Happy Holidays to all!

OK, here's a test for those of you that read this blog:

Which one is the real picture of where we're parked for Christmas?


















OK, I know, that was too easy. Anybody that know us also knows that we think snow is a 4 letter word.

The snow picture was given to me by our neighbor Doug Spriggs. He specializes in such photos, as he and his wife usually work a T-shirt booth at car shows, where they photoshop pictures of peoples cars into nice backgrounds and print them up on transfers and put them on T-shirts. I've seen some of his work, and it's very nice.

So we're parked in Yuma, AZ, where it never (never say never) snows. More likely is a weather event such as we had yesterday, 40-50 mph winds laden with sand and dust, blowing up almost instantly as a cold front passes across the desert. Awnings were flapping, loose objects like do0r mats and wash buckets were blowing around the park, and any whirlygigs were zooming along or scurrying along the desert between the RV sites. Waves splashed in the swimming pool, and we nearly got out our surfboards!

But today it has calmed down, temp at 8:00 AM is a cool 46, and the sun is coming up over my right shoulder. Time for us to get our last minute stuff done for Christmas. Only one package remains to be shipped east, one that includes some sewing, probably won't make it out until next week.

We got volunteered to decorate the table for Christmas dinner here in the RV park. Consulo has been exercising her creative muscles, and we found some pretty cheap markdowns yesterday to do the job. I'm making photo place cards with pictures of folks RVs to put on the table, and those are nearly done. We still have some cooking to do, as the park is providing ham and turkey, and the rest is pot luck. I'll be making a cherry pie, Consuleo is making flan.

We've been busy since my last post. We got ourselves organized to show photos and slippers at a couple craft shows/flea markets here. I think our display looked pretty god, but we only sold 2 pair of slippers. We're booked for one more show in January so far.

I also offered to coordinate a "Computer Club" in the park, basically a get together to chat about problems and issues around computers. We've solved a couple problems for people, and we'll continue that into January. I've also volunteered to do a photo club in January, as many of the computer issues surround photo topics.

I got word yesterday that an article & photos I submitted to Escapees Magazine have been accepted into their publication mix for 2010.

On Monday 12/28 we're going to Apache Junction, AZ, some 4 hours away, by car (only) to visit my brother for a few days. We're also scheduled to have lunch with Andrea Mackie and Denny Robertson on Wednesday, as we return.

On to Yuma

I know, I know, it seem like we fell of the earth after my last post in November. We're still out here somewhere. We have settled into a long term stay in Yuma, Arizona, and have been catching up on all those things that we knew would be easier done when we stopped for at least a couple weeks. We're getting caught up on those, so I'm now inspired to write again.

BLM parking north of Lake Havasu

First, a short update on our travels to Yuma. We left Coarsegold and drove to Barstow, CA. We stayed overnight there in a the front lot of a Flying J. We were awakened there by the noise of half a dozen police cars and several ambulances and firetrucks, all bound for the truck parking lot. We never knew what happened at the time, but have since found out that a 27 year old drove his ATV off the top of a 40 foot embankment into the top of a trailer truck, and was killed at the scene.

Leaving Barstow, we crossed the Sierra Nevadas and roamed down to Lake Havasu, AZ, current home of the London Bridge. We would have spent the night in a Walmart, but the city has so much open space that it has had to ban overnight RV parking in anything but a campground. We found a BLM site just north of town where we could dry camp for 2 nights for free.

Hot air balloons laid out for inflating in Yuma

We did some driving around town, including crossing the London Bridge. I thought it was rather bland. In fact, we missed the fact that it was the London Bridge the first time we drove by it. Other points of interest that we found included the waterfront, a large sandy place with nothing there. My guess is that it serves as a flood plain. The rest of the city seemed fairly ordinary. We did discover that the Casino on the far side of the lake, in California, has a passenger ferry that runs back and forth to the city. If we had known that, we might have stayed there.

Leaving Lake Havasu, we followed Arizona 95 into the desert, where we saw our first saguaro cacti north of Quartzsite. We stopped in Quartzsite for lunch, then passed the Yuma Proving Grounds on our way to Yuma. We checked in here at The Palms RV Resort, a new upscale park between the city and the Foothills on the east side of town.

The Palms has nice amenities, but we miss the friendship we get in an Escapees park. They seem to be working hard here to generate fun, but many of the activities have a fee, so things tend to be more business like than sharing an adventure. We came here because we'll have friends here after Christmas.

Up, up and away in Yuma

Part of our winter plan included finding outlets for our arts and crafts. Consuelo has been busy knitting slippers, and sold a couple pairs here. But there is no bulletin board, no advertising on site, no vending, so we're looking elsewhere to carry on. Yesterday we found an inexpensive flea market nearby, and agreed to buy a table for next weekend. This week we're doing finishing touches, framing photos, making slipper tags, etc. We'll see if we can recoup the cost of the table next weekend.

Getting repairs done has been the other activity. The car needed an oil change, and the brakes needed looking into. Parts have been ordered for that. Our thermostat failed on our furnace when we arrived, having been balky for a couple months. We found and ordered one of those and installed it. We've given parts of our motorhome a good cleaning, like the leather in the sofa and captain's chairs. Changing the drinking water filter, which should have been a 10 minute job turned into 5 trips to the RV parts store and one to Lowe's, as a tiny leak developed which challenged my patience.

One of the street urchins in Los Algodones

Consuelo finished proof reading the book we did for our Alaska trip and we got that ordered and it has arrived. We think it turned out pretty good, and we'll be sure to show it to you when we see you.

The plan to print calendars on our new printer turned out to be too expensive, given the costs for ink. I did print up a few copies as Christmas presents, and they came out pretty darn good, if I do say so myself. I've been printing other photos to sell.

In reviewing all the great spots we got to since we left Maine just about a year ago now, we both feel really blessed to have had the opportunity. North America is really a wonderful place, notwithstanding some of the less attractive spots. We got into a dozen National Parks in the US and Canada on our travels, plus a number of state parks and historic locations. In our view, they all live up to the hype. We encourage you to visit them, too.

Brother Bill saying "NO!" for the 1000th time

Having said that, Yuma is not a national park. I've not been inspired to search for many photogenic opportunities here. One event that I found was the Colorado River Crossing Balloon Festival, which provided some good shots. You have to be up early to see hot air balloon liftoffs, which means before sunrise here at this time of year.

My brother Bill and his wife Pat came to visit from Apache Junction for a couple days. We had fun with them, both sharing our travels and photos from the last year. We found one of the few historic sites in Yuma, the Territorial Prison which held all the outlaws in the late 1800s and early 1900s. That place made me glad I didn't go to jail there.

