Land of the Midnight Sun

Day 13

    Our excitement at arriving in Alaska is maybe best illustrated by what happened last night.  Just as we were getting to bed, Irene suggested that I should get up like at 2:30 and see if we could see the Aurora Borealis. Auto suggestion, placed the thought in my mind or just set my internal clock, whatever!   Like a dummy, I got up at 2:15 am and went outside dressed in a light jacket and my skivvies, to see the northern lights.  HAH.  It was as bright as day.  No chance.  Got back in bed and hugged her tight so she could feel my chill.  AHA.  Take that.

    We departed Tok (prounced Toke) at a little after 8:00am.  Our drive today will only be about 253 miles so we feel like we can kind of take our time and really see the sights if there are any.  HMMMMMMM.  Today turns out to be one of the best days since the Ice Road Parkway.

    The scenery is gradually changing from patches of snow, and the smaller white and black spruce trees with some aspens to larger conifers, and great fields of snow.  The closer we got to the Richardson Highway, the more snow we saw.  Virtually all of the rivers, creeks, ponds and lakes were for the most part frozen over.

Worlds largest Pet Rock,  so valuable it is chained down

   

      We started seeing some amazing mountains off to the west with very high peaks.  
We stopped alongside the road to try and determine what we  were looking at.  Irene has become a significant imitator of Sacagawea, reading maps and identifying landmarks.  The mountains and peaks we are looking at are: Tanada Peak, 9240 feet, Mt Sanford 16,237 feet, Mt Blackburn 16,390, and Mt Drum at 12,010. 

     As we started driving, we began seeing another significant range that appeared to be taller still.  We were able to finally identify these mountains as part of the Wrangell range, but did not research the particular mountains.  The landscape gradually became all white with snow, with just a few patches of exposed earth.

    Most interesting was looking at the untracked snow and then seeing where various animals had traipsed through it.  The snow was obviously very deep as we could see where the animals had sunk deep into it and apparently had to make leaps to get out of it.   There were several places where it the paw prints were enormous compared to others, with a deep and wide scooped out area where the beasts belly drug.  Jim speculates that this was a bear moving across the snow.  Later in conversation with our fellow travelers Jim and Shirley, he came to the same conclusion.

    Halfway between Tok and Glenallen, the road became progressively worse with frost heaves and we had to slow down significantly.  We were surprised when 3 Caribou jumped up in front of us and ran across the road.  They disappeared from sight so quickly that we did not have a chance to take their picture.

                                 Frozen Chistochina river.  It is 1/3 mile wide at this spot

     Shortly we came upon the bridge over the Chistochina River.  We stopped in the middle of the bridge to take a picture, then decided to back up and park on the side of the road for safety.  We walked to the middle of the bridge and took pictures.    The river was completely frozen over and was a a beautiful sight.  During this 15 to 20 minute time frame, only one car passed over the bridge.  Rush hour in the wilderness I guess.

     We stopped and had lunch at the Billy Mitchell cabin, (yes that Billy Mitchell of Air Force fame).  We then began the long climb over Thompson Pass.  This is called the Top of the World Road although the pass is only at 3000 feet. 

Starting the climb up the pass.

View of an unknown Glacier

    The mountains were spectacular with a ton of glaciers and snow falls.  From the top of Thompson Pass, we looked down into the Lowe River Valley, east of Valdez.  This is the river that  Joey Ellis spent 3 summers guiding rafts and where Jimmy Jr, drove with Joey over the Cassiar Highway to. We even caught a glimpse of Prince William Sound.

 
 

 

                                                    View on Thompson Pass/ Top of World Road

 

The views were absolutely spectacular with  each turn of the road opening up to another breathtaking  vista.  We started seeing ski tracks coming off the top of mountains and glaciers and stopping about 100 yards short of the road.  We later learned that some seasonal employees had been working in Valdez to save their money just to do this Helicopter skiing.  Pretty amazing.

