Nearing the End

We enjoyed a week in the Jasper-Banff areas – the most popular national parks in Canada. We had pristine weather, but a controlled burn of the forest in nearby Yoho national park left the vistas a bit hazy. The elk were rutting (competing for mates), and we got to watch a pair of males lock horns and try to push each other around for awhile. They make a strange little squealing sound called bugling. We also enjoyed mountain bike rides, kayaking and hiking while there, but we didn't linger because of the high prices.

In fact, all over Canada, the prices for things were outrageous. The exchange rate was favorable just a few years ago, but we found this trip through Canada to be painfully expensive. For example, it's $12 for a six pack of domestic beer, or $5 for a gallon jug of drinking water. Gas was $5-6 per gallon And their National Parks cost $10 per person per day, which is $140 for a week vs. ~$25/week in the US... Plus they charge an $8 fee just to have a campfire.

On our way south, we drove thru a high pass and got snowed on – for the first time our whole trip. It was exciting, so we stopped and took a hike up to a high cirque. Everything was more beautiful dusted in snow.

Our last stop in Canada was Waterton Lakes National Park – it adjoins Glacier National Park in Montana. It was a slightly eerie place – the hotels and shops were closed for the season and the place was deserted. Add in a very strong and cold breeze – signs swinging freely – and you get an odd sensation. We did a nice hike/bike there and headed out. Unfortunately, we arrived at the US border 10 minutes after they closed (at 6pm). So rather than backtrack to find a more populated area with an open crossing, we just camped there for the night. 15 hours later, we crossed back into the US.

Next was Glacier National Park. When I was about 10 years old, my family toured the US in an RV (actually a converted bus, but that's another story). We traveled all around and I got to see most of the national parks. While I remember little things here and there about it, one strong memory was of a hike to Iceberg Lake in Glacier. That was over 30 years ago, so I decided that would be a good hike for us. It was a great hike, but I didn't really remember any of it – just the name.

From there, we drove to Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. Ahh, the smell of sulpher. Yellowstone was perfect for us because I'd had enough jagged mountain vistas to last awhile. This was completely different: colorful pools of boiling water, geysers, waterfalls, etc.

All that's left now is a few days of driving to get home. We're very excited to return: Our Jacuzzi and waterbed are wonderful luxuries we have missed. Mmmm, chicken tikka masala, Japengo sushi, and Chipotle. Oh, and Tivo, Netflix, and high speed internet will be great. But most of all, we look forward to catching up with friends and family. We can't wait to hear about your summer and share some of our most memorable experiences in person.

Thanks so much for following along with us on our Alaskan adventure. I wrote this log primarily to help me remember the details of our trip in the future, but it has been really rewarding to be able to share. Your messages of encouragement and shared excitement were wonderful to receive along the way – Thanks.

Here's the latest slide show with additional highlight pictures. See you soon,
-J.R. & Eileen


P.S. Well rested from the Alaska excursion, I calculated a few of the numbers that help characterize the scope of the trip...

• 90 days total
• 85 nights living in the van
• 19 campground nights (66 at large)
• 9,920 miles driven
• 869 gallons of gas used
• 11.4 mpg average
• $3,615 spent on gas
• $4.15 average price of gas
• $14,000 total spending ($156/day)
• 14 Natl parks (Crater Lake, Mt St Helens, Mt Rainer, Olympic, Kluane, Wrangell-St Elias, Kenai Fjords, Denali, Jasper, Bannf, Waterton Lakes, Glacier, Yellowstone, Grand Tetons)
• 18 unique memorable animals seen (Grizzly bear, Black bear, Orcas, Bald eagles, Golden eagles, Moose, Wolves, Caribou, Elk, Bison, Dahl sheep, Mountain goat, Foxes, Humpback whales, Beluga whales, Puffins, Sea Otters, and Stellar sea lions,)
  
• 6 microbreweries toured and tasted (Alaskan, Haines, Homer, Silver Gulch, Yukon, Jasper)
• >1000 pictures taken

Driving....

The drive back would not be as leisurely as the drive up – some long days of driving would be necessary for the overland return along the Alaskan highway (in contrast to the four days of effortless ferry travel up the inside passage). Over the next ten days we would drive 2000 miles (3-6 hours per day). We tried to find interesting things along the way, but it wasn't always easy – there are some very long stretches of nothingness. I guess that's part of what makes it unique – not like driving across the US. I had imagined the Alaskan highway to be a vast and beautiful drive, but to be completely honest, it doesn't hold a candle to the terrain in and around Alaska. Most of the road is just rolling hills of stunted pine forest. Fortunately we did see some interesting things along the way.

A trip to Alaska wouldn't be complete without mentioning The Pipeline. Outside Fairbanks there was a viewing area where you could get right up to it and touch it. The oil flows very fast inside (30,000 gallons per minute), partly because it is kept hot (140 degrees ). Of course the pipeline is not hot to the touch because it is well insulated to preserve it's heat. It was an amazing engineering feat to learn about.

Leaving Fairbanks, the highway is actually a highway – two lanes in each direction with exit and entry ramps. As we entered North Pole (a real town just south east of Fairbanks), there was a temporary sign announcing drag racing and directing spectators to use the next exit. Odd that they would have drag racing in this small town, but as we continued past, all traffic was directed off the highway at the next exit thru a long detour of several miles of surface streets because the drag racing was happening ON the highway itself. No other place for it I guess, but I can't imagine that happening back home.

