Patti & Dick's Grand Adventures

Dedication of Peace Pole on 9/11

2011-09-11T18:41:00.000-07:00

Today we attended a wonderful interfaith events at a local United Methodist Church. They invited the leaders from their neighborhood synagogue and mosque to help lead a service dedicated to peace among all. It was a beautiful gathering with people who were old and young, Christian, Muslim, and Jewish.

One of the readings said:
We commit ourselves to proclaiming our firm conviction that violence and terrorism are opposed to all true religious spirit and we condemn all recourse to violence and war in the name of god or religion. We undertake to do everything possible to eradicate the causes of terrorism. We commit ourselves to promote the culture of dialogue so that understanding and trust may develop among individuals and peoples as theses are the conditions of authentic peace.

Having this truly multi-cultural/mutli-religious gathering of good people committing together to work for peace….that was truly a blessing.

My peace fill the earth.

Bandelier and Los Alamos

2011-07-13T15:56:00.000-07:00

One of the side trip days took us north and west to Bandlier National Monument and then on the Los Alamos. Bandelier is one of the numerous places that the Ancient Pueblo people built homes and huge building complexes between 600 and 1000 years ago, throughout the South West.

Bandlier was peaceful and very beautiful. We were very pleased to have a lovely walk through a valley, and then had the chance to climb up a number of ladders to get to a place where there was a powerful kiva there. We climbed (and climbed) and were then very grateful to have a chunk of time without anyone else around. You could feel the ancient spirits.

Although we noted that the fire danger was rate as extreme, we had not a clue that a few days later, this whole area would be engulfed in flames.

Our visit with Los Alamos was interesting, but in the end rather creepy. We spent a couple of hours at the main museum in town there, had the chance to see a fabulous movie about the town's role in WWII and the secret development of the nuclear bomb. It was super top secret, even people in nearby Sante Fe had no real idea what was going on there. Actually, some of the people were worked there had no idea.

One woman said when she asked what they were doing, she was given the official line that they were developing windshields for submarines;-) Seeing some actual bombs like the ones that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were very sobering.

A couple of hours were as much as we could handle, and we were both ready to leave. the whole area of the laboratory had these signs about explosives....scary!

Can you say MUSEUM?

2011-07-13T15:41:00.000-07:00

Two history majors on vacation, armed with a family membership to a consortium of Santa Fe museums....we took full advantage of the opportunities. We made it to the Palace of the Governors, The new Mexican History Museums, The International Folk Art Museum, Georgia O'Keefe Museum, New Mexico Art Museum, the Museum of Indian Art and Culture.

So many beautiful pieces of art, and interesting a provocative displays and videos. We especially enjoyed seeing the huge collection of folk art from around the world, and the actual O'Keefe paintings (after our field trip to the landscape areas.) And at the Indian Art and Culture Museum they had astounding oral interviews of New Mexican native peoples talking about their culture, and lives. We could have sat for hours and days longer listening to some of these articulate people sharing.

We also took advantage of being around Santa Fe on a Friday evening which gave us the chance to go down Canyon Road for the gallery crawl with many of the galleries having openhouses or openings. Some really beautiful and fun art, as well as the chance to interact with the artists and gallery owners. Artists generally LOVE to talk about what they are doing and answer questions and we were so glad to be able to be in such an art rich environment!

Joining our friends who work with the Navaho People

2011-07-13T15:26:00.000-07:00

We were able to join our dear friends, Tomi Folk and Hank Bruce on a trip to one of the Navajo Chapter houses (a local government division of the Navajos). This one was Ojo Encinas, quite a ways away from the larger cities of Santa Fe and Albuquerque. Tomi and Hank do work on eliminating hunger and helping to teach gardening in some really wonderful, therapeutic and sustainable ways. They have worked with many of the New Mexican Indian people on projects, including this group. Often there is an intergenerational component, with elders getting the chance to teach young people about the traditional ways of growing food and stories about plants.

It was a pleasure to meet some of Hank and Tomi's friends, and hear some presentations about the work that is happening in that corner of the Navajo nation. One of the really impressive things was a project where young people in high school and college get the chance to work and become erosion specialists. They earn money, gain expertise and protect the land. Win, win, win!

We joined them for a delicious potluck brimming with food like mutton stew (butchered the day before), elk posole, Indian fry bread, and some amazing corn and squash. No one left hungry! We were sorry that we didn't get to try Hank's famous tumbleweed soup (the plant below the what tumbleweed looks like before it tumbles...it's supposed to taste great!)

We drove back through beautiful red rock scenery, in the monument area. Everywhere you look it is gorgeous!

Merry Christmas....to our guests from Japan

2010-12-30T19:23:00.001-08:00

On Christmas Eve we had four visitors from Japan arrive at our home in Oceanside CA.

They had arranged to come for a two night stay with us through an organization called SERVAS.

organization promotes world peace through travelers staying in people's homes and exchanging stories and life experiences. Servas is an international, non-governmental, multicultural peace association run by volunteers in over 100 countries. Founded in 1949 by Bob Luitweiler as a peace movement, Servas International is a non-profit organization working to build understanding, tolerance and world peace. Dick had been involved with SERVAS many years ago, and we both decided that we would very much like to be a host home.

Our guests this Christmas were a wife, Tomoko, and husband, her sister, Sonoko, and their 92 year old mother. They live in Koyoto, Japanese and all love to travel and have done so extensively.

Hosting them during our Christmas holiday gave us the chance to think deeply about what the holiday mean to us, and what were the really essential parts of it that we could share with international visitors.

We picked them up from the train station, went out to eat lunch at an old style American diner for cheeseburgers, off to the beach and then the botanical gardens....sounds pretty traditional so far, huh?

Okay, then , after dinner, we offered them the chance to make gingerbread houses, which the two sisters excelled at. This was a great artistic process.

The next day, we did a cooking show of how to make turkey, stuffing, pumpkin pies...the whole works. Then our Mexican-American friends Sandra and Ramon arrived. An additional opportunity to have cross cultural discussions.

Evening brought the chance to Christmas stockings, storytelling and a lot of fun. Everyone went to bed tired, but happy. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

Multicultural fun with friends

2010-10-17T13:53:00.000-07:00

We spent a lovely day with friends out in the countryside with a couple from Mexico originally, a couple form South America (wife from Germany), sister-in-law South American married to a Japanese man, their daughter who married a Mexican man, grandson who was born in Germany then moved to England and now lives in New Zealand. How much fun is that! We love our life and all of the diverse and interesting people in it.

Cities Patti Has Visited Around the World

2010-09-12T14:10:00.000-07:00

Create your own travel map or travel blog

Find the best vacation rentals at TripAdvisor

At the Rose Parade

2010-01-23T10:08:00.000-08:00

Don't we look great?

Warm New Year Wishes from Patti & Dick

2009-12-30T14:55:00.000-08:00

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Adventure in the Sierras

2009-11-03T10:15:00.000-08:00

Having been home from Alaska for two full months, our travel feet were itchy for an adventure.

And having been inspired by Ken Burn’s PBS series on the National Parks (we did watch the whole series), it seemed time to return to a “local National Park”, the second oldest in the country: Sequoia/Kings Canyon National Parks.

We got up at 3am on Friday morning, bleary eyed but ready to beat the Los Angeles traffic heading north, which we did. We drove by downtown LA at 5am, still surprised to see the number of cars out at that time. Our minivan was set up just like we were going to Alaska, with our bed in the back ready for Patti to crawl in and sleep the first three hours while Dick drove. We switched just north of Bakersfield CA and Dick took a quick nap. We pulled into the park entrance at 9:00 and picked out a campsite by 10. We were ready to be with the big trees.

Dick’s first time in the park was in 1965, so he was reflective on the changes that he had seen over the intervening years. They have now restored the park to a more natural setting. This park was one that was in danger of being “loved to death”, with cabins and stores being built literally on the top of Sequoia shallow root systems.

We spent Friday mid-day with a picnic lunch near the Giant Grove with the General Sherman tree nearby, and then spent the next couple of hours hiking among the trees. Walking among the big trees is certainly an experience of being in a vertical world. The sheer mass of the sequoias distorted our sense of perspective. Limbs that looked close were actually over 100 feet up. The really big trees are referred to as monarchs, averaging over 250 feet tall and over 10 feet in diameter. General Sherman is 36 ft in diameter at its base and still 14 feet in diameter up 180 feet. That is a big tree trunk! It is the most massive living thing on earth. The feeling as we walked among these trees was like being in an immense, peaceful, natural cathedral.

Then we had a lovely walk along Crescent Meadow and saw beautiful aspen trees ablaze in fall colors. Of course, we got out our cameras and shot many photos (we each took about 400 photos in the two days.)

The short night caught up with us and we were back at our campsite, cooked and ate dinner, and went to bed by 7pm. Sleeping in the min-van continues to be a good plan, especially when we got up to frost some places on the ground.

Saturday October 31st…neither of us had ever spent Halloween camping before, but is was a picture perfect fall day.

We went to The General Grant Grove in Kings Canyon National Park and both thought it was such a lovely grove of giant sequoias. There was one big tree after another, many in groups. We had the chance to watch a herd of mule deer for a long time, feeding among the big trees. We shared the moment with a family from Japan.

We were struck again about how truly huge these trees really are. The interpretive writers were obviously struggling with the challenge of communicating this size. The trunk of the General Grant tree was described as having the volume equal to that of millions of ping pong balls. They are as tall as a 27-story building, taller than the Statue of Liberty. Redwood trees are taller, but mass-wise, these are the largest growing thing s on the planet. And they live for 2-3000 years!

We descended down into Kings Canyon, one of the deepest canyons in the country. Down, down we went, descending over 5000 feet. Lunch was a picnic beside Grizzly Falls, a charming waterfalls surround by fall colors. The canyon became more impressive the deeper into it we drove. John Muir wrote that this valley, at the bottom, was even grander than his beloved Yosemite Valley.

At Road’s End, just a few miles into the national park, we parked and then followed a delightful trail 2 miles to a fork in the valley. This valley and trail were so peaceful, so inspiring. We were alternating between deep forest and meadows, always surrounded by steep cliffs on either side. By mid-afternoon, the shadows were quickly lengthening, and we realized we needed to leave this magical pace and get back to our car and then campsite. The drive back was stunning again, including the sun setting over the foothills and the Central Valley while on the otherwise the nearly full moon was rising shining above the tress and the mountains. Wow!

Dinner was made after dark, with light provided by a battery and our plug in jack-o-lantern. Halloween was properly celebrated by a hooting of a genuine owl over the course of the evening. We spent several hours talking and snuggling by the campfire, until we reluctantly went to bed, having burned nearly all of our wood as the temperature dropped to nearly freezing!

Morning brought another perfect day, but we had to pack up and leave. Why? Because we had to get home to go to a marvelous concert in San Diego’s Symphony Hall. It was a special concert of Mariachi Music to commemorate the Mexican celebration of the Day of the Dead, El Día de los Muertos or All Souls' Day. It is a wonderful time to feel closer to those who have passed away. We so appreciate learning how other cultures respond to these important life experiences.

The adventure continues

A long day's drive to home

2009-08-29T14:56:00.001-07:00

Day 36 – Friday, August 28th

Dick was up at 5am and started driving. He drove until 8 when Patti got up and drove while he got a few more hours of well-deserved sleep. The morning brought us back into California and we were reminded what a long state we live in. The first mile post read 796 miles. We knew that was to the Mexican border just a short distance from our home. As the sun rose we were able to see Mt. Shasta begin to emerge from the darkness. It is a beautiful volcanic mountain that stands by itself in northern California.

We drove and talked, using the time to begin reflecting on the trip. Some stats: we will have driven about 9,400 miles in 36 days, gone to 9 National Parks, 24 museums, 3 formal gardens, 8 park visitor’s centers, and 4 animal conservation centers. We saw cars from 37 states and 7 provinces and 2 territories.

We stopped for lunch, Patti took another nap, and we kept driving. We would drive over 850 miles in the day so we had to keep moving. As we drove we were struck at both how very, very dry and brown it is in CA, and how many cars there are. We had even a stronger view of the latter when we reached Los Angeles just in time for rush hour, being right by downtown LA at 5:50. There are a LOT of cars there. From LA, it is just 100 miles more to home. Some of that was very slow miles, though. It took us an hour to drive only 20 miles.

Once free of the Los Angeles county traffic we sailed along much more smoothly. The sun was setting and it was getting dark. We did have a glorious final day’s sunset to place another “beautiful” stamp on our trip. We could tell we had driven quite far south, it was getting dark by 8:00 rather than by 11:00.

At 8:30, we arrived at home. It was good to pull the car into the driveway of our home and find everything safe and sound there. Safe ourselves, tired, a little scruffy and ready for a night’s sleep (or more) in our very own comfortable bed, we unloaded the essentials for the night. We knew there was time in the morning to fully unload and clean up the car. One final step was to check the final milege total for our trip that we had been tracking on one of the car's trip odometers.

We did it! We drove to Alaska and back on the Alaskan Highway and lived to tell the tale. We still like each other, much to the surprise of many people we met who shuddered and said they would not attempt such a trip together. We are glad to be home. Hmmmm, where do we go next?

Starting the serious drive home

2009-08-29T14:48:00.001-07:00

Day 35 - Thursday, August 27th

We had to make a slight adjustment in plans to visit some dear friends from back in California who have moved to Washington state. They had an emergency situation come up and so were not available to have us visit. We arranged a “rain check” time with them and, after playing with a couple of ideas, we both agreed it was time to really turn south and head home. It has been a wonderful trip, but home was waiting.

We got up early. There was a beautiful sunrise over Victoria Harbor. Dick went over and to try to get our flat tire patched, but it wasn’t possible before we had to go. So that must be the reason that he had been so insistent on getting a new, standard-size spare tire. That tire will get 1000 miles on it and the flat will be dealt with when we get home.

We then packed up and drove up the coast of Vancouver Island to the town of Sydney to take the ferry over to the state of Washington. Without a reservation, we wanted to make sure we made this ferry. There was a long line of cars and a 2 and 1/2 hour wait, but at last, the US customs team arrived, and we went through the custom’s process and boarded.

Dick totally enjoyed the ferry ride. We went through the San Juan Islands, beautiful islands on a gloriously clear day. For much of the trip we could see Mount Baker, a lovely huge mountain in Washington. There were many boats, both sail and motor. It was a great day to be out on the water. He also was highly entertained watching the jellyfish as our boat zoomed along through the water. There was a lot of camaraderie among those out on deck enjoying the day. Patti was too cold to be out in the wind, but enjoyed the view through the windows.

When we arrive in Anacortes, WA, we disembarked and, after just a few miles, we found ourselves on I-5 headed south. And that is the road we will take for the next 1300 miles until just a few miles from our house.

We came through Seattle at rush hour, riding in traffic for over 100 miles along the eastern side of the Puget Sound and decided that we saw more cars during that stretch than we had on our whole trip together so far. We did have many good views of Mt. Rainier which rises over 14,000 feet just a short distance to the east of the city.

A highlight for today was each of us were in Oregon for the first time. Part of the excitement of this trip for Dick was that he got to add his final two states that he had not yet visited: Alaska and Oregon. He has now been in all of them. We certainly didn’t get to have a full experience of it, mostly driving after dark. We did stop for a pleasant dinner at an Applebees. We plan to come back sometime and fully explore the beauty and history there. We drove completely across the state for 11 hours, but saw only what you can see from the freeway at night.

Patti crashed and fell asleep at about 10 while Dick hung in there until midnight. We then spent the next 5 hours sleeping comfortably in our van at a roadside rest area.

Victoria!!

2009-08-26T22:41:00.000-07:00

Day 34 – Wednesday, August 26th

Up early for a planned 7:00 am departure time. We had to get down to the ferry headed to Victoria early enough to check in or we would lose our reservation. We had a great conversation with the gentleman who was handling the breakfast at the hotel. He told us a bit more of the history of the hotel’s ownership and the owner’s values. The ways the employees are treated certainly creates strong loyalty and commitment to good customer service. Because of the conversation we were a bit late leaving. When he found out the ferry we were scheduled, he shooed us out the door. The drive went relatively smoothly, except for dealing with a traffic jam caused by traffic merging from two directions into one lane. We were a bit nervous but made it to the ferry terminal in our expected window. At least this meant we had less of a wait until loading.

We watched our boat, Spirit of Vancouver Island, come in and disgorge hundreds of cars, trucks, and buses. Then we drove right through the bow of the ship to be loaded on the second vehicle deck. We watched our departure from one of the top decks and then it got a little cold for Patti. Dick spent most of the next 90 minutes at the bow of the boat watching everything he could see. This included the tasks of crew, tree covered islands slipping by, fishing boats returning to their ports, lighthouses, and, at the half-way point, the passage of a sister ship mirroring our ship’s voyage. He kept looking for Orcas or other marine mammals but had to be satisfied with many sea gulls. Patti stayed inside in a comfy chair where it was warm and read. We were both quite happy.

Once we were at Vancouver Island (where Victoria is located) we joined the throngs pouring from the ship. Instant crush of traffic on the four-lane highway. We followed a series of signs, like bread crumbs to the Butchart Gardens, one of Dick’s all time favorite garden places in the world. It deserves its world famous reputation. It was so lovely. Again, we need some new superlative words….A woman had the vision to create a gardens in an abandoned quarry, so it is really a unique setting. She and her husband made a great deal of money in the cement industry over 100 years ago, but they are most famous for creating this really ahead of its time gardens. Roses, Japanese gardens, English gardens, and Italian garden. Everywhere you looked, color and beauty flowed along! www.butchartgardens.com/. We spent several delightful hours there.

Arriving in Victoria, we checked in to our Worldmark timeshare, backing up on the inner harbor. Just one night was available, but that gives us a little more space in a really nice place to stay right downtown. It is a lovely building, with balconies overlooking the water. Yah!

