(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.

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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.

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

• 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).

• 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).

• 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).

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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!

(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.

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.

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.

(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).

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.

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.

(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:

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!