July 30, 2009 Day 31

Len and I woke up today (Thurs, 7/30) and saw the glacier mountains surrounding Seward for the first time. The fog lifted and our jaws dropped! Pics attached of the view we saw from our campsite this morning. It didn't last very long, tho'. By the time we left Seward (about 4 p.m.), it was rainy and foggy again.

We left Seward and headed over towards the other side of the Kenai Peninsula this afternoon. About half way there (between Soldotna and Kasilof) we spotted a HUGE bull moose in a marshy area alongside the road. (pics attached) He was the highlight of our journey today.

We arrived in Ninilchik about 8 p.m. this evening. We arranged for a halibut fishing charter in the morning. It's a 6 hour fishing trip with a 5 a.m. departure! Those of you that know me, know that this will be a challenge (not the fishing...the departure time!). I've got everything ready for the morning. Now, it's just a matter of getting to bed and getting some sleep. It doesn't help matters that it stays light until 11 p.m. at night up here! Time for bed....

Good night!

July 29, 2008 Day 30

Len and I went on a glacier/wild life tour on Wednesday out of Seward, AK. The boat left the dock at 10 a.m. The weather was rainy, windy, and cold. They warned us before we left that the seas were not optimal, and that they may not be able to make it all the way to the glacier. We had the option of cancelling and getting our money back, or, take our chances. We took our chances and boarded the boat (how many times does one get to Alaska, after all??). It wasn't even 20 minutes into our trip and the captain spotted some orca whales in the Resurrection Bay waters. As we rounded the peninsula and hit the open waters of the Gulf of Alaska, things started to get pretty rough. Several passengers got seasick. Fortunately, we did not. We got into calmer waters and the captain continued to point out wildlife. In the water we saw black seals, sea otters, puffins, jellyfish, and stellar sea lions. Male stellar sea lions can reach up to 2,000 lbs and they don't bark like black seals. They growl like lions! As we got closer to the glacier, we saw mountain goats, bald eagles, and black bear (on land, of course; not in the water, duh)

The Aialik Glacier was like something I've never seen. This particular glacier comes right up to the water's edge. The glacier wall is over 800 feet high at the water's edge. We were able to get within 1/4 mile of the glacier and witness a lot of "calving". Calving is where portions of the glacier break off and hit the water. You actually hear the "splash" about a second after it falls into the water.

On our way back to Seward, we were able to see a humpback whale (the largest of whales) "blow". A blow is where they surface and then exhale a huge spout of water, which can be seen up to a mile away. They then go back under for another 6-8 minutes of swimming before resurfacing again. They can resurface up to a mile from where they went under. Amazing!

The cruise tour also included an all-you-can-eat silver salmon and prime rib dinner on their private island: Fox Island. For an addtional $15 you could add a pound of Alaskan King crab legs (my favorite!).

It was an 8 and 1/2 hour cruise (lunch and dinner) and well worth it!! (pics attached)

Pics from Last Post- these can be enlarged :-)

July 26-28, 2009 Days 27-29

As previously noted, we arrived in Alaska on Sunday. It was one of our longest days of travel thus far, but we so desperately wanted to get there! We traveled 521 miles and were on the road for 11 ½ hours. We started the day by coming within feet of hitting a large brown bear! We had only been on the road for 5 minutes when he came barrelling across the street (just outside of Teslin, Yukon). Whew! It goes without saying that bears have the right of way up here!

We finally landed in Tok (sounds like poke), AK about 7 p.m. at a little campground called Eagle Trail State Recreation Area. The last 30 miles of driving in the Yukon (on the Alaskan Highway) were awful! The road was so “humpty-dumpty”; it was like being on a rolling sea. Apparently, they’ve tried many things to fix that problem, but, no matter how many times they fix it, it keeps reverting back to that rolling/bumpy road. It has something to do with the permafrost. One could almost benefit from a dose of Dramamine on this stretch of road.

