John & Pam's RV Adventures

Climbing Black Mountain

2012-01-28T17:44:00.000-06:00

Cave Creek and Carefree are towns situated around a mountain named Black Mountain. It has 1160 foot elevation with a commanding view of the valley's all around it. In the middle of Cave Creek starts a path that will take you to the top, so guess who wanted to climb! We met our friends and did the 2-1/2 mile round trip hike in a little over two hours. It was a very rigorous climb for us, but it was good preparation for the Grand Canyon hike we will undertake in the fall.

After a big lunch at Harold's Steeler Bar, we both took a nice nap. I'm not sure what we will do this afternoon but I do plan to build a nice campfire this evening!

Cave Creek, AZ

2012-01-27T17:32:00.000-06:00

We knew we had a short drive today, so we took the time to wash the RV and Jeep before driving over to Cave Creek which was only a one hour trip. We are staying in the same campground as last year, Cave Creek Regional Park, because it is such a nice place and conveniently located.

Since we have better bikes this year, we decided to try a little off-road bike riding. The lady at the ranger station told us about a new trail in the park that would be a fairly easy bike ride and had some beautiful scenery along the way. And the ride did start out nice and easy, relatively level with a wide track, but then it turned up hill and was steep enough that I couldn't pedal with all the loose gravel. I ended up walking my bike for about a half mile before I had had enough of pushing the bike and turned around. John on the other hand was enjoying the challenge and rode an additional mile up the hill before turning around. It was pretty with lots of cacti like saguaro and cholla, scrub and some green grass scattered in among these large quartz stones and boulders.

Our friends from Sedalia have rented a house near here for a couple of months so we joined them for dinner, wine and a hot tub dip. By then we had had a little too much wine to be driving so we spent the night with them.

Friday morning,after a quick trip back to the RV to change, we drove together with them to We-Ko-Pa Golf Club for a round of very difficult golf. We played this course last year and even though we did much better this time, it is a very hard course with lots of hazards like rocky washes, islands of trees in the middle of the fairway, hills and sand.

We had reservations for dinner at our favorite place in Cave Creek, Cartright's. Very good food!

RV Details

2012-01-25T22:23:00.001-06:00

Several people have expressed an interest in the new RV we have purchased. It is made by Newmar a well respected RV manufacturer that has been in business over 40 years. It is a little less than 4 feet longer than our current RV but 2.5 feet taller and almost a foot wider. It is one very big box compared to our trusty Born Free. It will be a big change for us but we think it will serve our style of RVing. It is still short enough to fit in the out of the way places we like to go but has a number of advantages. First being almost 3 times more water, about 3 times the living space, and a huge amount of storage space. We will actually be able to empty our Jeep and quit using it as a storage barn. We will even be able to put the rear seat back in the Jeep since we should have no need to carry anything in the trunk. We will in April have an RV with plenty of room to take a grandson or two with us if we want. This is a picture of what it will look like, but 3 feet shorter:

Here is the floorplan:

If you want more information go Here.

Vulture Peak

2012-01-25T17:59:00.000-06:00

Just a few miles outside of Wickenburg is a group of rises called the Vulture Mountains. We chose to hike up Vulture Peak this morning before settling down to doing laundry and other chores. The hike was about 4 miles round trip. From the trailhead to the bottom of the mountain was about 1.3 miles thru desert. One spot had so many cholla cacti that it looked like a forest and there were many cocotilla, saguaro, barrel and fish hook cacti. Once we reached the base we climbed .7 miles up 700 feet of elevation to a saddle between Vulture Peak and its shoulder called Sawtooth. We could have climbed another 240 feet but it would have been literally climbing, hand-over-foot and we chose NOT to do that.

We lunched at the Hog Trough where we had some really awesome BBQ and homemade cole slaw. Yummy!

The afternoon was spent doing laundry, working on the computer, napping and supper (not necessarily in that order.)

Wickenburg, AZ

2012-01-24T19:01:00.000-06:00

This is the most Western Town of western Arizona with the Most Western Museum in Arizona. If you like cowboys and horses, dude ranches and guest ranches, BBQ and beer then this is the place to be. The park we are staying in is called "Horsepitality RV Park" and there must be 50 horses boarded here. As we walked thru the town, we must have passed 8 saloons and that was in a 4 block area! The river that runs thru the area is called Hassayampa but here in town it is only a dry riverbed. They claim it is underground here and in the mountains it runs above ground. The name means "river that runs upside down". And legend has it that if you drink the water you will never tell the truth again! I think this has something to do with gold miners exaggerating the truth of their discoveries.

We played golf at the Wickenburg Country Club today. I played great. John on the other hand is considering running over his clubs with the Jeep. The course was pretty with some very, very narrow fairways and fast rolling greens. It rained last night so today was on the cool side (60's) even though the sun was shinning.

RV Decision Made

2012-01-22T18:57:00.000-06:00

Two major decisions were made today. First decision is we are not going to buy the Monaco Monarch RV from the California dealer. We are going to give our business to the dealer in Carthage, MO and buy a new, built to order Newmar Bay Star. We won't be able to take possession until we get home in April, but that is okay with us. We'll have plenty of time then to test it out, move in and get comfortable in it before we take off on our summer adventure.

The second decision was that we need to move on down the road. Remember all the cop cars we keep seeing? I was asking the local dumpster-divers, who are nice people cleaning the recyclables out of the dumpsters, about this situation and they said that there have been several instances of the rangers catching Meth cookers out in the desert this winter and that was probably what they were doing the last few nights. Then later in the day, as we were riding our bikes on the desert road for some exercise and exploration we saw two rangers monitoring (spying on and/or trying to intimidate maybe) our neighbors in the the Buffalo Tribe hippie bus. That was when we decided to move on down the road. Not to mention the fact that we only had a few gallons of water left and we could only have stayed another day before needing to dump.

So tonight, as we sat around the campfire, we pulled out the tour and camping books and found a golf course in Wickenburg that sounded interesting. We'll camp there for three nights before going up to Cave Creek. There is supposed to be some hiking opportunities there as well.

Decisions, Decisions

2012-01-21T21:37:00.000-06:00

We woke this morning to clouds and wind and DUST! We rode our bikes around one of the other BLM camping areas before going back to work on getting an RV.

We went back, again, to the RV dealer to look at and talk with them about the Monaco Monarch 30'11" coach that we keep looking at. We have been dickering with them over the price for three days now! Maybe we have their bottom line at last.

The RV Week Big Tent is now open and was it ever full of people. Lines and lines of cars were creeping along the streets and seeking parking places. That meant that hoards of people were in the big tent. I rather enjoy this aspect of the show but John hates it. If he only has to go thru it once, he will. Later we split up and I shopped for what I wanted and he shopped where he wanted.

The wind keeps getting worse. We spent most of the afternoon inside the RV trying to avoid getting any more dust on us or inside the coach. At about 6 pm the wind and dust was so bad that we could not see any of the mountains surrounding us. John put the grill on the lee side of the RV and was able to grill without too much trouble.

The excitement happened again tonight -- cop cars with flashing lights zooming by and coming back two hours later. Sure wish I knew what was going on. We have our door locked!

Quartzite, Day 3

2012-01-20T23:26:00.000-06:00

My friend and I really enjoy our walks in the desert. We put in 2.5 miles today. We then rode bikes back into town, looked at RVs, shopped the junk stores then came back to the RV for lunch. Our friends pulled out around 2 pm to go to Lake Havasu and we got back on the bikes and visited ALL the RV dealers in Quartzite. We found nothing new or different but did enjoy the ride.

About mid afternoon we, again, were sitting in front of the RV, basking in the sun when three cop cars zoomed by with lights flashing. We have no idea what was going on and didn't see them return until after eight this evening. We also got a new neighbor driving a converted school bus with the words "Buffalo Tribe" written on its side. It was driven by a girl with a bone in her ear and followed by an old car and a hippy on a motorcycle. Unfortunately they did not park close enough for us to spy on them! Ha!Ha!

John grilled tuna steaks for supper and they were wonderful! The fire roared and the stars twinkled. A beautiful evening.

The Search for an RV Continues

2012-01-19T23:24:00.000-06:00

My friend and I took a 2 mile walk thru the desert before rousting out our husbands and getting on our bikes to ride into town. We stopped at the RV dealer to show the Monaco to our friends but it was locked so we looked at other ones they were interested in. After a bit we went shopping at Tyson Wells which is a very large gathering of venders under individual tents and tarps selling junk, antiques, tools, clothes and all sorts of other 'stuff'.

After lunch we rode bikes thru the town and out their very nice bike path. We got back to the RVs mid afternoon and pulled out our chairs to bask in the sun, nap and talk. We grilled steaks for supper and enjoyed a warm campfire under a glorious starlit sky.

Camping in the Desert

2012-01-18T22:44:00.000-06:00

Yesterday we started preparing for desert camping by getting the laundry done and grocery shopping. We then filled every water container we have available so that we can stay as long as we want without having to fill the water tank after 3 or 4 day.

It is only a 2 hour drive from Palm Springs to Quartzite, AZ but we lose an hour at the border changing time zones. The traffic is starting to build up around Quartzite as RV Week starts on Saturday. We pulled into an RV lot in the Born Free to look at a Monaco RV that John had learned was here. We wanted them to see our rig and we wanted to look at theirs. We talked with a couple of salesmen and asked them for a price. They want to play games!

The gas stations all have lines and there are lines getting into the BLM land where we will camp. We were able to claim the same spot we had last year because it's off the main road, only a mile from town and has a feeling of being by ourselves. But we're not really alone as we can see hundreds of other RV's all around us.

By the time we got settled in, it was 3 pm and we hadn't eaten lunch! Our friends from CO joined us at our site about that time as well. We renewed our friendship as we basked in the setting sun, built a big fire and had a wonderful evening.

Biking, Golfing and Hiking

2012-01-17T23:50:00.000-06:00

We spent the day Sunday riding our bikes into La Quinta. It's about a 9 mile ride one way along the flat boulevards of the valley. At least they appear to be flat but in reality there is a slight grade to them. Going into town we could only get about 9.5 to 11 mph at a pretty steady pace, but coming back we were able to get about 14 mph. When we got into town, we found we had just missed the weekly farmers' market. It looked like we could have picked up some really nice vegetable and fruit if we had known about it. We had a nice lunch before heading back to Lake Cahuilla.

Monday was a golfing day but neither one of us played well. Even at that, it was a lovely day. The weather forecast called for high winds but the course we played on was well protected so we only got a breeze. We stopped at a place near the course afterward that must have had 150 different beers on the menu. It was fun trying something new.

Today we hiked AND biked. The hike took us up a canyon on mostly flat, sandy ground. Again, what appeared to be flat was really a slight rise that got us puffing. We think we walked about 5 miles total. After lunch and naps in the sun, we rode the bikes along another nearby trail that was packed sand. Not easy going when you are sliding and going up hill. We didn't get very high, but enough so that we could see parts of the nearby valley.

It was a beautiful day to be outdoors enjoying the sunshine, blue skies and each other's company!

Pines to Palms Highway

2012-01-15T00:36:00.000-06:00

Today we went back to the FMCA rally to pick up our serviced tow bar and found out that it had been bent. At some point John tried to back up the towed car and must have put too much stress on one arm of the bar and it cracked. They fixed it but could not guarantee it so we decided it might be better if we just bought a new one. This has been an really expensive rally to attend!

Once that was taken care of, we picked up our friend and went for a drive thru the San Jacinto Mountains along the Pines to Palms Highway up to Idyllwild and then back down on the Banning-Idyllwild Panoramic Highway. The mountains start out high desert with just scrub brush, low trees and sand but as we climb, the trees get taller and there seems to be less sand and more grass. When we reached Idyllwild, we were in the tall pines. I half expected to see a mountain lion or bear, but I guess there are too many people and homes in this area for that to happen. We had a nice lunch and then explored several shops in Idyllwild. Our favorite was the leather shop located at the back of a parking lot. It was interesting to visit with the shop's owner as he stripped leather ties from a soft piece of black hide.

We had to go up higher before we came down the back side of the mountain range. Our highest point was about 8,000 feet. The view from up that high was pretty and would have been better if the clouds had moved out.

Busy, Busy!

2012-01-13T23:45:00.000-06:00

More RV hunting. We drove a Holiday Rambler Vacationer, 30'11" class A gas powered coach on Monday, then drove to Tucson on Tuesday and drove a 29'11" Newmar Bay Star, gas powered. They are built on the same chassis with the same engine so they drove the same, but we had to try them.

We spent Tuesday night in Gila Bend and drove on into the Palm Springs area on Wednesday. We are camped at the Lake Cahuilla County Park. After a quick walk thru the FMCA rally and an extensive search of the RV's on the fairgrounds in Indio, we had dinner with our friends who are wintering in Palm Springs.

Early on Thursday we met our friends and went back to the FMCA Rally. We found the Blue Ox dealer and made arrangements to get our tow bar fro the car serviced and bought a new braking system for the towed vehicle. We then bought a tour package with Fantasy Tours to attend the Hot Air Balloon Festival in Albuquerque, NM in October. We again met with our friends and had dinner at one of our favorite restaurants - Zin, an American Bistro. After dinner we walked the Palm Springs street fair.

Friday found us playing golf at Shadow Mountain. I had a really good game considering I haven't played for 3 months (and I think my girlfriend is really generous with my scores!). John wanted to go home after 9 holes, if that tells you anything.

RV Hunting

2012-01-08T18:31:00.000-06:00

We spent almost all day Saturday looking at RV's. We must have gone to 6-8 places, some of them consignment, some used sales and some new. There just are not very many RVs that meet our criteria. We want a 30' or shorter diesel with 60 gallon water capacity and luxury accommodations. We ended up looking at 31' -33' rigs. They seem so big! We may have narrowed our choices down to two units and will test drive one on Monday.

Today John is upgrading his Mother's computer and email program and I am baking pies as my Christmas gift to John's Mom. Boy, does this house smell good and our stomach are growling for that fresh pecan pie. I'm making everyone drool over the apple pie but it will go into the freezer for Marje to share with her friends at a later time.

Lunch time now and pool time in an hour or so!!

Lake Nobles State Park, AZ

2012-01-06T23:23:00.000-06:00

We left Las Cruces and headed toward AZ. Near Deming, NM we stopped at the St. Clair Winery and tasted a few of their New Mexico wines. The red zinfandel and fruity shiraz we good enough that we bought one of each.

We had a hard time deciding where to stop on our way to Mesa as we weren't supposed to arrive until Friday, Jan. 6. We finally settled on Lake Nobles near Safford AZ and we are glad we did. It was a beautiful campground on a small lake that is sorely lacking for water. But there was still enough to satisfy the ducks and canoes. We rode our bikes for about an hour before basking in the sun and napping. I then built a fire, John grilled lamb for supper and we then rekindled the fire. It was a lovely clear night with a little too much moon shine but we still got the spotting scope out and did some star gazing.

We arrived in Mesa on Friday in time for lunch with John's Mom. The sun enticed us to lounge by the pool for awhile before we restocked the larder. Of course dinner was at Midwestern Meat Market where we had some really good prime rib!

Officially Leaving the Cold

2012-01-04T22:42:00.000-06:00

Well, we woke up at 5 am Tuesday morning and the furnace was just barely blowing air. Our house batteries were nearly dead! So we started up the generator, slept a little longer, ate breakfast and headed to the nearest Sears Auto Store to get two new batteries. As you might recall, last August on our way home from Alaska, we had an electrical problem. We think that it probably damaged these batteries too.

We arrived in Roswell, NM around 6PM, so called some friends who used to live in Sedalia and had supper with them. We spent the night in a Sam's Club parking lot and were on the road fairly early this morning. Instead of stopping at the UFO museum again, we strolled thru the Roswell Museum and Art Center. I was especially impressed with the art work of Peter Rogers.

