Fish Ladders, Glaciers and Anchorage – July 28 to August 3

When you pass through Watson Lake, Yukon it is obligatory to stop and take a picture of the Signpost Forest.  It’s on the North edge of town and was started in 1942 by a US serviceman building the Alaska Highway.  He posted a sign pointing to his hometown with the mileage to get there.  In the years since then travelers from all over the world have left mementos of their home towns on the posts.  According to the visitor center staff, there are over 72,000 signs now.  We didn’t take time to look for Upton but if we ever come through again we’ll be sure to bring one to be certain we’re represented.

Signpost Forest in Watson Lake

 

At signpost 699 there is a display about the Continental Divide.  We stopped to take a picture and see if we could stand with one foot on each side of it.  We couldn’t find the line but we did notice there was a motor home with Massachusetts license plates.  We waved them down and asked the “where are YOU from in Massachusetts” question.  Unbelievably, they were from Upton!  Our little town has 7,000 people and we meet two of them on the Alaska Highway in Yukon, Canada!   Walter and Evelyn Hopkins from Upton have travelled this road many times and were on their way to meet their daughter and then go on to Dawson City.  What an amazing coincidence and so much fun to talk with them!  They probably won’t see their photo on the blog but when we meet them in Upton we’ll make sure they know that meeting them was a high point of our trip!

 

Walter and Evelyn from Upton, MA

We stopped at a little grassy turnout to get some lunch from the back and found this black bear had already discovered the spot and was having lunch there, too!  We were able to drive really close to him to take a few photos and he hardly looked at us…the wild berry patch he’d found was a lot more interesting.

 

The Yukon Government Campground at Squanga Lake was our home for one night on July 29.  These campgrounds are found all through the territory and are clean, well-maintained and very inexpensive.  We met a woman there who lives with her family three miles from the nearest neighbor and off the grid in BC.  For vacation they were camping…!

Huge Clover Blooms Everywhere

Wild Lupine

Intrepid Long-Distance Bicyclists Even Here!

The Nisutlin Bay Bridge over the Nisutlin River. 
This bridge is the longest water span
on the Alaska Highway -- 1,917 feet.

There is beautiful fireweed growing everywhere.  It gets its name because

it is the first thing to grow after a burn.

We only drove as far as Whitehorse the 30^th and decided to stay around there for a day exploring and chilling.  When I imagined Whitehorse there were images from Klondike movies and old westerns in my database so I was surprise to find such a sophisticated small city.  The Yukon River flows through it and there’s a sign pointing to a fish ladder, so that’s one of the things that we explored.  That, also, didn’t fit my mental image.  I don’t want to spend my next life as a salmon.  Until 1959 the Yukon River was free-flowing from where it began, near Whitehorse, all the way to the Bering Sea.   Salmon could hatch, find their way downstream to the sea and then back to spawn with just the normal challenges:  bigger fish, bears, and humans.  Once the dam was built there was an even bigger challenge, so the fish ladder was built to give them a little help.  The fast-flowing water attracts the fish to the ladder and there are partitions inside which they leap over leading them up and over the dam.  According to the signs, some of the fish get harvested for a fish breeding farm where salmon are hatched and released upstream to help make up for some of the fish lost to the turbines.  They have varying success from year to year – once only 70-some fish succeeded and the most successful year there were a little over 3000 survivors.  Tough life.

This is the part of the Yukon River that draws them in

 

This is what they need to get around!

The ladder to survival -- looking down from the top

As you drive into Whitehorse one of the first things you see is a huge sternwheeler paddleboat.  It’s on blocks and has been refurbished to allow people to tour it and see it as it was when it was in use hauling freight, as much as 300 tons at a time, between Whitehorse and Dawson City on the Yukon River.  The boiler was heated by burning wood at the rate of a cord an hour!  The ship would go downstream in about 36 hours to Dawson City and only had to stop for wood twice but coming upstream they took four or five days and several stops for wood. 

