June 28 - Anchorage

Beaconing is back !!!

We finally got the gun  and headed off to Valdez. The drive down was spectacular! Valdez is called "Little Switzerland". A lot of the road ran through gorges between these huge mountain ranges some of which were 10,000 feet or more high. Then we would round a corner and there would be beautiful alpine valleys stretching for miles in to the distance. Many different glaciers and lots of gorgeous waterfalls. We even saw a bear and 2 moose! We were excited.  Valdez has a lot of history. In 1964 the old town of Valdez was the epicenter for a 9.4 earthquake which wiped out the town. It had been built  at the time of the gold rush as it was thought the gold miners could climb up the Valdez Glacier and cross the icefield as a shorter route to the Klondick. Unfortunately that wasn't any easier a route than crossing the mountains from Skagway  up to the Klondike. We also got our first glimpses of part of the pipieline as it ends in Valdez. The old town was built on silt and permafrost so  when the earthquake hit the land simply liquified. Instead of rebuilding the town it was relocated several miles further to the West and was completely rebuilt. The houses that weren't destroyed in the earthquake were moved to the new town. Everything else was burned to the ground.

Of course we all know about the oilspill that took place in there in  1989.  The town was quite nice. There were 7 RV parks there. If they were all full the RV's would outnumber the people in the town. We spent the night at the Harbor. While we were having dinner that night a couple drove up in front of us towing a trailerable sailboat  boat that they had just purchased. Garry and I watched while Peter tried to get it rigged. As you can imagine Garry couldn't stand watching him struggle so he went out  after dinner and offered to help him. Peter was very thankful and gave us a couple of beers when they were finished. It was now about 10:30 at night and he and his wife Sarah and 3 year old Chance were going to launch it and motor around the harbor for an hour or so to test it out.  Seems strange given the time of night but remember we are in Alaska and it stays light until  after midnight so it made perfect sense?!!!! The next day we toured the Remembering Old Town Valdez museum and the Valdez Museum which talked about the gold rush and the pipeline. As we headed out of town we stopped by the terminus of the pipeline.  we then started on our way to Anchorage. We spent the night in an RV park as we needed to get plugged in to rechrage the phones, cameras and  the computer.

We arrived in Anchorage on Sunday and are visiting with our new found sailing friends  Mary and John. Both are pilots and have had several airplanes. We had met them at the laundromat in Ketchikan. Thay have been so gracious to us. I did 3 loads of laudry last night and we actually soaked in a  bath and slept in a queen size bed last night. It was hard to get use to all the space! This morning we toured the Ulu knife factory in Anchorage after which they gave us a tour of the city. Unfortunately we had a cloud cover and we have not been able to see Mt. McKinley. Maybe tomorrow.

We then drove down to Lake Stenard and Lake Hood which are connected by 2 canels one of which is used for taxiing and the other is used for take off of  seaplanes. The lake fronts are surrounded with seaplane slips which had little plane sheds next to the slipways.  Just like boats but planes instead. In the winter the floats come off and ski's are put on as the lakes freeze in the winter.  This odd looking car is what they use to pul the planes out of the water  when the planes need some maintenance. This is the Travellift for planes. We then toured the Aviation Heritage Museum which has a lot of WWII planes in various stages of restoration. It was a fun day and we are all tired. We will see what mischief we can get into here tomorrow. After dinner the sun came out and the cloud cover was breaking up. John thought we had a 50/50 chance of seeing Mt. McKinley so off we went to take a drive.  He also thought we might see moose and mountain goats. We also went out to beluga Point hoping to see Beluga Whales. It was 10:00 at night. We saw a glimpse of the mountain through the haze but were not able to get a good picture. We were rewarded with the moose photo below, but not goats. We actually saw two moose from only 15 feet away, so we got up close and personal with them.

