Watson Lake, Yukon, Canada: Falling Out Of Alaska

After spending two months in Alaska, our trip south feels as if we are falling out of Alaska through the Yukon and into British Columbia.

We left Valdez, Alaska last week and drove to Tok, Alaska. In Tok we washed the RV (finally, it was a mess), re-visited a favorite restaurant (Fast Eddy's) and spent the night in the Tok RV Campground.

The next day we took off for Chicken Alaska, a small outpost 80 miles off of the 'beaten path' that consists of two campgrounds and a couple of small stores. Chicken got its name from the miner's that were working on gold claims in the early 1900's. They wanted to name it ptarmigan, after the many chicken-like birds that inhabited the area.

No one was sure of how ptarmigan was spelled so they finally settled on a name where they could agree on the spelling: Chicken. So that became the town's name: Chicken, Alaska.

We did see a moose just outside of Chicken. She was standing in a pond and eating the vegetation that grows there, about 30 feet from the road. We watched her for a few minutes before leaving her to her business. Mary Lynn also saw a Lynx however I was too busy driving the RV - go figure. Did I mention the roads, even the mountain roads, did not have guardrails?

We had heard a lot about Chicken and wanted to visit however, if you go to chicken you have to make a decision. Do you back-track the 80 miles and then take the Alaska Highway to Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory or do you proceed on the Taylor Highway and take the Top Of The

World Highway to Dawson City and then (eventually) to Whitehorse?

We had heard a lot, good and bad, about the Top Of The World Highway. Everyone talks about how beautiful the scenery is and about how bad the highway is. Eventually we decided we would take The Top Of The World Highway and just take our time traveling through the last bit of Alaska, through Canadian customs and down into Whitehorse.

Let me tell you; taking an RV over this highway is quite an adventure, especially a class A RV. See, in a class A RV you are in the RV and can hear every bump, sway, bounce, and bang that occurs. In other RV's you ride in your tow vehicle and are (somewhat) isolated from the bouncing and jostling.

In any case, none of the RV's were making record time although the class A's definitely went the slowest. We averaged 25-30 miles-per-hour on this highway and many times, when we hit gravel washboard surfaces we were only able to travel between 5 & 10 miles per hour.

After crossing Canadian customs the road was paved and smooth (you don't always get both) and it felt like we were flying (especially without guardrails). Flying that is for about 10 kilometers. Just as I was remarking about how good the road was and how much faster we were able to travel we hit, you guessed it, gravel roads with washboard surfaces. Some of the worst roads of our trip.

It was pretty cool as we eventually neared Dawson City. From high up on the mountain you suddenly get a glimpse of the Mighty Yukon River and Dawson City. Then you notice Dawson City is on the other side of the Yukon River and there is no bridge.

Turns out the city of Dawson City runs a free ferry across the Yukon - very cool. Especially the free part because at that point you would be willing to pay almost any amount of $$$ to get to civilization rather than backtrack 100's of miles of poor roads. And yes, you can call a town with only 2800 inhabitants 'civilization'....

Dawson City is the town established when gold was discovered on Rabbit Creek. Don't recognize Rabbit Creek? Well the gold miner's didn't feel the name Rabbit Creek didn't quite capture the magnitude of this gold discovery. So they renamed it Bonanza Creek. And the creek above was named Eureka Creek.

Still not sure? How about the Klondike Gold Rush of '98.

The town has done a great job of keeping the look and feel of Dawson City close to the original; not one fast food business in town or along the highway.

After exploring Dawson City for a few days we headed south again with the town of Whitehorse in our sights. Saw a couple of grizzlies along the way although both were some distance away.

Whitehorse is a town of ~ 28,00 so it's quite a bit bigger. We spent two nights there, resting and stocking up before leaving this morning for Watson Lake. We arrived here in Watson Lake around 4 pm and are just getting settled.

Tomorrow we need to choose between staying on the Alcan Highway or taking the Cassiar Highway. Cassiar is again a little more scenic and has section of road that are poor. Not as poor as the Top Of The World Highway but poorer none the less.

Not sure which one we'll take. May ask around to see if any of the fellow RVers here at the campground have just come north on the Cassiar to get a 'real time' update.

I'll give another update when we get to an RV park with Internet.

See Ya!

Valdez, Alaska: Liquid Sunshine In Abundance

We have had an abundance of 'liquid sunshine' each of the two days we've been in Valdez, Alaska. We can't really complain about the rainy weather given the almost four weeks of above average temperatures and below average rainfall we experienced while on the Kenai Peninsula.

The weather here is about average for this time of year in Valdez: cool and rainy.

