Our Alaska Journey Ends – Glad to be Home!

(2018 Alaska Ep 48)

We arrived home on Monday, October 8 – after 177 days and 22819 miles. We are getting things put away, cleaning a LOT of Alaska dirt and bugs off the truck and camper, and catching up on house maintenance chores.

Our welcome home was not quite what we expected – Hurricane Michael hit Florida Wednesday afternoon. Thankfully, the impact to us was minimal. Our prayers go to the many people affected by this serious storm.

Since our previous blog post, it took about a month to make our way from Bellingham, Washington to Florida. Our pace was slow and steady as we enjoyed various sights along the way.

while in Bellingham (RabbiTRAILS Alaska Map, pt # 58), we visited camp friends on Vancouver Island and Lynden, WA. We also visited Pat’s cousin – whom she had not seen in more than 30 years!

we also toured Boeing aircraft facilities north of Seattle. The place is HUGE.

2018 Alaska Trip 4833 - 1809101259 — Airliner takeoff over the Boeing facilities. We could not take photos inside.

we headed south along the Washington, Oregon and California coasts, and visited a couple interesting lighthouses (map, pts #59-63).

Old and new at the Cape Blanco lighthouse near Port Orford, OR

in California we were awestruck by the huge redwoods at Redwood National Park (map, pt # 63). A giant Paul Bunyan and his blue ox Babe kept watch at the nearby Trees of Mystery tourist attraction.

after touring the redwoods, we drove east to Lassen Volcanic National Park (map, pt # 64) and then to Boise, ID to visit Mission Aviation Fellowship. While in Boise we sampled Idaho potatoes at the Boise Fry Company (map, pt # 66).

we continued east, spending a night in Craters of the Moon National Monument (map, pt # 67). Several days later we visited church friends near Minneapolis, MN (map, pt 70).

Minneapolis Friends — A visit with church friends Ray and Kathy near Minneapolis

continuing east and south, we spent a night in Illinois and then visited the Ark Encounter and Creation Museum just south of Cincinnati (map, pt # 72).

Full-size reconstructed Ark – 510 ft long, 85 ft wide and 51 ft high

after another night on the road near Chattanooga, we spent three nights near Warner Robins, GA and caught up with our daughter, son-in-law and nearly nine-month-old grandson, Henry (map, pt # 74).

Liz-Josh-Henry — Josh, Henry and Liz. Henry has grown a lot since we saw him in April!

Many thanks for following us on this journey, and for your prayers and comments along the way.

Watch for new topics on the RabbiTRAILS blog, including National Parks, bike trips, trip planning, interesting things seen along the way and more. Eventually we will include links to videos of our experiences.

Until then, many blessings and interesting RabbiTRAILS to you. Remember to take the LONG ROAD!

Interesting Collections, Missing Bears and a Gorgeous Glacier

(2018 Alaska Ep 47)

After leaving Skagway, we camped at Six Mile River Resort in Tagish, Yukon on August 31 (RabbiTRAILS Alaska Map, pt #53). The campground has some interesting collections on display.

Most folks hang their fish for display, they hang their fishing reels!

The most memorable sight during our stay was of boats on the serene Six Mile River – this was taken early the next morning just before we left.

We continued along the Alaska Highway, and because our destination was the Vancouver/Washington area, we turned south on the Cassiar Highway. Although the entire Cassiar is paved, the first two hundred miles are very narrow with no center line or shoulders. It has several one lane, wooden decked bridges.

The highway is more remote than the Alaska Highway – it has only five gas stations in 450 miles. We had to plan gas stops carefully.

The Discovery Channel series Jade Fever takes place in Jade City, a small town on the Cassiar Highway.

Location Discovery Channel ‘Jade Fever; series

We took another side trip to Alaska while driving the Cassiar. We spent September 2-3 in Stewart, British Columbia, and crossed the border into the very small town of Hyder, Alaska (map pt 55).

Just outside of Hyder, the US Forest Service manages the Fish Creek Wildlife Observation Site. A wooden platform extends more than 1000 feet along Fish Creek, and when salmon swim up the creek to spawn between July and September, visitors can see black and grizzly bears that frequent the area for an easy meal.