Perusing the purses in Los Algodones

We also tripped down to Los Algodones, Mexico, just a skip and a jump from Yuma. Los Algodones offers Mexican pricing on things like pharmaceuticals, eyeglasses, dental work and liquor. They also sell all kinds of junk like purses, pottery, ballcaps and wall art. Sellers accost the tourists on the the sidewalk, nearly forcing their stuff on you. Its a great game, if you're into it, and when you leave, you can say you did some international shopping.

We'll be here until the end of January. Don't expect too many blog posts before then.

Coarsegold and Yosemite

We've moved on to Coarsegold, California, about 30 miles north of Fresno and 30 miles south of Yosemite National Park. Our reason to be here was to visit Yosemite. We could have stayed closer, but we were attracted by the Escapees RV park here, called Park of the Sierras, or POS for short.

A view of Park of the Sierras

This is the 12th Escapees park that we've visited. Each one has it's own flavor, and POS is no exception. Like its sister park called Jojoba Hills in southern California, near Temecula, it was built from scratch as a coop under the Escapees umbrella. Also like Jojoba Hills, POS is built in the rolling foothills so common in California. The RV sites are scattered around the rolling humps and bumps. Going for a walk here turns into real exercise as no street is level. One advantage to this is that most sites have a view of something.

Likewise with Escapees parks, POS is run by a minimal paid staff of only 2. The bulk of the maintenance is handled by volunteers in the park, who do everything from replacing 4" gate valves in the water lines to repaving the interior roads. This keeps the costs associated with the park at a minimum.

Pothole rocks in Coarsegold Creek in POS

A constant challenge for the crew is keeping brush under control. Considerable effort has been paid to fire prevention and protection. There is a 100 foot fire break around the outside perimeter. In some areas, the park has obtained permission from adjacent landowners to remove brush next to the park fences. In the interior, the bulk of the greenery is live oak and manzanita. The manzanita contains oil which makes these beautiful bushes highly flammable. All of them are carefully pruned.

As a coop, the 250 sites are all owned by Escapee members. About 15 sites per year are being resold by members, against a waiting list of 75 who would like to buy them. If a member leaves for an extended period, they can make their site available for rental. Enough members are usually out to make space for travelers like us who only want to stay a few days.

The Gateway into Yosemite

On Monday, we tripped up to Yosemite. We got an early start for us, leaving POS at around 9:30. The signs said that Yosemite was only 22 miles from here. They failed to say that the valley itself was another 30 miles after the entrance, and that the roads were hilly, windy, curvy roads that kept maximum speed at 35 and average speed much lower. It took us 2 hours to get to the Gateway.

Yosemite is indeed a magnificent piece of land. The valley floor is a meadow surrounding the Merced River, the valley walls curve up to the base of 4000' cliffs rising nearly vertical from the floor. The landmark cliffs have names, such as El Capitan, Two Brothers and Half Dome. Spectacular waterfalls drop thousands of feet into the valley from above. Even though the dry summer conditions sometime stop the falls altogether, we were lucky to see some falling water.

Bridal Veil Falls in Yosemite

We stopped for lunch at the deli in Yosemite Village, in the heart of the park. It was expensive, as we expected, and since we were nearly into winter, many other places that cater to the summer visitors were closed. I stopped in the visitor center, and also checked out the Ansel Adams Gallery next door. Adams made many wonderful photos of Yosemite, as well as other California sites. A few Adams prints were on sale for $18,500 each. I only had $18,000 in my pockets, so I had to pass. But they were beautiful and inspiring.

When we left, we exited through the western side of the park, as Consuelo had requested yarn to be sent to El Portal, a tiny blip on the map just outside the park entrance. Following the river down the hills was a beautiful trip, too, not quite as spectacular as the core of the park. We made our way to Mariposa, then turned east and found our way back to Coarsegold.

It's getting chilly here, though, up at our 1700 foot elevation, and we had enough warmth in Petaluma to want lots more. As soon as our mail arrives, we'll move on south.

More images of Yosemite can be viewed in my gallery.

Warmth!

We're parked in Petaluma, California for a few days, and it reached 80 degrees here yesterday. We haven't seen such warmth since we were in Fairbanks in June. It's a pleasant change from the cool fall weather, often rainy, that we've had over the last few months.

Coastal Redwoods, the tallest trees on earth

We had planned to stop at Mount Rainier and Crater Lake National Parks as we left the Northwest. But it was raining in Yakima, our jumping off point, and there was no relief in the forecast. So we hustled out of the area. Snow was reported after we left in the mountainous areas.

Our next planned stop was Redwood National Park in northern California, between Crescent City and Orick. We found an RV park in Klamath, CA, and settled in for a few days. The first day was sunny and clear, unusual for that area. A significant percentage of the water consumed by the redwoods comes in the form of fog, much more common. I got out to the Pacific Coast and took some pictures of the rugged, rocky shore and the incredible surf pounding the rocks. A surprising discovery was on old WWII radar station hugging the coast. My imagination created a vision of a big dish pointing out over the ocean. The actual site was far less dramatic. It was constructed to appear as a farm along the shore, a small farmhouse and barn like structure, quite innocuous in appearance. Up close, it was obvious that both buildings were constructed of cement block, covered with wood and cedar shingles on the roof. I guess it was successful, since it's still there.

Mahlon and Thumper on the pier

The second day of our stay, rain did arrive, and we used the weather to trip into Crescent City to see the National Park Visitor Center and check out the town. The Visitor Center was small, but informative. They suggested a several places in town to visit, which we did. One was the coastal scenic drive, another great view of the rocky California shoreline. We were surprised that the real estate along the shore was fairly modest, compared to coastal homes most anywhere else in the country. I would have loved to be at some of the scenic viewpoints here on a clear day with the sun going dow. I'm sure the sunset would have been spectacular.

Battery Point Lighthouse

We walked the city pier, which gave great views of Battery Point Lighthouse, a very picturesque structure at the end of town. The breakwater provided storage for dozens of cement beach blockade anchors, likely left from WWII. On this rainy day, the foghorn and bell buoys warned mariners, but got on our nerves after a while.

The final attraction in Crescent City was the seal dock, where we did indeed find a dozen harbor seals resting their hulks and barking at each other.

Seals in Crescent City

The next day I tripped into the National Park. The sun was out, but the fog was thick. I have always been amazed by the magnificent redwoods, huge trees towering over anything else in the forest. 5 of the 10 tallest trees in the world are in this park, and many huge specimens are along the road, some so close that vehicles have hit them, or they are growing into guard rails. Walking a short distance from the road, groves of these huge trees can be seen growing together. Often they are shoots from an older central tree which has died and disappeared, absorbed back into the forest. Four foot diameter limbs high in the canopy collect airborne soil, and plant life takes up residence high off the forest floor.

