Northern Florida

So the weather here in Fairbanks for the past few days has reminded me of winter in Sarasota, FL. Sunny every day, temps in the upper 70s and lower 80s. In the morning, after the Midnight Sun Game, we had to get up and take Jordy for a groomer appointment at 10 AM. Not very good planning. After we dropped him off, we went by the Visitor’s Center here to collect info on some local things to see over the next two days we have left. We also had to find a bike shop to get a new front tire for Ellyn’s bike.

In the afternoon we went to Pioneer Park, which is a recreation of a pioneer town with some old buildings moved from other places, a train that runs around the perimeter, and they hold a big salmon bake. All you can eat salmon, haddock, steak, crab legs, salad, desserts. Kind of pricy but worth it. After dinner, they had a show in their Palace Theater. We had a good time and there was still quite a bit of light left when we came out at 9:30. It can be exhausting here because you feel like you are wasting usable time when you go to bed and the sun is still up.

The next morning Geoff installed the repaired mud flap on the RV and the new tire on Ellyn’s bike. Then we went out for lunch and then to the Museum of the North on the University of Alaska campus. Very nice displays of the local history, some items about Beringia (which we learned about in White Horse, YT), some Alaskan art exhibits, all in a very modern looking building.

We had a plan to go kayaking on the Chena River that afternoon but clouds started building up in an ominous way and it looked like we might get a storm. However, it blew over with just a light sprinkling. We could still have a chance for our kayaking adventure on Sunday.

On Sunday was the conclusion of the Midnight Sun Festival around Fairbanks with a downtown party. There was music and food and vendors, your typical street fair, and it ran from noon to, guess when…right…midnight. They also had a canoe race on the Chena River, which was supposed to involve two people in a canoe with one or more dogs. Kind of a warm weather dog sled race, which usually also occurs on the river when it is frozen over.

We finally got out on the water of the Chena River in our kayaks. Even Jordy took to the water. We put in about 3.2 miles upstream of the RV park and our friend, Ken, drove the car back. Then we pulled out right at the park. It was a nice paddle, although we had a bit of a head wind in a few places. The Chens River winds back and forth many times as it winds its way through Fairbanks.

Tomorrow morning we get back on the road heading south toward Copper Country.

Gold Panning and Baseball in the Midnight Sun

We are here for the longest days of the year and because of the latitude, they are really long. The average number of hours and minutes of daylight, that is, between sunrise and sunset, are 21 hours, 49 minutes. That only leaves 2 hours and 11 minutes for the sun to be below the horizon. This does not leave enough time for the sky to even get dark. And, the Land of the Midnight Sun is real here, since the sun does not set until 12:48 AM. I have probably gone over this before, but I find it fascinating that we are here. The only thing better would be for us to be on or above the Arctic Circle, where the sun does not set at all. It would be possible to go there, but it is hard traveling and we don’t want to risk our car on that road, and we would not be able to overnight there so we could not be there for the whole event.

On our first full day here, we went to the local Farmer’s Market and Geoff went off to find a welder who could fix our mud flap for the RV. A couple days ago we turned into a wayside whose entry was too steep and the mud flap dragged on the pavement and its frame was bent to the point it was dragging on the ground after that. When we got into the next campground, Geoff saw that it could not be repaired easily, so he removed it and we carried it to Fairbanks where he could get a welder to repair or replace it. Now, we are getting a new frame built for it and then the mud flap can be reattached and it will be good as new.

In the afternoon we went on a river boat cruise on the Chena River. This cruise retraced routes used by lots of river boats during the age of the gold rush. It was very well done with a continuous narration going on pointing out historic buildings along the river as well as talking about how people survive in this area in the extreme conditions which exist here in the winter. During that season, the river freezes to the point where people can drive their vehicles over it to get to the store and dog teams run their sleds up and down it. We stopped along the way to see a recreation of a First Nation village and a real dog sled team kennel.