As a consequence, this place is beautiful. The many islands, fjords, and mountains are covered in lush, deep green vegetation and forests. The waterfalls, and there are many, are bursting with water, falling rapidly down steep, glacier carved slopes.

Top it off with a few extra helpings of wildlife and you have the Prince William Sound and it's surrounding glaciers.

Today we took a cruise to the Meares and Columbia Glaciers following a scenic round-a-bout path that let us get an up close and personal view of the scenery and the wildlife.

First we motored out to the Meares Glacier located at the end of the Unakwik Inlet. We were able to get within a quarter of a mile of the glacier; there we sat watching and listening to the glacier. If you watched the face of the glacier closely you were rewarded with a portion of the glacier sliding into the sea. Followed shortly thereafter by the sound of the glacier calving.

Everything happens so quickly that unless you are watching the face of the glacier closely, those thunderous cracks announce you have missed another glacier calving.

The Meares Glacier is the only tidal glacier that is advancing; all the other tidal glaciers in Alaska are in their retreating phase.

Including the Columbia Glacier, which holds the distinction of being the last of Alaska's glaciers to go into retreat.

These days the Columbia Glacier calves about 13 million tons of ice per day; when it first started retreating in 1978 it was calving ~30 Million tons of ice per day.

In fact, we couldn't get any closer than 9 miles to the face of the glacier, which was barely visible in the distance.

I highly recommend the tour of Prince William Sound and it's surrounding glaciers. Spectacular beauty combined with lots of wildlife made the day fly by.

Tomorrow we start heading out of Alaska and Canada, which should take about two weeks or so.

See Ya!

Anchorage, Alaska: Another Fanastic Visit

Our sons Christopher & Scott and Christopher's wife Rachael spent the week with us and boy, did the week ever fly by.... I have been too busy to do much in the way of posting so let me recap what happened since the last post.

Christopher, Scott and I went deep

sea fishing on Wednesday for Halibut & Salmon. We left the dock in Seward around 7 am and didn't get back until 5 pm. In addition to salmon and halibut our captain took us fishing for Lingcod and Black Rockfish. We only caught four silver salmon however we caught our limit of halibut, lingcod and rockfish. Halibut, lingcod and rockfish are all good eating white meat fish and OMG are they fun to catch.

There were the three of us on the boat plus two other fishermen and the captain.

We spotted a male Killer Whale (Orca) on the way out of Resurrection Bay, that was truly beautiful in the early morning light with the glacier carved mountain in the background. The captain made a little detour for us to enjoy the beauty of this magnificent animal and somehow, spotting that

Killer Whale let us know we were in for a fantastic day of fishing.

Scott got the day started right by catching the first fish of the day within minutes of putting the lines overboard for the first time. After that Christopher caught three silver salmon in a row. From then on, everyone was busy catching fish the rest of the day. The only breaks in the action were when we moved form one fishing 'hole' to another and when we headed home.

The picture shows the fish we kept; we probably released about the same number of fish. Halibut and Lingcod put up an amazing fight; Black Rockfish are a lot of fun, especially when a huge Lingcod follows then to the surface. The Lingcod are so big the Black Rockfish look like 'bait' to them. It's pretty common to find an entire salmon or rockfish (18-24 inches in length) in the stomach of a Lingcod.

Oh yeah, did I mention I caught the largest halibut of the day -- right around 50 pounds. It was at the end of the day and all of us were pretty exhausted; then I tied into this whopper (for me) and just about died getting him aboard. After we landed him all I could do was grin -- I was too tired to do anything else.

We were fishing 280 feet down when I caught this bad boy and I thought the fishing pole would break he fought so hard. Halibut get much, much bigger up here -- the current Homer Fishing Derby winner is 346 pounds. They call them "Barn Door Halibut" because -- wait for it -- there as bug as a barn door. I was plenty happy with my 'little' 50 pound'er!

After cleaning the fish, Scott, Christopher and I had 115 pounds of halibut, lingcod & rockfish fillets! Then we had to figure out what we were going to do with that much fish! That's the kind of problem every fisherman wants to have at the end of a day of fishing!

We kept a third fresh and shipped the other two thirds back to Maryland;

don't even ask what it costs to send 100 pounds of fish back to the lower 48 using FedEx overnight delivery.

And if I tell you please don't tell Mary Lynn who does not like fish.

Actually, that's not entirely true. She now enjoys the occasional halibut and lingcod when prepared in the 'fish and chips' style. Delicious.

While the men went fishing, Mary Lynn and Rachael too a scenic float trip down the Kenai River and had a great time. They even had a quick

glimpse of a grizzly bear while floating by an island.

