|
September 30, 2007 - location: Fairchild AFB, near Spokane WA (N 47°,37.649'; W 117°,39.244')
The soup last night was awesome. It was especially good since it got quite cool in the evening. The dogs didn't even want to be outside. Today we are heading off to go rockhounding. Gerry made delicious pancakes and bacon to get us going. It's raining a bit and I hope the weather doesn't get worse as we head east.
|
|
September 29, 2007 - location: Fairchild AFB, near Spokane WA (N 47°,37.649'; W 117°,39.244')
Last night Gerry and I had a great date. We went to the club on base for an all-u-can-eat crab and seafood buffet. It was excellent and we ate so much that we didn't have room for dessert. Then we went to see the movie War, which was mildly entertaining because of the fighting and action and slight twist of the otherwise boring plot. Today we hung around camp for the morning. I did some training with the dogs, rockhound research, and chatted with my mom while Gerry worked on the jeep and checked the compression in the cylinders. They were all about 125, so he's satisfied that the metal from the carburetor didn't cause any serious damage to the engine. He's all ready now for the carburetor to arrive so he can bolt it on and fire it up. I'll be keeping my fingers and toes crossed for him that all goes well and runs great. Tonight it's yummy chicken soup for dinner. I had boiled the bones from a chicken a few days ago and saved some of the white meat with the broth. I am going to add onions, celery, and mushrooms - let that cook down for a while, then add blended cooked acorn squash for a thickener, with carrots and potatoes near the end so they stay firm.
|
|
September 28, 2007 - location: Fairchild AFB, near Spokane WA (N 47°,37.649'; W 117°,39.244')
Spinning was great this morning and we really worked hard. The sky is cloudy this morning and it is supposed to be cooler today with rain on the way for tomorrow. We washed and waxed the camper lastnight and it looks great. Gerry heard from Holley late yesterday and they are replacing the core on the carburetor, sending it back to us today to arrive Tuesday. So, it looks like we'll be here another week or so. I am glad to be getting use of the gym while we are here. We dropped the soft-top for the jeep at an upholstry shop yesterday to be sewn where it ripped. He's going to replace a couple snaps and reinforce some of the stiching, too. We decided to get new phones yesterday. Gerry and I have been sharing a phone and it gets difficult sometimes. We switched from verizon to t-mobile because t-mobile is cheaper for 2 phones and has international coverage, since they operate on the GSM network. The negative is a little worse reception in remote areas of the US. Hopefully we made the right decision and only time will tell. We still have our old phone number, which will be ported over to my new phone when the verizon contract expires in a few days.
I posted a bunch of images of wildlife that we saw in Alaska.
Enjoy!
|
|
September 27, 2007 - location: Fairchild AFB, near Spokane WA (N 47°,37.649'; W 117°,39.244')
Yesterday went well. I got the truck washed and polished while Gerry got a lot done on the jeep. He welded up some spots, checked out the rear axle, and fixed an issue in the front differential. The rear axle turned out to be okay, it was the hubs that were battered and not working properly. He fixed those last night and now we are hoping it's just the carburetor. Today we should find out what Holley says. Gerry is calling them now. Today is supposed to warm up to 75 degrees, which will be our warmest day in quite a while. We'll take advantage of the nice weather by washing the camper and having BBQ steaks for dinner.
|
|
September 26, 2007 - location: Fairchild AFB, near Spokane WA (N 47°,37.649'; W 117°,39.244')
We have been at the air force base for three nights now and I'm beginning to get used to the train going by and blowing the whistle during the night. Last night I only woke up once and managed to go right back to sleep. We went to a spinning class at 6am this morning at the gym on base and it was great. Gerry and I both woke up sore from working out yesterday and found the spinning to be good for loosening our muscles. We did some extra stretching in the aerobics room afterward to further loosen our legs. Now Gerry is at the auto hobby shop with the jeep up on a lift to work on the rear end. He sent the carburetor back to Holley yesterday after speaking with them on the phone about the cracked venturi. We hope they will send a new one under warranty by the end of the week. Then Gerry will find out if there is any damage to the engine from the pieces that cracked off the carburetor. Today he is working on the rear end to fix what he thinks is a broken rear axle from our stint up Haskins mountain in British Columbia. I hope all goes well for him.
