June 27 - Seward to Kenai

Did it rain or did it RAIN last night??? Good grief!

I actually had to put my earplugs in it was so loud. Granted, even the smallest drop of rain sounds like thrown pebbles on our tent roof but the deluges that came in waves last night were thunderous. Neither of us slept very well. In addition to the rain, there were people coming and going and up through the night talking so it was a busy spot!

Gratefully, we woke up to heavy, threatening skies but it was dry. My LEAST favorite thing when we travel like this is packing up camp in the rain. Everything gets wet and it's hard to suit up in your gear and get things organized then your shelter (the tent) is put away. There is no refuge. This morning, we had this blessed window of dry and we were able to pack everything up and get on our way without being dumped on. We hit the local bakery for some quick breakfast and then were off. 

Back up and out of the valley, back through Moose Pass, we swung west and drove through Cooper Landing. It's on the river and there are a collection of really awesome little resorts with camping, small log cabins etc., all catering to the fishing crowd. We wished we had stayed here last night. It's a really pretty area and the river is gorgeous - a milky glacial blue colour. The road twists and turns to follow the river and suddenly, we came around one corner and, without a word of a lie, there must have been hundreds of people fishing along the banks of the river. Up here they call it "Combat Fishing" - people are 10 feet apart and it's hard to imagine how they can fish without getting all of their lines tangled up. I've never seen anything like it in all my life. The sockeye salmon are open right now and people are CRAZY about fishing in this area. We thought about stopping to take a photo but the pullouts were so clogged up, there wasn't even room for us to squeeze in for a few minutes. 

We made our way through Sterling and into Soldotna with the idea we'd camp there for the night. We drove along the highway that runs through one side of town but it just wasn't very appealing. We decided to carry on down the road to Kenai City. There, we found a nice Farmer's Market on the lawn of the Visitor's Center where we had lunch - a really great reindeer hotdog. I have to admit, there was a small pang of guilt at the idea of eating one of Santa's own but it tasted great and we agreed to never tell the small grandkids!

We wandered through their nice visitor's center and small museum and then we decided to drive through the Old Town just down the block.

Veronica's - a very cool coffee house in Kenai City

I love how someone thought to plant the box in front of this saggy old shack...

Among other heritage buildings is a very old Russian Orthodox church we'd heard a lot about. 

We started out on this trek and came across a gorgeous campsite right on the bluff looking over Cook Inlet. What a find! We had no idea it was here! A beautiful spot to spend the evening. 

Our view of Cook Inlet from our campsite.

Trail leading down to the beach.

June 26 - Anchorage to Whittier and Seward

The skies were a bit gloomy this morning when we packed up but we had no indication of what was to come... we grabbed some breakfast and happened upon some great wifi so we took a little extra time and posted some blog posts that were overdue. By the time we got that done, the sky had opened up and it was raining stair-rods. Sigh....

SO - on with all the gear! It reminds me of being a kid in Edmonton for one winter (the coldest in 25 years or something like that if I remember it correctly) and it would take Mom 45 minutes to get us kids all suited up in our snowsuits and mitts on strings, layers upon layers, scarves and boots. She'd pin our bus passes on the fronts of our snowsuits and we'd wobble off out into -60 to catch the bus to school... Gearing up for cold and wet motorcycle riding is pretty much the same production. 

Shortly after leaving Anchorage, the road heads into the Chugach National Park which is gorgeous. An arm of the Cook Inlet hooks southeast of Anchorage and the highway follows it to Portage. It was too bad that the clouds were so thick and low, obstructing our view of what we can only imagine must be a stunning coastal ride. 

We decided to do a dogleg down to Whittier. We had heard about the Whittier tunnel and didn't want to miss out. The tunnel is 2.5 miles long and is an old train tunnel. In fact, the tracks are still intact. They've just built up the center and sides and the tracks are in ruts. As a result, it's a bit of a trick riding through on bikes. I was OK (on my motorbike) because I could stay in the center lane but my husband had a bit of a go of it on his trike, pulling our small tent trailer. He had to do some wrangling to finally find a path for all of his wheels to be on solid footing! 

The tunnel is straight as an arrow and there are lights all the way through it with bare rockface walls. It runs through the base of a towering mountain and, I have to admit, it was a little daunting to drive into the small hole of an entrance with the massive mountain towering over you. In the photo, the small hole in the entrance can accommodate a semi truck. The is the only land route to Whittier. 

Once out the other side, the town of Whittier is just a couple miles away. There are a few businesses there but it's kind of an eerie town. There is an enormous army barracks that is an abandoned concrete shell. On the high side of town is a huge apartment complex. The gal at the coffee shop told us pretty much everyone in Whittier lives in that one building. It also houses various government offices, the police, a barber, the bank and a few other businesses. At the waterfront, there is an assortment of marine related businesses and a couple of coffee shops, a tiny art gallery and the ferry terminal. 

By the time we had coffee, it was REALLY raining hard so we decided to make a move and head for Seward. Back through the tunnel and up out of the valley, the rain eased off. We took the spur to Seward and came through Moose Pass - a cute little roadside town with a few little cafes, coffee shops, gift shops, a gold panning place etc. Down into Seward, the rain was replaced by a bone chilling misty drizzle that just seems to permeate everything. In the harbour, a large cruiseship sat in port. All along the harbour waterfront are tour companies, restaurants, cafes and other shops including a really awesome bakery. We added our contribution to the public art piece here... 

