Through customs one more time

Yesterday we decided to get off the beaten path (if you can call the Al/Can Highway a beaten path) and headed south on highway 37. We drove all day and camped at a primitive campground alongside a swift running river. The campground was run by the Lions. We went for a walk and saw moose tracks and moose droppings. They looked like dusty chocolate malt balls.

There were 4 people in the campground ahead of us on motorcycles. As we walked past their campsite one of them called, “Want a beer?” I said apologetically, “No thanks, we don’t drink. We’re Mormons.” Then Janeil said, “But we’re friendly.” It turned out they were two couples from California.Today we crossed over the border into Hyder, Alaska. We drove five miles up a dusty road to a place called Fish Creek where you could watch bears trying to catch salmon in the stream. We got in with our Golden Age pass. The bears usually feed in the morning and late evening. We arrived at 11 a.m. just as some late riser was lumbering up the stream herding about a dozen salmon. Gentle Ben was a lousy fisherman.The observation boardwalk was elevated about 15 feet above the stream. He walked right past us. There was a female ranger there who had an industrial sized bear spray can hanging from her belt. Janeil wanted to go on a hike on a nearby trail but since the bear hadn’t caught any fish, I thought it best we leave the area.Hyder looked like a ghost town out of the 1800’s. This week was Bear Festival week but we didn’t stick around for the pancake breakfast.

The fjord was surrounded by glacier encased peaks. Rivulets cascaded down the steep rock faces. The mountains are tall and there are lakes and rivers everywhere. No wonder there are so many mosquitos. We now have blood stained curtains in the camper van.

We saw our first red traffic light in a week. After driving for a whole day with no painted stripes, it is a relief to be back with a painted center line and a 90 kmh speed limit.

We would have to rate today as one of the top days of the trip.

Teslin, Yukon Territory

It is Wednesday, August 5th and we have started heading south towards home. The drive up the canyon from Skagway was breathtaking.





This morning we hiked up the mountain on the outskirts of Skagway to Dewey Lake. It was very steep and rocky. When I wanted to quit Janeil urged me on. When she wanted to turn back, I said we could make it around the lake. The climb took 3 hours and our knees were really sore. At one spot we got disoriented but my boy scout training came in handy when I saw the sun in the east.

At the edge of town, we saw an incredible sight of huge salmon swimming up a channel. We stood on a bridge over them and watched as dozens of 20 pounders swam towards their spawning streams.

We are camped tonight at an RV park on the bend of the river in Teslin. A long bridge with metal gratings spans the river. There are four wild fires burning in the wilderness on the other side of the lake to the south. There is ash falling from the air because the wind is blowing our way. It seems like we have jinxed the areas we visit because there has been a major fire almost everywhere we have gone. The sky over Skagway was smoky from fires also. Luckily the skies have usually been clear enough for us to see the sceneryBut there is ash falling on everything.

Landscape is covered with winding rivers and long finger lakes. We see lots of kayaks, canoes, and boats on car tops but none in the water.

Janeil is doing laundry. A load costs $1.50 and the soap another $1.50 for a box the size of a deck of cards. This is the first campground with free showers in the last three days. I refused to shower last night because it cost $1 even though Janeil offered to pay. They also have gasoline, a restaurant, and a defunct miniature golf course. This is really classy. Somehow it seems un-American to have to pay $1.25 to wash your hair. There was a derogatory comment about Canada in one of the rest stop out houses. A Yukoner had written this reply: “Only an A__ H__ Yank would make such a rude remark.” I guess the ugly American image is still alive and well.

Since we are a little ahead of schedule we are going to include Mt. Saint Helens in our return route. It had better not start erupting while we are there or we’ll know our jinx is for real.

When I awake during the night I start reciting “The Cremation of Sam McGee” in my head. I usually am back to sleep within a verse or two.

We have not had to use our mosquito netting yet, but whenever we stop for a rest the hornets swarm around our grill attracted by the bug kill. That last sentence had such a nice meter and rhyme it could be a Robert Service poem about driving a motor home through the Yukon.

Gold Rush Gateway

We made it to Skagway, Alaska the easy way, going downhill in our van from the 3000 foot pass. The “stampeders of 1897” had to climb it 30-40 times to haul their ton of supplies to the top in order to pass the Canadian Mounties who also collected some tariff tax.
There were three huge cruise ships in port and the streets were crawling with overweight tourists. We took the recommendation of the RV park manager and ate at the Skagway Fish Company down on the wharf. It was spendy, but delicious.