I have the dogs with me and am using the internet at the base library this morning. Then I plan to clean the truck before heading back to camp. I got a lot of cleaning done in the camper yesterday. I scrubbed the tent and walls of the camper, cleaned out the refrigerator, cleaned the bathroom, and did laundry. I figure I'll wash the blankets on the bed before we leave, too. I checked out some books on rockhounding from the library yesterday and I have picked out a couple of places on our way out. There are some fossils near Spokane, too, that I may try to locate.
We are getting anxious to sell our house in VT and fear that we will be selling it for far less than expected. We already have the listing down to 20% below appraisal and the only offer we have received is a verbal one for 35% below appraisal. Gerry and I have talked about keeping the house as a rental, but if we do, then we will be going back to work for at least the next three years. We have already given up the equity we hoped to buy retirement property with by lowering the asking price. Now we are faced with accepting even less, which will be painful for us. The house is showing more the last few weeks than it did last year so maybe we'll get an interested buyer closer to our price. If not, I guess we cut our losses and move on.
|
|
September 25, 2007 - location: Fairchild AFB, near Spokane WA (N 47°,37.649'; W 117°,39.244')
This morning we went to the base gym and worked out. I used the rowing machine to warm up while Gerry used a treadmill. Then we ran through a circuit of some of the machines and then free-weights before hitting the mats in the aerobics room. It felt good to work out and I expect to be sore in the morning. We noticed there is a spinning class at 6am tomorrow that we might try to make it to. Today Gerry is out running errands for jeep parts and I'm working on cleaning our camper. There were no leaks in the intake manifold, so Gerry put it back on. He also sent the carburetor back to Holley for inspection, so we can't run the jeep until he gets a replacement.
|
|
September 24, 2007 - location: Fairchild AFB, near Spokane WA (N 47°,37.649'; W 117°,39.244')
It feels good to be at a place that we will stay for a full week. This will give us time to get caught up on maintenance and cleaning. Gerry and I went to Spokane this morning and dropped the intake manifold at a shop to be checked for leaks. We also talked to a couple shops about the Holley carburetor and we were advised to call Holley directly about a warranty issue. The good news is there is a shop who will dyno-tune the jeep for $200-250 if we want to really tweak it in. There's a lot of work to get there, though.
|
|
September 23, 2007 - location: Haag Cove CG, WA (N 48°,33.595'; W 118°,09.131')
The border crossing was easy and uneventful. We never know what they are going to be looking for. Once we had all our beef taken because there was a ban on importing beef into the US. I had been warned there was a ban on importing dog food, but I guess that was lifted because we were only asked about ATF (alcohol, tobacco, and firearms). That was good because we sweated the beef thing and ate up all our precious pepperoni from Canada lastnight to be sure we wouldn't lose it.
After crossing the border, we headed down into Washington and took some back roads up into the mountains. We eventually settled for a spot along Roosevelt Lake northwest of Spokane. We had looked for other primitive sites and took a nice hike along one of the back dirt roads we explored, but since there was a burning ban we headed to a real campground so we could have a fire. The campsite was awesome, right on the shore of the lake and I we enjoyed a great sunset, which I'll post later. Right now we need to head back to our campsite at Fairchild AFB to get the coals going for our BBQ steaks. It feels good to be back in the US after our adventures in Canada.
|
|
September 22, 2007 - location: Kenneth Lake, B.C. (N 49°,54.384'; W 120°,34.004')
We got out of town around noon and headed on down the road. Our drive was beautiful through rivers and ranchlands. We eventually camped off route 5A as we had decided to make a push for the border crossing today. We'll have to save rockhounding at the places my new friend, Garry, told us about. Guess we'll just have to come back to British Columbia.
|
|
September 20, 2007 - location: Dodge Dealership, 100 Mile House (N 51°,38.576'; W 121°,17.812')
The correct part for the truck came in this morning and there were no apparent leaks after installation! Yeah! We took the camper off the truck so the guys can do the 50,000 mile maintnance and differential fluid change, all normal maintenance. They expect to be done just after lunch, so Gerry and I went into town with the jeep for a cup of coffee at a cafe with internet. It's cold and rainy, so we left the dogs in the camper.