Another observation along the road: There are lots of hunters here – it seems to be the primary recreation activity up here. They usually ride around on ATVs, although more than a few times we encountered slow moving pickup trucks puttering along the road – watching from their vehicle for animals to shoot – doesn't seem very sporting to drive along until you encounter a moose and then kill it.

Heading East from Chicken (yes, that's the name of a town in Alaska), there is a long dirt road called the Top of the World Highway (they like to use the word “highway” for everything up here). It was unlike anything we'd ever seen – the road travels along the tops of the rounded treeless mountains, and gives the sensation of being above all. The surface is all tundra and it was very windy – perhaps since there were no trees to slow the air currents.

From there, we had to cross the Yukon river on a tiny ferry - just us and another car filled up the deck. It was a very strange sensation to be behind the wheel of the van and all around I could see water – the current of the fast river speeding by. I felt like I needed to steer the car as we traveled across. The other end of the Ferry was Dawson City – a living ghost town. By that I mean that the town buildings have been restored to their gold rush days when there were 30,000 people living there. One thousand people live there now, and they inhabit and work in the restored buildings. So walking down the street you see the old bank, but inside is someone's private office, not a bank – very neat to walk around, but kind of confusing – fortunately, the old general store is still a general store inside.

I should mention the highway is usually deserted – vast stretches without seeing another car. Once it gets dark there is virtually no one driving. This makes for easy free camping – just pull off the road at any pullout. I'm sure the nights we spent this way were more remote than any backpacking trip – probably not another person within fifty miles of us.

In the small and remote town of Watson Lake, we visited the famous signpost forest. Apparently one of the road building crew back in the 40's built a signpost pointing back to his hometown of in Illinois with the distance listed. The idea caught on and today there are over 50,000 signs from around the world. You can post your own hometown if you want, and some people come back and mark there own signs each time they repeat the drive – remarkable.

Eventually the terrain changed – quite remarkably. We reached the northern end of the Rocky Mountains. It was beautiful to drive through – great stone peaks devoid of vegetation. We even found a mountain bike ride to do up above tree line. A couple more days of driving and we reached Jasper, a beautiful little town and the Canadian National Park that surrounds it.

Turning Point

On our way away from Denali, we passed the Stampede Trail – this is where Chris McCandless from “In to the Wild” died. We even hiked upstream of the same river that prevented his exit, though the water was low at the time.

We entered Fairbanks with caution (to avoid the big-city overload we experienced in Anchorage). We didn't spend much time there, but the downtown area wasn't bad. This was the decision point about the Dalton Highway – 450 miles of gravel road north across the tundra to the Arctic Ocean. It would be quite an experience, but we are probably too late in the season – stops along the way are rare, and most are closed for the season already.

A little more than an hour outside of Fairbanks is Chena Hot Springs, so we decide to spend the night there. They have an endless supply of 165 degree water, and they fill a natural looking outdoor pool at hot tub temperatures. It was great – we miss our backyard jacuzzi. The other attraction of the area is the Ice Museum. The world champion ice sculptors are preserving many of their creations inside an insulated building at 20 degrees. We put on our warmest clothes and headed inside. The sculptures were amazing. The scale is huge (forklifts required), but they all have incredibly fine details like abdominal muscles visible on the life size figures. We even had a drink at the bar in a martini glass made from ice.

That night we watched for the Aurora Borealis – predicted to be active. After an hour or so sitting outside (freezing even in all our clothes), they appeared as a giant arc across the sky. While they were very large and distinct against the black sky this time, they lacked the colors we had seen back at Haines Junction. We watched for as long as we could bear it, hoping for color change but it never came.

That morning, 60 miles outside Fairbanks, marked our farthest point from home. It was kind of odd to think about heading for home after all this time. Even though our return trip will involve many great stops over the next three or four weeks, it feels kind of sad to turn around. We will miss Alaska and all the amazing things we have been able to see and do.

We have about 4,000 miles of driving ahead of us. At an average speed of 50mph, that would be 80 hours of driving. So imagine your next two full weeks of work are spent driving – that's how far away we are. Of course, we'll be driving less intensely than that – we still have lots to enjoy along the way: Dawson City and Whitehorse in the Yukon, Jasper, Banf, and Yoho in British Columbia, and probably Glacier and Yellowstone once back in the states.

Sorry, not a very photogenic segment - more photos next time hopefully.

Denali

On the road to Denali, there is a small town called Talkeetna, where most of the flightseeing trips originate (as well as all of the climbers' ski-plane trips). We've spent a lot of money in recent weeks, so we were a bit shy about another big outlay for a flight: $440 for the two of us. It is supposed to be one of the best things to do in Alaska, but we are wishy-washy about it – we've seen mountains from the air before, right? But it is a clear day (happens only 20% of the time), so as we pass the town, I call one of the operators to ask if they have any unsold seats they would fill at a discount. If so, we've decided we'd go for it. Would half price work? Yes, and in 15 minutes we are waiting outside the plane to board.

Oh... My... God! It was the most amazing experience ever. The stunning scenery actually brought Eileen to tears during the flight – overwhelmed by the scale and beauty. I myself couldn't really believe what we were seeing – take all the best scenic views I've ever seen in my life (hiking, backpacking, driving, etc), add them all up and multiply by 10 in every direction! There were giant pillows of snow perched on jagged granite spires, any one of which was the size of El Capitan in Yosemite. The scale of things was incomprehensible – we were flying above a 50 mile long glacier cradled between jagged cliffs of rock and ice a mile high. Mount McKinley was so massive and scary sharp, and then we heard from the pilot that we were looking at Mt Hunter, a mere 14,573 foot peak. Around the next bend, the real Mt McKinley loomed so high above us it was impossible to judge – we were already flying at 10,000 feet above sea level, and McKinley reaches up another 10,000 feet above us!