Further down, the City of Seward has reserved a couple miles of waterfront for camping. Honestly - without a word of exaggeration, there must have been over 1000 RVs there. They had overflow camping in the baseball diamond and in a more industrial area. We were in a tenting campsite and I think we were lucky to snag a spot. The site was OK but there was no water and the nearest potable water station was a long walk away. The closest bathroom was half a kilometer away so the City put a few Port-A-Potties in our general area. They were disgusting - dirty and in desperate need of emptying. Gross. We decided to make do - it was too far to backtrack and it was only for one night. We went to Safeway, washed up there while we bought some dinner and then hunkered in for the night. It was just starting to rain again when we went to bed...

June 25 - Anchorage

Well, between the trains, the planes and the late arriving campsite traffic, we woke up this morning feeling like we'd been to the wars. We got up, made coffee and set about dealing with the most pressing issue of the day - we are now 6000+ kms into our trip and our bikes need an oil change. We tried calling the Harley dealership in Anchorage in advance, once we knew when we'd be here, but we were told they couldn't take us. We were a little discouraged because it's sort of an unwritten rule (at least in Canada) that travellers from away are prioritized for oil changes etc. if they're on a big trip. We decided to show up when they opened to see just how rigid they were about their "no".

We got there just before their Service department opened up and as soon as they showed up, we inquired. Nope. No go. So - we bought oil and filters and Lynn decided he'd do our bikes himself at the campsite. Harley DID offer to take our used oil and filters and dispose of them for us so that was good.  We went across the street to Gwenny's - an old restaurant that's been around for a loooooooong time. It's one of the oldest restaurants in Anchorage. The old girl looks a little run down but it's BIG and it's BUSY! The place was just hopping and it was piled full of locals so you know it's a good place. I'm not sure when it was built but most of the building is made of river rock and inside, the decor is decidedly vintage Alaskan - native and outdoorsy artifacts with lots of stuffed dead animals all over the place and old photos on the walls. The food was fantastic and the most reasonably priced we've found in Alaska so far. Gwenny's is a gem and absolutely worth going to. 

From there, we went just down the block to Lake Hood, home of the largest small engine airplane base in the world (they have a busy airstrip there for small planes).  

It's also the largest float plane base in North America.

There are over 2500 small planes on any given day. It's also next to the major commercial airport so you can IMAGINE the air traffic in the area! We rode around the lake where you can get right up close to many of the small planes. The planes themselves use the road to taxi around on and there are signs everywhere reminding vehicle drivers that the planes have the right-away. We followed the road all the way around to the end where the aviation museum is. It's a very nice museum that takes up 4 hangars. A 5th one is used for restoring projects which you can go in if there are volunteers around. They also have an outdoor display of planes and the old air traffic tower which you can go up and view the lake from. They transmit the actual commercial tower feed into this little tower so you can hear the air traffic controllers guiding the commercial flights that are coming and going next door.

While here, we met Blain, who has worked in Alaska and in the Aleutian Islands specifically a lot over the years. While he is technically retired, he is still doing contracts for the government out there. He found out Lynn is a pilot and that we're going down the Aleutians next week and that we had an interest in the history of the Islands, particularly when the Japanese invaded during WWII. He we really excited we were going and he went to the museum gift shop and BOUGHT us copies of two volumes from The Forgotten War book series which he contributed to. Just completely out of the blue. He said they would make good reading on our boat trip down the chain. 

You just never know who you will meet on any given day. We were blown away by his generosity. Later, we were talking to one of the volunteers at the museum and she couldn't say enough about him and what a nice man he is. Apparently, he's donated a lot to the museum over the years... 

From Lake Hood, we headed downtown and caught the one hour trolley tour through the city which is a good little overview of Anchorage.

We headed over to Humpy's - an Anchorage landmark of a restaurant - fantastic seafood and a favorite with the locals. After dinner, we came back to our campsite and I caught up on this blog while Lynn changed the oil in our bikes. Tomorrow - we think we'll head out. We're sure there's lots more to see in Anchorage but we're not feeling much like doing the city thing right now. We'd rather get gone and see a few more spots on the Kenai - Whittier and the big tunnel, Seward and then up to Kenai itself and the surrounding area before we head for Homer and the boat trip down the Aleutians...

June 24 - Valdez to Anchorage

We woke up this morning to cloudless blue sky and glorious sunshine. What a DAY!! We packed up camp and headed back to Potatoheads for breakfast and then we started our trek to Anchorage. We retraced our steps back up to Glenallen, had lunch at the Fireweed Cafe again and then drove the Glenn Highway back through the outskirts of Palmer and into Anchorage. We found the (?) Creek RV Park and Campsite right on the edge of town, about a 2 minute drive to downtown. With limited time, we tend to pick central RV sites when we can so we spend less time commuting and more time seeing the sights even though you end up dealing with some of the challenges of urban camping.

Well - turns out there were a few challenges here. First of all, this RV campsite, while quite nice and with a lot of greenspace, is in a fairly dodgy part of town so it's not the most appealing place to make your way in to or out of. Lots of derelict neighbourhoods and drug dealers on streetcorners. Second, it is right beside the railroad tracks and the trains are fairly frequent plus, they seem to take great delight in blowing their horn excessively (we're convinced, anyway) because they know there is an RV park here. My husband Lynn made a comment about the loudness of the horn and I said if he was the train engineer, he would TOTALLY blow it loud and long as he went by the RV park just to wake up everyone trying to sleep and then he would LAUGH And LAUGH and LAUGH about it. Anyone who knows Lynn would absolutely agree with me, I'm sure!! Lastly, this week, the military has huge, international airforce exercises going on and they have huge F-16s and other military planes flying around and around doing formations and other manoevers, creating ear-splitting roar. Fortunately, this was over by late afternoon but for awhile there, we were thinking this was quite possibly the noisiest place we'd ever been to!

