Fairbanks

We spent 2 nights in Tok, Alaska resting up from the bumpy road conditions of the last few days. 

 

I walked across the street to a bait shop and while I was there, 2 guys drove up in a pickup truck with a 300lb brown bear they had shot that morning.  They had already skinned it.  When they held up the hide it stood 7’ tall.  Unfortunately I didn’t have my camera with me.

I did minor repairs on the RV and Abby did some laundry.  You would think a few hours at the Laundromat would not result in controversy but leave it to Abby, she found it!

The machines cost $3.50 and after two machines ate her money and wouldn’t work, she was rather pissed.  A man came in and she thought he was cleaning the sink.   Actually he was cleaning his grill she found out later.   She asked him if he was the maintenance man.  He said,” Do I look like a maintenance man?”  Abby said, “I didn’t know that there was a certain look to a maintenance man, as I had several maintenance man friends and they looked just like us”.  He said, “Next time I’ll wear my Gucci shoes and Rolex watch in here so I won’t be mistaken”.  She told him, “you don’t need to, I’d just think they were knock off’s anyway.”  He said “why don’t you go back to Minnesota where you came from”.  Abby said,” I didn’t come from Minnesota, nor did I come from a place where people had attitudes”.  At that he stomped out of the laundry room and slammed the door.  Three ladies in there burst out laughing and said, “what an ASS”!!!!!

I said she should have told him “we know several plumbers that wear Rolexes and Gucci’s.  They are ex doctors”.

Monday morning before we left, we stopped at the on site RV wash station to pressure wash the ALCAN Highway off the vehicles.  Abby went into the office to pay the fee.  I pulled out the ladder extension that affords me the ability to climb on the roof of the RV.  Abby came out, handed me the wand, turned on the machine and I began to wash the roof air conditioners, satellite dome and the entire roof structure when all hell broke loose.

The owner (grandma the grouch) came tearing down the gravel road, skidded to a stop (in a cloud of dust, thanks grandma) next to the RV, jumped out of her SUV with hair net flying around stuck to her hair curlers and proceeded to turn off the pressure washer.  She yelled “Get down off the top of your RV.   We can’t have that, we just can’t have people washing the top of their RV’s because of liability purposes.”  I haven’t been yelled at like that since we pissed off the Scottish woman in Dornach Scotland in 1994 with Ray and Judy McGady for conducting happy hour in her B&B with her husband's consent.  But I digress.

Grandma jumped back into her SUV and took off.  Made me think of the Lone Ranger series except she wasn’t saying “Hi Ho Silver”!  She did provide the cloud of dust though.

Abby went inside to have her input heard on the matter and I (cowardly lion) stayed at the RV to stay out of the line of fire.  I can only imagine how that conversation took place.

An hour later, properly chastised, we departed for Fairbanks.  The ride was very pleasant with good weather.  We spotted our first moose (mooses, meeses? Take your pick), anyway there were multiple animals and one sow with a brand new baby moose.

As we crossed the Richardson River bridge, we were surprised to see ice still covering the majority of the river.

We are staying at the Rivers Edge RV Park until July 5^th.  It is a large quiet park situated on the Cheyna River in Fairbanks.  Nice restaurant next door and our Las Vegas “fire starter” buddy from Muncho Lake, parked next to us.  Weird duck.

The cats, Spencer and Stella, are having a very difficult time with the Northern latitudes.  Sunset is 12:40 A.M. (yes A.M.) and sunrise is 3:04 A.M.  It never really gets dark.  Those of you with cats know where I’m going with this. 

 It is a cat’s duty to wake up their owners (you are never their master) when it gets daylight.   Spencer is constantly jumping on the bed and letting us know it is time to get up even though we just went to bed.  One positive feature of this behavior is Spencer has learned two new words.  WATER BOTTLE.  I have been keeping a water bottle beside the bed and squirt him from time to time when he gets really obnoxious.  I no longer have to squirt him, I just say “water bottle” and off he runs.

Yesterday we drove to the town “The North Pole”.  I sent an email with the satellite communicator yesterday to all of you so you should have seen the Google map with the location marked.

This is a real town with its own Post Office.  We haven’t been to the post office yet so I don’t know if it comes complete with Elves.  Might be an improvement in the service!

