Road Trip 2010: Day 28"Free" Day in Valdez

Sorta. Kinda.

We did have a group pancake breakfast/brunch.

And then Terry and I went to the grocery store and bank.

And late in the day, we drove around to the other side of Valdez Bay to the area of the fish hatchery to watch the run on pink salmon.

Pictures will follow.

Okay: Here they are:

Gene does bacon

Bruce on bacon, Peggy does pancakes, Alice supervises.

Sue does blueberry pancakes.

Later in the day, we went to the fish hatchery to view the pink salmon run, the fishermen, the eagles and--for those who stayed late--the bears. We didn't stay late.

Fishermen at the Hatchery Stream mouth.

Pink salmon in the hatchery stream.

This fella had a cooler he a two friends filled with 18 pink salmon...in an hour.

Bald Eagles

Golden Eagle

We stayed until this gal showed up:

Hmmm. Ice Cream and Hot Soup?

POST UPDATE: Ferry Ride Photos Posted

I've got the photos from the ferry ride from Skagway to Juneau posted now. That was only a week or so ago. That ride set sail on June 30.

Got 'em done just in time, too. This Wednesday were going out for a nice 8 hour cruise to visit a couple glaciers and to have a look around.

POST UPDATE: Train Ride Photos Posted

Hey! I finally got the photos of our train ride on the White Pass & Yukon RR out of Skagway posted. They are only a week or so old.

Next I'll be working on the trip from Skagway to Juneau, via ferry. Posting those pictures should take almost as long as the ride itself. Stay tuned.

Photo changes

Speaking with my fellow bloggers this morning, I mentioned how long it was taking me to post photos to the web. Robert said he always resizes his photos to a round 600 x 400 px and they post quite quickly to his web site and also for those looking at it.

Hmm, says I. I've been shooting in RAW and converting to JPEG after the final editing. Those JPEG photos are what I've been posting. While the RAW is around 14,000 KB and the JPEG is around 1,250 KB, one photo using Robert's suggestion is a mere 200 KB. And I can't tell the difference when they are posted.

It means one more step in the editing process, but the time used to perform that step will be saved many times over in waiting for Blogger to upload them.

Road Trip 2010: Day 27 Tok to ValdezUPDATE

UPDATE: I've added pictures to the post about our Monday night in Skagway...that's only a week ago.

We headed south today--sorta--ending up at the small boat dock in Valdez.

We (Terry and I) had some minor difficulties with trailer living yesterday and today.

Yesterday I learned that there was no flaw in the meter of the black water tank. It kept reading 2/3 full--even after I allegedly emptied it. I'd hear the "stuff" go gushing through the sewer hose when I dumped and assumed that the "stuff" had been removed from the tank...until yesterday when the tank proved to be brim full. Seems the liquids would go rushing out, but the solids (the stuff that truly makes it a "black" water tank--or, at least very dark brown) stayed behind. Time to take out the magic wand and use a little high pressure to break things up and flush them down the sewer.

This morning it was the slide out. We couldn't get it to slide back in this morning as we prepared to leave Tok. At first I scratched my head as to what might be wrong and then I asked for help from our assistant leader. Together we determined that there was a missing bolt on the drive shaft of the geared mechanism that extends and retracts the 12 foot long slide out. (There are two bars--each about 3 feet from the ends of the slide out--with teeth in them that the slide out rides on. One was no longer connected to the drive shaft that runs between them to keep them in sync.) Luckily, I had a bolt that fit the hole and two nuts that I could use to assure it would not fall out.

Tomorrow's a "Free" day so perhaps I can get a few more posts illustrated.

Tomorrow never came--at least in Vladez. Just too much to do or see. And rotten internet service.

I did, however take some photos going down to Valdez from Tok and it would be a shame to waste them even if they were taken in the rain, so here they are:

The Wrangell Range sheathed in clouds.

Fish wheel at Wrangell-St. Elias National Park Visitors' Center

THE Pipeline

THE Pipeline

Worthington Glacier near the summit of Thompson Pass

View north from Thompson Pass summit.

We were running a little late at this point and didn't take another photo until we reached our campground near the docks.

Road Trip 2010: Day 26 Destruction Bay to Tok, AK

UPDATE:
New pictures have been posted for the trip from Teslin, YT into Skagway, AK. They can be viewed here.

