Travel in Yukon Territory

Shortly after Tok, Alaska we crossed over into Canada and experienced some of the worst roads on the ALCAN. The frost heaves made for a rollercoaster experience now and then for probably 100 miles through the tundra. The road department was working on repairs and tried to mark particularly bad sections but sometimes they set us bouncing. The bad sections of road were offset by the beautiful mountains, valleys and lakes we were passing through. We also spotted several bears and moose along the way. Of course there were many significant points of interest along the way relating to the Alcan Highway that was build during WWII. We stopped at a reconstructed bridge and caught Charles, Bill and Deanna enjoying the historic bridge. As we traveled along the way we became quite efficient at setting up camp in the evening, getting dinner on the table and then breaking camp and packing up each morning. We ate royally during our travels as Kari and Charles had frozen salmon, crab, halibut and octopus. Marinated octopus was a special favorite of most of us, even the kids. We were thankful that we had warm clothing as sometimes it was a bit cool in the evenings. We were really thankful for our excellent tour guides (Kari and Charles) who had traveled the ALCAN several times, and we benefitted from their experience. They guided us to wonderful camping spots and points of interest along the way. Kari did a great job of negotiating the fees and keeping the financial records to be split at the end of the journey.

On the ALCAN south...

We left Big Lake fully loaded and ready for our driving adventure. We spent some time in Anchorage at the Saturday market but couldn’t buy much as the cars were packed solid. As we started the trip across Alaska towards Canada we finally got a picture of a mother moose and baby crossing the road… you may have to enlarge the picture to see it. We also enjoyed seeing the Matanuska glacier with better lighting than Nancy and I had seen it on the way up. The massive size of the glacier is impressive. During our lunch break we enjoyed being near a fast running stream. Travis and Wren particularly enjoyed panning for gold. They were disappointed when Charles informed them they had been collecting mica commonly known as Fool’s Gold. As we did not get an early start we did not make it to Tok the first night but did find a nice primitive camp to spend the first night. You can see we had no table but luckily we had sufficient chairs and camping items to make ourselves comfortable. You might also notice we are dressed with warm clothes. The heat wave we had during our trip up had given way to cooler temperatures. The days remained warm, but nights could be cool. Luckily the nights were short, with the sun setting after 11 PM and rising about 2 AM which meant it really never got dark. The campsite may have been primitive but room service the next morning was great! Nancy was able to catch a picture of Ray’s coffee being delivered by Travis.

Big Lake, Alaska

We were welcomed to Big Lake by Karen and family and soon Kari, Charles, Travis and Wren arrived from Kodiak and Bill and Deanna arrived from Tennessee to complete the group. Karen provided lodging in exchange for all of our help packing and loading the Conex container which was scheduled to transport their belongings to New York State where they were moving. You can see Bill and I standing at the door of the container wondering if the household full of belongings and their large Ford SUV would fit inside. The following morning the kids played as the loading progressed. All day long we seemed to be making progress but were never sure it would all fit as the manager had assured Karen it would. At the end of the day their house was pretty much empty and there was still room for the SUV to fit! You can see from the picture of Karen and family that they were relieved. You can also see the happy faces of eight people ready to climb into two vehicles for the journey down the ALCAN . Thus one adventure (loading the conex) ended and another started (driving the ALCAN).

Top of the World and Dawson City

At White Horse we decided to take the alternate route of the ALCAN toDawson City which was the site of the Klondike gold strike. The information center provided travel information like there was a short section of gravel road which was in great shape and the free ferry at Dawson City across the Yukon River was not too crowded this time of year. As mentioned earlier we had been experiencing quite warm weather and at Whitehorse we learned there were a lot of forest fires still out of control and a few roads were closed. The road called the Top of the World was open all the way and we decided to travel that section. As we drove the 250 miles from Whitehorse to Dawson City we did come across one of those forest fires. If you enlarge the picture you can see our van and how the smoke distorts views to the mountains. As we traveled through miles of rugged country we better understood how rough the miners headed to the Klondike gold strike had it. They were traveling in the winter and mostly by foot. It is estimated that 50 percent of the miners who started the trail died of accidents, starvation or froze to death along the way. Dawson City was quite interesting and really made us feel like we had stepped into the past. After leaving Dawson City, we drove onto the free ferry across the Yukon River which was a lot smaller than we had expected. After crossing the Yukon we drove up the road onto a ridge which was the Top of the World highway. At the top the pavement ended and we were a bit surprised to find the short section of gravel road was 50 miles! The road was in good shape but our van quickly became infiltrated with very fine dust. The mountains were somewhat hidden in smoke from the forest fires but we thoroughly enjoyed the drive. The surprise came as we entered Alaska from Canada at a state-of-the-art border crossing. We learned it is only open about 4 months of the summer and on a busy day 50 cars might pass over the border. Shortly after the border we dropped off the ridge and down to the town of Chicken, another gold rush town with a restored dredge. The community of Chicken is the site of a school that was the topic of a book a few years back. As you can see the post office was a small log cabin with lots of mining artifacts and trinkets on display. From Chicken we traveled on to Tok where we spent the night at a very nice campground next to a small airport. This picture showing many small planes parked there was taken from our camp, but luckily the runway was quite a distance away so our sleep was not disturbed. Showers for us and trying to remove dust from the van occupied much of our evening. We did take time to go out to dinner at Fast Eddy’s café where we opted for the salad bar as we were really craving fruits and vegetables after several days on the road camping.