                                                                                  

 Starting down off Thompson Pass

  Nearing the bottom of the pass on the Valdez side, we were parallel with the Lowe river.  How anybody could raft in water that looked that cold is beyond us. We came around a bend and found Bridle Veil Falls (wait, I thought that was up Hwy 50 or on the Columbia River Gorge) on the left side of the road and emptying into the Lowe River.  Maybe one of the most unbelievable sights of this trip if not all time.  It was completely frozen over except for a couple of windows where we could see the water cascading. This is no small falls but maybe 50 feet in width at the bottom.

   

                                      Bridal Veil Falls Frozen with "windows" to see water flow

Taking as many pictures as possible we loaded up the RV and drove, maybe 300 feet where we encountered Horse Tail Falls on our side of the road.  Horse Tail Falls was exposed   to the sunlight and was flowing freely with no ice.  So we stopped  and got out.  Irene consented to have her picture taken in front of the falls.  She complained about freezing spray or something and I asked her to just grin and bear it.  Then a nosy tourist volunteered to take both our picture in front of the falls.  I did not think that was funny but Irene insisted.  Jeez was that water cold.                          

    We arrived in Valdez and the RV park at 3:00pm.  We had been warned that Valdez still had a significant amount of snow on the ground and campgrounds were struggling to get opened.  Valdez we would learn, has an average annual snowfall of just under 400 inches, with a record of 976.  The RV park we chose, Bear Paw, had about 15 sites opened with another 30 under snow.

     As we were checking in, they had a front loader scooping up snow and dumping it in the harbor across the street.  Yes we stayed right on the small craft harbor, right with the salmon and crab fishing boats, the sport fishing boats and the Prince William sound excursion boats. 

  

 

Irene at Bear Paw RV Park, note plowed snow

  We caused a bit of a distraction when we first arrived,  as the office was closed until 3:30.  The worker that was scooping snow told us to park in that space over there and wait till the office opened.  As we were setting up and getting level, the owner drove up and told us we could not park there, that space and the one next to it were reserved.  He was a bit annoyed even after Irene told him that we were told to set up there.  No big deal, we were told to move to another space about 50 feet away and we did.

 

I ride in this one? Really?

    After getting set up, we went to the office, registered and all was well.   We then went to the LuLu Belle’s office ( 1 block away) and secured our reservation and the time we were to board, (10:45 the next day).  We then walked back to the RV park and decided to first cross the street and take a look at the LuLu Belle.  It was the first boat in the Harbor closest to the street and our RV was the closest RV to the street.  By happenstance, we were camped no more than 200 feet from the LuLu Belle. We could see her flying bridge from our Motor Home.  A sign of good things to come.

   We spent the remaining afternoon walking the street in front of the harbor, looking in at a couple of café’s and a coffee shop, browsing a Tee Shirt shop and just generally killing time and getting some fresh air.  We now have about 3.500 miles on our motor home (it had 8.8 when we picked it up) and are starting to get road weary.  Whenever we get an opportunity to get out and stretch a bit or take a walk, we jump on it.

Best Western across Street, Prince William Sound behind, Aleyska Pipeline Terminal is across sound

      We had a great dinner of homemade spaghetti, garlic toast and a salad and relaxed for the evening.  Jim stayed in the motorhome  so he could plug the computer in and worked on the blog.  Irene went outside and sat at the picnic table and wrote in her journal.  Bright sunshiney day tho it became a bit chilly about 10:30 pm with full sunshine. 

 

Whoop Di Doos

Day 12

    Today is a very big day for us.  We are finally going to leave Canada and the Yukon Territory and will reach Alaska.  Canada has been magnificent showing us lots of fantastic scenery and a ton of animals, but we are really anxious to see Alaska. 

    We have heard from some of our fellow GAH travelers that the road from Whitehorse to Tok, Alaska will be the most challenging yet.  This is the part that we start to really encounter the frost heaves in the road.  Quite a bit of road construction with the road stripped down to gravel and hard pack.

