Alaska Revisited

Today was a day of retracing our steps again. We drove highway 2 for a good portion of the day. There was a lot of construction. In one community in Wisconsin, we had to detour up one street and down another over and over again. We felt sorry for the townspeople who had to endure all the traffic in their neighbourhoods. The sky was clear and the wind that we had endured the day before was following us. The weather did create some beautiful views of Lake Superior with white capped waves crashing on the shore.  We finished our 59th day as we did on day 1. We stayed at the same Harvest Host just north of the Mackinac Bridge. We travelled 900 km. 

Today was a harder day of driving. Saskatchewan roads did not improve as we headed southeast towards Estevan. The skies were clear but it was breezy.  The border crossing at North Portal was pretty easy. After we were asked the standard questions about what we had on board, the customs agent came into the bus and looked in our fridge and  freezer. We had declared the halibut we caught, but he asked about our fishing licenses. They were in our backpack that got absolutely soaked while we were on the boat and I had thrown them out. We did however have the receipt from the processing facility that had packaged and frozen them. He believed our story and didn’t ask to see the receipt. He also looked into the bathroom to see if we were carrying stowaways, I guess.  The wind increased as we drove through North Dakota. I found it frightening when the wind would hit us broadside and push us sideways. It was so windy that there were whitecaps on the sloughs. I definitely was not of...

What a treat driving in Alberta. From Jasper on, we were on smooth 4 lane divided highway and we were able to make good time. We saw a bald eagle, elk, and deer within the park. Before we crossed into Saskatchewan we saw a large Buffalo farm.  The highway flattened out in Jasper National Park. We were surprised that we were finished with mountain driving at that point. Fuel economy improved by about 30% with no mountains and a tail wind. Saskatchewan roads were not as good as the ones in Alberta. They were still a 4 lane divided highway but in places, Lawrie would say that we were on the 60’s road - it was groovy.  We found a lovely city campground in Davidson about half way between Saskatoon and Regina. It had 18 pull through sites with electricity and 10 tent sites. The washrooms facilities were immaculate. We travelled 1035 km. 

Our drive today took us from the Skeena mountains at Terrace, through the Interior Plateau around Prince George    and into the Rockies. We spent 11 hours on the road and covered 916 km. That sounds like a lot but the bus is very comfortable and we take breaks.  For the most part driving was fairly easy. I got my first taste of mountain driving and while it is slightly unnerving, I survived and would do it again. The only wildlife we saw was a coyote and a fawn, but not at the same time. That would have been disastrous for the deer.  We stopped for the night at a turnout just outside of Jasper. Being the weekend, all the parks are full.  Today was the start of our push to home. I am forever grateful to my sisters for the extra time they have spent with Mom while Lawrie and I were on the road pursuing our retirement dream trip. But with Mom still in hospital, it is time to head for home. 

We left the bus at our campsite in Terrace and took the Jeep to Prince Rupert. The weather was typical rainforest - low cloud and rain off and on. At one point in the westbound lane at a curve, we were under a steeply carved rock face. The locals call it Carwash Rock as water pours down during spring melt off. A little further on, we could see very faintly that a rainbow was trying to form but wondered if it was our imagination. A couple of kilometres up the road we came to Rainbow Pass so it wasn’t our imagination.  There are a number of museums in Prince Rupert but we couldn’t get up any enthusiasm to visit any of them. We drove around a bit and walked in Cow Bay, an area of shops and restaurants designed for tourists. We had a great lunch at Breakers Pub overlooking the marina. We saw the strangest fishing boat. It sat very low in the water and the aft deck was tilted to the bow at about a 10 degree angle.  We had enough time to visit Kitimat in the afternoon so we retraced...

We woke up to clear skies and a brilliant sunrise. A quick bite to eat and we were on the road.   As we were approaching Dease Lake, around 100 km down the road, a moose cow and calf stepped out of the brush onto the road in front of us. I don’t know who was more frightened, them or us. The cow quickly ran off into the brush on the other side, but the calf ran up the road in front of us. I wanted to see more moose, but that was a little too close for comfort.  Shortly after, we came upon a sign warning of an accident scene. There was a truck in our lane stopped just before a curve in the road. It had extensive damage to the driver front and we assumed it was a moose encounter. Tonight as we were fueling up, a tilt and load with the truck onboard came into the station. I asked him if the truck had met up with a moose and it had, three days prior. The tilt and load came all the way from Grand Prairie, over 1500 km away. That will be one expensive tow! Just west of the Junction o...