The forest floor is equally interesting. Ferns cover much of the forest floor, one of the few plants that can thrive in the near permanent shade provided by the giants.

RV in the fog

Later that day we pulled up camp and traveled the length of the Newton B. Drury Scenic Highway which travels through the heart of the park. Every inch of this trip revealed magnificent views of the forest, until we reached the Elk Prairie at the south end of the road. A large herd of Roosevelt Elk roam this area, but our travel at mid-day was the least likely to reveal them, and we did not see any.

Rejoining US 101, we continued south to the Orick Visitors Center, which is right on the coast, but the fog was too thick for us to glimpse the ocean in this location. We did stop in and chat with the rangers, and took in the 12 minute movie about the park.

We continued south through Eureka, entered the Humboldt State Park, another glorious redwood forest. Some section of 101 are 4 lane California freeway, but small chunks meander through the big trees in narrow two lane stretches. More glorious scenery.

We stopped overnight in Redcrest, staying in Redcrest Resort, a facility which disrespects its name. The sites were goofy, utilities strange, wifi not working, staff unhelpful. One of the low lights of our trip. The next day we traveled here to Petaluma, and found a nice place to stay at the Elks Lodge, which has one of the best RV facilities we've seen at an Elks Club... 18 full hookup RV sites, and it was full when we arrived. We stayed one night in the parking lot without hookups.

The weather here is gorgeous. I'm planning to take advantage of it to get some good pictures in Point Reyes National Seashore.

Central Washington State

We've been parked in Quincy, Washington for a few days. We're at Crescent Bar Resort, a big sandbar in the Columbia River, on a lake formed by a power dam. This place must really rock in the summer, but now we're the only campers, paying winter rates. We've got electric and water service, so we're happy.

Bluffs along the Columbia River

Besides the campground on the Bar, there's a Thousand Trails RV ownership park, several condo developments, and a huge trailer/RV park. There's a 9 hole golf course, and a 9 ho;e executive course. Docks and hundreds of mooring buoys attest to the summer boating scene. Two public beaches provide swimming and sunning. Swimsuit and quick food shops fill out the venue. All of this closed for the season, except that the golf course has an honor box on the first tee and several golfers were out enjoying the sun on Saturday.

Blue Heron

We stopped out here to visit Wayne and Mary Jo Lohrman, RV friends we've bumped into several times around the US. We both saw some of Canada this summer, so we compared notes on that. We also showed them our scenes of Alaska, since they're headed up that way next year. Wayne has been picking apples here, just about done with that.

The Columbia ha carved a fairly deep canyon through this part of the country, which leaves a fairly high bluff alongside the Bar. Across the river the land tapers down to the water. The land above is high desert, full of scrub and devoid of trees. The exception is the orchards, vineyards and farms that irrigate with river water. Quincy has several large fruit shippers, along with beans and grapes.

Foliage behind Crescent Bar

About 35 miles north of us are the burgs of Wenatchee and East Wenatchee, straddling the river. Consuelo visited a knitting supplier in East Wenatchee to check supplies and get ideas.

Twenty miles east of the Wenatchees on the edge of the Cascade Mountains is the faux German Alpine village of Leavenworth. We took a ride up there with the Lohrmans to shop the town and have some lunch.

Leavenworth has sculpted itself in alpine motif, picked Bavarian designs and names, and filled its shops with Deutchland-like wares. You can buy steins, liederhosen, and european crystal. The food features wursts, German style potato salad, and lots of beer. We enjoyed a good lunch, then visited the stores.

Winter comes here, and it's coming soon. We're out of here later today.

It's Raining... what a surprise!

We've been parked in Hoquiem, WA for 3 nights. It's on the southwest corner of the Olympic Peninsula. I surmise that wood products and/or paper are the major industries here. Hoquiem and her larger sister Aberdeen sit at the inland end of Gray's Harbor, one of the few bumps in the Pacific coastline providing safe shelter for boats. So there's a fishing fleet here, too.

We've been parked in Hoquiem RV Park, a nice campground with good amenities and friendly staff. They have a very good wifi, as campground wifi's go, and I've downloaded some Windows upgrades and checked out some video tutorials on the Adobe site.

Ocean City Beach

It's been raining since before we arrived. Such is the reputation of the Northwest Coast in the US. Right now, the weather forecast has no sun in it for the foreseeable future. The sun came out for a few minutes Wednesday night, so I took off to Ocean City beach, about 20 miles NW of where we're parked. By the time I arrived, the overcast had arrived again. I walked out onto the beach, which I shared with one lonely seagull. IF it had been summer, and IF the sun had been out and IF I got there at noon then it would have been a really great day at a beautiful beach. Only IF.

Consuelo has been busy knitting slippers, preparing to sell a few pair at a flea market in Yuma when we get there. She's had a little trouble with yarn deliveries, as we've been on the move since we left Chimacum. It turned out that the last box she expected arrived the day we left Chimacum, and was returned to the vendor.

I've been busy working on 2010 photo calendars, also to sell in Yuma and online. I've started a web site here for them. I expect to add 3 or 4 more before I finish. I've ordered a new printer from Office Depot to print them, but Office Depot has thoroughly screwed up my order, and may cause me delays before I can deliver. We'll see. I've asked them to refund my money, but I expect a gnat has a better chance of devouring an elephant.

I've also been working on my commercial photo website. Photoshelter offered up a 30 day trial of their custom websites, which I've had up for a couple weeks now. It's a lot nicer than the regular site, but until I sell some photos, I can't really justify the extra cost for style points.

Hoh! Hoh! Hoh!

Hoh Rain Forest

Curt Kraft and I stomped through a section of untouched forest 15 years ago in the Boundary Waters of northern Minnesota. Actually, we most likely were in the adjacent Quetico Provincial Park in Ontario. It was hard work, as the trees had died and toppled every which way, stacking themselves 3 and 4 trunks high. The trunks were two to four feet in diameter. We picked a route, set off to follow it, hoping not to get lost. In some places we clambered over them, in other crawled under them. After we tired ourselves out, probably not going more than 1/4 mile, we turned back and returned by a slightly different route. Neither of us had ever tried to negotiate such a place before. It gave us an insight into the difficulties that the pioneers had negotiating forested areas when they tried to move west.

Maples and Spruce

Yesterday, Consuelo and I trudged through a section of the Hoh Rain Forest, part of the Olympic National Park near Forks, WA. We had no such difficulties in this forest. While there were many downed trees, the nice forest rangers had cleared a trail among them, even cutting slots in some for the trail to follow. Recalling my Minnesota experience, I realized how easy we had it.