 

S.S. Klondike 2

Firewood for fuel

This is the boiler where they fed in the logs

 Inside the boiler is lined with refractory brick

At the end of its life as a freighter the owners tried to make it work as a passenger ship and it was luxurious on the upper deck.  There was a dining room with china and white linens, well-appointed cabins, a bathroom with a cast-iron claw foot tub and a solarium at the front with a place to sit in style.  They carried first and second-class passengers and the second-class people were only allowed on the sun deck on the second level and not beyond the sign leading to the front.  If you zoom the photo you can see the sign, “2^nd Class Passengers Not Allowed Forward of This Notice.”  SRD was intrigued with the engines and mechanical parts of the ship and I loved the cargo – everything from cartons of Reindeer Milk to empty ore bags to be filled at the mines.  The galleys were all painted the same green color with details like little edges on the plate cabinets to keep the plates from falling out accidentally.  Passengers travelled in style when they could afford to go first-class!

Reindeer Milk

Upper Deck

Second Class Passengers Stop Here!

Elegant Dining

The Main Galley

I have to give a plug here for the great campground we found outside of Whitehorse.  It was the Caribou RV Park.  It had private shower rooms with hot showers and electricity for my hair dryer, huge sites for each camper with trees for separation, a laundry room, a place to wash your car – and did I mention INTERNET ACCESS?  It was run by a friendly man, Martin, originally from Switzerland.  He’s now a Canadian citizen and has been running this wonderful spot for over six years.  If you ever need a great place to stay on the Alaska Highway in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory you should find this one!

 

 

We had been so impressed with the condition of the road but had read about damage caused by permafrost melting.  As we approached Haines Junction we not only were getting amazing views of the Kluane Mountains but between Kluane Lake and Beaver Creek there were some good illustrations of the kind of damage melting permafrost can do to a highway.  You must travel much slower due to undulations from permafrost melting.  There were also some long gravel stretches.  There is an Alaska Highway Permafrost Research project along the highway just outside of Snag Junction where international teams from Yukon, the U.S. Federal Highways Administration and other public agencies have installed several different test methods of cold-weather highway building and are monitoring them for the next few years to see how effective they are.   One of these sections has ducts built into air convection embankments made of 150-300 mm diameter rock.  The idea is to keep the road cold in winter by using air circulation and in summer by using road surfacing materials that reduce the amount of solar radiation absorbed. Road builders in sub-arctic climates around the world will benefit from this research.

A Little Dust

Kluane Range

Panorama of Kluane Lake

Kluane Lake Marshes

As we got closer to Anchorage our “take-your-time” approach to driving became “we’re-almost-to-Diana-and-John’s-house!”  We scoped out promising fishing spots and wrote notes instead of stopping.  We stayed the last night on the road in a Tent-Hostel campground called “Alaskan Stoves Campground” right next to the airport and ate a quick dinner at Fast Eddie’s Restaurant so we could sleep and get on the way from Tok (pronounced “toke” not “tak” as we learned from several subtle people) to Anchorage the next day.   We weren’t expecting to need quite so many stops between Tok and Anchorage for photos.  The rugged volcanic mountains and glaciers are breathtaking!  I have winnowed down my hundreds of photos to a couple of representative ones that don’t even come close to capturing the scale.

You can barely see Mt. Sanford.  It is a dormant volcano and is one of the 10

highest peaks in Alaska at 16,237 feet high

Nelchina Glacier

 

Matunuska Glacier. 

Note all of the dirty-snow at the leading edge.

We’ve arrived at Diana’s and John’s beautiful house and watched the rain for a couple of days.  This morning is a beautiful Friday with blue skies and sunshine!  We will go outside!  Last night we crossed off one of our “Anchorage List” items:  Halibut Burgers at Humpy’s.  They were just as delicious as I remembered!  Let the weekend begin!

We saw this LandRover in the Fast Eddie's parking lot in Tok.

On the side it says:

"You don't travel to see different things.

You travel to see things differently."

Arrived in Anchorage

Thursday, August 2, 2012

We arrived in Anchorage Tuesday the 31^st and are staying with Diana and John and their two dogs in their beautiful new house.   We were on the road for 16 days getting to Anchorage and covered 4800 miles.  I am going to use this down time to write about a couple of items that have been on my mind for the last week.

Resources in Canada

Land Area – driving across really illustrated to me how big Canada is.  Wikipedia says Canada’s land area is about the same as the US’ when you include Alaska.  It is actually bigger than the lower 48 states.  Additionally, the population is only about 35M, and it is concentrated along the US border, so they have a lot of relatively unspoiled land.