The fish were there – the creek was active with lots of salmon splashing their way upstream to spawn.

The bears weren’t there. We didn’t see bears during three visits to Fish Creek. Perhaps the bears were full from their visits earlier in the week.

From Fish Creek we followed a bumpy and steep dirt road 12 miles to Salmon Glacier. What a view!

We said our final goodbye to Alaska as we left Hyder and continued south. We arrived in the lower 48 on September 7.

Pains in Haines and A Scary Ferry

(2018 Alaska Ep 46)

We have been abundantly blessed during 5+ months and almost 19,000 miles of traveling. The sights, experiences and people we’ve met have been amazing!

There have also been challenges along the way, but we count those as blessings as well. They are opportunities to trust God and see Him at work.

The road construction north of Haines and potholes on the campground road took their toll on our camper.

We smelled hot brakes coming from the rear right wheel as we set up camp at Chilkoot Lake State Recreation Site. We discovered the wheel was too hot to touch. It was radiating heat!

I removed the wheel and found the inside wheel bearing had failed. Part of the bearing housing was shredded into small pieces and bearings were all over the inside of the wheel hub. That was not good!

Trailer bearings 101 – in case you ever have a trailer:

We drove into town and purchased new bearings and grease for all four wheels. The auto parts store had exactly four sets of bearings that fit our trailer.

Back at the campsite, I prepared to replace the bad bearing but could not remove the inner sleeve of the bearing from the spindle – see picture above.

The trailer could not be towed and we anticipated having to have the camper taken into town for repairs on some sort of flatbed trailer. This would not be easy considering the potholes and crowded road.

We made arrangements for a mechanic to came to our campsite and he was there in just over an hour (we were glad he was immediately available). He removed the stubborn inner bearing sleeve in less than two minutes using something called a slide hammer. We were ever so thankful!

Before boarding the ferry the next day, we had bearings on all four wheels completely redone. Shortly before noon we lined up at the ferry landing for the trip to Skagway.

The ferry arrived and campers, including us, were loaded first.

To our surprise we had to back our truck and camper down the ramp onto the ferry and then make a 90 degree turn. Some people seem to have an amazing talent backing a trailer – NOT ME!

Thank goodness the ferry workers told us exactly when and how much to turn our wheels. We didn’t hit any cars, people or parts of the boat.

God’s timing is perfect! Had we left the day before, we would have backed onto the ferry in rain. Instead, when we backed on to the ferry the rain had just ended and the sun came out. The boat ride to Skagway was beautiful.

The folks we met at Haines were very kind – at the auto parts store, the local hardware store, the mechanic who came to the campsite and the man who redid the wheel bearings. We were blessed…

A Scenic Side Trip and Really Bad Roads

(2018 Alaska Ep 45)

We crossed the border from Alaska into Canada on August 27. After a couple days enroute, we took a side trip to Haines, Alaska. Haines is on the Alaska panhandle just above Juneau (RabbiTRAILS Alaska Map, pt #52).

The three hour drive from the Alaska Highway to Haines was recommended to us by several other Alaska travelers. We weren’t disappointed! The day was clear and the road was surrounded by tall mountains and multiple glaciers.

2018 Alaska Trip Video 0589 - 1808290938_Momentx

A few miles from Haines we reentered Alaska and the road quickly dropped in elevation. The views were less spectacular and we endured major road construction just outside of town.

We made reservations on a ferry from Haines to Skagway, another town on the Alaska panhandle. Both towns are on deep water fjords and are visited by cruise ships.

That evening we camped at Chilkoot Lake State Recreation Site. a few miles outside Haines. The drive into the campground was a test of patience! We had to drive very slowly – the narrow road had LOTS of large potholes. In the creek alongside the road there were several grizzly bears eating their fill of spawning salmon. The road was congested with cars, RVs and buses, and dozens of persons observing and taking photos of the bears. They had little regard for campers trying to pass by!