     We left Whitehorse at 7:30am with a 386 mile journey ahead of us.  Leaving Whitehorse we watched a Lufthansa 747 with its wheels down start its landing at the airport just north of town.  That started our day off with great conversation about not knowing the local airport could handle a plane theat size.  Very shortly, about 8:30am, we came upon a Black Bear grazing on the side of the road.  Stopped and watched for a while and it did not seem to bother the bear.

     We did not have any idea of what we were going to see or where we would stop along the way.  Kind of a neat feeling to be off exploring totally blind as to what lay ahead.  All previous days we had scouted out alternatives for overnight stays, fueling stops and so on. This would be unique.

     Ok, so we did have one little stop planned.  Reading our travel bible, the Milepost, we discovered about an hour and half north of Whitehorse is a small community named Haines Junction.  They have a local bakery that makes world famous Cinnabons (sound familiar?).  We decided not to stop as we did not really want another world famous Cinnabon.  Uh oh, our Motor Home stopped right in front and we were forced to buy one. Or two, I forget.  We than spent all of our remaining Canadian money in the Bakery, buying a cookie, a loaf of fresh sourdough bread, and a couple more cookies.

   Mornings and just after lunch seem to be the most difficult time driving.  I don’t know why but we both seem to get sleepy about an hour or so into the day.  We have a pattern now.  Jim will drive to start with, Irene will get the day organized via maps and The Milepost.  Sometime about an hour or hour and a half into the day, Irene will go back and take a nap for a bit.  When she wakes up, she will relieve Jim from driving and he will take a nap.

   We stop for lunch at an overlook of the Kluane River.  Fabulous view of the river below and the valley going both ways.  We are traveling by the Ice Field Range with 7 mountains taller than 15,000 feet.  Mt Logan is Canada’s tallest mountain at 19,545 and is part of what we are looking at.  Fantastic views.

   Continuing north after our brief lunch stop, less than a mile up the road we scare a gaggle of geese off the road.  We tried to count but think that there were between 25 and 30 together.  Like to know why they chose the road to rest on. Warm their toes I guess. These were to be the last wild animals we were to see today outside of a couple of squirrels.

    We are about to enter the area with frost heaves, and constant road construction and repairs. Basically frost heaves occur in areas where there is glacial soil and/or permafrost that is unstable under highways.  Anything that causes the soil or permafrost to melt causes it to liquefy and become unstable.  This will cause the highway to sink.  When the permafrost freezes again the following winter, it causes the road to rise or heave.  This leaves the road with undulations and cracking.     

    Approaching Beaver Creek, the frost heaves become more frequent and severe.  It has to be a little like riding a bucking bronco or bull except it lasts longer than 8 seconds.  Maybe the best way to describe it is to compare it to motocross riding.  Part of many motocross courses is a section that they call Whoop Di Doos, a series of bumps that the riders have to go over in a very short distance.  Imagine hitting the Whoop Di Dos in a 5,500 pound motor home at 55 mph.   For 100 miles!  

     Because of the frost heaves and highway construction, we slowed down to about 25 or 30 miles per hour for a significant part of the drive. The frost heaves and construction are pretty well marked with warnings, but every once in a while we got a cheap thrill.

    Just outside of Beaver Creek we discovered Ida’s café.  It was too much of a coincidence not to stop, but we did not want to drop in unannounced, and then we remembered it was Thursday, and we had missed Taco Tuesday.  Ah Shoot.  We drove on by.

  

   We arrived at the border at 3:03 and did not know if we were supposed to kiss the ground or just what.  We decided that there were no reporters around so we did not kiss the ground, but took many photos. 

 

 

                

                                                                                                           Is it this crowded at the Mexican Border?

                                                            WOW! ARE WE REALLY HERE?

 

 

No more Canadian money to confuse Jim, no more converting from Kilometers and liters to miles and gallons.  Jim does not have to multiply by .62 anymore.