We then drove up to Lincoln, NM where Billy the Kid made a name for himself during the Lincoln County Wars. This little village is pretty much the same as it was in 1878, when a dispute turned into a war between two owners of competing stores. Billy the Kid was the leader of one faction calling themselves 'The Regulators" The other side called themselves "The Boys" or Murphy's Gang. The dispute waged for over 2 years, until the army was brought in to settle things down. Billy the Kid was the only one who was ever tried and convicted of any of the murders, thefts and destruction that occurred but on the eve of his hanging he killed two deputies and escaped. It was much later that he was caught again and killed. Many of the buildings from 1878 are still standing and a few were open for viewing. Very interesting era of the history of New Mexico.

We made a brief stop in Capitan where Smokey the Bear cub, the living symbol of fire prevention, was rescued from a fire and he is now buried there. Of course there is a museum and garden commemorating him.

We are spending the night in Las Cruces after eating a great meal at the Double Eagle Restaurant.

Happy New Year!

2012-01-02T21:55:00.000-06:00

Yeah! We are off on another adventure -- away from the cold and into the warm. We left Sedalia this morning around 9 AM and drove to Norman, OK to have dinner with our daughter, son-in-law and grandsons. The best greeting in the world is from Luca and Vincent who are so excited to see us that they can't stop wiggling and laughing!

Even here it is 10 degrees warmer than home!

Dolores, CO

2011-09-28T22:43:00.001-05:00

We have friends who have a home on the Dolores River outside of the town of Dolores so we spent Monday traveling south through the mountains and then westward past Durango to spend a couple of days with them. The drive was really pretty as the aspens are really starting to change. One hillside looked as if a painter had taken his brush of gold paint and slashed it across the green pine hillside. The southern part of Colorado has not seen as much of a change as around Breckenridge, but the signs of change are obvious.

We arrived at our friends' home around 5 PM and had a lovely evening of wine, food and conversations. Tuesday dawned bright, sunny and warm so we climbed in their Jeep and drove up into the mountains. It was so pretty and peaceful. We had lunch at a small cafe in Rico. The afternoon was spent visiting and playing horseshoes, then we had dinner at the local brewery and pizza joint. When we got back to the house, the stars were beaconing to be watched. So we got out the binoculars and star charts and tried to find Orion, the north star and Mars. We were not very successful but enjoyed the endeavor.

Today, after a leisurely breakfast, we started toward our grandsons in Norman. We drove as far as Santa Rosa, New Mexico and pulled into a state park campground for the evening. Pam got real excited about seeing this spider -- is it a tarantula??

Lazy Day and Sunday

2011-09-25T21:42:00.000-05:00

I would not let John set the alarm clock so we slept in until 7:30 AM! Late breakfast, washed the Jeep, went shopping at the outlet mall and then had lunch in Frisco. We got the bikes out and rode up to Breckenridge and strolled around town for most of the afternoon.

We invited two other couples to join us for dinner at the Mother Loaded Restaurant in Breckenridge. It was mother's-home-cooking, good beer and great company!

I don't know why, but we are tired after this gloriously relaxing day.

Mad Irishman

2011-09-24T22:05:00.000-05:00

We're watching MU get beat by OU! Might as well blog.

Today was an easy day off-roading as there were only 4 Jeeps going out and we are tired and ready for something different to do.

We drove on paved roads to Montezuma (we think this must be a haven for old hippies) then the road to the right to get on Deer Creek which led to Mad Irishman and the tops of Teller Mountain and Glacier Mountain. Pretty easy drive with a few challenges thrown in but it is really neat to be driving on the tops of these mountains. We guess we're at about 12,000 feet elevation. We think we saw an eagle on the ground but it was hard to tell since he didn't have the white head yet. The views on top are so awesome. It's hard to capture the feeling of grandeur and our insignificance.

We were back at the RV by noon so after lunch we joined another couple and rode our bikes into Frisco and part way around Dillon Reservoir. John and I stayed in town to shop and have a coffee before heading back up the hill. It wasn't too bad a ride but I struggled with the hills and had to walk some. We rode about 17 miles.

I got our laundry done while fixing supper and now the disappointing football game. Nice evening!

Mt. Bross

2011-09-23T20:14:00.000-05:00

We drove to Alma to start our adventure and found what we thought was the right road but it was closed for repair work. Fortunately our leader knew the name of one of the construction crew and that got us through even though it will be closed all day.

Paris Mill, which the Forest Service is trying to restore,was neat to see but we couldn't go inside due to toxic chemical residue. So as we were walking around the building I looked up on the mountainside that was looming over us and spotted some buildings high up on its seemingly sheer face. This one of the many old mines that fed into this mill. It is amazing how anyone could ever build something that high up or on that steep a slope!

We traveled up Dolly Varden Road and came to a small lake where we stopped to take in the view and walk around some. On up the road, which was getting pretty steep, we came to a good place for lunch under some Bristlecone Pine trees. Some of these trees were over 1000 years old. Those found in California of the same variety are over 4700 years old (before the pyramids were built).

13,850 Feet Above Sea Level

Now comes the exciting part of the day - climbing up Mt. Bross along the shelf road, zig-zagging back and forth, and running over some snow drifts left from last winter or possibly from last week! We were unable to reach the 14,000 ft summit because the snow got too deep and the road was pretty narrow and had very loose rocks. But the view from where we were was fabulous!

Going back down, we realize that we could not exit off the same road we came up on so we had to find another road that crossed over to one we knew was open. We got on one we thought was right and it was confirmed by a motorcyclist that we were on the right road, but then the motorcyclist turned and we didn't! With 7 Jeeps following each other, we got kind of messed up but eventually we found our way and was it lovely. The road was a single lane, tree covered route. It was covered with golden aspen, sometimes green, fragrant pine and sometimes both.

Radical Jeeping

2011-09-22T23:31:00.000-05:00

Today started out with the prospect of driving 5 different trails. We were down two Jeeps due to work obligations and water leak in an RV so only 7 Jeeps.

Our first trail was up the Middle Fork of Swan River which is considered a moderate trail but was pretty steep and very rocky. Some of the rocks came from dredges found in this area. The trail led up to the former site of Swandyke, a mining community of around 200 people. The unique thing about the mining in this area was that the ore was near the top of the ground so they did not have to dig deep. This was a get-rick-quick mine. One of the Jeeps developed a gas leak, we thought and shortly after that he got a flat tire.

We continued up to an elevation of about 12,800 feet, over some pretty difficult road. At one point we had the option of going straight up or going around on an easier climb. Of course, John chose the challenge. This was a climb that if for any reason you stopped, you would have to back down and that would be almost as difficult as going up. Woo Hoo!! We made it! A short distance later, at the top of the ridge we reached Radical Hill.

But before we descended we got to interact with a small herd of mountain goats. They were very curious and came quite close to the Jeeps. Later, one followed us down the mountain to beg from our lunches.

Radical Hill lived up to its name of being a radical drive. It was a steep descent on a very narrow shelf road, with tight switchbacks and some very large rocks to go over. By the time we got about half way down, it was time for lunch and then the real fun began. We have some very experienced drivers in this group so when they start bottoming out, you know its bad! In one spot the men had to pile up some rocks to lift up the Jeeps so they wouldn't hit bottom. Another area required a spotter to guide us over the boulders. Then the next curve held another surprise and then another surprise of large rocks, deep ravines or narrow road. The bottom of the trail took us through a quiet pine forest sprinkled with Aspen and along a small river. This was a needed respite from the rough ride.

We decided enough was enough for today and headed back home around 4 PM. We had a fun and laughter filled group dinner going over the days events.

Waldorf, CO

2011-09-21T20:53:00.000-05:00

You won't find this city on any map of Colorado because it no long exists. All that is left are some mines and rotting wood. But from the spot where the city used to be are two roads to the top. Argentine Pass at about 13,285 and McClellan Mountain at about 13,132 feet elevation.

We left at 8:30 but some delays caused us to reach Georgetown, CO at about 10 AM. We drove on newly paved road for about 3 miles and then turned off onto gravel. The first mile was pretty steep with some tight switchbacks before straightening out for an easy climb. One section of the road went thru an Aspen forest. The trees are starting to change to their yellow, gold fall colors and with the sun shining thru them, the air was a glorious golden color. And then, just like that, we were out of Aspen and into pine forest and then above the tree line.

We divided the group in half and one went up Argentine and the other up to McClellan then after lunch we switched sides. Argentine had some technically challenging rocks to climb but at the top the view was pretty awesome. We could see mountains all around us and valleys on both sides of the pass.

The drive up McClellan was quite different. We had several tight switchbacks and traversed the side of a rocky mountain side. But, again, the view from the top was awesome. And so was the wind! It must have been blowing 40 - 50 mph!

The trip back down seemed to take forever and by the time we got to Georgetown it was pretty much closed up for the night. Oh, well, we were tired and ready to relax.

Colorado Caravan on Mosquito Pass

2011-09-20T21:35:00.000-05:00

The caravan of 8 Jeeps and a Toyota 4 Runner took off at 8:30 AM and headed south to Alma and then west toward Mosquito Pass. In the 1870's, this was the shortest and quickest way to the Leadville mines. Eventually travel moved from the high pass route to a lower but longer low pass route which we returned on to Alma. But before we even reached our turnoff to the pass, one of the Jeeps came up lame and had to be abandoned until we could return later in the day to get it repaired. The driver and his wife shared rides with others in the caravan.

Mosquito Pass is rated as a moderate route but it had some interesting areas where we had to tackle the rocks and narrow road with some finesse. The views from the top of the pass at 13,185 feet altitude were so awesome. John and I really like the mountains. We are separated from the noise of civilization and surrounded by peace, sunshine, wind and friends. I try to imagine, quite unsuccessfully, how anyone could ride up these roads in a stagecoach pulled by horses and not get shaken to death. I also can't imagine how long a trip like this would take. It took us two hours to travel eight miles in a Jeep. How long pulled by horses??

Leadville was famous for silver mining and by the 1890's it was the 2nd largest city in Colorado. At the summit was a headstone commemorating Father Dyer, the "Snowshoe Itinerant." He was a Methodist minister who started out by ministering to the miners in the area and eventually started carrying mail and gold across the pass, sometimes making the trip twice a day.

We had a picnic lunch on the shores of Turquoise Lake before returning to Leadville for an ice cream cone and then on to Weston Pass to return to Hwy. 9 back to Breckenridge. Weston Pass was a popular route for freight wagons and stage coaches as it was only 11,921 foot elevation. It was an easy drive with some very pretty scenery.

Colorado Adventure 2011

2011-09-19T22:01:00.000-05:00

We got the RV fixed after two trips to the repair shop. They had to replace much of the wiring in the coach, move the inverter and wire it with a breaker fuse which had this been installed initially all of our problems would not have happened. We had to rob a bank (not!) to pay for it all. We got home with the repaired RV only two days before we left for Colorado to go off-road Jeeping in Breckenridge.

We left Sedalia on Saturday, September 17 and drove to Burlington, CO where we spent the night because of a severe weather. We got to Breckenridge about noon on Sunday. Once we got settled in, we rode our bikes from Tiger Run RV park up to the town of Breckenridge where we discovered Octoberfest in full swing! What a great way to start a vacation -- with beer and brats.

Today we took an unofficial off-road adventure with four other Jeeps. Our caravan leader's two sons couldn't wait for the official start on Tuesday, so we followed them up to Georgia Pass on the Continental Divide at 11,585 feet altitude. On the way up, we took a wrong turn and drove a very challenging dead end road. Not a bad way to get lost. We came down off the pass and drove to Fairplay and then back toward Breckenridge thru Boreas Pass at 11,481 feet altitude.

We're Home!

2011-08-23T17:00:00.000-05:00

We left Cheyenne early on Tuesday morning (Aug 9th) but started experiencing some electrical problems so we stopped near Denver and John crawled under the RV trying to, unsuccessfully, find the problem. The power kept going off and on in the coach but not in anyway that he could identify as the problem area. So we drove on.

We stopped for the night about three hours outside of Oklahoma City somewhere in Texas. We ran the generator all night so we could use the air conditioner - the first time it was used this whole trip. Wednesday morning we got going around 8 and about an hour later we pulled over for a short potty break and that is when we smelled something burning! John frantically went around unhooking all the batteries while I followed with the fire extinguisher! No smoke or flames, just a smell of melting plastic. After more crawling around under the coach, John found melted insulation on the wires from the generator to the inside of the coach. He determined that the inverter was shorting out so he bypassed that and we drove on into Norman, Oklahoma. About every half hour I made a sniffing tour of the RV.

We were able to plug into electricity at the campground and turn on the A/C without any problems. Eventually we'll have to get all the wiring replaced.

We had a nice visit with our grandsons (and their parents), we flew to FL for the wedding with lots of flight delays and we got back to Norman on Sunday night Aug. 14. Monday morning we got the call that our daughter-in-law was in labor and our third grandson was born on August 15 at 12:23 PM!

We got home on Tuesday, Aug. 16 and raced to the hospital to hold our new grandson. Liam Harry Lindstrom was ten days early but weighed in at 5 lb. 14 oz. and 19 inches long. What a great way to end our Alaskan Adventure!

We were gone 12 weeks and put 9,870 miles on the RV.

Heading Homeward

2011-08-09T08:24:00.001-05:00

We are currently in Cheyenne, WY with a destination of Norman OK to see the grandsons, fly to FL for a wedding, back to see the grandsons and then home!

We left Banff on Sunday morning and drove all the way to Billings, MT, arriving around 9 PM and staying in the Cabela's parking lot. We stopped early in Cheyenne on Monday so that I could get some laundry done and we both used the wi-fi to get caught up. Tuesday and Wednesday will be spent driving, trying to avoid the heat as long as possible.

Banff

2011-08-06T23:24:00.000-05:00

The mountain next to our campground is called Castle Mountain because it looks like a huge castle but it is more of a long ridge.

Because of the crowds we visited the Upper Hot Springs first but decided against trying them since we had a lot to see and do today. Once we found a place to park and get on the bikes we traveled along Bow River to the Bow Falls. Not as spectacular as the Athabasca Falls but neat none the less.

On up the hill we came to the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel and biked the road that circles the golf course. We enjoyed looking at the different holes on the course as I wished we could play a round, then rode back into the woods toward Spray River then looped back out by the golf course. We spotted a wolf, we think, crossing the road in front of us.

Back into Banff and across the river, there was a trail that was supposed to be easy that went around Tunnel Mountain to a viewpoint of the Hoodoo Rocks. But we took a wrong turn somewhere along the trail and ended up on the difficult trail. Even though the trail was only about three miles long, it took us over an hour to travel and we walked the bikes up and down some really steep, rugged and narrow terrain for at least two miles of the three. I was pooped by the time we got to the top so we cruised back down on the road into Banff without seeing the rock formation. In all we rode 17 miles So after lunch we drove the car up the mountain to see the Hoodoos. Was it worth all that effort? Not for me!! But the view at the top was pretty. We have put over 150 miles on the bikes this trip.

Tomorrow we start our homeward trek!! Yeah!!!

Lake Louise

2011-08-05T22:42:00.000-05:00

The morning dawned cool but promised to warm up a lot. Yesterday it got up to 75!

We loaded the bikes onto the Jeep and drove up to the town of Lake Louise and then on up to Moraine Lake. This beautiful aquamarine blue lake- 'the jewel of the Rockies' -- is surrounded by 10 peaks on a sawtooth ridge. It was pretty awesome to look up and see all those spires. This view used to be on the Canadian $20 bill. We took a short walk along the lake to a small but noisy cascade at the far end of the lake and enjoyed the quite solitude of the forest except for the noise of all the other hikers. This is a very popular spot to visit. All the signs say "Limited Parking 10 AM to 4 PM". We arrived at 9:30 AM with only about a dozen spots open.

