how this ends

what we learned:
- diesels get great mileage
- kilometers are faster than miles
- japanese tourists seem to prefer leather pants
- the arctic ocean is cold
- people don't expect suits and ties in RV parks. or rural border crossings. or national parks.
- google maps lies
- black water gauges lie
- while in a foreign country, $1000 in grocery and car rental charges doesn't bother the credit card company, but one usage at a gas station and they'll shut if off
- some canadians do say 'eh'
- if you turn the sauna up to 190F, your jewelry will burn you
- when the sign says "<-- TRAIL", the trail is probably to the left
- don't play with creamer (or ketchup!) in restaurants
- stack beer cautiously
- don't forget to lock the fridge
- chuckholes suck

where did all these people come from

spent the last three days goofing off in a couple of canada's national parks, jasper and banff. there are people here. and other cars. and stoplights, and center lines on the road...it's spooky.



stayed in a campground with 780 sites...that's several times larger than a few of the towns we've stayed in lately! but when we finally found our site it was already occupied.



we trammed/hiked to the top of whistler mountain, and took a boat around maligne lake. it is apparently so named because the french priest who lost his horses and baggage in the nearby river couldn't say what he really thought, so just called it evil - but it's beautiful. all the lakes and rivers here are glacial runoff, so they have that amazing blue green color that i never get tired of staring at.



stopped through the columbia icefields, which apparently drain to all three oceans, and climbed around on the athabasca glacier for a bit. that was fun. it is receding so fast you can't see it from where the end was the year i was born.





ended the day in banff (city of), which is super touristy, and really driving home the fact that we have to get back to reality. or at least back to a reality that involves other people! and, not quite ready to go home yet. oh well.

why are you wearing a suit on holiday

A very easy road day. Short side trips to see totem poles and Twin Falls. We then found our accomodations for the night in Telkwa. A one room log cabin, with a covered porch right on the river. The place is run by a nice british woman who took very good care of us, although she was a little curious about wardrobe choices.



We then made a quick trip back into Smithers, hit Safeway, and picked up food to BBQ. A very nice evening, cooking and eating ourselves silly. An hour in sauna/hot tub, then just enjoying the river.

sidetracks

so we said goodbye to the yukon territory and the alaska highway, and took highway 37 south into british columbia. we also thought we'd said goodbye to alaska, but not quite - more on that later. was nice to be back in canada, we'd gotten quite used to kilometers, washrooms, and loonies :)



the coolest part about RVing it is the total flexibility of it. for example, when presented with a view too nice to take in in passing, we can stop, break out the camp chairs, and have a cup of tea. like here.



so i am not quite as on top of everything as i should be - i have this silly idea that if you spell labor day with a 'u', it should be in may. as canada actually observes it the same way we do, we missed out on some shopping opportunities in whitehorse (most notably the quilt shop and the yukon brewery.)

also, it turns out google maps has a really distorted idea of how long the cassier highway should take to drive. apparently it thinks you'll average about 30kph! the road is in fact not paved, but is mostly a seal-coated gravel that rides about as well. we passed the place google suggested would take us all day to get to, well before lunch. so we took a side trip. went glacier hunting, which took us (briefly) back to alaska.



if you ever come this way you MUST take the road to stewart. it is a short trip (on a good road) down a glacial valley, and the scenery is just spectacular. there is a huge glacier that calves into a lake at the halfway point (the actual set for the cabin in "Insomnia", if you ever saw it), and dozens of waterfalls that put yosemite to shame.



at the end of the valley you reach stewart, a canadian town of reasonable size. hyder is a tiny alaskan town that faces stewart across the canal. the road continues around the end and joins the two. you can tell you've crossed the border in two ways. one is the canadian customs station on the south side of the road. (none on the american side - apparently they just don't care.) the other is that canada actually spends money on road maintenence.



anyway, five miles into AK is a great spot for watching black bears fish for spawning salmon. we saw a lot of salmon, but no bears - ok tho, we saw plenty on the roadside the last two days. and if you have the stamina to follow this road for another 20 miles you can see another huge glacier, in my opinion well worth the bumpity bumpity :)

I'm Broken

It looks like we got one of the only sunny September days Haines typically has, and we put it to good use.



Went out last night, Haines threw its town mardi gras party (yes, in September.) We called it an early night after enjoying some of the local color, cause we were meeting our guide for our sea kayaking trip at 8am. A few quick words, a life vest, and we were out on the water. The guide, neither Jenny or I caught his name, was a really nice guy, a few hours out on the water, a snack, then back in for some smoked sammon.



The guide recomneded a great nearly 6 mile hike, which Jenny had a itch to take. Thus, a short drive to the trail head and 4 hours of hard hiking and I am beat. Wrenching my shoulder climbing into the kayak once, straining a muscle in my thigh sprinting down to shore to save the boats from being washed away, then the hike. Jenny broke me today. But the view from the top was incredible.