 

 

 

    We arrived at the Tok RV village at 5:00 pm.  Tired but not cranky and ready for our first night in Alaska.  We are really looking forward to this part of the journey as we are going to slow down and take a couple of days at several places and will not have the long days driving anymore.

                                        I am not Cranky, No I'm not, but it is 10:00pm and I am tired

    We retire about 8:30 knowing that tomorrow will be the first of a bunch of red letter days in Alaska.  Irene cannot stand it and goes outside at 9:30 pm to take a picture. It looks like Noon in Sacramento.  Bright sunshine, no northern lights and no stars.

Golden Staircase

 

 Day 11

    We awoke early and had a great breakfast of oatmeal, banana and toast with peanut butter. This is the first excursion into Alaska and one that we have greatly anticipated.  We are taking the narrow gauge Yukon and White Pass Railroad from Whitehorse to Skagway.  We will be retracing the steps of the Sourdough miners from 1898-1900.  Jim’s grandfather was one of them.

   A little explanation about the train trip from Whitehorse.  It did not start there, we bought our tickets at the train station and were told that a bus would pick us up at the campground and take us to the train at Fraser, about 75 miles away.  Not what we thought.  We were expecting to catch the train right at Whitehorse, but oh well. No big deal, just not what we were expecting.

Bording the Whitehorse and Yukon Railroad

    Bus picked us up right on time and off we went.  Next stop was what we had as possible alternate RV park about 5 miles south of Whitehorse.  Bus picked up about 30 more passengers and we were off to the train.  Not just any passengers but a group of Australians’ that were on a similar adventure to us.  They picked up their motor homes in Seattle and would drop them off in Anchorage.  From Anchorage they would bus to Seward and board a cruise ship for the Inside Passage trip.  Talk about a complete package!

    Turns out that they we had been seeing them all along the ALCAN for days.  Good natured and an indication of how far flung the people we were meeting and were to meet on this expedition.  Great train and bus companions.

Funny, they don't look Australian

       Very interesting bus trip.  Great conversation with Australians, Bus driver did a very good job narrating what we were seeing and what we were about to see.   Bus would have 2 rest stops before we met train. 

    First stop was at Emerald Lake for photo opportunity.  Very cool lake that was still partially frozen over.  No sweat we could still see the lake color.  Beautiful Emerald green very reminiscent of Emerald bay in Lake Tahoe.  Apparently there was something in the glacial silt that provides the lake with its startling color.

   2^nd stop was at a small town named Carcross.  We were invited to get out stretch our legs, see the visitor center to get our passports stamped, then on to the Carcross bakery for guess what?  No not a Cinnabon, although they advertised the world’s best Cinnabon, we opted for a sled dog.  A sled dog is basically a hot dog wrapped in a sourdough crust and baked with cheese on top.  Think of giant pig in a blanket.    Store owner admitted he came up with it because American tourists loved hot dogs and he needed something a bit more special.   It was really good, particularly with mustard on top, would be better with good Dijon or honey mustard.   I want to try with a Polish dog.  Still an excellent treat.

Not so fast Buster. You didn’t think American Border Patrol and Homeland Security were going to let you into America that easy did you. Outcome the passports, Border Patrol walks down the aisle and makes sure passports are legitimate and let us go on. THAT is a job I want. Chilkoot pass, watch the animals, talk to people, look at passports every hour or so and go on about your business.

 

 

 

    Back on the bus after 30 minutes and on to the train.   It was about another 25 minutes up the road.   When we arrived, we had to stay on the bus for about 5 minutes while they cleared the train of previous passengers.   We were assigned our own car and got settled in for the train ride over the pass and into Skagway.  


         I will not hang out the window again

     

                                                         Ok, but just one more time

    

  Off we go over the Chilkoot pass.  Stunning vistas of huge mountains with lots of snow and occasional views of the bay at Skagway.  The Train goes along a leisurely pace for safety and also to give us time to absorb what we are seeing.  There is a tour guide giving a narration of the various high points along the way.  Where the stampede was that killed over 300 men and 200 horses and mules, where toll road was built and so on.