June 25 - Tok, Alaska

We are beaconing again- well sometimes, but at least we are in Alaska, so please keep checking on our progress in "we are here" as we are in the interior now.I have to catch up with several days. We were planning on taking a tour of a Dog Sled Summer camp on June 21. We were in our assigned pick up spot at 11AM that morning but had to call to find where the driver was. We finally found each other and off we went to the camp. Unfortunately when we got there the gate was locked! The driver called the company and they told her to go back into town and pick up some passengers off the cruise ship who were scheduled for the next tour. So off we went back to town and were then told that there were so many cruise passengers that the van would be full ( it sitted 12) and we would now have to wait until 4 to tour. We were not happy. However I fortunately had a 2 for 1 coupon for that tour so we were only paying for 1 and I felt like I couldn't grumble too much. Anyway we went back at 4 and had a great tour. We met a couple of Iditerod Mushers and all the dogs. There were about 100 dogs  at the camp. They were all lting about quietly ( some where on top of their doghouses) until the mushers started to hook the 12 dogs to our cart and then they all started barking and leaping around as they all wanted a turn to pull the cart. What a noise.

They had modified a cart so that it could be attached to the dog leads. They do this in the summer to keep the  dogs  exercised and to help them  stay in shape pulling it. It was a blast. We reached about 10 miles an hour. After the ride we were able to see, hold and pet some 6 week old musher dogs. Cute. As a compensation to us the tour company gave us each a cap and a stuffed musher dog which we have called "Musher.

We then drove back out to the Mendenhall Glacier and had dinner out there looking at the Glacier. It was pouring rain the next day but we were catching the ferry to Haines so it didn't really matter.  We arrived in Haines at 7PM and drove out to a State Park for the night. It was a beautiful, wooded area. MOSQUITOES!!!! The next day (June 23) we toured Haines. They had a nice Museum that talked about the Mining in the area and a small Raptor Center that specialized in Owls. They had a Barn Owl and a Horned Owl there. Other than that we were not impressed with that town. We spent the night out at the other end of town at Mosquito Lake C.G. Garry had been told there was good fishing there. I wondered about his willingness to camp someplace with the word Mosquito in it but it was his choice. Suffice it to say the campground was aptly named!!!! and he didn't get a fish. However we did see a pair of nesting Swans.

Yesterday we decided to leave Haines and start our drive to Tok. That is a nice thing about not being locked in to a ferry schedule anymore. We can now drive whereever we want to go. It was still a drizzly day when we left. We hadn't gone 4 miles when we saw a BEAR in the middle of the road!! Finally!  40 miles outside of town we crossed into Canada for the first time. After hearing all sorts of horror stories we didn't have any problems. We stopped for fuel in Haines Junction, BC. Everything in Canada is in liters and we are confused!! As we were standing there a guy walked up to us and asked if we were heading to Tok. We said we were and he asked if he and his wife could get a ride with us. Huh??? They were young, clean cut and trying to meet some friends. It had cost us $ 67.00 for fuel and he offered to pay for the gas and immediately gave us $ 80.00. So we agreed to take them to Tok. They sat on the floor the whole way. The road was terrible as it is built over permafrost and suffers from frost heave. But the drive was beautiful as it goes through several mountain ranges. We had hoped to see more wildlife but no luck. We had to cross the border back into Canada so we let Scott and Reem out before the bordrrf so they could walk across. The Border Patrol told us that was the correct thing to do and we then picked them up on the other side and away we went. We finally made it into Tok about 7:30 last night. We said goodbye to Scott and Reem and headed to a restaurant for dinner as we had an extre $ 80.00 in our pocket and it was Garry's Birthday. This is a very small town and not much is here. We filled up the camper again at a Chevron station which then allows campers to stop overnight in the field behind the station. They also had a car/rv wash which we used as we were covered in dust and mud from the drive up. We checked with the gun store here today  but what a Snafu we are having with the gun. It probably won't get here now until July 3 and we have a reservation  to go white water rafting in Hope on the Kenai Peninsula that day. I don't want to talk about it !!!!! So I am not sure where we go from here. I hope we are going down to Valdez.

FANTASTIC DAY!!!!!!!! June 20

Double click on the photo to get a great big view!!!

We were up early and down to the dock to catch a boat ( Captain Cook) for an all day trip up the Tracy Arm Fjord to see the Sawyer Glacier. It is a sunny, beautiful day and we are stoked.  This tour is through Adventure Bound  and the Captains name is Steve. On the way there we saw a pod of Orca Whales, and a  Humpback Whale. There were the most beautiful blue iceburgs at the entrance to Tracy Arm and one of them had 2 Eagles sitting on top.