Friday morning we moved from the Kenai Peninsula to Anchorage. Turns out Christopher has a friend Johnny whose parents live in Palmer, about 40 minutes north of Anchorage. Johnny's parents invited us over Friday afternoon for dinner. Don & Cindy, plus Johnny's sister Rebecca are some of the nicest people you will ever meet. Like most Alaskans they take advantage of all that Alaska has to offer by fishing and hunting.

They pulled some halibut and rockfish from their freezer and prepared a real feast for us. We had a great time sitting around the table and sharing stories about each others lives.

After a terrific evening of food and fellowship we headed off to Walmart to replenish our supplies.

Saturday we explored a few of the sights around Anchorage and , all too soon, found ourselves at the Anchorage airport saying goodbye to our kids. We had such a great time with them the week literally flew by....

Today is Sunday and we've spoken with them; all arrived safely back in the 'lower 48' as planned.

Tomorrow is Monday and we will leave Anchorage headed towards Valdez. Valdez is only about 100 miles away as a bird flies however, because of several mountain ranges it's about 375 miles away by road.

See Ya!

Kenai Peninsula, Alaska: Rainbows & Dollys (Trout That Is) Plus Kenai Fjords National Park

What a great time Mary Lynn and I are having with our two boys, Christopher & Scott, and Christopher's wife Rachael. They arrived in Anchorage Saturday night and we've been running ever since. We gave them a quick tour of downtown Anchorage and then drove the two hours back to our RV in Coopers Landing at the Princess Lodge & RV Park.

Their sleeping schedules were way off on Sunday morning so we went to the lodge for breakfast. Terrific breakfast followed by a lazy morning.

Scott & I went fishing Sunday afternoon with a guide from Drifter's Lodge. These folks take fishing pretty seriously. Along with our guide we drifted the Kenai River from just below the Kenai Lake bridge all the way down to the Russian river.

That portion of the river is "Trout Fishing Nirvana". It's a catch and release river famous for its large trout. Trout fishing peaks in late August through late September, maybe a week or two in October. Drifter's Lodge has eight guides running full time during that part of the year.

This was the first time I went Fly Fishing and boy, is it fun. If you don't know, fly fishing uses a involves whipping a fly rod back and forth to place a small fly in the exact location required to get a trout to bite. I managed to swing that fly around all afternoon without 'catching' myself or anyone else with the hook. I considered that a major accomplishment even if the other folks on the boats were just a wee bit nervous.

Seriously, it worked pretty well. Bothe of us caught a trout 18-20 inches long; Scott caught an amazing Rainbow Trout that was nice and thick. I caught a Dolly Varden that was not quite as full however it was a beautiful fish that put up quite a fight. We released them both to fight another day...

In the fall they pull 30+ inch monsters from this river. In fact there's a special club for people that catch a Trout that is 30 inches or more. I think the record is a 37" Rainbow; simply and amazing size for a trout. Down south a 12 inch trout is considered an excellent catch.

On Monday, all of us took a cruise to the Kenai Fjords National Park on a large catamaran. These trips specialize in spectacular scenery including tidal glaciers plus lots of wildlife. We saw Stellar Sea Lions, Harbor Seals, Tufted Puffins, Horned Puffins, Dall Porpoise and all kinds of other sea birds. However, whales eluded us.... until the last 90 minutes of the 6 hour cruise.

Actually our cruise went a little longer which was fine with us because the captain found several Humback Whales and Orcas, also called Killer Whales. OMG -- what a sight. Some of the whales put on quite a display.

Several humpbacks were spotted by their spouts, which is caused by the whale expelling air. A few even showed us their tail as they went for a deep dive. Seeing the whales tail was a real thrill. One of the 'humpies' slapped it's flipper on the water repeatedly very close to the boat. Spectacular.

The Killer Whale pod was a male and four females. They were simply majestic as they worked their way across Resurrection Bay.

All too soon we had to head back into the dock in Seward. The day started off pretty foggy however the sun was blazing in all it's glory by the time we arrived at the dock.

Today we played some games this morning and then went for a hike to the Russian River Falls. It was supposed to be a 2 mile round trip hike however when we arrived we found out it was 2.3 miles 'each way'!

The hike was beautiful even if it was a bit hot and buggy. We spent about an hour at the Russian River Falls overlook hoping to see some bears feeding on the salmon however they didn't put in an appearance while we were there.

I spoke with a wildlife photographer who showed us pictures he took this morning of a male brown bear. He had spent about 8 hours at the falls. He also carries a huge sidearm strapped to his waist...

All too soon we had to make the return hike before we spotted any bears.