There is a Santa Claus store with Santa in residence.  Abby sat on Santa’s lap yesterday to tell him about her friends and who has been naughty or nice.  I’m a little concerned.  It seems Santa knows too much about The Woodlands and Spring for my comfort.  I think he might be taking side trips in the off season and Abby did sit on his lap for a long time.  

We also saw a Polar Bear.

I never thought I would say I would look forward to shopping at a Walmart or Sam’s Club.  We need to restock the pantry.  More later.

The wifi is being for lack of a better word rationed,  so the pictures will be limited.

Watson Lake to Tok Alaska

We have not had an internet connection for several days so the following covers the last few days of the trip.

Watson Lake

In 1942, during construction of the Alaska Highway, the United States Army Corps of Engineers erected mileage posts at their camps that listed places, distances and directions in the Yukon, other Canadian cities, cities within the United States of America and also other parts of the world.  One of these posts was erected at the Wye, the corner of the Alaska Highway and the road to the Watson Lake Airport, where the Sign Post Forest stands today.  The original post is the only mileage post of its type to survive from the Alaska Highway construction. 

Carl Lindley, a homesick soldier, added his hometown sign to the army signpost and started a time-honored tradition.  People from all over the world continue to add their own hometown signs to the Sign Post Forest on a daily basis in the spring, summer and fall. (reprinted from the sign posted at the Mile Post Forest)

Before Abby and I left The Woodlands, we had this sign made for addition to the more than 71,000 signs already posted.

We found a spot to post the sign that is highly visible from the Alaskan Highway going north, just to the right of the entrance sign. 

After spending a couple of hours in the “forest” we headed north towards Whitehorse.

It was a gorgeous day with NO rain for the first time in 10 days.  The road winds back and forth into British Columbia and back into the Yukon for about a 50 mile stretch.  During one swing into B.C. we went down a narrow road towards Swan Lake as we heard the fishing was decent.  Unfortunately there was no place to turn around so we had to unhook the jeep, turn around and reattach the jeep. 

We reversed course and on the way back to the main road stopped and fished for a few minutes in the lake.  Ken was using a Mepps lure and I was fly fishing.  Ken caught his first ever Grayling (member of the Char family).

During the drive we did not see one wild animal! Dead or alive.

Back on the road and pulled into the High Country RV park but they didn’t have any spaces.  Ken and Debbie went on into town as he had a mechanical problem that needed attention and parked in the Walmart parking lot along with dozens of other RV’s.  Abby and I back tracked about 10 miles to Caribou RV park we had seen on the way.  Great choice!  We set up for the night and we walked to the restaurant that was on site.  During the walk to the restaurant I took this picture as we passed the RV dump site.

The owners sentiments are self explanatory.

Turns out the restaurant is a gourmet Swiss restaurant that the locals from Whitehorse go to for a fine dining evening.

We had a wonderful meal along with a great Canadian Cabernet.  We met some people that had both lost their spouses a few years ago and had just gotten engaged.  They were celebrating her birthday with her kids and fiancé.  We also met another couple from New Zealand who were visiting their daughters who work in Whitehorse.  A wonderful evening.

We met Ken and Debbie Thursday morning in the Walmart parking lot but their camper was not with them.  Wednesday morning Ken had noticed his trailer hitch appeared to be bent.  He got it inspected this morning to discover it was severely cracked.  The earliest a hitch would arrive was in 10 days so he took his truck to a welding company to attempt to fix it.  It took all day to rebuild and several hundred dollars but now is good as new.

During the day I went for a short hike along a nature trail that parallels the main road in downtown Whitehorse.  This trail has interpretive signs along the path that describes the local plants and wildlife.  At one point on the trail, I noticed a man on a bicycle about 30 yards ahead.  He was smoking a cigarette and coughing and hacking loudly.  My senses were telling me there was something wrong with this picture.  You don’t normally see a biker smoking and coughing like a chimney.  He wasn’t moving and appeared to be watching me closely.  As I walked closer to him my alarm bells were really clanging so I did an abrupt right turn and climbed up the embankment to the road.  When I looked back, he was bending over to retrieve what looked like an 8” filleting knife from the ground.  As soon as he picked it up, he departed.  It pays to pay attention to your surroundings!