 This is a true Fjord with a very narrow approach  with gigantic 5000 + feet mountains just in either side of the boat. the depth was 1900 feet right up to the walls and was 900 feet at the head pf the Glacier.  Many waterfalls each one more spectacular that the last. The river had many twists and turns and around each bend was another gotgeous view and scenery. Absolutely breath taking.  There was a tremendous amount of iceburgs  before we got to the final bend for the Glacier and it took Steve quite a while to maneuver the boat through them all.

When we finally made the last turn we all gasped as not only was the Glacier  spectacular but the ice floe field in front of the Glacier was coverd with about 50 harbor seals and their pups. They were so cute and inquisitive. Steve kept some distance away from the colony as they  having their young and he didn't want to disturb them too much. Once he had made his  way to the Glacier he cut the engine and we just drifted. Within 10 minutes we saw the Glacier calving and watched as a chunk of the Glacier fell off making a big splash. Fantastic!!! We were priviledged to see it repeat that process 3 more times while we drifted in the area. It all happens so fast it is hard to get a pictute. We do have one picture showing some of the splash it made. The pictures don't really show the colors well. The left side of the Glacier had the prettiest Blue Ice. We finally had to head back but then Steve took us back along the opposite side of the Fjord and we saw several more gorgeous waterfalls and some flowers growing in the rock. When we got out to the Main Channel we saw a Humpback Whale Breaching!!! Not once but 6!!!! times he jumped completely out of the water and the last time he actually did a somersault! Awesome.

Shortly thereafter we saw another pod of Orca Whales and this one had some babies with it. They were extraordinary too!  As if that wasn't enough we finally saw BEARS!!!!!! along the shore. This has been the best day ever!! I have run out of adjectives/superlatives to discribe what we have seen! It was  a great, great day and the weather was sunny, beautiful and in the 70's. We are exhausted as we didn't get back to the dock until  almost 7PM.  We took over 150 pictures today but we are too tired to download them tonight. We still don't have a great signal so we will try to get todays downloaded tomorrow and get pictures in our blog of the last 2 days. Tomorrow we have another tour scheduled so stay tuned.

Juneau - June 19 2nd post

Double click on the photos to get a great big picture!!

We got a late start today as we Skyped with Karen and the boys this morning.. They had just received the Eagle tee-shirts I sent and wanted to show them off to me. It was a sunny day! How unusual. We stopped by a gun shop to get the scoop for mailing the gun to Tok. Finally got to the Glacier Garden Rainforest. Spring is finally getting here and I was so soothed to see blooming flowers and plants. This garden was beautiful and we were eventually taken up 380 feet into the rainforest where we had a great view across the Gastineau Channel. The most interesting thing here were the upside down trees. It is a long story but basically the owner, while recaliming the site following a mudslide, on the last day of a rental of an excavator damaged the equipment and in a foul mood he picked up a huge tree trunk and tossed it down the hill. It landed upside down and buried itself in the ground. He noticed it had some growth coming out of the root side of the tree. He has become well known for that. He takes out tree stumps with roots, covers them with chicken wire, covers that with moss and plants up to 75 flowering plants in the moss. They look like flower umbrellas with the beautiful flowers cascading down. They were so pretty. They probably look like heck in the winter but right now they are gorgeous.

After finishing that tour we went into town and had lunch at the Twisted Fish. Garry had more fish ( fried cod and chips) and I had a good old BEEF Hamburger!

I then wanted to ride the Mt. Roberts Tram up to the top of Mt. Roberts and see the view. Garry of course won't do heights so I was going to have to go by myself. The cost was $ 27.00/pp but I had a 2 for 1 coupon. That made me determined to not pay full price for the ticket so I stationed myself  inside the terminal and approached different people as they came in to buy tickets. I did discover that the tram is owned by the natives and all the natives that came in could ride for free; several people worked for the company; several people had yearly passes. I was about to give up and pay the full price when a young man (late 20's???) walked purposely in the door and went straight to the ricket counter and asked to buy a single ticket!!!! So I  I walked up to him and told him I had a proposition for him.  ( I sort of felt like Mrs. Robinson in the movie The Graduate) Of course that shook him  up for a moment but when I explained that I had a 2 for 1 coupon and wanted to find someone to share it with me he quickly handed over $ 13.00. So I called Garry (who was sitting out in the camper reading) and told him I had a date with Ryan to ride the tram - and away I went. It was a very smooth ride to the top which took you up 3500 feet in 7  minutes. Great views.