Tonight we had a delicious dinner. The kids played card games while Mary Lynn and I went to the hot tub. I had to soak my old bones after that hike!

Tomorrow Christopher, Scott, and I are going deep sea fishing for silver salmon and halibut. The ladies are going to go on a scenic float trip.

Gotta go now; we have to get up at 5 am -- Ouch!

See Ya!

Cooper Landing, Alaska: Quick Trip To Anchorage

My dear wife Mary Lynn was having withdrawals from not shopping during the last few weeks so we had to make an emergency trip to the 'big city': Anchorage.

OK, OK. The truth is, with three of our kids (well, young adults) flying in to join us for a week we needed to stock up on a few essentials at Costco & Walmart.

We had hoped to combine our shopping with picking the kids up in Anchorage however as our shopping list continued to grow it was quickly apparent we could not get the 3 kids and their luggage plus MLA & myself plus the groceries/supplies all into the CR-V. Well, I could have done it but MLA vetoed my idea of strapping one of the boys to the hood...

So we made a quick trip into Anchorage, did our shopping and then a quick trip back. Truthfully, it helped keep us busy so the day passed by relatively quickly. The anticipation of seeing the kids has MLA as giddy as a schoolgirl at the Sadie Hawkins Dance. I tell you, now would be a good time to ask her for just about anything.... however she normally says yes to any of my requests anyhow so I have everything I need and more.

All the pictures are from the Kenai River on the Kenai Peninsula. Truly one of the prettiest places in Alaska.

Oh yeah, MLA and I just joined Facebook and have been having a great time learning our way around the social networking world... it's easy to use and I've been surprised how much more you learn about what's going on with your friends and family than you do with regular e-mail. No interest in twitter at this time however Facebook is very cool!

Tomorrow the kid's flight gets into Anchorage around 7 pm; I'll have to find something to keep MLA occupied or she'll drive me crazy. Although many of my friends would tell you that driving me crazy is a short trip...

See Ya!

Cooper's Landing, Alaska: This Place Is For The Birds

Our trip to the Alaska Sealife Center in Seward, Alaska yesterday showcased only a few of the birds that live in Alaska for at least a part of the year. There are major flyways in Alaska that birds use to migrate between the summer nesting rookeries and the winter nesting grounds. Millions of birds migrate into Alaska.

We spent the day in camp getting ready for Scott, Christopher & Rachael to arrive on Saturday. Lots to do on our end. Mary Lynn and I have become pretty adept at living in our RV full-time; it fits us like a glove.

That glove however is tailor-made for two people in our RV. I have always said our RV 'fits' six for drinks, four for dinner and sleeps two. That's been a pretty good rule for us so far. When we invited our sons and daughter-in-law to join us in Alaska for a week we had planned on renting a cabin for them to use.

Come to find out, cabins are pretty scarce here in Alaska. Unlike their counterparts in the lower 48, most campgrounds do not rent cabins. The few cabins that are available are oriented to (and already rented by) fishermen. Many fish camps have a few cabins and allow fishermen to park their own RV's at the fish camp.

Alaska campgrounds are already a no frills version of campgrounds in the lower 48. For a place that has as much land as Alaska has, the campground spaces are downright small. Usually just long enough for the RV and very narrow so that by the time you extend your slides you can literally touch the RV next to you.

In addition, many campgrounds do not have hook-ups. Even basics like electricity and water are rare. With five of us staying in the RV we definitely need to have hook-ups.

That said, we have found a great campground attached to one of the Princess Hotels in Coopers Landing. Princess has five lodges in Alaska that are offered to their cruise passengers as excursions. In fact, the lobby of the lodge has an excursions desk where you can book additional activities here in Alaska. Reminded me of the cruises we have taken in the past. Except for the dog sledding and glaciers hikes which are pretty rare on the cruises we've taken to the Bahamas, the Caribbean and Mexico.

Tomorrow we head into Anchorage to get everything stocked and ready to go. Anchorage and Fairbanks are like just about any other large town/small city in the lower 48: plenty of Walmarts, Costco's Sam's Club, grocery stores and malls to meet your needs. As soon as you get out of Anchorage or Fairbanks the shopping options change dramatically. Small general stores are the rule, and they over flow with tons of the typical tourist offerings.

Every gift remotely associated with Alaska or anything that has enough of a flat surface to be engraved with the word ALASKA is available. T-shirts of course plus the ubiquitous ULU knife (handy type of knife with a rounded blade used by native Alaskans), hand made knives, many featuring antler handles, lots of carved ivory, carved wood, carved bones, carved antlers (you get the idea that carving is popular and the winters are long), hand made dolls, furs, fur coats, fur hats, fur gloves, fur scarves, fur earmuffs, clothing made from animal skins (political correctness is very much a lower 48 construct) along with the usual assortment of tourist offerings.