We then drove down to the train depot and got on the bikes to ride up, and I do mean UP, 5 km to the actual Lake Louise. It was on an old tramway trail that was used back in the day of mules and wagons. The lake is fed by the glacier on Mount Victoria (over 10,000 ft). We ate our lunch while admiring the scenery and watching the mobs of people walk by. We then toured the fantastic and elegant Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise. Of course, the ride down was easy.

After naps and showers we headed into Banff for wi-fi and a fancy french dinner.

Icefields Parkway

2011-08-04T22:49:00.000-05:00

From Jasper in the Jasper National Park to the town of Banff thru Lake Louise inside Banff National Park runs the Icefields Parkway. This road runs down the spine of the Canadian Rocky Mountain chain. There are icefields all along the west side of the range. The largest icefield is the Columbia Icefield at over 241 square kilometers in area. Although none of the icefields were totally visible, we could glimpse parts of them peaking between far off mountains and ridges.

And speaking of mountains, there were a lot of them to see as we drove past. Most were over 9,000 feet in elevation. The tops of the mountains and ridges were mostly snow covered. Some snow fields looked like someone with a knife had sliced off a large chunk leaving a straight line of snow and ice. Along the foot of the mountains glaciers melted into numerous lakes and rivers giving them their brilliant blue or aquamarine color. Waterfalls were abundant, stark rock walls hovered over our heads, lush green forests covered the foot hills, and cars lined the highway. It is a vacation destination in Canada.

The pictures show the Stutfield Glacier, Sunwapta Canyon with Mount Kitchener, Athabasca Glacier, and North Saskatchewan River with Cirrus Mountain.

As we drove in to Banff from our campground we came across two elk. I rushed the pictures so it isn't very good. We also spotted an eagle on her nest atop a bridge.

Jasper National Park, Alberta

2011-08-03T21:47:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was another long travel day with not much to see or tourist stops to make. Except about 50 miles west of Jasper in British Columbia is Mount Robson. We had been seeing mountain peak for awhile but when we rounded the corner and headed east there was Mount Robson looming over us. It was just breathtakingly beautiful! Sheer rock walls covered with snow standing almost 13,000 feet high and framed by closer mountains, it just begged to be photographed!

As we approached Jasper National Park in Alberta, the traffic picked up as this is a huge tourist destination for Canada. Jasper National Park abuts Banff National Park to the south and is within a days drive of five other national parks and several provincial parks. On top of that, the highway we were traveling on is a major east/west corridor thru the mountains. That said, Jasper was very busy and we haven't seen that many cars for weeks!

Just a short drive south of Jasper was one of many campgrounds in the park that we stopped in. It felt so good to get out of the car, build a fire, take a walk along the river and put our feet up for the night.

Today we got a late start to hike one of many trails in the Jasper area. The hike took us over a steep, rocky moraine then into the upper-subalpine forest and up into the alpine meadow. We walked about 4 miles with an elevation gain of about 1500 ft. that took us about four hours including a stop for lunch and a nap. The wild flowers were so pretty -- Indian Paintbrush, white and pink heather, daisies, lupine, goldenrod, yarrow, fireweed and many more I could not identify.

Always in view was the Cavell Mountain and Glacier. As glaciers go, this was not a huge one. As we walked we could hear cracks and thunder of the glacier breaking up and some pieces going into the Cavell Pond at the base of the mountain. We did not get to see any break off. We did see marmots, chipmunks and pikas. We were told there was a caribou up near the top of our trail but we were tired and ready to head down.

Before we went back to the RV, we stopped to see the Athbasca Falls. I'll let the pictures tell that story! They were awesome!

Travel West and South

2011-08-01T23:50:00.000-05:00

Today was a travel day. We drove about 10 hours from Stewart to Prince George, BC. In the first two hours on the road we spotted one deer and 4 black bears. Then later in the evening we spotted one more black bear. The drive was uneventful but we saw some beautiful scenery as the clouds lifted and the sun shone down. The landscape changed from mountains to rolling hills and meadows. We did stop a few times to stretch our legs and look at visitor centers, farmers market, and an historic old town.

The night was spent in a Walmart parking lot.

Stewart, BC/Hyder, AK

2011-07-31T23:37:00.000-05:00

Our drive to Stewart/Hyder was eventful! We saw three black bears along the road and I think I saw one off on a hill. We also saw a fox running ahead of us.

Stewart is a town of about 700 people on the western edge of British Columbia that was started as a mining town. Hyder was more of an access and supply point for the miners. Today the economy is driven by forestry, mining and tourism. Both towns are at the head of Portland Canal and the US and Canadian border goes between them. During prohibition the folks in Hyder would walk over to Stewart for a drink or two and then walk home.

Late this afternoon we took an auto tour up to the Salmon Glacier on Glacier Highway (20 miles of very bumpy gravel). We saw evidence of several mines, Tongass National Forest, Salmon River and Salmon Glacier. Also on the tour is Fish Creek Wildlife Viewing Area where we saw one black bear & one eagle after stopping in there three times. We were led to believe that we would see lots of grizzly and black bears since the salmon are spawning, but it was just did not happen today. The Salmon Glacier is the fifth largest glacier in Canada and is over 7 miles long. Just above the glacier is Summit Lake. This is a self dumping lake. "In 1961 the lake drained under the glacier, raising the level of the river and filling it with ice bergs. This resulted in catastrophic flooding along the Salmon River valley. The lake then began a cycle of filling and draining, flooding the Salmon River, causing damage to the road and bridges along the river. The event now occurs almost every year." (Taken from the auto tour brochure.) We saw evidence of ice chunks on the gravel bars along the river.

Cassiar Highway

2011-07-30T23:56:00.000-05:00

The Cassiar Highway is an alternate route to the Alaskan Highway. It is suppose to cut about 130 miles off of the Alaskan Highway route. Many people drive this one way coming or going. The scenery is pretty -- pine forests, Cassiar Mountains, rivers and lakes. Two reasons to come this way: 1. Its a different route that we haven't driven before; and 2. Stewart, BC/Hyder, AK is along here. This destination will ensure that we see bears fishing for salmon (we hope!).

If we drove straight thru to Stewart, we wouldn't arrive until after 8 PM so we stopped at Kinaskan Provincial Park on Kinaskan Lake. It is so beautiful here. I built a roaring fire after supper and we thoroughly enjoyed warming our knees by a crackling and popping fire while listening to the sounds of nature around us. One of those sounds is the family of four next to us talking and laughing as they prepare for bed in their tent.

We saw another bear along the road today as well as a group of Stone Sheep as they were preparing to cross the road. A bird was on the road but I'm not sure if it was a grouse or a ptarmigan.

Skagway, AK

2011-07-29T23:05:00.000-05:00

I know we have been here before but I sure didn't recognize any of it! About 10 years ago we took an inside passage cruise of Alaska and one of the port-of-calls was Skagway. It has changed -- and grown -- a lot! It still has boardwalks but many, many more souvenir shops and jewelry stores. For some reason, Skagway is the center of the Alaska jade, tanzanite and gold jewelry trade. We finished up our souvenir shopping for family and friends and then started our drive to Stewart, BC/Hyder, AK.

Its a 12 hour drive and we didn't get started until after lunch so we stopped at a turnout for the night about 9 pm. Along the way we saw a small black bear and a really cool porcupine crossing the highway. We had a car on our tail so we were not able to stop to take a picture. Darn!! First time I've ever really seen a porcupine! This turnout is very big and next to a stream. It must be a popular spot for campers as there are several fire pits. It rained most of the night.

Haines, AK

2011-07-28T23:56:00.000-05:00

I got the laundry completed and supper started before it started raining last night. It was a pleasant evening in the RV. This morning I made John get up early so we could make a run out to Chilkoot River to see bears before breakfast. It is a beautiful river with lots of salmon moving up it and we saw several eagles but no bears. We'll try again later. After breakfast we broke camp and moved the RV to a side street and explored the quaint town, lunch, nap and a nice walk. After supper at a so-so restaurant we again went out to Chilkoot River before boarding the ferry to Skagway.

This time we got to see bears! A mama grizzly bear and two cubs were ambling along the river below the bridge, sometimes fishing, sometimes rooting around for berries. They were neat to watch along with the park ranger, volunteer spotters and quite a few other people. It seemed like the bears were going to move too far away to get a good picture so we left and drove around the park but on our way back, the bears had moved back toward the bridge. Mama stopped to fish so the cubs started to rough house. The ranger told us that they were about two-years old and that the mother was only about 6 or 7 years old. He was surprised that she wasn't playing with her cubs since she was such a young mother. About that time mama wandered over to the cubs and the male cub attacked her and she began wrestling with him. The female cub wasn't interested in fighting, so she just watched them and showed off for us. When they stopped playing, they ambled up the river bank, under the bridge and into the brush on the other side. We couldn't have gotten any closer!!

We left Haines on the ferry for the 15 mile ride Skagway at 10 PM and arrived at 11 PM. We have gone far enough south and it is far enough from the summer solstice that it was pretty dark so we did not get to see much scenery. After we got off the ferry, we drove about 5 miles north of Skagway before we found a turnout to spend the night.

Travel to Haines

2011-07-27T23:55:00.000-05:00

Our travel today took us thru Yukon Territories, British Columbia and back into Alaska. The sky was mostly cloudy but the clouds were high until we got into the mountains and onto the coast when they started dropping down and precipitating. So the supposedly spectacular scenery was hidden from us again. But until the clouds hid them, the mountains, although not really high, were very rugged with snow interspersed with all the green tundra and forests. There are lots of streams and rivers running from the glaciers down to the coastline and bogs, ponds and lakes holding some of the water inland. We saw several pairs of trumpeter swans, John saw one bear (I missed him), and an eagle flew past the front of the RV. We took a short hike to the Million Dollar Waterfall, don't ask us why that's the name.

When we reached Haines, we drove directly to the ferry terminal to check on going across the bay to Skagway. It is a 15 mile crossing that takes about an hour and costs more than the tank of gas it would take to drive back up the Haines Highway to the Alaska Highway. But we do get to see Skagway and drive a different route with different scenery, so we bought tickets for tomorrow's ferry which does not leave until 10PM. I did laundry, John washed the RV and we rented a movie to watch while it's raining!

Starting Our Last Leg of Journey

2011-07-26T23:44:00.000-05:00

We are heading east and south, toward home, but we still have some places to go and adventures to enjoy before we cross into the lower 48.

Today was a travel day. We went north to Tok, AK on the Tok Cutoff. Boy was it bumpy and rough. Not real sure we saved any time by going this route but we did save miles. In Tok we dumped, filled up with gas and water and washed off the bugs and mud. Then we headed out on the Alaska Highway toward Haines Junction. This section is a constant drive over frost heaves, gravel sections, bumps and dips. With just a few stops we got as far as Destruction Bay, Yukon, which is on Kluane Lake and found a nice turnout to dry camp for the night. Its been a 12 hour day.

The turnout we are parked in is at Historic Milepost 1061, Soldier's Summit, where the official opening of the Alaska Canada Military Highway was held on Nov. 20, 1942. We walked on the original Alcan Highway looking at pictures and reading stories of the building of this infamous road now called The Alaskan Highway. The view from the summit of Kluane Lake is just beautiful!

Valdez

2011-07-25T22:55:00.000-05:00

We drove down to Valdez into rain, fog and clouds. It was just cloudy at the campground but once we went over Thompson Pass, the clouds settled down on top of the mountains into the bay so we couldn't see anything. It was a disappointing day all the way around. Valdez is supposed to be really pretty surrounded by snow-capped mountains and blue ocean. We did see part of the Worthington Glacier, salmon crowded into the mouth of a stream but no bears to catch them, and a glimpse of sea otters but not the sea lions we heard barking in the bay. The town of Valdez is very small with few shops. We used the library wi-fi to catch up on email, etc. and then we drove back to the RV.

As I was sitting by the fire before supper, I got to thinking about home and summer and how it is so different here than in Missouri. Summer is supposed to be sunny, dry, humid, green burnt to brown, hot days and warm nights. But, here in Alaska, that is not what it feels like.

Summer is lush green springtime or very early summer feeling. Flowers such as petunia, iris, lilacs, lupine and fireweed abound. The forests are like a rain forest with lots of ground cover, ferns and grasses. There are mostly aspen, birch and cottonwood and at higher elevations you find spruce and other evergreens and willow.

The air has a autumn feel to me. We have warm days, not hot, and very cool nights. If the temperature rises to near 70 it is only for a short time. Most often a breeze comes up that cools the warm air. It seems that there are more cloudy and rainy days than sunny.

When I look at the snow-capped mountains surrounded by clouds, I feel it must be very cold outside, possibly even snowy but it never has been that cold. A roaring fire is nice but not necessary for warmth. Just the crackle, hiss and pop is comforting, gives me a cozy feeling in the outdoors. But, again, it feels like fall.

There is water everywhere -- gurgling streams, and rushing rivers, quiet ponds and lapping lakes, exciting rapids and the cool spray of mist thrown up by the rapids. All this leads to -- mosquitoes! We haven't experienced swarms of the nasty bugs except once in Denali but they are buzzing in your ear or flying in your face almost everywhere. Now, mosquitoes remind me of home!

Kennicott Mines National Historic Landmark

2011-07-24T23:05:00.000-05:00

The Kennicott Mine was the richest producer of copper and silver in the world. The 70% pure copper was found here in 1900 and by 1907 the Alaska Syndicate of J.P. Morgan and the Guggenheim family were making plans to mine the copper, build a mill to process the copper and silver out of the 5 mines in the mountain and build a railroad to transport the ore to the coast before it was shipped to Washington. The first train load of ore left the mine in 1911. When the mine was closed in 1938, they had produced 591,000 tons of copper and 9,000,000 ounces of silver! At the height of production the mine employed over 600 men who worked 10-12 hours a day, 7 days a week with two holidays -- Christmas and Independence Day. To keep employees they paid well and had lots of amenities like a recreation hall, company store, hospital, school and fresh meat and dairy. Most men were single and could only stand the hard work for about 6 month. The more important employees like managers and engineers brought their families with them and had separate housing.

The area sat idle for a while, was used for mining the rock slides and then sold so some of the building left standing are owned by private individuals. In 1986 it was designated as a historic landmark and in 1998 Wrangell-St. Elias National Park acquired the remaining town properties.

To access this site we drove 93 miles, 33 miles paved and 60 miles on a rough, gravel road. It took 2 1/2 hours to get there. Then we had to park and walk across two foot bridges that span the Chitina River and walk 1/2 mile to reach the town of McCarthy. From there we rode the shuttle van 4.5 miles to Kennicott Mill Town. We found out later that if we wanted to drive across to McCarthy, we could pay a private individual $100 each ways to cross on his bridge!

When we crossed over the Copper River we saw very active salmon fishing including over 20 fish wheels. It was a long day, we didn't get back to the RV until after 8PM.

Travel Day

2011-07-23T23:15:00.000-05:00

Yesterday we drove from Cooper Landing to Copper Center which is on the Richardson Highway en-route to Valdez (pronounced Val-deez). As we were headed eastward we passed the Mantanusca Glacier and faced the Wrangell Mountains. The tallest peaks visible are Mt. Sanford (16,237 ft), Mt. Drum (12,010 ft), and Mt. Wrangell (14,113 ft) and they are all snow capped with glaciers on or near them. The tallest peak in this range was not visible to us as it was too far south and covered with clouds. It is Mt. Blackburn (16,690 ft).

Due to stops along the way and some sight-seeing we didn't get into the state park until after 6 pm. After supper we walked over to the resort near us to use their wi-fi. We think this place is struggling. They have an RV park (only 2 RV's were there), a 'lodge' made up of trailers (appeared empty) and a small restaurant/bar run by Russian immigrants. We had a drink and left at 9:30 pm and the place was empty on a Saturday night!

Trout Fishing

2011-07-22T23:19:00.000-05:00

John took off on an all-day guided trout fishing trip and I took it easy driving around the area, going to the very small museum and learning some about the local Kenaitze Indian Tribe. It is very warm today -- 77°!! I may have a sun burn! It felt really good to sit in the sun while calling home to visit with family and friends.