It wasn’t quite ready, so that gave us time to go over to another wonderful museum: The Royal British Columbia Museum. There they were featuring an exhibit of Treasures from the British Museum drawn from countries and cultures around the world. There surely were some very exquisite and amazing pieces that they had on display. Both of us, however, felt quite uneasy about the arrogance that allowed the Brits to come in and confiscate people’s treasures and then put them on display for others to see. Of course, we DO love to see many of these wonderful things, but it is quite an ethical dilemma about whose things are they and who gets to keep them and gets to look at them.

This was brought even more to the forefront when, in the same museum, there was quite a great display of First Nation’s culture. However, some of the cases had notes saying that objects from that display had been removed and given back to the government of the Indian people through a treaty. This treaty was highly comprehensive, having passed in 2000. It did a lot of other Native’s rights things, but, in part, allowed the Indian people to have many things back that belonged to their ancestors.

We both realized after about an hour and a half that we were finally on information overload. Even the highly committed cultural explorers finally run out of gas in terms of taking in new information. We skimmed through a number of other great exhibits, but had confirmed that it is truly time to be heading back home. We are full!!!

Dinner was excellent seafood, with a focus on salmon, eaten at an outdoor restaurant right on the quay along the harbor. The boats were a mere feet from our table. We enjoyed the fresh air, quite warm temperatures, good food, and outdoor music provided by street musicians on the harbor walkway. Then we strolled for a bit, including walking by the Provicial Parliment Building, before returning to the timeshare, a bit of unpacking, a load of laundry, a soak in the hot tub….Dick also went to deal with a flat tire from a nasty nail puncture. We have had SUCH great luck with our car this whole trip. Hang in there! Just another 24 hours of driving to go to get back home.

We had only one full day in Victoria, but it was a great one.

Wonderful Museums

2009-08-25T20:06:00.000-07:00

Day 33 – Tuesday, August 25th

Although the weather report called for mainly cloudy and possible showers, it was still a pretty nice day today. Patti was much more rested and ready to get back in to doing some blog writing. After breakfast, we headed to downtown. As expected, parking was a problem but we were in luck finding a place to put our car. First stop was the Olympic clock. Actually there are two, one for the full Winter Olympics to start in late winter and also one for the Para-Olympics, to start shortly after the conclusion of the first.

Then we went into the Vancouver Art Gallery, the city’s premier art museum. We were excited to see that they were featuring an exhibit of Vermeer and Rembrandt (and many others) from the Rijksmuseum in the Netherlands. It is entitled: Vermeer, Rembrandt and the Golden Age of Dutch Art: Masterpieces from the Rijksmuseum at the Vancouver Art Gallery. “Vancouver Art Gallery presents the largest exhibition of Dutch Masterpieces ever shown in Canada. They are renovating the museum in Amsterdam and have sent many of their finest paintings on a world tour. The exhibition of 128 works of art features paintings by celebrated masters such as Hals, Rembrandt and Vermeer, as well as a remarkable selection of drawings and decorative arts.” What a fine exhibit it was! We were especially struck though, about how crowded this museum was on a Tuesday morning at the en of August. We literally had to wait in line to see many of the pieces. There were also an amazing amount of parents with quite small children helping their kids to actively engage with the art pieces….music to Patti’s ears from her stories for art work she has done in museums. Dick has been to the Rijksmuseum several times and really enjoyed being transported back to there.

There was also another exhibit that especially captivated us: an artist created 6 apartments one on top of another, each decorated in a style typical (or stereotypical) to specific eras from the 1950’s to today. Fun to see what he chose: everything from light fixtures, kitchens and bathroom furnishings, but then things like bowling trophies and Trivia Pursuit games. What fun! http://www.vanartgallery.bc.ca/

After lunch at a very busy down town food court, we were off to yet another high quality museum: The University of British Columbia’s Museum of Anthropology. This museum especially features some astounding old and new Coastal Native carvings. We have been learning a lot about these carvings, the processes to create them, and what it takes to be a master carver. This was a treat to see some great work, including a more contemporary great carver and teacher named Bill Reid. He did a huge carved piece form a story called Raven and the Creation of the First Men. Wow! Highly moving. http://www.moa.ubc.ca/

They also had a really interesting photo exhibit focusing on Samoan Tattoo artistry especially for those living in New Zealand. GREAT photos presented very thoughtfully.

This was our last night in Vancouver, but we felt like we were able to really enjoy ourselves and catch our breath a bit before we really start down south to get back to our regularly scheduled lives. Dinner out and walking about the lovely downtown area topped off our great final day here.

Exploring Vancouver

2009-08-25T17:24:00.001-07:00

Day 32 - Monday, August 24th

Dick up and off this morning for exploring while Patti chose a sleep-in morning with a murder mystery. Perfect for each of us. Dick covered a lot of distance going all over downtown. There was a large cruise ship, Coral Princess, docked at the Canada Place cruise terminal. It must hold over 2000 guests and was nearly 1000 feet long. Dick was especially fascinated with the process of reprovisioning the ship for the next week out of port. They were loading everything from fuel to food (including one whole pallet of red beets) to more pallets of Coke products. They even loaded more deck chairs. These were plastic so Dick assumed they were going to be for one of the pool areas since the regular deck chairs were nice wood. While on the Canada Place pier, Dick also had the chance to watch several float planes land while others took off from the main harbor area. One of his favorite finds was a public art project with artists painting eagles in a variety of very interesting ways. They will auction off the sculptures in the Spring to benefit charity. He found and photographed many of these. He was also able to go back down to the areas where he had stayed on pervious trips here. This is a city that he loves.

Picking up Patti, we walked a few blocks to Chinatown where we found a restaurant for lunch at a comfortable little Chinese restaurant. The portions were huge so we called it dinner for the day. And, then spent much of the early afternoon at the Sun Yat-Sen Gardens. This was the first formal Chinese Scholar’s garden created outside of china. This type of garden is not know for its flowers, instead these represent the type of garden a wealthy person would have created in the middle of their home to encourage peace and reflection. Once relaxed, the master of the house would have spent time drawing, creating calligraphy, or written poetry. The buildings/rooms of the home would be built around the garden, closing it off from the outside. They are amazingly successful in creating the type of atmosphere desired. It was especially fun for Dick, because he had visited Suzhou, the city in China that was known for these gardens and it was out of that city that 52 Chinese artisans came here in 1985, with all the necessary materials, to install and create this garden. We had a tour lead by Beverly, a very enthusiastic volunteer who obviously loved sharing these lovely gardens with people. She works regularly and leads one tour after another. The gardens, which charged an admission, are next door to a public Chinese style park free to the public. The two facilities complement each other well. Lovely and very peaceful to visit.

We then went to Stanley Park, the Golden Gate Park of Vancouver. It was fun to see the city totally enjoying their park, with every area filled with people having a great time. We really enjoyed the Native totem poles, the Lion’s Gate Bridge, and watching the float planes take off over the harbor. We were struck by the deep forests of mature cedar trees. With the lush ferns on the ground and the towering trees overhead, it was hard to believe we were still in the middle of such a bustling metropolis. It was a great park on a perfect end of the summer day.

We grabbed a light super at a grocery store (a big city one for sure. You had to pay for parking in a parking garage to go to the grocery store!) Then back to the hotel where Dick spent chunk of the evening planning his fall class which will start in just a few days and Patti devoured a full murder mystery. Patti got quite a bit of her “day off” needs met. It was nice to just not have so much go, go, go scrunched into this day.

On to Vancouver

2009-08-25T17:02:00.000-07:00

Day 31 – Sunday, August 23rd

Patti is officially sick of driving and really ready to get into Vancouver where we can settle in for several days of NOT driving!

Just a 300 mile drive today. (Compared with some days of 5 or 600 miles!) The highlight was driving through Frasier River Canyon, one of the most beautiful drives this whole trip. It was a canyon that went on for miles and miles on the way down from central British Columbia to near the U.S. border and it was stupendous. Patti thought this called for a John Denver sound track and we sang along with John as we drove through exquisite scenery. Wow! It really does your heart good to see such beauty!

About an hour and a half outside of Vancouver, we spotted an ad for a lovely large gardens, The Minter Gardens. We had the time, so we stopped and were so glad that we did. This lovely 32 acre gardens was filled with great blooming flowers (it isn’t fall HERE yet), lovely green places, lush shade, and lots and lots of people out enjoying the great weather. We each shot a couple hundred photos including Patti trying some artsy shots of a variety of interesting things. And another wedding was happening there. The end of August is a popular time to get married. We agreed since that was when we got married, too.

We drove on into Vancourer, even though we were originally not supposed to arrive until the next day. We crossed our fingers that we could check into our hotel early and were glad to find we could. We had mixed feelings about the hotel. Location-wise, it is great: two blocks from Chinatown, a few blocks from Gastown (the historic district with all of the shops and restaurants), and walking distance to the harbor area.The neighborhood is a little dicey, though, and we both have felt the need to be a bit more security conscious, especially at night. The hotel was billed as being geared for the budget traveler who doesn’t need a lot of frills, and it lives up to that! A good bed and a bathroom in the room makes up for a lot. The hotel is working out fine.
We walked over to Gastown where we had a lovely dinner at a longtime Indian restaurant, a nice white linen tablecloth place. A cut above the truck stop we ate at our anniversary meal in Watson Lake a couple nights ago.

Then we walked around the area a bit, taking in the sights and strolling through very tempting galleries and stores. It is also the location of the famous steam powered clock. We also had a good look at the "sails" of Canada Place, the combination hotel, convention center, and cruise ship terminal. Patti, still out of gas, finally needed to go back to the hotel and crash so we did just that. It is striking what it feels like to be in such a bit city, with over 2 million people living in the metro area, after so much NOT being around many people these past weeks. A bit of culture shock!

Change of plans

2009-08-23T21:43:00.000-07:00

Day 29 - Friday August 21st

Today we left the Alaska Highway and began out trip south in earnest. We planned travel for several days down through British Columbia, through wilderness and forests driving along the Cassier Highway. We got up and it was not raining, it was POURING! We got ready and headed off on the Cassier Highway. We only got about 10 or 15 miles down the road though and it got rougher and muddier and more rutted. Our top speed was only about 35 mph on the short paved stretches and about15 in the mud. It this rate, it was going to be a very long drive to complete our scheduled 300 miles. Finally, Dick turned and said, “I am having second thoughts about this route.” We drove a few more minutes, but the road was terrible. We were going to be going into an area without many cars or people. It started to just feel not only not very safe, but also stupid. So, regroup, or as the GPS voice would have said, “recaluculating.” So we turned the other way and headed much further back down the Alaska Highway to Dawson Creek, the way we came three weeks ago. We are heading for Vancouver, but there aren’t many roads through British Columbia.

“What are we seeing?” you ask. How about trees, tress, road, trees and some wildlife. You really become aware of how much of our regular day-to-day life is filled with other people. Here, it is mostly the two of us, often not even seeing people when you stop to fill up with gas.

Mostly, today it rained and rained. We DID have some nice wildlife sightings though, including 35 Wood Bison (which Dick has been dying to see this whole trip), some caribou, a moose, and five stone sheep. You just gotta love these opportunities to interact with animals. We saw a picture at one gas stop of a bison on the highway with the caption: Alaskan Highway speedbumps.

We put the sticker on our rear window highlighting our achievment of driving the Highway. We were planning on retracing our path for a couple hundred miles, but instead have now driven over 850 miles both ways. Oh well!

When we got back to mile zero of the Alaskan Highway, after a 650 mile day, we decided to stay at a hotel rather than a camp ground tonight. After a torrential rain (guess a last gasp of the wet weather, we drove into the sunlight. We even had a beautiful sunset as we entered Dawson Creek. Our plan is to relax a bit and get caught up on our blogging; Internet services is so hit or miss around here. A couple of times, even though we “had” internet service, we still couldn’t get things to upload. Frustrating! But that is the breaks in traveling. Just so you know, that is the reason we fall behind in our updates.

Driving along southern Yukon

2009-08-21T22:16:00.000-07:00

Day 28 - Thursday August 20th

Today is our 15th wedding anniversary. Who would have thought 15 years ago that we would be celebrating this day in the Yukon!?

After getting a little later start, we visited the world’s largest fish ladder. This is in the connection with the only dam that is on the Yukon River. Salmon travel nearly 2000 miles from the Bering Sea to return to their spawning stream just south of Whitehorse. This is the longest salmon migration in the world. To help the salmon negotiate getting past the dam, 50 years ago they built a series of steps filled with water, that the salmon could either jump up or swim through little openings to get to the next level. About halfway up, there is a viewing area where they are observed and counted. They keep track of their genders and whether they are wild or raised in a hatchery. So far this season over 500 salmon have found their way up this ladder. While we were there we saw both a male and a female salmon. Some of the female salmon are taken out and their eggs harvested for the hatcheries. As part of the 50th celebration, the people of Whitehorse were invited to decorate wooden salmon which were presented in a wonderful display along the fish ladder. There were fifty of them, each different and all well done. There were two young interpreters there who did an excellent job of providing information and being very helpful. It was a very interesting place to visit. http://www.yukonenergy.ca/services/facilities/fishway/

Next we made a stop at Miles Canyon, a bit further up stream on the Yukon. The waters of the Yukon get forced through a canyon here that is less than a hundred yards wide with steep stonewalls. Gold stampeders had to navigate this rough water area in their boats that they had built themselves. Many didn’t make it. And this was right before the rapids, which was also a terrible spot where even more of them crashed The Mounties tried to regulate traffic so that only experienced boatmen controlled each boat passing through these difficult waters. The rapids are now covered by the lake backed up behind the dam. These guys had to really want to get to that gold! It was a beautiful area to look at.

Then we returned to the Alaska Highway headed southeast. An impromptu stop to eat our lunch gave us a chance to visit an amazing little museum: The George Johnston Museum. http://www.gjmuseum.yk.net/ This was dedicated to telling the story of a Tlgit Indian man, who was such an interesting combination of characteristics. He practiced and held very traditional beliefs and was an “early adopter” of such things as photography (teaching himself how to take and develop photos) and brought the first car to his town: a brand-new 1928 Chevy. Not so exceptional except that at that time there were no roads at all in this isolated town, it had to be brought in by steamboat. He and friends cleared 3 miles of forest to create a road and he set up his car as a taxicab, charging people $2.00 a person for a ride. In the winter, he drove the car on the 78 mile long frozen lake in their community.

He was able, as an insider, to document both everyday life and special occasions for his people during a time of great transition. There was a fine movie that we watched that told about his life. It also talked about the changes that happened when into this VERY isolated trapping community in the Yukon came The Alaskan Highway. It was really mixed as to the blessings and the curses of the road. The American soldiers brought with them many diseases that the Indian people had no immunity to, and many died. The soldiers and their wives also did not understand the Native ways at all, and there were a lot of misunderstandings and hurtful actions. One of the comments made in the film was that George Johnston took pictures to tell the stories of the past, but also that would be needed by those not yet born. It is such a blessing that there are so many people who have seen the need to preserve stories such as this great man. Even though he died many years ago, a beloved elder and successful businessman in the community, we felt as though we got to meet him today.

As we drove, MORE RAIN! We figure that we have had maybe 4 days this trip with no rain at all, and several days with non-stop rain. We haven’t had nearly as many hikes as we thought we might have. The wet, damp weather and mud haven’t seemed very inviting to get out and hike.

Being so late in the season surely accounts for the lack of traffic. But the fall colors are certainly coming in. It is interesting retracing our path from two weeks ago and seeing it looking much more fall-like.

The night stop would be back at Watson Lakes, home of the signpost forest. Our hotel for the night is another interesting place: a restored barracks for US Pilots during World War II. They were ferrying planes to the Soviet Union on “lend-lease”. http://www.airforcelodge.com/. One of the really interesting things we found out was that the barracks housed not just male pilots, but also a lot of women pilots. Due to the war (WWII), male pilots were busy off “in harm’s way”. This left a huge hole in domestic flying, with lots that needed to happen. Many women learned to fly during this time period, and many of them were part of the effort to get planes up through Canada and Alaska so they could be delivered to Russia. So, our hotel has two sets of shower rooms: one for men and one for women, just as it had originally. This barrack was originally some miles away on the Air Base, but was one of many moved into town and then sold for $1.00. A trapper bought it, and when he died, our current hosts bought it and rehabbed the place. It is now quite nice inside, but the same as it would have been in 1942 on the outside.

Up the Yukon River to Whitehorse

2009-08-21T22:05:00.001-07:00

Day 27 – Wednesday, August 19th

Dick woke up early and got ready and started driving while Patti was still sleeping. That is an advantage to our arrangement in the minivan. Dick disturbed Patti’s sleep with an exclamation, “Bear!” There on the road about two hundred yards ahead of the now stopped car was a black bear. It was ambling along the right side of the road when it suddenly stopped and turned around and looked at us. He seemed unsure what to do since we were not moving. He walked across the road, stopping a couple of times to examine us again. Then up the slope, stopping every few steps to look at us. With one final look, he disappeared over the top of the hill. We were able to get a couple good pictures of it before it was gone. With this bear, it meant that we had seen both Grizzly Bears and a Black Bear along the road during our trip. Just a little further down the road we stopped to buy ice and get Patti her morning coffee. We got just 20 miles down the road and stopped for ice and coffee, and she got up.

We drove all morning in the continued sense of wilderness. No traffic, no crossroads, no houses, just an occasional campground, RV park or village. This is really an isolated area. The road mostly followed the mighty Yukon River. We often thought about all of the gold rush stampeders heading through this area over a hundred years ago. How isolated and wild it must have seemed to them.

We planned to arrive in Whitehorse Yukon early enough to see some sights that we missed the first time through. We are now going back to connect up with the Alaska Highway for a relatively short time.