    There are actually two passes that come up out of Skagway and on over to Whitehorse, the Chilkoot trail and the White Pass.  One reporter in 1899 tried to determine which one was the easiest by climbing both.  His conclusion?  There better be a lot of gold found to make either one worthwhile.  Both were extremely difficult.

    Miners, or Sourdoughs as they were called, cut steps into the wall of the mountain to make it easier to climb.  In order to get into Canada, the Mounties required each miner to have a 1 year’s supply of provisions, totaling about 2000 pounds.  Even with a pack animal, the normally meant about 9-10 trips.  The steps were nicknamed the Golden Staircase because of the difficulty and times it took to climb them and what was possible beyond.

Way off in the middle is Skagway and the port

Just how steep is it?

    The train ride was relaxing, exhilarating and downright fun.  Old time passenger car that allowed us to step outside and stand on the platform between cars.  Very cool to take pictures from.  Around corners you could see to the end of the train and up to the engine.

    Finally arrived at train station in Skagway.  Unique old time rail station with wooden platform and wooden bench seats.  Train station is right downtown part of the main street of the town.  Port with cruise ships was across an open area and as a means of measurement, about 2 blocks away.  Town is very attractive with vintage architecture and it is very clean.  

Trail marker for 1898 trail

     Skagway has about 800 permanent year around residents and now relies upon tourism as its main industry.  An industry that has about a 3 month season.  Today, there were 4 cruise ships in port, dispensing as many as 8,000 passengers into Skagway.

                                                              Pretty downtown Skagway.

     We were allocated 2 hours in town before we boarded our bus for the trip home.  Our Excursion was bus /train to Skagway and bus back.  Highway was on other side of the canyon from the train, so we got to see everything from a different perspective.  Highway was a very good road, so good in fact that we saw one of our fellow GAH adventurers with their motor home in Skagway.   Still like the train trip.

   Our bus ride back to Whitehorse was uneventful but not boring.   Scenery is spectacular and never ending.   We stopped once again in Carcross (beginning to look like a conspiracy) to stretch our legs and oh by the way, have you been to the Mercantile and seen the Alaskan made goods?   Ok, so we are suckers.  Went in and purchased a small amount of local Alaskan made goods.  It was spitting snow a little bit so Irene had Mint Chocolate Chip and I had Pralines and Cream.

    Boarded the bus and completed the trip back to Whitehorse.  After about another hour of riding we were ready to have some down time.  Total of about 8 hours sitting on bus or train and we are tired.  Got back to our RV and took a long walk around the campground to try and stretch our muscles just a bit.

  We were a little surprised at the size and urban appearance of Whitehorse.  I guess with our memory of the Yukon territory as told through Jack London, movies and lore, we expected to see a frontier town. 

       Whitehorse is both the Capitol and largest city in the Yukon Territory.  It is very modern with a permanent population of about 28,000.  What was most shocking to us was that Whitehorse is a premium International destination for primarily Europeans that want to climb mountains and spend time in the pristine outdoors.  On leaving the next morning, as we were driving on the north end of town, we were very surprised to see a Lufthanza Boeing 747 landing.  About 75 feet above our heads.

   

 

WHITEHORSE

DAY 10

 

    We made it a lot farther than we anticipated so thought we could take it a little easy this morning.  Our drive to day will be really short, 115 miles, so we decide that it is a day to do laundry.

   We start off by treating ourselves to a nice breakfast in the café.  Just what you would imagine in the Yukon.  Hearty, full plate, steaming hot and cooked to perfection.  Nothing fancy, but plenty of it.

   After Breakfast, we take our laundry to the laundry room and become perplexed on how the coin machines work.  $1.50 per load with strange sized slots for the coins.  Of course, Canadian money.  And they take quarters, Loonies and maybe even a Twome. Canadians have substituted $1.00 and 2.00 coins for paper bills.  Thus Loonies and Twomes.  Why these names we never figure out, other than guess that the Twome is slang for Two Me’s, meaning 2 bucks.