They had a small raptor center up there but nothing like the one in Sitka. There was also a very nice restaurant up there.  Anyway I got my ride and some pictures and was well satisfied with me outing. When I got back down Garry and I then walked/ hiked  up ( this town is very hilly)  several blocks and visited the Juneau Douglas Museum. This museum not only discussed the native history but had a wonderful exhibit on the mining aspects and the founding of the town based on gold. We learned a lot.  We left there at 5 as the museum was closing.

We were getting tired so decided to head back to the campground but on the way we decided to go back to the brewery and get another couple of glasses of Alaskan Beer since they give the samples out free. It really amaxes us that you can walk in there any time of day and get up to 6 glasses of free beer!

By that time it was after 8 and we hadn't even had dinner. We are still tired as we have yet to get use to the daylight. It really gets you messed up as it is light so late and is bright so early. Tomorrow we have a tour to Tracy Arm scheduled and we have to get a boat at 7:30 AM so it will be an early start for us. No problem because the light gets us up at 4 initially anyway. Usually we can get back to sleep for a little while. No bears seen yet.

Juneau, June 19

We are now in Juneau. This is the capitol of Alaska. We had expected a big city but it is not. It is a lovely town with some old charm to it. The historic area has narrow streets with lots of shops, etc. We are able to park at a lot near the Coast Guard and walk everywhere in town. The town is towered over by huge mountains. In the winter the town is always mindful of the possibility of avalanches which could wipe out the whole area. Occasionally they fire/shot  into the drifts to cause controlled avalanches.

We started our touring here by going out to see the Mendenhall Glacier. It is spectacular to see it up close. It is a half a mile across in the narrow area behind us and over a mile wide at the top area you can see. This is 1 of 38 glaciers that come off of the icefield above. That icefield is the size of Rhode Island. Immense.

There is a bridge across Gastineau Channel that goes over to Douglas Island. One of these pictures is the view from over there down to the city. You can see the mountains in the background. We drove out to the Gold Mining Museum only to find it was closed so we will try to hget back there today. We also  took another brewery tour this time the Alaskan brewery and again sampled a lot of their beer brands.

We are staying in a Campground here and have caught up with a friend of  a friend. Sharon has lived in Juneaus for years and has been so helpful in advising us of things to see and do. We are so fortunate to be traveling the way we are as we are spending several days in different places, we can tour at our leisure and spend as much time as we chose at a particular site. We have a couple of tours lined up the next 2 days so today we are going to do some more things downtown. The sun is actually out today!!!! I have to go.................

Salmon, Seals, Otters and Puffins

Yesterday, June 16, Garry and I went out fishing with Greg. He is the friend of Alicia, our favorite shopkeeper, who befriended us in Sitka. Garry went to fish and I went along for the ride and the scenery.Greg picked us up at 7 AM on a grey, overcast day. What else is new. At least we had only a drizzly mist. On the way out to the fishing spot we saw Otters swimming. They are so cute floating on their backs looking as if they didn't have a care in the world. Once we got out in the Bay the poles went over and within the first hour they had caught a 20# halibut and a 25# King Salmon.Garry was thrilled!!!!!!! We had a Puffin land right next  to the boat which I was thrilled to see. He sat by us all day while we were fishing. He would dive down from time to time and pop up a little way from us and float back over to the boat again. We were out on the water for about 7 hours. They caught many more smaller halibut which were released and 4 very large Lingcod. Unfortunately the season for them had closed the day before so they had to release them all. Greg wondered how they knew the seaon had closed. Several more Salmon  bites but they are wily, fighting fish and they got away much to the guys disappointment.  At one point Sea Lions showed up which was NOT a good thing for trying to catch salmon although I enjoyed watching them play. Just before we decided to head in Garry pulled up a 25# Halibut. When we got back to the dock Greg filleted all the fish. We then went to a private home where Greg had the ability to shrink wrap  everything in plastic bags .  We brought all the Salmon home and a couple of the halibut fillets.  I feel like I am back on the boat again as my entire (small) freezer is loaded with fish and I have 4 packages also in the refrigerator. We had salmon last night, Salmon salad at lunch and Halibut tonight. Am I growing gills yet?