Our second day took us to gold rush country. After the initial claims in this area had been mined as much as they could by individuals, the big companies came in and brought the dredges. These huge machines were built in shipyards, sent to Alaska in pieces, assembled on site, and put to work chewing up and spitting out massive amount of material. If it worked correctly, it also yielded massive amounts of gold for the owners. After they did their jobs, it was not worth the cost of disassembling and taking them away, and usually these machines were designed specifically for the site where they were used, so, most of them are still sitting where they were last used. One of them has been turned into a historical site here in Fairbanks. We got a train ride through the area and learned about the methods used to prepare the land for the dredge. Then we got to do our own gold panning and tour the dredge. We also got to spend a lot of time in their gift shop.

On our way back from the gold dredge, we stopped at a section of the Alaska Pipeline. It is funny that it has already been around since the 70s. We can al remember when it was being built and now we have been able to walk right up to it and touch it.

In the evening it was the Midnight Sun Baseball Game featuring the Alaska Gold Panners vs. the Everett Merchants from Washington State. We were warned to get to the park early as there is not sufficient seating for all the tickets they sell. There were people on lawn chairs behind the outfield fence and in front of the bleachers. We were able to get some inside scoop earlier in the day from the marketing guy that we could sit in a section reserved for friends and family, because it was not fully sold out. The game started at 10:30 PM and went until 1:40 AM. At midnight, they sang the Alaska State Flag Song and the sun finally set at 1:45 AM. When the game was over, there was still an hour left before sun rise and the sky was barely twilight. The Panners won 7-5 in a hard fought game. It was a bit marred by errors but its not Major League ball. The Merchants had a Center Fielder who had a great arm and threw at least two strikes from deep center field to home plate, one that prevented a run scoring.

We’re still here for two more days but I am going to post this to the blog now.

Fairbanks and Fair Weather Ahead!

We left Tok this morning and drove 4 hours to Fairbanks, Alaska, our northern-most stop on our journey. At 64 degrees, 50 minutes north latitude, we are only about 118 miles south of the Arctic Circle. The sun will be up for 21 hours and 50 minutes tomorrow. We have blackout shades for our bedroom, which have already been necessary on this trip since Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada. Although our trip has been fraught lately with cloudy, cool weather and rain, our 5 days here in Fairbanks are predicted to be sunny, mostly clear, and very warm (upper 70s to lower 80s).

Our first stop was just before Delta Junction at the Delta Meat and Sausage Company where they package some wild meats, such as buffalo, elk, and reindeer, as well as pork and beef. We tried various samples and bought some for later dinners.

Our second stop was in Delta Junction, the end of the Alaska highway. We traveled almost all of it. With our side trip to Skagway and then the ferry ride to Haines, we missed the section from White Horse, YT to Haines Junction, YT. At the visitor’s center, Geoff was able to complete his collection of two Alaska highway pins.

When we drove through North Pole, AK, we were going to stop and see the World’s Largest Santa, but when we got off the highway, we spotted a little espresso shack which also sold ice cream (indicated by the ice cream cone on its top). That one out and we opted for milk shakes and skipped the (scary looking, as far as we could tell from the highway) Santa.

When we pulled into the camp grounds, there appeared to be a problem with our reservation. We thought ours was piggy-backed on our friends’ reservation but it turned out not to be the case. We thought we had fallen through the cracks somehow until Ellyn found our reservation email and got things straightened out. As it is, we are here a day early. Day after tomorrow we attend the Midnight Sun Baseball Game here, which starts at 10:30 PM and is played without field lights. We are truly now in the Land of the Midnight Sun, since sunset is not until 12:45 PM!

The internet here at the park seems to be working pretty well, as I was able to upload our blog entries dating back to Haines, AK (3 days ago). Our phone internet also seems to be in pretty good shape, although only at 3G speed. We will survive. At least voice communications have only been interrupted when there was no signal at all and our phone bill seems to reflect the correct charges for our usages and agreement with Verizon. We have cable TV here in our RV park so at least we will be able to get some outside world news. But we are not going to be tied to the TV as there is a lot to see and do here in Fairbanks, Alaska.

A Bumpy Ride Indeed

Today was as exhausting a drive as we have had so far. It wasn’t so much a long one, but over some of the bumpiest road we have encountered so far, even worse than the Ohio Turnpike. Frost heaves and patches and even sections which had been torn up for repaving were the order of the day. From Beaver Creek, Yukon all the way to the US border, we were braking and bumping and accelerating and then braking again. When Geoff finally climbed from the driver’s seat, he felt like he had been run through a ringer, backwards (one of his Mother’s favorite sayings). After entering the US, things got better, although there was still an occasional good reason to be on the binders. I guess the frost heaves are not just relegated to the Yukon.