Like an immersive IMAX film, we flew close to the colossal rock walls, rising just high enough to clear the toothy ridges, before descending back in towards the massive white snowfields they land to drop off McKinley climbers. What a remarkable experience – we will never forget it.

Denali National Park consists of a single 90 mile long road – mostly gravel. The only way in to the park is on shuttle buses, and they take >5 hours to get to the end of the road. Double that to get back, and you can imagine what a long day it becomes (by the way, these are school buses - ouch). From the bus, we saw lots and lots of wildlife: grizzly bears, black bears, caribou, golden eagles, Dahl sheep, and even a pack of wolves (with pups) feeding on a recent kill. But it was the landscape that was most impressive: rolling hills of tundra, carpeted red with fall colors. The hills became mountains, with higher elevations devoid of any vegetation at all – just rock. And eventually, they lead up to Mt McKinley and the other snow-covered peaks in the range.

Near the end of the road is Wonder Lake – the closest the road gets to McKinley. This is the area where most photographs of the mountain are taken – including the “Reflections of Denali” print we have in our family room (Images of Nature by Thomas Mangelson). The photograph is a stunning panoramic view of McKinley on a cloudless day (fewer than 20 per year) with a bull moose reflected in a still lake. We went in search of the place where it was taken, and were kind of surprised to find it. I ran around the lake to the other side where the moose had been and Eileen snapped our own version (not a cloudless day, not a perfectly still lake, not a large format camera, and me instead of the moose). See the original here.

There really aren't any trails in Denali – they just expect you to stop the bus and hike off into the tundra wherever it looks interesting to you. We did this twice – both times to loop around a mountain and return to the road down the way for pick-up by a passing bus. It is a bit of an adventure because you don't know ahead of time whether there will be a cliff blocking the way – or whether streams will be small enough to cross – or whether stretches of the tundra will be soggy wet – or whether the brush will get very thick. We encountered all of these, but always found a way around (or struggled thru in some cases). We were rewarded with grand views and extreme solitude.

To see a few more of our best Denali pics, click here for a slideshow. Next stop Fairbanks – closing in on the turn around point...

Finally Orcas!

On our way to Homer, we stopped for a mountain bike ride along the famous Iditarod route near Resurrection pass. It was a long-ish ride of 26 miles with lots of climbing, and we never really got above tree line like we hoped. However, this was where we first discovered the blueberries: Once you know where to look, they are everywhere. Someone showed us, and we feasted on handfuls of them – yum. Since then I've always taken great pleasure on hikes from having free food all along the trail!

We enjoyed Homer for a few days. It has lots of restaurants, a microbrewery, and the famous “spit,” a very narrow strip of land that juts out into the bay several miles (about halfway across). We took a water taxi over to the Kachemak Bay state park area, where we kayaked for a few hours and saw lots of sea otters, jellyfish, and a few porpoises, including a small one that seemed to be resting at the surface for a while. With a few extra hours before pickup by the water taxi, we decided to hike up a little used trail – mistake. The trail was overgrown and had lots of bear scat. We had hoped to get above treeline, but the whole hike was in the forest brush. It was a bit intimidating to be so remote, pushing our way thru the brush, and trying to avoid stepping in bear scat. At about our turn around time, I heard a short low rumble sound. And again. We are hyper-alert at this point listening intently and got startled by my ringing phone – it was vibrating in my pack a few times before the audible ring. I guess we were high enough on the mountain to get a signal from Homer. Fortunately we didn't see any bears on the hike back down.

Next we visited another beautiful coastal town, Seward. From here we took a 6 hour boat tour – the only way to get to most of the Kenai National Park. It was really great – we saw so many things, but perhaps most importantly, this was the first time Eileen or I have ever seen Orcas! There were over a dozen of them and they swam around and even under the boat. I really had no idea just how tall their dorsal fin is (up to 6 feet tall they said), but unlike dolphins and whale, the Orca's dorsal fin stick WAY up out of the water. For several long seconds after they've surfaced, it slowly descends out of view. We also saw sea otters, a humpback whale and her calf, Stellar sea lions (1500 lbs giants), puffins, and lots of other birds I don't remember. The destination of the tour was the Aialik Glacier, which is a very active tidewater glacier. The boat drifted quietly out in front of the face as it cracked and boomed at us – occasionally shedding a giant tower of ice into the water below. Very cool!

Before leaving Seward, we drove to see the Exit glacier – it's only a few miles from town. 4 miles and 3000 vertical feet of hiking later, we were at the top where it spills out from the ice field. This was a very unusual view – a glacier from the top looking down at it's path, and seeing the featureless expanse of flat snow that tops the ice field. It was like being in a flight-seeing airplane ($400 saved!). The 2.5 hour hike down was tough on the knees – very steep – if only I had my paraglider, I'd be down in 15 glorious minutes.

