Alaska Travelers

I forgot to mention....

2009-05-16T20:54:00.001-07:00

After we spent a night in Skagway, we took an Alaska Marine Highway ferry to Sitka. We will be home a month and then take off again for the next leg of our trip which will take us to Denali Park, weather permitting.

We will pick up where we left off at that time.

Sitka, the Paris of the Pacific.

(Remember to click on any image to see a larger view.)

A Desert in Alaska and what a Dall

2009-05-11T13:21:00.000-07:00

Before we left Whitehorse, we did a mile hike in the Miles Canyon park, named after General Nelson Miles of Wild West fame.

There weren't any roses to stop and smell, so these had to do.

Canadians and Alaskans sometimes employ weird methods of attracting attention to their businesses. This one seems a little asinine to me.

Just kidding....we stopped there to buys some buns, but they were closed.

This guy came prepared for the harshest road conditions....6X6

Just a few miles off the Alaska Highway, you come across Robinson and Robinson Roadhouse, an old way station for the White Pass and Yukon Railroad.

The buildings are very well preserved by the dry climate there and you can also see the abandoned narrow-gauge railroad tracks.

Like many places associated with the Gold Rush, Mssrs. Robinson thought they had the perfect spot for a booming city here, but like most others, it didn't pan out.

Here's that rose I couldn't find earlier.

Emerald Lake, just before Carcross.

About thirty miles in towards Skagway you come to what's billed as the world's smallest desert, named after the nearby community of Carcross. Once the bed of a great lake, the fine sand cannot support much life due to the constant winds.

Carcross is another waystation for the railroad, and boasts a hundred plus year old Anglican Church and the oldest, continuously operating store in the Yukon

Georgina was reading in the Milepost and it said we might see Dall Sheep on the highway above Skagway.

Literally a minute later we came across six Dalls munching grass on the sidehill just above the road.

This lake was frozen over in mid-May.

The drive from Whitehorse to Skagway is full of special surprises and spectacular scenery .

Finally, Alaska. No more need to figure out the currency or convert km to miles.

Skagway, portal to the 1898 Gold Rush.

Tagish Charlie, one of the Tlingit guides who led miners into the Yukon gold fields.

A snow-clearing engine for the White Pass & Yukon Railroad.

Read the remarkable story of Soapy Smith and Frank Reid, reenacted to this day in Skagway during the summer season.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soapy_Smith

Atlin later

2009-05-10T18:36:00.000-07:00

I've checked out all the gear on our RV after it had been sitting for so long, but not until this morning did I try out the sewage dump pipe.

It broke before I could use it.

We had to spend a couple of hours getting it replaced, shopping for RV supplies and dining, and ended up canceling our trip to Atlin.

Next time.

Mid afternoon we headed to Skagway.

Whitehorse

2009-05-10T08:18:00.000-07:00

Sunday Morning, May 10th

My wife made an executive decision last night that we would head to Atlin instead of spending the whole day in Whitehorse.

I mentioned in an earlier post that Canadians like to paint their buildings in more than one color. Nowhere have I seen that more prevalent than in Whitehorse.

Here are some examples: (remember to double click on any image for a larger view)

Hot Springs Eternal

2009-05-09T21:24:00.000-07:00

We left Liard Hot Springs early today, hoping to see some more wildlife before traffic picked up along the highway.

We weren't disappointed.

Just a few miles out of Liard we came across the first of several small buffalo herds. We watched two young males butting heads in what appeared to be a pecking-order contest. Then we spotted a young calf resting on the grass, bathed in the morning sun.

Upon spotting me with my camera, he hurried over to his mother's side.

I suddenly realized I haven't sent my mother her Mother's Day card.

We saw a headless buffalo along side the road near here, and later another. I thought of poachers and hunters looking only for the kill. Later I learned that the province has a "head permit" that costs $150 and allows residents to harvest the head from road-killed buffalo.

I'm not sure why that made me feel better about what I had seen, but it did.

Driving on we stopped alongside the Liard River, now breaking up after a winter frozen in ice five feet thick.

Georgina spotted a movement in the grass on the shaded side of the road and I jumped out to catch this shot of a red fox carrying its morning meal.

Gas along the highway tends to get progressively higher in areas with fewer people, but at the Contact Creek Lodge we found the best prices in a couple of days, 97.9 per liter.

The two hour drive to Watson Lake led us to a familiar site in this small town.