We set up camp, ate our left over Fu Kung Chinese food and hit the sack. 

June 23 - Valdez

We headed downtown around 9:00 and searched out some breakfast - great coffee and food served up at The Potatohead right on the waterfront. We sat out on a picnic table and watched the marina activity. 

It was COLD and, overnight, thick, soggy and low-lying cloud cover had filled in the valley. Rain looked immanent... We brought our warmest layers and a rain jacket. It was a bit of a disappointment after yesterday's glorious sunshine and bluebird skies but you don't get to choose so we just had to roll with what we got. 

We boarded the Lulu Belle at 10:30 and by 11:00, we were off. Captain Fred delivered pretty much a running commentary as the day unfolded, full of interesting tidbits of information and lots of humorous stories and jokes.  

Within 10 minutes of leaving the marina, we came across a group of sea otters all sleeping and floating on their backs. There must have been about 50 of them. As we approached slowly and quietly, they looked around, rolled onto their tummies and then their backs again. Some munched on shellfish and others preened themselves. Fred said that sea otter numbers and health are an indicator of the overall health of the bay. They don't have a fat layer for insulation so they rely almost solely on their fur for warmth. Any oil pollution will ruin their fur's insulating capacity and they'll die off so high numbers of sea otters (which there are) is a good sign. Also, just down the coastline from the huge oil storage facility is a salmon hatchery which is thriving and seeing record numbers.

We are aware of the politics and environmental concerns surrounding oil pipelines (it's a huge and hot topic in BC) and, when you first arrive in Valdez, you almost immediately become aware of the massive oil plant on the far shore and the tanker docked there if there is one. It seems so anathema to the magnificent and raw natural beauty that surrounds it and yet, since it's completion in the 1970s, they've managed to co-exist in relative peace. Except for that one time, of course... :)

Everyone on the West Coast of BC and Alaska (at least) remembers the Exxon Valdez that ran aground in the outer harbour and spilled millions of gallons of oil into the ocean. It was an environmental disaster of epic proportions. We heard many different stories about what happened including a 3rd mate who didn't adjust the autopilot as directed to the Captain being drunk as a Lord. Who really knows but out in the harbour, a marker memorializes the spot the Exxon Valdez went down. Where there does seem to be consensus is that the disaster was caused by human error rather than structural failure.

From there, we started to head southwest down the channel towards open water. We almost immediately started to see humpback whales. For the next 2 hours, we whalewatched and saw about a dozen humpback whales and one fin whale. One of the humpbacks was really close to our boat and it was so awesome to watch him blow bubbles in the water in a wide circle - a behaviour that confuses the fish (mostly herring in this case) and the bubbles form almost a net that confines them and then the whale goes goes in and gulps them up. Humpbacks are baleen whales so they don't have teeth, they have baleen plates that sift sealife out of enormous mouthfulls of water. 

We left the whales behind and headed for the shore. Fred brought us to a huge cave and he oh-so-carefully nosed the Lulu Belle right into the cave! He was mere inches away from rockface in several places! A very skilled and confident skipper!

Next we came across a bunch of Artic Puffins who were out on the water fishing. They fly like ducks (awkwardly) and are differently marked than the Atlantic Puffins we saw 2 years ago in the Maritimes. We then came to four beaches where Stellar sea lions were breeding. There were hundreds of them, lying like giant cigars all over the beach. The barking and roaring was deafening as the monstrous males rushed up onto the beach and crashed into the lounging groups, creating havoc in their wake. And the stink! Oh my... everyone now and then you caught a whiff - they're pretty rank, I must say!

From the sea lions, we headed for the Columbia Glacier. Apparently, it calves about 100 feet of ice per day. The bay that leads to the glacier is filled with icebergs and lots of small loose ice in the 9 miles of water leading up to the glacier face. We wondered how we would get there and if we'd be the next Titanic but old Captain Fred just deftly nosed the Lulu Belle through the maze of ice. He specially reinforced her hull with over 3 inches of additional plywood and fibreglass for this very purpose. 

We got within a quarter mile to the glacier which spans about 10 miles across. It's HUMONGOUS!!! The glacier face itself is over 300 feet high from the water.

As you approach the glacier, the air temperature plummets but the water becomes like glass and the wind almost completely died off. It was so quiet it was almost eerie and, as a result, you could hear how much noise the ice makes. The smaller icebergs around us were crackling and popping steadily like amplified rice crispies in milk. The glacier itself was alive with cracking and popping, some of which were as loud as gun shots. Every few minutes, enormous pieces would calve off and plunge into the water, slapping the surface so hard it was as loud and booming as thunder. We were there for over an hour and in that time, there was almost constant activity. The most dramatic moment was when an entire face of a wall fell apart and apartment building sized chunks fell, one after another, into the water creating a small tsunami effect that rocked the boat significantly... in that moment, we all became accutely aware of just how dangerous the glacier could be if you got too close. 

Throughout the day, the crew of the Lulu Belle serve up some delicious homemade chowder, chilli and other lunch items along with homemade baking. Today were heavenly brownies that filled the cabins up with mouthwatering aroma. The crew were all so friendly and accommodating and worked hard to make sure we all had a brilliant time.