It seems weird to be in the United States after traveling north for three days through British Columbia and Yukon Territory. We saw no wildlife today. The scenery today was spectacular with hundreds of lakes, raging icy rivers, and towering glacial covered mountains. The drop down into Skagway was breathtaking. There were numerous rivers flowing almost vertically down the cliffs. The terrain is very rocky, probably from ancient glacial scouring.

We have decided that tourist traps are not our thing. We will go back to the lonely highways with the truckers and bikers. The forests are spruce, lodgepole pine, larch, aspen, and birch. The roadsides have bunches of beautiful purple flowers.Oh yes, gasoline is still $5 Canadian per gallon ($1.24 per liter). Janeil has cooked some great meals on the trip. I’ve dumped the contents of the pantry a couple of times when I pulled off the road at rest stops, but otherwise we’re doing great as elderly road warriors.

Into the Yukon!

Today was "see the wild animals" day. We started out seeing the rear end of a caribou as it ran into the woods. Next we saw this small group of mountain sheep with several kids.
Next we saw a black bear but had no place to stop for a picture. Lastly we saw a small herd of woods bison.

On the way home we plan on dipping in the Liard River hot springs. We met a guy there from Gaston, Oregon who was very friendly. The picture is of me reading the sign at an alluvial rock area. This was the most expensive part of the Alaska Highway construction because the soldiers had to blast through solid rock as they went around the edge of the lake (which is 7 miles long). The two construction groups coming from opposite direction met near here at a place called Contact Point. It was sort of like the golden spike in Utah where the two railroads meet.
There are seemingly endless expanses of forests of stunted evergreens and birch. The mountains are above tree line and show beautiful patterns of bare rock. The overall experience is reminiscent of Yellowstone National Park but without the mob of tourists. We saw several solitary bikers. The insects have not been a big problem yet. There are a lot of huge motorhomes which makes me wonder how much gasoline they must consume. Almost all of the small gasoline stations, camp grounds, and restaurants along the way have gone out of business.

We are camped Monday night, August 3rd at Watson Lake (Yukon Territory). The usual speed limit is 100 kph but with lots of patches of well compacted gravel that keep the driver alert. The two lane highway doesn't have enough shoulder to pull completely over so when we want to stop for pictures we are half way on the road. The gasoline in Fort Nelson was 1.249 per liter or $5 per gallon.

There is a $1 million dollar reward for information leading to the arrest of eco terrorists who have blown up the natural gasoline pipelines running through the area six times in the last few months. If I could enlist Jim Hay and Jonathan Dodge maybe we could become bounty hunters based out of the camper van.

Going to church in another country

2 Aug 2009, Sunday

The meetings in Fort St. John ward were wonderful. There were several investigators for the missionaries to teach. The members were friendly to us. One of the missionaries bore his testimony and said that his one regret was that he hadn’t shared the gospel with his best friend before he left.

We saw our second moose. This one was alive and grazing in the beltway alongside the highway. There is a 40 yard strip of grass on both sides of the highway before the thick woods start. The moose like to eat the lush grass that grows there. There are “don’t feed the bear” signs. The trees up north here are very stunted.

It rained last night and today. Hopefully some moisture fell on the fires in the south also.

We have decided to go to Scagway instead of Fairbanks. We should get there in three more days of hard driving. We then will turn around and head home on some of the same roads but also on some major loops in new territory.

We have been listening to a Stephen King story on tape about a 9 year old lost in the northeastern woods of the USA. It fits the theme of our trip nicely. Janeil says if someone ever wanted to get away from civilization this would be the place to go.

BC is vast

Sunday 2 August 2009

We are staying at the Lakeview Inn in Fort St. John, BC. The suite has a fridge and microwave. It has a couch and is very roomy. We ate at Mama Panda last night and had a wonderful oriental buffet. It must be the local favorite because at 5 pm it was loaded with customers, including some children.

We have not seen any Canadian currency yet because we pay everything with Visa. They hold your card while you are getting gas because your card is “AMERICAN”. The accent is not as pronounced as I thought it would be. Janeil shopped at a Save-On which I think is in the Albertsons chain. I thought the fruit prices were out of sight like bananas $1.79 a kg. until I realized a kg. is 2.2 lb.! Our room was $111 with the AAA discount. The buffet last night was $38 with tip.

