our new location for Aug 29th, 30th and more new pictures

August 29th, our 60th day on our Alaska adventure.

link to pictures with descriptive captions

I've had a few emails from friends that are "riding along with us" on our big adventure and I want to thank each of you for your comments.  If anyone has questions for either myself or Barbara, please email me.  We have driven over 600 miles on the Kenai Peninsula and enjoyed every mile.  All the towns on the peninsula are interesting because of their history and each has a nice visitor center that is a also welcome center.
If you enjoy the excitement of of fishing, hunting, sightseeing, gold prospecting, or just getting away from the normal, this is the place.  Our location is 10 miles east of Anchorage across the water of the Turnagain Arm, but by the Seward highway (shortest), it is almost a hundred.

The weather is wet and cloudy, but clearing and blue skies are expected later in the day.  We are camped in Porcupine US Forrest Service campground near Hope, AK. It features 24 dry camping sites, 2 water pumps, and two vault toilets.  On the plus side, the views of the Cook Inlet/Turnagain Arm, with the mountains in the background are excellent through our picture window looking north.  The campsites are well kept and are perfect for our purpose.  They are a bargain at $7.00 per night. The camp hosts are a couple from Missouri (retired dairy farmer) and were drawn to Alaska because of its natural beauty.  They have been here for 8 years now. I encountered a small black bear yesterday afternoon.  No problem, the bear went about his business and I just walked on.  We love to watch the low tide expose the beach.  At the low tide, I will guess that we can walk 1/4 mile out on the beach.  These are good  beaches for discovery, but forget about swimming, the water is very cold.

We hit another discovery adventure today.  We did a day trip to Hope, AK, on the north coast of the Kenai Peninsula about a mile from our campsite.  Hope is the first gold mining boom town in Alaska.  It was started in 1896 with about 3000 miners coming with the idea of striking it rich.  Many did well but the Klondike rush drew all but a few away from Hope in '96-'97.  The gold rush came back and the area grew.  Please try to read the pictures 4853-4855 in the picture gallery.  I hope you can use the zoom button in the upper right to view in detail. 

We were doing the walking tour of Hope when we met Gold Rush Pec, the famous prospector that was featured on the Travel Channel a few years ago.  He is a part time miner that also does personal tours of Hope and gives a welcome and a handshake to tourists.  He has a partner and together they do a mining demonstration next to the museum.  He is a colorful man in his 60s that rides a four wheeler around the area that is equipped with a shotgun, shovel, goldpan and other tools of the trade.  He loves to tell you stories about the town and the gold mining. You will recognize him in the picture album.

We spent several hours in the Hope Museum.  The Millers are the caretakers of the place.  Both Bill and Phyllis have put a lot of work into the place.  Bill came to Kenai Peninsula as a young US Army soldier and was stationed at Whittier Army Depot about 45 miles from Hope in 1949 and never left.  He worked the areas of Hope and Sunrise.  Phyllis worked in the Post Office and never left, somewhat common for folks around here.  Some of the old 1900s building are still in service and a few have been repaired and rebuilt by Bill and Phyllis and moved to the museum for viewing.. Lots of work, skill and dedication shows in this museum.  Bill and Phyllis have written their personal memories of the 1964 good Friday earthquake in book form. Many parts of the Kenai sank from 3 to 8 feet.  Much of Hope was under water and some of the building had to have the foundations jacked up.  Bill has a 1947 Dodge Power Wagon, that was the first year for the civilian issue (not a military issue), it was made the same, except came with extras such as front winch and a live shaft  in the rear for powering anything needing a flat belt.  It might be used for a sawmill or thrasher.  He has kept it serviceable all these years.  He added an "A" frame to the front of it for lifting.

Today is Sunday the 30th.  The sun is shining and the temp is ~48 degrees and warming, a beautiful day is forecast. We will be moving on to Whittier for a stay in the USFS park called Williwaw.  It has 60 dry camping sites and is located at the base of the the Portage Glacier.  Whittier is a sea port town located on the west end of the Prince William Sound and during the early 1900 was a major supply route for the area.  During WW2 and into the cold war time, it was a military supply depot.  On our drive to Whittier we will travel a tunnel that is used for trains and cars.  The cars travel at certain times only and that depends on the train schedule.

Stayed tuned

from Homer to Kenai, Nikiski, and Texas Flag flies over Captain Cook State park in Alaska and an important birthday celebration for Barbara

To the Blog,

click here for New picture link with descriptive captions

In my last blog, we were in Homer.  I should have mentioned that Homer is the home town of Tom Bodet, and  as he said for years, "we'll keep the lights on for you".  I think you'll remember Tom. 
Tom must have a lot of money, because the Homer Electric Association charges $.208 per KWH, the highest in the state.  They generate from a hydro plant and a natural gas fired plant.  HEA offered a large reduction in rates if the city of Homer would allow them to build a clean coal technology plant, the city fathers turned it down because it has to do with coal.  FYI, coal is everywhere up here and the Healy coal is being shipped to South Korea.  Homer used to be a coal producer for a European company about 90 years ago.  