The places to get food, gas, and groceries are few and far between so you need to plan accordingly. It's not a big deal during the summer however it's obvious you need to very careful and thoughtful about items that most of us take for granted if you live outside Anchorage, Fairbanks, or Juneau. Making sure you have adequate food, shelter, fuel for home/vehicles, etc. during Alaskan winters is serious business.

God, it's beautiful here. Even with the haze from the wildfire's smoke, the beauty of the lakes and mountains hits you every time you step outside or round another bend.

See Ya!

Seward, Alaska: Alaska Sealife Center - Rescue & Rehabilitaion

What a great day! Currently there are several wildfires in Alaska which is typical for this time of year, or so I'm told. Apparently lightning is the main culprit, especially in the interior. And with all of the good weather, conditions are ripe for fires to start easily and spread quickly.

So, despite lots of smoke in the air for the last two days we continue to have a great time. A little hazy in the distance and there is a distinct smell of smoke when you first go outside. They weather here has been very warm and dry.

Today we drove over to Seward which is about an hour away. We wanted to see the Alaska Sealife Center, which has a terrific reputation in the area -- especially for their Rescue and Rehabilitation programs.

Mary Lynn and I took the behind-the-scenes tour at the Sealife Center. We've done that before at various attractions (like the Biltmore in Ashville NC) and it has always been worth the few extra dollars. The Sealife Center's behind-the-scenes tour was very well done; our guide was Mereth and she knew a lot about the center as well as the rescue & rehabilitation programs.

Rescue & rehabilitation is an important part of the Sealife Center's responsibilities. Wounded or abandoned seals, sea lions, etc. are brought to the center and nursed back to a point where they can be released back into the wild. Every effort is made to separate the animals from all human contact as well as interaction/contact with the other animals.

Human contact is avoided so the animals maintain their fear of humans. This includes not talking around the R&R animals and feeding remotely. Feeding remotely can be a simple as throwing food over the wall to using something they call a fish cannon, which fires food through a 'cannon' directly into the animals pool.

There are three main exhibits: Stellar Sea Lion, Sea Otter, and Seabirds plus several smaller displays including a very cool 'touch me' exhibit filled with anemones, sea cucumbers, starfish, spiny urchins, small crabs, etc. Loved touching these animals; the feeling is something you have to do for yourself although MLA declined. She's a little squeamish about touching anything a little 'squishy'. She did touch the spiny urchin so I have to give her credit; that was a big step for her!

The Stellar Sea Lion exhibit had both a male and a female. The male weighs in at a whopping 2200 pounds while the female is 'only' 500 pounds. The male was fun to watch as he thundered around the exhibit but most of all it was very cool to hear his bark booming throughout the area.

The Sea Otter exhibit normally houses seals however it is currently home to a sea otter named Skittle that has been nursed back to health. Unlike most seals and seabirds that are returned to the wild after rehabilitation, sea otter requires so much human contact that they

become attached to their handlers. So Skittle, who was found abandoned and half frozen to a float plane dock, will be sent to the New York Aquarium on Coney Island.

Best of all for me was the aviary, which holds ten varieties of Alaskan seabirds: Red-legged Kittiwakes, Pigeon Guillemots, Harlequin Ducks, Common Murres, Black Oystercatchers, Tufted Puffins, Horned Puffins, King Eiders, Rhinoceros Auklets and Long Tailed Ducks.

What a great opportunity to take some great bird photos.

We spent this evening finishing our plans for next week. Our oldest son Christopher and his wife Rachael plus our second oldest son, Scott, all arrive in Anchorage Saturday evening. Mary Lynn & I are so excited we can hardly sit still. Traveling full time in an RV is terrific and has many rewarding pluses; one drawback has been having much less contact with our four children. Our daughters visited us in Arizona last fall and we really enjoyed ourselves.

In any case, having our boys and our daughter-in-law here will be a real treat. We have tentatively planned to take them deep sea fishing, on the Kenai Fjords Wildlife & Glacier Tour, a raft trip, a drift fishing trip, and, if they are not too tired, a few hikes. Actually, it's much more likely that MLA & I will be too tired for the hikes!

In any case, towards the end of next week we will move up to Anchorage where we are getting together with the parents of a young man that Christopher works with. We have only spoken with Cindy and Don via phone however they have been incredibly helpful, offering advice on activities and information on what's happening in the area. We are really looking forward to meeting them in person.

Sounds like a ton of fun.

See Ya!