Water – This is just a visual impression from going across the TCH (Trans-Canadian Highway).  Lots and lots of lakes and rivers.  Out west in Alberta, BC, and Yukon, the number of really huge rivers is phenomenal.   Looking at the map, the lake and river density appears to be even higher up north.  Coupled with the small population, I would venture a guess that Canada will never have a water shortage, or, if they do, it will be much less severe than the rest of the planet.

Wilderness Forests – Vast – hundreds of miles of forest can be seen from the  TCH and Alaskan Highway, particularly in Quebec, Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia, Yukon. Lots of logging trucks moving back and forth on the TCH.   Occasionally you see an outfitter/guide business, often with a small aircraft and dirt airstrip.  If hunting, fishing, and the outdoors are your deal, this would be the place to be.  Having said that, you might have trouble convincing your "sun and stars" to join you out there.  Your social life could be very limited.

Coinage – The smallest Canadian bill I have seen is a $5 dollar bill.  Below that, they have a two-dollar coin and one dollar coin, as well as quarters, dimes, pennies.  I was in a conversation with a hotel manager about the coins needed in the Laundromat and was told I needed a looney and two 25-cent pieces to run each machine.  At first I thought I had misunderstood, but then learned the one dollar coin is referred to as a “looney” (left) and the two-dollar coin is a “tooney” (right)(two-ny??).    See the photo of the two coins.

Cost of Beer and Wine in Canada – I had occasion to buy beer and wine in Airdrie, AB and was astounded by the limited selection and the high cost.  I am a bit of a beer snob.  I prefer Sam Adams to Bud Lite.  This liquor store had small quantities of about 4-5 brands of beer, none of which I had ever heard of.   I walked out with a six-pack of local honey-brown brew that cost $15.80.  I drank it and it was ok, but believe me when I say it was not THAT good.  In the US it would have been $8-$9, maybe less.  Didn’t hold a candle to Newcastle Brown.  This really surprised me because Canadians are beer drinkers.  I did some searching around the internet and found that the distribution and sale of booze is very tightly controlled in Canada (similar to how they do it in Utah).  Further, each Province has its own laws and system to manage this.  Some have state-operated liquor stores; others have opened the retail up to privately-run package stores.  However, they all add a significant markup to the wholesale cost as a form of taxation.  This why there are tight limitations on how much beer and wine an individual can bring into the country.  Next time I come to Canada, I plan to take full advantage of the permissible quantity of beer.

Cost of Gasoline - In MA I in have been paying about $3.50/gal for gas (87 octane).  Looking back on what we paid going across Canada and up into Alaska, it is all over the map.   The gas there is priced by the liter, so you have to multiply it by 4 and divide by 1.06 to get $/gallon.  The average price, the high, and the low we paid in Canada were $4.78, $5.28, and $4.52/gal.  When you drive 5000 miles, this can really impact the cost of the trip.  Here is the math.  The Tundra gets about 18 miles per gallon, typically.  At $3.50 per gallon, the gasoline cost per mile is 19 cents.  At $4.78 per gallon, our average in Canada, the cost is 29 cents per mile.  Over 5000 miles, the additional cost is $500!!

Canadian Rockies – Banff and Jasper – Mountains, valleys, rivers, and icefields are just hughnormous. The vistas are awesome.

Alberta-Banff & Jasper National Park

Highway toward Banff

Banff Main Street

Overpasses through Banff National Park allow wildlife to cross safely

We camped at a rustic campground in Banff National Park, aptly named Mosquito Creek, for two nights, the 23^rd and 24^th of July.  Mosquito Creek is a glacier-fed creek that flows into the Bow River.  Where we registered there were signs posted about how to keep a “Clean Camp” so there is nothing to attract bears…  also signs telling how to avoid being eaten by or have your pet eaten by a cougar, which had been seen on the camp perimeter the day before.  I have to say we were both a little spooked by all of the information and we had our bear spray ready. 

Cougar Warning!

How to keep a Clean Camp

Our spot in the trees

Panorama of the cooking tent ready for action

Bear-proof food storage

 

The weather smiled on us as we set up our tents and cooking station and did a quick wander about, but as we cooked dinner the rain started and kept falling pretty steadily for the evening and overnight.  We were warm and dry in our tents listening to the rain on the fly, but when it doesn’t get dark until 10 pm and it’s raining and cold in the mountains you just feel like going to sleep.  We did.  We slept well, even suspecting there were wild animals lurking about.  In the morning it was 42 degrees and wet!  Between rain showers we explored the campground and discovered a deposit of fresh-looking poop identified by the camp attendant as from a bear.  During the time we were there we found two more deposits – one was between our camp and the outhouse on the path I’d been blithely using.  I stayed on the road after that!  Interesting tidbit:  bears “deposit” an amount the size of a soda can every hour.