We said our goodbyes to Alicia and Sitka today.  We have really enjoyed Sitka and hated to leave but new destinations call us onward. We had an uneventful ferry ride into Juneau on the Fairweather, a catmaran that does and went 36 knots. We were flying acrosss flat seas and saw a whale on the way. Tonight we are in Spruce Meadow campground and we will be here the next 5 days. After dry camping for the last 5 days we now need to do some chores, laundry, etc. We are only a couple of miles from the Mendenhall glacier and will go see that up close and personal tomorrow.  While we can post the blog on the WiFi here it isn't allowing us to transfer pictures so we will find the Library tomorrow and get the pictures up.

June 15 - Sitka

We just found that if you click on a picture we have posted that you can enlarge it and see things better. We have had an interesting day today. We went into town early as we had been sent on a quest by a friend of ours to find him a local Alaskan made mask. We found a few at the Fairweather Gallery  yesterday where we bought one for ourselves. We sent him pictures of some last night and as he called and asked us to purchase one for him and one for a friend and we wanted to go to the store early and buy it before it got sold. We had purchased a few things there yesterday and have gotten friendly with Allyssa who works there. Her boyfriend is retired and goes fishing everyday. Garry has taken lessons from me and whined a bit  and asked her whether he might be able to go out with Greg fishing tomorrow. She told us she would check with Greg  and to get back with her later.

 So off we went to see a dance troupe present some Russian folk dances. They were very good and had several costume changes. No men because when they were first formed in 1969 the men were more interested in manly pursuits such as hunting and fishing and wouldn't be caught dancing so the women also take the parts of the male dancers. Now that they have gotten so well known and travel to other areas in the lower 48 and other countries in the winter months they have had men express an interest but now the ladies tell them " No thanks" and leave the men home with the children when they travel to present performances. They had their chance! Garry took a video of the complete dance as he did yesterday at the Native dance. Garri is working to see if he can post them on the blog for you all to enjoy.

We then toured the Sheldon Jackson Museum. It is on the grounds of the college which has been closed. There was a wonderful display of all kinds of Tlingit and Haida Indian artifacts.

After lunch we visited the Russdian Bishops house. This is also a NPS historical site. It was interesting to see how it was constructed in relation to historic buildings on the East Coast. This had been constructed with massive beams and logs. All the interior walls were also made of wood planking. There was a large space between the ceiling of one level and the floor of the next which was filled with sand to provide insulation.  It was a 2 story building as the bishops living quarters, including a chapel, were on the 2nd floor while classrooms were on the main level. We walked back into town to have some coffee at a wonderful small coffee shop we had found at the back of the bookstore. Not a Starbucks. They serve Raven brand coffee which is brewed in Anchorage. On the way back to the camper we stopped by the Fairweather Gallery to see Alyssa. She greeted us with the happy news that her friend Greg would be willing to take us out fishing tomorrow!! Garry is very excited. Greg used to be a fishing boat Captain and is very knowledgeable about fishing in the area. We are so hopeful that he can find a Salmon spot for Garry tomorrow. I am going to go along so that I can get a picture if/when Garry gets one and I hope to see more whales. Keep your fingers crossed for us tomorrow. We had decided to hike the Totem trail at the Sitka National Park trail which was a 2 mile hike. This was a pretty trail part of which went along the waterfront. It took us out to the site of the old fort where the Tlingit and the Russians had a battle in 1804. After 6 days of fighting the Tlingit stole away in the night and the Russian recalimed the fort.

We are now back at the library and are exhausted. We are finding that this is an easy town to walk. We park the camper in the morning and don't usually come back to ie except to get some lunch before we go off agian.