Monday we drove to Anchorage and camped at Eagle River Campground in the Chugach State Park. It took us over 8 hours to get from Tok to Anchorage. You don’t get anywhere fast in this state, that’s for sure. But, it was a beautiful drive along the Tok Cut-Off Hwy between Tok and Anchorage. We stopped alongside the highway at one point and I took pictures of either side of the highway. Note the difference: there is a wide angle shot and a close-up of both sides of the road. (pics attached)

As we approached Anchorage, it started to rain. We suddenly realized that we had not experienced ANY rainy days on this trip up until that point. We were supposed to meet up with Len’s cousin when we reached Anchorage, but, unfortunately she was down with the flu. So, we decided that we would head down to Seward for a couple of days and then catch up with her on our return trip, once she’s feeling better.

Tuesday, we headed down to Seward. Seward is a quaint little, coastal town on the Kenai Peninsula (pop 3,000). The Kenai Peninsula is a temperate rain forest. Which means…it rains a LOT! They have had 12 straight days of rain (and no sunny days in the foreseeable future). The normal highs for this time of year are only in the 50’s. I don’t mind the rain, and I don’t mind the 50 degree weather. What I do mind is the fact that the rain clouds are blocking my view of (what I imagine is) the beautiful glacier mountains that totally surround this town! It’s like living in a fog down here. Regardless, the Alaskan salmon is abundant, fresh, and delicious to the taste. :-)

July 26, 2009 Day 27

WE MADE IT!!!! :-)

We crossed the border from Yukon, Canada into Alaska at 5:00 P.M. on Sunday, July 26, 2009! At last! Proof attached.

July 23-25, 2009 Days 24-26

We've been logging some serious miles these last 3 days: averaging 406 miles a day and 10 1/2 hours a day behind the wheel. Arggghhh!!! We crossed over into the Yukon Territory this afternoon (Saturday). Even tho' the days have been long, the scenery has been anything but boring. It is now becoming commonplace to see all types of wild life alongside the road. Today alone we saw caribou, bear, and bison. Yesterday we saw moose and stone sheep. Still waiting to see a grizzly bear. There are certain areas where they say you can spot them alongside the road. We are traveling on the Alaskan Highway now, and I am here to tell you, it is like traveling in "no man's land". Every 60 miles or so there is a gas station and maybe (if you're lucky) a restaurant. In between, it is open road, trees, rivers, mountains, lakes, and wild animals. (pics attached) There are frequent patches of gravel road where they are repairing the highway. It makes for a very hazardous and dusty ride at times. We've already caught one rock to the windshield.

We figure another 800 miles (2 more days) and we will reach Anchorage.

Happy Birthday Dear Zoey!!!! We love you and miss you!!

July 22, 2009 Day 23

Today we drove along the Icefields Parkway. It straddles 2 provinces (British Columbia and Alberta) and it goes thru’ 2 Canadian National Parks: Banff and Jasper, and requires a $20 park pass to get on the parkway. What an incredibly beautiful drive! It’s a scenic drive about 138 miles long. There are 7 large icefields (and about 25 smaller ones) within viewing distance along the highway. Icefields are large upland glaciers. The largest icefield is the Columbia Icefield and it is located at about the halfway mark. With all the scenic turnouts, it takes almost 4 hours to traverse this section of highway. (pics attached)

Once we finished that little scenic tour, we started looking for a place to spend the night. We happened upon a British Columbia Provincial (State) Park: Robson Meadows Campground. It sits at the foot of Mt. Robson which is the highest mountain in the Canadian Rockies (pic attached).

Canada Oh Canada!!! I never knew it was this pretty!

Canada does lack in cell phone coverage as well as internet service. We have to really seek out the internet cafes, etc, in order to stay in touch with our ‘homelanders’.
Miss you all!!

July 19-21, 2009 Days 20-22

Sunday, July 19, we went back into Glacier National Park. We hiked one of the many trails. We chose a 3 mile hike around John’s Lake (one of the 250 glacier lakes inside the park). We chose this particular one because it only had an elevation change of 160 feet. Some of them were as much as 1,000 ft or more. It was a beautiful hike sans grizzly bears or moose. We did see a big pile of bear poop right on the trail, tho’. Even tho’ we were armed with our newly purchased bear mace, we were still very aware of our surroundings. In one of the pamphlets, I read where, on the average, 2 people every year are mauled by grizzly bears inside the park. Fortunately, we weren’t those two!