It rained overnight and there were a lot of low hanging clouds over Haines. We had 3 miles of construction to deal with coming out of Haines but we got lucky as the pilot car was just heading out when we pulled up so there was no delay.  It is 60 km from Haines to the Canadian border. We were there just after 8 am Alaska time, 9 am Yukon time. We were asked the usual questions about purchases, weapons, drugs, alcohol and poultry and eggs. He was not concerned about the 2 eggs we had and we were through in less than 5 minutes.  The low cloud followed us for most of the highway to Haines Junction. We were fortunate to see a grizzly not far off the road on the tundra. It didn’t look nearly as fat as the salmon feed bears in Haines.  We have decided to only see the highlights on our way home and to drive longer days than we did on the way up which should shave several days off our trip.  We travelled 940 km today, up the Haines Highway, along the Alaska Highway for a whi...

We had a pleasant day in Haines. We started with an early morning visit to Chilkoot Lake to look for bears. We did see what we assumed was a male grizzly walking along the low tide beach. We didn’t see any bears at the weir. A warden from Alaska Fish and Game was doing a salmon count at the weir and had most likely scared them off.  After breakfast we went for a walk around town. There were very few stores open downtown. We did a walking tour of Fort Seward, a military post that was established in the 1880’s in order to manage perceived conflicts between the Indigenous tribes. There never was a need. The massive officers’ quarters have been well maintained as private residences.  Our campsite was right beside the campground office. While we were sitting outside in the afternoon, we felt like the welcoming committee for all the arriving campers. Everyone would stop and chat before heading to their sites.  We found the tackle shop where we bought supplies and got fishing ad...

Another lovely sunrise this morning with a sliver of a moon in evidence. We were on the road by 6:30 but had to stop after a few minutes. The sun was shining right into the cab and our window was dirty enough that we could not see where we were going. A combination of the squeegee and my Norwex cloths and the windshield was sparkling. We fueled up in Tok and headed for the worst section of paved road in Alaska and the Yukon.  The worst portion is in Alaska where not only do you have to contend with frost heaves but also huge rough edged potholes. With little traffic on the road, it is a game of dodge them as best you can. We made the 93 miles to the border in 2 hours which wasn’t too bad. The first 40 miles you can drive at the posted speed but after that there were times we went at 30 mph.  After we crossed into Canada, we had to contend with frost heaves, sections of road that had been poorly cold patched and sections of washboard. In between, there would be stretches of gre...

There was a beautiful sunrise this morning as we were getting ready to leave Homer. After dumping our sewage and hitching up the Jeep, we were on the road by 7:30.  Today we are retracing our steps as we head back to Canada at least temporarily. It is interesting to see the landscape from a different perspective. We were quite surprised at how the foliage and grasses had changed in two weeks. They are very obviously moving into their fall colours. The fireweed has finished blooming which is an indication of the end of summer. It rained steadily about a half hour each side of Anchorage and then cleared up again as we drove through the Matanuska Valley and on towards Glenallen. The glaciers on Mount Sanford and Mount Drum were much more visible than earlier in our trip.  We somehow missed a turn on our way to Tok. Not sure how that happened when there are only two roads going north. We have a guide called the MilePost that has detailed information on all roads in and into Alaska...

If only we had known what the weather was going to be like today, it would have been a much better day to be halibut fishing. We enjoyed a fair amount of blue skies and only a light shower while the sun was shining. The temperature got up to 20 degrees, almost shorts weather again.  We will be starting to work our way east tomorrow so we took the time this morning to tidy and clean the motorhome and plot our journey home. The one summer treat that Lawrie is really missing is sweet corn. We bought some in a grocery store a while back but it was days old. We have gone to every farmer’s market that we have come across looking for some. There were many vegetable growers at the market in Homer this morning, but no corn. What was surprising was the size of the broccoli, cauliflower and carrots. The cool wet weather and the long hours of daylight produce large vegetables. We went back out to the Spit. It was low tide and the rotten egg smell coming from the muck was strong right beside a ...