Since we had the day to spend in 100 Mile House yesterday, we decided to make the most of it and stopped by the visitor's center to see what our options were on the rainy day. There was a rock display in the visitor's center and when we asked the woman working there about rockhounding, she said the gentleman who put the display together might be willing to talk with us. We went over to his house in the afternoon and had a great time hearing stories and talking about rocks. He had a great set-up for cutting and polishing in his finished basement, along with several displays of rocks from around BC and other places in Canada, the US, and Australia. We spent quite a while and eventually had to leave to go check on the dogs.
We had also gone to a log home manufacturer and one of the owners took us to the building site and showed us some homes they are working on. They hand-peel the logs and it takes about 1 hour each. Their work was impressive and they use primarily interior spruce or douglas fir. The interior wood has only about 30% water content as the coastal wood has over 60%, so the interior wood doesn't shrink as much and has finer growth rings for added strength.
Yesterday evening we saw a break in the clouds and grabbed the grill and some smoked ribs before we headed over to the park with the dogs. Fortunately, there were picnic tables with shelters so we were okay when a brief rain storm passed by. The ribs were great and so was the corn on the cob, but it got chilly and we were bundled up as we ate. We spent the rest of the evening with the dogs and our books nestled in our warm camper.
|
|
September 19, 2007 - location: Dodge Dealership, 100 Mile House (N 51°,38.576'; W 121°,17.812')
Well, yesterday turned out to be quite the truck adventure. The braised fuel line didn't hold, but we kept driving down the road to the town 30 miles away that had a Dodge dealership. Gerry watched the gas tank go from 1/4 tank to empty in just a few miles and we rolled down the hill into town with no power. Unfortunately, the dodge dealership was on top of the next hill, so we had to park the truck and trailer on the side of the road and hike up to see if they had the part. They didn't, so we called AAA and had the rig towed up to the dealership. The tow truck was already by the vehicle, as the police had requested a tow. The dealership told them we were already AAA authorized for a tow, so he waited the few minutes for us to get a ride down to the truck. AAA paid for the truck/camper to be towed and we paid $42.40 for the trailer to get towed up the hill. With no way to move the camper, we decided to camp in the the dodge parking lot while we waited for the part we ordered to arrive.
Unfortunately, the hose we originally ordered was not the right one and our replacement order didn't get in on time to make the shipment for this morning. That means we get to spend the day around town. With the rain, we hope to find things indoors to do. Good thing we have the jeep so we don't have to walk everywhere in the rain.
|
|
September 18, 2007 - location: Roberts Roost CG, Dragon Lake (N 52°,57.481'; W 122°,25.433')
We stayed at a private campground last night and took the only spot with a campfire ring so we could cook our fresh buffalo steaks that we bought in Smithers. They were absolutely delicious and Gerry cooked them just right. The dogs loved the T-bones and Bernie even brought his to bed with him.
We just had our first truck breakdown. We were driving down the road and the check-engine light came on. All the gages read normal, so we kept driving. I noticed what appeared to be smoke coming from the back of the truck, near the exhaust. Still the gages looked normal, yet we pulled over when we saw an internet cafe. The truck was leaking awful and there was lots of smoke. It turned out to be deisel fuel. Gerry figured out that the leak was coming from one of the high pressure metal hoses attached to the engine block, feeding the injectors. He took it off and brazed
it with his torches. There is a Dodge dealership just "26 clicks" down the road, so we are going to stop there and get the part replaced and the truck checked out.
|
|
September 18, 2007 - location: Smithers Municipal Campground (N 54°,46.929'; W 127°,09.130')
The drive to Smithers was beautiful and we arrived just before the rain hit. We elected to stay at the municipal campground in town at $21 for a full hook-up site. That included firewood, too, so we had to have a fire after dinner and a hike. It poured during the night and we woke to partially clear skies with views of the ski resort in town. The downtown area is a Swiss mountain style and I can imagine swarms of tourists garbed in the latest ski apparrel milling around in winter months. We stopped at the meat shop and got some homemade sausage along with buffalo steaks and some soup bones. Then it was on to Prince George for a lunch at Costco and a quick trip inside to pick up some more crab meat for lunches. Now we are headed south and will find a campground within the hour.
|
|
September 17, 2007 - location: Dragon Lake, of the Nisga'a Nation (N 55°,19.643'; W 128°,56.977')
We drove out of Hyder with limited views of mountains and glaciers on our way back up to the Cassiar Highway. We decided to take the Nash Forest Service Road, which is a dirt/gravel road that is an alternate path to Terrace, B.C., and found a great free campground courtesy of the Nisga'a Nation on the shores of Dragon Lake. The dogs loved it there and Honey dug a few holes while Bernie chewed on sticks. Bernie went over to help Honey dig a couple of times and she looked rather perplexed while watching him. We drove through the lava park and were surprised by the moss and lichens covering the basalt lava flows. This eruption occurred in the 1700's and devastated a couple of villages and 2,000 natives. One of their signs asked not to remove any of the lava rock, as they are "the headstones of our ancestors". I thought that was a neat way to put it.
