Posts for May, 2009

What with more phone calls, emails, packing the Tiger, shopping, and just enjoying the warm weather we had a late start from Fairbanks.

Nina had read that during the off season it was possible to drive the first 30 miles of the 90 mile long Denali Park road. We thought that this would be a nice treat if possible as during the summer the only access to that road, and its views of Mt McKinley, is by bus. The previous time we were here the bus ride was 2.5 hours, each way, of sweaty people and a nice view of rain and cloud.

I know it's getting boring, starting another entry with a weather report; but - it's another beautiful day with blue sky and bright sunshine.

We only had about 100 miles to drive to Anchorage today so it was a short driving day. Again we were granted a clear day with bright sun and wonderful views of mountains on either side of the road.

We spent the day talking to the family, updating websites, and catching up on emails.

Before leaving Anchorage this morning we were to have the Tiger serviced, an oil change and new fuel filter. The replacement of the fuel filter was something I was a little nervous about. It is a task I will probably have to do myself while we are in South America and I had read that it is difficult. It's hard to get access to it - and also that once replaced it can be difficult to get the fuel lines and pump primed with fuel. This is a well known problem with diesel vehicles.

This morning in Seward the sun was out, and the broken clouds had lifted above the tops of the surrounding mountains. A beautiful setting.

The campground that was closed last night was obviously going to open soon. As we went for a morning walk we found the campground gate open and a workman blowing the leaves from last fall off the camping spots.

We woke early to a sunny but crisp day. After the usual breakfast routine of coffee and muesli we walked to the end of the spit. A vehicular ferry was unloading and we stayed to watch. Unlike most of the ferries in the Seattle area this one was not strictly a drive on drive off type. The ferry had a large lift or elevator structure that carried vehicles from the hold up to the level of the dock, where they drove off the lift onto the dock. It was interesting but a very slow way to load and unload. It was a beautiful morning, no wind, bald eagles all over the place and sports fishermen getting ready for the days adventure.

To day we spent much of the day driving, what appears to me to be, one of the iconic sections of the Alaskan Highway; namely the Glenn Highway through the valley of Matanuska River and past the Matanuska glacier to the junction with the Richardson Highway. We also passed the Musk Ox farm - which we did not visit this time.

Today we racked up the 10,000th mile of our journey.

From our camp in the bed of the Copper River the McCarthy road climbed along the face of the valley wall over recent small rock falls to a ridge between the Copper River and the Chitina River. From this vantage point we could see east and south into the Chitina where the river meandered through a very wide valley. In the distance the valley was full of dust haze whipped up by the wind.

People are funny. This morning at 1:40 AM I was awakened when a pickup truck passed by our camping spot in the bed of the Copper River. The truck was towing a trailer which was loaded with a fish wheel. After passing us the truck continued upstream until it was out of sight. Now I ask you; who launches a fish wheel at 1:40 AM.

After I wrote the journal yesterday Nina had a special wildlife experience when she spotted a beaver swimming up and down the lake, it was visible for a long time.

Nina woke this morning with sore eyes so we spent a good amount of time today getting her to see the medical clinic.

I was restless during the night and by 5:30 am I was awake, hence by 6:00 am we were parked at the small boat harbor where we would meet the catamaran that would take us to Juneau and back. The boat turned out to be a 65' cat with a large single enclosed cabin and a small open after deck.

Last night after the trip to Juneau we went to one of the local RV parks for the night. When we got there we could not find the manager so picked a site for ourselves and settled in for the night. This morning when we went to pay for our night, again we could not find the manager, indeed what we thought last night was the office, was actually the laundry. We only found the office by asking some of the other residents. Turned out to be a plywood door with a 4 inch nail as a handle - tells you something about the standard of this RV park. But still no manager, so we got a free night.

In 1999 when we drove through this area we visited an exhibit of first nation lifestyle and Nina wanted to visit it again, but we could not remember where it was exactly or what it was called. When we drove through Whitehorse in April on our way north we saw a sign that looked promising but still could not find the place. On the Juneau trip two days ago we got lucky as one of the other guests knew of the place and gave us the name Long ago ... peoples place or Kwaday Dan Kenjii. So finding this place was on our agenda for today.

I decided to buy two new rear tires for the Tiger this morning. So I was up early and phoned a couple of the local tire shops, and as luck would have it one of them (KAL-TIRE) had in stock some Bridgestones compatible with the existing tires. So off we went to get them fitted. To cut a long story short we waited from 10:00 am until 4:00 pm, but eventually got our tires.

Earlier in our trip we had bypassed Atlin with the thought that we should make that side trip later in the season when, we hoped, more things would be open and the lake might be blue rather than white. So at Jakes Corner, we made the turn and started the 98 km journey to Atlin. The day was clear, blue sky, and bright sun; a perfect day for this scenic road. Interestingly the lake was still partly frozen, with slushy ice covering a good proportion of the lake area.

Today was a long drive from the Atlin Road to Watson Lake. In truth the scenery was splendid, as we passed numerous lakes and had views of mountains all day. But it is unfortunately true that after a while one gets accustomed to the scenery and its impact is lessened.

Our journey today followed the Liard River for much of the day from just outside Watson Lake to Liard River Hot Spring. We were surprised by the size of the river, it is wide and fast flowing.

The character of the road and terrain changed today. There were more mountains and they were closer. We were beginning to enter the northern Rocky Mountains. The road is more twisting and there are more rough spots.

We were quick to depart the clouds of mosquitos at Beaver Lake, but pulled into a clearing not far up the Liard Hwy to spend a couple of hours sorting through photos and composing some web entries.

The Liard Highway finishes at Checkpoint, a now closed gas station and convenience store at the junction with the Mackenzie Highway. We turned west at this junction for a short side trip to the settlement of Fort Simpson, 60 km away and across the Liard River ferry - it's an ice bridge in the winter.

We pushed hard today to get to Yellowknife.

We spent a considerable time this morning trying to get water to top up the Tigers water tank. At the campground we tried a number of options to fill from their water tank but there was not enough pressure to do the job. After further investigation we were directed to the town water plant that fills tankers for household water delivery, again no luck - this time they did not have a hose small enough for us. Only 2 inch diameter hoses for filling the trucks. So we eventually gave up on the water.

It was cold over night as this morning there was fresh ice at 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick on the lake. And I thought that we had escaped the cold weather. However the day is clear and bright, but chilly.

During the morning we took a side trip to the town of Hay River, a prosperous little town near the southern end of great slave lake and on the Hay River. It is a transportation and service center particularly for the summer water traffic on Slave Lake. The town boasts the Purple High School. The town was moved to its current location when the original town located on the river flats was flooded in 1963.

We stopped in the town of High Level this morning to get fuel, groceries and to see what the local visitor information center could tell us. The visitors center contained a small but interesting museum displaying relics of the past. As with a lot of these types of displays we both learned things - for example that washing day was the same day as pasta making day so that the starch from the pasta could be used to starch shirt collars - and saw things that we recognized from our own childhood - another hand operated cream separator.

Our route today followed a series of increasingly busy secondary rural roads through farm country. The wind of the past few days was still blowing strongly and occasionally small dust storms assaulted us.