We went to two lovely museums in Whitehorse. The first was the Transportation Museum, which has the full-sized DC3 plane as a weathervane in the front of it. This museum did a nice job of representing both the construction of the Alaska Highway, as well as the transportation history of the gold rush. We saw info about people climbing over the Chilroot Pass where each was required to carry a year's worth of provisions, about 2000 pounds, in order to be allowed into Canada. Once over the pass, while waiting for the Spring thaw, these Stampeders set about building their own boats. They eventually went down the Yukon River to Dawson City, about 700 miles on water. All of this happened in 1898-1900. We learned more about the building of the railroad across from Skagway, which made it possible for later gold rushers to get through without having to carry that ton of provisions on their backs up and over a mountain pass. There was also a great exhibit about the steamboats, some of which went all the way on the Yukon River to the Bering Sea, 1200 miles away. Having just driven from Dawson City and seen the Riverboats earlier in Fairbanks, we had a sense of tying this all together. We learned that in 1898 it could take several months to get to Dawson City from Skagway, but know you can drive it in one long day.

We saw a video about life on the river one hundred years ago. One part talked about what a big event it was at the beginning of the river season. once the ice had left the river and boats could travel again. People so looked forward to the first riverboat to arrive from downstream, carrying mail and goods. The river was a dangerous place for these steamboats. Even experienced pilots sometimes crashed at rapids or narrow places. The less experienced pilots left piles of lumber that had been fine boats.

Then we went to the Beringia Museum. Beringia is the name for the subcontinent that ranged from Siberia to the Yukon that was never glaciated. This was maybe 30-40,000 years ago. Because so much of the world’s water was tied up in glaciers in the Northern Hemisphere, the sea level dropped by several hundred feet exposing the continental shelf between North America and Asia. We were fascinated to find out why this area, so far north, had not been glaciated while areas to the east and much further south were covered with glaciers up to a mile thick. The answer was the high mountains to the south that wrung out most of the moisture, leaving little to form snow. This is still true today, causing much of this northern area to have cold desert conditions.

Scientists assume that people followed the animals across that grassy savannah. Some of the most interesting fossil and bone remains that have been found in the Yukon and Alaska include giant 400-pound beavers, woolly mammoths, giant sloths, short nosed bears, and giant lions. One of the really fascinating things studied through this center is the local Indian legends about giant creatures and monsters. Archeologists have been able to follow some of those legends to find bone remains of wooly mammoths and other creatures. There are also legends about how the large monster sized animals were made smaller like the ones we have today. Very cool as a storyteller. Patti was awestruck at the idea of stories being passed along from 30,000 years ago or more. This museum did a fine job of integrating science and story, working closely with the First Nations peoples.

At about 4:00, we drove around downtown exploring a bit, and then, we were ready to stop! It was great to find a nice downtown hotel and take the evening off with resting, reading, and cooking a meal in the microwave. Even nonstop drivers and cultural explorers need an evening off. Patti had a brief conversation with a wildlife photographer talking about some of adventures shooting photos in the wilderness.

Top of the World

2009-08-20T22:46:00.000-07:00

Day 26 – Tuesday, August 18th

We slept nearly ten hours and were still up and on the road before 8:00am. This would be our last day in Alaska and we were driving over the Top of the World Highway. We left Tok and immediately had the sense of driving into the wilderness. There were virtually no side roads or homes for 60 miles. We drove through alternating periods of showers and sunlight. Occasionally there would be other cars, but not many. The views were gorgeous, with lots of rolling mountains as our road climbed.

Even though we were expecting it, we gulped when we saw the sign “Pavement Ends” and we knew we had another 45 miles before we would see payment again. Almost immediately we had to dodge a grader trying to smooth out some of the potholes, ruts, and corduroy waves. It was helping but once were in front of it we had to fend for ourselves.

There is only one town on the road, the town of Chicken. It became a highlight for the day. This town purportedly got its name because they liked to eat the little ptarmigan birds, but no one knew how to spell it, so they used the alternate name for the creatures: Chicken. It was 75 miles out in the middle of nowhere, with a year-round population of maybe 9, in the summer 25 or so.

Chicken has three small business, who do most of their trading with tour busses and tourist who are on the adventurous Top of the World Highway. One especially interesting woman we met owns a little area called Beautiful Downtown Chicken: a store, bar and café. Her name is Susan Wiren, and part of what was interesting to us was that she moved here 21 years ago from the Philadelphia area where she ran a bookstore. She and her boyfriend at the time, decided to go on an adventure and move to Alaska. She found herself truly bored and jumped at the chance to buy the local café and bar. She then used all of her store owning and marketing background to create really a high quality tourist destination, including an amazing bookstore. We got to meet Susan and eat some of her still warm from the oven homemade pie. She talked about the difficulties in the current economic climate of keeping her business going, but she is doing it. Tired, by this point in the tourist season, but making it. She was pleased at Patti’s compliment on her book selection, but said she was sad that she had so much less book inventory than last year, just trying to cut back.

Although we had been warned by many people about the shape of the road, Dick felt like it wasn’t nearly as bad as it had been portrayed. You just had to drive carefully. And we got a surprise that one we crossed the border into Canada, the road was mostly paved again.

Just over the border, now back in the Yukon, we stopped for lunch at the highest point of the Highway. It was a beautiful area, filled tiny flowers and berries, lichens, and many of the cairns that Canadians like to leave at special places. Patti climbed to the top of the highest hill with a large cairn. The view was splendid! We both took a lot of photos. It was clear that Fall is definitely in the air.

Dick commented that when he first imagined taking the trip to Alaska as a boy, that the alternating pavement and gravel road was what the Alaska Highway must have looked like, so this drive through the wild gave him the feeling he had hoped for as a young person. It was a very satisfying experience.

At the end of Top of the World Highway was another place we had wanted to visit: Dawson City. This had been a tiny sleepy town until in 1897 gold was discovered. Then, in two years it went from having 25 people to nearly 40,000! Gold Fever hit hard!

As we came off the Highway, we got glimpses of Dawson city and the mighty Yukon River. In order to get to the town, we got to ride on the ferry. We drove right on to our delight. At times, people have to wait up to 2 or 3 hours for their turn. Dawson City now has a population of around 1000 people, but they have worked hard at preserving the town as it was over a hundred years ago. Including none of the streets were paved and the sidewalks are all wood. It looks like a western movie set. What a lot of dust and mud! Since it was raining while we were there, we got the mud.

We spent several hours doing a quick tour of the area’s attractions. We enjoyed visiting the Jack London cabin. London lived here while looking for gold during the stampede. He didn’t find any but did find the settings for many of his most famous stories, such as White Fang and Call of the Wild. It was in the center next to the cabin where we met Dawne, a local woman with passion for Jack London and his writing. She had worked at his cabin and visitor’s center for the past 14 years, 12 years working closely with Dick North, the man who had rescued this cabin and gathered so many things together about Jack London’s life. We were sorry that had we missed her interpretive lecture earlier in the day. We always enjoy meeting people passionate about their work.

Dawson City is also the home of Robert Service who wrote The Cremation of Sam Magee. We drove by his cabin, but it had already closed for the night. So much history is in this land!

We also took in the Dawson City Museum, which focused, of course, heavily on Gold Rush artifacts, and also on First Nation culture. Patti also enjoyed a display of an old time trapper meeting a modern day dogsledder both carrying the same type of equipment. It was quite amusing. The equipment had changed dramatically in a hundred years. A lot more plastic and aluminum now. We kept trying to think about this sleepy town growing from 25 to 40,000 people in one year only to drop back again in a couple of years when the major gold dried up and they moved on.

We learned at dinner, at Sourdough Joe’s, that during the height of Gold Rush times, dinner of beans, bread, a stewed apple and coffee could cost $5. And, that a dinner that might cost $5 in Dawson City cost just $.30 in Seattle in 1899! Talk about prices being hiked up!

Even though there was more to see, we had miles and miles to go and so drove on to Moose Crossing and our campground of the evening. We are now officially headed home, The trip south will take us another 11 days of pretty steady traveling. We drove the evening through a rainstorm, our being led by a rainbow for miles and miles.

It wasn’t a very good night sleep. Not that cold, but VERY damp!

Turn for home

2009-08-20T22:33:00.000-07:00

Day 25 - Monday, August 17th

We left Seward in combinations of rain and sunshine on the Kenai Peninsula. The tide was out in the Turnagain Arm which meant the mudflats were even larger than when we came by the first time. Traffic wasn’t bad, so we made good time. We whipped right through Anchorage, almost before we knew it. Patti had been so tired that she slept through the whole morning drive and woke up feeling much better.

We had lunch at Mirror Lake just north of Anchorage. It had rained recently, but had cleared and the lake lived up to its name, at times the water was a like a mirror. We saw 7 floatplanes at the other end of the lake and imagined what it was like when several of them took off from this smooth lake. We had a visit from a family of ducks, the young ones almost ready for their Fall migration. Suddenly, one then a second loon appeared in the middle of the lake. We had expected to see many more, but those were our first loons so far. As we walked back to the car we discovered a number of beautiful mushrooms. With all the rain on this trip, we are finding many lovely mushrooms. It keeps us looking down for more.

After lunch we turned east on the Glen Highway towards Glennallen and looked at beautiful scenery. Even though we couldn’t see the Chugach Mountains because they were covered in clouds we were rewarded. As we approached Sheep Mountain, we looked even more carefully. There on a series of rocky ledges far above the road we could see six Dahl Sheep. Their white fur stood out against the darker rock. These included four ewes and two lambs. We watched them for a while before we had to move on.

We drove in and out of rain several times and continued with hopeful hearts that when we got to Glenallen, that we would be able to see the Wrangell Mountains in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. For a moment we got a glimpse of them, then the clouds swept in and took them away from us. It was as if there were no mountains around! We did stop at the visitor’s center were we saw a beautiful movie about the wildness of this park that is as large as Connecticut or six times larger than Yellowstone! This is the park that is connected with Kluane National Park in Canada that we visited in Southern Yukon on the way up the Alaska Highway. We didn’t see the mountains from that side due to smoke. Sigh! Maybe next trip.

Without the mountains to be seen, we headed north and the scenery really got lovely when we drove through the eastern end of the Alaskan Range. The clouds and the mountains were spectacular, and we even had a rainbow.

We bedded down for the night at a roadside pulloff, just south of Tok, Alaska. We snuggled into our warm nest at the back of our mini-van. We made the decision as we were packing up in the morning to pack the tent down deep. No tenting this trip!

Kenai Fjords National Park by boat

2009-08-17T00:50:00.000-07:00

Day 24 – Sunday, August 16th

Although when the day started out, it was surprise! raining, we were still hopeful of a good day. First on the agenda was a trip to The Alaska Sealife Center. This is an educational and research institute that was originally set up with a portion of the money that Exxon had to pay after the Exxon Valdez accident twenty years ago. Patti spent quite a bit of time in an exhibit that focused on the impact of the oil sill on the sealife in the area and its recovery. Interestingly enough, bald eagles were the first to recover. This center is working hard to understand how people and climate change are impacting the environment around here. Dick was really into watching the puffins. One of the things that was really fun was to watch the staff come and weigh most of the birds. He had a little scale, would offer the birds fish, and then they would hop on the scale. They lined up and took turns. What fun! Another project the center is doing is called the Traditional Knowledge project where they interviewed 40 old Native fishers about sea birds and their experience with hunting them over the last 70 years. Highly interesting!
http://www.alaskasealife.org/

The boat tour was amazing! When we checked in, we were told there was a weather warning and it was unclear as to whether we would be able to get from the fjord where Seward is located into the next fjord where the glaciers would be found. Fortunately, the weather and seas moderated and we were able to do the whole tour. The major bummer of the trip was Dick got pretty seasick. Not so fun! Nothing like getting green and throwing up to sap your energy. But, he decided it was still worth it. Most of the time he was doing pretty well. No salmon lunch, though.

As we made the three hour trip each way, we saw harbor seals, humpback whales, sea otters, puffins, stellar sea lions, cormorants. In short, great wildlife. The captain would take the boat close and idle for a few minutes so we could get good views and photos.

But the highlight was sitting for about 40 minutes alongside Aialik Glacier. The face of it was several hundred feet high. (You can see the size compared to another boat in the photos.) It just towered above us as we sat in a sea covered with chunks of ice with a couple hundred yards of the mass of ice. The captain asked that if you were outside on the deck, that you stay totally quiet, not even whispering. This allowed people to both enjoy the noises that the glacier made as the ice cracked and groaned. He advised people to listen to what it had to say. And it was VERY load and talkative. We got quite a show. Every few minutes another huge chunk would fall into the water. At times it sounded as though there were a cannon shooting, at others like thunder rumbling. Many times, the waves created by the falling ice really rocked our boat. Our park ranger, who did the interpretation of the nature, was thrilled. She said this was the most calving in one visit that she had seen in a couple of years. Wow, wow, wow!

The trip back was through a little less rough waters, and we both snoozed a little as we scooted across the water in our twin hulled boat. It was fun to hear the swearing in of a new batch of Jr. Park Rangers who had completed their activities while in the boat. Patti and story partner James went through that ceremony a number of years back at the Tetons National Park. These little guys were very serious and totally in to it.

Then, we were back on solid land. We took a couple hour nap, after which Dick was finally ready for some real food. We had a satisfying meal of seafood quesadillas followed by chocolate cake back at our hotel.

As we worked on our photos and the blog, we had time to talk further with Alice, a young college student from Cornell where she is majoring in hotel management. She has been working at our hotel for the summer. It was fun to help her reflect on her experiences working in a boutique hotel, living in a VERY small community in Alaska, and on her future plans. Having been raised in upstate New York, she really did take a big risk to come live in Alaska, but was ready to fly back to New York again tomorrow. She also talked about getting to see the 4th of July Mountain marathon Race here in Seward. This is the nation’s second oldest footrace, having started in 1909 with two old guys betting each other they could run up and down a nearly 3000 mountain in less than an hour. It moved into the whole town coming out for it, and then into an annual grueling and crazy race, straight up and straight down. Another wild Alaskan experience. And, yet another interesting person that we met in this trip!

The reality is that we are now making the turn. Seward was the furthest point on our trip. We now head south by first driving north. The only way out of Alaska to the east is to drive to Tok. We stayed in Tok coming up the Alaskan highway. This time we will cross it and take a more northern route. We are now on day 24 of a projected 38 day trip.

Our schedule for the next week:
Monday, 17th Start drive home, reach Tok, Alaska for the night
Tuesday, 18th Drive the “Top of the World Highway” to Dawson City, Yukon
Wenesday, 19th Explore Dawson City and then drive south towards Whitehorse, Yukon
Thursday, 20th Drive to Watson Lake, Yukon, celebrate anniversary
Friday, 21st Drive south in Central British Columbia
Saturday, 22nd Continue driving south in BC

The Kenai Penisula

2009-08-17T00:41:00.000-07:00

Day 23 – Saturday, August 15th

The drive between Anchorage and the Kenai Peninsula was amazing. Unfortunately, we ended up scheduling this on a Saturday, which is when we were told that everyone in Anchorage decides to take this same drive. But, still no serious traffic like our experience in Southern California! Actually, although there were quite a few cars, nothing bad at all. The bummer was, our streak with rain continues on, so we had on and off rain all today. We had some breaks though, and had some nice stops despite the weather.

South of Anchorage, on the Turnagain Arm (a smaller fjord off the Cook Inlet),We saw the famous mudflats south of Anchorage which look like your everyday average large sand beaches, but are really glacial slit that when it is low tide look like sand, but are really quicksand. Every year they have people who get stuck in these and sometimes die because they can’t get out before the tide turns. They have large tides here, sometimes over 20 feet. Impressive! It was low tide, so we couldn’t see any Beluga whales that come in at high tide. We hope to see some of them on our boat trip, too.

A little side trip included stopping at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. This is another of the places that people are working hard at both taking care of injured and orphaned animals, and helping to reintroduce animals back into the wild. Highlights included a couple of bears, one a Grizzly and the other a Brown Bear, who were really large and highly impressive, lots of moose who were willing to pose for quite close ups, musk oxen, elk, plus wood and plains bison. We love that people are doing this type of work. And can never pass up a chance to get yet MORE great animal pictures.

We went over Moose Pass and had to stop to take a photo of the sign that was next to the waterwheel and grindstone. You had to smile at the message: This is a peaceful little town, if you have an axe to grind, do it here.”

We were also able to do a little hiking at Exit Glacier, the first thing you could really see in Kenai Fjords National Park. We’ll see much more of the park tomorrow on our boat ride, but the glacier was beautiful! And the walk was really especially lovely since, although the flowers are now gone, it is big time mushroom season here. It is really wet, and the mushrooms are EVERYWHERE. A park ranger told us that if we knew our mushrooms well enough to know which ones are not poisonous, we could pick and eat them. They all looked the same to us, so we certainly didn’t want to take that kid of a chance, but they sure were pretty.

The main event for tomorrow is going to be going on a glacier and wildlife tour down in Kenai National Park; A six-hour cruise!

We are staying at a historic hotel The Van Gilder in downtown Seward. It was built in 1916 and is filled with great old photos of earlier Alaska. The funky rooms include modern and comfortable mattresses, as well as good Internet access, Yah!

Driving and sightseeing kept us from eating today, so we settled on an early supper at the wharf and really gorged ourselves on truly fresh crab and salmon. Delicious! And artfully prepared. There is nothing like great food when you are so hungry!

We walked the mile there and back to our hotel. Of course, by the time we were walking back, it began raining again! Then settling in for the evening working on the blog and Patti finished a great book we bought about a woman racing in the Iditarod Dogsled Race.

One of the really interesting things that is happening before our eyes is the seasons are changing! This is especially interesting now that we have on our 12 years living in San Diego eyes. Here are the signs that we see: one of the hotels we checked into last week has now gone to their “winter rates”, the wildflowers are mostly gone, we had a couple of nights below freezing with frost on our car while we were in the Denali area, there is a frosty feeling-a briskness in the air, we stopped being able to wear shorts and Patti had to buy some long underwear at Costco, we haven’t needed sunscreen for a while. Our friend, Scott, in Healey told us this was the type of weather that caused people to ask, “How’s my woodpile and my fuel oil?” and “Am I going to get that weather stripping project done before winter sets in?” We understand that “real winter” is still a ways off, but it is less like summer in Alaska.