Terrace was the largest city we've been in since Palmer, Alaska. We managed to gas up at the Safeway and do a bit of shopping at Walmart. Today was a real epiphany if life for me as I searched for Walmart. I remember when I first heard of Walmart stores and their unethical labor practices and bullying of suppliers. Back then I refused to shop there and preferred the smaller, local stores that are mostly out of business today. Now I welcome the grey building with blue stripe as a haven for the supplies I need. Their prices may or may not be less than elsewhere, I didn't even bother to shop around because I wanted a one-stop-shop, conveniently located on the main road. Now I question whether this is the pattern I want to establish in my life and think that I should seek out the smaller stores with local flair. The last few small towns we've been in had incredibly high prices for basic goods, so perhaps going to Walmart when in civilization and small shops when in the boondocks is okay. I'll have to noodle on this one more.
We visited Hazleton and the replicated 'KSAN village. I wasn't very impressed with this tourist stop and would not recommend it. We paid $5 to see a very small museum with 5 or 6 displays and to walk around the grounds of some buildings and totem poles. To see the inside of the buildings, one must pay for a guided excort, which we elected not to do. Perhaps it would have been better if we had. The most memorable thing I saw in the museum was the old weavings. The fiber was mountain goat hair wrapped around thin pieces of inner cedar bark. Some were garnished with puffin beaks to make a rattling noise during ceremonies. I suppose they traded to the coast for the puffin bills. It makes me wonder how many puffins were killed by coastal people for trading. The mountains are beautiful here and I'm tempted to take more time to explore the back roads. We have agreed to be back in the lower-48 by September 25th, which is when the health certificates for the dogs expire. We have heard mixed reports of whether we will need the health certificates and all the stories we have heard about problems are from people entering Washington State, where we are likely to cross. So, we only have a week and feel the need to push on. British Columbia is an incredibly gorgeous mountainous province and I'm sure we'll be back someday.
|
|
September 16, 2007 - location: Hyder, Alaska (N 55°,57.837'; W 130°,03.702')
Hyder turned out to be a great place to come visit. There is a spectacular glacier 20 miles outside of town and a bear viewing area just 3 miles from our campground. We stayed at Camp-run-a-muck, which was quiet and has hook-ups and internet. It's also convenient to drive to the bear area. We saw a young female grizzly named Leilenae
by one of the forest service women. She caught two salmon while we were watching and she ate one right in front of us. It was really neat! She moves real fast. I'll have to make a page with pictures of her.
Today we are going to drive back up to the Cassiar Highway, as the clouds are not as solid as yesterday and we are hoping for some good views. The sun just poked out of the clouds. I hope it stays out. We couldn't see much on the way down, but imagine majestic mountains, endless waterfalls, and glaciers. We had a great lunch at "the bus" yesterday and plan to buy some Halibut from their seafood store before we head out today.
|
|
September 15, 2007 - location: Kinaskan Provincial Park (N 59°,31.783'; W 130°,11.354')
After driving out of Telegraph Creek and getting the trailer, we continued down the Cassiar Highway and stopped at a campground on a good sized lake. The campground was very clean and had back-in sites capable of taking large RVs. We found one with a little more privacy and set up the hammock in some trees by the water. It was quite relaxing and Gerry made a delicious stew with the leftover rib meat. He added potatoes, corn, sundried tomatoes, jalepenos, and spices. The sky clouded over and it rained pretty hard during the night. We slept soundly and woke to a good breakfast of hasbrowns and eggs, with canadian bacon. Now we're on the road heading down to Bell II where we'll gas up and use the internet. We saw a rainbow this morning along the road. Must be a sign of good things ahead. Then it's less than 60 miles to the turnoff to Hyder. Hyder will be our final town in Alaska. From Hyder, one can reach other Alaskan towns by boat as a canal connects the town to the inland waterway. We ran into some folks who said they saw black bears and grizzlies in Hyder, so I'm hoping I'll get another chance for bear photos. We'll probably get there today and stay a day or two.