John left at 7:30AM and did not get back from his fishing trip until almost 8PM. He, two other men and the guide fished from the bank of the Kenai River about 5 miles down the road from the campground. They fished for about 4 hours from the bank for salmon. The salmon are starting to change as they swim up this part of the river. They start turning red, develop a hump on their back and they get a hooked lip before they reach their spawning ground. These are fish you should not keep if you catch one and they are swimming with salmon who haven't changed yet, who are still silver and blend in with the river bottom. The trick is to catch a silver salmon not a red one. They kept 11 salmon and released and/or lost more than that.

After lunch they floated on down the Kenai and fished for trout. But the trout weren't biting with all the salmon running up the river. John caught 2 salmon on a fly rod and both broke the line. Then they stopped again and got out the lightweight fly rods and more conventionally fished with dry flies for trout. John had several srikes and actually hooked one. But as before the trout fishing was very slow. The Kenai empties into lake Skilak at which point the motor on the drift boat is started to run to the takeout ramp. Trouble is with a 8HP motor and 4 men in a drift boat the going is slow. It took almost an hour to get to the launch ramp, and over 30 minutes of driving to get back to the RV park. John was beat and his casting arm was limp.

Backtracking

2011-07-21T23:00:00.000-05:00

We were on the road by mid-morning and back in Cooper Landing by 10 AM but unable to stay in the RV park we wanted. We ended up at the Kenai Riverside RV Park which was fairly empty when we arrived and filled up by supper time. Since we are right on the river John did some trout fishing, then checked in for his guided trout fishing trip for tomorrow. Other than that it was a warm 73° day and we are expecting the same again tomorrow.

Got One!

2011-07-21T02:27:00.000-05:00

Woo Hoo!! John got a Red/Sockey Salmon! He had been fishing off and on for a day and a half and was about to give up. But at about 9PM (remember it doesn't get dark) he got one. The man from Alabama next to him helped him by using his net. He then pulled the gills and banged it on the head to subdue it. Without this man's help John is pretty sure he would never been able to land it by himself especially with no net and a lightweight bass rod.

He got it filleted and we cut it up into about 4 pieces. He figures it was about 24" long and can't even guess at the weight. But it was fun!

Morgan Landing

2011-07-20T00:20:00.000-05:00

As we drove thru Old Town Kenai, we found a place to park on the bluff over looking the mouth of the Kenai River. We couldn't believe our eyes! Both banks were covered with hundrends of people fishing with huge dip nets. In some places a line of fishermen were walking in chest high water along with the current towards the sea, then turning onto the beach and walking back a ways and starting over - called a merry-go-round. Others were just walking out with their 10 foot long dip nets and holding them out in the current to catch the salmon as they started their journey up the river. Then over 100 boats started making their run out into the inlet to set down their nets. We were told that once they had set up a line of nets, the run at the mouth of the river would be diminished until the boats came back in. All these Alaskans are getting as many salmon as they need to last them the winter.

We pulled into the campground at Morgan Landing along the Kenai River at around 2 PM and had a choice from about 8 empty spots but by 6 that evening the campground was full with more rigs in the overflow lot. We were just plain lucky!

After we picked our camp site, we walked over to the river to check out the fishing and to figure out how it is done. The campground host was very helpful. She explained that the salmon have been out in the salty ocean for 2-3 years, so as they make their run up the fresh water river they have to clean the salt out of their gills. That is what they are doing when you see them rolling and jumping. They do not feed as they go up the river, their only intention is to get to their spawning grounds and lay their eggs. So when the fishermen are casting their line, they are not attracting the fish, they are literally snagging them by chance. However it is against the rules to keep a salmon that is snagged, you must "snag" them in the mouth. So it doesn't really matter what color fly you use. John figured out real quick his 12 pound test line was not going to work so he made a quick run into town for some heavy line. he figures if he actually catches one his line won't break but his lightweight rod might.

Captain Cook State Park

2011-07-18T23:45:00.000-05:00

We are here at this park because I made John come here! The day dawned bright, clear and warm, for Alaska. We hitched up the Jeep for the 74 mile drive back up to the towns of Soldatna and Kenai. We stopped to take pictures of two volcanoes on the far shore. One is Illiamna and the other is the Redoubt.

We were in hopes that things had settled down a bit from the weekend's frantic dip netting on the Kenai River. NOT! We pulled into a county campground with over 170 sites and only found one empty. We both shuddered at the thought of camping with all those people, noise and commotion so we elected to move on. As we pulled out of the campground there were over 20 cars and RV's waiting in line to go in.

We found a quiet place to pull off the road, ate lunch and made a few phone calls. All the campgrounds in this area were full except this one state park which dead ends 28 miles from town. That's when I made the decision to camp here. It's right on Cook's Inlet, next to Stormy Lake and Swanson River. The inlet is not the prettiest at this point but the mountains lining the far shore are beautiful! The tide was out so we were able to walk on the rocky beach where we met a couple from Montana who had been fishing on the Kenai River. They had caught some salmon but said it was work to find a spot not filled with people. Sounds like opening day at Bennet Springs!

After supper we explored the park, did some walking and then built a nice fire as we watched the sun starting to set into the mountains (it's just now 10:30 here).

Homer, Day 3

2011-07-18T00:48:00.000-05:00

The weather today is cloudy and cool. A good day to do the laundry and work on the computer. We took a break at 4 PM to get out of the RV for a short while. Then back into the 'cave' just as it starts pouring down rain.

I fixed a really fine rock fish meal for us and then some TV before showers and bed.

B o r i n g!

Homer, AK Day 2

2011-07-16T23:46:00.000-05:00

So many things to accomplish today. We want to get our hair cut, go to the Farmer's Market, grocery shop, check out the Street Faire, walk on the beach, shop on the spit and go out to dinner.

We got it all done except the shopping on the spit -- we ran out of time. Walking on the beach was really cool. We had an extra-low tide at 10:05 am this morning. I walked over 400 yards all the way out to the tide line. Not much to see except some shells, kelp and seaweed. We found that we can also drive on this beach but we didn't find the entry point until almost high tide so we will have to put that off until tomorrow.

We can see one of the glaciers of the Harding Ice Field on the opposite shore from Homer. It is one that does not break off, or calve, into the tidewater but it is an alpine glacier that forms in a mountain valley and creates its own moraine lake. The one most visible is named Grewingk. The Harding Ice Field has over 30 glaciers covering over 300 square miles.

Sunset at 11:07 PM tonight and if we were able to stay up that late, we might even be able to see it set in the bay.

Homer, AK

2011-07-15T23:12:00.000-05:00

We broke camp around 9 AM and another family was ready to move in as we moved out! We were only going to go about 47 miles to Soldotna/Kenai City so I drove the Jeep and followed John. The traffic was horrible so we figured something was going on this weekend, we just didn't know what. When we got to the RV park we had picked out we found out why. The second salmon run had started and the next two weeks are when all Alaskans can come to this area with their dip nets and get as many salmon as they need to get them through the winter.

They didn't have any sites available and told us we probably wouldn't find any around this area for at least the next few days. So we made a phone call to an RV park in Homer and headed down here since it was only about 57 miles further down the road. It was a beautiful drive. The further west and south, the fewer trees and the better we could see Cook Inlet and the Aleutian Mountains on the far shore. The two tallest were totally snow capped! Then at Anchor Point we made the turn south into Homer and another beautiful site greeted us. There was Kachemac Bay that empties into the North Pacific and on the far shore of the bay are the Kenai Mountains, also with a lot of snow on them and glaciers dividing the peaks.

What a view from our RV! We hurriedly set up the RV and then got on our bikes to ride out to the Homer Spit -- a narrow spit of land that runs 4 miles out into the bay. At the end is all sorts of shops, fishing expeditions, bear watching tours, fishing boats and restaurants. It was an invigorating ride as the wind, which always blows out there, was at our backs going down and in our face coming back up. 14 miles round trip.

Hikin' 'n' Fishin'

2011-07-14T23:22:00.000-05:00

We are so lucky to have this campsite. Several people have stopped by to ask us when we are leaving so they can move in! Yesterday, John got the kayak ready and went out on the lake to fish. I had all intentions of going hiking but never made it out of the park. I really enjoyed not doing anything but read, write postcards and nap! We also spent part of the afternoon checking out fishing guides, getting a couple of items at the store and then John took me out to eat. Very lazy day!

So today we made up for being lazy! John was out in the kayak for over 5 hours trying to catch those wily trout and traveled about 3 miles down the lake in his efforts. Unfortunately the wind came up as the day wore on. The good thing is that it was at his back which made getting back up the lake a whole lot easier. After all that time he never got a bite.

I made two hikes. I walked down a trail to the Kenai River which was about 2 miles round trip. The unsettling part of this hike was all the bear scat along the path! I talked to myself, sang Girl Scout songs and did a lot of praying out loud! Must have worked because I didn't see any bears. But the river was beautiful. It actually split into 3 streams where I was and all of them had rapids. That is one fast moving river!

The second hike was a lot longer and much more strenuous. I figure it was about 3 1/2 miles round trip but it had a 1400 feet elevation change and that was all in the first mile! And on top of that the sun came out and it got warm! The trail was a woodland trail -- dirt with leaf and pine coverings, a lot of exposed roots to step over or to use as steps up. When in the woods it was quiet except for the song birds, nicely shaded and smelled so wonderfully earthy with hints of wildflowers and pine. Between the stretches of woods were meadows with the tallest grass and flowers I have ever seen. They threatened to obscure the path and the Queen Anne's Lace towered overhead, some of it over 7 feet tall! I could also hear water running down the mountain. At one point I knew there was a waterfall but had a really hard time seeing it through the canopy of lush green leaves and grass. Periodically beautiful wildflowers like purple Monk's Hood and red Columbine and blue forget-me-nots would nod as I walked by. Lower Fuller Lake greeted me with its blue mountain coolness. It was a small lake that was a welcomed site after all the woods and grass.

I spent about 3 hours hiking and was dog tired when I got back. John and I enjoyed the evening around a roaring fire.

Russian River

2011-07-12T23:38:00.000-05:00

Today dawned cloudy and threatening rain but it never precipitated. We moved the RV 15 miles down the road to Hidden Lake Campground and have fallen in love with the place. As we drove down the 3.5 mile gravel road to the campground we saw a mother grizzly and her cub cross the road, a cow moose on the side of the road and then about a mile further on a black bear crossed right in front of us! The most wildlife we've seen at one time. We are parked on the lake and it is so peacefully and calm here. This evening we alternately bask in the setting sun on the lake shore and sit by a roaring fire at 9 o'clock at night! John is planning to get the kayak out and do some trout fishing on the lake tomorrow. Now this is what Alaska is supposed to be like.

After lunch we took a 5 mile round trip hike up to Russian River Falls where we are supposed to see bears and jumping salmon. I say suppose to, but we don't see either one. It is too early in the week for the salmon who are supposed to arrive later this week and too late in the day to see bears who are most likely napping. We do enjoy watching the trout fishermen who are hooking and/or catching fish. We'll be back her in another 10 days so hopefully we'll see the animals and fish then.

Six Mile River Rafting

2011-07-11T23:39:00.000-05:00

We had a really exciting afternoon! But first we woke to sunshine and evidence that a bear had visited our site this morning -- bear poo on the driveway! Maybe it's a good thing we didn't know one was that close!

We broke camp and drove on down the road about 50 miles to Cooper Landing which is the gateway to Kenai fishing. But along the way we decided to take our friend's advice and signed up for white-water rafting on Six Mile Creek and Canyon Creek. John also made a few calls concerning guided trout fishing in this area.

But one of the most exciting things we have done on this trip was the white-water rafting. We had the option of paying for two canyons of class 3 and 4 rapids and then getting off the river or if Pam decided she wanted to experience the class 5 rapids we could continue on thru the third canyon and pay for it at the end. Everyone wore dry suits over layers of warm clothes and wool socks. The outfitters also provided river shoes, life jackets and helmets. We were prepared for cold water! After receiving river safety instructions, all participants had to walk into the river and swim down about 300 yards to the rafts so we could experience the cold, swift water and practice self rescue so if we fell out of the raft we wouldn't panic and could get ourselves out of the water.

Each raft held 4-5 rafters and one guide. Our guide looked a lot like Patrick Swazy, had been rafting for 7 years in Alaskan summers and heads back to the lower 48 to be a ski bum in the winter. And we were off down the river, the fastest river I've ever been on. But it was so pretty. We saw a bald eagle right off the bat then later a few King salmon. Then we didn't really have time to look around, we had to concentrate on paddling and staying in the boat. The first canyon was relatively easy but gave us a feel for what was coming. The second canyon was a little more exciting, some big dips, some technical turns and one or two falls -- one which threw John into the boat. By the time we got to the third canyon, I was having so much fun I didn't want to get off, so on we went to the class 5 rapids. Each one had a name like Merry-Go-Round, Sharks Teeth, and Let's Make A Deal where we went thru doors number 1, 2, and 3! We were hit with a lot of water, made several 4-5 foot drops, had to paddle really hard and fast, and there was no letting up, it was one rapid on top of another! I fell into the boat a couple of times, but you just jump back up and start paddling again. It was so exciting and fun that, of course, I laughed all the way thru it and whooped it up at the end!

Sad to say, we have no pictures just the memories and stories to tell.

Whittier, Hope, Moose

2011-07-10T22:43:00.000-05:00

We read somewhere that this area gets 197 inches of rain a year! I guess we should stop complaining about cloudy days and be grateful they are not rain clouds!

Right now I am sitting outside next to a warm fire, enjoying a moment of sunshine and the roar of a glacial waterfall. We had a wonderful day of hiking and exploring. First we hiked an easy trail 1 mile up to Ryan Glacier. Its a very small glacier as compared to others in the area but we could walk on it and see where it was melting into a roaring stream.

We then drove over to Whittier, going thru the 2.5 mile one-lane tunnel. Portage Pass trail is 1 mile up a 750 foot incline for a view of Portage Glacier and Prince William Sound. It is really impressive. The blue color is caused by the compression of ice crystals to a point that only the color blue will reflect light -- all other light is blocked out. We explored the top of the ridge hoping to find a large lake but all we saw was a very deep ravine obviously cut out by a long ago glacier and one bear paw print.

After lunch at a delightful cafe in Whittier, we took a 10 minute cat nap while waiting for our turn to go back thru the tunnel and then drove to Hope. We wanted to check our white-water raft trips as well as to see this historic village. Most of the homes and businesses are restored log cabins. There was a parking lot where we could view Cook Inlet and watch fishermen on the 6-Mile Creek. Just as we were about to leave, we noticed people getting excited about something. And there she was -- a female moose and her TWO calves. She was uninterested in all the people so we were able to get pretty close for a picture. Those calves are cute!

Portage Valley

2011-07-09T23:16:00.000-05:00

Last evening we were reviewing our trip thus far and sharing what we wanted to see and do over the next few weeks. We also checked our calendar to see how much time we have to spend in Alaska. We still don't feel that we have experienced our vision of Alaska. We keep looking for the wild, untamed parts, the exciting fishing or the wild animal encounters. Up to this point, and excluding Denali, we feel like we just keep going into the cities. With that in mind, we decided that we needed to skip our tour of Anchorage for now.

So we drove a whole 50 miles from Wasilla and thru Anchorage to the south end of Cook Inlet on the Turnagain Arm to an area called Portage Valley. The drive along Turnagain Arm is beautiful! Across the arm we can see the Kenai Mountains, some still have snow caps, and catch a glimpse of glaciers. The inlet itself is a mud flat as we go by but when the tide turns it will fill with 33 feet of water. We looked, but did not see, beluga whales who call this home in the summer. The whales follow the fish and salmon into the inlet then in the winter, when the fish leave, the whales move to a different part of Cook Inlet.