The Walmart in Whitehorse is a lousy store.  Abby and I walked down the street to a local grocery store that put the Walmart to shame.  We restocked our supplies for our next leg of the journey to Fairbanks, Alaska. 

We spent the night in the Walmart parking lot enjoying a bottle of the Canadian wine we had discovered at the Swiss restaurant.

We left for Destruction Bay in the Yukon Territories Friday morning.  The road for the next 300 miles is undergoing major reconstruction and speeds are as slow as 20 mph due to dirt and gravel and major frost heaves.  In this part of the Yukon the road is built on what is called “perma frost”.  It is basically frozen ground that thaws in the spring about 2 feet below the surface and the rest, stays frozen.   It creates large ripples in the road that will tear apart an automobile if they are moving too fast.

It was a slow but pleasant drive.  

10 miles west of Haines Junction we stopped at the Jarvis River to fish for Grayling.  Abby and I had seen this spot 5 years ago and wanted to fish the waters on this trip.  Abby caught her first ever Grayling!  There would have been a picture of it but Ken accidently dropped the fish before the picture was snapped (both are sticking to the story) so there is NO photographic evidence to validate her claim.  Ken caught 4. Don’t ask how many I caught.  I’m still fly fishing, but maybe not for long.

We set up camp in a RV park on Kluane Lake.  Looks very similar to Mucho Lake but is much larger.  Ken cooked the remaining Lake Trout and the fresh Grayling for dinner and we ate overlooking the lake.  After dinner Ken and I went fishing but the fish won.  This porcupine accompanied us last night while we were fishing.

BACK IN THE USA

 We left Destruction Bay this morning. 

In a small town a few miles west of Destruction Bay we pulled into a gas station.  There were several cars and RV’s refueling.  It seems we all reacted the same way to the police car parked by the side of the road as we entered the outpost.  It was a fake!  It looked real until we got close to it.  It was very well done.

We crossed the border into Alaska this afternoon and are staying in Tok for a night or two.  The drive was brutal the last 3 hours.  We saw a male Grizzly Bear run across the road right in front of us this morning.  It happened too quickly to get a picture.

When Abby opened the closet tonight, she found all of the hanging clothes on the floor.  The bumpy road had knocked everything off the rods.  I’m really glad I fixed the rods in the closet while at Yellowstone.  

The RV is covered in thick dust.  I thought about washing it this afternoon but after a quick check on the weather, decided to see if mother nature will do it for me tonight.

The Arthurs are headed to Anchorage for some minor medical treatment and will meet us in Denali National Park in 7-10 days.

Tired in Tok

Rain Rain, Go away

We spent the last 3 days at Muncho Lake.  Spectacular views of a glacier fed lake.  Abby and I moved Sunday morning to a spot in the Provincial Park with the water 30' from the RV.  Sitting in the RV in the morning with a cup of coffee watching the sunrise over the lake was unbelievable.  Of course I would rather have sunrise at the same time as Houston instead of 4:30 but it was a worthwhile sacrifice.

Ken and I launched our boats for 2 days of fishing.  The unique thing about the lake is it rarely gets windy so you can paddle or in Ken's case, putter all around the lake in mostly calm water.

As we were launching our boats, the contract park ranger, aka "mall cop" came by to pick up the daily fee for camping in the Provisional park.  Earlier that morning, Ken called me on the "walkie talkie" to tell me a spot opened up and I drove my jeep to the site and parked it.  I walked back to the RV, cranked it up and drove it to the new site.  When "mall cop" saw my jeep and RV he asked me if I was the guy who had illegally parked jeep to protect the site.  Guilty as charged, officer!  I explained to him the other solution would have required me to hook up the car to the RV and then unhook it again a mile down the road.  In other words, a government solution to a simple problem that I wasn't interested in applying.  I paid him cash in Canadian currency bought some firewood and he was happy.

Speaking of firewood, last night we were lighting a wet wood campfire with a roadside flare when our neighbor ($500,000 RV) from Las Vegas came over and was about to squirt Coleman starter fluid on the wood to "help" us out.  I told him it was a good way self emolate himself like the Buddhist's Monks did during the Viet Nam war.  He said he did this all the time.  This guy looks like someone out of the Sopranos and who used to be in construction in Las Vegas.  Did this all the time?????