On the return trip, we were all a bit played out. We got back to Valdez around 8pm, thouroughly thrilled with all the wildlife and dramatic glacier activity we'd seen. We were up in the wheelhouse for most of the ride back and Tash, a young woman in her 20s from Bellingham who was one of the crew, took over for Fred while he went bellow to check the engines etc. Tash explained that she is almost finished getting her Captain's license for boats in the 100 ton or less category. She'd been up crewing for Fred for the past 3 years to get her 365 days which she will achieve this summer. Once she's done that, she said Fred has offered to pay for her to get to Anchorage and do the classroom time (about 2 weeks) and then take her big exam to get her ticket. Today, he let her pilot the Lulu Belle (who is 75 feet long!) into the marina, turn her 90 degrees in a tight spot and gently back her into her slip. While she got the job done, the dozen or so of us who were in the wheelhouse with her all held our breath, so impressed that this young woman who looked barely old enough to drive a car so casually manoevered this great big boat. When she finally turned the engines off, we all errupted in cheers and she was so delighted by it all... :) 

After all the goodbyes were done, we dragged our cold, tired bodies up the gangplank and made our way to the Fu Kung Chinese restaurant. We'd heard it was good and HOLY MOLY were they right. I lived in Vancouver for 25 years and I can say that the Fu Kung served up food as good as any I've had. Another big recommendation we'd make. 

Back at camp, we promptly collapsed into bed. What a day!!

June 22 - Palmer to Valdez

We hit the trail fairly early - we were really excited to hit Valdez today. We heard nothing but fantastic rave reviews about Valdez from everyone we'd talked to who had been there. We also heard that the road in to Valdez is one of the prettiest roads in America so we were stoked!

As we headed East on the Glenn Highway, we meandered through a lot of agricultural land - small farms and ranches and noticed more cowboy hats and boots... After Sutton, the road starts to follow a big glacier wash and gets twisty and hilly - so much fun on bikes! We came swinging around one corner and suddenly, a brilliant blue glacier was to our right. WOW! Our first glacier this trip. From there, the road slowly started to level and straighten out and we were back into the endless tundra and a million square miles of black spruce. 

We eventually made it to the junction of Highway 4 and the town of Glenallen. We had a really good lunch at the Fireweed Cafe and then headed south. We stopped for gas at Copper Center which is really just a big fishcamp. We stood on the bridge and watched as dozens of people lined the banks of the river and fished for sockeye salmon. People come from all over the States (including the Lower 48) to get their yearly supply and this year, the salmon are hitting record numbers so Fish and Wildlife has increased the allowable catch.

Past  Copper Center, the road is more tundra and black spruce and then it starts to descend towards the coast. Suddenly, the terrain changes dramatically and you start to catch sight of the coastal mountains.

Valdez truly is a land of giants - we've seen some big mountains in our travels (both on this trip and others) and I grew up in the Rockies in southeastern BC and we were both gobsmacked by the mountains that tower over the valley that leads to Valdez. Around every corner is another postcard vista of knife point peaks covered in blinding white snow and lowlands of rich green. Gone is the tundra to be replaced with what looks like temperate rainforest - the trees include many deciduous varieties and the forest is so dense, you would be hard pressed to make a trail. 

Quickly, you come to Worthington Glacier which is the crown of this stretch of road - stretching across the horizon, lodged between a string of mountains. It's so stunning, you simply cannot help but stop at the pull-out and stare in amazement. 

From there, the road swings to the left and up a hill and then there is another pull out that perches over the magnificent valley you descend through to get to Keystone Canyon and the coast below. 

We can honestly say, this is probably the most stunning and awe-inspiring road we've ever travelled. If for no other reason (and there are many), go to Valdez just to travel this road... ESPECIALLY if you can do it on a motorcycle and can catch it on a sunny day as we were so lucky to do. 

Once into Valdez, we cruised the main street through town to get our bearings and then we spotted the Bear Paw RV and Campsite right beside the marina. The little known insider information is that the Bear Paw has an adult-only camping section that has about 2 dozen sites a couple blocks away, right on the harbour. We scored a sweet spot right on the beach...

We went to one of the local hangouts - The Fat Mermaid. The Mermaid is a bar and restaurant that looks out over the marina. It's basic pub fare but the food was really good. We had the fish and chips (the fish is all caught fresh right there) and it was some of the best we've had. 

Valdez is a very interesting town. It is the terminus of the Alaskan Pipeline which runs 800 miles down from Prudhoe Bay on the Beaufort Sea at the north end of the Dalton Highway. At Valdez, enormous oil tankers are filled up across the bay at the storage plant and then they sail to the Lower 48 where the oil is refined. The Alaskan Pipeline was moving 2 million barrels of oil per day but now, production has slowed and the pipeline is only moving about 600,000 barrels per day because of a lack of refining facilities so we were told.  

Prior to the pipeline, Valdez was a fishing village. In 1964, the huge earthquake that shook Alaska and down the San Andreas fault line as far south as California, completely destroyed the town. It was a 9.2 quake that lasted for 4.5 minutes at that strength. When they rebuilt, they chose a new (and the current) townsite. Valdez was fading quickly and was almost a ghost town like many of the small towns in the 1960s and 70s before the pipeline was built and created employment for thousands of people which has also supported a burgeoning tourist trade. 

The marina is an absolute hive of activity and there is still a very active commercial fishery here including 2 canneries and processing plants. In town, one of the packers has a retail shop where you can buy the fresh catch of the day and is very reasonably priced given that there are no middle-men. The docks are crammed with all kinds of boats from big commercial boats to small sailboats and everything in between. Many people from Fairbanks, Tok and other Alaskan places have boats in Valdez and come down on weekends and for holidays. It was really fun to hang out on the marina boardwalk and watch all the comings and goings and all the hustle and bustle of this vibrant little town. 

We talked to some locals and the consensus was that a boat tour was the must-do activity. There are two major boat tour providers - Stan Steves and the LuLu Belle. We had heard about the LuLu Belle from a lovely young couple we camped beside in Fairbanks who were from Valdez. In fact, they'd gotten married on the LuLu-Belle. She is a gorgous yacht, all hand finished in teak and mahogany by the owner and operator, Fred Rodolf. Fred has been plying these waters for 30 years and is a walking (or, in this case, sailing) encyclopedia of information about anything you might want to know. We opted for the LuLu Belle so we bought tickets for tomorrow. Can't wait!!