   Finally get the proper coins and start the machines.  Jim leaves and goes over to the Café to work on the blog and see if he can send out one of the ones already written.  The major problem we figure out is that the blog is fine to send out, but when we attach pictures, it is takes too much bandwidth.  So we will continue to write and will send out when and if we can.

  On the road at 11:00am, refreshed and full of energy.  We know we have a short day ahead of us and look forward to more relaxation time.  At 11:45 the odometer changes over to 3000 miles.   It reminds us as to just how long the journey has been so far.  We are averaging 300 miles per day and feel like long haul truckers.  Maybe a little more comfortable.

                                                                   Frozen Lake just outside Teslin

   We pulled into Whitehorse at 12:30 and go directly to the visitor’s center.  We want to take the train to Skagway tomorrow and want to make sure we get it booked and organized. 

On the road from Teslin to Whitehorse

    Whitehorse is not what we envisioned.  It is a bustling small city of about 28,000 and is the capital of the Yukon.  Need we say it is also the largest city in the Yukon?  After a couple of wrong turns on the busiest street downtown, we find the signs to the Visitors center, right next to the Yukon river. 

     Irene is at the wheel and does not like driving in traffic.  We drive past the visitor’s center and note that it has quite a few RV only parking spaces.  Quite a few filled with pickups and cars.  We quickly come to the conclusion that these vehicles should be given tickets equivalent to Handicap parking tickets.   

 

   There is one space that is open but it appears to be way to skinny for us to fit the motor home into.  We circle the block and have to make two  left turns in traffic without left turn signals.  Irene is seething at this point, how stupid they are, just like in Santa Monica, no wonder they have traffic problems.

    We arrive back at the visitor’s center and she decides to try and fit into that skinny parking spot.  I am telling her  not to but if she does she needs to take a wider turn into it.  Against my best hysterical advice she pulls into the space like a pro.  Plenty of room on both sides and we can even open the door to get out. Pushy Broad.

    Parked 2 spaces away are, you guessed it, Jim and Shirley. They have been eating lunch in their motor home and were watching with horror as this monster RV ( theirs is 28 feet) tries to park in a spot that is too small.  As we turn into the spot they realize it is Irene driving and marvel at the cajones she has to try and park there.  When we get parked and get out of the MH, they coming running up all excited, laughing and talking about what a great job she did.  Jim remarked that he would not have tried it.  Shirley does not drive theirs and gushed with pride at her new found friend.

   We toured the Visitors center and then walked about ½ block to the train station where we booked our tickets for the following day.  We learned that it was a bus/train tour and that we would be picked up at our RV park at 8:30am. Cool, we do not have to find transportation to the train.

    We drove to the closest RV park, one that advertised a 15 minute walk to town.  It is Hi Country RV park and it is one of the very best we have seen.  Trees shade campsites and it is as clean as can be found .  The pine needles and leaves are constantly raked with the RV sites looking like they have just been cleaned for the next guest.  Kind of like room service.

  Really recommend this RV park

    The restrooms are spotlessly clean and even have fresh flowers on the counters.  Lots of hot water and the wash rooms are heated.  Give this place an A+ in all respects.   Except one.  It is all downhill to town, about a 2 mile walk.  Then it is about a 45 minute walk back up the hill. Both ways walking across the freeway with a light. 4 lane road down the hill.  False Advertising on this issue.  No Problem, the only reason we want to go into town is to see the follies and they do not start until mid June.

   Day is ending and we want to retire early.  Taking the train to Skagway is an E ticket for both of us.  Jim is most excited to see the Chilcoot trail and the White Pass and Irene is really looking forward to the train trip .  Sleep comes easy even tho there is almost no darkness

10:00 PM in Whitehors, still sunlight