Portage Valley is only about 10 miles long and is the isthmus one crosses to get to the Kenai Peninsula. Across the isthmus from Turnagain Arm is the little harbor town of Whittier on the Prince William Sound which is the gateway to all the glaciers in Prince William Sound. The road to Whittier shares the longest highway tunnel in North America with the Alaskan Railroad and it in one lane! So eastbound traffic goes on the half hour, westbound traffic goes on the hour, and the train goes whenever it wants to. We'll try it out tomorrow.

We are staying in the nicest National Forest campground I have ever seen! All paved roads, huge picnic tables and big sites. We rode our bikes on the Trail of Blue Ice which follows Portage Creek. All the water comes mostly from the Portage Glacier but there are other smaller glaciers that feed into it as well. We stopped at the Begich, Boggs Visitor Center situated on Portage Lake across from Portage Glacier but also looking at Burns and Shakespeare Glaciers. Out in the middle of the lake was a large iceberg that was as big as the tour boat!

The clouds finally moved aside and let the sun shine for awhile this afternoon -- love it!

Movin' On Down the Parks Highway

2011-07-08T23:32:00.000-05:00

I haven't posted for a couple of days mostly because we haven't done much. When we left Talkeetna, we only drove about 70 miles down the road to an area called Big Lake where we found a park on Rocky Lake with only 12 sites right on this pretty, but small lake. Our site was on the lake, the sun was shining and there was only a light breeze -- heaven! John got out the kayak and went fishing while I read and basked in the sun. But then the wind kicked up, the sun went behind a cloud and it got cool in a hurry! Even the fire wouldn't keep us very warm. On top of that, some young adults across the lake were having a great time water skiing and tubing -- at 11 at night! Remember the sun is still shining as sunset is a little after 11:30! The nights are getting a little longer but it still never gets dark.

Thursday morning we pulled out and drove about 30 miles to Wasilla, Sarah Palin's home town, and the 4th largest city in Alaska with a population of 7,900. We stocked up on groceries and I did 5 loads of laundry (we were really getting short on clothes to wear!).

As the weather today was rather gloomy, John got caught up on computer work and, in the hopes that the clouds would lift in the afternoon, I planned our day trip over Hatcher Pass. We had to backtrack up the Parks Hwy. about 25 miles before we got on the pass road. The first 12 miles were paved, then it was gravel but not too rough. Unfortunately the weather was still very cloudy so we didn't get to see any of the mountain tops we were driving thru. The road followed Willow Creek to its source at Summit Lake then went down the other side of the pass. We are told that the views are wonderful, but not today. On the other side of the pass was the Independence Gold Mine Historic Site.

This was the richest gold nugget mine in Alaska from 1937-1949. They mined rock gold here as compared to flakes of gold found at Dawson Creek, Yukon. The parks system is working really hard to restore as many of the buildings as possible and to keep the site from deteriorating further so as to preserve our history. Bunkhouses, the mess hall, commissary, warehouses and a few other buildings have been restored although not for public entry. The signage told the story of the mine and the many men who worked there. Because it was such a rich mine, they were able to provide many amenities for the people. They used 1,000 gallons of fuel a day to generate the power to run the mine; they employed a water way to move the ore, used an electric train to get the rocks out of the mines and even had an aerial tramway to move the rocks from high up on the mountain. We really enjoyed this piece of history.

Awesome, Fantastic, Unbelievable!!

2011-07-06T00:10:00.000-05:00

Hey, guess what? Its not raining! It is a totally clear day! Yeah!

John got us up at 5 AM today so that he could be ready to go on a guided fishing trip for King salmon. There was only one other guy plus the guide, they took a jet boat up the Talkeetna River to Clear Creek. John actually caught a 26" salmon but it was too small to keep. He saw several people hook huge king salmon (35+ pounds) but no such luck for him. While he was fishing I rode my bike into town to see if I could see Mt. McKinley but it is still concealed in clouds. So I ride 4 miles the other direction to a neat bakery to have a latte, a roll and got to read the Sunday paper. Then I rode back and now the Mt. McKinley peak is visible. Awesome!

What makes it even better is that at 7 PM this evening we climbed into a Cessna 185 with just the pilot and John and I and flew right up next to Mt. McKinley -- all 20,320 feet of her!! Two other peaks near there are Mt. Hunter at 14,573 feet and Mt. Foraker at 17,395 feet! There are glaciers coming out of these mountains that are 35 and 45 miles long and 3-5 miles wide. Ruth Glacier is the biggest. There are actually 3 arms that flow together to make one glacier. At that point the glacier is over 4,000 feet deep and runs between two peeks that are over 7,000 feet tall. This gorge could be deeper than the Grand Canyon. This glacier is moving at the incredible speed of 3 feet per day! At the bottom it is covered with dirt, grass, bushes and trees.

We are flying below the tops of the mountains, next to tall cliffs and over more glaciers. We see 'ice falls' and avalanche areas, glacial pools and crevices. Then we land on one arm of the Ruth Glacier! As we were preparing to land another plane took off and even though it was even with us, it was so far away that it looked like just a speck against the cliff wall and we were both flying between two peaks! From the air the landing area doesn't look that wide but once we are down, we see another airplane already there and room for a dozen or more. It is huge! And there were people camped on the glacier so they could go climbing and skiing in the mountain. Crazy! As we were standing on the glacier and looking northward toward some ridges, the pilot told us that those ridges were over 7 miles away!

This whole experience is so incredible that I cannot even begin to find words to describe it. And I'm not sure our pictures will do it justice, but just know that it was awesome, fantastic and unbelievable!!!

Happy Birthday, USA

2011-07-04T23:22:00.000-05:00

Today is the 4th of July in Alaska. Now you tell me how one can shoot off fireworks in the Land of the Midnight Sun??? It never gets dark!

We moved back to Talkeetna after John did some more trout fishing in Montana Creek and he actually caught one! Once we got our RV set we got the bikes out and rode about 8 miles on the bike trail. But other than that we didn't do much. After supper we were bored and then it started raining again so we got out a Star Wars video and watched the Return of the Jedi!! Now that's what you call being REALLY bored. But tomorrow will be a big day!

Montana Creek

2011-07-03T22:53:00.000-05:00

We woke to rain (is this getting too repetitive?) But as the morning went on the weather got better. The campground we are in is totally full and they gave away our site since we had only paid for 2 nights. By 11 AM we decided to park the RV on their driveway and go exploring in the Jeep. As we drove out toward the main highway we turned off on some side roads to look at the lakes and streams, checking to see if there were any camping sites.

Just south of the junction is Montana Creek which is THE place to fish for King Salmon until midnight Monday. On all four sides of the bridge over the creek there are campgrounds and day use areas that charge $10 to park. So to avoid the charge, we joined the 40 other cars parked on the side of the road. The creek is a fast running wide river and clear but we don't see any fish. After a picnic lunch we walked along watching the fishermen but at midday, there is not really a lot of fishing going on. We then walked thru the 4 campgrounds and decided that we would go back to get the RV and stay here tonight. John got a 3 day fishing license and his King stamp since he will be going with a guide on Tuesday to fish for salmon. But here he is going to fish for trout and grayling. As we left the camp store a young man weights in a 34 pound King Salmon strung on a long stick and carried by two men. Must be really exciting to catch something that big!

Our campsite is in a wooded area and feels secluded although we are surrounded by people. Its going to be a noisy night as kids are setting off firecrackers in the tunnel under the road already.

More Rain

2011-07-02T22:13:00.001-05:00

We woke this morning to rain -- yes, I am repeating my self!! The rain lightened up around 11 AM so we put on raincoats and walked into town. We went in every shop, had a late lunch (due to poor service and a busy restaurant), then shopped some more. The Denali Ranger station located in Talkeetna is where people who want to climb Mt. McKinley register before the climb. They show an informative video about what all that involves, the time it takes, the weather they endure and the various stops they have to make on the way up. It can take up to 3 weeks to make the climb starting at 7000 feet but only two days to come back down. We also explored the Talkeetna History Museum which was very interesting.

John spent some time checking out flight tours of Mt. McKinley and guided fishing. It seems we are in the thick of Red (King) Salmon fishing in this area. They can fish on one stream until midnight Monday and on other rivers near here until July 13. We'll probably stick around for a few more days so he can fish and then maybe the weather will clear enough to see the mountain and walk on a glacier.

Talkeetna, AK

2011-07-02T00:52:00.000-05:00

We awoke to rain but had to break camp anyway. It was a muddy drive back to the visitor center where we had parked the Jeep. We had to dump, fill up with water, try to locate a lost item, catch up on email, news etc, and by the time we did all that, it was lunchtime!

We are headed in the direction of Anchorage and since it is 4th of July weekend, we figure it will be hard to find a camping spot. We stopped at a couple of state park campgrounds to check them out and start looking for a nice turnout along the highway just in case we can't find a place to stay in Talkeetna. One stop is supposed to have a good view of Mt. McKinley but it is so cloudy and dreary that we can't see any of the mountains, let alone Mt. McKinley.

We did a little grocery shopping then headed down the spur road to Talkeetna. This is our lucky day! Someone cancelled their reservation at the only campground in town so we got their spot -- the last one! It's only a short walk into this touristy town. It reminds us of a larger version of Roachport with lots of shops, log cabins, cafes and pubs along with several adventure tour folks. After a delightful dinner on the Wildflower Cafe patio we went for a walk. The town is located on the Susitna River which is a very wide, shallow, fast moving river. From the river side beach we had a great view of the peak of Mt. McKinley! The sky here has cleared but between us and the mountain there is a layer of clouds so that all we can see is the Mt. McKinley peak and no other part of the mountain or surrounding mountains. It really puts into perspective how massively tall it is.

Denali Day 5

2011-06-30T22:23:00.000-05:00

We are sitting outside beside a crackling fire, the sky to the east is blue but it is black and threatening rain to the west. Not sure what the weather will do next.

The hike we chose to do by ourselves today is across from the Polychrome Plains on one of the fingers of the Polychrome Mountain. We chose a route that took us to the top of a ridge and then walked along it to its end before descending. As is usual in this area, the base is covered with willow trees and birch bushes that we have to bushwhack our way through. The wild flowers are prolific on this ridge and John is happy that I'm not making him stop to look at them or take pictures of them.

It is a steep climb thru the bushes but we are rewarded with a walk along the tundra at the top. The view is spectacular! We are surrounded by mountain ridges and peaks. The plain below is cut through by a wide river and is a lush green. Behind that are mountains that still have snow caps and glaciers running between them. Opposite that view and behind us are row upon row of mountain peaks, some closer than others. Most are colored rust, gray or black, and shades of green and shrouded in clouds with bursts of sunshine highlighting their vibrant colors. And in all that splendor there is not one animal!!! We see no caribou, sheep or bears! Where did they all go??

As we walked along the ridge it rained for about 10 minutes, thankfully that was all. We found a small bowl of green grass below the edge of the ridge where we stopped for lunch and a short nap. As we geared up after our break we watched a pika scamper across the rocks and a marmot sunning itself at the top of the ridge. At last some animals! The point of the ridge is rock covered with no easy way down in sight. We very slowly and cautiously descend a short distance to the tundra. When we look up from our feet we see a grizzly bear lumbering along the field right below us. He is probably 400 yds. away. Just as John gets the camera out, the bear lies down for a nap, so we walk down the hill to try to get closer for a better picture but that bear is really sleepy and doesn't move. With the naked eye it looks like a brown log in the grass but with the binoculars it is massive! Such a large bear! I wish we could show that to you.

It was a really neat day! We celebrated with a couple of beers before supper and wine after as we toast by the fire! Aahhh.

Denali Day 3 and 4

2011-06-29T23:33:00.000-05:00

Yesterday (Tues.) it rained all day! Started around 10 AM and never really quit. We finally got so bored and tired of sitting around that we put on our rain suits and went for a walk around the campground. We hadn't gone more that a few yards and my feet were soaked! My shoes were supposed to be water resistant but the ground was just too wet! We walked in the woods for about an hour on ground that felt like walking on a leaky water bed. I got turned around but John knew where we were (more or less) and we ended up back at the RV. We shed a layer of clothes and took off again and walked along the Teklanika River bed for about an hour. When we got back both of our boots were soaked, the rain suits were wet and our pant legs were dripping. It took a bit of work to get us all dried out.

Today we prepared for a ranger led discovery hike that we signed up for earlier this week. We rode the bus to Cathedral Mountain with 7 other people plus Ranger Dave. The day was dreary but not rainy, cool but not cold. This hike is off-trail which is the way that this park keeps everything as natural as possible. There are a few "social paths" but once they end we just take off cross country. Everyone makes their own path, trying not to follow anyone else's foot prints. Our first obstacle is a creek crossing but there are enough rocks that we don't get our feet wet. The biggest safety concern in this park is running into moose or bears. So whenever you think you are nearing bear territory, everyone starts shouting "Hey Bear! We are here, bear!" This will let the bear (or moose) know you are coming and not startle them. Of course, we never saw one bear or moose, but we saw lots of bear scat! We also saw lots of holes the bears had dug to catch the arctic ground squirrels. Otherwise known as "grisly granola bars".

Our next obstacle is low brush, mostly willow trees and miniature birch trees but they all look and feel like bushes. Once we work our way thru them, calling out to the bears or moose who might be hiding there, we start working our way up a steep ravine across some rock scree and onto the tundra. We go up between two peaks and back around a saddle then up a short but steep ridge. We stop often to look at flowers, moss, lichen and animal scat. We are standing on living tundra full of moss and plants, so soft it feels like a cushy mattress. But what John and I enjoyed most was the spectacular view! There are mountains all around us. Ranger Dave pointed out some glaciers way off in the distance (around 8 miles away). But even the mountains near us are so beautiful -- various shades of green on some then browns, grays, black, red, rust and white snow on others. It is so huge and vast it is indescribable!

We are entranced by marmots and Arctic ground squirrels, awed by Golden Eagles and excited to see Dall sheep and caribou (so far away we can only see them with binoculars unfortunately). We stopped once to listen to the wondrous sound of ptarmigan but we never saw them. The hike took us about 3.5 miles off the road and up the mountain and lasted about four and a half hours. It was strenuous at times but always a challenge and worth every minute.

When we get back to the RV it is comforting to dine in the RV and enjoy a roaring fire in the lowering sun.

Denali Day 2

2011-06-27T23:21:00.000-05:00

We had to get up really early today and catch the bus at 7:20 AM! This bus will take us all the way to Wonder Lake, 85 miles inside the park. We start at about 2,600 ft. and will go over the highest point on the road at 3,950 ft at Thorofare Pass then down to Wonder Lake at about 2,000 ft. The weather is cool and partly cloudy and gets windy at the passes. The bus driver is full of information and doesn't mind questions. She is also good at spotting animals and will always stop for closer looks and for awesome views. One goal for today is to see all of Mt. McKinley aka Denali, an Athabascan Indian name meaning "high one".

We stop to view Dall sheep way high up on the side of the mountain (LWD-little white dots). There are 30-40 ewes and lambs. The rams will herd together in another area this time of year. Just a short distance down the road we get really excited because someone spots 4 grizzly bears! It appears that one bear is being chased off by a female bear. The other two may be her cubs, but they seem big for young cubs. The driver spots a golden eagle soaring over head. We have a 45 minute break at Eielson Visitor Center where John and I check out and sign up for a ranger guided hike on Wednesday.

The center has a fantastic view of Mt. McKinley! This mountain is the tallest mountain on the North American continent at 20,320 ft. 75% of the mountain has permanent snowfields which feed several glaciers that surround its base. There are two peaks. The north peak is sharply pointed and rises 19,470 ft and is the one most often seen from this direction. The south peak is more rounded but taller at 20,320 ft. and is one mile away from the north peak. As we watched, the clouds that are almost always around the mountain, moved enough that we got a glimpse of the south peak! Only about 30% of the time is that possible.