The Hoh is one of the sections of temperate rain forest in Olympic. Because the forest is backed by the Olympic mountains, water laden clouds arriving from the Pacific Ocean are forced up and drop their rain before passing over the mountains, 140 to 167" of rain annually. There is a rain shadow behind the mountains, which get on average, 17" of rain, a mere 40 miles away.

Ferns

My vision of a rain forest was quite different from what I saw there. I think my visions were generated by movies of the Amazon Jungle, rubber trees hundreds of feet high growing in a closed canopy, blocking out the sun, and the forest floor choked with tropical plants and shrubs, making passage virtually impossible.

The Hoh rain forest is dominated by Sitka Spruce and Western Hemlock, which grow up to 300 feet high. Coastal Douglas Fir, Western Red Cedar, Big Leaf Maple, and Red Alder are also prevalent. In mid October, the maples are turning, a few red, but most bright yellow. Since there has been no frost here yet, the colors are not turning uniformly. May maples are still green, while others have lost their leaves.

Clear stream with green bottom

Most of the trees are adorned with mosses and lichens. Consuelo didn't think they were as pretty as the Spanish Moss we see at Jekyll Island, but then she leans toward Spanish things. There was certainly a wide variety of them in the Hoh, along with ferns that covered the forest floor.

We also noted a stream running in the park, nearly full of bright green water plants that looked like the weeds that grew in the lake where I grew up. But unlike other places where we see lots of green vegetation in the water, the water in this stream was crystal clear.

Roosevelt Elk

We took a drive through the campground on our way out, and found several Roosevelt Elk grazing on the mown grass around the campsites, all males, all decked out with big racks. They seemed undisturbed by cars driving by them, but there were warnings on the board that several visitors had been charged by the elk recently, so we kept our distance.

Readers of this blog are reminded that my photos can be purchased on my Photoshelter site. You can get prints, mugs, mouse pads, etc.

The Weather Report in Alaska

Now that fall has arrived, we've just seen our first below 40 degree day where we're parked in northwest Washington state. It's cold enough that our heat pump in the motor home has stopped providing heat, and we've switched to LP.

Meanwhile, back in Alaska, it's 39 degrees in Fairbanks, 34 degrees in Anchorage, and 30 degrees way out in Nome. It's 28 and snowing in Prudhoe Bay, where the ice road truckers will be heading soon if they have not already started for the winter. It's 39 degrees in Valdez, and 36 in Seward. Adak reports in at 41 degrees. Tropical Juneau is a balmy 43 degrees.

The previous paragraph is fairly typical reporting for the average Alaskan weatherman or woman. I was somewhat surprised in watching the weather reports on TV up there, because they report and predict the weather for the entire state, every time. Most of the TV stations in Alaska are in Anchorage, Fairbanks and Juneau. There are a handful of low power TV stations elsewhere, like Homer and Seldovia. For such a big state, that's not a lot of coverage.

From what I can discover, Alaska only has one cable TV provider, GCI. I saw a GCI store in Homer, and could not figure out from the outside what they did. They provide cable TV in many small communities, as well as school links, Internet and long distance phone services, and medical network connections. So many little towns get the Alaska TV stations by cable.

Dish and DirectTV also provide TV service to Alaskans. Most users had 1.5 meter diameter dishes, and they appear to point into the ground when you see them. The satellite providers carry the Alaska TV stations as locals, so the few stations in the big cities are available throughout Alaska.

So, if you live in Alaska and watch TV, you're most likely to be watching a station from Fairbanks, Anchorage and/or Juneau. As a result, "local" news and weather reporting will carry stories for the whole state, not just Anchorage, Fairbanks and Juneau.

So how big is the territory covered by Alaska? Alaska is about about 3 times the size of Texas. If you overlay a map of Alaska on the lower 48 states, and put the panhandle with Juneau down in Georgia, the Aleutians will stretch to California, and Prudhoe Bay will be in North Dakota.

Now think of the poor weatherman in Alaska. If you overlaid his job on the lower 48, he would be reporting for Jacksonville, Atlanta, St. Louis, Minneapolis, Denver, Chicago and perhaps Los Angeles, all in the same 5 minute forecast. And you know that the weather across that area varies considerably, so a little detail is often required.

And just to add to the problem, and to justify Sarah Palin's remark about "seeing Russia", the extended weather forecast for Alaska often includes noting the current conditions in Siberia, just 50 some odd miles from Alaska, because whatever weather is happening in Siberia today is likely to be in Nome tomorrow, and Anchorage the day after.

To be fair, the weather options are far fewer in Alaska than in the lower 48. Tornadoes are unheard of, as are hurricanes. Blizzards are fairly common. Smoke is often in the forecast, given the number of forest fires that occur up there. Heat is limited. Cold, rain, and snow occur in extreme overabundance. Whereas Fairbanks averages about 11 inches of rain per year (almost a desert), Ketchikan gets 162 inches. Barrow gets 28 inches of snow, and Valdez gets 290. The Harding Ice Field reportedly gets 400 inches of snow, but nobody lives there..

Occasionally, the sun comes out. Alaskans don't have a good handle on dealing with this condition. As they say up there, Alsakans don't tan, they thaw.

More pictures

We're still parked in northwest Washington state for a few more days. Here's another gallery of pictures from our Alaska trip to entertain you. You can also get to these on my photo site:

http://my.photoshelter.com/mahlonstacy

The Alaska Photo Gallery


Alaska - Images by Mahlon Stacy

Time for some pictures

Now that I have stable internet access, I've been using up all my upload bandwidth getting photos up to my photo site:

http://my.photoshelter.com/mahlonstacy

But you can view these photos here in this first gallery. I'll post more galleries here in a few days.


Alaska Highway - Images by Mahlon Stacy

Back in the USA

We've now parked at the Evergreen COHO Escapee park in Chimacum, Washington. We had 2 nice days, but today it's raining. Good weather to add a few paragraphs to the blog.

Desert-like terrain at Spence's Bridge

The trip down through lower BC had a surprise in store for us. As we approached our stopping place at Spence's Bridge, the road began to travel through a valley. The valley got deeper and narrower, and the vegetation began to look more arid. When we arrived, the valley had very few trees, the Thompson River was bounded by railway and roads on both sides.

We spent a peaceful night at Spence's Bridge, named for the bridge builder in the mid 1800s. The bridge is still there, but closed to traffic. It serves as a footbridge, but I was the only person trampling on it that we noticed. A new highway bridge ½ miles south carries all the cars and trucks.