2018 Alaska Trip 4471 - 1808291645 — Hungry grizzly bear cubs. Mama was nearby.

We left Haines and arrived in Skagway after a scenic hourlong ferry ride. There were three large cruise ships in port and the little town was packed with tourists. More than a century ago, Skagway was a frontier town packed with gold seekers starting their journey to find fortunes in interior Alaska and Canada.

We passed three cruise ships as we arrived at Skagway.

After looking around for a couple hours, we left Skagway and reentered Canada. The next morning we rejoined the Alaska Highway and continued to the lower 48.

2018 Alaska Trip 4549 - 1808311706 — The end of the rainbow north of Skagway

Our stay in Haines was unexpectedly extended by a day – more on this and the ferry ride to Skagway in the next blog post.

Bye-Bye Bucket List Item #2

(2018 Alaska Ep 44)

On August 25, we headed south to Canada, the Alaska and Cassiar highways and eventually Washington State. Our plans were to visit some camp friends and Pat’s cousin when we reached the lower 48.

2018 Alaska Trip 4207 - 1808251155 — Mile 1422, end of the Alaska Highway

We visited the official end of the Alaska Highway in Delta Junction and camped further south in Tok. In June we camped in Tok when we first arrived in Alaska.

The small town was noticeably less busy this time – campgrounds were mostly empty and there were fewer vehicles on the road. Summer visitors were headed south!

We decided to take a day trip to Chicken, Alaska, a couple hours away via the Taylor Highway.

According to town lore, Chicken got its name because the town founders were unable to spell Ptarmigan.

Once a gold mining town, Chicken now consists of several souvenir stores, a couple campgrounds and some very interesting relics from the gold rush days, including a huge gold dredge. It also has a large chicken statue made of scrap metal by high school students in Homer, Alaska.

The weather was cold and clear during our first evening in Tok. We drove 15 miles to a dark area out of town. As the sun set, we had a wonderful surprise!

Above us were moving ribbons of green that crisscrossed the sky – the Northern Lights! We watched for more than an hour as the intensity and colors varied. At times the entire sky was filled with varying patterns and occasional different colors.

As we prepared to leave Alaska after more than two months, we reflected on God’s blessings and presence throughout our trip. We had traveled and seen much, and the lights were icing on the cake, reminding us of His creation and majesty!

Bye-Bye Bucket List Item #1

(2018 Alaska Ep 43)

When planning our Alaska trip we had a couple items on our bucket list – one was to visit the Arctic Circle and the other to see the Northern Lights.

We set off from Fairbanks on August 22 in search of both.

We traveled north via the Dalton Highway. The road extends more than 400 miles from near Fairbanks to Prudhoe Bay, the immense northern oilfield on the Bering Sea and start of the Alaska oil pipeline. Due to the condition of the road, we decided to leave our camper in Fairbanks and drive to Coldfoot, an hour north of the Arctic Circle and halfway to Prudhoe (RabbiTRAILS Alaska Map, Pt. # 49).

The Dalton has sections of pavement with lots of potholes and other sections with a graded gravel-dirt mix. When the gravel-dirt road is dry, you can actually travel faster than on the paved road. When wet … more on that below.

The road is VERY remote with light traffic; there are few signs of civilization other than the pipeline. We crossed the Yukon River after several hours, and welcomed the sight of restrooms and a gas pump. We didn’t welcome the price of fuel – $5.49 a gallon!

We reached the Arctic Circle a couple hours later. It was nothing really exciting other than a sign telling us we had arrived.

Had we been there on June 21, however, we would have experienced a day when the sun never set. Instead, we were at a campground in Yukon on that date (see earlier blog post).

2018 Alaska Trip Video 0559 - 1808221543 — At the Arctic Circle! The trees are short and tree line low on the mountains.

We continued to Coldfoot Camp. Coldfoot is a major stopover between Fairbanks and Prudhoe. It is in the Brooks Range, remote mountains that extend more than 1500 miles east-west across Alaska.

Inside, truck drivers filled themselves on a hot buffet, and outside, car drivers filled their tanks with $5.49 gallon gasoline.