As we near Wonder Lake the bus driver points out this green, undulating plain of grass and brush and called in the Muldrow Glacier. It is such an old glacier that up to 2 1/2 feet of dirt has accumulated so that plants grow on it.

The bus drops us off at Wonder Lake where we have our picnic lunch, swatting mosquitoes the whole time. Wonder Lake is 4 miles long, 1 mile wide and 480 feet deep. It was also carved out by a glacier and then filled with glacier melt. Only 4 type of fish live here but not much else due to the harsh winter. The driver had pointed out a hike that was supposed to take us to McKinley River so we decided that we were more comfortable doing a trail than going off-trail at this time. We walked along firm ground, then down a rocky scree then thru marsh like area then across a couple of creeks. 45 minutes into the walk and still no river so we turn back so we can catch the next bus back to camp.

Before getting back to the RV we spot a single moose, a lone grizzly way high on the hill grazing in the grass, then I spy a female moose lying among the willows with at least one calf. Unfortunately the bus can't stop in time for a good picture but this stopped 2 other buses behind us. We see two caribou but they are so far off we can't get a good picture, then some more Dall sheep. We get back to the RV around 6 pm, build a fire and cook some hamburgers. Long day.

Denali Day 1

2011-06-26T22:39:00.000-05:00

We changed our minds and decided to bring our bikes and John's fishing gear. After parking the Jeep in over night parking, we go again to the visitor's center to visit with the rangers there about hiking. This one was much more informed and encouraging about hiking off-trail. She also pointed us in the direction of doing a ranger guided hike.

The drive up to Teklanika Campground is 29 miles and takes about an hour. We are climbing the whole time on gravel road and always have an eye out for wild animals, although we don't see any. The views are beautiful. Tall mountains surrounded by fast moving rivers and grassy or shrub covered fields. We cross the Savage and Sanctuary Rivers and pull over a couple of times just to check out the views. At Teklanika we come to a border crossing where we are informed that if we come back thru there we cannot go back to the campground and we cannot drive past the campground. The only vehicles going on from here will be campground and tour buses. There are more campgrounds besides ours inside the park but all others are tent camping and one must ride the buses to access them.

Once we have set up the RV we get on the bikes and ride up the road about 5 miles. The only animal we see is a snow-shoe hare. The Teklanika River is nearby so we walk down to look at it. As are all the rivers in the park, it is not clear but a gray chalky color. Almost all the water in the park comes from melting glaciers and they carry glacial silt. This is from the ice moving across the mountain rock of slate and granite, crushing it into a fine powder. That also means the fishing in these rivers are poor at best as most fish can't survive in this water.

There is a ranger program each night at the campground and tonight he talked about Caribou. Both the male and female has antlers and both shed them each year but at different times. The male antlers grow about an inch a day and can weigh more than 20 pounds when fully developed. The female antlers are smaller and used for protection. There are only about 2000 in Denali at this time and most have moved north to calve and feed so we may not see very many.

We are so tired! It's an early bed time tonight!

On the Road to Denali

2011-06-25T22:41:00.000-05:00

It is really a short drive from Fairbanks to Denali so we stopped often to stretch out the drive. We stopped at a little town called Nenana (prounced NEN-a-naw) where they have an annual festival to celebrate the break up of ice on the Nenana River. They place a large tripod on the ice with a rope tied to a clock. When the tripod falls over it trips the timer. If you guess the right day and time you win the grand prize of $338,000. And then on to Healy before coming to Nenana Canyon at the entrance to Denali National Park. We found that the first campground in the park was full so we had to stay in a commercial park in town. We rode our bikes back into Denali to the Visitor Center and did some information gathering. For supper we had some really good pizza and a lot of beer! This little town knows how to party. All the bartenders are young folk from other parts of the US here for the summer to make some money and then gone in Sept. One young lady was from Hawaii! She said this wasn't that much different from home, that people are pretty much the same where ever you go.

Tomorrow the Denali Adventure begins! We will have no phone or internet, no electricity, no Jeep and no bikes. After driving the RV 29 miles inside the park we travel on shuttle busses and hike in the wilderness where there are NO trails. Kink of scary, isn't it? Actually, several people have told us of places to hike where there are trails, or where it would be hard to get lost on tundra or in meadows. John is kind of nervous about not having any contact with the outside world and being stuck with me for 5 days!

Back in touch on Friday!

Fairbanks, Con't.

2011-06-25T01:22:00.000-05:00

We checked out of the River's Edge RV park, got the oil changed in the RV and drove out to North Pole, Alaska. Santa's workshop is located there and so are 3 of his reindeer! John was so excited about shopping in a Christmas store!! (NOT)

We decided to stay in Fairbanks one more night before heading to Denali. We are in a state park in the middle of the city. It's a beautiful day for a change. On the drive to North Pole we could actually see the Alaska Range mountains and possibly Mt. McKinley although we aren't sure which peak that was as they are about 145 miles away!

We rode our bikes over to the airport. Only in Alaska will you find one airport with a jet runway, a small plane runway and a water runway! It was neat to see all the seaplanes parked along the shoreline of the airport "pond".

We then took a really nice bike trail along the Chena River to the downtown area. There really is not much happening down town so after a cold ice tea we headed back -- 15.5 miles altogether. We stopped at a meat market and John met the butcher whose family founded 20th Century Investments in Kansas City! Small world.

Fairbanks

2011-06-24T00:12:00.000-05:00

We are learning so much about Alaska thru the tours and museums in this area. Today we went on the highly recommended Riverboat Discovery Cruise. This is a paddle wheeled powered riverboat on the Chena River. It is captained by 3rd and 4th generation Alaskan captains in one family. As we cruised down the river, a bush pilot showed how he takes off and lands on the river in his float plane. Then we got to watch Susan Butcher's Iditarod champion sled dog team pull a ATV around the nearby pond. Susan Butcher is the only woman to win four Iditarod's. It was fascinating to watch these dogs get so excited about pulling. They were amazing. We then went on down the river to an authentic Athabascan Indian Village. The Athabascan are Native Alaskans. We got off the boat and learned how the natives used to live, tan hides, fish and preserve the fish, build tents or log cabins and dress. The scenery along the river was really pretty -- actually it was mostly homes and some were beautiful!

After lunch we rode our bicycles over to the Museum of the North located on the University of Alaska campus. (Nobody told us it was at the top of the only long hill in Fairbanks!) The Gallery of Alaska covered the cultures and history of the various natives, the history of Alaska from when gold was discovered, the building of the Alaska highway and the oil from Prudhoe Bay. World War II brought the Japanese invasion and the interment of the Japanese already living in Alaska. Mammoths and steppe bison also roamed this state so there were bones, tusks and a mummified Ice Age steppe bison on display. Of course there was lots of art work and specimens of native bead work, fur and weapons.

We had dinner at the Salmon Bake on the grounds of Pioneer Park. They cook a really good salmon over a wood fire. Oh yeah, we finally got some good pictures of the big animals we have seen.

Catch Up Day

2011-06-22T20:21:00.000-05:00

We did very little sight seeing today as I needed to do laundry and grocery shopping. John ran errands and fixed a few minor things. We are signed up to do touring tomorrow and hope to ride our bikes some. The internet in the campground is so slow that our computers don't think there is any connection! So we'll move on Friday to either get closer to Denali or to find a faster internet.

We did have lunch at a Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives recommended place called Big Daddy's BBQ. It was really good, maybe the best baked beans we ever had at a BBQ joint!!!

Tok to Fairbanks

2011-06-21T23:07:00.000-05:00

We awoke to rain! So much for a clean car. We are also on Alaska daylight time which is one hour earlier than Pacific daylight time. The reason I tell you that is because our atomic alarm clock doesn't know that. It went off at 5 AM and we got up thinking it was 6 AM. Fifteen minutes later we realized what had happened and went back to bed for another hour.

Shortly after we got on the road we watched a mother moose and her calf cross the highway! And not 100 yards later we saw a huge, beautiful porcupine on the shoulder. We actually saw 3 more moose as we drove towards Fairbanks this morning. Our first stop after Tok was at Delta Junction which is the end of the Alaskan Highway. We can say we drove the whole thing.

We toured Rika's Roadhouse which was built at the turn of the century and was a major trading post and Tanana River crossing until the Richardson Highway and bridge was completed. It rendered the ferry and roadhouse obsolete so it was closed shortly after that. At lunch, we stopped near the Tanana River Bridge where the Alaskan Pipeline also crosses the river. The rain moved out of the area and we could see the Alaskan Range Mountains. Some peaks are 12,000 - 13,000 feet tall.

The day has warmed up to a point that we actually got to put on shorts this afternoon. One more day of rain tomorrow and then it should start clearing up around here, we hope.

Top of the World

2011-06-20T22:11:00.000-05:00

We got up Monday morning to start our trip to the most northern border crossing in North America and, of course, it was raining! We had really hoped to able to enjoy the fantastic views of the mountains and valley as we crossed the "Top of the World" highway but most of what we saw was clouds caressing the tops of the mountains and then sliding down onto the top of the road. This road is all gravel and dirt with some chip seal surface on the Canadian side and only dirt on the Alaska side. The RV is a rough riding vehicle anyway and add to that holes, rocks, mud, and ruts and the ride gets even worse. Then, there was the rain and fog to contend with. This was NOT a good day. By the time we got to Tok, Alaska the Jeep and bikes were one big dirt ball and the RV was half brown with a white top. It was not a pretty sight! We saw one truck and a large RV in the ditch. If you got too close to the ditch the soft mud would pull you right in and over.

We did get to see a few sights along the way as the clouds would periodically lift so we could enjoy the view. We stopped in Chicken, Alaska -- a town of 23 people (in the summer) and 3 businesses. They say the name came from miners who couldn't say or spell ptarmigan so they just called the town Chicken. Tok (rhymes with poke) is a small town that you have to go thru both coming into and going out of Alaska.

One gas station had a deal that if you filled up with gas, you could use their car wash for free. It took us 45 minutes to clean both vehicles and the bicycles. There was still dirt on them but they look sooo much better.

We dry camped next to a pond about 10 miles west of Tok. Other than some kids thinking it might be a good place to party, it was a nice, quiet place to camp. Us and a gazillion huge mosquitos.

Inuvik and Back Again, Con't.

2011-06-19T21:53:00.000-05:00

This morning dawned bright and sunny -- we don't EVEN want to know what the weather is like in Inuvik! At least this leg of the drive is more interesting with more mountains and valleys. As we rounded a curve we saw an RV in the ditch. There was no one around and the message scratched in the mud on the RV said they were waiting for a tow so we drove on. It looked like they got too close to the edge and the soft, wet mud just pulled them into the ditch. John has said often, "I am so glad we did not drive the RV on this road!" Now that the rain has stopped, the road is even worse -- rutted and bumpy, washboard in places and slick in others.

We finally got to see some wildlife! A group of 9 Dall Sheep were grazing on the slope of a small mountain while the ram was at the very top watching out for them. He was so high we could only see him with the binoculars. And that's it! No other signs of life.

Once we got back to the RV, John washed down the Jeep but didn't even come close to getting it clean. We hitched the Jeep to the RV and drove into Dawson to get a couple of groceries and then crossed the Yukon River on a ferry. Next to the ferry landing is a nice provincial campground where we are spending the night in . . . . RAIN! At least the temperature warmed up for once as it got al the way up to 74° before the rain started.

Inuvik and Back Again

2011-06-18T21:44:00.000-05:00

It was raining when we arrived in Inuvik on Friday afternoon and still raining when we left Saturday.

It was around 4:30 when we got to the motel and the young man who runs Up North Tours was still at the desk since they couldn't fly out for the evening tour due to the weather. In fact, the weather had canceled a lot of his tours. He indicated that the weather was supposed to clear on Saturday afternoon but if it didn't he wouldn't run our charge so we signed up for the flight to Tuktoyaktuk which is on the Arctic Ocean. Whales, musk ox, caribou and Inuits are just some of the things we might have seen as well as riding in a small plane over the ocean. We had a nice dinner at the only sit-down restaurant in town. It's still raining.

And it was still raining when we got up! We walked in the pouring rain to the visitor center next door to the motel and learned a lot about the region and native peoples. Even the attendant at the center couldn't tell us of much anything else to do after that. When we checked on our tour at 2 PM, we were told that the weather was moving back in and that the tour was canceled. I was really disappointed! Considering we had done all there was to do in Inuvik, we loaded up the Jeep and headed back toward Dawson. We got to Eagle Plains around 8 PM having taken another big rock hit in the windshield, in the same part of the road as on the way up. It is already spreading.

Dempster Highway

2011-06-17T22:03:00.001-05:00

We headed out yesterday for Inuvik in the Northwest Territories. This small town is above the Arctic Circle, the largest town in northern Canada. The Dempster Highway, which goes from just outside Dawson City to Inuvik, was completed around 1978. It is almost 460 miles of gravel and dirt except for the 5 miles of paved road at the junction of Hwy 2 and 10 miles into Inuvik. We were supposed to see lots of wildlife like moose and bear but since we started mid morning and stopped early evening, the animals were not out and about. We saw one moose, several ducks and rabbits. Whoo Hoo!

The weather in this region has been poor! Lots of clouds, off and on rain, some hail and cool (50's & low 60's). It was that way almost all the way on the Dempster. The road was fairly smooth, considering it is not paved, but very muddy. The land scape is mountainous on the lower half of the drive. We crossed the Ogilvie and Richardson Mountains which were mostly obscured by clouds. The highest we were was just over 4000 feet, most of the plateaus were around 2300 feet and Inuvik is near sea level. Some of the mountains are near 7000 ft. The valleys were tundra in places and forest of stunted spruce in most others. There are lots of rivers and lakes. We crossed the Peel and Mackenzie Rivers on ferries which would have been virtually impossible in the RV without damaging something so we are glad we didn't drive it up.

There are lots of interpretive centers and displays, provincial campgrounds and day use areas where we can stop and stretch our legs. Otherwise it would have been a long and endless drive. At one point we stopped and walked out on the tundra. It feels like walking on a soft mattress. Each step sinks down then bounces up and is very uneven even though from a distance it looks like a cow field in Missouri. When we reached the summit of the Richardson Mtns. the view was of vast and never ending tundra! Then as we went down in elevation, the trees started growing up and it became marsh and water. The Caribou and elk have all moved north from here so we probably won't see them. Supposedly there are grizzly bears but we haven't seen them either.

We spent the night at Eagle Plains half way up the Dempster and 20 miles short of the Arctic Circle. The hotel and restaurant was built on bedrock so that they didn't have to build it above the permafrost. The permafrost is a layer of frozen sand, dirt and silt that lies just below the surface. If the road or a building were built on the permafrost layer, they would cause it to thaw and then it would shift whatever was on top of it. So the roadbed is very thick and all of the buildings in Inuvik are elevated above the ground so they won't warm up the earth. Even though Inuvik is small, it has several several modern hotels, one all inclusive shopping center, mostly new elevated homes, and one stoplight blinking yellow. 10 minutes of driving around town and we have seen it all!

We may never get all the mud cleaned off the Jeep and we have the whole trip back. We went almost 350 miles before we got two big rock cracks in the windshield.

Midnight Photo Opportunity

2011-06-15T22:47:00.000-05:00

After visiting with a local photographer, she convinced us that going to the top of Dome Mtn. and taking pictures at sunset would give us the best photos of this area. Well, sunset is now at 12:45 AM!! Sunrise is about 3:30AM! Neither one of us can stay up that late so what did we do? We went back to Diamond Gerties to watch the show again which was surprisingly a different show. Then we went to Bombay Peggy's bar and had martinis. As you might imagine none of this helped us to stay up late so we went up on the Dome at midnight, as late as we could go and still keep our eyes open, and took some really pretty neat photos. It actually wasn't the best night for it since there were still lots of clouds from the evening rain, but we think they came out pretty well. We date stamped them to prove we were up at midnight and the sun had not set! The river is the Yukon and the town of Dawson City.