About to finish laundry then time for bed.

denali, and to sea level

denali was cool. the scenery would have wowed me a week ago, and it was impressive, but honestly i think the top of the world highway was prettier.



it was a little different tho, the alaska range added mountains to the scenery, and there was lots of wildlife. our first spot was an snowshoe hare in our firepit. have no idea what he was looking for in there. on the bus tour we saw caribou, eagles, and lots of grizzly bears - in fact i got closer to one than i ever thought i needed to be, albeit from inside a vehicle. they are so funny when they walk, it's really hard to believe watching them waddle around that they can outrun you!



anyway, we rode the bus to the end of the line at wonder lake. there we got out and hiked around the tundra for an hour or two, which is very strange to walk through - generally kind of springy, sometimes a quite firm step will be followed by one that will sink you up to your knees, with no apparent change in the surface. unfortunately the mountain itself, which is under cloud cover about 2/3 of the time, did not come out for us :(



i also did an unconcious bear impression, wandering around oblivious to the surroundings, eating berries. the wild blueberries are way yummy, and it's a lot easier to understand how they can be such a huge fraction of a bear's diet when you consider they make up at least 80% of the vegetation out there.



leaving denali we took the slightly longer path back to canada rather than retrace our route. (as big as alaska is, it only has 11 highways, and we've hit 6 of them.) was a long day but defintely the right call - just gorgeous. arrived in haines this evening, going to spend a couple days here hiking and kayaking. we will be leaving earlier than planned tho, apparently they broke our ferry and we will have to replace the 1 hour boat trip with 5 hours of driving. at least it's a pretty road, i won't really mind heading back that way.unlike the AK highway from destruction bay to the canadian border - i have two words for any woman taking that road - sports bra!



got a hotel on the fjord in haines. you would not believe the view from where i am sitting right now.

this morning we decided it was about time for a breakfast of something other than cereal, and found a good diner. mark had to celebrate the occasion by spraying the guy at the next table with creamer - he claims it was an accident. the guy didn't bat an eyelash, said "better milk than a bird"; and the source of my brick red complexion was alternately extreme embarassment and repressed laughter as we mopped up his table.

Polar Bear Club

A very early rising from the very posh Regency found us at the Fairbanks airport. Our first hot breakfast of the trip and a slightly delayed flight (yeah I know, a flight on a road trip) and we were in lovely Barrow AK.



Greeted by our tour guide Ryan Rock we started our bus tour of the village. Pictures will do more justice than words. Not the most thrilling tour I have ever taken. We got to see the new football field, a lovely blue and yellow astro-turf, and watched the high school dismiss. But the native dancing (which jenny joined in at the end) and blanket toss was too damn cool. We got one of the dancers, kids all, to almost touch the ceiling :)



Amazing to see how humans can live pretty much anywhere we choose, as long as the money is there. With our flight getting there late and the returning flight leaving early we had to cut the tour a little short.



So standing outside the airport, waiting for our plane to arrive, Ryan did a little fast talking and convinced us to join the Barrow Polar Bear Club. The only requirement to join said club was to immerse your entire body in the Artic Ocean. Sooooo we took a quick dip, very invigorating.



Back in the plane, then 120 miles to Denali NP in Lulu, and lights out. Tomorrow we get another bus tour, but with the possibility of seeing lots of wildlife and Mt. McKinley.

somewhere down the road

got much further than we'd planned yesterday, which left us with not many miles to cover today. slept in, leisurely breakfast, and rode the last 100 miles of the alaska highway.



so we spent the rest of the day playing.



another hundred miles took us to fairbanks, where we walked around and did some shopping and such. we saw a guy in prison stripes holding a sign out for passing traffic to read: "fred the felon for mayor" then we checked into our hotel (jacuzzi tub!) and headed out for the afternoon.



pioneer park was a little kitschy, but fun - played minigolf on a course that looked like an overfunded scoutarama. then we went to the all-you-can-eat salmon bake (also featuring cod and prime rib) that every guidebook and every local insists is a must. (yum!)

tomorrow is the barrow adventure, then straight from there to denali, so we'll be out of touch for a while...more posts and more pics sometime next week.

welcome to alaska

Oi!

Hard driving today, covered over 800 km, 200 or so over mostly unpaved roads. Still looking over Lulu (I named our RV) for signs of bits falling off, cause I know I feel like I had a few things break. When there are so many potholes in the road you have at least one wheel in one at any given time, its hard to keep the ride smooth...it kinda looked like a 100 mile long game of whack-a-mole.



But we are officially in Alaska, crossed the border and had a very nice chat with the border agent, who seem mostly bored rather than interrogational. his little shack is 4,500 or so feet up after crossing the Yukon River at Dawson with a sign that says "population: 2." We drovw the "Top of the World Highway" - I can see how it got its name. Even above the tree line it’s beautiful, I get the feeling that word might lose some meaning by the end of this adventure, since everything is.



While in Dawson we did the tourist thing - cruised the 2 block long main drag, walked along the river just enjoying the sunlight and breathtaking views. We also stopped and did a tour of the Jack London Museum (at my request). Got to see the original cabin London used while living in the Yukon. Which was apparently lost to history for some 60 odd years, until the locals felt like mentioning that they’d known where it was all along..