It is dark here at 5 am unlike in Tok where is was light by 4:30. We had a light breakfast -rule number one when going on the water is to have something in your stomach. After our experience in Seward, we took some ginger gravol in advance.  We met our 4 travelling companions in front of Central Charters: an experienced fisherman from Vermont, an outdoorsman from Montana and a grandfather and his 30 something grandson from Colorado. Neither of them looked prepared for wet weather and yes it was lightly raining.  Our captain’s name was Faith and the deck hand was Nathalie -an all female crew. Faith had lots of personality and exuded confidence. Once we were  underway, Nathalie curled up in a small space forward in the bow. We were aiming for a location 35 miles west of Homer. The boat was 26 feet long and had 2 300 hp Suzuki outboard motors. It travelled at 30 mph The first passenger got sea sick about 15 minutes before we reached the fishing ground. It was the grandpa and...

Of course it was raining when we left Seward. There was no opportunity last night for Aurora viewing as it was cloud covered. The weather is not keeping the moose in the forest and we saw two of them quite close up before we got to the junction where we turned west towards Homer.  The weather did improve as we progressed farther west. We scored on diesel fuel in Sterling at $4.99 USD per gallon. That is the cheapest we have found. It was a new station owned by Three Bears who have a chain of service stations, grocery stores and outfitters in Alaska.  By the time we turned south again the sky was blue and we had fairly decent views across Cook Inlet to Mount Redout and Mount Iliamna. We have a wonderful campsite at Ocean Shores in Homer. We have expansive views of the mountains and glaciers across the bay and the ocean. The sun was shining when we arrived and the bay was glassy calm. You guessed it. Within half an hour the mountains were obscured by cloud and rain.  It rai...

We were disappointed when we did the glacier cruise in Valdez that we didn’t see many whales. We were told that whales were more common around Seward. We remembered that we had seen lots of whales 28 years ago when we were here with Patty and Dale, cousins from England.  We booked onto the 8 am six hour glacier and wildlife cruise. When we arrived at the check-in we were informed that there was a weather warning issued for the cruise. There were three choices: 1) rebook to another day 2) get a refund or 3) take the cruise and see what happens. We chose option 3.  The weather was overcast and raining of course but it was smooth sailing as we exited Resurrection Bay. Then the swells started about an hour and a bit out, just small ones at first but the farther out we got the bigger they were. We were on the upper deck and people were heading to the lower deck where there wasn’t as much sway.  We got to a spot where we had to go out more into open sea and the boat really star...

We had been warned yesterday to expect some miserable weather. By 9 am it was raining really hard with fairly strong winds. The tour boats did not leave the bay as there were 10 foot waves on the open water.  We packed our rain gear and headed to Exit Glacier. It is one of 40 glaciers coming off the Harding Glacier. We haven’t done much hiking this trip and it felt good to get some vigorous exercise. The trail started as a paved accessible trail for half a mile then started to climb. We walked a little over 2 miles and had wonderful views of the glacier albeit obscured by rain and cloud. The temperature was only 10 degrees but our rain gear kept us warm and dry.  It was lunch time when we finished the hike. We went into Seward and had lunch at the Alaska Seafood Grill across from the small boat harbour. We shared a 3 piece halibut and chips for $39. The halibut had a spicy panko breading and was served with a delicious aoli. We ended the meal with ice cream from the Heavenly C...

We were on the road shortly after 6. We drove the Old Glen Highway to where it intersects with the new highway. We were rewarded with seeing a mama moose and her calf very close to the road in a marsh.  We arrived well before our scheduled service appointment. Although there was a lot of traffic from Palmer into Homer, the road was a 4 lane divided highway that stretched to 6 lanes so it made for easy travel. The service was completed by 11:15 and we were on our way again.  There is only one road in and out of Seward and it is a winding 2 lane road with frequent passing sections. For the first 37 miles the road follows the shoreline of Turnagain Arm, a waterway off Cook Inlet. It has high tides of up to 37 feet with tidal bores. The tidal bore can produce a wall of water up to 6 feet high with the incoming tide. After we got settled into Stoney Creek Campground located 6 miles north of Seward, we ventured into the town. It was very busy there with lots of tourists and many bus...