Today was a lazy day, sleeping late, wandering around town and packing for our next adventure which is a Jeep drive north on the Dempster Highway. We will go past the Arctic Circle, thru the continental divide(again), and to the farthest north town of Canada called Inuvik. In all over 400 miles of gravel road.

Gold Rush Fever

2011-06-14T21:16:00.000-05:00

Dawson City was the center of the Klondike Gold Rush starting out as a muddy, bogged down tent city in 1889. But, amazingly, by 1902, as the gold rush moved on to other parts of the country, Dawson City was well established with many new well built homes and businesses and an economy that was not reliant on gold.

Last night we bar hopped between the Sourdough Saloon, home of the SourToe Cocktail and Diamond Tooth Gerties (a not for profit casino with a floor show circa 1910). At the Sourdough Saloon there was a lot of commotion at the back of the room that we later found out was caused by people drinking a shot of Yukon Jack with a mummified toe in it. Maybe we'll go back tonight to try it ourselves. If you do so an pay the appropriate fee you get a certificate.

Today we got information on traveling the Dempster Highway up to Inuvik and walking tours of historic places in town. We went into one shop and met a fantastic photographer who owns a nice shop of clothing and souvenirs. She has made her photographs into note cards and the pictures evoked a wonderful discussion of animals we might see on the Dempster or elsewhere in the Yukon. Just down the street we saw a shop about wine making so we went in and met the "wine sitter" as he called himself. In this shop, he sells the wine making kits, you add the yeast to your juice, then he 'wine sits' it for you until it ready to be bottled. He showed us the whole operation and then gave us a bottle of wine that he had made. Can't wait to try it.

After lunch we drove out of town to see Dredge No. 4 National Historic Site, a gold digging machine of mammoth proportions that represents corporate industrial mining. It is located on Bonanza Creek and is the largest of all dredges found in North America. This huge machine was built on a barge placed in its own 'pond' and dug the earth around it and in front of it, panning for gold from 1905 to 1966.

Klondike Highway

2011-06-13T22:13:00.000-05:00

As we were driving away from Whitehorse, we saw a grizzly bear near the edge of the road. It looked like he was thinking of crossing the road but thought better of it when we neared so he took off running back into the woods. He was beautiful! The rest of the drive was uneventful as far as wildlife goes - meaning we didn't see any! We did get to see some awesome scenery. We walked down 260 steps and hiked 1 KM to see the 5 Finger Rapids on the Yukon River. This was a perilous point on the Yukon River for riverboats. The mountains and forests seemed endless and there were always large streams, fast running rivers and clear blue lakes in theirs midst.

We are meeting some interesting people. At one stop for "World Famous" Cinnamon rolls the cook was paunchy with a long white beard and uncommunicative. But the truck driver having breakfast was a character. We also visited with some Canadians.

We thought seriously about stopping for the night in a primitive campground and even circled by the site we wanted 3 times before trying to set up camp. But in the short time that we had the RV door open to try and level the coach, we admitted 20 huge mosquitos and John was bitten 3 times! I couldn't leave fast enough! So we pulled off in a rest area for supper and then drove on to Dawson City.

Mountain Biking

2011-06-12T21:33:00.000-05:00

We decided to stay one more day in Whitehorse and do a bike ride along the Yukon and around the lake. We got a late start so packed a picnic lunch. Whitehorse was built along the Yukon River but to get to it from the Alaska Hwy. (and where we are camped) one has to go down a LONG hill and to get home, back UP that hill.

I had looked at the map with John, but evidently didn't read it correctly so led us down the wrong road so we added 2 extra miles to our trip. The trail follows a road up 3 hills to the top of Miles Canyon where we crossed a foot bridge and then came back down along the north side of the river -- sometimes the trail was right along the river and sometimes it curved back into the woods. This part was strictly rough dirt path, with short stretches of single track bike trails. I fell once but after that figured out how to do the hill or just got off and walked! John, on the other hand, handled the short, steep hills like a pro! It was a beautiful day so we got to enjoy all of nature without the distractions of rain or cold.

When we got back to town, we took a break at a coffee shop, then wondered around town a bit before heading back up that LONG hill. That was a killer! We rode a total of 18.6 miles and averaged about 7mph even with almost half the ride being on a dirt trail. Not bad for some old folks.

Whitehorse, Yukon

2011-06-11T23:53:00.000-05:00

Got the windshield fixed and groceries bought then went sightseeing. Before 1959 a hydroelectric dam was built across the Yukon in Whitehorse cutting off the route the salmon took to spawn up-stream from the dam. So the longest wooden fish ladder in the world was built to provide the access the chinook (king) salmon needed. The salmon have started their run from the Pacific Ocean but won't reach this part of the river until late July -- a distance of over 1800 miles. They will lay their eggs in the lake and die. The fry will stay in the lake for about 2 years before they head back down the river to the ocean where they will live for 3-6 years and then start the process over again. There are weirs and nets that guide the fish to the ladder which rises 60 feet from the river to the lake. They also have a fish hatchery here to raise salmon fry to add to the population.

We also toured the SS Klondike Sternwheeler Steamship. It used to ply the waters between here and Dawson City carrying supplies, mail, people and, on its return, silver and gold which was then hauled by train to Skagway on the coast. It was pretty amazing piece of equipment. Especially when you consider that it could only run from late April to mid-October when the river wasn't frozen. The Yukon is fast running and shallow with its fair share of sand bars and rapids. The ship was built in 1937 and retired in 1955 when roads and trains took over its job. I visited a log church build in 1900.

Then we stopped at the Yukon Brewery and sampled the local beer. Pretty good! We watched them fill up glass jugs for customers that look to hold about 2 liters. They are referred to as "Growlers". Don't know why.

OH NO! Crack!

2011-06-10T23:07:00.000-05:00

Yes, that's right -- our windshield has a long crack! The highway is under repair in places and that means lots of gravel. The semis throw it up pretty bad so we try to avoid them if we can but our crack came from a pick-up truck! It didn't grow until we got to Watson Lake car wash! We've been told that there is a good window repair guy in Whitehorse.

Today was a travel day. On our way to the Continental Divide we crossed or paralleled the Rancheria and Liard rivers that eventually flow east into the MacKenzie River watershed which flows northward and empties into the Beaufort Sea (Arctic Ocean). From the divide westward all the rivers flow into the Yukon River which makes a 2,300 mile journey across Alaska to empty into the Bering Sea (Pacific Ocean). The Yukon is the 4th or 5th (depending on the source) longest river in North America.

We stopped at a few places along our route to look at the scenery or to get food. Specifically, world famous cinnamon rolls. Enough for breakfast for the next few days (they are that big!).

We arrived in Whitehorse, the capital of Yukon Provence, early afternoon so spent some time driving thru the town, checking out the grocery stores, attractions and restaurants. We had supper at the local hot-spot of Klondike Rib and Salmon BBQ -- pretty good food.

Sign Post Forest

2011-06-10T00:37:00.000-05:00

We made it to Watson Lake, Yukon today. The Alaska Highway will cross the BC - Yukon border 6 times before we are officially in Yukon tomorrow near Morley Lake which is about the halfway point to Whitehorse from here. Watson Lake is right on the border.

This is the location of the Sign Post Forest. When the AK Highway was being built, a lonely soldier posted a small sign with the distance to his hometown on the corned sign post and that was the beginning. Today there are over 72,000 signs on posts here (they actually count them every year) with the oldest there since 1956. We spotted ones from Bolivar, Centralia, Zell, Lee's Summit and Donophon to name a few from MO. (Who can tell me where Zell is??)

We spotted several wild Buffalo grazing along the road between Liard Hot Springs and Watson Lake. We even spotted another black bear. When we took off to explore Watson Lake on our bicycles, we were advised to make noise so we didn't startle any bears. They are waking up and hungry!

Liard River Hot Springs

2011-06-08T20:03:00.000-05:00

Just a short trip down the road from Muncho Lake is Liard Hot Springs. Along the way we spotted a small black bear chomping on dandelions and later 2 bison in the culvert butting heads.

We stopped at the Liard Lodge for coffee and wifi and then found a camp spot at the Springs. The park filled up as we were eating lunch since it is a very popular stop along the Alaska Highway. Supposedly we will see moose, geese, ducks, and lots of other birds. So far we haven't seen anything like that. We walked down to the springs with a couple of gentlemen from Wales and they got really excited to see a robin!

We were all set to go biking when the almost daily mid afternoon rain hit. After the rain storm we took a dip in the really hot springs. Maybe we will get the bikes out after supper.

Hiking and Fishing

2011-06-07T19:46:00.000-05:00

After a leisurely breakfast we headed out on a hike. At first we were looking for a trail, then we looked for animals then we just walked along a mountain stream running thru a HUGE gravel berm. This sounds like it would be easy walking but the gravel is big rocks that the snows have pushed down off the mountain and piled up in the valley and then the melted snow has carved a small creek or river bed thru it. John was determined to cross the creek but it was about 5 feet wide most of the way with 1 to 2 feet of really fast moving water. He finally saw a spot that he thought he could jump but WHOOPS! Into the water he went! Luckily it was just his shoes that got wet.

After lunch John got the kayak ready for fishing and went down the lake about a mile or so. He didn't catch anything but I enjoyed the time by myself writing postcards and reading. As I was preparing supper, the Conservation Agent stopped by our site looking for someone in a silver SUV who had been seen fishing off the bridges and along the lake. After some gentle questioning John volunteered that he had been fishing without a license! He had tried to buy one at the lodge down the road but it had to be done on the internet and their generator was not working. John only got a warning.

It did not rain all day and at one point I actually put on shorts for about an hour! The first time on this trip! We built a fire and enjoyed a nice evening with the sun shining and a fire crackling. Sunset is way after we go to bed!

Muncho Lake

2011-06-06T19:16:00.000-05:00

I forgot to mention that we saw a large black bear grazing along the highway yesterday. Some of the place names along our route are interesting -- Pink Mountain, Prophet River, Tetsa Lake, Indian Head Rock, and Steamboat River (near a mountain shaped like a steamboat). We are hoping to see more wildlife today - especially moose. John is obsessed with seeing moose!

It was a short drive from Summit Lake to Muncho Lake but about a 2000 ft drop in elevation. We are hoping it will be warmer! It is a beautiful drive thru the mountains and alongside big rivers. The sun is shining but it is not really warm. Just past Toad River Lodge (they have over 7000 baseball hats tacked to their ceilings!) we stopped along with another tourist to watch a Stone Sheep and its mate on the hillside. Then past Northern Rockies Lodge we finally saw our first moose and he was a beauty! He had a fairly full rack of antlers, was very dark in color and paused from eating on the roadside to pose for our picture! Then as we were nearing Muncho lake we spotted another moose in the parking lot of a road maintenance building. He posed for us too!

We are camped in the MacDonald Campground on Muncho Lake which is a beautiful aqua blue and surrounded by high, snow capped mountains. The campground host told us that a moose was wading in the water at the dock but we were busy setting up camp so did not see him. John took a short drive to see about getting a fishing license and saw a herd of sheep on the highway. These sheep are called Stone Sheep and are similar to big horn sheep but smaller and darker in color.

It rained just as we were getting ready for supper -- I hope this is the last of it!!!

Travel Day

2011-06-05T23:16:00.000-05:00

We left Dawson Creek mid-morning and headed toward our stop for the night in the Canadian Rockies. Along the way we drove thru Taylor, Fort St. John and then Fort Nelson. Most of the towns along this part of the Alaska Highway were established by the Hudson Bay Company before the highway was built and today their economies are based on oil, gas, lumber and pulp.

The original "Mile Zero" was as Fort Nelson where the army started building the Alaska Highway. Up to there a road had already been built even though it was a very rough,primitive gravel route. Today Fort Nelson is a major transportation hub for the area with air service, railroad and the Alaska Hwy. And "Mile Zero" is in Dawson Creek.

We camped at Summit Lake on Stone Mountain in the Canadian Rockies which is the highest point on the Alaskan Highway. Arrival was after 7 pm so we had a late supper. But having been cooped up in the RV all day, we decided to take a 'short' hike. It turned into a 90 minute trek! We walked up a gravel road about 1.5 km through some patches of snow. Then a path thru the woods and back down to Summit Lake for another 1.7 km. You have to remember we are in the mountains and the ground is beginning to thaw from the long cold winter so it was very wet and marsh-like, especially along the lake. So 30 minutes up and 60 minutes to come back down and around to the campground. And all of this was done with the sun shining from 8 -9:30 pm! Right now the sun is setting around 9:50 pm and rising about 5:00 am.

Dam!

2011-06-05T00:04:00.000-05:00

We took a loop route out of Dawson Creek to Hudson's Hope which is near the W.A.C. Bennett Dam on the Peace River. This dam created British Columbia's largest lake as well as suppling electrical power for BC. Williston Lake has over 1100 miles of shoreline and is the 8th largest in North America. We had hoped to tour the inside of the dam but they were having electrical difficulties and could not let us take the tour based on safety issues.

Just below the Bennett Dam is Peace Canyon Dam. A small hydro-electric dam that reuses water that has generated electricity at the Bennett Dam. It's lake is Dinosaur Lake, named that because of all the dinosaur tracks that were discovered when they were building the dam.

Along the way, we also drove across the Historic Kiskatinaw Bridge which is the only original Alaska Highway bridge still in use. It has wood trestles and wood decking. We were quite impressed. Another town along the route is Chetwynd where the International Chainsaw Carving contest is held every year. They then place the completed carving all over their town.

We drove over 200 miles today and didn't go a

Snow in June???

2011-06-03T22:15:00.000-05:00

When we pulled into the rest area outside of Valley View, AB, it was 61° and when we awoke this morning it was 34° and SNOWING!! Great big white flakes! John was heard to exclaim "It's snowing and I'm going to Alaska when I could be playing golf! I must be insane!" (he had a few &#!%#s included in that statement).

We drove in to Dawson Creek in snow, walked around down town in snow, had a beer while it snowed and took in a museum while it snowed! And everyone in town said this was very unusual weather -- YOU THINK?

There are several things we have noticed about Canada that have surprised us. One is that Canadians love RVs. As we were driving into Grand Prairie we passed 4 huge RV sales lots in the space of one mile. And every town seems to have as least one RV sales lot if not more. Two is that Canadians love golf! We have never seen so many signs for golf courses or golf resorts. The smaller ones have campgrounds as well as 9 or 18 holes. And again, they are in every town and I'm not really exaggerating. Three is that it is still spring time here. The lilacs and tulips are in full bloom as well as the apple and crab apple trees. Gardens are all started in greenhouses as the ground is still too cold for anything to grow. Four is the absolute lushness of this area. There is field after field of grains such as oat, wheat, rye and canola. It is so pretty.

Dawsonn Creek is "Mile 0" for the Alaska Highway. This is not actually where they started building it in 1943 but it became the designated start when it was completed in 1947.

Cars and an Oil Well

2011-06-02T23:25:00.000-05:00

Two starred attractions in the AAA Tour book were Reynolds-Alberta Museum and Le Duc #1 Energy Discovery Center in Wetaskiwin and Devon.

The Reynolds-Albert Museum is a transportation center showing vintage cars, tractors, motorcycles, and airplanes. They even had some restored road graders, combines and steam engines. It also the home of Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame. One room had an observation area where we could watch restorations in progress and one area had an actual drive-in movie!

The Le Duc #1 Energy Discovery Center was the site of the first oil strike in Canada and changed Canada's dependency from purchased oil to becoming self-sufficent in oil, gas and coal. The museum had one unique display that made you feel as if you were descending into the earth's core on top of a drill bit while learning about how each stratta was formed. The main room was all about the oil rigs, drills, bits and rock testing. It was very technical and we are still not sure how an oil well works.