August 25th
We left Homer around 1400hrs on Tuesday.  Before leaving, we walked the beach at low tide for a few hours.  We dug for razor edge clams.  These clams bury in the sand with a digging foot.  They have an opening in the sand where they take in water and food.  The shell is sharp and can cut your hand if not careful.  The idea is to dig down beside it and grab the clam's head and pull it out of the sand.  We dug several different places, but since we don't really know what we are doing, we came up empty handed.  We saw several people with clams at the cleaning station, therefore we know they exist here.  We drove north along the coast, usually within a few hundred feet of the Cook Inlet, the passage of water north and west of the Kenai Peninsula. Our destination for today is Captain Cook State Park, located on the north west corner of the Peninsula about 100 miles from Homer.  We made a short stop at Ninilchik beach  where we did a little beach combing and gathered enough coal to fill a 5 gal bucket.  Coal has been found on the beach for hundreds of years and some of the locals drive there truck to the beach and gather it up, using it for heating in the winter.  It varies in size from small golf ball to a big cow pattie size. The color is from brown to dark black.  It is easy to break up and will burn under the right conditions and leaves a yellow ash in the firepit.

We stopped at the town of Kneai visitors center for information and checked email (free Wifi) did some shopping and ate at McDonald's.  Walmart is building a new Super Walmart just a block away.  I would guess that it will open in a couple of months.

Aug 26th
From Kenai north is oil country.  The first oil wells in Alaska were drilled about 50 years in a little place called Nikiski.  Oil has brought highways, employment, and money to this area.  Captain Cook State Park is at the end of the Kenai Spur highway just past the last oil field.  There are 53 campsites here and we had our choice of almost any of them.  We chose one with a view that looks out across the water to the volcanoes on the far mainland shore more than 50 miles to the southwest. One of the more well know is Mount Redoubt, last erupted in May of this year dumping about 1/4 inch of ash on Anchor Point and Homer.  Mount Augustine is currently spewing steam, check my picture, really neat.  In the evening we get a really gorgeous sunset across the water.  The days are starting to shorten up, we are loosing sunlight every day and we are seeing the foliage change.

The campsite that we chose also was ideal for displaying the Texas State Flag.  Anyone coming into the park gets a good look at it. This flag was given to me on my retirement by my friends and co workers, Terry Paxton and Ron Griffith.  I worked with these guys for over 25 years and I think they knew I needed a Texas flag while traveling in Alaska.  Thanks Griff and Terry!

Barbara and I walked the beaches of Captain Cook and looked for agates.  We found many, mostly quartz.  The beaches come alive with a opportunities to dig clams, fish, and hunt for neat rocks. Ever since Barbara and I have been camping, we have collected rocks for our back yard and this trip is no exception.  Every rock has a interesting history so we fill in the blanks with wild guesses.  Our gross vehicle weight is increasing each day... remember Lucy and Desi Arnez in the Long Long Trailer where Lucy loaded the back of their trailer under the bed and caused the front of the trailer to lift up.  I've started calling Barbara, Lucy.
After our field trip, we built our usual campfire, except this time we used that coal that we collected down on the beach.  We started the fire with wood and broke up our coal into crushed pieces and put it in the fire.  It burned fairly well, but put our some smoke.  I went back to the wood fire for cooking.  We seasoned a Silver salmon fillet and baked it, it turned out perfect and tasted great.
With the some of the remaining coal, Barbara is going to tie a ribbon around it and give everybody a chunk of coal.

Aug 27th 
Guess who is having a birthday tomorrow while traveling in Alaska???  1949 you do the math...
We made our plans for the day, we will drive to the 40 miles to Soldotna for fuel, an overnight at the FM and use their dump station.  Should be a short drive and we can spend time in Soldotna and Fred Meyers.  This is a neat store and we did not have enough time the first time we were here last week.
Tomorrow our plans are to drive to the town of Hope. Hope was one of the original gold rush towns in Alaska.  In 1896 3,000 miners rushed to Hope and found 400 ounces of gold, but the Klondike gold rush began and all but 150 miners left for the Klondike.  The next year 10,000 miners rushed back to Hope.  Gold panning is still a big draw in Hope.  We still have our shovel and pan, so I expect to strike it rich, maybe.  I have an made an image of our route starting on the 28th.  We plan to travel the Slilak Lake road for about 17 miles.  It is more scenic, an if we choose to spend the night, it has a nice campground on the lake.

Fred Meyer is very busy place, the parking lot is nearly full and most of the 30 pumps at the gas station are in use.

Aug 28th Barbara's birthday  and we are still at Fred Meyer's in Soldotna.
Booty Reed had entrusted a gift to me before we left Lubbock,  I kept it hidden in the trailer.  The timing was perfect, Booty called and I gave Barb the gift and card during the conversation. 

I also gave her a special heart shaped chunk that would make any girl happy!  Special gift for a special girl. 