|
|
September 14, 2007 - location: Dodjatin Creek, Near Telegraph Creek (N 57°,51.793'; W 131°,17.219')
Last night was beautiful and peaceful on the banks of the Tahltan River west of Telegraph Creek. Gerry cooked delicious short ribs with mashed potatoes for dinner. There were some annoying gnats that sent us inside early. We read until past dark and woke to another beautiful, clear day with crisp, clean air. Telegraph Creek wasn't much to speak of with a few cabins and dilapidated buildings. We didn't see a soul as we cruised into town. The only business was closed, so we headed back to Dease Lake and picked up our trailer. We are glad we took the Telegraph Creek road, but wouldn't recommend it to everyone. First, the road is twisty, steep, and gravel, so only short wheelbase vehicles would be good. Second, there wasn't much to see at the end of the road, so it was a bit anti-climatic. The road does take you through some canyons, but they are not as impressive as the many canyons in Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado. The most noteworthy part of the trip was the eagle image in the canyon wall at the Tahltan settlement near the beginning of the reservation. We wouldn't have even known it existed if the gentleman running the RV park in Dease Lake hadn't showed us a picture. We didn't know where to find it, so just kept our eyes out on the cliffs.
|
|
September 13, 2007 - location: Dease Lake (N 58°,25.753'; W 129°,58.909')
I feel great after a good night's sleep, a hot shower, and a relaxing morning. Three loads of laundry are done, the dogs are cleaned up, and the sheets are changed on the bed. We are leaving the trailer at the campground and heading to Telegraph Creek. We'll be gone a couple of days and it's real remote so I won't have internet access until we come back here. Hopefully I'll get some pictures together to post by then.
|
|
September 12, 2007 - location: Jade City (N 59°,16.008'; W 129°,34.449')
We're on the road again after spending five days in the region between Good Hope Lake and Jade City along the Cassiar Highway. We spent the first day jeeping and then hiking the 12+ miles back to the truck when we broke down and used up the battery winching out. Then three days of winching the jeep and hiking the batteries to charge at night. Fortunately we were able to get the truck to the top of Haskins Mt so we only had a mile hike up the other side of the mountain. The fifth day was spent touring the region and a mining exploration site. We had no access to groceries, gas, or RV services, but we managed well with what we had and enjoyed the adventure. We met great people, especially at Jade City and the Cassiar Mine. I just saw a black fox with a white tip on his tail, a silver fox. Neat!
We got the jeep out yesterday morning. We had been only 250 feet from the top of the mountain the night before but had drained the two batteries winching. So, we each hauled out a battery and brought them down to the jade store for Robin to charge up. He did this for us for three nights and Gerry picked up the batteries each morning. Getting the jeep out was hard work and it took pure determination and teamwork to accomplish the task in four days. On the 2nd day we ran out of winch points, so we got some 1/2" diameter cable from Larry's yard to reach rocks further up the slope. Most of the rocks were loose, but there were a few imbedded deeper in the scree slope. It was a good workout on the steep rocky slope and we plugged away until we ran out of batteries. The final day was easy and we were victorious.
Today we had a great tour given by Gary, the project geologist for Columbia Yukon Exploration, of the molybdenum exploration workings near the old
Cassiar chrysotile asbestos mine site. We saw the drills in operation and watched core unload from the rig. The host rock looks a bit like granite and is a quartz monzonite deposit with molybdenum dispersed in the monzonite and concentrated in quartz veins. I have a couple samples for my collection and really enjoyed the tour, discussions, and rock hounding with Gary. Gerry enjoyed it also and had lots to add on the physical properties and uses of molybdenum.