Snow, Ice and waterfalls

The further north we ventured the more snow and ice we saw. Spring was just arriving and it is such a beautiful time of the year. With the warm weather, most of the lakes and rivers were flowing full but one of the lakes we passed still had lots of ice. We were tempted to camp in the beautiful area but decided to push on to lower elevations where we hoped it would be warmer to spend the night. Often the days were warm, but the nights could be pretty cool. Of course the further north we got, the shorter the nights were. It stayed light later and later. We also saw many glaciers in the distance.

Wild flowers / forests and Mountains

We were surrounded by beautiful scenery most of our trip. Capturing photos of wildflowers, trees and mountains was much easier than finding animals posed for a picture. We were sometimes disappointed that the light was from the wrong direction or that clouds or smoke from the forest fires hampered our views. With the heat wave and lack of rain during the spring in the far north they were battling record numbers of forest fires. Many areas near the highway were perfect for lupine which seemed to thrive on the rocky dry ground. As mentioned earlier there were lots of dandelions and they seemed to be a much fluffier version than we get in the northwest, and in beautiful clusters. The mountains were often very rugged and with few trees. Being so far north the trees had to deal with a very short growing season between bitter cold winters. We loved seeing the birch groves that often were near streams.

Alaska Trip Wildlife Sightings

As we traveled the Alaskan highway, most of which is in Canada we were always on the lookout for wildlife. When we first started the highway there were often towns, villages and farms and we had very few wildlife sightings. As we left civilization we found the roads had wide cleared swaths on either side of the highway. We were told this was to give motorists a chance to see the animals near a road, which reduced the number that were hit and killed by traffic. It made our sightings easier and many of the animals seemed to enjoy the open area along the highway to graze. We of course wanted to see bears and were not disappointed. We enjoyed seeing several bears (often grizzlies) grazing on dandelions. Several times we came across mountain sheep that were on the road. We were told they are looking for minerals in the dirt. The sheep were losing their thick heavy winter coats and sometimes looked pretty shaggy. We found the moose very skittish; we saw several but they disappeared quickly into the brush. Apparently the cows often have calves in the spring and are very nervous. We saw very few male moose which often seemed to be hiding off in the brush. We were lucky enough to see several wood buffalo along the road in northern British Columbia. The buffalo were also losing their heavy winter coats but seemed very at ease near the highway. We did not notice any with young which were probably hiding in the underbrush. We enjoyed the many wildlife sightings along the way, though some were small and quick so we never got a picture. One day we seemed to see only dead animals, which happens along the way. It would have been nice to see the arctic fox running in the wild. We did see a red fox dashing in and out of a rock pile and unfortunately did not get a picture. The fox was probably hoping to catch a ground squirrel off guard. At that same spot, a bald eagle came swooping through the parking lot as we were pulling out and flew alongside us briefly. Of course that happened to be the day our new camera needed recharging and we missed that picture also. Oh well……..

Camping our way to Alaska

As we were preparing for our trip north to Alaska we often had concerns about the trip. With the very wet weather the northwest was experiencing we wondered just how much camping might be possible. We also wondered about how pesky the mosquitoes might be. We knew that Ridgefield was having a record year for mosquitoes. To cut expenses on the journey we hoped to camp when possible but packing for a camping trip when it is raining made us wonder what we were in for. We agreed that when the weather was nasty we would look for cabins or motels. We left Ridgefield and on the way north we often were in rain. We stopped in Birch Bay just south of the Canadian border to visit with Roy and Susie and experienced rain as we took in some of the local sites. We were not feeling good about camping as we headed north but the further north in Canada we went the weather seemed to be improving. The first day we made about 300 miles and decided to take a chance on camping at a very nice commercial campground. The hot showers, few mosquitoes and nature trail were welcome. We have to admit a beaver scared us half to death when we startled it and he slapped his tail in his escape. I guess he was as scared as we were. Not being totally sure it would not rain during the night we set up the tarp over the tent. As you can see from the picture we were prepared. After dinner it spit a little rain but did not even get the ground wet. As we moved further north each day seemed warmer and drier. It seems Northern Canada and Alaska were having a heat wave (hot for them, anyway) and we even saw forest fires and lots of smoke that sometimes hampered our view of the mountains. Sometimes afternoon thunder showers threatened but never materialized. We were also pleased that most places were not mosquito invested. One night the mosquitoes were pesky enough after dusk that we sat and read in the van for protection from being bitten. At another campground near Watson Lake we were enjoying an evening walk and as we approached the lake to see the sunset at about 11 PM we were overwhelmed by swarms of hungry mosquitoes. We made a hasty retreat! Most nights we stayed in commercial campgrounds equipped with flush toilets, running water and hot showers which made camping quite enjoyable. Our trip north through British Columbia, Yukon Territory and on to Big Lake north of Anchorage, Alaska took about 7 days. You can imagine how we were thankful to have camped every night and never got rained out.