Dinner in the rain

Even with all of that, the campground was perfect.  There is a little wash house where you can take your dirty dishes and clean them up with potable water instead of a dishpan at your camp.  There are specially designed ropes to pull your food pack high into the trees so the bear cannot get them.  These are for the bicyclists or backpackers who are staying and don’t have a car to lock their food in overnight.  The outhouses are clean, dry and well-kept…but they are dry outhouses!

 

Warming Hut

Baby Sparrows perched inside the warming hut

  There is a rustic but cozy warming hut with a big iron wood-burning stove in the center and a nest of baby sparrows with mama swooping in and out to deliver food.   We could gather around a fire and meet the other campers.  Our adventure pales in comparison with that of one couple we talked to, a delightful couple from Belgium who both quit their jobs and are on the downhill side of an 8-month world tour.  They spent four months in Asia and now are touring Canada and the western US in a tiny rented car, with some very basic camping gear and a huge and contagious enthusiasm.  We loved meeting them and felt more bold after hearing their stories.

 

 

The hostel adjacent to the campground was also rustic and the sign advertised “No Showers, No Electricity, A Sauna, Some Wi Fi!  We walked over on Tuesday and were intrigued with the idea of staying in a place like that sometime.  Note that probably electronic devices used for the Wi Fi should be well-charged before arrival.

 

The hike description claimed there were a couple of small streams to cross but “nothing major.”  We got to this point and decided the message implied by the boots lying by the water was enough to discourage this crossing.

 

North of Banff National Park is Jasper National Park.  Around every bend in the road I had to stop and photograph another mountain, another glacier, the only bear we saw in the park…something breathtaking.  Watching bicyclists, some of them distance riders with packs and panniers, work their way up and down these hills was humbling.  Most of them looked quite a lot younger than we are but there were some “mature” riders mixed in. 

Tangled Falls

 

After visiting the information center at the Ice Fields and admiring the big ice-touring vehicles and the glaciers filling the valley we left the park on the North end and picked up Highway 40 at Hinton – following the sign “The Scenic Route to Alaska!”  This country is “managed forest” land and there are swaths of clear cutting separated by areas where trees are labeled with the dates they were clear cut, re-planted and the predicted date of next cutting.  All of this timber leads to huge plants like “Foothills Forest Products” and “Ainsworth O.S.B. Plant.”  They are making finished lumber and “Oriented Strand Board” – lots of it.

Loaded with logs

It’s sad to see the amount of damage done by the pine beetles.  Every campground has signs about not moving wood from another area in order to protect the forests.

Near Grande Cache there is a mountain of coal being mined on one side of the road and going directly into a coal-fired power plant on the other side.  There is a wealth of natural resources in this part of the world.  We asked a young woman server at dinner about what kinds of jobs are available and she said there were many, mostly in the oil fields and lumber.  That’s obvious when you count the pickup trucks driven by young men in the parking lot of the brew pub.  She said that young women also come and love the area – mostly working in service jobs.  It’s a high-energy, fast-growth, high-testosterone world!

Coal power plant

As we left Alberta we had to stop at the town of Beaverlodge to take a photo of another giant animal sculpture.

Thursday we connected with the Alaskan Highway, Mile Zero, at Dawson Creek, British Columbia.  We took the requisite photos, picked up extra maps, documentation, information on road conditions, etc., crossing another time zone line as we entered what Diana calls “No Man’s Land.”  So far, that is not true.

The Path

 

Mile Zero!

 

If you’re ever this way you should definitely not miss a little place called “Trapper’s Den Wildlife Emporium.”  From the outside it looks tiny but inside is a wonderland of leather moccasins, Indian-made jewelry, books focusing on the North West, any kind of camping and hunting gear you may have forgotten.  We also got advice on fishing and camping/cabins. 