We have decided to stay an extra night in Palmer. We need to be in Anchorage at 8 am on Monday for an oil change on the bus. The few campgrounds in Anchorage are over priced and poorly rated so we will leave here by 6:30 am and be in lots of time.  We spent the morning getting caught up on work emails and issues then headed out to explore the farmland around Palmer. There is a small area where there are market garden crops grown. Even though the weather is cool, there are lots of hours of daylight. Crops like potatoes, carrots, cabbage, kale, broccoli, turnips and peas do well in this climate.  We eventually made our way to a local brewery to try a flight of their beers. I am not a beer drinker so Lawrie mostly chose beers that I would find appealing. He chose two that had unfortunate names for today as we celebrate our 51st anniversary - Honeymoon is Over and Grounds for Divorce! The dining options in Palmer are limited and the two nicer restaurants are closed on Sunday so we...

Another overcast drizzly morning with hints of sunshine periodically. We went to the visitor centre to get some ideas of things we could do in the next couple of days in Palmer. The lady there was so full of personality and had lots of suggestions for us.   We first went to the musk-oxen farm. They are trying to domesticate musk-oxen and harvest qivuit, the warm under hair of the musk-ox that it sheds every year. They hand comb the hair out. The hair is softer than alpaca and warmer than wool. It is also very expensive. A toque was $285 USD. They have a three legged female named Luna that was hand raised as she was rejected by her mother. She now relates more to humans than musk-ox which is a problem as she weighs 500 pounds. She likes to be combed but the staff have to have a wall between themselves and Luna or she would lean right into them and knock them down.  We then headed up to Hatcher Pass. The road followed the Little Susitna River which didn’t look very little or can...

The clouds were low hanging again this morning. As we were getting ready to leave we could hear wolves howling in the mountains. Lawrie had to hot wire the bus again to get us going There is only one road in and out of Valdez. It is interesting to see the difference in the landscape as we travel south to north. It wasn’t nearly as foggy as we approached Thompson Pass (it’s a steep 7 mile climb coming from the south). When we reached the summit we were into sunshine and blue skies! What a treat to drive the Richardson Highway when you can see the mountains.   The highway mostly travels in a valley between the mountains. Sometimes we saw alpine slopes and sometimes craggy snow capped peaks. The views of Mount Drum and Mount Sanford were outstanding. They both have massive glaciers atop them.  Around noon we arrived at the junction of the Richardson Hwy and the Glenn Hwy where we turned west on the Glenn. I took over driving as it looked like it was going to be a fairly level roa...

We decided to stay an extra day in Valdez for two reasons. One, there were some things to do in Valdez that we hadn’t had time to do. Two, the caravan was heading out on the same route we are planning on taking and didn’t want to get caught in all that motorhome traffic.  We had to change sites in the campground for that extra night. We were ready to move but the bus would not start. The batteries were fully charged but there was no attempt to turn over. We called Freightliner for suggestions. We checked out a couple of things. The starter had power to it but wasn’t getting power out. Lawrie was able to get the bus going by crawling underneath and putting a wire on the main power into the starter directly to the starter solenoid.  After we moved sites, we went to Valdez Glacier Lake a few miles north of the town. The lake is full of growlers (icebergs that have calved from the glacier and are floating in the tidewater) and stone mounds from the receding glacier.  Our next...

Well Mother Nature took pity on us as the weather did a 180 degree turn. The sun shone all day and there was little wind. There was very little cloud in the sky and the temperature got up to 20. All in all, a perfect day for a glacier cruise.  We went on a full day cruise offered by Stan Stephens cruises. The company has been offering cruises since 1971 and Stan’s widow was onboard today. She likes to get out two or three times a week if the weather is suitable. I mentioned yesterday that Valdez would probably have stunning scenery if we could see it through the cloud. I was definitely correct on that score. Every direction you look you can see either velvety green alpine slopes or snow capped jagged peaks.  We sailed into Prince William Sound which is surrounded by the Chugach Mountains which have several tidewater glaciers. We travelled to Meares Glacier. It is the only advancing glacier in North America. It advances about 10 metres a day but calves off a good bit of the adv...