We timed things just right to see the famous tidal bore on the way back north toward Anchorage. The Turnagain arm of the Cook inlet has the one of the greatest tides of North America: 33 feet! Well, two or three times a month when the tides are most extreme, the water rushing out meets the force of the incoming tide and the water stands up in a wave (up to 6 ft tall). So we sat on the rocks 15 feet above the water level and watched the water rush out until we saw something strange in the distance thru binoculars. Suddenly it was upon us, a wave (probably 2-3 feet) rolled by carrying a massive river of boiling churning water behind it. At that point, we noticed three surfers paddling out from the shore just up the inlet from us. Wow! They paddled into the wave and rode it almost out of sight – maybe for a full minute (>10x longer than most surfing waves). To top it all off, the beluga whales followed it in a short while later, so we watched more than a dozen of them swimming around for a bit.

We'd heard that the Alaska State Fair has the largest vegetables in the world – like 500 lb pumpkins and 100 lb cabbages. This is because they have so much daylight during the summer (and they say the soil is great). We stopped in on our way north to Denali to see for ourselves. It had been a rainy summer so things weren't as impressive as all that, but we did see really giant pumpkins and cabbages (why those two I don't know – why not giant radishes, or watermelon, or something). We gorged ourselves on fair junk food until we felt a little sick.

Next stop Denali!

Rescue

So this “road” we were driving on to the foot of the glacier wasn't actually a road – but actually just a footpath we discovered. Help arrived in the form of a nearby pickup truck with a tow strap. The digging wasn't doing too much, so we decided to give up and just try to snatch the van from the rear (use the elasticity of the tow strap to apply a quick jerk of force). I got in and rolled up the windows - just in case it tips over in the process – I'm imagining it would be better not to have all that goo oozing into the van thru open windows. I wanted to put my seatbelt on (again, so I wouldn't fall out of the seat sideways), but leaned over that far, the pre-tensioner was locked so I couldn't. I gave just enough power in 4WD-low to almost spin the tires, and the truck yanked back. It was all over in an instant: Hallelujah, the van was extracted – and without damage. I almost dropped to my knees overwhelmed with gratitude! Mud was everywhere, so it took some time to clean everything up, but we were safe again - ahhhhhhhhhh. Few feelings in this world match the tremendous relief when snatched from the brink of disaster.

The van on solid ground again, we opened a special bottle of wine from a friend as we reclined in our seats to take in the view of the glacier. This was an amazing spot, and we had it all to ourselves. The wine was great – life is good!

The next morning, we walked over to the glacier and hiked around on it – with help from our hiking poles. Traction was tentative at times, so we avoided anything with significant exposure. Because we had spent the night there, we had the place to ourselves for much of the morning until the day-tourists started arriving. It was a very cool playground of ice.

We headed to Anchorage with a mile long list of things we needed : Oil change, electrical work on the van, REI, drugstore, car wash (to remove the muck still caked underneath the van). I thought it would be great to be back in the "civilized world" - restaurants, choices, etc. But we couldn't get out of there fast enough - traffic, crowds, ghettos, liquor stores – yuck. Until now, I'd occasionally dreamed about all the things I would enjoy when we get home. Now I wonder if I will be able to handle the frenetic pace of life there.

Fortunately, it was only fifteen minutes of driving south from Anchorage before no sign of the city was even present, and the natural beauty of the area shined. In fact, the road followed a narrow inlet with snow=patched mountains all around. But it was the white aliens we saw in the water next that was most memorable - Actually a pod of Beluga whales, but they are stunningly, unnaturally white and looked more like giant serpents. They lack dorsal fins like orcas or dolphins, so it is a very odd sight. They are larger than dolphins but smaller than orcas, and they only inhabit cold waters - I guess they are white to blend in with the snow and ice.

They swam along with the fast moving tidal current, which fortuitously coincided with our direction of travel. So we drove a few miles at a time and watched as they'd passed – we did this for about an hour and 15-20 miles. It was only the darkness that ended our show.

Having lived in the van for nearly two months, we decided to spread out in a hotel room for a couple of days – unlimited internet, TV for the olympics and Obama VP speech, full pressure hot water showers, and a king size bed. We chose the Aleyeska resort – a four diamond lodge at a ski resort forty minutes south of Anchorage. It was a very nice break. TV without TIVO is unbearable – all those commercials – I don't know how people can watch that way. We enjoyed sushi, massages, and a ride up the tram for views from high above. I wish I had my paraglider – they have a launch and landing zone all set up. Afterwards, returning to the van was not a chore at all – in fact it felt great to be “home” again in our cozy bed with all our stuff at hand.

The famous Portage Glacier is just down the road, so we visited the multi-million dollar visitors center. It's right on the edge of the lake, but the glaciers have been receding so fast that the Portage glacier has withdrawn around the bend and IS NO LONGER VISIBLE from the elaborate visitor's center anymore. They are a bit embarrassed about it – or should be. After driving thru a train tunnel (open to cars in one direction when the train isn't using it), we followed a trail up to a high point where the Portage glacier is still visible. It is really an amazing sight – I wonder if we'll ever tire of seeing glaciers (glacier-fatigue)?

Be sure to check out the next slide set of our most recent best pictures here.

More Adventures

We enjoyed a few days in Valdez - hard to leave the panoramic view from our oceanfront campsite. Kayaking the Valdez glacier lake gave us the opportunity to paddle to the INTERIOR of a glacier - stable ice caves permitted us this unique view. We didn't go into them all - just the safe ones! Pretty cool to be inside the deep blue ice looking back out at the world.