In 1942, a construction worker for the Alaska Highway put a sign from his hometown on a tree in downtown Watson Lake. Since that time a few more have been added, giving the are the name "Signpost forest".

Please click on the next image to see how many signs are there today. And there's still room for more. I didn't see one from New York City. Anyone....anyone?

The best gas price in Watson Lake was $1.029.

Another caribou, yawn...

Not many deciduous trees have leaves yet, but where they mingle with evergreens, a beautiful mosaic emerges.

We were getting hungry about now so we stopped at the Rancheria Restaurant for lunch. Georgina had a Pirogie, an eastern European dumpling filled with potatos and covered with onions and bacon. Their food prices were reasonable, but their regular gas was $1.199, well over $4.00 a US gallon.

The food was great and we had a nice visit with the owner. Almost anywhere along the highway, you can meet very interesting people and learn how they came to be there. The inside of the restaurant was not unlike many in Alaska of long ago when I was much younger.

Scenery between Rancheria Lodge and Whitehorse, 200 miles away, was a repeat of much of what we'd already seen. The sky was clouding over a bit and gave a dull effect to the color scheme.

We almost made it to Whitehorse, but decided to stay at the Caribou RV Park, just fifteen minutes from downtown. It was a very good choice for several reason.

First, as we found out later, it was the only park open at this time...the rest would follow in about a week.

Second, the park is very nice, in a wooded area, has nice showers and restrooms, a payphone and high-speed wireless internet that actually works.

Third, a series of wooded trails lead from and back to the park.

Also, a very wonderful Swiss-owned restaurant offers tasty foods that my wife, more of an adventurer than I, really appreciated.

She has a smaller appetite than I and ordered the "small person" plate of Schnitzel and Spaetzel.

She also ordered a bottle of Beck, a German beer.

I could swear I saw the cook do a double-take when he saw the child's plate accompanied by a beer.

Buffalo girls and Bathing beauties

2009-05-09T10:24:00.000-07:00

Friday, May 8, 2009

We awoke at 5:00 to the sound of long-haul truckers revving up their engines. We were at the Sasquatch Crossing truck stop four miles, past Pink Mountain, our original destination last night, which like many stops along the highway, was closed until about the 20th.

We decided to make it to Liard Hot Springs by early evening...a 333 mile drive. The weather started out cloudy and chilly and looked like a gray day ahead for the first hour or so.

Then the sun broke through and we had a beautiful drive to Fort Nelson, our first destination of the day.

The Fort Nelson Hotel is very nice, has a reasonably priced restaurant, and offers wireless internet while you eat.

At the CIBC, we got $1.13 CSD for each U. S. dollar, a half cent less than our last transaction had gotten us.

We gassed up there, since I knew prices would get steeper along the way, and paid 109.9 a liter, about USD $3.62 a U. S. gallon.

The road out of Fort Nelson winds uphill for miles and took us into the Northern Rockies. The pavement is slightly rougher in places than we've previously encountered.

Caribou were abundant along this route, and seemed unconcerned that they were occasionally blocking traffic.

At the Tetsa River Lodge, the self proclaimed Cinnamon Bun Center of the Galactic Cluster, we treated ourselves to one of their specialties and were not disappointed.

This is a log-cabin resort and lodge, but the roof sports a couple of solar panels, slightly upsetting the ambiance.

Picked up a coon-skin hat for our grandson Max.

Inside, however, the dining area looked like a meeting hall for members of PETA Anonymous, the walls bedecked with various animal heads and skins.

We left there and drove through the Rockies until we came out of the foothills near Toad River, and it's namesake lodge. There we stopped for a snack and a look at their famous hat collection, over 7000 and counting. The cook said there is no more room, and extras are stored away. The hats have come from visitors over the years.

Gas was $1.169 here, too steep for me.

From Toad River, we drove another 68 miles to our final destination - Liard River Hot Springs...a glorious sight.

On the way we kept seeing signs warning us to watch out for buffalo on the road. In Canada?

At Liard, a quarter-mile boardwalk leads to the springs which have a 100 degree lower pool and a 110+ degree upper pool, a short walk further in the woods. The dock and steps around the lower pool are first-class. They even have benches in the pool where you can sit with the water level at your neck.

A sign there estimates that 150,000 visitors come each year to the springs. When we got there, we were alone for ten minutes or so until one or two at a time, another ten people arrived.

Camping at the Hot Springs is $19 per night....across the street at the Liard Hot Springs Lodge and RV Park, our space cost $20, and included electricity, something we were happy to have as the nights have been getting progressively colder as we've traveled north.