The weather was a mixed bag. It started out cloudy and rainy, then cleared a bit before turning down-right black and pouring rain on us just before reaching Tok, Alaska, our stop for the night. We are definitely getting up into the northern reaches of our travels. Tonight the sun will not set until 11:45 PM and then it will be right back up again at 3:15 AM. We have our bedroom outfitted with blackout shades on the windows and Jordy’s crate gets covered with a heavy fleece blanket, so we can all get a good night’s sleep. It’s just hard to recognize when it is time to go to bed when the sun is up so late.

Into the Sunshine

Today we headed northwest out of Haines on the Haines Highway on our last leg to Fairbanks and the Summer Solstice. It felt like anything but summer as we left Haines on that cold and rainy morning. The extra day in Haines did not buys us much but a $5.00 salmon dinner. The salmon was very good but the grilling was slow and we were there early. When we left there was still a long line of people waiting to get their food. The feed was at the Southeast State Fairgrounds, a little cluster of buildings within walking distance of our RV park. Earlier in the day a relay bike race had made its way down from Haines Junction into Haines. The bikes rode by near our park and we drove into town to see the finish line. It was a bit anti-climactic and the riders looked all but frozen to their bikes.

Another border crossing today back into Canada. It was not too difficult. They asked mostly about where we had been and how we had gotten into Canada and Alaska and where we were off to next. As we went through the mountain passes, the clouds clung tight to the tops and rain drizzled on us off and on. However, as we approached Haines Junction, and a rejoining to the Alaska Highway, some spots of blue sky started showing through and sunlight shown on some of the flanks of the mountains ahead of us. When we stopped in Haines Junction for lunch, the sun was warm on our backs and the heavy jackets had been left in the rigs.

From Haines Junction we drove about 50 miles to Kluane Lake (clue-ah’-nee). There we stopped at a primitive campground right on the lake side and found a couple of nice campsites with views of the lake. It looked like the start of a nice evening and we even planned for a campfire, but rain moved in from the northwest shortly after dinner.

Haines, Alaska = Cloudy, Rain

Our trip here from Skagway was the easiest so far. Although it would have taken us all day and 350 miles to get here by road, we loaded the RVs and cars onto the ferry in Skagway about 4:00 PM and were in Haines by 5:30. Only about 6 miles of driving was involved. The RV Park knew we were coming because when we pulled in, there was someone there to direct us right to our parking spots. Our rig had a problem right away; the leveling system would not work. It came on but would not start dumping the air bags or lowering the jacks. Geoff started taking it apart to see what the problem was and it magically started working again. That one will probably come back to haunt us again.

After we got plugged in and set up, we jumped in our car and drove to a restaurant down by the harbor. Nice place, good food, but there was only one waitress and the cook there, so the food was kind of slow coming out. This place is “Eagle Central”. You can usually see a bald eagle just about everywhere you look near the water. They are either flying over the water looking for fish, in a tree near the water, looking for fish, or eating a fish.

Ken had to move to another spot so he could try to get his satellite dish aligned properly. He was able to get a TV signal but the dish looks funny because it is nearly straight up and down. Internet access is pretty good in the park here, although I am still having problems uploading stuff. I hope this blog entry goes ok. Perhaps if I do not attach too many photos it will.

Our first full day here we went to the Chilkat State Park and Chilkoot State Recreation Area. In the first, there was a great overlook of Chilkat Inlet, which is west of the peninsula where Haines is. There was one eagle out there fishing and a big flock of Surf Scooters, which would all dive under at once in search of food. From our distance it would appear the flock would get smaller and then suddenly larger again when they would all surface. With our spotting scope it was much easier to see what was going on. Across the inlet, there were a couple of big glaciers we could see. The crevasses of the glaciers were very noticeably blue colored.

In Chilkoot State Recreation Area, we were right on the Lukat River which flows out of Chilkoot Lake, and there are many eagles along that river which fish it. We also saw human fishers there and a fish counting station, which indicated there had been thousands if fish passing up that river this year, but recently very few, probably because it is quite cool out now. We are waiting for summer to catch up with us. Later in the evening we came back and were able to also see bears in this area. These were our first Grizzly Bear spottings. Previously, in the Yukon, we only saw Black Bears.