The wildfires are still very serious. They evacuated the town of Lillooet less than 12 hours after we went through it. There is also a gasoline shortage in southern Alberta after a severe thunderstorm disrupted services. The temperature has dropped a little. I figured out the conversion with 30 Celcius being 86 F. There is a feeling of vastness. Last night we plugged the van into their winter electrical outlet in the parking lot so that the van fridge would use electricity instead of propane while it was parked. Those outlets are for block heaters in the winter so the oil will not solidify. We had block heaters in Montana while we lived there.

We went for a walk in a beautiful Peace garden last night. I think Peace is a geographic area here. British Columbia joined the Canadian Federation over a 100 years ago.

We have travel through a lot of First Nation Reserves which are the equivalent of Indian Reservations. They are FULL of junked cars just like in the lower 48 states. While we were waiting in the fatal accident line yesterday I talked to a handsome firefighter who was First Nation. Fire fighting was his profession and he had been a logger and miner also. He looked like he was about 30 years old. I really felt sorry for the hay truck driver who was sitting forlornly under his truck in the shade. I imagine the accident investigation will be intense as to which vehicle was at fault when they collided on the curve.

Our van has run great so far. Yesterday we passed another RoadTrek and they flashed their headlights in a sort of brotherhood signal. We have seen several other RoadTreks although the TravelAmerica rental big box RV’s are very popular. There are hundreds of the big bus sized RV’s on the road. Now that we are on the Alaska Highway which started in Dawson Creek mile zero, there are lots of petrol stations and motels. The Super 8 here in Fort St. Johns was $180 a night which shocked me. They must really sock it to the tourist trade.

We are going to the Fort St. John 2nd ward meetings which start at 10 am. It is fast sunday. Then we will try to make it to Fort Nelson by nightfall. It was really nice to stay in a roomy motel for one night instead of the cramped van. I put my back out while dumping the holding tanks Saturday morning. I seem to do that a lot on vacations. It may be psychological or it just could be that I try to lift things in odd positions while camping.

We are getting a couple of short walks in each day. We are trying to make sure Janeil doesn’t gain back any of those hard earned pounds she lost. We also take short breaks every couple of hours while we travel. One stop was at a beautiful little waterfall.

We aren’t making nearly as many miles each day as we do on trips in the states. The top speed is 100 kph which is about 62 mph. There are construction zones every 100 miles which slows you to 70 kph (about 45 mph). Apparently they must build like crazy during the summer because they can not lay asphalt during their cold winters.

Start of trip

Thurs., July 29th:

We are at Marble Lake Provincial Recreation Site costing $15 Canadian. There are two lakes with geese and ducks. We haven’t seen the sun all afternoon because of wildfire smoke.

Driving through downtown Vancouver B.C. was no fun. Narrow lanes, switching streets, and stop and go traffic. Janeil successful navigated us with the help of AAA instructions.

Driving over the mountains on Canadian Highway 99 was enjoyable. About two-thirds of it was newly paved. They are having the winter olympics in Whistler so the road to it was superb. We have only made about 800 miles so it is unlikely we will make it to Fairbanks (2800 miles) in less than 7 days. We have been driving for about 8-9 hours each day. Gasoline was $1.07 Canadian a liter which is about $4 US a gallon. The border guard asked me what guns I had at home and when was the last time I had it in the van. Tricky question.

Last night we found a hippie haven called Camp Ki in Arlington, Washington after dark. The manager talked to Janeil through a crack in his door. It ended up being a nice spot and we paid $19.80. It was on a lake. Most of the people looked like permanent refugees.

Yesterday we took Highway 26 in Oregon to the Tillamook Forestry Center. It was great. I climbed the fire lookout tower. There was a movie on the fires which started in 1933 and reoccurred every 6 years until 1957. What an incredible jinx. They even had the smell of smoke in the theatre for ambiance. The museum is well worth visiting with kids and there is a campground there.

The temperature got up to 108 degrees so we kept driving until dark.

Friday 31 July 2009:

We are waiting in a long line (hundreds of vehicles) on the Al/Can highway just to the north of Clinton. We gassed up at Canadian $1.08 per liter. There is a terrible mountain pine beetle infestation in British Columbia. We just got news that a fatal accident has occurred and there is at least a 3 hour wait before we can get by it. The local cars are turning around but the RV and trucks are just going to wait it out.

Last night there was a plaintive Loon wail echoing over the lake. This morning I saw a large crane-like bird flying east. It is 9 am and the temperature is 78 degrees F. The news gives the temperature in centigrade which we don’t know how to convert. We are listening to one conference tape each morning. We also have some books on tape.