Now we are heading to Dease Lake for gas, groceries, showers, and a campground. Tomorrow we head down Telegraph Creek Road.
|
|
September 8, 2007 - location: Middle of Nowhere, Somewhere around Good Hope Lake (N 59°,17.458'; W 129°,30.049')
Today was disappointing. There is still a long way to go with the jeep. We did make progress, though, and brought the battery out for charging. Gerry and I feel the urge to go to town, which is 1.5 hours away, but are going to wait for a rainy day. Tomorrow we'll be back at trying to get the jeep out.
|
|
September 7, 2007 - location: Boya Lake Park (N 59°,22.353'; W 129°,06.347')
We had thought of staying at one of the RV parks on the Alaska Highway to get showers and internet, but nothing was appealing and we drove onto the Cassiar Highway and camped at Boya Lake, a developed Provinical campground about 50 miles down the Cassiar. It was a popular spot, but pretty quiet. Gerry cooked soup on the fire with shrimp, sausage, zucchini, rice, pepperoni, tomatoes, and spices. It was great, especially sprinkled with cheese and sopped up with garlic bread. The rain started and we went inside early to read. The dogs had a hard time getting to sleep so we vowed to take them for a hike in the morning.
After a breakfast of cereals, we did a one-mile walk along the lake. The beautiful green water and mountain views were quite invigorating to look at. The dogs had time and were happy to get in the truck and head down the road. Now we are stopped at a pull-out and Gerry is getting the jeep out to go exploring.
Today was a big jeeping adventure. We parked the truck and trailer along the highay (which is really an unpainted 2-lane road), and headed up the road in the jeep to find the road William had told us about past Good Hope Lake on the Cassiar Highway. We found the road, as his directions were great, and headed up the steeper of the roads at the Y. The scenery was absolutely gorgeous and we headed up and up until we were deep inside the cloud at the top of the mountain. We got a few glimpses of the land beyond the summit and decided to jeep over the edge. The jeep got us down to where we could see the valley and I took some shots of the breath-taking scenery. Well, the scenery was more than breath-taking, and I'm blaming it's beauty for the lapse of judgement Gerry and I both had. We elected to continue further down the mountain - "off-road" - and got to where we could no longer climb back up to the road. We then thought we saw a road down yonder, so yeaded towards it. As we got closer, we realized it was not a road and we were stuck in a horse-shoe valley with a small lake lots of steep mountains. We started winching up and did so until the battery died. Unfortunately, we had to leave the jeep winched to a tree while we hiked up the mountain and down the 10-mile road back to pavement and then down a mile to where we had parked the truck. What an exhausting day! And the jeep is a long way from being out. This could take a couple of weeks to remedy. If all goes well, maybe only a day or two.
|
|
September 6, 2007 - location: SNAFU Lake (N 60°,07.966'; W 133°,48.547')
We ended up camping at SNAFU Lake again because we liked it so much the first time. We drove down to MacDonald Lake first, but didn't see a good spot to camp and decided not to waste gas by exploring further. We got enough jeeping in around noon when we headed up Spruce Mountain. First we followed Otter Creek and then Snake Creek until we got above treeline. Then we followed a road until it petered out as faint tracks. Gerry bushwacked with the jeep to get us to within 100' of the summit, but we decided not to hike it because it was snowing by then and we were quite cold. The views were awesome, despite the clouds. Well, the clouds came lower and lower while we worked out way off-road towards the summit and blocked our view with the blowing snow. We got down without a hitch. Thank you William for the tip!
|
|
September 5, 2007 - location: Surprise Lake, near Atlin (N 59°,37.918'; W 133°,25.225')
ENTRY
|
|
September 4, 2007 - location: Warm Bay, Atlin Lake (N 59°,24.656'; W 133°,34.676')
We broke camp after a delicious egg, sausage, and potato breakfast. It's cool (40° F) and cloudy this morning and we hope the sun comes out later. We are headed back into the small town of Atlin (population 350) to use the internet at the local college, which is a small trailer in town. Then we are headed out to Surprise Lake to camp and jeep. There are lots of old mining roads out that way and we are excited about exploring them. We also have a few places that William gave us yesterday. He grew up along the Cassiar Hwy, which is the route we are taking when we head south toward the US. Right now we're just on a spur road off the Alaska Highway and we have to head back north before we head home. It's not too far, though, only 60 miles back to the highway.