Trapper's Den Wildlife Emporium, Fort Nelson, British Columbia

Today, the 27^th, we drove from a log cabin at Tetsa River Lodge where we stayed last night, to Watson Lake, Yukon.  The log cabin sounded good in the ad and looked picturesque when we first looked at it but we missed some clues.  Next time we’ll be smarter and ask whether the kitchen sink actually works or is just for decoration and when they say they have Wi Fi I’ll ask if it is fast enough to upload a photo or just for text email.  Oh well, you learn.  They did tell us that the electricity got turned off at 10 p.m.  I didn’t realize that meant water, too!

The road is better than either of us expected.  There have been a few places where they are putting down fresh tar and then covering it with gravel.  In almost every case there’s a wait at one end while traffic from the other direction comes through in a dense cloud of dust – then it’s our turn to do the same.  Other places have just patches of new gravel where they do maintenance.  Mostly it’s paved and smooth and dry.  One stretch went right on the edge of Muncho Lake…literally on the edge!  Hopefully the photos show how close to the water we were.  Muncho Lake is famous for its deep blue-green water.

Can you tell how close to the edge the road is?

Today we also saw the most wildlife we’ve seen to date.  Right after we left the lodge this morning we saw a really young moose and then a couple of miles later another one a little older.  We started passing signs warning about bison and we almost didn’t believe it – until we started to see them!  The first one was a huge guy just walking along the highway.  I rolled down my window and took his picture and he didn’t even acknowledge our presence.  Obviously he’s accustomed to photographers.  There were several other big males and one large group with calves.  We saw a couple of black bear cubs and another larger one who was intent on eating berries.  We saw a group of wild horses grazing right by the road!  We finally saw a couple of the Stone’s Sheep that we were supposed to be watching out for, too!

Can you see the baby on the hillside?

We followed this custom-made camper from Texas for a while today

We’re using a book called “The Milepost” to guide this trip along the Alaskan Highway.  In it there are notations about almost every feature on and about the road.  Today we went across a bridge called Lower Laird River Bridge that is the only remaining suspension bridge on the Alaskan Highway.  It was built in 1943 – just like the guy standing next to it.

1943 was a good year!

Thanks so much to everyone who is watching the blog, commenting on the blog, and sending us notes and wishes.  It really is so much fun to think of sharing this adventure with you and we love getting your messages!

Sure, Diva. 
You may have some of my water!

Monday, July 23.  Day 8 of our two month journey.

Hi Folks.  SRD here.   This morning we depart for Banff National Park.  Saturday and Sunday we stayed in a very nice Ramada Inn outside of Calgary, Alberta for a little R&R.  This is the nicest hotel room I have ever seen for dog owners.  We even have our own external door to go to the Tundra, parked just outside.  The hotel has a pool, hot tub, and gym, all of which I used Sunday to get the driving kinks out.  On Saturday afternoon we completed the 6^th  day of straight of driving.  We covered 2660 miles in that time, averaging 450 miles per day.  In a typical day, we depart at 8 am, drive all day, and find a motel about 7 pm.  This can be sketchy because if you don’t find one at 7, you have limited choices and none of them are good choices.  We have been fortunate.  Does not seem to be a ton of travelers on the road, plus there are usually a lot of motels.

I have not done much of this kind of day-after-day driving.  After a couple of days of this, my bod starts complaining, various parts start hurting, and I get tired & drowsy towards the end of the day.  When that happens, we try to find a place to get a latte (side note: you have to be in a larger town for this strategy.  We definitely have stopped at places where they would look at you funny if you ask for a latte).  After a week of this, I can report that I am getting into the groove

It turns out one of two Bass-Pro shops in all of Canada is right here in Airdrie, Alberta.  (that is why we wound up here).  We went there Saturday for advice on fishing in BC and Alberta, as well as obtaining bear spray for TL and me.  We are about to go up into bear country and according to everything I read, this is a good idea.  In fact, we were told you must have it if you are hiking in the Banff National Park.  The idea is to handle yourself so you don’t need it (a whole ‘nother discussion), but if you do need it, you have a much better chance of avoiding getting hurt.  The bear spray was $80 for two small spray cans that hang on your belt.  The fishing advice was free.  Those guys in hunting and fishing at Bass-Pro seem to be retirees who have a passion for the outdoors.  The guy who helped me in the fly shop was a retired engineer who could talk knowledgably about fishing, big game hunting, and dealing with bears (i.e. avoiding!).

That’s it for now.  Take care and  we will be back when we get internet access.