A lot more scary were the hikes and bike rides in the area. It rained on us, but we were well equiped with Gore-tex everything. Frequent reports of bear activity ensured that we carry the bear bell and pepper spray. We never saw a bear on this day, but the piles of berry-laden "scat" were everywhere. It got scary when we had to wade/crawl thru the dense brush on a less-used trail. We yelled out our presence to any potential bears. One trail was signed by the local police with bear activity today. The numerous bear trails running perpendicular to our hiking trail fed our imagination with bears just out of sight. Don't know what a bear trail looks like? Just imagine if you matted all the vegetation 3 feet wide down to the ground. The bears criss-cross the area in search of berries.

To get farther into Prince William Sound, we took a charter boat to the Columbia Glacier, were we were dropped off with our Kayaks for about 5 hours. This is the most active glacier (calving at the face) in North America, but we couldn't get within miles of the face because the inlet was so jam packed with icebergs. We were able to paddle around the giant floating blocks of ice. Sea otters where everywhere - they are curious little guys - a dozen of them jump off their ice block to follow along the charter boat for a bit. Perhaps the coolest thing was on our way to the secluded pickup site, we could hear the wild sounds of a wolf howling somewhere up in the hills above us. It is an erie sound - but very cool too. Did I mention it rained the entire day? We paddled in the rain, ate lunch in the rain, and waited for the pickup boat in the rain - Instead of sitting there in the rain like wet animals, we built a tiny shelter from the boat, paddles, and a tarp.

Our next destination was back into Wrangell-St Elias Nat'l Park - via the other gravel road - this one a bit rougher and 120 miles round trip. It was worth it to see the Root Glacier/Icefall, and the Kennicot mine. This picturesque mine was abandonned in 1938, but it was the richest copper mine of all times. We found it interesting that the founder and CEO was Stephen Birch - San Diegans should recognize that name - After getting things running smoothly, he retired to San Diego and must have been a wealthy philanthropist since the Aquarium where Eileen and I got married is named for him.

The next day, driving along a narrow dirt road through the moraine gravel toward the foot of the Matanuska glacier, we encounter a wet muddy section and... plop - the right front end drops TWO FEET into the muck - it just won't support the weight of the van. We were in 4WD, but that had no apparent benefit in this situation. I tried to back out, but any spin of the tires quickly took us deeper - and the van was already leaning so far to the right that it was uncomfortable to stay in the driver's seat - scary angle! I knew it wouldn't tip over (probably), but how would we get out of this muck. I dug frantically thru the mud hoping to create a gradual path out, but it was like quicksand clay and it just flowed back in. Would we ever get out? Would our precious "home" tip over into the pond of water just a foot out of the picture? Would we rip the van right off the stuck axle with a tow from another vehicle? How many nights would we have to sleep in our tent stranded here before help arrived? Tune in next time to find out...

Wild Kingdom - really!

As we drive into Wrangell-St Elias National Park, the weather is gray and we are unsure what to expect. It is the largest of all the National Parks, but is only accessed by two long dirt roads (40 miles or 60 miles). Since the clouds are low, I'm not optimistic that we'll see much of the park's beauty - the amazing snowcapped volcanic mountains. I remember that this park is supposed to have more wild animals than any other, and I remind Eileen that we'll have to keep our eyes open for them as we drive so at least we'll see something. Less than a minute farther down this lonely bumpy road, something amazing happened - suddenly a spinning mass of animals crosses the road right in front of us. It is so unexpected it takes a moment to decypher what we're looking at: A pack of wolves is taking down a moose and her calf as they stumble across the road. It's not a chase at this point - the wolves appear patient and calculating as they jog alongside, jumping up to bite at opportunistic times. Quickly they are into the woods again and we lose sight of them. We roll the windows down to listen, and we hear this horrible grunting and snorting sounds coming from the distraught moose from just inside the forest a few yards farther down the road. We reposition the van and stand up on top of it (8 feet up) for a better look. We can only partly see glimpses thru the trees, but they are less tha 50 feet from us. Branches are snapping and the trees are bending catastrophically as the group bashes into them haphazardly in the struggle. We can see at this point that the mother moose is not being attacked - it is just the calf they are nipping at, and the mother is helplessly trying to establish a perimemter around it. It is all so close and life and death real I have the unfocused feeling I should do something to help, but of course that doesn't make any sense. After only a few brief moments the battle appears over, as the moose quiets her grunting to just heavy breathing, steps away a few feet, and then walks away (grunting occasionally - in grief I guess). Fortunately, we cannot actually see the downed calf thru the trees, but the sounds are grotesque - I can only describe it as a splashing sound :-( I am desperate to go see, but getting close to the wolf pack with a fresh kill probably isn't a good idea, so when the noises stop we finally continue on our journey - moved and a little stunned by the experience.

And now we are enjoying the stunning setting of Valdez - Eileen and I agree that it is the most beautiful city we have seen so far - and the others are amazing. We have a campsite right on the water, with a 359 degree panorama of glaciated mountains! We'll kayak, hike, and bike in the area for awhile before heading toward Anchorage.

It struck me this afternoon, that we are still far from the halfway point of the drive - kind of scary to think that each hour we drive adds another hour on the way back - we are FAR from home and getting farther!

Okay, so here's our tally so far:

• 3700 miles (85 hours) of driving
• 42 days (38 sleeping in the van)
• 4 days of rain
• 7 national parks
• >1000 photographs
• 1 laptop died (2nd one still good so far - we brought two!)
• 1 broken hiking pole
• 1/2" of hair growth
• Grizzly, Black Bear, Moose, Beaver, Foxes, Wolves, Bald Eagles, Seals, Humpback Whales, Porpoises, Salmon, Sea Otters, Dahl mountain sheep.