Exploring Anchorage

2009-08-15T22:08:00.001-07:00

Day 22, Friday, August 14th

Day two in Anchorage. Woke up to another rainy day…. After breakfast, first on the agenda for the day was an amazingly place, The Alaskan Native Heritage Center. This was created in cooperation by the different Native peoples in Alaska and it is wonderful.

Some of the leaders from the various different Indian Nations in Alaska were concerned that so many of their young people were now living in the city and had no connection with their heritage, art, stories and traditional way of life. With some HUGE amount of effort and cooperation (as well as we suspect about a million meetings) this center was opened ten years ago, both as a place to teacher Native Young people about their culture and a place for tourists to come and also learn. As well as giving many young people good jobs doing interpretation and teaching, especially during the summer. One of the really special people we met was a young Athabascan man who had worked for the center for five years. (The Athabascan people live in central and eastern Alaska as well as parts of the Yukon, British Columbia, and Alberta.) His name was Harold Wilson, and he was a very gifted communicator, being able to describe things some vividly and helping people to understand his experience in growing up in a very isolated village and then moving to the large city to go to school. He generously told us so many about his life, as well as what it is like now being a supervisor at the center.

What a special place. One of the really neat things was going around a lake where they had built traditional homes for the various groups. Inside the example of a living shelter in each area there would be someone from that group to talk about the home, the clothing and cultural patterns and celebrations. AND it as all hands on so that you could touch and feel the clothing, the animal fur, and the fine carvings. In our cultural explorer role, these were excellent for us, and we had the chance to have some great conversations, ask a bunch of questions and hear some great stories. An Eskimo man told the story of how he killed his first whale when he was only 4 and 1/2 years old. He told this tale with great gusto! A special treat for Patti was being able to buy a “story stick” used by young Yupik Eskimo native girls to drew pictures in the dirt to go along with stories they were telling. “A traditional entertainment for girls and young women was to recite for each other the myths, legends, and stories that make up the oral tradition of Yupik culture. The story knife was used to scrape a smooth surface in dirt or mud or sand and then to draw lines, figures, and symbols in the surface to illustrate the story being told. A particularly fine story knife, such as one made of ivory, would be passed down from mother to daughter for many generations.” Patti is looking forward to exploring what she will do with her beautifully carved story knife or stick. We invite you to take a look at the Center’s website at: http://www.alaskanative.net/

For lunch we happened upon Big Al’s Soup and Sandwich shop. Al and his wife had relocated here from Las Vegas three years ago. We enjoyed hearing their experiences as happy Alaskan transplants. And Al Loves cooking up his reindeer hotdogs right there on a grill on the street.

Next we went to the Anchorage Museum, the local art and cultural museum. We enjoyed looking at some great Alaskan landscape paintings, as well as some additional displays of Native traditional homes, clothing and culture. We also saw a stuffed musk ox. We now seem to find some form of them nearly everywhere we go on this trip. We also got a kick out of the old photo of a softball game being played in snowshoes.

We especially enjoyed watching a movie at the museum called Deadly Ascent, which focused on the health impact of climbing Mt. McKinley. Having just seen the mountain this week, it was much more immediate to think about climbing it. And this movie didn’t change our minds that it was a REALLY difficult dangerous climb. Many people die doing it. No thanks!

A bit later, as we were walking through the really tourist part of town, Patti was drawn to a man at a table in front of a dog sled (her new hobby, learning about dog sledding…not doing it!) She went over to see what was up and caught the end of hearing the guy say that he was in the first Iditarod race in 1973. His name was Rod Perry, and he had written a book about the early Iditarod pioneers. It stuck Patti that if he had been in the early race, maybe he would know the story of getting the dog team to the top of Denali. Well, not only did he know both of the dogsled racers who climbed it, but three of his personal dogs went most of the way with these dog mushers. This led to some highly spirited conversations about the early 70s and days of the dog sledding resurgence, some gossip, and some terrific personal and historical stories. When he found out that Patti was a professional storyteller, he was delighted and confessed that it is only in the past several years that he has come to understand that who he REALLY is, is a storyteller. As it turns out, when we later pieced things together from his book and from the Internet, this guy is a huge player in the Alaska dog sledding and political scene. AND he was a delight to talk with, so generous and really funny. We bought a copy of his book and then got our photo taken with him and his sled (Patti is now getting quite a collection of her at the back of sleds!) What a delightful serendipitous meeting. We have been having so many of those magical conversations with people. What blessings come with you are looking for the interesting people in your day.

A quick trip to Costco puts us in good shape to continue on with our journey. Two full weeks more to go. Let the adventures continue.

On to Anchorage

2009-08-15T21:53:00.000-07:00

Day 21, Thursday, August 13th

We woke up to a light rain, said our goodbyes to Beth and Scott, and by the time we were leaving Healey and on the road, it was pouring! It rained a good steady rain all the way to Anchorage. We had had some hope t get another glimpse of Mt. McKinley while driving down the highway to Anchorage, but the clouds were at treetop level with no mountains in sight.

Driving along, we got to Wasilla, of Sarah Palin fame. We stopped and had lunch at a great café. No sign of the Palin family, but a pretty little town once you got off the main highway running through town.

We then made another interesting stop at the Headquarters for the Iditarod Dogsled Race. This is the most famous, and one of the most difficult dogsled races in the country. Here is a little descriptions from their website: “You can’t compare it to any other competitive event in the world! A race over 1150 miles of the roughest, most beautiful terrain Mother Nature has to offer. She throws jagged mountain ranges, frozen river, dense forest, desolate tundra and miles of windswept coast at the mushers and their dog teams. Add to that temperatures far below zero, winds that can cause a complete loss of visibility, the hazards of overflow, long hours of darkness and treacherous climbs and side hills, and you have the Iditarod. A race extraordinaire, a race only possible in Alaska. From Anchorage, in south central Alaska, to Nome on the western Bering Sea coast, each team of 12 to 16 dogs and their musher cover over 1150 miles in 10 to 17 days.
http://www.iditarod.com/

At the Headquarters, they have all sorts of race photos and videos and paraphernalia that are really fun to look at. We were also finally able to get a few more questions answered about the people who took a dog team up to the top of Mt. McKinley. They actually did take a small dogsled and they arrived at the top with five dogs. They started with seven, but found that the dogs pulled too powerfully and had to send two back!

We got to meet the son and daughter-in-law of the man who started the race, and then, as a highlight, go on a ride in a wagon pulled by a team of actual Iditarod racing dogs. They went FAST! These dogs just love to pull. They are so beautiful and excited. As we were trying to decide if we should do the ride, another older woman who had just done it said, “Oh go ahead. Life is too short. And once you’ve done it, they can never take it away!” Good advice. Patti is smiling that she never intended to have this trip get her so interested in dog sledding, but it is really a fascinating subject. Who knew?

So now Anchorage. Alaska’s largest city. One of the statistics that really cracked us up was that there are over a thousand moose that live within Anchorage city limits! In the city, hanging out in parks and in people’s back yards! Okay! We are on the lookout for moose. They live amongst the nearly 280,000 city residents.

Today Dick was able to get the oil changed on the car and check that it was still in great shape. We have now put over 5,000 miles on since leaving home on July 23rd!

It was strange to go from supreme wilderness to the city, but there are also so many wonderful Alaskan experiences to be had here. We spent the late afternoon at an Imax movie about Alaska and then one on the Good Friday Alaskan Earthquake of 1964, the worst earthquake in all of North America. 9.2 on the Richter scale. Lots of damage, caused tsunamis and killed 114 people.

Supper was a couple different kinds of fish chowder (salmon and halibut) that were delicious. The evening was spent catching up on reading, phone calls and getting this blog back up and moving. Having a great time! More to come.

A relaxed day

2009-08-15T08:56:00.000-07:00

Day 20 – Wednesday, August 12th

Our “other day” in Denali. Using the good suggestions from our local hosts, we spent the day catching up and doing a little more kicked back activities. We learned from Beth and Scott that Chris McCandless, the idealist but inexperienced young man from the book and movie “Into the Wild” got dropped off for his Alaskan wilderness adventure just a few miles down the road from where we are staying. Both Scott and Beth had gone down that road hunting and trapping many times over many years. They own land in the area. They had even slept all night many times in the old bus where the young man stayed and eventually died because he didn’t have the wilderness skills needed to care for himself in the Alaskan wilderness. We had the chance to drive about 4 miles down the gravel road where he started out, but decided not to go to the end of this potholed road. Too rough for our min-van! Some visitors take the trek to pay homage to his guy, but you have to hike a long ways and cross two intimidating rivers to get there. Sounded like more than what we wanted to take on. But, it was quite interesting to be there.

Then we did a little local exploring including Otto Lake where locals relax in the summer: picnicking, boating and fishing. It was really windy and cold, with kids taking kayaking lessons in their “dry suits” but looked freezing (especially to Patti.)

Then we did a bit of shopping, bought a few souvenirs, and were delighted to discover a book written by our guide from the bus tour describing her entry into dog mushing when she was in her 40’s. We bought the book and eagerly await reading it.

Speaking of dog sledding, we then went back to Denali Park and had a visit to the dog kennels and had a demonstration of dog sledding. Denali is the only one of the National Parks to be patrolled in the winter by rangers with dog sleds. Watching the dogs getting ready to do even a small practice pull was something. The dogs started parking and jumping like crazy, saying “pick me, pick me!” once five of them were harnessed, they were already pulling like crazy with the break and ties on, and once they were released, they took off like a shot. There is no doubt that these dogs live to pull and run! The park service keeps 32 dogs, and then using them all winter long to keep an eye on things and watch for poachers or people who need help. They have been doing this since 1921. There was a couple year period of time after WWII where they tired using snow machines, but found that these weren’t nearly as reliable as the dogs, and went back to using dog teams.

We then left and met Beth and Scott for dinner at a wonderful local place, Creekside Café, which was comfortable and had great food. We both had an amazing baked halibut dish cooked with artichoke hearts and spinach in a cream sauce. Sure beats dehydrated food on a camp stove!

Getting to know Beth and Scott and many of their experiences of living for over 30 years in Alaska has been a highlight for us. They have done a lot of classic pioneering activities: building their own cabins, subsistence hunting and trapping, having their own dogsled team for 20 years. For a period of time, they didn’t have a car but had a dog team for transportation. They also raised 3 children in the area. We had a chance to ask many, many questions and they were gracious in responding to our questions and sharing about their lives. We have come to greatly admire and appreciate them.

Denali!!

2009-08-15T08:51:00.000-07:00

Day 19 – Tuesday, August 11th

Up EARLY for our 7:00 bus for our Wilderness Tundra Tour at Denali. Because there are so many people who want to come visit the park, a decision was made some years back that cars are only allowed in the first 15 miles of the park. After that you either have to ride a bike, walk, or take a tour or shuttle bus. A bit more inconvenient, but much nicer for the animals and avoiding creating major roads in the park. We felt it was better not to spend all of our time in traffic jams. We picked the mid-range tour that would give us a view of Denali, if the sky would be clear. When we got up,the sky was crystal clear with a bright blue sky. Oh my goodness…. this might be a good omen that we might be able to see the Mountain today, which only about 20% of visitors get to see. We both giggled with excitement as we drove the 12 miles from Healy to the Park entrance. What would the day bring?

Denali National Park is another spectacular region. Denali is an Indian name for the mountain that means “Great One” or “High One.” It is over 20,000 feet tall! Since it is so tall, it creates its own weather, covering itself with clouds most of the time. There had also been fires burning in the area most of the summer which had created what had been a nearly permanent haze, oven completely opaque. As we drove to the park, we saw clouds building to the east. By the time we were on the bus, the clouds were overhead but it still looked good to the west, where we were headed.

Our Tour bus operator and guide was a woman, about Patti’s age, Lisa, who had been doing this job for about 5 years. Before that, she was a commercial salmon fisher in Kodiak, Alaska. During the winter, down time from the driving job, she is a writer and also trains dogs and races in dog sled races. AS it turned out she was our perfect guide for the perfect day!

Among the other passengers on the bus were 14 Germans on tour. Their English was varied, and a few weren’t very interested in following the bus rules whether given in English or German. Doesn’t it seem like every tour group has to have one or two of these!? Then there was also a couple dozen of Americans form a variety of different places.

The bus was a school bus, fitted with slightly more comfy seats, seat belts and a video camera system that allowed Lisa to shoot video of animals and then have us be able to view them on little screens that pop out of the ceiling. This worked better than Patti thought, especially for some of the animals far away up in the hills or mountains more than a mile away. As we traveled the approximately 60 miles each direction on the one road through the park, we saw a moderate amount of animals: several caribou, a moose with two calves, several Dahl sheet rams, a grizzly bear sow and her two cubs, ptarmigans, a coyotes, many snowshoe hares, arctic ground squirrels, magpies, a couple of hawks, Not a zillion animals every mile, but fun to see some wonderful animals in the wild.

But the true highlight was, as we drove along further, we started getting peaks of the mountain, brilliant white streaks of snow at its base. Lisa assured us, that most people do not get to see this much. Many photos were taken. Then we started seeing some of the higher parts, then one of the two peaks, then the other. The excitement in the bus began growing when hope began to grow that it might clear even more so (clouds had now been moving and gathering behind and sometimes in front of us!) Then, we turned a corner and saw a good chunk of the mountain and it was dazzling! There was an ongoing battle between some of the bus and our driver “Please stop. I must take photos NOW!” While there were places that Lisa couldn’t stop. As well as a spectacular spot that she wanted to get us to. We finally arrived at the end of our travels Stony Dome, and it was more than glorious. Breathtaking. You almost had to pinch yourself that it was really real. Everyone off of our bus as well as several others was just magnetically drawn to gaze at Denali, the great one! The bus drivers, on the several buses parked together, were also ecstatic! How much fun for them to see it, but also to facilitate very happy tourists getting to see a truly rare site! We could have just settled in and stayed for hours, but unfortunately, some on the bus had to catch planes and trains yet that afternoon. Lisa finally had to pull us all unto the bus where she told us the only thing worse than pulling people away from that kind of view was ripping a puppy out of their arms! It was a quieter but highly satisfying ride back. We had seen the mountain, and now anything else paled in comparison.

Lisa was a very good storyteller and had a lot of personal and historical stories to tell which we enjoyed. But mostly we thought about the mountain.

Several hours after leaving, we arrived back at the beginning of the park, and Dick and I quickly agreed to call it a day and head back to Beth and Scott’s. We took a little nap, Dick downloaded photos and then we had another dinner and a delightful evening with Scott and Beth. Such gracious hospitality!

We had considered taking another long bus ride tomorrow, but now no more big bus rides for us. We drifted off to sleep knowing that we are now half way thorough our trip, but we had seen The Mountain! Wow!

On to Denali

2009-08-13T22:09:00.000-07:00

Day 18 – Monday, August 10th

Another fine breakfast and it was time to bid farewell to Fairbanks. This whole trip is getting a series of good tastes of so many wonderful places that we could settle in for a week or more in themselves, only we get a day or two. But, we certainly are making the most of these tastes!

We couldn’t hang around too long, because we needed to drive south to Denali National Park! A place we have both dreamed about for so many years, and now, here we are! We have the great fortune to be guests with the daughter and son-in-law of a couple of our favorite friends in Ohio. We are staying with Scott and Beth in their home in Healy, just outside the gates of Denali. They have both lived in Alaska for over 30 years, and are an excellent source about what it is “really like” to live here. They lived for quite a while in a “dry” cabin that they had built, which means no running water and having to use an outhouse…imagine this at 45 below zero!

One of the fascinating stories that we heard, and that we have now been able to confirm as true, a story about Susan Butcher, the dogsled driver who had won several Iditarod races and later died of leukemia. We had heard on our riverboat ride that she had taken a team of dogs to the top of Mt. McKinley, 20,320 feet up! Dick was in complete disbelief that this was possible. We are hot in finding out the how and why of such a trip. We found that she had indeed been to the top of the mountain with dogs. We have heard debates about how many dogs she got to the top. Obviously, there was no sled involved here. She was part of a very experienced team of mountain climbers who made it to the top with her. This was one remarkable woman!

AS we made the two-hour drive south of Fairbanks, it was mostly quite cloudy, but at one point Dick exclaimed, “Oh my God, there it is!” And we got our first glimpse of Mt. McKinley, Denali, the Great One, or as the locals call it “The Mountain". A fleeting look, but very nice. The areas gets most of its percipitation in the summer, so you can see the mountain only in less than one of three days. We are hoping we will be among the highly lucky and see much more of it.

We drove over what we think is the original “bridge to nowhere” that connects Fairbanks with Denali. There was a lot of controversy that why would they need to connect the parts of the state with roads. One of the early governors said we already have a road going through Alaska. How many roads does one state need?”

About noon we arrived at Denali!!!!!!!!! It is such a lovely park. First, we went and got information and our tickets for tomorrow’s guided tour of the park by bus. Then we tried to catch a ranger led walk, but lost the group while we retrieved some things from our car. We ended up still having quite a lovely 2 miles walk just outside the Visitor’s Center. There we were especially pleased to find some amazing mushrooms and toadstools all along this marshy wet area. We also found the bones of a moose calf that had been eaten last summer by grizzlies. Sobering! Moose, even calves, are BIG! Wow!

Denali has an arrangement that you can only drive cars the first 15 miles of the 89 mile park road. Most of the road is unpaved and accessible only by park buses. So, we drove out to the end of the pavement and took another hike along the Savage River. Windy and cold, but beautiful. We walked a loop trail that had bridges over the river at either end. The highlight of this was a whole flock of ptarmigan, the Alaskan state birds. These birds, kind of like a cross between a grouse and a chicken, were so pretty and we got to see them quite close up. They are already beginning to change plumage to their winter white. What a treat to see them so close.