One family from Fort St. John, eight hours back down the highway came and my wife offered their daughters their 15 minutes of fame (on Sitka.com) if they wanted their picture taken.

Tasty leftovers and a movie in bed and we were out like lights.

Some photos, titles to be added later

2009-05-08T12:34:00.000-07:00

A moose and her calf.

More deer.

That's us in the reflection. This is often the view you get when you're in more of a hurry than others.

A little information about Dawson Creek.

Carvings from Chetwynd.

As always, click on any image to get a larger view. Some of these were incredible, and we only saw a dozen or so of several score around town.

Rear view after a day on the highway.

A view of Fraser Canyon.

Street scenes in the reenacted gold rush town of Barkerville. This picture was taken when we visited there last year.

We pulled off the road to eat lunch and enjoy the scenery. Hundreds of such spots exist along the highway, waiting to be found.

The historical site of the community of 108 Mile.

Hope hopes, Chetwynd wins

2009-05-08T11:49:00.000-07:00

We traveled yesterday from Prince George to Dawson Creek via Chetwynd, the other "Chainsaw Sculpture Capital of the World". After viewing their displays, I tend to agree.

We decided to refuel in Dawson Creek, figuring the prices would be best there. About ten miles out of DC, we saw a 93.9 sign on a Race Trac station, but went on into town where we got to pay 96.4 instead. I remembered from a previous trip that the Race Trac station had lower prices than those in town.

Dawson Creek is Mile Zero of the Alcan Highway.

After the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the U. S. realized that their enemy envisioned gaining control of the Aleutians and the Gulf of Alaska. In order to get men and materiel within fighting range as rapidly as possible, President Roosevelt set in motion a plan to extend the highway from Dawson Creek all the way to the interior of Alaska.

Thus began the construction of the Alaska-Canadian (ALCAN) Highway, one of the greatest engineering feats in history.

The 1523 mile road was begun in February 1942, a scant two months after Pearl Harbor and was expected to take years to build. My grandfather, Leo Jewett, who was a paymaster for the Federal Bureau of Public Roads, was told to move to Whitehorse where he could do his job closer to the workers and contractors.

Much to the chagrin of my Grandmother, my mother and her siblings, they sold their waterfront home out the road in Juneau and moved to an apartment in town to await their travel to Whitehorse once accommodations were obtained.

They spent the spring and summer of 1942 waiting and then they got a call saying that the highway would be completed by October rather than much later. So they didn’t have to move to Whitehorse, but they no longer enjoyed their home of many years and settled in town instead.

After getting an oil change in Dawson Creek, we headed up the Highway, stopping at the Shepherd's Inn for a wonderful dinner. We highly recommend this stop, about 70 miles from DC.

We then drove another 70 miles to a truck stop called Sasquatch Crossing where we spent the night, hooked up to their electricity right in front of the building. Ten dollars for the night. They also had internet, but it didn't work.

Today we are heading to Liard Hot Springs, one of the nicest of its kind, about 350 miles up the highway.

Pictures to follow.

Foto Ops

2009-05-07T06:26:00.000-07:00

Along the Fraser River.

As you'll see later, the B. C. 'ers use the sides of many buildings as easels for scenic murals. Here are a couple in Williams Lake. Click on them, or any image, for a larger view.

This was a drive-by shot....one hand on the steering wheel and one on the camera. Nice road, nice sky. The horizon really opens up in the are between Cache Creek and Prince George.

An antique store in Clinton, north of Cache Creek, should satisfy anyone's curiosity. Thousands of items of every type.

We bought a $5 umbrella to store in the RV. I wished we had room for a wagon wheel...I've always wanted one, but I'm not sure why.

Snow in May?

2009-05-06T21:17:00.000-07:00

We met up with our friends in Cache Creek this morning and mutually came to the conclustion that they needed to go further and faster than we did, so after a short visit, headed our way.

Cache Creek to Williams Lake is Ponderosa Pine - Bonanza country. Dry, beautiful, Big Sky country.

So dry that a couple of forest fires had consumed some of the forest in the preceding days. Most of the smoke had blown off by the time we passed through.

From CC heading north, you pass through all these #Mile House places. 70 Mile House, 83 Mile House, 100 Mile House etc. It got me to wondering why they didn't change the names to 112 KM House, 162.5 KM House and so forth when they changed to the metric system years ago. Does their younger generation even know what a mile is?

Two large does crossed the highway in front of us near 70 Mile House; our first land-based wildlife of the trip.