After our hike, we drove over to where McDonald Creek (coming down from the mountains) dumps into Lake McDonald (the largest of the glacier lakes in the park). We donned our waders and did a little fishing. No luck, however. (pic attached of Lk McDonald and the outlet where we fished)

On Monday, we were going to head back into the park in the morning and do some bicycling on one of the bike paths, but, due to Len’s discovery of a flat tire on the toyhauler, that plan was foiled. Len took the tire into town (Columbia Falls, MT) and got it fixed and then that afternoon, we went for an interpretive bus tour up to Logan’s Pass. We had already driven up to Logan’s Pass on our own on Saturday, but, it was nice to have a tour guide to point things out, and it was nice for Len to be able to look around at the view this time. Logan’s Pass is as high as you can go in the park (driving, that is – you can hike to higher peaks, if you dare). We saw mountain goats up there and bighorn sheep. (pics attached) Later that evening, we went back into the park again and hiked the Trail of the Cedars. It’s a beautiful trail that makes you feel almost like you are in an enchanted forest. The cedars and the black cottonwoods are hundreds of years old. (pic attached)

Tuesday, we left Montana, and the US of A, in the rear view mirror and headed into Canada. We’re getting close now! We crossed into Canada at Roosville, MT. Our drive thru’ Alberta and then into British Columbia has been unbelievably goooorgeous! I swear, every mile of the way just gets more beautiful! We have been travelling right alongside the Canadian Rockies. We stopped in Parson, BC at Quinn Creek Campground to camp for the night. When we pulled in at 7 p.m., we were the only ones camping here tonight, but a “Just Married” car just pulled in. (And, we thought it was going to be a quiet night ;-). (pics attached of our “front yard” and our “back yard” at this campground)

Pics from Last Post- these can be enlarged :-)

July 14-17, 2009 Days 15-18

We had a good time last Tues cruising all around the 9 mile long Fremont Lake outside Pinedale, WY on our friends’ pontoon boat. Saw about 8 or 9 osprey nests, some with baby osprey’s poking their little heads out. (pic attached of osprey nest w/ mom and dad O)

Len went out fishing that night and caught a 20 in brown trout on the raging Green River. The next morning (Wed) he dirt biked up into the Wind River mountains to Burnt Lake and fished some more. That evening he got permission to fish a private creek (Towsack?), near the headwaters of the Green River. On Thurs, he fished the Green River just outside our campsite at Whiskey Grove in the Bridger Nat’l Forest. All in all, he said he has caught more fish in the last 3 days than he has in the last 5 yrs on the Baldwin River in Michigan. He’s caught brown trout, rainbows, brookies, and he thinks a grayling. Alas, fishing in MI will never be the same for him.

While Len was out fishing on Wed morning, I had a knock on my trailer door at the campsite. It was a forest ranger. He told me that the sheep herders across the river had lost their dogs (ran away), so don’t be alarmed if some stray dogs come into the campground. Then he proceeded to tell me that the coolers we had left outside the trailer were a violation in bear country. I said to him, “Oh, but there’s no food inside of them…only beer, water, and pop.” He said to me, “Bears love beer, too!” I thought he was joking, but then my brother sent me this link to a true story about bears and beer (HILARIOUS!): http://www.usatoday.com/news/offbeat/2004-08-18-beer-bear_x.htm

We left Wyoming on Friday morning. It was hard to say goodbye to my girlfiend of more than 30 yrs (Bethie-pic attached) and her family, but we had an awesome week of catching up and reliving days gone by. Thanks for everything, Bethie (and Benny and Will)!

We travelled for 9 hours and 368 miles on Friday and finally landed in Butte, Montana (via Idaho). Montana is shaping up to be an incredibly beautiful state – The Big Sky State. (pic attached of sunset Friday night)

Saturday morning we left Butte, MT and headed for Hungry Horse, MT, which is about 20 miles away from the entrance to Glacier National Park. We got to Hungry Horse in time to set up camp and then head over to the Park. We drove the Going-to-the-Sun Rd (inside the Park) which takes you up into the highest elevations of the Park. The beauty in this park is indescribable! It just makes you want to sing, “America the Beautiful” at the top of your lungs!! (If I was with my sisters, we probably would have!) I’ve attached 2 pics inside the park (even tho’ we took over 150!).