The evening ended up at Beth and Scott’s house with lots of tales to tell both ways of trips and travels and life in our respective communities. Lots of enthusiastic talking and then, time for bed. We had to get up at 5:30 in the morning to catch our 7:00 bus for a ride to the heart of the park!

A day at the University of Alaska - Fairbanks

2009-08-13T21:30:00.000-07:00

Day 17 – Sunday, August 9th

Up early because we wanted to take full advantage of the gourmet breakfasts here at the Seven Gables Inn. While not quite gourmet, it was delicious!

Our second full day in Fairbanks. We are so grateful that we pushed it to get to Alaska earlier than our plan. This meant that we got our chance to dig in a little deeper in Fairbanks. HOWEVER, it is raining as we eat breakfast and we try to figure out what adventures the day might bring. It is disappointing to have the weather get in the way, but we are ready to go and explore anyway.

The University of Alaska at Fairbanks is quite a place. We decide to head over there is much to do. In the end, we spent the whole day there.. The first thing on our agendas was The Large Animal Reach Station. Cows and horses you guess? Nope, this place is a center that does research about caribou, reindeer and musk oxen. Although it was sprinkling as we started, another couple and us braved the weather with a highly enthusiastic guide, named Kari, who spent the next hour with us showing us “the nursery” with mom and baby caribou and musk oxen. Our guide was born in a small village and has a degree in biology from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. She had been engaged in some of the observational research as a graduate student, sitting for hours in the cold, recording in minute detail what the animals were doing. She got the “short straw” and got to take the tour group out in the rain, which she said was a great deal, because the animals didn’t mind the rain at all. We continue to marvel at these amazing animals, and are glad that some dedicated animal researchers are committed to their survival. Although musk oxen are native to Alaska, they were hunted out of existence here. Then, after a number of years, a group had 36 young calves brought from Greenland to the research station and from there to an isolated island off the coast. When they had multiplied, the surplus animals were used to reestablish additional herds along the western and northern coasts of Alaska. As part of their research, scientists have found that musk oxen can be at temperatures as low as 80 below without it putting any apparent strain on their bodies!

After this tour, we drove by The Alaskan Museum of the North at the University, which was supposed to be closed, but to our glee it was open. It is housed in a striking new building that is supposed to resemble a glacier. We ended up settling in there for six hours. Wow! What a fine museum. Not only great fine art, but also lots of super displays teaching the Native Peoples and their ways of life. We got to see a video that in which Native elders talked about the impact of the Alaskan Highway on the Native people whose villages the road went through or near. Very interesting with really a mixed result for those people. As in the lower 48, one of the biggest problems was the introduction of alcohol.

One of the most interesting exhibits at the museum was the room dedicated to listening. The university had placed a variety of sensors around the stat, including seismometers. The signals were sent back to the museum where they were translated into tones and colors. Of course, the minor earthquakes were very low frequency tones that shook the room. It was an amazing experience to sit there and absorb. Dick asked one of the attendants if the sounds changed much. "Oh, yes." Yesterday when it was so foggy, the room was almost silent except for the earthquakes."

But the most mind blowing exhibit was one entitled “Forced to leave” about the forced relocation into internment camps of Japanese Americas in Alaska, as well as 881 Aleut men, women and children from the Aleutian Island. We were very familiar with the Japanese-American internments but had heard nothing of the forced relocation of the Aleuts. These American citizens were pulled from their homes “for their own good” by the American government which feared an invasion of the Aleutian Islands by the Japanese. They were allowed to carry even less than the Japanese-Americans as they were herded onto ships. The first village evacuated was burned before people could even retrieve their most prized possessions. For the next three years they were kept in horrifying conditions in abandoned canning factories and mining camps in Southeast Alaska. From the more arid, open-spaces of their island homes, they found themselves in dark, damp forests. Their shelter was totally inadequate for the conditions, food was supplied at levels less then needed to maintain health, and many of the water supplies were contaminated. Over 10% of them died from lack of health care, illnesses, and exposure. (A comparison was made of an Alaskan prisoner of war camp for German soldiers. These prisoners had adequate housing, food, and medical care.) This situation with the Aleuts was all kept a secret for security measures. They were gone from their homes for 3 years and when they returned, American soldiers had destroyed and looted their homes and churches! Disgraceful! But also shocking that, even though we knew quite a bit about the Japanese forced relocation, we had NEVER heard anything about these other American citizens. Totally innocent people who were never suspected of or any reason to spy or commit un-American activities. Many Aleut young men enlisted and served in the U.S. military during the war. These people felt very betrayed by these breaches of their constitutional rights. We read many of the materials and watched an hour long video in disbelief! In 1988-1990, when the U.S. Government made reparations to the Japanese Americans who were forced into camps, these Aleuts were also included, but because they are in smaller numbers and are in a remote location, they got much money and much less press. The U.S. government has never apologized. The state government of Alaska has issued a formal apology for its part in the action. We were powerfully moved by these stories.

We ended our visit to the University going to the Georgeson Botanical Gardens. It is a beautiful garden filled with flowers, trees and veggies. But it is also a research institute and experimental gardens where they’re looking at which plants can withstand the crazy cold weather they have here. A sign showed that the coldest it had been recorded in the garden was 65 below zero. Yipes! We saw some of the giant cabbages growing, as well as many other wonderfully looking flowers and trees. A lovely stop! And the sky had cleared up, so no more rain…..which had also cleared out the smoke.

We ended the evening with a dinner that we cooked up at the Bed and breakfast which featured fresh wild Alaskan shrimp, and gorgeous veggies, all for the local farmer’s market. Now that’s good eating!

This is as far North as we will get. You can tell it is north when among the tourist info are a lot of tours (day trips) that will get up north of the Artic Circle, actually only about 200 miles for here. We won’t make it on this trip, but that is really far north!

Freight Dog Pulling

2009-08-10T00:03:00.001-07:00

Supplement to Day 16

This definitely deserves its own blog entry. One of the simply amazing North Country things that we got to experience at the Fair was a Dog Freight Pulling competition. While dog racing has to do with getting a team of dogs across the snow as fast as possible, freight pulling has to do with having an individual dog pull a wagon with increasingly heavy cement weights on it. The dog, with coaching and encouragement from its owner, has to pull the wagon across a line maybe about ten yards up a carpet covered plywood path. It is done by weight categories (how much the dog weighs) and, although it sounds like it could be boring, actually is quite exciting as these dogs really want to please their owners, and some of them are so filled with enthusiasm. We also were struck by the very good relationships between dogs and owners and how everyone was looking out for the welfare of the dogs. Even the dogs who could not pull their assigned loads had the load given a boost, after time had been called, so the dog could experience crossing the finish line. Once the load was moving, they were happy to finish pulling it.

We watched both the middle and heavy-weight divisions compete. These animals certainly could pull much more than their own weight, about 10 times as much. Part of what was so fun, was that the winning dog, Tater (as in Potato) was a 19-month-old, 176 pound St. Bernard puppy for whom this was his very first competition. And he won the heavy weight crown! The crowd really went wild when he was able to get 1880 pounds moving and keep it moving across the finish line! His photo was on the front page of the Sunday local newspaper. The middle weight dog winner pulled 1280 pounds, also quite a feat!

We decided that still photos weren’t going to tell the tale, so we used the video feature on our camera to share these with you. First is another of the heavy weight dogs and then Tater, the heavy weight dog who eventually won the contest. He had a little trouble getting started on this pull but you can see his enthusiasm once he really starts.

A Riverboat Steamer and The State Fair

2009-08-10T00:02:00.000-07:00

Day 16 – Saturday, August 8th

We woke up early in our parking lot home at Pioneer Park. It was getting light but the world looked very white. A thick fog had settled over Fairbanks. We could barely see the row of buses parked 50 yards away. We debated whether it was a good day to take a steamboat ride but decided to have faith that it would work out.

We got moving because we needed to catch the steamboat Discovery by 8:15am. Steamboats? You ask. Why steamboats? Did you know that at one time, there were over 150 steamboats in Alaska and the Yukon? They were one of the main means of transportation. Here is what they say about this tour: “Welcome aboard! Your three-and-a half hour cruise will take you into the heart of Alaska and the heart of a family who has made the rivers of Alaska a way of life for four generations. You will see a bush plane taking off from a "bush" style runway, visit the home and kennels of the late four-time Iditarod winner Susan Butcher, and gain insight into the ancient Athabascan Indian culture. Alaskan Native guides who have worked and lived in Alaska will take you on a personalized tour of the Chena Indian Village.” How could we pass that up? Actually, it sounds like it could be a lot of hype, but we had this tour recommended by a guy from Anchorage who told us that this was the best tourist travel thinking not just in Fairbanks, but anywhere in Alaska. Okay then!

The smoke had cleared quite a bit BUT it was a truly foggy day. What great day for a boat ride!? As it turns out, it still was. It was too foggy for the bush pilot demonstration, but the host/narrator was excellent and the riverboat was staffed by local and Native Alaskans who were great. Before we left, Patti got to have her picture taken with the actual dogsled that champion musher Susan Butcher used.

This was really an educational trip where we got to hear about what it’s really like to live here, and especially what was it like for the Indian people who have lived here for over ten thousand years. The native village was really wonderful, and we also got the chance to see sled dogs in actions and have a great question and answer period with a young woman whose father and brother have raced in the Iditarod and she plans to race in it in a couple of years. These dogs are highly enthusiastic and ready to PULL! (a team of dogs pulled a quad ,with its engine turned off, on a course we could barely see due to the fog but they had a great start and ending.) AND we got to sample some simply marvelous Alaskan salmon while aboard ship. The young woman told us we could have as much as we wanted, and we took her up on that! Great!

One of the things that was on our agenda, from as soon as we saw it on a state calendar, was going to The Alaska State Fair. Actually, Alaska is so large geographically that it has five different fairs all of whom claim to be the Alaska State Fair. Go Figure! So, it is really more like a county fair, but fun anyway. Anyway, one of the things that we both remember hearing about since we were kids was the large vegetables, like 80 pound cabbages that they grow in Alaska. How can this be? Well, in the summer you get 20 hours a day of sunshine, plus a goodly amount of rain. That seems to call for quick growing food. And so, it is true or a myth that the veggies are big? True! We saw some very large cabbages, including some that weighed over 25 pounds. It turns out that the winning one weighed 60 pounds and took two strong men carrying it on a sheet of plywood!

This fair was on a much smaller scale than either the Ohio or Minnesota State Fairs that we both have enjoyed. But we did manage, as you can at any fair, to eat our way through it! Mostly, typical fair food, but we were occasionally surprised to find things like reindeer hot dogs, and other “interesting” gourmet Alaskan treats. And we got to meet and talk to a number of really interesting local people who were nice and friendly. One of these was Bonnie Pagle, who worked for NOAA (people who do weather satellites, keep track of weather, and make forecasts). She was a delight, and after both Dick and Patti won prizes in her weather trivia game, we spent another half hour talking about our various experiences. She talked about her efforts to do weather education. She has a fun claim to fame in having a local interview with her show up on National Public Radio, with a friend in Seattle hearing her on his drive home! She had had to evacuate one summer as a forest fire came too close. She reflected on what it had been like to stand in her living room trying to decide what to take with her and what to leave, all within a couple of minutes. For the rest of the summer she drove around with these precious items in her car, just in case there was another fire.

We also got to go check in our bed and breakfast, this night we will NOT sleep in the parking lot of an amusement park. We will be here for two nights and are expecting to really enjoy ourselves there.

In case you are wondering, so far we haven’t had any Sarah Palin sightings. But we have run across her face on books and calendars in several gift shops.

The evening ended (again, long before it was dark ‘cause it stays light here until 11:30!) back at the 7 Gables Inn, watching the cheesy, but fun, old B movie on, you guessed it The Alaskan Highway. I guess you can say we are thorough when we set our sights on something.

Reaching Fairbanks, Alaska

2009-08-10T00:00:00.000-07:00

Day 15, Friday, August 7th

We got a good start from Tok for the final run into Fairbanks. Rain over night had dampened down some of the smoke so the road was more visible. It was still quite overcast. We saw a moose cow and calf along the Highway as we just got out of town. A few miles further Dick saw a guy jogging alongside the road, with a handgun tucked in the back of his pants. It makes sense that you could be jumped by a cougar or a bear. When you become a prey species, then you might need to fight back. We aren’t at home anymore! Later, we saw three more moose, including another cow and calf plus a younger female that hung out by the road, posing for photos for a long time! Driving along through dense forests with occasionally saw mountains on the right or left. We passed a number of really wide rivers with water running through the gravel and image what these would be like in the spring.

Today we crossed over The Black Veteran’s Memorial Bridge decided to the 3,695 black solders that worked on the Highway. This was over the Grestle River. The segregated army operated with the idea that black solders couldn’t be sent to, or entrusted with, any work that was complicated or highly skilled. Since many of the black soldiers came from the South, there was a lot of skepticism in sending them to Alaska, but everyone agreed that they more than held their own in doing their part of building the Highway. It is nice to see more and more recognition of their role in the informational materials that we are seeing throughout the drive and in the videos, books and museums. One of the most famous photos from the construction is one of a black and a white bulldozer operator shaking hands over the blades of their bulldozers at the movement when they finally completed the very last section of the Highway at Beaver Creek Yukon. Both were very surprised when they were already at the point of meeting the engineers working from the opposite direction.

We crossed the Alaskan Pipeline today. Where we saw it the pipeline looked like a miniature suspension bridge as it crossed a river. It runs something like 600 miles. How much oil it has to take just to fill the pipeline, let alone have some left over to actually go somewhere?

We continue to see lots of ravens alongside the road. We never really thought of Alaska, home to ravens, but we guess it is.

Arrived in Fairbanks. After more than a week in very small towns, it is somewhat of a relief to see some city lights. Fairbanks is a fairly large city, especially as cities in Alaska go, about 35,000 people.

We read about a really cool campground in our “Camping in Alaska” book, but found that it was closed when we got there. It was one near a river where float planes, those with pontoons, land on the water…within the city limits of Fairbanks! When that didn’t pan out (to get with the lingo of looking for gold), we found another interesting option. A local amusement park, Pioneer Park, allows people to park and camp in their huge parking lot overnight for $12. We decided to check it out, and found out that this also included $12 off on an all you can eat Salomon Bake (kind of an Alaskan luau), and an old-time review show at The Palace Theatre entitled Golden Heart Revue: A Comedy Revue About Life in the last Frontier. This show answers a few of the more common questions about Fairbanks such as: WHY would anyone want to build a town in the godforsaken swampland? How could that town survive for more than 100 years? How do people handle the cold? With that description, how could we pass it up? So that’s just what we did. Got our parking pass, saw some of the historical pioneer and cultural things at the Amusement park, including a wonderful exhibit of quilts made up of pieces created to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Alaska becoming a state. Then we ate ourselves silly on all-you-can-eat salmon, halibut, cod, chocolate cake, and salads at the Salmon Bake. After dinner we had a bonus in hearing most of a storytelling concert by Martin, a Fairbanks’s storyteller, who told some truly funny stories about an Alaskan character named Grizzly Pete. Here is a website that talks more about Pioneer Park http://alaskandreams.net/alaskaland/Index.html

And then we saw the comedy revue which was surprisingly funny, good music and highly clever. One of the funniest parts was a take-off on the Abbott and Costello routine “Who’s on first?” but this was done with talking about the names of dogs at the positions on a sled dog team (lead, swing, team, and wheel). The audience, including us, was howling by the time they were done. Great show!

After the show, we watched most of the people get back on their shuttle or tour buses, while we walked back to our van sitting in a now nearly empty huge parking lot. We were not far from a row of park buses, soon augmented by the buses used to ferry the patrons of the evening shows back to their hotels. It was 10:00 and the sun was just going down above the overcast skies. We are learning to slow down, even if it is not yet dark. We cranked up the park’s free wi-fi and worked on our blog before going to sleep in the back of the mini-van. How funny is it all!

Alaska!!

2009-08-08T14:50:00.000-07:00

Day 14, Thursday, August 6th

We woke up early and hit the road heading for beautiful country. Kluane National Park and Preserve is a huge fabulous park, adjacent to Wrangell-St. Elias National Park (in the U.S.), and a couple of other areas. These collectively make up the largest contiguous protected wilderness area in North America. It is probably 300 miles across and 150 miles North/South. In the middle are huge ice fields, glaciers and most of the highest mountains in North America. Unfortunately, fires are burning throughout Canada and Alaska, and as we pulled into areas off the Alaskan Highway where the book said, “on a clear day, spectacular views” we could only see smoke and clouds! How disappointing was that! We got some counsel from the visitor’s center staff, and decided to drive on a ways into the park and do a bit of hiking, we were reassured that it was much worse yesterday! As we drove, some of the mountains did appear, in a behind the smoke more washed out version, but lovely none-the-less. We stopped at a great trailhead up a valley, where Dick went for a couple of hours hike, with the trail going mostly uphill to the top of an area where he could finally see the beautiful valley on the other side. Patti, meanwhile, decided an uphill hike wasn’t on her plan, and she stayed and napped and read in the car. She has discovered an Alaskan author, Sue Henry, who writes murder mysteries with locations in the North. She had bought one, which took place on the Alaskan Highway, entitled Dead North. It was great fun to read about places that we had literally just been to in the past week. She finished that today and is now ready for the next in the series, this one about a dogsled race from Fairbanks to Whitehorse…. also on our route. Cool to read about these places from someone who obviously loves this countryside.