Aurora Borealis - Check!

If one has a checklist of things to hope to see on a trip to Alaska, the "Northern Lights" is probably near the top. We'd contemplated an extra side-trip far north to the Artic circle along the graval Dalton highway mostly to increase our chances of seeing it. But at the end of a very long day in Haines Junction, Eileen stepped out of the van just after 1 am to go use the bathroom. Caught completely by surprise, the northern skyline was aglow with flickering aquamarine flames - drifting and morphing in a ghostly fashion - very surreal. We watched alone in the dark for half an hour until it seemed to weaken. (*Note: unlike every other picture you see here, we did not take this one - we couldn't photograph it, but I wanted you to get an idea of what it looks like)

In the morning we bought "Bear Assault" pepper spray ($50) and a hiking bell. Thank you for everyone's encouragement to make this a priority.

Another new experience is Permafrost - but how would we know when it is present? Turns out it is quite easy - the road undulates up and down making the drive quite uncomfortable. The permafrost actually begins to thaw in areas that no longer have the protective insulation of plantlife, and this causes the road to sink. Driving any faster than 45-50mph would get you airborne!

The next couple of days involved a lot of driving along the Alaskan Highway. Along the way, we saw a black bear, moose, and two foxes. Most of the landscape was very strange - entire forests of stunted pine trees of just four to ten feet tall. They were hundreds of years old but couldn't grow very well in the year-round frozen earth. Crooked and knarled, it looked like a Dr Suess landscape. A boardwalk hike thru the area took us to a beautiful lake where we saw three beavers. Other than their occasional splashing noise, the world was totally silent, no people, no cars, no planes overhead, no wind, no birds - an odd sensation.

The next night we hoped to see the Aurora Borealis again, but the orange glow of sunset was still strong on the horizon at midnight, so we went to bed. And now we are passing thru Tok, the coldest inhabited place in North America they say (sunny day, fortunately).

Hello Mr. Grizzly Bear

After a pleasant 5 hr ferry ride, we arrived in Haines, where the road north begins again. Only a few thousand people live here (half that in the winter). It feels like the Fjiords of Norway to us - a sliver of ocean penetrating up the steep walled valley. Fortunately for us, the Sockeye Salmon are running locally - this means there might be bears at the river fishing. Bear watching trips are a big business in Alaska, and the guided tours/lodges cost $500-$3000/pp. But here in Haines, the locals directed us to watch from the road along the Chilkoot river. We find the river full of fishermen, wading in up to their waists. Then... A Grizzly bear just walks out of the dark woods and into the river - Wow, he's big - his head is huge! At first we watch from the safety of the van, but eventually step outside for a closer look (still within a few paces of the door). He's only about thirty feet away, but he's thoroughly engaged in the pursuit of salmon. He swats at the water and comes up with a fish, which he then proceeds to tear apart and eat. He does this five or six times before making his way down the river and out of sight. We go back to this spot to watch a few times, and we've seen five or six grizzlies total, including one orphan cub still trying to figure out (by himself) how to get fish. It is remarkable how unperturbed they are by humans nearby. We'll pick up a canister of pepper spray to carry with us on hikes in the future just in case.

Before leaving Haines, we did an 11 mile paddle down the Chilkat river. This is a fast moving river (but no significant rapids). It was very wide, with lots of snaking channels running in and out around mud flat islands. While there were no significnat rapids, the colliding currents would swirl into each other, making the water boil in very strange ways. The scenery was stunning, jagged mountains with a patchwork of snow and glaciers. We shuttled ourselves by bicycle.
Everything here is about fish and catching fish.

The strangest new thing we've seen is a "fish Wheel." It is like a water wheel turning in the current of the river, but with each rotation, a giant basket next sweeps thru the water capturing whatever happens to be there at that moment. It lifts up with the water wheel and dumps it's contents into a receptacle for later collection. Amazing ingenuity - no power, no bait, just free fish at the end of the day.

Would you camp at a lake called "Mosquito lake?" We did, and won't ever again. Stepping out of the van, a swarm of hundreds of mosquitos descended upon us. Any exposed skin would be bitten right away. We weren't prepared for that so had to jump back in the van and get more clothing (hooded) on. It was no fun, so we stayed inside the van - thank god for screens. And left promptly the next morning. Skip this stop.

The drive thru Chilkat pass was spectacular (I'm running out of adjectives and we haven't even gotten to the interior yet) - endless jagged peaks all virtually every direction. By the way, almost every vehicle we see on the road is an RV, but they're few and far between. At "Chuck's Creek" we found a trail to mountain bike on. It climbed up into the high alpine (treeless) terrain - it was kind of surreal to be mountain biking in such a remote place high amongst the jagged peaks. Eventually we turned around when we encountered a lot of large bear prints in the muddy trail. The brush was head high at this point and we'd read that this area has the highest concentration of Grizzly in the entire Yukon territory. Since we hadn't gotten pepper spray yet, it seemed foolish to continue deeper into the thicket. Later in the next town (Haines Junction), we learned that there has been an unusual amount of bear-human encounters lately. Wise choice.