June 21 - Denali to Talkeetna and Palmer

We woke up to heavy, dark skies - huge saturated clouds just waiting to dump rain on us as we packed up. We scurried around, trying to get organized as quickly as we could while watching the rain creep it's way towards us. It arrived about 10 minutes before we were finished but we managed to get our camp stowed away and out of the rain. 

We decided to head back up north of Healy to Rose's Cafe for breakfast because dinner was so good the night before. We got there and it was PACKED. We sat out on their covered patio and had a fantastic breakfast. We really can't say enough about Rose's. Just go if you're in the area. You won't be disappointed, we promise!

By the time we left, the rain had let up a bit. We hit the road and, several miles south of Healy, there was some road construction, a 2 mile section of it was an orange, clay-based dirt that, when mixed with rain, turned into a slimy red grease. It was BRUTAL especially on a motorbike - absolutely zero traction and it was a bumpy, pot-holey run. A couple of times, my 950 lb. bike just slid into a hole and pulled me off course. All I could do was go with it and *gently* brake until I came to a stop, redirect myself and try again. Meanwhile, I had a huge line of vehicles behind me but there was no where for them to pass me so we all just had to be patient. It was the closest I've come to dumping my bike but I'm so GLAD that I was able to make it through without mishap! That behind us, the road was in good shape and the sky gradually cleared as we got further south. 

When we were at Rose's, the folks at the table next to us suggested we take the time to detour off the main highway about 14 miles and take a quick run into the historic town of Talkeetna. At the junction, we waffled a little bit but decided we'd better check it out and we've very glad we did. Talkeetna has a long history of being a supply base for many of the adventurers in the area going back to the turn of the century. The town also has a significant aviation history in Alaska as well. It has revived itself into a significant tourist stop and now, many of the cruise ships offer bus excursions to Talkeetna which has allowed it's tourist trade to boom. Many of the old buildings have been resurrected and the main street is now a vibrant, bustling mix of adventure tour companies, excellent eateries, inns, art galleries, museums and gift shops. For those of you who know BC at all, it reminds me of Crawford Bay (outside of Nelson) only a bit bigger. Very artsy, funky and cool little town with a fun vibe... We spent a couple of hours there, had some of the best pie this side of somewhere and then carried on...

From Talkeetna, we continued on through the town of Willow. It was here, a week ago, that a huge wildfire was buring out of control and was uncontained with high winds and a lot of fear of the town being burned to the ground. People were evacuated and the major highway was closed. Fortunately for us, the weather had cooled, we'd gotten some rain and they winds backed off enough for the firefighters to get it sorted out. As we drove through, you could see that the highway went right through a major section of the fire and there were still hot spots smoldering on the sides of the road. Firefighters were still on the scene and we were escorted along several miles by pilot cars. We had heard that the fire was started by fireworks and, sure enough, just before Willow, there is a section of road where suddently there were at least half a dozen ENORMOUS fireworks outlets (all closed up of course!) From Willow, we made our way through Wasilla and then on to Palmer. We just skirted Palmer (so we didn't really see the city at all) and found a camp on the northeast side of town. 

June 19 and 20 - Denali

June 19

The drive from Fairbanks to Healy (where we stayed next) was uneventful. More of the same highway - lots of rolling mountains and vast expanses of tundra, black and white spruce and shrubs. It is a bit monotonous but beautiful just the same and, in some respects, sort of meditative as you drift along the highway with nothing but nature around you. Very pleasant, actually. We crossed the Mighty Nenana river and then followed it on and off into Healy. At Healy, we pulled into the gas station and realized this was also the McKinnley RV Park where we were booked to stay. Right next door was the 49th Brew Pub and Restaurant. We pulled in there for some lunch and realized they were just setting up for a 3 day Solstice festival with a line up of non-stop party plans and music. As we had lunch on their lovely patio, the soundman was testing out his system and periodically, there would be a minute's worth of head-pounding techno - BOM BOM BOM BOM - that thumped in your chest like a madman attempting CPR. We looked at each other over our delicious chowder and spinach salad as realization dawned - our campsite is right next door and we're here for 2 nights. The festival is 3 nights....

We talked to the campsite folks and they were AWESOME. They completely understood our desire to not be in the vicinity and offered our money back. We had the luck of the Gods with us and, a couple miles down the road, dear Phyllis of the Denali RV Park, managed to find us a LOVELY and QUIET little bolthole for our camp which was a bit miraculous given that everything was pretty much booked out in the area... Perfect!

We set up our camp and suddenly, the temperature soared into the 30s and the breeze quit. It was sweltering. That's one thing we've really noticed up here - the air temperature itself isn't that warm but, when the sun comes out, the temperature soars. As soon as the sun goes behind a cloud or drops below the horizon, it plummets again. Anyway - it was probably a combination of fatigue and the heat but we both just wilted. My husband Lynn surrendered to it and made off for a deep 2 hour nap in the camper. I napped briefly in a camp chair and then spent the following 2 hours updating the blog and sorting through photos. FINALLY I had good wifi. For the past 5 days, we've been in campsites with Tengo wifi which, QF (quite frankly) is crap. This wifi was FAST! What a treat to be able to check email, update the blog and not have wait times and service gaps reminiscent of 1990s dial-up. It was a nice, lazy afternoon. 