A moving part of our Alaskan Highway quest was stopping at Soldier’s Summit, the place in November 1942 where they had an official ribbon cutting ceremony commemorating the opening of the pioneer road to Alaska. They had done a great interpretive job with descriptions and photos. We had to hike up the old pionner road to get to the site where the ceremony took place. Then, at the top of this high hill overlooking a FABULOUS lake and mountain view, we got to hear a recording of the radio broadcast of the events that day. It was very much below zero (although the announcer said he couldn’t tell us how much because that was classified information!) It was a cool day even in the beginning of August for us, with the wind blowing up off the lake, so we could only imagine how cold it must have been that winter day! The band played a very cold sounding version of the American and Canadian National Anthems. And apparently the people gathered had to keep stomping their feet to try to keep from freezing, but they did it. The first truck rolled on by to drive the entire length of the Highway. And our journey on the Highway is nearing completion. One of the really funny stories were heard was that, even thought people were thrilled that the highway was completed, it was decided for security purposes to keep it quiet at first. Actually, the first radio announcement of the completion was in Japan, where, the spin-doctors stated that this was a great day for Japan, because this would make it much easier for them when they invaded North America.

Tomorrow will be our final day on the Highway! On to Delta Junction and then Fairbanks, AK.

Our plan had been to spend a couple of days in Kluane park area, but with the smoke, and then rain, it was seeming less fun of a place to settle in. Dick suggested that it might be time to change plans and actually get to Alaska tonight. We decided to go for it. We had heard that the stretch of road from the park to the border was the roughest part of the Alaskan Highway. After having such great roads forthe previous 1000 miles, this was a change. The word was that we would find lots of contstruction and road that needed to be reconstructed. That proved to be true. Several times we waited for pilot trucks to lead the line of cars and RVs through construction sites. At other time we felt we were on a roller coaster due the road shifting several feet, up or down, due to frost heaving. There were stretches of gravel and others with patches on patches. On top of that, we went through a serious rain storm. We both gave a sigh of relief when we reached the Alaska border. We cleared customs quickly and soon were on our way again, looking at scenery that looked like the other side of the border but the roads were slightly better. What we did find on the U.S. side of the border was more smoke, often dense to the highway, making it seem more like driving in fog.

We reached Tok, Alaska at about 8 in the evening. It was cool and smoky and we decided to eat in a restaurant and stay I a hotel instead of sleeping in the van. A good choice! The hotel even had a laundry room across the hall from our room and we were able to get some clean clothes. A good night’s sleep and then tomorrow, on to the end of the Highway and then to Fairbanks! It’s good to be back in the U.S.

On to Whitehorse, Yukon

2009-08-08T13:22:00.000-07:00

Day 13, Wednesday, August 5th

Up early in Watson Lake and ready to drive another good day on the highway. The sky was so blue and the temperature quite comfortable. We were clearly in an area with few people. We would see only the little collections of a gas station with a restaurant and possibly lodging. There were almost no cross roads, just miles and miles of trees with a road cutting through them. At times we could see mountains in the distance on one or the other side. At others, the sea of trees just seemed to rolled to the horizon in every direction. Often there were beautiful streams, little ponds and, occasionally, a larger lake.

One of the sites today was Teslin, a small village located in the Yukon Territory. Until the turn of the century this was the summer camp or meeting place of the Tlingit tribe from southern Alaska. During the Gold Rush of 1898 the Teslin campsite boomed briefly as a stopover on the Canadian route to the Klondike. For the first time Teslin had permanent residents. The Hudson Bay Co. established a trading post for the villagers and those traveling the Klondike trail. A beautiful stop was at Tlingit Heritage Center where we had the chance to see some outstanding carving, including some traditional totem poles. We also saw a wonderful 30-foot dugout canoe. It was gorgeous. These Indian (or First Nations people) are related to a group on the Pacific coast. You can see a lot of similarities between the art. Very cool cultural exhibit.

We arrived in Whitehorse in the afternoon. Whitehorse is located on the Yukon River and is the largest city in all of the Yukon, with 3/4 of all of the residents in the territory living in the city of about 20,000. One of their claims to fame is the world’s largest weathervane: a DC3 that is out of commission after being used by a number of Yukon airlines before it crashed. It was rebuilt and then mounted as a working weather vane at the airport. Now that’s recycling!

We had a rather impromptu guided tour at the Yukon Wildlife Preserve, a formerly privately own reserve, now owned by the Yukon government and run by a non-profit educational group. We got a chance to see some of the animals that we had been seeing in the wild, they also have a lot of musk oxen, a really interesting animal. Dick finally got his chance to see Wood Bison. And the mule deer baby fawns were soooo cute! The tour was us, another couple, and the guide. One of our favorite things is to get private or semi-private tours, and we manage this quite often. Cool

Then for the evening we drove just up the road to the campgrounds where Patti arranged to tell stories in exchange for swimming and a campsite for the night. This is a privately own campground resort at another hot springs. This one had another lovely hot springs swimming pool. This one, we were interested in knowing, gets emptied and scrubbed out every night. Then, the water runs so strongly that by morning, it is filled up with hot water ready for another day.

The owners of the resort, Gary and Carla, were a delight. They both loved stories and storytelling and we delighted to exchange stories for a stay at their place. It seems that there were for many years a huge Yukon Storytelling Festival that they always attended. The festival included not only professional “famous” storytellers, but also First Nation tellers. They drew storytellers from around the globe from those areas along the Arctic Circle. This usually included stories from Iceland, Siberia, Great Britain, Greenland. They had such fine storytelling experiences that this family was really converted to the blessings of storytelling.

Patti did a storytelling circle (it was supposed to be around a campfire, but there is a severe burn ban on due to massive fires happening…) so we sat in comfortable chairs on the back patio of the resort retreat center. A lovely group of nearly all adults gathered to hear personal stories, folk tales and literary takes told by Patti. She appreciated the interested and enthusiastic audience. Even though we finished at 10:40pm, it was still light out, although the temperature had dropped. The hot chocolate that Carla supplied was greatly appreciated. How much fun to share stories with people in another country!

Over the mountains to the Yukon

2009-08-04T23:31:00.000-07:00

Day 12 – Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Second full day on the Alaskan Highway. This time there was sun rather than rain. After 10 hours of sleep, Dick was so ready to get on the road to see some more beauty and some more great wild animals. Patti is getting a little road weary and couldn’t haul out of the bed until 7:00am, but got into the spirit once we had coffee at the Toad River Lodge. This Lodge has as its claim to fame a baseball hat collect that is now over 7,000 and counting, all displayed on the ceiling of the café! Guess you really had to see this to believe it!

This is the stretch of the road that crosses the Rocky Mountains. This was a part of the road that the planners were most concerned about but the surveyors found a good route and the road climbed up and around the mountains. Many of the views were quite stunning.

We did get to have some great animal experiences today including a young Bull Moose standing looking over the highway (Dick thought it was a statue at first until our approach startled it) and a caribou that was first on the road and then allowed us to move along beside it for a few minutes. Dick was highly disappointed that, although there were plenty of signs, we never did see a Woods Bison (the larger wilder cousin of the Plains Bison that we usually see.) We looked and looked, and Patti even attempted a buffalo call, but no luck so far.

Muncho Lake which is located within Muncho Lake Provincial Park on the Alaska Highway, has water that is perpetually a blue hue, the result of copper oxides leached from the bedrock. This large, seven mile long lake, was one of the true headaches for the crews to work around in building the road. The steep slopes resulted in many tractors and trucks rolling down into the water.

Back when the Alaska Highway was still a gravel road, the small roadside stations were the essence of life and travel along this long and lonely highway, and they still remain invaluable to the weary traveler today. We stopped at a couple, including getting gas, at the trip high of nearly $6.00 a gallon. Yipes! And as we hear, this is lower than last year.

We also got out and hiked to see a salt lick. The animals love to come to lick the minerals out of the rock. We didn’t get to see any animals, but had a nice hike and took some wonderful wildflower photos.

We also stopped for lunch at yet another great natural hot springs. This one was so hot at one part, which Patti, although she truly wanted to do it, couldn’t even put her whole foot in. Luckily, there were some other really lovely and cooler spots. The Army troops had heard about this hot springs, and built some boardwalks to get out there. They were able to enjoy hot soaks, which had to have felt good after only bathing in freezing cold mountain streams and rivers. Because the area has such hot water, there are really unique plants that grow around there. Highly refreshing and fun!

When we got to our destination of the day, Watson Lake, we went immediately to The World Famous Sign Post Forest, the town’s best known attraction. So famous, it is known - and mimicked - around the world.

Here’s the story: “The forest was started in 1942 by a homesick U.S. Army G.I., Carl K. Lindley of Danville, Il. While working on the Alaska Highway, he erected a sign here pointing the way and stating the mileage to his hometown. Others followed his lead and are still doing so to this day. On July 20, 1990, Olen and Anita Walker of Bryan, Ohio placed the 10,000th sign.” They currently have somewhere over 67,000 signs! Okay, you just really have to see this to understand the magnitude! It is probably a city block’s worth of posts with signs, signs, and more sign pounded up on the posts. Street signs, homemade signs, warning signs, official signs. We just walked through with our jaws dropping. Wow! Who knew!

We ended our evening with a viewing of a show on the Northern Lights at the Northern Light’s Center here in Watson Lakes. It was an Imax type of show, beautiful, but a little bit lulling one to a dozy state with low lights, soft music and mystically moving lights. Worth doing, but we think that seeing the real thing, which generally can only be seen in the far north in the winter, would probably be a whole lot more gripping.

Then back to the campground where we are sitting writing this both on our computers, hooked up to electricity on the site, using the camping Wi-Fi free Internet service. Camping has changed some in the 21st century!

By the way, coming into the Yukon was a first for each of us. Doesn’t that have really a ring of “really far north?” It is! But exciting to be here.

On the Alaskan Highway

2009-08-04T23:11:00.000-07:00

Day 11 – Monday, August 3, 2009

Happy Heritage Day or British Columbia Day! We have been on the hunt every since we found out that this was a long holiday weekend to find out what the holiday was. We asked 4 different people, and got a variety of different answers. Mostly, no one was very sure, but knew they got it off from work. Here is what the trusty Internet told us:

“The first Monday in August is holiday in most of the Provinces and Territories. What you will often find, however, is that its name changes from province to province, and even amongst different regions within a province. On calendars, it is generally labeled as “Civic Holiday” as not to be region specific. No matter what it is called, it is a much-needed long weekend to augment the short Canadian summers. Here is a listing of some of the names for this Canadian holiday:
Alberta (Heritage Day)
British Columbia (British Columbia Day)
Manitoba & Northwest Territories (Civic Holiday)
New Brunswick (New Brunswick Day)
Nova Scotia (Natal Day)
Ontario (Simcoe Day)
Prince Edward Island (Natal Day)”
Saskatchewan (Saskatchewan Day)

We also found out the most popular way to celebrate this holiday is to go camping! We saw that up close and personal as we tried to get a campsite without a reservation during this past weekend!

So, the time was FINALLY for us to get away from these crowds and see for ourselves this magical highway known as the Alaskan Highway.

We drove from Dawson Creek to Ft. Nelson today, about 300 miles, a medium sized drive for our trip. The first of the U.S. Army engineers took 25 days to drive all of the their heavy road building equipment between these two towns in April 1942 along a dirt road, not much better than a trail. They had a race to get them there, as they had to go over frozen rivers before they thawed. They made it, but it really gives you pause to think. And this is the “easy” part of the building the road. There was already a kind of road/path between these two towns.

Our minds are filled up with images and voices about this project. On one display it was said that this was the most “storied road” in the world, and some of the stories are unbelievable. Not only did they build 1500 miles of road in 8 months, but also built over 130 bridges…Wow! We learned that what was pushed through at this time was called the “pioneer” or “tote” road. Civilian engineers and contractors from both the US and Canada turned it into a real road over the following year. To create an all season road in just two years is also very amazing.

As we are driving this road, we are following a book called Mileposts that tells you nearly mile by mile what happened on the road at this place; what are the names of the rivers, creeks and bridges; where are the gas stations and camp grounds, for example:

Historic Mile 0 - Dawson Creek
Start of the Alaska Highway; Offices of U.S. Corps of Engineers, Public Roads Administration (PRA) and U.S. Quartermaster Corps. In the spring of 1942, the 'end of steel' became a major terminus for troops, supplies and equipment arriving from Edmonton and destined for the north.
Historic Mile 2 - Cantel Repeater Station
Cantel telephone-teletype lines stretched from Alberta to Fairbanks, along the new highway, making it one of the world's longest open wire toll circuits at the time.

Historic Mile 21 - Kiskatinaw Bridge; Wallace A. Mackey Ltd.
A 162-meter curved structure, one of the first of its kind in Canada, is the only original timber bridge built along the highway that is still in use today.

Okay, clearly more info than you might want or need, but also highly interesting as you are driving such a historic road.

Here are some observations from an online source: “Battling subzero temperatures, permafrost, frostbite, gale-force winds, horrifying clouds of mosquitoes, and the occasional brown bear encounter, these regiments (mostly trained in the deep south) completed the Alcan in record time. Using aerial surveys and local guides, the regiments cut an artery through the Northern Rockies and Yukon so that Alaska could be supplied. Work was able to go so fast because the D-8 “dozers” they used could knock down 100-year-old spruce trees in seconds; then the troops would come in and limb the trees and lay them tightly perpendicular to the course of the road to establish a foundation called “corduroy.” Then feet of gravel and rock would be laid on the corduroy and you would have a road. Bridges and culverts seemed to be the time consumer.”

Our travel on this first day on the highway was mostly completed in a steady rain. Fortunately, the traffic was not heavy and we made good time. We stopped several times to get a closer look at some of the sights and historic signs. Patti navigated with several books on her lap, finding stories for many of the events taking place at the locations we passed.

We spent some time in Fort Nelson touring their heritage museum. They were showing yet another video of building the highway. As we watch these different points of view, we have the chance to keep increasing our understanding of what this process really was, and it was amazing.

One of the “interesting people” that we met today was a woman on staff at the museum. She showed us a couple of the locked up buildings and then, got excited about really showing us around and talking about some of the amazing, and also strange things that the had at this museum. Lots of stuff from Hudson Bay days, lots of trapper and pioneer regalia, and LOTS of equipment that had been used to build the highway. As she was explaining it, there was so much of the large equipment that got the heck beat out of it and when the Americans were finished they just let it there. As she said, most everything at the museum has a story to it. And we got a chance to hear a bunch of them from her.

We are reminded again how much later the sun goes down in the north from what it is in San Diego. There was plenty of light to drive further so we drove another hour to find a camp site in a lovely provincial park campground. We set up our little canopy with netting to protect us from the swarms of mosquitoes as we prepared and ate our dinner. With the sun still hitting the tops of the trees, we slid into our bed in the van and were soon asleep.

Ice and This Way to Alaska

2009-08-02T19:17:00.000-07:00

Day nine – Saturday, August 1st

One of our favorite John Denver songs begins, “Up in a meadow in Jasper Alberta, two men and four ponies on a long lonesome ride.” And here we are in Jasper, Alberta. It is so beautiful, we are feeling like we need to find some new words to describe the beauty: breathtaking, exquisite, peaceful, rugged, magnificent, wondrous, grand, awesome, fabulous….

The day was spent leaving Banff National Park and heading in the adjacent Jasper National Park. God bless the people who in the early 1900’s saw the need to set aside and protect these wilderness areas. The drive through the northern section of Banff National Park into Jasper National Park is along the Icefields Parkway, listed as one of the most scenic routes in North America, and they aren’t kidding. At every turn there are more lovely mountains and more amazing glaciers and icefields. (Patti still can’t really tell the difference between these two, but apparently, glaciers move and parts of them get force off the edge and fall off, while icefields just sit there and eventually melt.) Anyway, we drove much of the later morning through these lovely drives. Wow!

Then we came to the Jasper Park Icefields Center where you could both learn more about the glaciers and, for a fee, be driven out onto the Athabasca Glacier. We didn’t pay to go out, but did hike to the toe of the glacier and have the chance to go a tiny ways out onto it. They did quite a job of scaring people about safety issues including letting us know that the last three rescue attempts to pull tourists out form being caught inside the ice chasms, failed and the people died. Patti was properly frightened by this! It was also despite it being a warm day, FREEZING on the ice, and highly windy. It was impressive, but not a place you’d want to hang out all day. Meanwhile, Dick found the ice fascinating. He had been here nearly 35 years ago and, although trying to prepare himself mentally for the change, was shocked to see that the glacier had retreated over300 yards during those intervening years. It is still several miles long and, at its thickest point, over 2000 feet thick. It was much larger, it was over a mile longer and now has lost over 60% of its mass. Dick walked up the steep surface of the glacier being careful to avoid anything that looked fragile. Water was running down channels in the surface of the glacier and, primarily, out from under the glacier in two major streams. We knew we were looking at the source of the Athabasca River.

Once back on the road we had to stop for a traffic jam. We knew to look for animals at such events. Sure enough, there were two sheep trying to cross the road. They looked like our familiar Big Horn Sheep but their horns stuck out more from their heads. We learned that these were Stone Sheep. Later, as we were leaving the park we saw a whole herd of similar sheep, primarily females and young causing another traffic jam, in the rain, as they milled around the middle of the road licking something from the surface. We never did find out what they were licking. Dick theorized that the rain might have brought something up to the surface on the road that the sheet liked to eat, because they were sure mobbing the road! We also began to see elk in several small herds. One included a mother and calf. The beauty of all these animals is incredible! Wow!

Jasper Park is another fantastic place, the largest in size of all the Canadian national parks in the Rockies, and we had the chance to see some more beautiful countryside, including the Athabasca Falls lovely, but filled with tourist bus people! Not our favorite way to see beauty. The highlight was a drive to the Miette Hot Springs, a commercial hot springs pool where the water (the hottest in the Canadian Rockies) is naturally heated by the earth. When we arrive at the bottom of this really out I the middle of no where valley, there were over 200 people soaking in the both pools, despite the fact it was raining! It felt great on the sore muscles.