The rain that greeted us in Valdez yesterday afternoon continued through the night and all day Tuesday. We had a slow morning checking up on emails and checking on things at home.  Valdez is likely a stunningly beautiful town as we catch glimpses of mountains and glaciers every once in a while when the clouds shift but mostly all we are seeing is low hanging cloud and rain.  We went to the marina area of town where all the shops and restaurants are located. We walked the boardwalk along the marina and stopped into the charter company where we have a glacier cruise booked for tomorrow.  We then went to the Solomon Gulch Fish hatchery about 9 miles out of town. The pink salmon are currently returning to spawn. They go up a series of fish ladders until they reach the top where they are relieved of their eggs and sperm. They process up to 20000 salmon a day and incubate 270 million pink salmon a year. They remain at the hatchery for a year before they are released. They retur...

We woke to a bright and sunny but cold morning. We were on the road shortly after 8. Our intent is to dry camp for a night or two on Kluane Lake close to where we dry camped on the beach 20 years ago.  The closer we got to Kluane lake, the more spectacular the scenery became. The Kluane Range has glacier topped mountains and behind the range are the peaks of some of the mountains in the Wrangell-St Elias Mountains which include Mount Logan, Canada’s highest peak at 19545 feet. This peak is not visible from our location.  We found a perfect site at Congdon Creek Provincial Park. We were able to drive in to face Kluane Lake. The water was rippley when we arrived. By the time we finished lunch it had slight waves and after a nap (yes,I know, it is becoming a habit) there were whitecaps. Definitely not a canoe or drone flying day.  We walked the beach for a while then took off in the Jeep to see if we could locate where we had camped 20 years ago. About a kilometre down the r...

If yesterday was our worst day of driving, today might just rank as the best. After I had my free Champion’s breakfast (sourdough pancake, scrambled eggs and bacon) we headed south on the Tok Cutoff towards Valdez.  The day was overcast with the sun peaking through from time to time. The glacier topped Mount Sanford was visible upon occasion along with Mount Drum. We stopped at the Wrangell St Elias Visitor Centre where they had a great film about the National Park. It covers an area larger than Switzerland and has taller mountains than the Alps. Six of the mountains in the park are in the top 10 tallest in North America.   The further south we drove, the closer we got to the Wrangell Mountains. We could see the water roaring down from the glaciers and the deep cuts that the receding glaciers made in the mountains.  Then we entered Keystone Canyon. The towering walls of the canyon closed over us as we followed a river on a winding road. There were waterfalls on both sides...

I belong to a Facebook group called RVing to Alaska 2022. For the last few months, people have been commenting on the horrible condition of the road between  Whitehorse and Tok Alaska. Tales of frost heaves and potholes, blown tires and broken axles have sent some potential travellers back south.  We didn’t find much of an issue from Whitehorse to Kluane Lake. Fifteen kilometres up the road at the aptly named Destruction Bay, the road changed. There were some potholes, and lots of roller coaster sections of road. There were also areas where the road had been patched with asphalt but the asphalt had not been smoothed down to road level. Creative driving (using the other lane where necessary as there wasn’t much traffic) and going slow made it manageable.  Then we crossed into Alaska. No issues at Customs although our canoe garnered some attention. They were relieved to hear it had not been in the water for 3 years. The real dodge ‘em game started as we drove away from Cust...

When you are travelling in an rv there are always little things that require maintenance. We had noticed a small leak in the toilet water line. We figured that we would be able to find the required part in Whitehorse so after breakfast we took the toilet apart. Fireweed RV Service had the part we needed and it was their last one, so we were lucky.  We got the toilet back together sans leaks (it was a sh***y job, but somebody had to do it). Back into Whitehorse to find a decent rain suit for Lawrie. There is a lot of rain in the forecast and there are times he has to be outside, so he needs something to keep him dry.  Sorry this isn’t a very interesting post. We have been to Whitehorse twice and done the tourist things: SS Klondike Sternwheeler, Transportation Museum, Miles Canyon, and the Legislative Building.