At 100 Mile House, slushy snow began falling. Somewhere around there I also began using cruise control for the first time since we left Hope the day before. Gently rolling hills. We topped off our tank there at 90.9 per liter.

When we arrived at Williams Lake where we would lunch, we noticed a sign that said "Chinese and Canadian Food". I've never heard of Canadian food, unless you count Canadian bacon and Canada Dry beverages. Do you suppose that when the locals are thinking about going out to dinner, that they'll say, "Let's have Canadian food tonight!"?

Gas in Williams Lake was 99.9 per liter. I had remembered from previous trips that even though Williams Lake was one of the larger towns, their gas prices were higher than some of their smaller neighbors. We decided to top off again in Prince George.

The next good-sized town north of Williams Lake is Quesnel (Prounced Qwenell). Situated on the banks of a river, it is a very beautiful community with all the amenities of a larger town.

Right at the northern outskirts of Quesnel, a side road leads to the old mining town of Barkerville. Restored to its appearance during its heydays in the 1860's, it is a fee-adminssion site that is definitely worth doing at least once. Plan on several hours between the two plus hours needed to get there and back to the main highway and a few hours visiting Barkerville and another historical site, a former way-station. Gas - 93.9.

Gas prices stayed in the 93.9 to 95.9 range the entire day, with a few exceptions. Coming in to Prince George, I remembered from a previous trip that the best prices were at a Shell stationand one across the street, just before you cross the river into PG. After filling up there and continuing into town, I confirmed that Shell's 92.9 price was better the the average 98.9 I saw at a couple stations in town.

I'll post some pictures tomorrow after I process them.

Later, I'll tell you about the biggest, best, most famous places and things along the highway.

Cache Creek and Cash

2009-05-06T08:14:00.000-07:00

We found the only RV park in Cache Creek, the Brookside. Very nice, level, clean. A nice 10-15 minute hiking trail to a pond dammed by a beaver's home. Lots of waterfowl there.

More on the metric system:

Something you might want to pay close attention to is the difference between the metric and decimal systems.

When you see a speed limit sign that says 100 KMH in British Columbia, do not stomp on the gas right away. In our system, it is the equivalent of 62.5 MPH.

An easy way to keep things straight, short of constantly staring at the little numbers on your speedometer, is to subtract the zero from the speed limit, multiply by six and add one or two.

For example: 100 km/hr. - multiply 10 times 6 and add two = 62 MPH). Close enough to help you avoid a roadside chat with a six foot ten inch Canadian Mountie with no sense of humor, or a visit with a couple of Troopers disguised as a road construction crew with a radar gun, where you'll beg and plead that it isn't fair and that you were tricked....but enough about my experiences (years ago).

As to currency, a little more helpful detail: Our exchange rate of $1.14 yesterday translated into about $1.00 Canadian for .86 US.

The U. S. gallon of gas is 3.785 liters.

If you multiply 3.785 x 93.9 cents per liter you arrive at $3.55 per U. S. gallon. Multiplied by the .86 exchange rate, your actual cost per gallon is $3.06.

This number will get bigger as we go further north. Which we're about to do.

We are meeting some Juneau friends, Ken Hansen and his son-in-law Bob in Cache Creek. We'll caravan with them for a day or so.

Hope, the chainsaw sculpture capital

2009-05-06T08:03:00.000-07:00

The Yale Tunnel, one of 7 along the Fraser Canyon

I'm not sure what this one is supposed to represent, but I thought it safer to take the picture from behind.

This one was a tribute to the Mounties

First Blood

2009-05-05T19:05:00.000-07:00

We drove to Bellingham and purchased our last U. S. gas for $2.19 a gallon at Costco. We then headed toward Sumas and the border crossing on Highway 539 (follow the signs).

The Canadian border agent asked us where we lived, how long we'd been in Washington, several questions about firearms and tobacco, and how long we'd be driving through Canada. The motor home in front of us was going through a pretty thorough search.

I suspect some of it is the "luck" of the draw, and it was our lucky day. We were soon on our way and minutes later merged onto Trans-Canada 1, heading toward Hope, B.C. and the Fraser River Canyon.

We stopped in Hope for an hour or so to exchange some U. S. currency for Canadian dollars. (We got about $114 C$ for each USD.)

Petrol was $.98.9 at the first gas station. The second station was charging $93.9, about 20 cents a gallon cheaper. We didn't buy yet as we had barely depleted our 60-gallon tank.