While Abby and I were out kayaking we came across a guy named Hans fishing from a dock with his dog.  He was catching some nice Lake Trout.  He told us his dog (schnauzer) would retrieve fish from the water for him when they fell off the hook.  We talked to him for awhile and as we were paddling away he asked me if I was a pilot.  We thought that was a strange question.  It turns out he was a retired maintenance manager for Continental Airlines and we knew a lot of the same people.  Small world.

Ken caught all the fish this weekend.  Good sized Lake trout cooked over the BBQ each night.  I think they tasted like salmon, Abby didn't.

We left Muncho Lake this morning and had a very leisurely drive in the rain, again.  Since we crossed the Canadian border last Tuesday, it has rained every day.  Jealous Houston?

Crossed into the Yukon Territories today.

We saw many buffalo and bears and got some good pictures despite the constant rain.

We also saw an interesting sign.  I wonder what it means?

We refueled in Watson Lake at an interesting place called Tags.  No asphalt or concrete just acres of mud and the pump were placed in narrow lanes.  As I was fueling a rather elderly lady was attempting to gas up at a pump with no hoses.  I explained to her she should probably move to a different pump.  She choose to come down my lane and shoehorn her car into position.  It looked to me that her right rear view mirror was going to become a new fixture on our RV if I didn't step in to help.  I suggested she back up her car and go to the next lane which was wide open.  She said "back up?, I can barely drive the car, I'm going forward."

I could not position myself between the RV and her car as there was no room so I stood in front of her car with the promise to myself at the first hint of a rpm surge I was jumping on the hood of her car.  Fortunately she could follow directions and managed to get through without redecorating our RV.


We will be putting the sign we had made in the Sign Post Forest tomorrow.  Hopefully there will be pictures of the epic event.

Muncho Lake BC

 I had confirmation this post went through but apparently it did not.  So here it is a few days late.  Working on the update.

Before we left Fort Nelson this morning Ken and I got our fishing licenses for British Columbia.  It seems that although the sun comes up around 4:00 AM, no one in the “North Country” as the natives call it, goes to work at the published hours for their establishments.  When we asked where we could get our licenses and when they opened, people told us the businesses opened at 8:00, or maybe 9:00 or 9:30 but because this was Saturday and it was the “Mud bog” weekend, they may not open at all.  We finally found a store open and off we went to Muncho Lake.

During the drive we saw Caribou, Stone sheep and Mountain goats.  The coats were very ragged.  The drive in places is very treacherous as the animals think they own the road.  Come to think of it, I guess they do.  They lay down on the road and the roads are rather winding.

Muncho Lake Provincial Park has as its main attraction Muncho Lake.  A very long but not very wide, glacier fed lake of pristine beauty.  At its deepest spot the bottom is 743 feet.  As a result, it has large populations of Lake trout and Artic Grayling.  We hope to reduce this population just a bit.

We were planning on staying in the Provincial Campground but all but one of the 15 camping spots were taken so Ken and Debbie stayed there and we went back up the road a bit and stayed at a commercial campground.

We were given a beautiful spot 30 feet from the lake.  A bit tight for our rig but Abby is a master of direction and we managed to shoehorn the beast in such a way as to look out the windshield and see this majestic lake.  The only problem was that after we put the jacks down, let the air out of the airbags, opened the slide outs, the power quit on the pedestal.

I reset the GFI, tried again, same result.  Walked around, found the maintenance supervisor.  He tells me it is the RV that is causing the problem and not his campground.  I disagreed with him so I got out some extension cords and while he was standing there watching me, plugged them into the sites on either side of us.  They worked fine.  In come the slides, up go the jacks, pump air back into the bags, disconnect the water while Abby puts away items inside the RV and go to start and discover one of the cats has puked all over Abby’s computer and the couch.

We moved to the new site and 3 hours after we arrived we were finally settled.  Below is the view from the RV.

They have a seaplane operation here and the pilot is the owner of the plane and campground which includes a small hotel.  We talk a bit about airplanes and I said the plane look pretty new.  He said he previously had 3 airplanes and a hangar but they all burned up last fall in a fire.  I asked him if it was an electrical problem.  He gave me a funny look and asked “how did you know”?  Lucky guess.