So far in Alaska, the weather has not been conducive to taking scenic photos. Too bad because the scenery here is probably spectacular. On our third day here we were in touch with a flight sight seeing pilot who Ken had contacted and had told that we were interested in a flight if we could be assured of some clear weather to be able to see glaciers, mountains, etc. He had a flight in the early PM but said, if the weather looked like we would have good viewing, he would call us and we would go out around 5:00 PM. Well, no such luck, so we went out and drowned our sorrows in dinner. We are writing this on Saturday morning and things do not look much better for today.

We extended our stay here for an extra day because there is a bicycle race into town this afternoon and then a free salmon bake and entertainment in the evening. Also, we have 4 extra days before we are due in Fairbanks and only about 640 miles to go to get there. So using an extra day here to be able to get some free salmon and entertainment sounded like a good deal. It looks like much better weather in Fairbanks, but about the same as we have been seeing here until then.

Three Windy Days and Three Windy Nights in Skagway

Did I mention it was windy in Skagway yet? Yes, very windy. It made the 50 degree temps feel like 43. Ouch. Is it June yet? The first evening in Skagway we walked into town. It was pretty much closed. The cruise ships had left and it was Sunday night so most everything had closed. It was very quiet.

The next day, we went into town with two cruise ships in town, it was a bit busier. We went to the Nation Historic Site and took the tour of downtown Skagway. It was fun but would have been more enjoyable if it had not been drizzling and cold out.

We were planning on going back up the White Pass following the steam locomotive pulling the passenger train, which we could not get tickets on because it was sold out. However, the weather was so bad on the way back from downtown, Ellyn and I decided to opt out. Of course, right after that the sun came out for a while.

Our last day in Skagway, we drove up to Dyea and the head of the Chilkoot Trail. this was where the miners in the gold rush of 1898 started their trek to the gold fields by climbing a treacherous trail up over the mountains with 2000 pounds of supplies, making as many as 50 trips up this trail, before they could continue to the gold fields. It seems like there should have been an easier way.

In the evening we went to Lairsville, a historic camp where rushers were able to rest up before hitting the Chilkoot Trail. The site is now used to re-enact the gold rush feel by having you pan for gold and it is topped of with a grilled salmon meal. Very good food, at least.

One of the cool things about being parked right out on the harbor was being able to watch the cruise ships come and go. In preparation for recording the day sky on the solstice in Fairbanks, I used the app on my phone to capture the cruise ships arriving in a time lapsed video, but have been having trouble trying to upload it, even with internet access.

On the last day, we took Jordy into town for a while to walk him around and do a little last minute shopping. Later in the afternoon we got onto the ferry to Haines, Alaska. This saved us about 350 miles of driving and the required fuel to do that drive. The cost was just about a wash.

Over The Pass to Skagway, AK

Oh boy, what a trip and what views we saw on Sunday. The only way it could have been better would have been if the sun had been able to come out more. This was our first southward drive in quiet some time. We had been going mostly northward since we were in Montana and headed toward the Canadian border. From White Horse, YT we backtracked 6 miles and turned towards Skagway, AK. This is not a long drive, but we were going to take it slowly and hit as many sights along the way as we could.

One of our first stops was Emerald Lake. Unlike the weedy, green lake I grew up near, and learned to swim in as a child, this is a spectacularly green lake nestled up against the mountains. The sky had not clouded over yet so we had some sunlight on the scene and some blue sky showing over the mountains.

Further down the road, we came to the Carcross Desert. This is not really a desert but a wide sandy area, formerly part of an inland sea. Winds across the sand keep most plants from getting a toe hold here except for a few flowers and pines. The signs here said to be careful where you step because of rare plants but there was some numbskull on a motorbike driving over the dunes.

Next we came to Carcross, YT, formerly named Caribou Crossing. This small town was where the White Pass and Yukon Route Railway was completed with the driving of a golden spike. There is a visitor’s center, a general store, a train station, and lots of little gold rush buildings in pretty nice condition. There were a couple of tour buses there when we arrived and a couple more motorhomes came in while we were there.