We are back in the USA after a couple days traveling the Yukon and are currently encamped in Tok, AK after a trip from Whitehorse, YT along the shores of Kulane Lake with an over night stop at Destruction Bay.

Tomorrow we are off to Valdez, AK. Where we will have another wildlife/glacier cruise, a "free day" and a couple of great group meals. (To go along with the impromptu late afternoon happy hours. All this socializing may kill me!)

One of these days I just may finally catch up with what the heck we are doing.

Maybe.

But not tonight. I'm pooped and my one-hour subscription is about to run out. Night all.

Finally gained enough time to start catching up!

Now, where were we.... Oh, yeah. Destruction Bay.

As I said, the wind died down overnight and the trailers stopped rocking in near gale force turbulence.

We started out heading west to the US border but first we had to clear Lake Kulane and its tributary river.

View from the highway west of Destruction Bay

View from the highway west of Destruction Bay

View of the Kulane River

View of the Kulane River

When we did cross the border we came to Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge.

Trumpeter Swans and cygnets near Tetlin NWR.

You have been warned!

The view from the visitors' center.

In addition to having a delightful conversation with one of the rangers (a Native American) who was doing some beadwork on a pair of mittens, we ran into a celebrity: A 14 year-old young lady out of Rome Georgia named Chandler Johnson. She was in the Visitors' Center to have the completion of her Junior Ranger form validated and to collect her reward. This was her 350th Junior Ranger Badge and the fiftieth state in which she had earned such an award. (Plus several territories: Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.) She's been at this since she was 6 years-old and figures she has 47 or so left to collect all of the Junior Ranger Badges. Meanwhile, she's been interviewed by several newspapers and publications (including Outdoors), met documentary maker Ken Burns, and been awarded a special Ranger hat by the National Park Service in Washington, D.C.

Chandler Johnson

On to Tok!

Road Trip 2010: Day 25 Whitehorse to Destruction Bay

Saturday, July 03: Day 25 Whitehorse to Destruction Bay

The distance traveled today was fairly short, just 170 miles, but the scenery was the best so far.

Traveling north out of Whitehorse, we were headed for Destruction Bay—half way up the length of Kulane Lake. To get there, we first had to take Highway 2 (the Klondike Highway) north to Highway 1 (the Alaska Highway) and head northwest again.

Our path took us into Kulane Country. The Kulane National Park and Reserve covers nearly 22 thousand square kilometers. The front range of mountains shields the interior where Canada’s tallest mountain is located. Mt. Logan stands 19,545 feet tall. That interior is also where the world’s largest non-arctic ice field is located. Many glaciers radiate from this center and feed some of the largest rivers in the world.

The Front Range which hides the ice field.

The Front Range which hides the ice field.

Along the way to Destruction Bay, we came upon a short nature trail that was said to have signs discussing the damage done by the Spruce Bark Beetle. And the damage was quite extensive in the last break-out in 1993.

The perp.

Terry bundled up against the wind--and mosquitoes.

The victim: A Dying spruce tree.

In an attempt to defeat the beetle and its grubs,
the spruce exudes copious amounts of pitch.
It seldom works.

On to Destruction Bay!

Destruction Bay—which got its name from the destruction of a military tent camp that was here during the construction of the Alaskan Highway was literally blown away by 100+ mph winds—was the site of our campgrounds. Not much more than a wide spot in the road, there was a gas station, a restaurant and an RV Park. The restaurant and RV park were operated by the same gentleman who also provided the evening entertainment in the form of poetry reading (his own) and music (a mix of oldies and local compositions). His cooking was excellent and the campgrounds, while spare, were good for one night or a dedicated lake trout fisherman. (He’s won the local tournament on Kulane Lake and its $3,500 prize twice.)

The winds were howling when we arrived but they were coming out of the south so the air was not as cold as it could have been. If the wind had been off the glaciers….

In any event, the winds died down over night and we had rain by morning.

A Night at the Follies

The Frantic Follies in Whitehorse was fantastic. Lots of laughs and lots of music.

The Emcee of the show.

Dancing the Can-can.

The acting out of a couple of Robert Service poems made everyone smile

The Ballad of the Ice Worm Cocktail

The Cremation of Sam McGee

But mostly an enjoyable time with song and dance.

Lead singer and her Pookie of the evening.