DODDS visits

We have many fond memories from our years working overseas with DODDS and look forward to times to visits with our former colleagues. This spring we visited with Bernie and Chuck Steele and later connected with Ray and Marcia Reass in Bellevue, Washington. After we moved to Ridgefield Marcia and Ray were able to stop by our place as they headed towards Bend, Oregon. We forgot to snap any photos but really enjoyed the visit. Not long after that, Susie Walker and Roy Harris stopped by for lunch in Ridgefield as they returned from the Oregon coast. We arranged to stop by their place near the Canadian border on our way north to Alaska. Unfortunately we forgot to snap pictures to post when they visited in Ridgefield but did get a few of Roy and Susie in Burch Bay area as we headed north. They have a beautiful home and we enjoyed exploring some of the surrounding area with them. It was quite evident that Sunshine and Coffee enjoyed our visit as we were provided treats to feed them.

Hulberts visit

For some time we had been working to have Ted and Rosalie Hulbert visit and we were lucky to have near perfect weather when they arrived for a mid-week visit in mid-May. We spent one afternoon exploring our nearby Ridgefield Wildlife Refuge. While there, we kept hearing a unique bird but could not see it or identify it. A helpful bird watcher with a high quality scope helped us see the Common Snipe that had eluded us. (They really do exist…just hard to find, which apparently led to the “Snipe hunts” we remember as kids!) While touring the refuge we enjoyed seeing lots of the wildlife. One day we traveled on the Washington side of the Columbia River to Astoria, making several stops to enjoy the scenery. We then drove on to Cannon Beach where no trip to the coast would be complete without a walk on the beach. At Hug Point the tide was out which allowed us to go around the point to find a small waterfall. On our way home along Highway 26 towards Portland, we stopped for dinner at Camp 18. The restaurant is also home to a logging museum with many interesting pictures and artifacts. The building is constructed like a national parks lodge and is quite unique. Many birds flocked to the feeders just outside the windows to entertain us as we dined. The next day we wandered around the Fort Vancouver national monument which is only a few miles from our house on the Columbia River. The fort has a long history reaching back to the early days of the Oregon Territory. There were many classes on study trips to the monument with many demonstrations and displays. The blacksmith area with a working forge was a big hit with the students.

Ridgefield deck

Spending time on our deck is a pleasure. Sometimes feel like we are in a tree house. Of course we enjoy it when Brett, Kasey share Cecilia and Gopher so they can also enjoy time on the deck watching the wildlife. We have a few feeding stations and Cecilia likes to be involved in putting out the critter food. The squirrels are entertaining and a big hit with both Cecilia and Gopher.

Columbia Gorge

Columbia Gorge Wildflowers -
With the weather predicted to be a perfect spring day we decided to take a trip up the Columbia Gorge to see wild flowers with Roy and Suzanne. Traveling the Gorge near Portland we enjoyed seeing the forests and waterfalls but the further east we traveled the dryer the terrain became. We enjoyed traveling on the old highway rather than the freeway when possible. Near The Dalles we walked a trail to the top of a ridge to see the wild flowers and scenery up close. Then we crossed the Columbia River to explore the Washington side of the Gorge. As we ran out of daylight and were getting hungry we went to Cousins restaurant in The Dalles which is well known for country food and a collection of farm equipment. It is the only restaurant we have been to with an antique John Deer tractor in the dining area.

Roseburg connections

Roseburg gathering....

Back when our kids were young we started gathering informally now and then with a group of Roseburg couples. Many years have passed but we still try and get together now and then. Since we have stayed in contact and now have moved closer to Roseburg we decided to host the group in at our place in Ridgefield. It was a fun evening with Brinkley’s, Grieve’s, Lehrbach’s, Richardson’s and Totman’s able to join us. We look forward to our next gathering and hope the Olson’s can join in then. Everybody was so busy sharing stories and catching up that we apparently took only one picture. Maybe next time we gather we will remember to snap a few more pictures at the gathering.