Up the road we started getting up to the higher elevations and there were no more towns or services. We did meet up with the railway line again and saw it winding along the rivers and lakes. We passed the Canadian Customs station and soon arrived at the border of Alaska and the Yukon. we still had to go down through winding roads along the side of the mountains before we got to US Customs. They stopped us and looked through our fridges and cautioned us about bringing vegetables back into Canada. The restrictions are never very cut and dried. It kind of depends on who is manning the booth that day.

From there we came into Skagway and wound all the way down to the ship docks, which is where the campground is that we are staying at for 3 nights. Our sites on in a parking lot with water and electric, but they face right out onto the piers where the cruise ships tie up.

How Lucky Have We been?

When we left Watson Lake last Wednesday and headed towards White Horse, we had encountered a lot of rain and were actually running a day ahead of our original schedule because of that. We would have actually stayed an extra day at Watson Lake or one of the earlier stops if we had not run into the rain, as we new the views in this part of the drive are quite spectacular. As we drove, we passed at least three streams running down out of the mountains and under the road, which were torrents as we passed. Geoff remarked that the streams were running so hard that if they got worse, they would go right over the road.

In the past few days, we have heard that a section of the road between Watson Lake and White Horse is now closed because of flooding. If we had not gotten into White Horse a day early, we would likely still not be here. As it is, we know also of road problems between White Horse and Skagway, AK, our next stop, but they sound less sever. There is at least one lane open in places and they have been working on Saturday and Sunday to get the road fully usable again. We will see but we think we have been very lucky to be able to keep with our schedule to arrive in Alaska today for the first time.

We will be returning to White Horse in September on our way back to the lower 48 and, if luck continues with us then, will be able to see some of the spectacular sights we missed between White Horse and the Cassiar Highway, where we will turn off the Alaskan Highway, in search of those views.

White Horse, Yukon, Canada

Day One: The rain and cloudiness continues. we’re not able to see any of the surrounding scenery so we might as well be in any small town in the world. We went to the Beringia Interpretive Center. Now we had never really heard of this before but Beringia (bur-in’-gee-a) is the term for the “never glaciated” area of Alaska, Yukon, and Russia, which created a land bridge over which migrated humans into North America for the first time. The land bridge occurred because the large amount of water tied up by the glaciers caused the sea level to drop and uncover the land. Many animal remains have been found in Yukon buried in the permafrost layers and uncovered by gold miners, including skin and fur intact. So many Mammoth tusks have been found, you will find jewelry made from them here.

Day Two: The rain continued in the morning and we headed to another indoor activity; the Transportation Museum. Here they have relics from the days of the Gold Rush and the White Pass and Yukon Route narrow-gauge railway. This railway ran from Skagway, AK to White Horse, YT, and miners, equipment, and later, tourists into the area. They also have some equipment from the building of the Alaska Highway and airplanes that used to fly into the rugged parts of the territory. The most prominent outdoor feature is a DC-3 airliner which is now balanced on a post and is able to rotate as the wind blows it, making it the world’s largest weather vane.

When we came out of the museum, the weather had started clearing and the sun was shining for the first time in days. We headed off to lunch, did a little bit of shopping we needed to do (cord for fixing a broken window shade and a replacement for a lost lens cap). Then we went to see the SS Klondike, a paddlewheel cargo boat which traveled the Yukon River in the days of the Gold Rush from White Horse up to Dawson City to bring supplies to the miners and ore back for processing.

In the evening, we did some more planning with our friends for our journeys after Fairbanks, AK and watched some TV shows they had recorded on their DVR. They were also able to get a satellite signal so we were able to watch Bill Maher (we share political views with them, which makes finding things in common to talk about besides our travels easy).

Day 3: The sun was shining and the air was clear and we were so happy because today we had a planned outdoor adventure. First, Geoff went to the guitar workshop at the Yukon Bluegrass Festival and then he participated in a “slow jam”. It was a lot of fun for him, as he had not played guitar with any other people since he was at Sun-N-Fun. After lunch, we went with our friends on the Schwatka Lake Cruise. This is a small boat that runs up the Yukon River from the power dam in White Horse about 6 miles toward the headwaters. Along the way there is lore and music and sightings of wildlife, like the bald eagle we saw in a tree right where we turned around. The weather was perfect for this, our last planned outing in White Horse, Yukon.