It’s 9:40pm local and we’ve been driving and touristing since 6:45am, including the time change. so we are going to eat mac & cheese then hit the hay. nighty night.

a mirror for the sun

i checked the weather before we left thursday, and all along our route, it said rain. rain, showers, rain. cold, miserable, terrible driving conditions. i’m not wanting to jinx anything, but so far that report has been mostly wrong - with the exception of yesterday morning, we have had really nice weather. also, a minimum of insects, and the road is in much better shape than advertised. so far it’s paved and everything.



and one of the oddest things about this trip so far has been our strategic alcohol purchases. it’s not like we’re lushes or anything, but we are on vacation, after all :) but there are limited places and times you can buy alcohol in canada, and the obvious solution (stock up) is hampered by the duty-free allowances when we cross the international borders. so we’ve had to put more thought into this than really seems necessary!



anyway, today was a nice drive from muncho lake to whitehorse. made a couple of stops for short hikes, one to get the kinks out and another to see a double waterfall. we also saw sheep, meeses, lots of bison, and a bobcat while driving. we have as yet (thankfully) had no animals blocking the road, or personal encounters.



crossed into the yukon territory around lunchtime and stopped at the signpost forest. this was apparently started by some guy who added his hometown to the standard list of cities on the highway signpost, and has been perpetuated by almost every passerby since. nearby shacks (all closed for season) will make you a sign, or you can make your own – we saw road signs, license plates, frisbees, boots, and even a bedpan. a ton of signs from germany...either a lot of germans come through, or the ones that do like to steal road signs. or maybe both.





ate some surprisingly good burgers in a disturbingly pink shack across the street - the only local place still open (apparently when seasonal places say they are open till mid September they actually mean they close sometime in august.) spent the rest of the afternoon gaping at the views, and from all reports we haven’t even gotten to the pretty part yet! late afternoon we pulled into the hot springs north of town to camp and soak. now i’m all mellow from hot-tubbing (hot-springing?) and beer, and mark has the campfire started, so, i think i’m done typing.

tell me what you saw and i'll tell you what you missed

A slightly dewy morning greeted the willing travelers, a hot shower and breakfast packed away. Up, up and away we went. Having a singular route to travel made today's navigation rather simple. However the weather did not do us any favors today, rain followed us most of the morning, slacked off, but started again after a brief lunch of chicken sandwiches.



I lack the words to describe the beauty of this place, the shades of green that smack you upside the head and ask you to sit beside yourself and just look at them. If getting some where wasn't a goal, simply sitting beside the road and gazing in childlike wonder would have not been a waste of time. but travelers we are and so continued on our way, many pictures and some rather bone jarring roads later we took a break to visit the Fort Nelson muesum. What a massive clutter of one old man's interest in....well...everything. Many old cars, some rotting in the back, several more lovingly restored in his shop. also the history of Fort Nelson, the construction of the Alcan, frontier life, taxidermy, ...



Pretty much just a tourist trap, but wouldn't have missed it. he had an engine block larger than many a one bedroom apartment, and Studebakers.



Onward from there, playing dangerously, we made our way on without gassing up. The ugliest part of the road thus far. Road conditions aside, views that took my breath away. The last 30km before being able to fuel up were a tad bit nerve racking, I learned that fueling up early and often is far better that thinking "Hey we'll make it". We did, thankfully, and the last hour rewarded us with Muncho Lake. Greeted by a few locals (MOOSE). Living in Calif. so long and thinking of man made lakes as the norm. HA! Mother nature puts us to shame. Pretty, just dang pretty. So now we sit down after dinner to a nice game of cribbage, which I hope to remember how to play in time, but tonight i will have my butt thoroughly kicked by Jenny.


Until next time folks.

if you're going my way

yesterday i had my first flight into canada not ridiculously delayed by thunderstorms. then i was confronted by a polite and efficient rental vehicle company. still reeling from this.



they gave us a really nice, almost brand-new (13k km) camper van, which we have yet to find fault with. altho i'm sure we will sometime in the next few weeks :) it seems to get about 25mpg! (YEEHAAA!)



we drove to red deer, about 1.5 hours north of calgary last night, mostly to test out the wheels. the weather was not great in spots on the way up, but cleared up by the time we got there. found a nice rv park and a beautiful sunset to look at while we settled in.

today was the first real road day, about 450 miles across the alberta plains. it was a gorgeous day, and much more interesting scenery that i would have thought. we stopped for lunch at some random rest stop. while we ate our turkey sandwiches sitting in our leather couches, we had to gloat a little after noticing the people eating with their sedan's trunk as the table. (SUCKERS)



i was thinking we wouldn't see much wildlife for a few days yet, but we did spot a black bear mama and her cubs just east of grande prarie. we also saw enough "farm stock" of exotic origin to fill my brother's wild thing plate at la fondue - bison, llama, caribou....

so when we reached dawson creek, we discovered that the traffic circle that marks the grand entrance to the alaska highway has succumbed to orange cone season and so was closed to vehicle traffic. (you can see the construction behind us in the first two pictures.) but that's okay. we found a nice rv park with free wi-fi, then took a walk to the mile 0 marker to take the cheesy tourist pics. then we wandered back for popcorn and a movie. all in all, a terrific day.



(COMMENTS by mark)