Leaving the park, grabbing a quick dinner, then put us on the lookout for a campsite for the night. We had already heard that there were no sites to be had in this huge National park, due to it being a holiday weekend. As we approached our turn from the main highway, we both got smiles on our faces as we saw the sign inviting people to use our chosen route as the Scenic Route to Alaska. As we drove along this deserted highway at dusk we began to see deer. First it was a herd of Mule Deer and then White Tail Deer. Our wildlife treats continued. We found that the filled up campgrounds wasn’t true just in the park, but in every campground we drove by for the next two hours. Luckily, we were wide-awake and we are up North, so it doesn’t get dark until after 10pm (great late sunsets, though!), but we were ready to find somewhere to stop. Dick, with his excellent eyes, spotted an unofficial campground, “user supported” where people could just pull into it and camp for free. No official sites, no bathrooms, no park rangers…. but a safe place to stay. Another camper affirmed that he had come from the North and there was also nothing available up there. So we stopped, got things set up in our ever-trusty min-van and were sound asleep within a half hour. Another fun and successful day.

Day 10 – Sunday, August 2nd

And so, at long last, today is the day that we FINALLY get to the beginning of the famed Alaskan Highway. For those of you who don’t know the history it goes something like this. In the early 1940’s when WWII was raging along, the U.S. got really scared that the Japanese would come and attack our territory, Alaska (not a state until 1959). Pearl Harbor happened and everyone got really scared. What if Alaska and Canada were next? The government got especially worried that if we were battling there, it would not be possible for troops to be kept supplied with what they needed, so they decided to do a really quick job in 1942 and built a highway starting at Dawson Creek, British Columbia and getting all the way to Alaska. The Army Corp of Engineers, many soldiers as well as many American civilians were called into action. One of these civilians was Patti’s grandfather, Einer Christensen, who went from Tyler MN in 1942 and helped to build the Highway. It was a nightmare to build, with permafrost and swampy areas, massive mosquitoes, and, don’t forget about the winter! There was lots of controversy that happened including getting the U.S. and Canadian governments to cooperate, deciding on which of several routes was best, trying to keep the road close by to various air bases. They built the first “pioneer road” in 8 months, but then spent the next couple of years upgrading and fixing it was temporary bridges went out, some of the grades were as steep as 24%, lots of the road worked well on in winter but not when the spring thaws actually came.

This is the road that we will now drive for the next 6 days. That road was, of course, really rough when it was first made, only trees cut down and dirt…. later upgraded several times by the Canadians. By now, it is still a little rough in some areas, but mostly, paved and a pretty darn nice road mostly used by civilian travelers since 1949.

Our road today led us out of the foothills of the Rockies back onto the prairie. When driving on the prairie in southern Alberta we had seen fields of yellow flowers. Here they were again. Dick had correctly guessed that they were canola plants. We stopped along one field and got a closer look. It is hard to imagine that the oil we use for cooking comes from tiny little seeds from these plants. The flowers are certainly beautiful.

As we were driving along, looking forward to entering British Columbia, we were struck by the sight of a huge beaver looming along the side of the road. We do mean huge, over 15 feet tall and 28 feet long. It turns out the people of Beaver Lodge, Alberta commissioned this statue to promote civic pride and to attract people to their town. Of course, we had to stop for a closer look.

Because we had driven so far last night, we had a shorter drive today. As we crossed into British Columbia, we remembered to change our watches again. Late morning brought us to the destination of the day: Dawson Creek BC. As we came into town, we saw signs saying “Welcome to Dawson Creek, Mile Zero of the Alaskan Highway, and “Mile Zero City, Where the Adventure Begins. Mile zero refers to the way that they kept track of the miles on the highway when they were building it. Mile zero is in the middle of Dawson Creek, while the final mile is either at Delta Junction or Fairbanks, about 1500 miles away, depending on who is declaring the other end of the highway.

At the center of town is the official start of the Alaskan Highway. As Dick stood near the sign and the Mile Post “0,” he felt a wave of emotion sweep through him. He has been dreaming of this experience since he was a child. He has so wanted to go to Alaska and do it via this highway. Now it is happening!

We arrived with enough time to go to the Visitor’s Center and The Alaska House, two museums that allowed us to get into the spirit of traveling on the Alaskan Highway. We watched a wonderful hour long movie on the history of the highway from the 1920s until 1992. We could have watched an additional PBS special, but we’d already seen that one. Patti had the chance to create a little video clip for the Alaskan’ Center video archives, where they had a special section for families for veteran’s of the Alaskan Highway to share what they knew of their relative’s experiences. Cool! We both are soaking this up, the history is so much fun, and it is so exciting.

Dick was reflecting on how it must have felt during the U.S. pioneer times when people in wagon trains gathered from all around in Independence, Missouri heading West to the Oregon Trail. In a similar way, people from all over gather here to start up to Alaska.

We checked into our hotel and grabbed a quick dinner at a local pub. The owner, Diane, has been in the restaurant business for 30 years and has owned this pub for 6 years. She was a great source of info for us, including the fact that she had never driven to Alaska, but that many local people do and it wasn’t considered just a crazy tourist thing to do but a beautiful one. She hopes she’ll get a chance one day to go do it herself. She took good care of us and gave a nice send off on our journey.
In the morning, we will pack up and start up the Alaskan Highway. Hooray!!

Water in every form

2009-07-31T22:21:00.000-07:00

Day Seven – Thursday, July 30th

We woke up to crisp blue skies and NO RAIN. (We had to wait to get to a resort for the rain to stop!) Today the agenda was to explore the Banff area. As AAA guide says, “the majestic beauty is inescapable”. And they weren’t kidding. Everywhere you look are glorious mountains, lovely lakes, wildflowers….wow! Banff National Park is the oldest in the Canadian National Park system.

Lake Louise is the real gem here and with its turquoise-colored water from the glacial slit….it is stunning. But, on the average summer day 10,000 tourists come to gaze at the water and get their pictures taken. We knew we didn’t want to just hang out with all of those folks. Our home base of Canmore is a little out of the real bustle of this crowded tourist area. The problem with these really gorgeous places is that other people seem to also want to go there! What to do? One of the tricks we have learned over the years is that you can visit even the busiest of National Parks and soon get away from the throngs just by hiking away from the blacktop parking lots. What a relief. National park parking jams are no fun, but the people who you meet out on the trail are definitely friendly and “our type of travelers.”

So, as soon as possible, we set off to go on a lovely trail, about 7 miles round trip around the Lake and up one of the mountainsides to reach: ta da: a teahouse. Yes, we hiked 3 and a half miles up hill (1500 feet gain in altitude) most of the way in order to have lunch at a Swiss chalet style teahouse built in 1927 for the comfort of the rich folks who came to view the park. (They mostly rode up to the teahouse on horseback…NOT hiking.) The day was a beautiful, not too hot, sunny and the walk was outstanding. Again, the people we have been meeting as so super. We met two rather interesting couples: one a couple in their mid-70’s from Calgary who have been hiking this trail for the past at least 35 years and did it again today. Although not backpackers, they had hiked throughout the Canadian Rockies and much on the American side, too. They talked of their efforts to get their kids as enthused about hiking as they have been, with mixed results. As it turns out, they vacation each summer in Carlsbad CA, the next town over from where we live. What a small world! We also met a couple of retired educators: the husband was a high school science teacher and the wife a school librarian. Their passion, along with hiking, is wildflowers. So we got quite a guided tour of some of the wonderful wildflowers along this hike. They knew many of the common ones off the top of their heads, but had along three different guidebooks for the trickier flowers, and had some spirited discussions about a number of the flowers. People are so generous, and how we did appreciate picking their brains on some we were not familiar with.

So you might be asking, did you really eat at a teahouse on the top of this mountain? Yes we did. And found out that the staff there has to hike in over 3 miles up the mountain for their 5-day shift, and then sleep in cabins near the teahouse. The non-perishables are brought in once a season by helicopter, while staff carries in the perishables on their shift changes. Great food including home-baked bread, homemade soup, and fresh apple pie. A hiker was sad that they had no ice water, but they have no electricity. The food tasted terrific! While we were up top, we had the chance to see several glaciers much closer than from down below and we also saw (and heard) 3 avalanches, or glaciers “calving” and falling hundreds of feet. Very cool and very dramatic. It took 3 and a half hours to hike up and one and a half to get down. Down was a lot easier!

Then as we were driving back to the resort, guess what? Rain again! It continued off and on all evening. Guess it was making sure we got our daily quotient of rain. After dinner, we settled in for a nap, a soak in the hot tub (oh, those achy muscles) and to watch a DVD on Alaska.

The hot tub gave a chance to talk with a young couple who had been rock climbing and the husband goes on regular trips to the Himalayas, as well as a more elderly gentleman who was visiting and bring around friends from Shanghai, offering them a glimpse of the majesty of the Canadian Rockies. Who knows WHO you’ll meet while soaking your achy muscles.

Day eight – Friday, July 31st

Another beautiful day in paradise. Okay, we woke us with clouds totally socked in. It reminded us of the marine layer at home. We couldn’t see the mountains outside our window even though the weather report there just aren’t words for how lovely the scenery is. One more night at our timeshare resort and then we are off to a string of nights camping.

One of the interesting things about this area is that the Trans-Canada Highway runs right through the national park, much of it a four-lane expressway. Convenient for travelers, but what about the animals? Well the smart people who run this place have taken care of that by building high fences along the highway, and then putting in underpasses (lots of these) and now also animal overpasses complete with tress and grass right over the highway. They have been monitoring them and found that the deer and elk used them first (being the early adaptors), with the moose and bears following behind later.) A creative way to allow animals access other areas of their home territories while still allowing traffic to go along.

So, what did we do when it was crazy foggy and cloudy? Drove to see what would be possible. It turned out that things cleared up enough late morning that we could go see another fabulously beautiful sight: Lake Moraine and the Valley of the Ten Peaks. This is a famous beautiful lake that at one point was on the back of the Canadian $20 bill. We decided that Lake Louise wasn’t turquoise, Lake MORAINE is truly turquoise, especially at this time of year, and it was almost electric in color. We climbed upon the rocks of the moraine, shot photos, oo-ed and ah-ed at the beauty. We watched a couple, despite all the warnings, feed a golden mantle ground squirrel, even to having it climb onto the guy’s shoulder in order to get fed. Not a good idea for the animal, plus, you sure could get bit! Yipes. Oh well.

We then drove over to Yoho National Park, right next door to Banff if you continue on the Trans Canada Highway. We went on the recommendation of a fellow guest last night to see a waterfall called the Takakkaw Waterfall. Both Takakkaw and Yoho are words from the Indian Cree language, with Yoho being an exclamation of amazement and Takakkaw would mean “It’s magmificient!” Both were great choices. The waterfall is fed by a glacier, so in the hot summer sun, water is roaring along! The closer you got, the louder the roar of the water. At over 800 feet in its primary fall, it is the tallest waterfall in Canada. It is so splendid to look at and the feeling of the spray on our faces on a warm afternoon was refressing.

On the way back to our timeshare, Patti suddenly got a glimpse alongside the road of a bear, she thought. “Stop now!,” she shouted and when we pulled off, there, behind the freeway fence was a yearling grizzly bear. We hopped out of the car, safely, because of the fence, and eventually so did nearly 75 other people. Patti it seems, caused a “bear jam” of some proportions. It was stunning to see a bear up so close, eating, drinking from the river and eventually taking a swim. Very, very cool!

Then back to do some last laundry, get the car ready and pull things together for our journey continues tomorrow. On to Jasper National Park.

So just how are we working out creating these blog entries? Inquiring minds want to know. Generally, Patti takes first stab at a rough draft, passes that along to Dick where he corrects things and fills in his recollections, then back to Patti for final editing and posting to the blog site. Then Dick goes through all of the photos for two days, pulls out the ones that fit with what we are saying, (out of several hundred each day!) He passes these to Patti who reduces the size and does some photo editing, then back to Dick to be uploaded. We pass the flash drive back and forth between laptops. Yes, it is a new century!

For those of you who want to follow our progress, here is the next chunk of traveling for the NEXT block of days:

Day 9: Travel to Jasper National Park
Day 10: Travel to Dawson Creek, BC (beginning of the Alaskan Highway)
Day 11: Travel on the Alaskan Highway to Fort Nelson BC
Day 12: Travel to Watson Lake, Yukon
Day 13: Travel to Whitehorse YT
Day 14: Travel to Haines Junction, YT
Day 15: Explore the edges of Kluane National Park, near Haines Junction, YT
Day 16: Travel to Fairbanks, Alaska
Day 17: Explore Fairbanks Alaska
Day 18: Travel to Healey, AK (outside Denali National Park)
Day 19: Explore Denali National Park
Day 20: Explore Denali National Park

Cultural Explorers

2009-07-30T22:58:00.001-07:00

Day 5 – Tuesday, July 28th

Getting to Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta isn’t on the way to ANYWHERE. The guidebook said that anyone who goes there really has to WANT to go there. Waterton Lakes is part of the Waterton Lakes Glacier International Peace Park, and is directly above Glacier.

Rain, rain, rain. Patti loves rain, but we have had rain! We continue to keep our string alive of having at least some rain every day of the trip. That said, we have also had breaks in the weather that has allowed some amazing things to happen and sights to be seen. We have been glad to not be sleeping in a tent, but using our great mini-van set up. It is getting better every night.

We left Glacier National Park in the early morning and headed north to the sister park that adjoins Glacier. Once we got to Waterton, having crossed the Canadian border, and being told by the Border guard that we had been in Canada for ten seconds and had already broken the law three times by rolling through three stop signs 10 feet apart to stop at the border crossing station…we think this is his deal that he must say all day long! Whoops. Anyway, we showed our passports and were “in”. Waterton Lakes is a charming little town, with one of the old classic lodges, The Prince of Wales Hotel, built by the railroads. This one was built during the US’s prohibition. Canada was a place you could still drink, so the Great Northern Railroad would bring people in to Glacier, and then bus them up into Canada for a party. Who knew!?

We got a campsite, this time in a beautiful valley, set up and then, surprise, it started to rain! We drove into town to look at the hotel and to stop at the Visitor’s Center. But, as we were driving the winding road back to town we saw several cars pulled to the side of the road. We stopped and asked what they were seeing. “Grizzly Bear,” was the answer. We quickly parked, too, and got out the field glasses. It turned out the bear was behind a tree about 150 yards away. We were just beginning to doubt there really was a bear when it came out from behind the tree and rambled along the hillside. We had seen many black bears in the wild, but never a grizzly. We watched it for a while until it disappeared into a growth of bushes.

So, we were back on the plan to go into town. There we explored the grounds and lobby of the Prince of Wales. What a tribute to the engineering and artistic abilities of 80 years ago. Then it was on to the visitor’s center where we met another of our interesting people, a park interpreter named Pam. Pam is from Vancouver Island and has been working at a number of parks throughout the past several years. She was fun and charming, offered us great advice on what to do in the area, and then offered us the chance to take a computerized quiz to find out what type of “explorers” were we. We both dove in taking the quiz and found to our relief, but NOT amazement, that we were both what is termed “Cultural Explorers” The summary is this “In the world of explorers, you are a Cultural Explorer. You seek constant opportunities to embrace, discover, and immerse yourself in the entire experience of the culture, people and settings you visit. Not content to just visit historic sites and watch from the sidelines, you want to participate in the modern-day cultural festivals, or go off the beaten track to discover how people truly live.” As a couple of old history majors, we had to just laugh and smile at the apt description…. and it was fun to have acknowledged that our style was really that of digging in and learning as we travel.

For those of you who are feeling REALLY glad that you are not on this 9,000 mile drive, but are curious about you or other’s vacationing style, here you go: Want to find out your own exploration style? You can take the quiz at: www.canada.travel/eq

Following Pam’s advice, we went exploring on one of the few roads in the park, following it to its end at the lovely Cameron Lake. We discovered the lake straddled the border with the U.S., the far end of the lake was in the States. Dick was ready for a hike and Patti was ready for a break. Under threatening skies and a little drizzle, Dick headed off along the lake shore. The crowd of people at the parking lot soon thinned to only a handful of people really enjoying the peace and beauty of the place. As expected, there were great views and many wild flowers. The trail ended at the edge of a bog that was a protected area for the grizzly bears. Dick returned to the car to find that Patti had found some hot chocolate and a good murder mystery book to read. She was snoozing peacefully when Dick returned. The real rain had held off while Dick walked but now began to fall. The idea of cooking dinner in such conditions did not appeal to either of us (not in our explorer style for the day) so we had a good meal in town. The rain continued for much of the night.

We returned to the campground in time for the evening educational program done by our own Pam. It was called, “Oh Give me a Home” about ungulates (hoofed animals who chew their cuds like deer, big horned sheet, and elk). Pam was a great storyteller, a highly knowledgeable educator, and it turns out, a pretty darn good rapper ending the program with a highly energetic “rap” about her inner mule deer. You really DID have to be there, but trust us, it was fun.

Day 6 – Wednesday, July 29th

We were awake bright and early, watching the clouds build in the sky. This was the first morning where it was, as Patti termed it, REALLY cold. When she got up shivering, she put on a shirt, another shirt, a polar-tec jacket, a windbreaker, and then a winter parka, hat and gloves. No one else was dressed like this, but she was cold. We decided that a quick pack up, plus a hike along the Red Rock Canyon trail gave us a good start to our day. We had the trail along the canyon to ourselves. It was a little gem, a 30-100 foot canyon carved into red slate. The white glacial melt water rushing through the canyon was in such contrast to the deep red in the rock. The wet night had left the wild flowers covered with moisture, such that they looked like they were covered with ice. Such an interesting effect.

Before we left the national park we stopped at the Buffalo Paddock, a several hundred acre enclosure with a herd of buffalo (Bison). We drove for a while through the rolling hills before we found the herd. It was fun to watch them in such a relaxed setting. Several calves were running around playing until one got hungry. Luckily mom was nearby.