Hope has an easily-accessable, friendly-staffed visitor center right off the main highway. We walked the six or seven blocks to the CBC Bank on 4th Street, passing intricate wood carvings everywhere. It seems that Hope considers itself the "Chainsaw Carving Capital of Canada".
Sounds reasonable to me.

I'll post some photos of the carvings tomorrow.

Hope was the setting for the first of the Rambo movies, First Blood, filmed there in 1982. Watch it again if you're really bored, and pay attention to the scenery and weather. It has been known to rain in Hope

It started to drizzle while we were walking back to our RV and by the time we headed up the Fraser River Canyon, things were getting pretty nasty. It was as if a lid of wet clouds was packed in over the canyon and shedding their excess moisture in buckets.

We worked our way up the canyon, along with scores of long-haul truckers. Fortunately, unlike many years ago, there are plenty of pull-outs and passing lanes to minimize the annoyance.

The canyon scenery is awesome. Fraser River has carved deeply into the terrain leaving a narrow waterway at its bottom. In places, the river's fury is almost scary. Tour operators offer jet boat and rafting excursions. At Hell's Gate, you can take an air tram over the river.

There are seven tunnels carved through solid rock along the sheer cliffs; one of them ranks among the longest in North America.

Gradually as we gained in altitude, the sky cleared, the vegetation changed from rain-forest to high-desert with tumbleweeds blowing around in the wind.

We decided to spend our first night in Cache Creek, about 120 miles north of Hope. We had dinner at Hungry Herbie's, home of the Monster Burger. A tasty treat, but like most food along the highway, a little more expense than in the U. S. One larger burger which we split, two citrus coolers and an order of fries set us back $17 CSD, about $14.50 USD.

It's worth it though, to get the free internet they offer.

Gas here is actual a penny a liter cheaper than in Hope - $.939.

Keep in mind that the liter is larger than a quart, so four of them (at $3.76 in Cache Creek) costs about $3.30 USD and at 1.1 US gallons per Canadian Imperial Gallon, the actual cost is about $3 per gallon. (I'll check my math later).

We're off to find an RV park for the night.

Tomorrow....

Preparation

2009-05-05T07:09:00.000-07:00

First and foremost, it looks like we're going to need some pretty serious ID to get across the border. We're taking our passports.

Last time we crossed, all we had were Alaska driver's licenses and were detained for a while until we convinced them that we were just ignorant Alaskans. I don't think it's a good idea to try that more than once.

We'll top off our sixty gallon tank in the Bellingham Washington area. It's the last sizeable U. S. city along the route.

When we drove up last summer, we were not allowed to bring certain fruit and vegetables across the border. Apples were forbidden, but I don't remember what else. I'll find out today and let you know.

I do know that you'll be sick of apples for a while if you do what we did and eat several at the border crossing to avoid throwing them in a garbage can, the only other alternative.

By the way: don't head North without a Milepost. You can generally find them in Northern Washington Costco's or at any Borders or Barnes and Noble bookstores. We bought our last one in Bellingham, and since we can't find it, will replace it today.

The Milepost has been published for more than fifty years, and covers every detail you'll need for a safe, anxiety-free trip to Alaska. Please trust me on this one.

Here's their website if you have time to order one ahead.

http://milepost.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=401&Itemid=1

Next: I'll give you some info on the weather, and good sites to use for looking ahead at the forecasts along the route.

Off we go

2009-05-04T21:29:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow morning we are beginning a six-day journey to Skagway, Alaska, with Monroe, Washington, a bedroom community north of Seattle as our starting point.

Our drive will cover about 1700 miles and take us through several different geograpical areas of the Northwest including farm country, river valleys, desert country, mountain terrain and alpine meadows. We will cross the Rockies twice and hopefully avoid snowfall.

May 5th is a just a little too soon to head up to Alaska from the Seattle area, but we need to get back home and mainly get the RV up there and out of storage. We expect cool, occasionally damp weather, especially at night.

My wife has been undergoing chemotherapy for the past four years and is currently in the middle of her eighth round. The regular schedule of chemo "infusions" has prevented us from taking the trips we would like to take, but we know that if the RV is closer to home, we will be more likely to take short trips as we can.

We'll try to update you daily on road conditions, accomodations, gas prices, food prices, the Canadian exchange rate and any other information that might help you cover the same ground, whether you're heading north or south.

We will also add photos as we go, and hopefully show you many pictures of wildlife that is abundant along our route.

For starters, here is a shot of our home for the next six days.