We spent the night in a rest area in Valley View after having dinner at a Casino.

Rocky Mountain House

2011-06-01T22:44:00.000-05:00

We tried really hard to get going by 8:30 this morning but didn't make it -- we move too slowly. We drove up a provincial road as apposed to the interstate to arrive at Rocky Mountain House National Historic Site which is north of Calgary and west of Red Deer.

This location was chosen by the Hudson Bay Company and the North West Company as a good place to set us trade posts. Both companys were in competition with each other to trade with the aboriginal groups for furs and other skins. They each built forts or houses. NWC tried 3 times to keep a fort in operations and HBC built one. They both arrived in the area in 1799 and by 1875 they had both moved on.

It was a hard life and the Indians weren't real cooperative. The Blackfoot prevented the trappers from crossing the Rocky Mountains to trade with the Kootenai Indians on the west side because they didn't want them to have guns with which to wage war with other Indian tribes. Of course, winters were harsh and summers unproductive because not much trapping happened then. Travel to and from the forts with the trade goods was even worse. Most traveled up and down the rivers -- the HBC used flat-bottomed York boats and the NWC used birch bark canoes. They even tried horse or oxen drawn wagons.

One good thing came out of these camps and that was the mapping of Alberta's Rocky Mountian area. Cartographer David Thompson used Rocky Mountain House as a base camp for exploring the mountains, he being the first European to cross Hauser Pass.

After lunch we drove to Wetaskiwin where we camped in a Lion's Club campground.

How the West was Once

2011-06-01T00:18:00.001-05:00

Today we strolled through Canada as it might have been in the late 1800's to early 1900's. The Heritage Park Historical Village contained homes, businesses, farms and farm equipment, horses and carriages, churches, schools, trains and train stations and much, much more. There were over 100 buildings and most of them were authentic having been moved to this location, some were reproductions based on historical documents and pictures but all were from the past. Each location was manned by an interpreter in period clothing, most speaking the King's English. They covered railroad history, agricultural history, settlements and village life. We watched a "preacher" steal a ledger from the bank, felt the excitement of drilling for oil, listened to a pump organ in a church, learned a lesson in etiquette from a school teacher and ate homemade cinnamon rolls from the baker. I was excited to see a working linotype (my dad used to operate one) and the blacksmith shop was lit using electricity from glass jar batteries. They even had an old amusement park with swings, merry-go-rounds and ferris wheels run by steam engines.

To end the day we went thru Gasoline Alley Museum. A gentleman who was a avid collector and restorer of old cars and anything to do with gas stations, donated his whole collection to the Heritage Park. He must have found hundred's of gas station signs and the really old gas pumps. There were numerous rare and antique cars and trucks in mint condition. It was truly awesome and I'm not that big of a car buff (but John is!).

Bow River Bike Trail

2011-05-30T23:37:00.000-05:00

We decided that the best way to explore a city is to ride a bike. After inquiring at the park office about bike trails we loaded up the Jeep, found a car wash and then the bike trail head. The Bow River Bike Trail follows the Bow River (duh!) which is really full right now. They had huge snowfalls in the mountains this winter and it is now melting off with the help of large amounts of rain. (I'm thinking this is happening all across the mid-west.) I found it interesting that the other river that runs through Calgary is called The Elbow River. The city of Calgary is very outdoors orientated. We saw many people on the pathway jogging, walking, biking, & roller blading. It appears that this trail is more than 300 miles long and there were many side trails leading into different parts of the city.

Olympic Village - 1988 Winter Games

We rode about 11 miles to downtown Calgary and arrived right at lunch time. The lunch hour jogging fest was in full swing! After parking the bikes we started our search for lunch. As we were waiting at a stop light, John asked the lady next to us if she could recommend a place. She not only told us all about the downtown area and some places to eat, she walked us to her favorite place. Due to the extremely cold winters, there are elevated walkways all over the city and it is on these levels that most of the cafes, restaurants and fast food joints are located.

We tried a different path on the return trip and cut off some time, hills and distance for a total of 21 miles. It was a really nice afternoon, sunshine and 58°. We will probably be sore tomorrow.

Our Alaska Adventure Officially Starts

2011-05-29T23:55:00.001-05:00

We awoke to Sunshine! But it was only 44°! Oh, well!

We found a car wash and quickly sprayed off some of the accumulated mud and dirt and then headed to the Canadian border where we crossed without incident. They didn't even ask if we had any wine! So all 3 cases are still with us.

Our first stop was in Lethbridge where we walked to the Fort Whoop-Up Historic Site, viewed the High Level Bridge and explored the Galt Museum. This bridge is the highest & longest of it's type in North America. Lethbridge was first established as a trading center with the local Indians, then coal was discovered and mining became the main industry, especially after the 1909 trestle train bridge was built, making it easier to move the coal.

Just outside of Fort Macleod we explored the "Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump" Interpretive Center, World Heritage Site. For 6000 years the Plains Indians would herd buffalo over cliffs to their deaths. This site is the oldest, best preserved buffalo jump site. The site's name came from a young brave who decided to stand under the cliff as the buffalo fell past him. Unfortunately, the herd was so large that they piled up around him and smashed his head into the cliff wall.

We didn't get to the West Calgary Campground in Calgary until almost 7 PM so it was a mad scramble to get set up and cook supper. We intend to stay at least 3 days.

Slow start

2011-05-28T22:29:00.001-05:00

We did not get away from Sedalia until after 1 PM on Thursday and then we had to make a stop in Kansas City before heading north. We drove thru Iowa to Sioux Falls, SD where we spent the night in a Walmart parking lot. On the road by 8 AM, we headed across SD towards Rapid City where we turned north again. As long as we were driving by SD's major attractions it was necessary to stop for a look at the Corn Palace and the Wall Drug Store.

At Rapid City our route took us north thru a corner of Wyoming and up to Billings where we spent the night at a Cabella's parking lot. John spent 30 minutes this morning visiting with our neighbor who had a system installed in his coach that purifies his black water into potable water. He said it is the same system used by NASA in the space program. Of course, we had to shop at Cabella's before we could leave town. That put us on the road late so we only got as far as Shelby, MT which is about 80 miles north of Great Falls, MT and 40 miles south of the Canadian border.

The weather has been TERRIBLE! No warmer than 62 and as cold as 42 with rain and wind most of the days. We even had to ford a river on the highway twice. If is snows on us, we are coming home!

We Are Off To Alaska!

2011-05-26T10:38:00.001-05:00

We are leaving today for our Alaska adventure. Due back around August 25th, or sooner if the grand-baby is early.

If you saw in the news where Sedalia (our home town) was hit by a tornado don't worry. We are OK. The tornado was about 3 miles from our house. Our son incurred some minor roof damage but was really lucky as his house is less than a mile from the area of major destruction. We are so very thankful that all our family and friends here is Sedalia were spared from this storm. There has been so much destruction the last few weeks it makes one pause to consider our good fortunes.

Home!!

2011-04-04T06:51:00.001-05:00

I'm sorry I haven't finished this sooner, but we were so excited to be home that I just didn't get it done.

We enjoyed a great convention in Austin where the weather was nice and warm. We played golf two days, dined on good food every night, and reveled in being around our son and daughter-in-law who were also at the convention.

We left Austin on Saturday morning and drove to Norman OK to stay near our daughter and her family. We celebrated our youngest grandson's first birthday (March 22) on Sunday, stayed home with the oldest grandson on Monday and with the 1-year old on Tuesday. Monday evening we also celebrated the oldest grandson's 5th birthday which is on April 3 and our daughter's which is on April 2..

Wednesday morning, March 30, we drove home, unloaded the RV and settled in to read mail and watch TV. It was a great trip and we have loved sharing it with all of our friends thru this blog.

Stay tuned for the next adventure when we will be going to Alaska starting in late May.

ABMA Convention

2011-03-24T10:20:00.001-05:00

We found our campground which is only about 5 miles from the Hyatt Lost Pines Resort where the ABMA convention is being held. Since John had a 3 PM meeting and we both were anxious to see our son and daughter-in-law, we quickly set up camp, showered and drove over to the resort. It's been a long winter so it was really good to see our family!!! And then to meet up with all the friends we have made over the years of coming to this convention. The resort is very Texan and nice. They even have a swim park with a lazy river and water slide. We likely will not have time to enjoy them as we are playing golf both Thursday and Friday afternoons.

Headed Toward Home

2011-03-21T23:00:00.000-05:00

We have done nothing but drive (or so it seems) for the last 3 days! We left Creel and drove to Cuauhtemoc on Sunday, where we had our end-of-trail dinner at a Mennonite steak house. We were on the road at 7 AM Monday for the long drive to the border and then an even longer wait in line at the Mexican and American customs. Security has tightened on both sides so we were boarded and inspected by Mexicans and Americans. We got into Los Cruces around 7 PM.

We were up early Tuesday morning and after fond fair wells to our fellow caravaners, we took off for Austin, Texas. This part of Texas is very dry and desolate, a lot like what we saw in Mexico yesterday. I helped John with the driving and we pulled into a KOA campground in Junction around 7 PM. Only three hours to get to the campground next to the Hyatt resort west of Austin.

Today is our grandson's 1st birthday! We sure wish we could be there but he'll have to wait a few more days to see us. I can't wait!!

Cerocahui

2011-03-20T00:47:00.001-05:00

Yesterday morning (Friday) we loaded into a bus and took a 2 hour ride along the Copper Canyon rim toward a town called Divisadero. Along the way we stopped at several Miradors (overlooks) to view the canyons and to buy Tarahumara crafts. The Copper Canyon may be bigger than the Grand Canyon but it is so different that it is hard to compare them. Where the Grand Canyon is a sudden drop off and the span of the canyon is huge, the Copper Canyons are more gradual, less wide and much deeper. The Copper Canyons are covered with trees and bushes with little exposed rock walls. Native Tarahumara populate almost all areas of the canyons. I've been writing the plural because there are many canyons that make up Copper Canyon. At one mirador we could see 3 canyons -- Copper, Urique, and Tararecua.

We were supposed to ride a gondola out over the canyon but the company chose that day to close the gondola for preventative maintenance!!! It would have been an awesome ride. We had lunch at a beautiful restaurant with a balcony overlooking the canyon then stopped in Divisadero to shop while waiting for the train. Divisadero sits between the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean watersheds.

The train ride on the ChePe Railroad (Chihuahua al Pacifico RR) from Divisadero to Bahuichivo was only about 2 hours then we had a 40 minute bus ride to Cerocahui (pronounced sair-o-CAW-wee). This is a very small town situated near Urique Canyon. Our hotel used to be the San Francisco Jesuit mission near the church. There is also a Tarahumara girls boarding school for about 75 girls next door run by the nuns of Sacred Heart. This area also has a nice vineyard but we weren't too crazy about the wine they produce. Dancers and musicians entertained us before supper.

This morning (Sat.) we had an early start and were in a bus climbing the mountains on a bumpy gravel road to the Urique overlook. The Mexican government is trying to make this a tourist destination so they have unfinished bathrooms and a tiled viewing platform without railings. But the view is fabulous with ridges and crags as far as the eye can see. The Canadians are doing some mining in the area, harvesting copper, silver and gold. We got on the train just before lunch time, so had a great hamburger in the dinning car. We took the train all the way back to Creel. At one point the train made a loop as it climbed out of the canyon to an altitude of over 8000 feet before descending down to Creel.

Tomorrow we head back towards the USA with an overnight in Cuauhtemoc.

Another Day in Creel

2011-03-17T23:05:00.000-05:00

Today was an easy day with sight seeing this morning and goofing off this afternoon. Just down the road and around a bend from the campground are some high rocks with caves in them where the Tarahumara live. They have erected stone walls in front of the cave and have leaned long boards and logs near to the back to make storage areas and bedrooms. Since tour groups bring people here daily, the women have set up shop, selling hand made items such as baskets of all shapes and sizes, woven belts and bags, some clay and wooden pieces and clay bead necklaces. The cave faces east and looks out over fields that they work during the spring and summer. A large tree in the middle of the field holds hay and corn husks for drying and to keep it away from cows and goats.

A short way from there is the Valley of Mushrooms which is rock formations that look like mushrooms. Again there are Tarahumara selling their wares. One formation looks like a frog and another like an elephant. There are always Tarahumara around selling things. We drove a short way out of town to view a man made lake that is actually very pretty.

We are bonding well with the folks in the tour. A four o'clock cocktail hour was lots of fun, lots of laughs. Even in this group I'm considered a saint to put up with John!

Copper Canyon -- Day 3, Driving Back to Creel

2011-03-17T01:06:00.000-05:00

After a lovely breakfast (they make the best sweet breads!) we departed on Mexican time (30 minutes late). The drive back was dreaded due to the bumpy, curvy, narrow road. We were also unsure if our van would make it back without stalling out. Our van never quit, and we made fewer stops along the road so we got back faster and earlier than expected. The views coming up out of the canyon were more awe inspiring, seeing the canyon walls towering over us. We also experienced the narrowness of the canyons. We had expected something similar to the Grand Canyon, but these are narrow, covered with trees and shrubs and paths. They are somewhat smoother, less dramatic walls than the Grand Canyon but they are much deeper and there are more of them concentrated in this area.

There was no sleeping or reading in the van as it was just too bumpy and curvy. John and I took a fast walk into town, visited with new friends and had a great grilled pork chop dinner.

Copper Canyon - Day 2 Touring the Area

2011-03-17T00:00:00.000-05:00

We got to sleep in, but coffee was ready at 7 AM, breakfast at 8 and off we went to visit the area at 9. Our first stop was just one block away to a parochial boarding school run by the Sacred Heart nuns. There were 150 students but only 30 girls were boarded there and they were mostly Tarahumara natives who walk for miles to get there. On the weekends the parents would come to get their children and then walk them back on Sunday, and a few were full time. The place was clean and well run. We saw the dorm, the kitchen, a couple of class rooms and the playground. A few of us left them some school supplies that we had brought.

We then rode the vans (yes, it was fixed) to The Lost Cathedral which was about 30 minutes past Batopilas down a very bumpy road! Along the way we stopped at the home of some Tarahumara where we got to listen to one of the little girls play the harmonica and another young girl danced for us. There were 9 children altogether. They tend to have very large families. Then we stopped at a small school with about 50 students and 2 teachers. It is a very poor school for the Tarahumara. A lot of us had brought school supplies, some toys and candy. The teacher decided to had out some of the stuff while we were there. The joy on the students faces was priceless. The Lost Cathedral was built by Jesuit missionaries in the mid 1700's for the 220 Tarahumara Indians. Later it was taken over by the Franciscan missionaries and construction was completed around 1780. Today they are refurbishing it inside and out so it looks almost new.

Lunch was on the square at the Carolina Restaurant with a local recipe of beef and cabbage served cold on a tostada. I loved it! On our walk back to the hotel, we stopped at a small museum that recounted the history of the area with its beginnings as a silver mining community.

After a short nap the 3 Canadians and I got a ride over to the ruins of the very huge Hacienda San Miguel located across the river from the town. This gentleman was one of the first silver mine owners in the area and he spent a lot of money on his home which included a swimming pool! Today it is in ruins and has squatters living in it along with their cows and goats. The Canadians and I were surprised that our driver left us there but he then returned with a few more from our group. At that point we were ready to go back to the hotel but he had left AGAIN! So we climbed down to the river, crossed it by walking across a make shift bridge of boards and walked back. Meanwhile, John was enjoying some 'muy frio cerveza' !

I forgot to mention that our first night here we had entertainment from two Tarahumara who played the violin and guitar. Tonight our entertainment is a Mexican band consisting of a tuba, snare drum, singer/guitar player, accordion and violin/singer. It was a wild bunch. A lot of their music had a very German, oompah feel to it. It is a shame that we cannot understand the words -- I have a feeling that some of the songs were very funny or risque! And since we had a fair amount of margaritas it was a wild and fun evening!