Happy Canadian Sunflowers

We found a little coffee shop that had a limited, but flavorful menu for dinner. The town appears to be shrinking, the last gas station closed 2 years ago. Supposedly there were episodes of big horn sheep invasions from the nearby hills, but they shied away from us. We didn't determine that there were any other attractions nearby.

We left the next morning traveling south and found that the valley got narrower and deeper, reaching a max at Hell's Gate, where a footbridge was installed to scare the visitors out of their wits. The rail lines still followed both sides of the river, now called the Fraser, but they traversed through several tunnels as they clung to the canyon walls. The highway had several tunnels as well, and eventually crossed back over to the west side of the river, where we began a long descent from the canyon walls down to the less rugged valley that delivered us to Surrey, just east of Vancouver.

View of Vancouver Waterfront

We had found a directory of campgrounds near Vancouver and selected one based on location, price, and the availability of wifi. The price and location were as promised, but the wifi was “in the office only”. When I complained that carrying my desktop computer to the office would be difficult, the manager placed us somewhat close to the office. I was able to get intermittent access, and Consuelo got her laptop to work if she leaned out the bedroom window.

We got parked in a really tight site, where the our slides touched the trees on both sides of the RV. We then went off to look for a Chinese place for dinner, and found an excellent one, the Jade Forest, which has the best hot and sour soup we've ever tasted. The orange chicken was outstanding, too. I went back the next night to get some to go, but they were closed on Wednesdays.

Vancouver Tour Bus

During the day Wednesday, we tripped into Vancouver to see what we could see. We decided to take the “Big Bus” tour, which promised 22 stops and we could get on and off where we wanted. We arrived by the Transportation Center, where the cruise ships park in Vancouver, and the railway station is. We bought a combo ticket for the bus and Vancouver Lookout. Like many of our days in the past 2 weeks, it started to rain.

We rode the bus for about ½ hour, noting that many of the 22 stops were at hotels where passengers might be staying. We decided to leave the bus at Granville Island, home of the Market where all sorts of fresh fruits, vegetables, seafood, and prepared foods for lunch could be had. We both tried some pirogis, and had a spinach and cheese croissant. There were also artists, jewelry makers, photographers, and other trades for sale there, so we wandered for an hour or so. We finally made our way back to the bus and finished the tour, going through Stanley Park, China Town, and Gastown, where we got on, where we got off. We shopped some of the interesting stores in the neighborhood and watched the unique steam clock signal the hour.

The Vancouver Lookout is a circular observatory perched atop Harbor Centre, right next to where we parked, so we strolled over there and took the elevator up some 20 odd stories. Despite the gray weather, we got a nice view of the city and the harbor. Numerous twitter like city facts and descriptions were posted under the windows around the turret, and there were some fascinating (to me) panoramic photos form the late 1800's and early 1900's in a gallery area. I was fascinated because the negatives for the images were the same size as the photos, one of which was 8 feet long. There was also an interesting collection of old movie clips of Vancouver playing on a TV, some of which they played side by side against modern clips.

Formal gardens at Stanley Park

We rediscovered the challenge of rush hour traffic on our way back to the camper, something we had not missed in our months of travel. The next morning, after Consuelo took a quick trip to a fabric store to trade in our remaining Canadian dollars, we packed out of Surrey, and in 15 miles had packed our way out of Canada. We drove about 20 miles east, guessing that the border crossing there would be less busy. Crossing into the US with my expired passport turned out not to be an issue, and there was no line at noon.

Our route took us down I5 through Bellingham, where we tripped off to the west onto Whidbey Island. We made our first ever stop at a Northern Lights casino to lunch, and found a great buffet there for $7.77 each. We paid for lunch, and kept the rest of our money on our pockets.

Appropriately named eating place in Vancouver

We had to take a ferry from the end of Whidbey Island to the Olympic Peninsula where we are now staying. We found a phone number for the ferry on the sign that said, “Reservations recommended”, gave them a call, and made a reservation for 9:15 PM. But they said we could wait on standby if we went to the terminal, which we did. As it turned out, we got on the 4:30 ferry for our ½ hour ride across the bay. We chugged through Port Townsend down to Chimacum, and got ourselves parked for a 2 week stay, something we had not enjoyed since Fairbanks.

Stewart to Prince Rupert to Hixon

One of many totems in Prince Rupert

We got to Prince Rupert from Stewart without incident. We stayed overnight in a rest area off Highway 16, aka the Yellowhead Highway. Much of the drive to Prince Rupert follows the Skeena River. From Terrace west, it climbs a few hundred feet into the rounded mountains that are characteristic of this part of coastal Canada, then sinks again to follow the river as it becomes an estuary.

We had planned to take the ferry from Prince Rupert to Ketchikan, thence to one of the barrier islands, Metlakatla. Consuelo had befriended another volunteer in New Orleans who invited her to see their island. The logistics of making the trip became insurmountable, though. After reviewing the costs, we decided to make the trip on foot.

Totem and view in Prince Rupert Museum

First, our cell phone didn't work in Prince Rupert, apparently because Verizon had no agreement with the local providers. This significantly hampered making necessary calls. To solve this problem, we bought a calling card. This was not completely satisfactory, because we could not get any callbacks.

Second, requirements for bringing our dog back into Alaska were that we have a kennel for her to stay in on car deck for the 6-7 hour ferry ride. She also would need a health certificate signed within the last 30 days. This would entail a checkup, and probably another $200-$300. Since we had a certificate from May, and she had blood tests in Anchorage in August, there was a chance we could get through.

Native ceremonial garb decorated with puffin bills

Third, our friends in Metlakatla could not house us, and due to construction on the island, all other housing was occupied. We tried to call the 2 B&Bs out there, and to send them email, but only got voice mails and no replies.

Fourth, Consuelo was still coughing pretty badly. She was willing to take the cough with her, but I was concerned that adding the seasickness of the ferry trip, part of which was across the open gulf, plus visiting friends while sick would not be the best.

Fifth, due to the complicated ferry schedules and irregular sailing times, we would need to book a couple nights in Ketchikan. That would give us a chance to see the city, but added to the cost.

Finally, we would have to store our RV and car at the RV park. The RV would need electric to keep our refrigerator and freezer up and running. This turned out to be the easiest part of the process, our campground host was more than willing to accommodate us for $20/night.

There are some hills in BC

We tried for 3 days to resolve the housing issue, without success. We worked all the other problems as well, but not having a place to stay in Metlakatla killed the deal. We considered a day trip, since there were 2 ferries a day tot he island, but that would only allow only about 1-1/2 hours there, not really worth the expense.