Welcome to Alaska

The US ferry ride has been just over 30 hours, but it includes a "State Room," which really means a bunk bed. Actually it was quite nice to have a place to put our things as we roam around the ship. It was no where near as nice as the Canadian Ferry, but we did have better weather. From the boat, we saw a mother and calf humpback whale, and several times we saw a group of something small surfacing (but always too quick to identify - too small to be dolphins, but that would have been my guess). This Ferry has made several stops along the way, and we can get off for an hour while in port - unfortunately there's not much to see within walking distance of the ferry terminal. Eileen and I played scrabble for the first time. It's probably been over twenty years since I've played - turns out it is surprisingly fun (as long as you have a book to read while waiting for your opponent).

We arrive in Juneau, Alaska - it feels kind of strange to be here. We were here thirteen years ago on a kayaking trip, but we arrived by plane - Now we're here again, but this time we drove the whole way north. Mendenhal Glacier is the primary landmark here - It dominates the horizon at times - A huge wall of blue ice filling the valley. We find the beautiful Mendenhal campground only half full - usually at capacity in years past - this is the first evidence that folks are staying home because of the high price of gasoline - good for us! One day we take a hike/bike to a spectacular spot overlooking the glacier and ice field behind it. It is so much more vast when you see it from above. The next day, we kayak on the lake (filled with icebergs) over to the face of the glacier. While tidewater glaciers are frequently calving violently down into the ocean, this lake glacier lacks the salt water and tidal forces so it is relatively stable. This means we could kayak right up to the massive blue walls. The scale is very hard to gauge, but it was breathtaking. Tonight we sleep at the ferry station for a 4:45am line up.

Next stop Haines...

Canadian Ferry

We had driven as far as you can drive, now at the northern tip of Vancouver Island. The ferry north to Prince Rupert loads at 5:45AM, so we just lined up the night before and went to sleep (paying $20 for that priviledge). The Beast got lots of comments from other travellers and the dock workers, and we were directed to the front spot, right next to the giant ferry door. This first ferry ride was 15 hours long. We filled the time sleeping, reading, watching movies on the laptop, eating, and watching the shoreline pass - the inland passage is narrow (very narrow at points) so we could easliy see waterfalls, trees, high glaciers, abandonned settlements, and even a few whales and dolphins. I wasn't really prepared for how much the ferry would Rock and Roll - While we weren't allowed on to the car deck to see, I was worriedly imagining our precious van catching a few inches of air during the largest surges. Fortunately, we found it just where we left it, but we never could explain the big wet spot we found on the van floor - like a water bottle exploded or something, but we found nothing leaking?

It is amazing, but here in Prince Rupert, this is the first rain we've encountered on the whole trip - almost a month of dry weather! At first it was very nice to hear the gentle sound of rain on the van roof as we fell asleep. Even walking around town in the drizzle was no problem with our GoreTex stuff. We did a beautiful hike through old growth rain forest and this got us soaked - inside and out. It was worth it, but now the problem is all our wet gear steaming up the inside of the van.

Tomorrow we board the US Ferry to Alaska...

Vancouver Island

We arrived in Victoria after 11pm, so we didn't want to look far for a place to sleep. A few blocks from the terminal, we found street parking that had no restrictions until 10am the next morning. Perfect. The next day we explored Victoria from our bikes - a very cool town - lots of interesting restaurants, street performers and artists, a fisherman's warf, etc. We spent the afternoon at Butchart gardens, an extensive series of amazingly manicured gardens Eileen had remembered seeing as a child. After a bit of driving we stopped in Duncan for dinner and parked for the night outside the local Ford dealer (we'd been having some trouble with the starter battery so I wanted to have them take a look at it in the morning). At about 3AM we were woken up by the police - they apologized for waking us, but suggested it wasn't a good place to stay since there was a known crack house a few doors away! They recommended the Walmart a few miles away. Wow, I guess that qualifies as our worst site selection ever! (The rest of the night was peaceful and Ford confirmed the battery was good).

We visited Qualicum Beach (Laundry, beach nap, cheese factory, etc) on our way to Lake Horne for the night. This is the site of a few public caves. We chose the self-guided adventure cave. With two flashlights each, we headed in. Turns out bringing a small backpack was a mistake: This was a very tight cave for most of it's length. We got very dirty, and it was challenging to figure out where to go next - lots of tiny passages to consider. By the end, we'd had enough of crouching over or sitting on wet rocks. Our next stop was Telegraph Cove, an old lumber community on a beautiful tiny inlet of water. We hoped to see Orcas from our Kayak here, but the wind really picked up and we had to head home before we got close to the Robson Bight orca preserve - where they apparently like to rub their bodies on the rocks!

Washington

Remember the devastating pictures you saw back in 1980 after Mt St Helens erupted - the barren landscape with every single tree blown down like matchsticks? Well it has recovered - The surrounding area has been replanted by lumber companies and is now a giant forest again. It is only inside the park where nature's unaided course is slower that you can see thousands of trees lying on their sides. But even there, areas of regrowth are occuring. We were treated to unobstructed views of the mountain in cloudless skys - something they say is not common. The volcano continues to erupt, but in a much more gentle manner these days. Believe it or not, the closest camping is 40 miles away - there's no camping inside the park. We were sneaky and found a gravel forest service road to camp on about 7 miles away, just outside the park boundary.


Our next stop was Mt Rainer, of which I've had vivid memories of since visiting as a child: an image of the mamouth white mountain standing high in the blue sky. While I feared it would be obscured by clouds this trip (like it usually is), we were treated to another sparkling clear day. Our hike up to Panorama Point (and a bit beyond toward the summit base camp) was stellar. I think I'd like to climb to the top some day (or another peak like it). The scale and contrasts were striking: White snow covered mountain top, vast blue sky, deep green evergreen, and dark jagged rock. The hike was mostly in the snow, so some of the decent was on our butts on a tarp we brought for just that purpose. A bit out of control at times (in a fun way).