We snuck out as quietly as we could at 6:15 considering we are a diesel bus. It was a bit foggy but it cleared by the time we were out of town. The traffic is non-existent at that time of morning and we never caught up to traffic and we’re only passed twice (5 times if you count the truck that kept pulling over and then passing us again and again and again).  I had not driven since the first week of our vacation. I had no interest in shifting for the long mountain grades or driving on the hairpin turns. Today was a winding road with gentle grades so it was a good opportunity to get used to the conditions. Of course, shortly after I was behind the wheel, the fog rolled back in. I drove 230 km until we stopped at Johnson Crossing for cinnamon buns and a loaf of homemade bread.  The only wildlife we saw for our efforts of getting up early was a red fox proudly carrying a fish to its den.  We arrived in Whitehorse before noon. While Lawrie napped, I did laundry. We then went ...

Well today ended much better than it started. We did get our early start - in a light rain with no wipers. They went up part way and quit. We checked fuses and connections to no avail. Luckily we had a rain treatment put on the windshield and the water beads well and rolls off. With no service centre or cell service, there was nothing to do but carry on.  A couple of kilometres up the road we disturbed a black bear that was using the highway for a pathway. He quickly took to the hillside.  Another 50 km down the road we came upon a herd of bison that had control of the highway. We slowly nosed forward and they parted to walk on either side of the bus. There were easily 60 in the herd. They just walked nonchalantly along paying no attention to us. A car coming towards us wanted nothing to do with the bison - they stayed well back. It was an impressive sight.  Another bear sighting rounded off the drive.  About 80 km south of Watson Lake we had to detour around a secti...

  We decided that we would stay another night here in Strawberry Flats. It was too cold this morning to launch the canoe, so we decided to go to the Hot Springs at Liard.  The first 10 km or so, the road followed the edge of Muncho Lake curving along the steep mountainside. At around 45 km from the campground we came upon a lonely bison walking along the edge of the road. A few kilometres further, there was a herd of about 25 bison lying in a field at the edge of the road.  Liard Hot Spring Provincial Park is likely the only provincial park that is surrounded by electric fence to keep the moose and bears out. Moose in particular like the warm salty environment surrounding the hot springs. There is a boardwalk that extends .6 km to the hot springs. There are washrooms and change rooms there. The temperature ranges from “I can’t handle this for more than 5 minutes” to “I could soak in this all day”.  The “pool” has a pebbly bottom but I still wished that I had brought ...

It was raining steadily when we left Fort Nelson around 9. We drove out of it fairly quickly though.  The road again varied from being smooth with wide shoulders to rough with no shoulders. We got behind an RV that was going at least 20 km below the speed limit. He built up a long line of traffic behind him but he made no attempt to pull off into one of the many turnoffs to let traffic go by. We eventually passed him on a narrow section. Luckily there is not usually much traffic except in situations like that.  We stopped at Tetsa River Campground for their world famous cinnamon buns. Unfortunately, everyone in the caravan who left before us had stopped there. They had not been informed that a caravan was coming through and had only done one batch. Luckily, another batch was to be ready in 30 minutes so we waited and chatted with some of the caravan folks. By the way, the buns lived up to the billing! By the time we got on the road again, the sky had cleared considerably and w...

It was a beautiful bright sunny morning in Dawson Creek. We got filled with diesel and propane and were on our way by 7. As we headed west, there were low lying clouds on the horizon. We soon drove into fog that made the hilly, curving road a bit of a challenge.  The sun burnt the fog off within a half hour so driving was easier. We have found that many steep descents have a curve and then a narrow bridge at the bottom so being able to see clearly is a definite advantage! We commented today that driving for hours through forest might seem tedious, but we don’t find it so. There are the creeks, the hills, mountains in the distance and the never ending search for wildlife to keep us entertained   Halfway to Fort Nelson, the road straightened out and was a rolling ribbon ahead of us. The road to this point has been good with substantial shoulders. Not too many passing lanes today but frequent sections where passing was doable. Just one very short section of construction - long en...