destination for an adventure at our own design. No 'rent-a-crowd' from Cruise Ships or Tour Buses, no "must be in a town for a motel room by dark" and no "concrete jungles".

This is our second RV trip to Alaska. Our first trip in 2006 balanced exploring in an RV, sailing the Alaska Marine Highway on the Ferries and exploring the Pan-handle by rental car and staying in log cabins. We had 6 weeks in which to explore last time, this time we are limited to just 4 weeks and a tighter budget.

So our first plan was to watch the specials being offered by RV companies. Some seem to only provide RV's for Cruise Ship tourists that drop off at one point, and RV to a subsequent point where they get back on the Ship with the Crowd. One such firm refused to rent to us, since we weren't on a Cruise Ship. Other's seem to target the fishermen, and focus on shorter term rentals, and that wasn't us either. So thanks to a great special on offer at $109/day unlimited mileage and you can read all about the extras, like no cleaning on return, and all the gear inside is included, plus Insurance is included, we went with the same trusted business we used on our first trip, Great Alaskan Holiday's, yes a a strange name for an RV hire company. We couldn't fault them last time.

When to go? was chosen by our kids School holidays and adding extra time out of school, their exams and for Australian's, that meant September. So a deal was taken, September 2010 it is.

Next the Airfare. As they say, if it's not Boeing, we're not going. Webjet gave us our best indicators of how the airfare dollar was travelling, and after a few months of watching, saw a great deal, so armed with this price, we went to Flight Centre where a real person does all the work and they not only beat the deal, but improved all those extras, like food on the flight. Web specials and discount airlines offer great prices but at a few costs, firstly, the weight of the baggage you can carry (extra comes at a price), secondly, food, and lastly, times for the flights. We secured a great special flying on Air New Zealand (with food) but the timings will make this hop a little long, with some airport lounge wait times being up to three hours. On the up side, we had planned to fly into Anchorage on Alaska Airlines, (don't you think their logo on the Tail looks like Bob Marley) and Flight Centre were able to link our teenage kids discount specials on Air NZ with Alaska Airlines, saved us heaps. So we are flying Brisbane - Auckland - LA - Anchorage.

So, now it's where to go, and I'll save that for the next Blog.