We roused ourselves around 7pm. The great thing about such long sunny days is that it's still daylight until around midnight. At the moment, we're getting about 21 hours of daylight with about 3 hours of only dusk. It never really gets dark. As a  result, you still feel like you've got time to do things in the later evening. We headed down the road to a place we heard about from a local called Rose's Cafe, just north of Healy. We had a late dinner and boy was it awesome. 

The dinner menu consists of about 8 options, each for $20 - you can have the chicken dinner, the baked ham dinner, the chicken fried steak dinner etc., with all the fixin's and it includes icecream for dessert and a bottomless drink. The dinners are all home cooked and there were lots of locals and regular truckers there. We knew instantly we'd found a gem. 

Dinner was fabulous and Leslie, the owner, told us she and her husband took over the restaurant a few years ago from her mother-in-law who was the original Rose. You can tell Leslie loves her job and her customers. She's a whirlwind to watch and as friendly as they come. We'd already decided to come back the next night before we'd finished our first night's dinner...

Back at camp, we collapsed. We'd booked a tour in Denali for the next day and we had to be at the Wilderness Access Center in the park by 6:30 the next morning so we set the alarm and set about to "sleep fast" as my dad would say...

June 20

We were up at 4am - excited about what the day would bring and a little paranoid about sleeping in and missing out of the tour. We headed into the park and found our way to the Wildnerness Access Center without any trouble. The construction zone we'd been warned about for delays was not even in motion as we putted our way through the gravel sections. At the WAC, we were ECSTATIC to find an open Starbucks canteen! Coffee in hand, we sat outside and watched the folks queue for the various bus tours. 

The way Denali works is that you can drive into the park for the first 10 miles or so and then that's it. To get beyond that point, you have to take one of their buses. Their mandate is to have as little impact as possible on the 6 million acres of ecosystem this park is there to preserve. There is only one road in and it only goes 90 miles and that's it. If you want to hike, however, there is no limit to where you can go and you can catch shuttle buses in to various points where different trail head take off. At the center of the park is a section of the Alaskan Mountain Range and, of course, the famous Mount McKinley, later renamed Denali, the Athabascan traditional name which means "the high one". Denali is the tallest peak in North America and she truly is a beauty if you can see her. Only about 30% of the visitors to Denali see her because she makes her own weather and is often veiled in cloud or haze. We were VERY lucky to have a couple of relatively clear glimpses of her at various times of the day as the cloud blew off. 

We were also partially hampered by forest fire smoke from a large fire burning south of us at Willow. The  entire park surrounds this section of the Alaskan Mountain Range and the great jagged peaks are encircled by vast expanses of tundra in wide sweeping valleys. This type of wide valley is created by glaciers (as opposed to deep v-shaped valleys carved out by eons of running water). There are many glacier washes here in Alaska and in the Yukon. They look like giant gravel riverbeds and often, small "braided" rivers will run through them, changing course daily. These huge gravel washes have been there since the glaciers receded, in some cases, many thousands of years ago. 

In the park there are shuttle buses (green) and tour buses (beige). The tour buses are coaches and they have various different tours you can go on. The shuttles are school buses and, while the drivers DO provide a running informative commentary as you go, they're designed to run up and down the park road, stopping at designated points and allowing people to get on and off as they please. The upside of the tour buses is that once you're on and you have a seat, you'll always have your seat. With the shuttles, if you hop off and hike or do an activity of some kind, you may have to wait for a bus or two until there is availability for you which, when busy, could be a frustration. Not knowing any better, we opted for the tour. At the turn-around point of our tour (at mile 30), our bus driver said he would see if we could hop onto a shuttle bus if we wanted to go further into the park which was awesome. The next shuttle that came by was the one to Kantishna, the very end point of the road 90 miles in. Kim, the driver, said she'd take us but we wouldn't be back to the WAC until 9pm. It was only 10am and we'd already been on the first bus since 6:30. What the heck. We'll likely only be here once. Steve, our original tour driver, gave us a couple extra boxed lunches and bottles of water from the tour that weren't used and off we went. 

The shuttle stops at different points along the way and there are very nice, clean outhouses and interpretive centers at each stop off. We stopped at Polychrome, Toklat River and then the Eielson Center which is the main mid-point stop. If we were to do Denali again, we would just take the green shuttle bus to Eielson and back. This first stretch of road is, by far, the most beautiful and dramatic part of the park (that you can see from the road.) Past Eielson to Wonder Lake and Kantishna is beautiful but not breathtaking like the first part. 

At Kantishna, there are several gorgeous lodges and an airstrip along with an old, heritage mining site and cabins. Another option is to bus out to Kantishna and then fly back to the park Entrance area by small plane for about $300 - an option all of us contemplated as we considered the 6 hour ride back out of the park in front of us on a school bus. On hard seats. Over 90 miles of gravel road.  

The ride back was long. By then, we'd seen the scenery so the wonder of what would be coming around the next bend was done. We were tired and many people catnapped as the bus jolted, bobbed and rattled along with a top speed of about 50kms/hour. Some of the road was a bit hairy for the less hearty folks with steep drop offs that plummeted down 1000 feet but, by the return trip, no one cared much if they pitched over the edge to their deaths.... 

The really exciting thing about going back was that it was when we saw all the great wildlife. We saw many cariboo from a distance but on our return trip, we saw two right by the road. We stopped and the cariboo came right alongside the bus and then wandered up the road in front of us for half a mile, stopping traffic and taking center stage. 

Next, we saw a very large grizzly bear right off the road who hung out for 5 minutes before wandering off. 

Later, we saw a cow moose. It was completely worth the 14 hours we spent on the bus!  Denali truly is spectacular. Take the shuttle to Eielson and you'll have seen the best of it (by road). 

