Quick trip to the coast

To escape the predicted 101 degree record weather in Corvallis we decided to drive to the Oregon Coast and enjoy a high of 64 degrees in Lincoln City. So did a lot of other people. Most of the license plates were from Oregon.

The Devils Lake State Park Campground was FULL. So was the D river parking lot. We decided to park across the street and walk under the Highway 101 bridge running along the D river (the world’s shortest river by the way) to the Ocean. A policeman was at the entrance to the tunnel going under the bridge. Janeil asked if we could get to the beach by going through the tunnel behind him. He said “You can, but it would be better if you went around.” After a pause he said, “There is a dead homeless person under the bridge.” Gulp.

We took his advice and climbed the embankment and went across Highway 101 at a crosswalk. We took a long walk in the fog along the beach. There were quite a few people in wheelchairs or on crutches on the sea shore. When we got back to the car there were three police cars at the scene.

We had a contest at the Tanger Outlet Mall seeing who could spend the most money. Janeil won but I bought two pairs of Rockport waterproof shoes and a colorful Old Navy swimming suit. Everything we bought was on sale.....of course. Janeil even bought me a birthday present for my 69th birthday which is 40 days away! We'll be at Carl's for it.

Last entry for our vacation

We went to church in the Fraser Ward in Prince George, BC. Over half of the people attending were visitors. The meetings were all very good and the people friendly.

We camped at the Sunset Campground on Green Lake near 70-Mile, BC. There was a glorious sunset. We saw buffaloe, deer, and goats.
Coming down the Fraser River gorge was beautiful. Hells Gate was an important trade route. We stopped and walked down to the Alexandra Bridge which is now abandoned.
On the last day of our vacation we started early (5:30) in order to get around the Tacoma/Olympia early morning traffic. We stopped at Mt. Saint Helens and drove up to the Johnston Ridge visitor center. We went on a hike first and saw lots of wild flowers and the valley far below with clouds below us.

The video at the visitor center had surround sound and was most impressive. On the wall they had stories told by survivors that were touching, especially Ronald and Venus who floated down the mud flow. She went under the mud five times but was finally rescued by Ronald who pulled her up on a log and they leaped on logs to safety.

We saw a small herd of elk on the road. I ran up the hill chasing them but they were long gone.

After the 1980 eruption Weyerhauser planted millions of doug fir and noble fir in the higher elevations, which will be harvested at age 45 in 15 more years. The unplanted blast zone is mostly barren thanks to environmentalists.

Our last stop is at Costco in Albany to get get an appointment to get our hearing checked. After two weeks of saying politely, “What did you say, dear?”

Coins, signs, and license plates

Sunday August 8th we are in Prince George to go to church services. It is obvious that this was a crown colony and still is. The dollar coins are called loonies because they have a loon on them. The coins and colorful bills have images of leaders on them, sometimes British monarchs.

Along the roads there are often avalanche warnings that say do not stop. Of course there are road signs with moose almost everywhere. There are also bison, caribou, mountain sheep, and deer signs. Then there are the don’t feed the bear signs that say “a fed bear is a dead bear” because they have to kill the bears that lose their fear of humans. Many signs are also in French and the Indian language.

In the backcountry the road signs show which services are available when we pass populated spots (sometimes just two buildings); for us the gas symbol is always welcome. Sometimes there is no gas for 100 kilometers. There is diesel available at every station. Most of the rest stops have no restrooms, only bear proof garbage bins. There are often nice information signs. One that occurs over and over is the mountain pine beetle kill explanation.
Yesterday we traveled through dozens of First Nation villages. We stopped at one where there was a fortified hill fort that a local chief used in the late 1700’s. It made you think of Book of Mormon time. Nekt, the chief, was invincible in battle with a double thick grizzly bear vest with slate panels. His club was called “strike only once” because he knocked his opponents down with the first strike. The battles often consisted of just the champion from each village fighting.

The villages often had full sized bill boards on the highway telling the Indian girls not to hitchhike. They were pretty graphic showing photos of girls who had been killed.


The most common vehicle plates other than British Columbia are Alberta and Yukon Territory, which are the neighbors. We didn’t see a Northwest Territory one however. Common US tags are Alaska, California and Washington State. Some rare ones we have seen are Maryland, Colorado, Oregon, New York, Idaho, and Minnesota. Nobody from Montana.

We are now back in radio country. There are highway signs giving the frequencies and call letters of the local stations. Mainly talk shows and of course, good old country western music. There is more international news than in the States. There was one radio announcer, sounded like an old guy, who announced in an Indian dialect. There is wifi at the motels so Janeil downloads indexing to do as we travel. She has done over 56,000 names since she started back in Baltimore.

Right now the the government is really strict about open campfires. The fine is $343 for every person at the site. Most of the hundreds of fires going right now are lightning caused and the firefighters just let them burn unless homes are endangered. They predict that the wilderness fires will burn on for several months. The skies are often haze overcast even in the farthest backcountry.

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.