Heading back to GNP on Sunday to do more sightseeing. One could easily spend 2 weeks in this park and still not see or do everything.

Pics from Last Post- these can be enlarged :-)

July 8,9,10,11,12,13 Days 9-14

Well, since my last post, we have moved into the great, expansive state of Wyoming (where there are PLENTY of deer and antelope playing). We have friends that live in Pinedale, WY (about an hour and a half drive south of Jackson Hole, WY): Bethie and Benny Rogers, and their 18yr old son, Will. We’ve sort of landed here in Pinedale for a while, and, thanks to the incredible hospitality of Bethie and Benny, we are soaking in some magnificent sights, including the omnipresent Rocky Mts.


Last Wed (7/8/09), we reluctantly left the beautiful state of South Dakota and drove over to Wyoming to see Devils Tower. (pic attached) Devils Tower was designated the 1st National Monument by Teddy Roosevelt back in 1906. (I can only imagine how commercialized it would be today if he hadn’t done that.) It’s a popular rock climbing destination also, and we saw 3 different rock climbing parties on its walls that day. We hiked the Tower Trail which is a 1.3 mile trail around the base of the Tower.



From Devils Tower we drove to Buffalo, WY and spent the night. It was a white knuckle drive the entire way. We were climbing into some serious elevation levels and fighting 40 mile an hour headwinds. There were several hills we climbed where we could only get the truck up to 25 miles per hour. And, we weren’t even in the Rockies yet! Needless to say, I was a nervous wreck and I don’t think Len was having a real good time either.

We got up Thurs morning with a palpable sense of dread. Pinedale, WY was our next stop, and we had to cross over the Rocky Mts to get there! It was 386 miles to Pinedale from Buffalo and it took us 9 ½ hours!! And again, the winds were very strong!! But, by the grace of God, we made it! :-)

We stayed at Bethie and Benny’s house on Thursday night, and Friday morning we pulled into our campsite at Fremont Lake in the Bridger National Forest. Friday night we went to the annual Rendezvous Rodeo at the Pinedale Rodeo Grounds, and then first thing Saturday morning we drove over to Lander, WY (2 hour drive from Pinedale) and bought ourselves a little souvenir: a 2009, 4x4, ¾ ton, Duramax (diesel) Chevy Silverado with Allison transmission. The Rocky Mts got nothin’ on us now!! J No more nail biting as we travel further north into more mountainous country. Oh, and did I mention that this particular truck is the Wyoming Edition. Other than a cowboy riding a bucking bronco sewn into the headrests on the 2 front seats, I’m not entirely sure what the Wyoming Edition all entails.

Saturday night we went to the Rodeo again and on Sunday we went to the 74th annual Green River Rendezvous Pageant. It was an outdoor play, of sorts, complete with teepees, covered wagons, horses, mountain men, and Indians, with a Rocky Mt backdrop. It told a historical story of this area between the years of 1832-1840. Very elaborately done. (pic attached)
Sunday night, Bethie and Benny took Len and me on a drive out into the Green River Valley. The scenery is indescribable! We also found another campground, called Whiskey Grove (in the Bridger Nat’l Forest), which is right on the mighty Green River. We could not resist the beauty of this campground, so, this morning (Monday), we packed up the trailer and put the new truck to its first test, and set up camp right on the river. The rushing sound of the river is soooo invigorating! We just have to be vigilant about the bears. There are signs posted on the road just outside of the campground: Bear Country Beware. Len is anxious to do some fly fishing and possibly canoeing.

Monday night, Bethie, Benny, and their son, Will, came out to the campground (about 40 min outside of Pinedale), and we had a beautiful campfire on the banks of the Green River. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many stars in the sky! Will brought us an 18 inch cutthroat trout that he had caught earlier in the day.
Tomorrow (Tues), we are going out for a pontoon boat ride around Fremont Lake, which is 9 miles long, 1 mile wide, and 600 feet deep. (pic attached) Then, it’s back to the Green River for a steak, crab legs, and trout cookout.

Life is good!

Pics from Last Post- these can be enlarged :-)