By the time we got back to camp at 10:00, we were completely bushed. It looked like rain so we covered things up and went to bed.

June 16 - Dawson City to Tok

We woke up this morning and the sky was overcast. After 2 days of fairly sweltering heat, it was a nice reprieve BUT, lurking and looming in the distance were purple bruises of clouds threatening rain and thunderstorms. Today is the day we were heading up over the Top of the World Highway and the ONE THING everyone said to us that was consistent was "Don't go if it's raining - the rain makes the calcium on the road turn to a greasy consistency and, if it's wet enough, the mud will cake and stick to everything.

Just as we packed up, it started to rain a bit... figures.

What the heck, we thought. Let's give it a go.

So - we headed off to the ferry that takes you across the Yukon river. It's just a wee one that carries about 12 cars max, or one very large bus-sized RV towing a small car (as it turns out). The line up included about a dozen huge RVs and then there were several of us smaller chump change. The  ferry alternated taking one HUGE RV on a run and then coming back and taking a load of smaller vehicles. The round trip only takes about 10-15 minutes so it wasn't much of a wait (about an hour or so) but if you're an RV, it can be a long wait! 

Once on the other side, we started up the hill and very quickly, the road starts to run along the ridgeline of the mountain range. It's similar to the Dempster Highway in this regard. For this reason, the views (when you can peek through the trees) are spectacular and you really do feel like you're on the top of the world. At points, it is dramatic in that the land drops away steeply off each side of the highway, making you feel like you're driving along the ridgepole of a mighty rooftop. The landscape, in both directions, is a bounty of hulking mountains as far as the eye can see and a million miles of tundra, black spruce and tundra shrubs. We were astonished that we didn't see one animal along this part of the trip - not a bear, not a cariboo, not a moose, nothin'. A little disappointing that way but the terrain was breathtaking. Several kilometers up the road from the ferry, the pavement runs out. Goodbye nice pavement... see you again in a couple hundred kilometers! 

The dirt road was in remarkably good condition for the most part. It's amazing how in tune one becomes to the variations of gravel and gravel road conditions when you're driving it on a bike. You've got your loose sharp small gravel (OK) and your loose deep pebbly gravel that moves like marbles (NOT SO OK), then you have your compact gravel (GOOD) and then you have your gravel that has been solidified by calcium and is smooth as pavement (FABULOUS!). Then you have the deep loose dirt and gravel mix that crews put down to maintain the road. Before it's compacted by a roller, it's awful business - 4x4ing on a Harley is not my favorite, gotta say. Last but not least, you have the snotty muddy gravel that sticks like goose poop on everything which we also had (DEFINITELY NOT FUN) when we hit several rain pockets. Thankfully, they were short lived but they sure made a royal mess of us, our gear, our bikes - everything! 

The road climbs up and up and up and again, we started seeing snow packs and the edges of the treeline. It got cold and we were happy for our cold weather gear, especially our electric vests and electric handgrips. At the top, we hit the American Border at Poker Creek - the northern most land-accessible American border. 

From there, you get a DIVINE stretch of about 10 miles of freshly laid tarmack - just enough for a bit of a break and a teaser before the gravel hits again.

After about 170 kms of gravel road, we were VERY excited to hit the town of Chicken, Alaska. As the story goes, Chicken got it's name because the local miners back in the day couldn't agree on how to spell Ptarmigan which are in abundance in the area and were a favorite in the stew pot. The colloquial name for them is chicken so the town was called Chicken. Chicken is a groovy little tourist spot - mostly a few RV parks capitalizing on the tourist draw and then the original Chicken townsite which consists of a gas station, a gift shop, a bar and a cafe. The week before we arrived, hundreds of people descended upon Chicken for their annual music festival which could ONLY possibly be named... (you guessed it)... Chickenstock. Many people travel hundreds of miles to come to Chickenstock and it's become a much celebrated annual event. The town also boasts a giant metal chicken sculpture and an old mining dredge. It's worth a stop and the food at the Old Chicken Cafe is really good.

Shortly leaving Chicken, the pavement starts again - oh Happy Day!!! On gravel, we were averaging about 50 kms/hour so you can imagine how happy we were to make some quick miles. The rest of the Taylor HIghway down to the Tetlin Junction is just a million more miles of tundra, black spruce and mountains. 

FINALLY, at Tetlin, we saw a moose! From there, we headed northwest into Tok (pronounced TOKE) - a small highway strip of a town. We stayed at the Tok RV Park. It was awesome. We had a nice wooded campsite, they had CLEAN bathrooms with free showers and they even had a do-it-yourself car wash for all us dirty, dusty, muddy travellers coming off the Top of the World! 

June 17 - Tok to Fairbanks

After a night of fairly heavy rainfall, we woke up to a glorious morning. Sunshine beamed into our tent and birds were chirping like crazy. We packed up and, on the recommendation of our camping neighbour, we headed over to Fast Eddy's for breakfast. 

Almost as soon as you leave Tok, a mountain range pops up on the south side of the highway, part of the Alaska Range according to our map. The highway itself runs along the Tanana River for a lot of the trip to Fairbanks and a fellow at a gas station explained to me that it's what they call a braided river - these rivers rise up to to be enormous when there is a lot of rain or during glacier melt but then reduce down to just small creeks so they look very low and dried up a lot of the time. 

Maybe because it was the sunshine, maybe because I had a good breakfast in my belly, maybe because I had some great tunes playing on my stereo but I found this riding day just great. At Delta Junction, there is a good sized wildfire buring to the northeast, filling the sky with a vast plume of purple, red and black smoke. You can see it for miles.

