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.