We did take the opportunity in Prince Rupert to get the rear window replaced in the bug. All West Glass did a great job for us, getting the replacement window in on the next day and changing it out. While they worked on that, I visited the museum and learned about the local First Nations culture and totem poles.

Totem poles are a case of using the available materials for presenting art to the community. Trees are readily available on the west coast of British Columbia around Prince Rupert. And you don't even have to go cut them down... they are floating down the river, free for the taking. So it's no surprise that the local aborigines ended up using them for something, something that endured and became a visible symbol of their culture when they were invaded by us Europeans.

Main Street in Smithers

I learned in the museum that when a native chief established a community, he built a long house and a totem pole to demonstrate his power in the region. The totems were designed to illustrate the clan that the community belonged to, such as Raven or Eagle. Other elements in the carvings highlighted some of the history of the clan and paid tribute to important ancestors. Upon completion of the long house and totem, a great feast would be held, where neighboring clans would come to celebrate, to eat, and to bring gifts to the chief and his family.

After getting the car fixed, I returned to the RV, and we got ourselves packed up to hit the road the next morning. We traveled east on the Yellowhead to Smithers, BC that day. Smithers is a regional center of about 6000 people. They had a nice main street, guarded by a wooden guy blowing on an alpenhorn. We parked in a mall that indicated free overnight RV parking. Just across the street was a produce stand featuring Okanogan fruit, and the nectarines were really delicious.

The verdant ski slopes in Smithers

The next day, we continued on the Yellowhead to Prince George. This city bills itself as the “Capitol of Northern British Columbia”. We thought we might park at a Wal-mart, and found one upon entering town, but also found signs saying “No overnight parking, by city ordinance”. Since this was an RV unfriendly town, we moved on another 35 miles to the town of Hixon, where we found a nice RV park, cheap, and very friendly staff. Even some place for Thumper to run free for a while.

The terrain has changed. In Prince George, we turned south on highway 97. We have left most of the mountains behind us, now in rolling hill country dotted with hay fields and dairy farms. The highway is posted at 55 or 60 mph, but now passes through little towns along the way, with speed limits of 25 or 30 mph.

The climate is different, too. The last two days have been warm and sunny... so warm, in fact, that towns in this region have been experiencing new record high temperatures. We may have to get out and get a tan.

Stewart/Hyder

One of the dozen or so glaciers on Rt 37A

It's 7:00 in the morning, not very light outside yet. It's not raining, but everything outside remains wet. We're parked in a roadside rest area, just west of Kitwanga, BC on route 16. Later today we'll make our way into Prince Rupert, BC, to check into ferry crossings to Ketchikan, AK.

As we continued down the Cassier Highway, it kept getting better and better. When we left the Alaska Highway, the Cassier was under construction, really bad. After about 20 miles, it improved into a rough dirt road, then a sealcoated road, all for about 200 miles, except for one 15 mile stretch dirt stretch that was steep and windy with hairpin turns as it descended into a valley and then out again. Then it was rough paved road again, shaking everything in our house. Finally, we got to a section that had on it, and it was pretty smooth. We were out of the permafrost areas, so the sudden dips were gone.

Chum Salmon in Fish Creek

We finally arrived at route 37A, which leads about 35 miles to Stewart, BC. This road crosses an unnamed pass through the mountains, and is said to have the largest concentration of glaciers along a roadway. A couple of them must have crossed the highway at some point, perhaps before the highway was there, because the evidence of terminal moraines on the side opposite the glaciers were very visible. Three glaciers came all the way down to within a few hundred feet of the road. Several more were visible draping down between the peaks of the mountains. They continued into and beyond the town of Stewart.

Brown bear fishing

Stewart used to be an important port community, now fading. It lies at the end of the Portland Canal, a natural fiord that extends some 20 miles to the ocean on the inside passage north of Ketchikan. It lies nestled between the mountains. It boasts a fairly large number of houses, considering its remoteness, but most are small and not in good condition. One whole block of apartment buildings was completely abandoned. Likewise, downtown was small and a bit shabby, with some older commercial buildings abandoned. They did have a couple groceries, and a nice Visitor Centre, but it was closed every time I went there. That's where the free wifi was, and it still worked.

Brown bear eating

We stayed in the municipal campground, Rainy Creek, nestled up against the bottom of a cliff on the northern mountain boundary. We arrived at about 5:00 PM, the tiny office was closed with a sign that said, “Back at 6:20”. We wandered around until we found the 30 amp sites, then parked in one of them. A dozen campers or so were scattered in the 60 odd sites.

As we parked the car, we noticed that the rear hatch window was crackled, thousands of cracks laced through the glass. Somewhere along the way, it had shattered. There was no apparent sign of an impact. It seemed to be holding together for the time being. Around 6:30, I went back to the office to register, and asked the man about window repair. He said there would be nothing for several hundred miles.

Downtown Hyder, Alaska

A mile or so up the road along the canal is the US-Canada border, and the tiny town of Hyder, Alaska. Hyder has a little main street with a few shops, about ½ of them closed. All the roads are dirt. It's so disconnected from the rest of the US, that there is no customs post at the border, just drive right on in. Supposedly the ferry arrives there once a week, so Canada controls its side of the border with customs agents. We took several trips to Hyder, and needed our passports to return to Stewart, always questioned about purchases and firearms.

The main attraction in Hyder is the Tongass National Forest Fish Creek Wildlife Viewing Area, about 3 miles up the Salmon River from 'downtown'. Several people said we should go there to see the bears. The parks people have built an elevated boardwalk along a narrow spit between Fish Creek and a lagoon, near the Salmon River. It is patrolled, and a $5.00 entry fee is charged, unless you have a Golden Age pass, which I do. Schools of salmon were clearly visible swimming up fish creek, and salmon bodies littered the shore along the creek. We spent about 2 hours there in all, never seeing a bear. But they told us that they had been there. Our luck. But on the road leading to the park, there was a crossing down to the river, and seeing several cars parked there, I stopped down, and got a few pictures of a grizzly bear searching for salmon. He never caught any live ones while I was there, but he did scavenge some dead ones off the bottom and look them over.

After 2 nights, we packed up to move on. We applied some duct tape over the rear window to hold it together while we traveled. We wound our way back though the glaciers, over the pass, and back onto route 37, continuing south. This section of the highway was even better, with posted speeds of 60 mph for most of it, passing though meadows and along streams, until we reached Kitwanga and the junction with highway 16 and turned east.

Back in Canada

Dease River Crossing Campground

We've just parked the camper at Dease River Crossing RV Park, about 90 miles south of the Alaska Highway. As I stepped outside, fragrant balsam tree scent filled my nostrils, reminding me of trips our family took New Hampshire when I was just a kid, where they sold balsam needles in little bags at the souvenir shops.