About 50kms before Fairbanks is the Eielson Air Force Base and HOLY HANNAH it's huge. As you ride along side it on the highway, there are rows and rows of military jets in front of huge hangars. After that were rows and rows of military cargo planes and more huge hangars. Eielson is the seat of of the US military defense in the north and boy, are they serious about it! All along the highway, there are signs telling people not to stop and not to take photos. In the Christmas Store we were in a little later in North Pole, Alaska, I over heard a lady telling her story about when she stopped and took photos, the military police arrived, asked for her camera and deleted the photos she had of the base on there. They don't kid around about that. According to the Milepost, the base is 63,000 acres with a population of about 3000. The runway is 14,000 feet long (almost 3 miles!) just to give you an idea of the enormity of it. It's a small town in it's own right...

From here, we stopped at the North Pole. You have to, right? Yes, it's a tourist trap but it's kind of cool. There is a year round Christmas Store here but one of the neat things they do is they have a program where they will send kids letters from Santa from the post office in North Pole, Alaska. They also have a barnyard area where they house reindeer... it's complete kitsch but a little bit of kitsch never hurt anyone... ha ha ha...

We finished up the day by rolling into Fairbanks, a very pretty city that is built around a stretch of the Chena river. We snagged a camping site right on the river bank at River's Edge RV Park which we would recommend. The RV part is crammed and tight but lots of trees. The camping area is very nice, right on the river. There is also a large picnic area on a grassy part of the river bank for all to enjoy. The bonus is that the park is minutes from downtown. We walked down the river path to Chena's Alaskan Grill, a very nice restaurant with a huge deck that looks out on the river. A bit "spendy" as the Alaskans say - a groovy saying I think I might hang on to in lieu of the word "expensive" - but a nice meal with a gorgeous view...

June 18 - Fairbanks

We picked up a coffee at the office of the RV Park and waited for our little city tour bus to arrive. Gail, from California, was our host and she was a hoot. Lots of fun stories and interaction with the 8 of us on the bus. The tour took us by Pioneer Park and then through some of the downtown area, including the old red light district. Fairbanks is full of little old post-war square houses but there are still a very large number of old log houses still in use as well. We visited the Morris Thompson Cultural and Visitor's Center which is fantastic! A very well done facility that houses an excellent collection of artifacts, runs some movies and is a great place to get oriented to the city and surrounding area. 

Fairbanks has about 30,000 people, with a surrounding catchment area of about 100,000 so it's definitely the hub of this part of the north.

Off we went again, this time up the Steese Expressway to a pullout that has an information area about the Alaska Pipeline and then you can walk in to where a portion of the pipeline is above ground to see it. What an incredible engineering feat this was, back in the 70s, and a huge part of the complexity of it was building above permafrost as well as building along a fault line. 

Next we headed up to the University of Alaska which is a very interesting place to visit. They have a huge agricultural program there and at the base of the hill it's built on, there are lovely farmed up fields. There is a botanical garden as well. The other thing the University is known for is it's study of the Aurora Borealis. NASA even has a dish on campus as part of their own research. We spent some time in the University's Museum of the North. A very modern, beautiful building that houses a wonderful collection of artifacts as well as art work so it's also a gallery in it's own right. This is a really worthwhile stop. 

Back downtown, we drove to the Golden Heart Plaza which is a beautiful public garden and gathering space. The Chena river meanders through the entire city and the city planners have done a brilliant job of capitalizing on it's benefits. Miles of walking and bike paths follow portions of the river with many little foot and driving bridges along the way. The river is used a lot for recreation so there are lots of boats, jet skis and people floating the river. It's beautiful. 

In the afternoon, we went back out. Our first stop was the Alaska Raw Fur Shop. Here is the sign in the window... 

There is a certain "I don't know what" about a shop filled with dead animal stuff that seems terribly concerned about cleavage. But there you go... I checked myself and took the chance and went in. :) 

We went back downtown and headed to the Fairbanks Ice Museum. This is right on 2nd Ave downtown. The story is that, back in the 1980s, some Chinese ice carvers came to Fairbanks and since then, a huge ice carving festival has developed over the years to become an international event. Carvers come from all over the world. Andy, a Chinese immigrant, is one of the carvers who has moved to Fairbanks permanently. He took over the old movie theatre on 2nd Ave. and has converted it into an ice sculpture museum. The first part is a 20 minute movie about the festival and ice carving and then he opens up the refridgerated museum section which you can wander around in. Many of the carvings are interactive - you can sit on the ice stools in the ice bar or go into the ice log cabin and sit at the ice table, there is a dog sled, polar bears, a miner panning for gold and even an ice slide you can slide down on crazy carpets. It's pretty awesome, really. After that, Andy does a small 15 minute ice carving demonstration using Dremel tools and drills. 

What we really liked about Andy and his Ice Museum is that it's not your typical polished tourist trap. He's just an honest, genuine artist who is trying to creatively make a living with his craft. If you're in Fairbanks, it's a fun thing to do. 

After that, we went across the street to Big Ray's - an outfitting store that blew our minds! It's HUGE!! They have  every conceivable item you could possibly want for outdoor activities with the most enormous selection of norther wear from Carharts to Patagonia. And boots?!? They must have 300 different kinds. Three floors of everything. They also have online sales so check it out. Very impressive. 

For dinner, we hit Big Daddy's rib place... the tout themselves to be the best southern food in the north. It really is like the southern BBQ we had in Texas a few years ago. Good ribs, fun atmosphere... 

We ran into some great folks we originally met back in Dawson City so we dropped by their campsite and had a great visit. Fran and Ron are from Australia and Marilyn and Frank are from New York/South Carolina. We had a hoot of an evening with exchanging of emails and lots of offers of places to stay if we decide to visit them. You never know!