Dancin' Girls

Road Trip 2010: Day 24 Skagway to Whitehorse

Friday July 2: Day 24 Skagway to Whitehorse, YT

We retraced our steps back up the Klondike Highway as far as Carcross this morning. Then it was new territory north on the Klondike and then on the Alaskan Highway until we reached Whitehorse.

Sun dancing on the waters of Tutshi Lake

Back in the Yukon. This sign is much nicer than the one I posted earlier.

Since Terry and I had already stopped at the Carcross Desert and at Caribou Crossings, we passed those attractions by. We did, however stop at Carcross itself to take advantage of the restrooms, top off the coffee mug and pick up a few items for gifts at the oldest operating store in the Yukon: Watson’s General Store.

Oldest operating store in the Yukon.

Like many of the early narrow guage engines, this one at Carcross was made in Patterson, NJ.

We were into our campground in Whitehorse much too early but we had told our leader (who was, himself, still setting up when we arrived) that we wanted to go into town to get the oil changed on the Tundra and so were going to hustle on up. Unfortunately, nearly everyone else hustled up without stopping at the attractions at Carcross either.

Terry and I did, in fact, take the Tundra into town and get it serviced at a place called Envirolube. The price was steep, but they could do it as we waited. We also stopped at Staples to pick up a second external hard drive so I could back-up the photographs and remove the older ones from the computer’s over-worked hard drive.

Then we went to visit the Yukon Transportation Museum and an interpretive center dedicated to the ancient land of Berengia.

Out front of the Transportation Museum is the World’s Largest Wind Vane: a DC-3 mounted on a single pylon so that it turns to face into the wind. Inside, exhibits dealt with everything from dog sleds, carriages and buckboards, narrow gauge railroads, foot paths, sno-cats, and military trucks to airplanes and, although heavily biased to the 20th century, proved to be very interesting.

Transportation Museum

World's Largest Weather Vane

Berengia was the land exposed between Alaska and Asia during the last ice age and that land in the north that was not covered by ice. Fossils, bones and artifacts from that time (12 to 20 thousand years ago) are constantly being found on the banks of rivers and lakes as well in placer mining sites throughout the Yukon.

Lots of creatures took advantage of the expoased grasslands to travel from Asia to North America.

Wooly Mammoth

Giant Bison

And, of course, man.

After dinner, we all boarded a charter bus for a ride into Whitehorse to attend the show Frantic Follies, an 1890s vaudevillian revue of song, dance, comedy and more as it would have been presented to an audience of miners fresh from the creeks and with mighty heavy pokes. Needless to say we had a great time. But, that will have to be a separate post.

Doggone It!

Seems to be a good internet connection but it's slower than molasses on a February morn when it's 69 below when it comes to uploading photos. And that's even slower than my dial-up connection at the Bolt Hole. Granted some of those pictures are a wee bit large but most are 1 meg or less.

So, rather than fall even further behind in posting recounts of what we're up to, I'm going to put it all up--in words. Pictures will have to come later.

Road Trip 2010: Day 22: Skagway "Free Day"

"Free Day" *snort* HA! Right! Pull the other one, it's got bells!

Anything but free.
Laundry.
Grocery Shopping.
Expensive lunch of King Crab Legs.
Tours of three (or was it four?) museums in town.
Walking the "Million Dollar" row of Broadway and (mostly) window shopping.
Filling the gas tank at the only pump in town--once they got their computerized credit card system running again.

Hardly free. Which is why Terry and I did pass on joining the gang as they headed out to the Brewery on the edge of town for dinner and a few.

Terry & Me in Skagway

They are attempting to save as many historic buildings in the town as possible. This one, as you can see, has a great deal of history behind it due to its notorious owner.

A couple of views of Millionaires Row (aka Broadway) and the great looking buildings that are there.

Even the side streets off Broadway are pretty.


As is the town's museum (formerly the courthouse).


Lots of ways to get around the few short blocks in Skagway
There's old Dobbin willing to pull the buggy.

A stylishly clad bus driver.

And lots of antique vehicles like this Caddy cruising the streets. (Although I'm not sure they are for hire.)

Still, the origins of the town in the form of gold seekers and railroad access to the interior are not forgotten.

White Pass and Yukon RR Snow Blower

Gold Seeker and his Tlingit Guide