We're next to a lake, and the Dease River. As I walked Thumper near the beach, an eagle flew overhead, perhaps sizing up Thumper for an evening meal. He must have decided against it, as he flew off into the woods.

The Cassier Highway is a big step down from the Alaska Highway. We knew there would be some rough stretches, some dirt road. The first 5 miles from the Alaska Highway were under construction, and rough and potholed, limiting us to 15 mph in places. The next 15 miles were dirt, but being sealcoated, so it was loose gravel. After that, we got hard road, but not the best. Speed limit is 50 mph, and frost heaves and roughness limit that to 35 at times. We chose this route as our stateside destination is Washington state, and the Cassier saves 300 miles over going back through Dawson Creek.

A young eagle along the Cassier Highway

The Cassier is also much more wild than the Alaska Highway. There are no shoulders, and few guard rails. The road is lined with lodgepole pine forests, some spruce forests, and a few poplars and aspen. Just before we parked, we entered a valley between the Cassier Mountains, rising 3-5 thousand feet on both sides of us.

We've been traveling for 3 days and nights, since our last overnight at Eagle Trail State Park just south of Tok. We got through customs without any issues, though Canadian customs alerted me to the fact that my passport has expired. I had checked Consuelo's passport, which expires in November, and thought ours were both the same. This could be an issue when we enter the states again, currently planned for being on the ferry into Ketchikan.

US customs at the border were doing thorough checks on outbound vehicles. The drug sniffing dog gave us the once over, said hello to Thumper, and went on to the next car. The officer asked if we had any ocean mammal trinkets, and Consuelo acknowledged that she had bought some seal fur thimbles at the Museum of the North. He told her that he never saw them. They're not illegal, but there supposedly is a raft of paperwork to be filled out for such things.

The roads were pretty mediocre on the Tok Cutoff of the Glenn Highway to Tok, and the Alaska Highway from about 40 miles from Tok until Burwash Landing. The problem is that these roads have been built over permafrost, and they develop huge sags where the permafrost melts with the summer sun. In many cases, an alert driver can see skid marks in the dip, left by other RV drivers who have bottomed out their suspensions. Slowing to 30 mph in most cases prevented me from doing the same, but I managed to hit a couple of them too fast. Also, they were repairing the roads in Canada, some dug up and just dirt, other places patched with gravelly tar.

We stayed the first night at Burwash Landing Resort, something of a historical place with free dry camping and a good enough restaurant. We had roast beef, with gravy, mashed potatoes, carrots, and Jello for dessert. It was yummy.

1950s T-Birds

We had leapfrogged four 1950s Thunderbirds as we left Tok, with them pulling up right behind us at the border. As we prepared to leave Burwash, they arrived for breakfast, and we snapped a couple pictures of the cars on the way out. In addition, one of them was from New Jersey, the last continental state missing from our “see the license plates” game we had been playing since Banff. We're only missing Hawaii for a complete set.

Teslin Lake

We continued on down a section of the Alaska Highway that was all new to us, until we reached Whitehorse. The days were mostly cloudy and rainy, with brief bits of sunshine poking through the clouds. Our goal for the second night was Mukluk Annie's Restaurant and RV Park, where you can dry camp for free if you buy a salmon dinner. We were ready, mouth's watering, only to find that the place had closed for the season. It was closed when we went north, too. Guess we'll never know if it's any good.

There was a government campground about 10 miles north of Mukluk Annie's, where we stayed on the way north, but we were loath to go back north again. We found a roadside rest area next to Teslin Lake, with a sign posted “No Camping or Overnight Parking” which we ignored, and stayed undisturbed for the night. I found some of that tar mixture from the previous day's travel stuck to the hood, windshield, and roof of our VW Beetle, which I removed before we left. Cosuelo picked up some interesting driftwood on the shore, and I pocketed a few more pebbles.

Travel on the Alaska Highway was uneventful. We saw no wildlife. We stopped for fuel at the junction of the Cassier and Alaska Highways, and took on 270 liters of diesel fuel, at $1.099 per liter. On the Cassier, touted for having more wildlife than the Alaska Highway, we saw one chipmunk. Not too impressive so far. But we've still got hundreds of miles to cover on this route.

On the Cassier, we stopped at Jade City, at the Jade Store. There is a jade mine near there, and the store was loaded with all sorts of jade objects, from earrings to 5 lb chunks of uncut jade. It was all very pretty, but didn't generate an urge to extract the wallet. We moved on.

Dease Crossing Campground presented new challenges. The woman in the Jade Store said that the campground was under new ownership, alerting us to this in case we had stayed there before. When we arrived, a Japanese gentleman was standing on the porch of the “office” which is actually a house. He invited me and Thumper in, gave me an apple, poured me tea, and signaled to me that he didn't speak English. I sat in the living room, drinking my tea, and he went to the porch and hollered to somebody. I waited. Eventually, I said I would take Thumper for a walk, and he said, “OK”. I reported the situation to Consuelo, and then walked Thumper to look at the campsites. When I returned, another Japanese gentleman was there who spake some English, and said we could park “anywhere along the road”, and that the fee was $15. I paid him and we found a great spot next to the lake.

Heritage Center, Glenn Highway, Valdez

We finished the state fair. Next order of business was getting our generator fixed. The repair shop had called and reported that the parts were in. We took the RV back to Anchorage for a 10:00 AM appointment, left it and went to the Alaska Native Heritage Center.

Athabascan log house and food cache

The Heritage Center is a first class museum in northern Anchorage, displaying and demonstrating native culture from all of the Alaskan tribes. There are 5 main tribes, including Athabaskan, Inuit, Aleut, Tlinglit, and many sub tribes. Each culture had created their own traditions for costume, housing and food sources. The museum had typical houses from each culture, with docents in each to explain the way of life and the essential elements of living. For example, the Saint Lawrence tribes on the north slope built sod houses, buried about ½ way into the earth. A single opening in the roof, covered with a “window” made of sewn seal intestines provided light. This group hunted seals and walrus, whales, as well as fish. The summer tundra yielded berries and rose hips.

Eskimo athletic games

The Center also provided demonstrations of various cultural activities. One that we watched was simple yet challenging games which are now part of the Eskimo Olympics. A leather covered ball, about the size of a tennis ball, is suspended from a string held up by a wooden arm. The string is arranged so that the ball can be raised and lowered. Several physical games are played with this equipment. In one, the player sits on the floor holding one foot in his hand. Using only strength and coordination, he or she has to raise the free foot and touch the ball. Strong agile boys can achieve a one hand handstand while raising the foot up to the ball. It's really quite amazing, and difficult. Try it sometime.