Ken and I are going fishing on the lake tonight.  Wifi here at the campground for some reason will not let me add more pictures.  More later.

Dawson Creek, Mile zero on the Alaskan Highway.

The electrical parts we needed came Monday morning and installed perfectly.

During our stay at Glacier NP we solved a couple of life's puzzles.  One is, "does the bear poop in the woods"?  The other one is the song "The bear went over the mountain".  I have also come up with a question no one has been able to answer in our little group.  More on that later.

I need to set the plate a little.  Remember the old song and dance man "Scatman Crothers'?   It so happens we are traveling with Ken and Debbie Arthur.  Ken is a veritable fountain of knowledge especially when it comes to the great outdoors.  A hunter and fisherman of immense talent. It turns out he is very knowledgeable when it comes to identifying animals through their "scat" or poop.  To say that Ken knows his .........stuff, doesn't do him justice.

While in Glacier NP we came across a Grizzly bear, for lack of a better term, taking a "dump" IN the woods.  We have pictures of this event but it is too graphic to show as this is a "G" rated publication.  Take my word for it as Ken has confirmed the veracity of the "stuff".  Ken now has the nickname, "Scatman Arthur".  When we are driving down the road and see "scat", we use the walkie talkie to call back for official identification.

The other question of the "bear went over the mountain" has also been confirmed as YES.  When we spotted the sow grizzly with 2 cubs, we saw a tracking collar on her.  I questioned a park ranger and he told me they captured the sow last fall on the other side of the park.  The batteries on the collar are good for 2-3 years and they can download the info into Google maps and track their progress.

Now the new question.  In Houston in the winter, we see "Canadian Geese" flying in for the winter.  We have been in Canada for several days and are seeing the same type of geese.  The question I have is....If the geese we see in America are Canadian Geese, are the geese we see in Canada, American Geese.  Does that make them dual citizens?

It's a good thing they don't have to go through Customs where we processed into Canada.  The officer we had made Stalin look like passive man.  I've been through Customs a few times in my career, but this guy needs a personality transplant.

Once we made it through customs, we had a very nice drive to Banff, AB.  We spotted many different types of wild animals including some mountain sheep.  They must have had a really bad winter as I have seen better coats on a homeless woman.

We were able to get 2 spots side by side with Ken and Debbie. We stayed at the RV and didn't walk into town as I had already given them the tour by missing a turn for the campground and ended up downtown Banff.  The streets are not real wide and they were packed with tourists.  It's amazing how fast they will get out of your way when they realize that the RV isn't going to stop the turn just because they are too busy talking on their cell phone and are not paying attention.

I was able to navigate my way out of that mess and up the hill to the campground.

The next morning Ken and Debbie refueled their truck downtown.  Ken said he felt comfortable doing that after yesterdays tour.  We went on up the road to Lake Louise to refuel.  As I pulled in to the pumps I noticed a car in front of us that didn't seem to be refueling.  There were five of them standing around, waving their hands in the air and talking funny.  They were Brazilians. I queried the driver and they couldn't figure out how to open the door to the gas cap. They were looking inside the drivers compartment and asked me to help them find the button.  I looked for a minute and couldn't find it so, like a man who always will stop and ask for directions, I got out the manual from the glove compartment.

About that time  Abby walked up and found out about the problem.  She simply put her finger nail in the slot and bingo!  Problem solved.

I fueled the beast and as I was walking into the store to pay, I noticed the "Brazil Nuts" were about to back into the front of the RV.  I used my really loud "outside" voice and yelled stop.  They stopped short  by about 3 inches.  They decided that they should start the car before putting it into gear.  Works for me.

While I was buying the liquid gold for the beast, Abby went to the Post Office to buy some Canadian stamps as you can't send mail from Canada with U.S. stamps.  After she paid for her stamps, the postal worker told her the Post Office employees were on STRIKE and she didn't know when it would be over.  Could she have told Abby this before she bought the stamps?  Noooo.  I hope they are collector items.

As I was getting into the beast to leave a construction worker stopped and asked me if I knew how much diesel cost in Canada.  I told him, "no problem" as I had sold my kids to pay for the trip.  He said he wished he had thought of that himself.

We spent last night in Dawson Creek which is the start of the Alaskan highway. 