|
|
September 3, 2007 - location: Snafu Lake (N 60°,07.966'; W 133°,48.547')
We left Skagway, crossed the border, and headed north to get our trailer. Everything was fine at Carcross and we had our trailer hitched up by 2pm. Our plans were to stop at Tagish Lake, but things were flooded around and in the campground, so we kept going. There were some camp spots listed down Atlin Road that we could make by dinner time, so we headed south down the road that quickly turned to gravel. We stopped at SNAFU Lake and found a primitive spot just a bit south of the developed campground. What an awesome spot! This is definately on our list of must return to. SNAFU is an acronym for "situation normal, all fouled up", or as Gerry reminds me, another four-letter word is usually substituted for "foul". We found it delightful and enjoyed a serene evening with a fire, lake views, and homemade chicken soup for dinner. The soup came out more like a stew with rice, chicken, onions, mushrooms, zucchini, and seasonings of dill, black pepper, and taragon. The dogs raced all over and had a grand time in our secluded spot. We had a great sunset, got missed by the thunderstorms, and slept in a silent world. It doesn't get any better than this!
We had such a good time we decided to continue south on this road to see Atlin and the largest lake in British Columbia. It was only 50 miles to Atlin where we stopped at the visitor center and museum. We were given maps, tales, and trails before we headed off down the lake road to a remote campsite by the shore.
The ripples lap at the bank as Gerry swings in the hammock with Bernie. Those two are real buddies. They go everywhere together. We all rode in the jeep to the "warm springs" a mile away and Gerry and I took a dip while Bernie played and Honey managed to fall in while crossing the outlet on loose rocks. She bolted right out of the water as if it were poison and stood there looking pitiful, afraid to cross back to the shore until Gerry went to help her. As he approached, she got more scared of his dripping body and bright yellow suit than the loose rocks and in two hops she was back on the bank by Bernie. I soaked a bit more and then joined the gang for a jeep ride up the road. We turned around before we found the end of the road and picked wild watercress on the way back by a cold stream. It is delicious and has a nice radish flavor.
I was chilled and started a fire when we got back to camp. Watercress salad, reindeer sausage, and garlic bread for dinner. We could camp here for a month. It's my favorite place on the trip. Skilak lake was 2nd and Haines 3rd. Today we met a Yukon couple, William and Kim. She gave us some salmon they canned and Gerry took the jeep out just so William could see it. He got a ride, too. Gerry would have liked them to stay a while so Gerry could take him jeeping. Kim gave me advice on preparing a berry called "soap berry". I had tried them, but found them a bit sour. She said an old native recipe takes their juice, which whips up into a foam (like "soap") and mixes with sugar before freezing for a cold treat. i made some tonight to have tomorrow. I long to learn more about the land and it's bounty. Today I learned about watercress and soap berries. What will tomorrow bring? Time will tell.
|
|
September 2, 2007 - location: enroute to Skagway (N 59°,47.918'; W 134°,50.423')
We decided to take the trip to Skagway and headed down through Carcross. Carcross is an abbreviated "Caribou Crossing", named after caribou that swim across the water in the spring and fall. We didn't see any caribou, but still enjoyed the small town. We left our trailer at the boat trailer storage area in town and headed south to find a campsite. We explored little dirt roads and found one that fit our liking with a campsite along a river
. The dogs loved it there and we let them run around without a leash. Bernie kept chasing Honey and she is faster than him for now. We all slept great and had a quick breakfast before heading out to Skagway. There were some great views ofmountains along the way. The narrow gauge railroad runs near the road as seen in this photo.
The border crossing was easy and we were in the scenic tourist town of Skagway before we knew it. There were three cruise ships in port and quite a bit of tourist activity. We explored outside of town to the abandoned townsite of Dyea and took the dogs for a walk in the cemetery. Most of the graves were of people who died in an avalanche in the early 1900s. We saw some eagles feeding at the river. There was an adult with young. We are gasing up here before we head back towards Carcross. Even though gas is $3.67 per gallon, it's still cheaper than Canada.
I also downloaded a couple of the bear shots from Haines. There was a bear eating salmon and a bear walking in the water. The bear stopped at looked right at me. It was really neat.
|
|
September 1, 2007 - location: Haines Junction (N 60°, 45.052'; W 137°,31.211')
It is hard to believe it is September already. Many of our fellow tourists are either home or headed home by now. We plan to take our time getting down to the lower 48. We do need to be there by September 25th so the health certificates we got for the dogs are still valid when we enter Washington. That gives us plenty of time to see some of the back roads and have light travel days. The schedule has 200 miles or less per day of driving. It's about time to head out for the day, Gerry is just waiting on me.
|