We got a call from the generator shop, our coach was ready, and we picked it up and returned to the Palmer Elks for one more night. The next morning, we headed out to Valdez.

Valdez had been a question mark on our trip. We hadn't heard or read a lot about it, although the Chamber of Commerce does an excellent job of keeping the name visible throughout the state. It seemed a bit out of the way, taking some 250 extra miles to get there and back. But in the end, we decided that we'd go.

Colorful autumn taiga along the Glenn Highway

The Glenn Highway from Palmer to Glenwood passes through the Chugach Mountains on the south and the Talkeetna Mountains on the north. The Matanuska River runs under and along the highway near Palmer, as it winds down into the Knik Arm, the northern end of the Cook Inlet. The highway gains elevation up to the Tahneta Pass. In this area, the taiga (bush and forest just below the tundra) was crimson red and golden yellow with fall colors.

We arrived in Glenwood, had a bite to eat, then stopped at the Visitor Center for the Wrangell/St Elias National Park. I had heard that the view of the mountains from here would be spectacular. All we got were views of some rather ordinary clouds. The ranger said, “We should have been there in the morning.” But we stayed the night in their entrance road, and I walked back in in the morning to see if there was a view. Nope. We went along to Valdez.

Bridal Veil Falls

People had reported to us that the waterfalls in the mountains on the way to Valdez we quite a sight, and we have to agree. Photographs do not do them much justice. Thompson Pass was also breathtaking.

We finally arrived in Valdez, and got ourselves a space in Sea Otter RV Park, right on the channel where the boats cruised back and forth from the small boat harbor into Port Valdez, the bay. Across the bay, we could see the Pipeline Terminal, with a cluster of oil tanks arranged on the hillside next to it. Two huge oil tankers arrived, filled up overnight, and departed the next day. Dozens of fishing boats ranged down the bay, small aluminum skiffs to 50' charter boats. Across the channel toward town was the ferry dock. The Marine Highway runs from Valdez to Whittier and Cordova. The ferry arrived and departed twice a day.

I couldn't make up my mind whether to go fishing in Valdez or not. I had heard good things about Allison Point, across the bay and inland from the oil terminal. But I didn't know what to use for bait, where to go, etc. I finally decided to skip it.

Then luck stepped in. We had chatted with our next door neighbors, a family from Palmer, there with 2 boats and two freezers, a cord of wood, and plans to catch salmon in a week long stay. They reported catching their limit the first day out, with 3 of them in the boat. They asked me if I'd like to go along the next day. I thought about it for a microsecond, checked with Consuelo, then told them yes. I scurried into town to get a one day fishing license.

The Great Alaskan fishing dogs

As 7:00 the next morning, we launched their 20' flat bottom boat and hurried out onto the water. There were 4 of us, Lance and Tammy, husband and wife, and their grown daughter Jamie, and me. There were also 2 dogs, a black and a chocolate lab. They were the fish dogs. They were a riot, scrambling from front to back, barking at otters and seals, jumping salmon, driftwood, or lures being cast. Every time we caught a fish, they wanted to see it, smell it, taste it. They ran back and forth from the bow to the stern, until once they collided head on with each other, causing a gash over one eye. That slowed them a little, but just a little.

Captain Lance immediately got lost in the fog, as he tried to work his way westward along the north side of the bay, but lost sight of land. For whatever reason, he kept doing a slight left hand turn, thinking that he was going straight. Port Valdez is 13 miles long and 2-1/2 miles wide, and I think we covered most of it before we saw lights and figured out we were at the oil terminal. Oops! He headed off across the bay again, and this time ended up at Allison Point, even farther east and still across the bay from where he wanted to be. Setting out one more time, I kept watching the wake, and guiding him off to the right as he tended to veer left, and we this time arrived at the ferry terminal, which was at least on the right side of the bay. From then on, he never lost sight of shore, and we got to the fishing spot about 1-1/2 hours after we left. Wow!

Silver salmon for the freezer

But then we caught fish, nice big fat silver salmon which tipped the scales between 10 and 15 pounds. I caught 4, and lost a couple more. Between the 4 of us, we pulled 14 into the boat in about 5 hours. From the reports that we got on the way back, we did quite well for ourselves, as several boats returning had caught only one or none. We took our catch to the fish cleaner on the docks, who filleted our catch for us. I arrived back at our camper with 4 fish with a net weight of 16 pounds. Just as a side benefit, I got some more eagle pictures, since we saw dozens of them along the shore. What a piece of luck!

Meanwhile, Consuelo had a sore throat that over two weeks had developed into a glob of crap and then into her sinuses, and she finally called the Mayo Nurse and was told to get to a clinic. The gave her antibiotics and a cough syrup. When she returned home with the meds, she had a ½ hour coughing bout that left her abs sore the next day. (A week later, she seems to be improving, but is still coughing...)

On our final night in Valdez, our fishing friends loaned us the DVD of Clint Eastwood's “Gran Torino”, which we found to be excellent.

The next morning we departed Valdez, back up the highway to Wrangell/St Elias, and this time the mountains were in full view, though the clouds were still around. I stopped a couple places along the way, and got some pictures of the mountains.

Just north of Glenwood, the Glenn Highway splits, the Glen Highway continues on to Delta Junction, joining the Alaska Highway at it's end. The other road is called the Glenn Highway, Tok Cutoff. We took the cutoff toward Tok. This road is built primarily over permafrost, the bane of the Alaska road builder. As the summer sun heats the road, the frost underneath melts, leaving full width dips in the road, typically 4 to 8 feet long, and 6 or more inches deep. The road gets patched, but the permafrost never gets replaced, so every year it melts a little more. Late summer, the time we are traveling now, is just about the worst. Sitting up high in our RV, I can see the dips most of the time. Many of them have skid marks in them, where some other RV or truck has bottomed out their suspension, probably sending the occupants towards the roof of the cab, to be restrained only by their seat belts, should they be wearing them.

Tundra swans

But to save some miles, we put up with this kind of road, take it slow, reduce speed for the dips, and only manage to bottom out on a couple of the "invisible"ones. The payoff is that we see new country. We usually get to see the black spruce forests, since they are the only trees that can manage to grow year after year with their feet frozen in the permafrost. And we get to see the little ponds that are just standing water that can't seep into the ground, and whatever surprises they may hold, like the tundra swans in the picture.

View from Eagle Trail SP

About 15 miles before we reached Tok, we found Eagle Trail State Park and stayed the night there. There were two trails that I got to walk on, one that climbed into the hills overlooking the valley, the other a nature trail with lots of signs describing the flora. Both were a lot of fun.