As we left the park we had clearly left the mountains and driven out onto the Great Plains. We could have been in Kansas or Nebraska with the rolling hills and green grass. In Canada the Great Plains spread much further west than they do in the States.

We were headed north toward Canmore, Alberta, just into the Canadian Rockies and just outside of Banff National Park. But, why not get in a culture experience or two on the way? About an hour north of Waterton Lakes, we went to our first site, Fort McLeod, the Museum of the Northwest Mounted Police, the origin of the Mounties of today’s Royal Canadian Mounted Police. We arrived just in time for the formal presentation of the troops and then “The Musical Ride’ where 7 college students dressed as traditional Mounties of the 1880’s rode horses and did stunt riding in time to music. This was great fun, and Dick had the chance to speak with Tim, the young Sergeant in charge of these “troops.” He gave the commands to direct their formations and while they were riding in the performance. It turns out that the Royal Mounted Police got their start in this very area as they were sent to create law and order in the wild west of Canada, dealing with crime, as well as the out of control whiskey traders who were wrecking havoc on the Indians. They did quite a nice job with the depictions of the Mounties as well as the First Nation people, as Canadians call them. There was a treaty with the Indian people that was kept by the Indian people and the Canadian government to this day. A little different history than we usually see in the US.

Then about 20 km (gotta get used to seeing everything in those kilometers and liters!) we went to another amazing historical site: Head-Smashed-in Buffalo Jump. For over 6,000 years, Indian people used this particular cliff to drive bison over a cliff in order to kill them for food and for survival. It sounds terrible to us today, but remember for all this time, the native people did not have horses and needed the buffalo to survive. This approach was used only when conditions were right, sometimes not for generations, but would provide needed food for their winters. The killing was done in a manner of being in harmony with the land, never really diminishing the numbers of buffalo. There were many of these sites throughout the plains area, because at one point there were over 40 MILLION bison in North America, then at one point only one thousand left. This happened after the Europeans came and decided to slaughter these animals for sport or their skins to use in making belts for machines. Now there are a few hundred thousand, thanks to careful conservation and bringing them back. This site in Alberta has been designated a World Heritage site, and they have done an amazing job of telling the story and honoring the native people in this area. We just happened to be at the site on the one day each week where they also do a demonstration of dancing and drumming and we saw astoundingly good dancing. It was a joy to be able to really soak in this fine experience.
If you want to know more about it, look at their website at www.head-smashed-in.com/. The site is operated by the local Blackfoot tribal council.
THEN we got in the car and drove another 3 hours to the town of Canmore, 15 minutes from Banff. The drive was sooooo flat, especially after spending several days in great mountains. We definitely were still on the Great Plains. Only the last half hour finally started to give us something besides really FLAT landscape, and then a few foothills, and finally we were into the mountains again. The area here is truly gorgeous. We are staying in a unit of the timeshare system in which we have ownership. We look forward to settling in for three nights of sleeping in a real bed, hot showers, getting some laundry done, and seeing some great scenery. AND it looks like the rain may give us a break for a while. There is so much to see and we are really enjoying soaking it all in.

Into the Mountains

2009-07-30T07:09:00.000-07:00

Day Three

We woke up at 6 am to a torrential rain. Perfect! Here we are at Glacier National Park and it’s raining. We went back to sleep. A couple hours later, blue sky (well with some clouds), and sunshine. Time to check out of the inn and see about getting a campsite. We hoped that our plan of getting to the campground mid-morning on a Sunday would prove to be a good time to get us a nice campsite without a reservation. We were relieved when that proved to be true. We had our pick of a number of sites in a campground that later in the day was completely full.

We decided to drive over the continental divide on a road known as the “Going to the Sun Highway.” As we started up, we found the highway was lined with these amazing meadows filled with blooming wildflowers. We stopped a number of times to look more closely at the many different types of flowers and drink in the sights of these magnificent mountains. Of course, we did take some photos. (Don’t worry, we won’t ask to show you all the vacation photos we are taking!)

What we didn’t appreciate was the many cars, filled parking lots, and the lines of traffic as we came back east after driving to the west entrance of the park. The western side of the Going to the Sun Highway seems to hang on the cliffs as it works its way down, sheer cliff on one side and a little stone wall before the cliff continues down for a thousand feet. It was safe enough, but no room to pass the cars with drivers terrified of the confined space. A winter avalanche had taken out a stretch of the little wall and we could see the construction set to resume on Monday to fix it. All the visitor center parking lots were full as were the parking for a couple of shorter hikes we considered. We decided to just drive and enjoy the amazing scenery. Overall, we were glad we chose to make the drive on Sunday.

The evening took us to one of the beautiful old lodges in the park, Many Glaciers Lodge which was built in the 1920’s. This was built by the Northern Pacific Railroad to attract American’s to come visit “The American Alps”. We saw a wonderful evening show by Jack Gladstone, a Blackfeet Indian, doing stories and music from his life, the history of the Indian People here, as well as other commentaries on life. He was a fine performer and has been performing in this area for the past 25 years and was part of a group of Blackfeet people to start a long-lived series in the park of Native American Voices.

We spent our first night actually sleeping in the minivan in Dick’s design of a sleeping area under the platform. We were both surprised at how warm we stayed and we were highly relieved to be warm and dry when we got another couple of big storms in the night.

Day Four

Sunshine in the morning. Yay! After the night’s rain, the morning dawned beautifully and after a little fog bank passed through the campground, there was lots of sunshine. We were discovering how close to the weather we would be staying throughout this trip. This was a great day to get out and finally do some hiking.

As we were packing up for the day, we met a really great couple, the Smiths, who are our campground volunteer hosts. They have been instrumental in working through the bureaucratic system and getting bear boxes (food storage containers) installed in our campground and elsewhere in the park. These are great for storing our food and keeping it safe from the increasingly smart bears who would LOVE to eat the contents of our cooler or any random food we might have around. This includes food that is in sealed cans. We are used to bear safety from camping in several California national parks. The Smiths had many fine stories to tell us of what it took to get these boxes installed, especially when they found that many of the boxes were sitting in storage rather than being used. God bless wonderful people who know how to make things happen. The Smiths, he was retired from GM, lived in Indiana for most of the year but were spending their fourth summer in a trailer in a campground in Glacier being of service to the campers. It seemed that just to accent their love of animals, a mule deer doe walked through our campsite before our conversation ended.

The highlight of this day was spending over five hours hiking on the Highline trail, starting from Logan’s Pass at the top of the Going to the Sun Highway. We soon saw both Pikas and Columbian Ground Squirrels. Most of the trail is on a steep slope, while about two hundred yards are on a ledge cut into a sheer cliff. Part of this trail is called the garden wall and it lived up to its name, a continuous carpet of a wide variety of wild flowers. We didn’t photograph every one of them but we tried. We kept discovering new ones we had not seen earlier or ever before. There were more than 20 different varieties. After slow progress, because of all the stops, on the way out we were about to turn around at the 3 1/2 mile point when Dick caught sight of a mountain goat coming down the trail in the opposite direction. It passed several people as they stepped aside before leaving the trail just before he got to us. He was hungry and had particular types of flowers in mind, Indian Paintbrush and Columbine. He walked past all the other flowers to get to clumps of his favorites. For the next 20 minutes, he munched his way along just below the path while a growing group of hikers watched. Then he climbed back onto the path and headed in the direction we wanted to go. With the goat in the lead, the parade began. Patti was next and then Dick, followed by hikers whose numbers continued to grow, eventually about ten in all. We were walking at a “goat’s pace.” We would see hikers coming our way and waved them to the side. They sat down next to the path or stepped aside and the goat walked right by them. Everyone was thrilled. After over a half mile of this, the goat again left the path and started digging in the soil and eating what he found. We guess it was a mineral lick. We took that moment to slide on by him so we could continue our hike.

Dick had another really fun chance encounter, when we passed a family, the young boy in the lead was singing, including a little yodeling. When Dick commented to one of the adults that this was the type of place that would cause one to sing, the man replied, “Well, it’s in their blood. These guys are Van Traps [as in from the Sound of Music].” The grandfather of this family was Kurt Von Trap, the youngest of the Van Trap children. The uncle had two of the girls yodel, too, and quite a discussion ensued about the family’s lodge in Stowe, VT. Dick had visited there several years ago and this was a great hit to the girls. The girl’s father was quick to smile as he passed but much less interested in the conversation than the others. Dick wished them an enjoyable hike and moved on.

With the close encounter with the mountain goat, we thought our time with the big animals was over but suddenly, we were waved to the side of the path. Looking further ahead we could see a large Mountain Sheep ram headed our way, again using the path. He rushed by us and soon was followed by another. Our cameras were clicking as fast as we could shoot them. When we continued into a sheer cliff area of the trail, we found that two other sheep had been frightened and had climbed up on a higher ledge. We stopped to take more photos and then could see the rams were getting quite agitated. We moved on to let them get down, stopping a good distance away so we could watch. But, of course, others kept coming down the trail and stopped to look at the sheep. Finally, there was a break and the two animals quickly descended and scampered away.

That evening we returned to our campsite, fixed a good meal and then Dick set up a big storage battery to provide extra power to the computer. By the light of a lantern, he downloaded photos from our digital cameras and worked on the blog. It is a different world for camping in 2009!

It had been a beautiful day in paradise!

North to Alaska!

2009-07-26T08:22:00.000-07:00

We are off! Singing “North To Alaska” our grand adventure has begun. We are now within sight of Glacier National Park, staying in a funky old inn. Over the past two days we have driven over 1400 miles and now are ready to launch the really desirable part of the trip. Tomorrow morning we will enter Glacier and find a camping site to be our base for exploring the park.

Our first big day of driving was delayed several hours while Dick completed his application for reappointment as a professor to National University. The due date for the application is August 24th but, of course, we will not be in San Diego at that time. That meant what turned out to be a 136 page document had to be prepared early and turned in prior to our departure. It is a strange quirk about National that it takes more documentation to gain a reappointment than it does for the initial appointment. Dick had worked on it for over a week but still had to burn the midnight oil to finish it Thursday night.

Friday morning, the car was packed and we each had a send-off chiropractic adjustment, Knowing we were going to be sitting many hours in the car over the next month, we wanted our backs to be properly aligned. Then, off to National where the application was submitted in the proper way. We had lunch at the National cafeteria, which often has gourmet quality food. We had salmon in anticipation of the many salmon dinners we would have on the trip. Finally, at 1:00 pm we began what will be the longest driving day of the trip.

Our destination for day one was Salt Lake City, over 750 miles away. The directions are easy, get on Interstate 15 and drive north. It runs from San Diego to the Canadian border, just east of Glacier. We drove north through the eastern LA metro area where we began to follow the route of the old Route 66 up through the mountains onto the high desert. Then we crossed the Mojave Desert to Las Vegas then on to St. Georges, Utah. By now it was after dark. We finally arrived in Salt Lake City 12 ½ hours after we began, 2:30 in the morning local time while experiencing the first rain of the trip. We were exhausted but satisfied that we had made our first schedule destination.

One of the questions we had before we started was how well Dick’s platform would work in the realities of a moving car. We were very pleased. In spite of our carrying gear and supplies for over a five week trip, all packed on top of the platform, there was a comfortable bed below it. Each of us took time stretching out on a real bed (okay ALMOST a real bed…at least a double sized foam rubber piece covered with a specially sewed fitted sheet)catching some needed sleep. Several times we had to brake hard and everything stayed in place. That was a relief to both of us. There is going to be a need for some tinkering with where items are placed but, overall, this looks good.

This morning we slept in a bit, six hours was all we could spare, and were on the road again. We appreciated that it was Saturday so we zipped through the rest of Salt Lake City and the many suburbs to the north. When we reached the Idaho border only a couple hours later we were glad again we had driven so far the previous day. We felt far from home already. Traffic was light and we were making good time. It only took several additional hours to cross Idaho. It was a sense of real progress when we saw the “Welcome to Montana” sign along the side of the road. Even though we crossed the Continental Divide at the border, we found ourselves deep in the mountains once we were on the Montana side. For a few hours we had been watching the storms building along the mountain crests, then the storms flowed into the valleys and passes and we drove in and out of thunderstorms. As we got closer to Glacier, we were traveling on rolling plains to the east of the mountain range where Glacier was located. The clouds, sunlight, and mountains seemed to be in a delicious dance. We had to stop numerous times to take photos. We had John Denver CDs playing and we were just thoroughly enjoying the moments. We found our lodging for the night and then a little restaurant for dinner. Sitting on a patio, we ate and watched a major storm approach. Thunder and lightning filled the air as we finished dinner and then went out to watch the show in the sky. Finally, when the first drops splashed on our faces, we jumped into our car for the short trip back to the inn. There we sat out on the porch and watched the deluge from the sky, glad that at that moment we were not in a tent.

As we pulled up chairs to watch the storm two women arrived back at their room next door. The older woman, who said she and her daughter had just been at an outdoor wedding, stayed outside to watch the storm with us. Our conversation about the weather was definitely not mundane as the sky lit up, thunder crashed, and sheets of water fell. She still lives on the farm (about 90 miles away from where we are staying) that she and her husband had operated for years. She raised her family on that farm. She talked about farm life in Montana and then began to talk about the travels she and her husband had been on after he had retired from running the farm. She was fascinated by the plans for our trip to Alaska and talked of her cruise to Alaska. She told us of her tradition to drive the Going-to-the-Sun Highway in Glacier each year, seeing something new each time she crossed over to the west side. Then she talked of trips to New Zealand and Australia, to China and Japan, Europe, and Africa (from Egypt to South Africa). She just missed out on a trip to Russia when her husband became ill. She lost him 11 years ago but holds onto these travel memories as some of the most precious to her. She probably is in her late 80s but is still so full of life. She is definitely the type of individuals that we are looking forward to continuing to meeting while on this trip. She gave us a kind of blessing saying that it was such a wonderful thing to share travels as a couple and that we were exactly the right ages to be doing such a trip.

Several times we today, as we drove, we commented to each other how different the land was from Southern California. The dry brown mountains gave way to dry tan desert mountains to green covered mountains to mountains with snow still near their summits. The valleys and flat areas went from sandy/gravel and desert plants to green grass and sage plants. We experienced our first rain in over three months, knowing San Diego would not see rain again until November. We know that we will experience a lot more rain over these next few weeks. It is part of our adventure to notice and appreciate changes such as these.

We have now said goodbye to freeways. We will only have brief encounters with them until we return via Interstate 5 starting in the State of Washington. We have two lane highways in our future, including several hundred miles on gravel roads. We took advantage of the speed when we had the chance, now we focus on the scenery.

We have received requests to post our intended schedule. I’ll put the first ten days of the trip on this post and will add more soon.
Day 1 Travel from San Diego to Salt Lake City
Day 2 Travel from Salt Lake City to Browning, MT
Day 3 Enter Glacier National Park, find camping and do some hiking
Day 4 Continue to explore Glacier NP
Day 5 Travel from Glacier NP to Waterton Lakes National Park in Canada, adjoins Glacier
Day 6 Travel from Waterton Lakes NP to Canmore, Alberta
Day 7 Explore Banff National Park from our base in Canmore
Day 8 Continue to explore Banff
Day 9 Travel the Ice Fields Highway from Banff NP to Jasper National Park
Day 10 Travel to Dawson Creek, British Columbia, Milepost 0 of the Alaskan Highway

We realize that we are now going into some “internet-free” zones, so we will keep writing our thoughts and add them in as we are able. Think of us, and send us some really nice weather for these next night that we are camping.

Alaska or Bust!!!

2009-07-17T20:45:00.000-07:00

Today marks exactly one week from when we leave for "the great road trip"...38 days, over 9,000 miles, from San Diego to Alaska and back by car. This trip will fulfill a lifelong ambition of Dick’s to drive the Alaskan Highway and explore the Land of the Midnight Sun.

The prep for the trip has been intense over a long period of time: the idea, getting the time (and time "off") on the calendar, putting the intention out, telling people that we REALLY are going to do this, and then starting with the concretes....that included ordering all kinds of promotional materials, DVDs, guidebooks, and novels about Alaska, the Canadian Rockies, the Yukon and British Columbia. Finally, it was time to start putting together the route and they schedule. This was Dick's area, and he put together an AMAZING day-by- day guide as to where we will be in the morning, at night; would we sleep in a hotel, resort, friends' home, or camping. Next, it was time for reservations for many of the places. Patti also found that there is an amazing AlaskaTour Savers book with lots of cool buy one-get one free offers (great for a boat trip, museums, a couple of overnight stays.)

Of course, there was also a need for shopping. We are Truly going on an expedition and need a lot equipment. Some new camping gear, clothes, and prep for the car. The car is spent a day at Firestone for an oil change and really good check-up. We don't want to blow a hose in the serious middle of nowhere. Upon recommendation, we are also getting a full-sized spare tire. AAA may not be able to rescue us with a flat tire on a gravel road 150 miles from anything. We also ordered covers for our headlights and a 'mask' (or "bra") for the front of the mini-van to protect the paint.

We have a map on the hallway wall with push pins outlining the route and helping to keep us clear as to where some of these places are. (Where the heck IS Dawson Creek?)

THEN there is the special platform Dick built to fit into the back of the mini-van. This is about 5'x4', 18 inches high, made out of plywood that will allow us to both pack all of our gear, but also have, with foam rubber and sleeping bags underneath, a place to sleep. Patti sewed cool cloth coverups for the foam rubber, so they are now ready to go, too. We will be able to do this even when the other of us is driving without having to snooze in the car seat or unload everything. Patti is amazed as it comes together. This will also give us some extra flexibility to spend the night at a roadside rest stop or sleep in the van if the mosquitoes or the rain are too much.

So, many, many more things are on the list of things "to get done" before we leave. But the time is getting closer. Stay tuned for the adventures!

Happy Holidays from Dick and Patti

2008-12-28T19:05:00.001-08:00

Make a Smilebox scrapbook