We spent a good portion of the evening trying to determine why the propane would not feed any of the appliances.  We had filled the tank in Glacier NP so we knew it was full.  Seems I have a faulty "emergency shut off" switch and it keeps shutting off the valve while we are driving.  I'll try and get it replaced in Anchorage.

Tonight we are staying in Fort Nelson, BC.  Tomorrow we are going to Muncho Lake for about 3 days of "dry camping" (no external power).  This is one of the best places in Canada to fish and we need the time off.

The wifi quality so far on this trip has been terrible so I have been unable to send out regular "blasts".  There will not be another post to the blog until probably Tuesday.


Lois and Clark

Glacier National Park Part Deux

 Last night Ken and I went fishing again in Duck Lake.  This time I caught the fish.

It was too cold and potentially rainy to hike the trails in Glacier NP today so we drove through the park looking for wildlife.  We were very successful.  Many Grizzly Bears, Black Bear, Elk, and Mountain Goats. Here are some of the up close and personal photos.

When we were here 5 years ago, Boots the dog was our personal escort during our stay. Anytime we went for a walk, Boots was there trotting alongside.  Boots is a Karelian Bear Dog.  They are used for hunting and are trained to bite bears in the butt to keep them away from humans.  We bonded 5 years ago and were looking forward to seeing him this week.  Unfortunately we only saw him for a few minutes this weekend. He apparently mistook some elderly lady's hand for a "bears butt" and bit her.  He has been banned from the park but he managed to make an appearance today.

Tomorrow we are leaving Glacier NP and heading to Banff BC via Waterton NP in Canada so we are drinking up the wine supplies tonight as there is a limit to what you can bring into Canada without paying a fee.  Hee Haw!

While in Canada we will dependent on wifi only for communications. We have a Magic Jack phone and the number is 281 984 0192 and it has voicemail. 

Ken and Debbie just arrived plus my wine glass is empty.  Don't want to violate Canadian laws.

Lois and Clark

Glacier National Park

Sorry for no update for a few days but we have been having too much fun!

We left West Yellowstone on friday morning intending to spend the night at the KOA in Great Falls, Montana. When we saw the sign for the campground in Great Falls, Abby and I knew right away something wasn't right.  There were no railroad tracks and it wasn't next to the freeway.  We were right!  It was one big MUD HOLE and the sites were too short and too narrow for the beast.  So we pulled out and headed for Glacier NP where our friends Ken and Debbie had arrived earlier in the day.  At the end of a 450 mile day, we arrived at the KOA at St. Mary's in Glacier NP.

We stopped here for a few days in 2006 on the way to Alaska but were shocked to see the damage from the forest fire from that same year.

Ken and Debbie stopped by that night for happy hour and dinner.  The next day we went site seeing and scouting out good fishing spots.  We drove into Glacier NP to look for wildlife.  We spotted 2 Grizzly bears and took some pictures.

 

 

Guess which picture was taken by Abby.

Ken and I went fishing last night on the Blackfeet Indian reservation at a place called Duck Lake.  The Indian reservations are very strict when it comes to fishing in their territory.  Must still be upset.

Ken caught this beautiful 19", 2 pound Rainbow.

On the way out of the reservation I mentioned to Ken that we would probably be stopped by the Indian game warden to check to see if we had filled up the freezer mounted on the back of the Jeep.  We both agreed it would be a bad idea if I said "honest Injun" we don't have any fish in the freezer.  Fortunately we were not stopped.  Ken did a masterful job of cooking his catch and we thoroughly enjoyed the evening.

This morning we went for a hike in the park and on the way to see some waterfalls, we spotted these Black bears by the side of the road.

During our approximately 4 mile mountain hike, we came across a very large Black bear and we reversed our course and beat a hasty retreat.  We didn't wait to take pictures.

The scenery was spectacular.  Many waterfalls and picturesque vistas.

Ansel Abby is becoming quite the wildflower photographer.

We made it back to the car safely and are back at the campground.  Ken and I are going fishing again tonight at Duck Lake.


We will be staying here until Tuesday.  Hopefully the Postal Service will deliver tomorrow the electrical parts we need.  I've checked with the Las Vegas odds makers.  Doesn't look good.

Only 2860 miles to go.

Don and Abby