We camped at Marion Creek BLM Campground, a few miles north of Coldfoot. It was our home away from home away from home. As we prepared dinner, it began to lightly rain. We stayed dry on air mattresses and sleeping bags in the back of the truck. No Northern Lights for us that night.

2018 Alaska Trip 4079 - 1808222009 — Camping – our home away from home away from home…

The next morning we rose to remnants of light rain from the night before. We cooked breakfast in the cold and noticed fresh snow on nearby mountaintops.

When we started back to Fairbanks, we discovered the gravel-dirt road was now slush. Our speed was much slower. Before long our truck was covered with a VERY thick layer of dirt and gravel.

The first stop when we returned to Fairbanks was to a car wash!

We crossed the Arctic Circle off our bucket list but were disappointed we didn’t see the northern lights.

There’s Lots to See in Fairbanks

(2018 Alaska Ep 42)

Signs of change were everywhere – shorter days and cooler nights, more days of rain, fireweed plants losing their flowers and turning red, and birch tree leaves changing from green to dull green to yellow. Highways, campgrounds and attractions even seemed to be slowing down. With mid-August, fall is right around the corner and our time in Alaska was growing short.

The trip from Denali to Fairbanks was an easy four hour drive and we found a campground in North Pole, a few miles east of Fairbanks (RabbiTRAILS Alaska Map, pt #48).

For a relatively small city (population 33,000 in 2016), Fairbanks has a lot to see and do.

The Alaska oil pipeline passes nearby on its way from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez. North of town, you can view the actual pipeline along with several displays with interesting pipeline information. We’ll be seeing lots more of the pipeline in the days to come…

Underbelly pipeline view – 48 inchs in diameter

North Pole is the ultimate Christmas destination – the street light poles are shaped like candy canes and you can find just about anything Christmas in the Santa Claus House. They even have the world’s largest Santa at 42 feet and live reindeer next door at Antler Academy.

At University of Alaska Fairbanks we enjoyed outstanding exhibits about Alaskan art, wildlife and people at the Museum of the North and later learned about Alaska fauna at the Georgeson Botanical Gardens.

We watched hundreds of sandhill cranes circle the gardens and land on a large field across the road. It is one of the areas in town where migratory birds rest during their long distance flights south. Elsewhere in Fairbanks is Creamers Field Migratory Waterfowl Refuge, located on a large tract of land that used to be a dairy. We saw lots of sandhill cranes, Canadian geese, ducks, trumpeter swans and more.

Creamer’s Dairy is now a migratory bird refuge

2018 Alaska Trip 3990 - 1808201446 — Closeup of Sandhill Cranes

The highlight of our Fairbanks stay was a trip north to the Artic Circle. More on that in the next blog post!

Denali NP: Revisited

After the Glacier-Wildlife Cruise on Friday, August 10, Phil flew home late Saturday and Pat and I left Anchorage on Sunday morning. Our plans were to revisit Denali if the weather was good. We wanted to see some of the sights and hike several trails that we couldn’t during our first visit rainout.

We camped at Willow and Talkeetna on the way (RabbiTRAILS Alaska Map, pts #46 and #47) and arrived at Denali (map pt #45) on Wednesday, August 15. Campsites weren’t available in the park so we set up camp at a private campground six miles south of the park.

We checked the weather forecast for the next two days and decided to ride the park transit bus to the Eielson Visitor Center on Thursday. Eielson is about two-thirds of the way to Kantishna, at mile 66 of the 92-mile-long Denali Park road.

We were amazed at the mountain and valley vistas that were shrouded by rain and fog during our first visit. The unspoiled wilderness and immenseness of Denali is awesome. And to think, we only saw about 2% of the park!

2018 Alaska Trip 3784 - 1808161401 — Panorama view from Polychrome Pass

2018 Alaska Trip 3852 - 1808161736 — Toklat River flowing from distant mountains

The park road crosses wide rivers and climbs steep mountains. Steep drop-offs along the narrow road that were hidden from us during our first bus trip were now clearly visible and a bit scary!

At Eielson we hiked a short (.8 mile one way) but very steep (1000 ft elevation gain) trail to an alpine ridge overlooking the visitor center. The day was partly cloudy and the views were wonderful. Had the day been clear, we would have seen Denali.