Today is Martha’s birthday so we are all going out to dinner for a celebration and then back to the rigs for Ken’s homemade cake. tomorrow we leave here for Skagway, AK, USA, assuming the road that was washed out between here and there has been repaired to the point where we can get our two big rigs by it.

The Yukon Territory

Our journey today was from Watson Lake to Whitehorse, Yukon. Watson Lake had been so rainy it was not a fun visit. Also the internet in the campground did not work well at all. We drove pretty much straight through. No photo ops as the weather was overcast and rainy all the way. We did stop for lunch in a rest area and our traveling companions told us a story about that stop. They were parked behind us and the rest area did have toilets (washrooms in this part of the world). As we were eating, a semi pulled up on the road next to our friends, not in the rest area. The driver got out and took a leak on the side of the road, in full view of their window. He did not walk the short distance to the washroom. The main question is, why didn’t he stop just anywhere along side the road to do this? Why right at the rest stop and in view of someone eating their lunch?

When we got into Whitehorse, it was not raining and we almost through we saw some blue sky showing through the clouds. We got park, Geoff went and washed the car, and then we all went out for dinner. It was a celebration for our friends, who are marking their 42nd Wedding Anniversary. We went to a popular salmon and ribs place downtown and, at first, it looked like we would have a long wait, but we got in reasonable quickly. We stuffed ourselves, and then took a short driving tour of the downtown area before heading back to try to catch the Daily Show on the campground cable. Sadly, it was not on when we expected, but a later checking of the schedule shows it to be on an hour later. We miss it, since none of us can get a TV satellite signal any longer.

We will probably be here for 4 nights and it looks like there is a lot to do in the area. I will probably only make a single update to the blog for the whole time in White Horse.

From Lake to Lake

Today was not a good day. Rain, rain ,rain. We were hoping for some clearing so Geoff could try to get a picture of the transit of Venus across the Sun, but no such luck. Actually the rain did not start in earnest until the end of the day, but it was pretty much socked in the entire time. We took some pictures of the RVs on the stretch of highway that runs along Muncho Lake but the conditions were not favorable.

Along the way to Watson Lake in Yukon, we saw lots of wildlife. We saw black bears numerous times and some buffalo.

We made one extended stop on the way at Liard Hot Springs. Here we walked about 1/4 mile on a boardwalk to the hot spring pool. It was a cool day, but the water was very warm and felt good. The water comes out of the round at about 120 degrees and it was not comfortable too close to the source, but the water went over a spill into a lower area where it was more tolerable. There was even a family with kids playing in that end. It is probably the only place in this part of the continent where you will find orchids growing wild.

When we got into Watson Lake and into a campsite, it started raining and has not let up yet. We still walked over to the local planetarium and watched a show on the Aurora Borealis. They also have a huge “sign post forest” here, started in 1942 when the Alaska Highway was being built and it now has over 71,000 signs.

Tomorrow, we are going to see if we can get internet access at the local library. If this makes it to the blog on 6/6, then it worked.

Slow Going

Today was a pokey trip up over the passes from Fort Nelson to Muncho Lake. The going was made a little slow by the road being quite bumpy in places but we were also taking our time a bit because we did not have far to go and because we were hoping the sky would clear up a bit. Fort Nelson was a total rain-fest. The campground was one, big puddle. Jordy always came in totally soaked.

From there we climbed up into and over some of the clouds. The tundra was various shades of green but it was still overcast which meant stops for picture taking were skipped. We did not stop until we reached the Tetsa River Outfitters lodge and a promise of cinnamon buns. Yum!

We did start to see a little bit of clearing as we climbed higher and stopped off along one of the many rivers for some quick pictures. Our next big stop was at the Toad River Lodge for a look at their hat collection and lunch. The service was a little slow bu t they had internet and we were able to get a quick look at Facebook and our email before going back into the wilderness.

When we got closer to Muncho Lake, the sky actually started to clear a bit and we saw some sunshine. The decision was then made to park at Strawberry Flats Campground on Muncho Lake for the night. No hookups but a nice view of the lake and the surrounding mountains.