Now we made our way west to the coast for the rain forests. On the way we did some mountain biking and camped in an area outside Olympia called Mima Falls. It was a very nice bike ride thru the forest - peppered with sections passing thru regions that had been clearcut - very weird - a landscape of endless stumps. The next day we visited the beaches in the Olympic National Park - I've never seen such massive heaps of driftwood before - acres and acres of giant tree trunk logs piled all over each other - 6 or more feet deep. It lines the beaches, and signs warn of the obvious danger it creates during high tide when they must all be sloshing around like ton missiles. The hike up the Hoh river trail was rated as one of the top ten hikes in the US, and it was quite unique - moss everywhere, hanging from every tree branch. We looked for hobbits but didn't see any.

Oregon

They say you cannot imagine just how blue the water is in Crater Lake until you see it for yourself, and it is indeed breathtaking coming up the final rise in the road and looking over the rim for the first time at the deep intense blue. The scenery was picturesque so we did a few dayhikes before heading on to mountain bike the Umpqua river trail. Eileen got the idea from the itinerary of a guided mountain biking company. The trail was beautifully cut thru the forest, giving that perfect slope and twist for a thrilling ride - until the next long climb. Camping along the trail, we decided to take the kayak out on the nearby lake, but rather than drive there, we decided to try a little white water with our SEA kayak on the the feeding river as it ran by our camp. The rapids were small, but the adventure came from not knowing what is around the next bend. At least we knew it couldn't be a waterfall because the lake was not far and the terrain gentle. Navigating the tandem required surprisingly strong and synchronized paddling - our kayak is 18' long and doesn't turn on a dime. We entered the lake with a rush of adrenalin - whoo hoo!

Next we spent a couple of days in Bend - a very cool town we'd like to come back to again - maybe for a month or so to explore the area more fully. Everything and everyone is very outdoors oriented, and there are lots of great restaurants. We enjoyed exploring the local lava fields, including a mile-deep lava tube cave, crawling to reach the very end. It seems like the whole town (seriously 1000s of people) floats down the river on inner tubes, inflatable mattresses, or whatever. There's even a city shuttle specifically to return you to the start. But the highlight in Bend is my new favorite mountain biking trail: Woops - in the Phil's trail area. The riding was perfect - gentle single track climbs followed by curvaceous descents through the open forest floor. Woops in particular has been modified with banked turns and whoop bumps (jumps). Eileen commented how trance-like the riding became - left, right, left, right thru the trees down the perfect slope that required only occassional braking whenever courage failed. If there is such a thing as "flow," this is where you find it.

A nice but brief visit with Eileen's family was followed with two nights with her Dad at a lodge in the Columbia River Gorge. It turned out to be a quite nice change of pace from living in a van. We spread out in the room, enjoyed long hot showers, and generally enjoyed a relaxed pace dayhiking to some of the many falls in the area with Dan. On our way out, we hiked up Beacon Rock, the largest monolith rock in North America - very tall tight switchbacks.

Departure

After weeks of preparation and some long nights packing, we finally started North on July 3rd. The first week of the journey was spent catching up with old friends - It was a wonderful reminder just how important these relationships are - really great people we wish we could see more often. We enjoyed lots of thoughtful conversations about politics, work, and life. Among other things, we enjoyed homemade gourmet pizza from a backyard pizza oven, got to drive a friend's electric car, and go kayaking on San Francisco Bay. At this point it would have been a completely satisfying vacation any other year, but it was only the prelude to our much larger journey this year.

Preparing to go

As you might imagine, it is a monumental task to prepare one's home and life for a three month absense. There were lots of little things like turning the water and gas off, and some more challenging things like having the mail held (the post office only holds for thirty days maximum, so I had to make special arrangements to have my Mom pick it up and renew the hold several times while we are gone - hopefully it works). Bills will continue to come due, so it was necessary to setup automatic payments for those we could and then monitor and pay the remainder online when we can get internet access from the road. We had to build a self-watering system for the houseplants (an aquarium pump on a once-a-week timer was placed in a 30 gallon tub of water and connected to drip irrigation lines to each plant).

The Beast (our pet name for the Sportsmobile camper van we will live in for the next three months) needed maintenance and modification before the trip too. In addition to a day at the garage for routine work, we created insulated window shades to keep out the cold at night (turned out very useful keeping out the HOT in Calif on our way North). We added a second water tank to give us 30 gallons total - enough for about 8 showers before refilling. And we installed a tire pressure monitoring system - to alert us if any of the tires lose pressure unexpectedly. It will be a 7000+ trip, so we'll even need to get the oil changed during the trip.

Just packing the right clothes was a challenge - We need enough clothes to go for 10-14 days before finding a laundromat, but we also need to handle the 100 degree days we'd encounter in Calif and Oregon, as well as the freezing temperatures we expect to see in Alaska and Canada late in the trip. Add in rain gear, biking gear, kayaking gear, and backpacking gear and you can imagine just how stuffed to the gills the Beast is.

Oh yeah, you'll notice in the pictures that the other final preparation for the trip was shaving my head! I did it at a party a few days before leaving - partly on a dare and partly to do something memorable I'll always associate with this trip. Having a bald head feels very odd - but I eventually got used to it. I'd recommend it once in your life.