2018 Alaska Trip 3837 - 1808161716 — Pausing for a photo on the Eielson Alpine Trail – great views but no Denali

Like our previous trip we saw lots of animals, including a mother grizzly and cub that crossed the road right in front of several buses.

On Friday, we hiked a loop trail along the Savage River. It is one of the most beautiful hikes we have ever taken.

2018 Alaska Trip 3901 - 1808171548 — Savage River

We broke camp on Saturday and prepared to leave for Fairbanks. The day was clear. Before we left the Denali area, we caught a spectacular glimpse of The Great One!

Iditarod: Dog Sledding Super Bowl

(2018 Alaska Ep 40)

As we’ve traveled through various parts of Alaska there has been frequent mention and interest shown in sled dog racing. We suspect the Alaska sled racing season is met with as much enthusiasm as college or professional football in the lower 48.

The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race is probably the most well known long distance sled dog race in Alaska. The link above gives a lot of very interesting history about dog sled races and the Iditarod.

We visited the Iditarod Trail Race Headquarters in Wasilla and learned lots about sled racing.

The Iditarod commemorates Alaskan sledding heritage and has been run since 1973.
Sled dog teams of up to 16 dogs run from Anchorage to Nome, nearly 1000 miles!
The race is run in early March and can take 15 days or more to complete.
It has two starts – Anchorage is the ceremonial starting point and Willow (near Wasilla) is the actual starting point.
The fastest recorded Iditarod time was 8 days, 13 hours, 40 minutes and 13 seconds in 2017.
The race is not just for men – women have won the race several times.

As mentioned in an earlier blog post, Denali National Park has a nice dog sled presentation. It is amazing how excited the dogs are as they wait to be hitched and how much enthusiasm they show when pulling. Some photos from the presentation:

Anxiously waiting to be picked to pull the sled!

We saw an interesting quote displayed at the Iditarod visitor center: the dogs are the athletes and the musher the coach! After seeing videos and picture of the rigors of the race, we totally agree. We’ll more closely follow the Iditarod this coming March!

Kenai Fjords NP: Glacier and Wildlife Cruise

(2018 Alaska Ep 39)

As our son Phil’s trip to Alaska came to a close, we decided to take a six-hour glacier and wildlife cruise with Kenai Fjords Tours. Our cruise on the Calisto Voyager would take us southwest from Seward (RabbiTRAILS Alaska Map, pt # 44) along the Alaska coastline and Kenai Fjords National Park.

We saw wildlife even before leaving the dock – playful otters, a lonely sea lion and even some jellyfish.

We left Seward and arrived at Aialik Glacier in about 30 minutes. The ship stopped a quarter mile from the glacier. It was a magnificent view on a magnificent day!

Our ship captain told us the face of the glacier is nearly 600 foot high and about a mile wide. The glacier is noisy – with continuous cracking, occasional loud bursts that sound like cannon shots, and small ice flows that fall into the water every few minutes.

The glacier face has deep fissures and we hoped to see a large piece break free. Such calving didn’t happen during our visit, but here is a 2015 YouTube video that shows Aialik Glacier calving.

Various-sized chunks of ice floated in the water near the glacier and numerous seals sunned themselves on the larger pieces. One of the crew members explained the seals choose that location to avoid predators.

We left the glacier and spent most of the remainder of the cruise searching for wildlife around various islands just offshore.

Our boat and several others stopped to see a pod of Orca whales dive and surface. Later we saw a larger humpback whale. The captain explained humpback whales migrate to Hawaiian water during the winter.

On another island we saw a large group of barking steller sea lions. They nervously waddled from the rocks into the water when our boat approached.

The islands are home to thousands of seagulls, cute puffins and other birds. One puffin flew alongside our boat for a considerable distance before finally veering away.

We also saw a majestic bald eagle standing guard near the top of a rock face.

As the cruise came to an end, we were surprised by another flying spectacle – a kite surfer riding the brisk breezes above the ice cold waters of Resurrection Bay.