John and Barbara reporting from Soldotna on the Kenai Peninsula.

another day, another adventure Soldotna, Homer, and points west, new pic link and the wiper fix

To all,

link to new pictures with descriptive captions

We left Seward on Friday the 21th and headed for Soldotna on the  west side of Kenai peninsula about 75 miles to the north and west.  Passed through some scenic country and along the Kenai river. Our first stop in Soldotna was the visitor center where we learned about the beginnings of this crossroads town.  This is a hub of the west side and the market place between the far north near Cook inlet and Homer on the south.  The town formed after the railroad started building some infrastructure in the late '40s.  The Kenai River flows through the town and provides world class fishing for local subsistence and visitors from around the world. The world record for a King salmon caught here is 97lbs.  I took a picture of it displayed in the visitor center.  I guess one of the big attractions is the Fred Myer store at the east end.  The store is larger and more stuff than a super Walmart.  It was also our overnight spot on Friday.  They even provide instructions on where to park and a complete dump station facility. 

Saturday the 22nd
We decided we would go south 8 miles to Homer because a town on the way was have the regional fair on Saturday that we wanted to attend.  We will come back to Soldotna because we have to travel the same road.  We stopped at Ninilchik, an old Russian town from before the US bought Alaska back in the 1840s. We found a free parking spot in the church parking lot. The fair was in full swing with all the usual community stuff.  The stock show, exhibitors, food sellers, and barrel racers.  I think the new Alaska governor was to make an appearance in the late afternoon. One event that Barbara and I had never been to was a pig race.  It is held on a closed  100' course and starts with a posting of the pigs in a starting gate.  The gate opens and the three pigs put on a exciting one lap race.  The course has two 1 foot hurdles for the pigs to jump over.The winners go into a final that decides the main event winner.  It is all in fun and a few helpers take $1 bets just before the start, if your pig is a wiener, you get a plastic piggy bank.  I never thought pigs could run so fast! It is all for charity. We spent over 3 hours there and enjoyed it very much.
We rolled into Homer around 1700hrs and found a nice campsite on the north (harbor side) of the Homer Spit.  All of the permanent small boat docks are located on this side.  The Spit is a natural sand bar that has been reworked making it less subject to erosion from the sea.  It designed to break the waves and wind making the dock area a safe harbor. The spit is a very busy place with fishing and sight seeing charters and on the far end even a lodge.  We have spent some of our time following the tide.  The tide difference between high and low is ~26 feet, this makes for a treasure of stuff on the beach.  The beach is easy to walk.  It has been a little rainy and cool, but has not kept us from spending time outdoors. 

Sunday the 23rd  The weather was overcast and rainy for most of the day. The windshield wiper problem came up again and this time, I decided to see if I could repair it, as it was really annoying having to pull the fuse to turn the wipers off. I removed the cowl air intake grill and was able to hit the controller to make it stop, so I know where the problem is.  I got out my tools and removed the wiper motor controller mounted on the back of the motor.  It is a circuit board with surface mounted components that included two small black plastic enclosed relays.  I was not sure, but I figured one of the relays was sticking in the closed position.  I got out my box cutter and carefully cut the plastic top from both and cleaned and burnished the contacts using a dollar bill and contact cleaner.  All went back together and every thing is fine now.  I expect no more problem from it.
In the afternoon we visited the Pratt Visitors and Cultural Center to see some of the most astounding wildlife displays and a museum.  We watched two films and spent about 4 hours there.  Very nice place.  Homer is the home of political correctness and the art crowd for this part of Alaska.  They even replaced all of the city owned sedans with Ford hybrid escorts to reduce their carbon footprint.  I have not see any yet, but I am feeling better anyway.  Watched a DVD and went to bed a little early.

Monday the 24th   Rain off and on till around 1300hrs.  and just a FYI... the windshield wipers are still working great.  We went shopping at the Salvation Army Thrift store and purchased a Yahtzee game, new old stock, still shrink wrapped. Good buy $1.50..  We also did a driving and walking tour of the town.  We walked the old part of town. We drove up on East Hill drive and got some good shots of the town and the Spit with a twin glacier in the back ground.
I was walking along Pioneer Ave, when a small car came by that had a really strange 6 foot mast anchored on the roof.  I took a snapshot with my camera, but could not figure what the mast was used for.  Later, we were driving along Kachemak Drive road and I saw it again.  This time it was stopped so I pulled up beside it and noticed it had a bunch of lenses around the top.  I asked the driver what they were and he said it was a Google mapping car.  It has 13 cameras at the top of the mast.  So in some future Google street view, I will show up taking a snap shot and later driving toward the mapping car. 
I also got pictures of a boat being lifted from the bay and moved across the street to a winter dry dock.  It is getting close to that time of year up here.
Built a fire and had a hot dog cookout while watching the sunset over the harbor, nice.  We will hook up and head toward Soldotna sometime tomorrow . 
Just an FYI on the Wifi hotspots in Homer... It is everywhere, I have had a connection on demand, while in our campsite on the beach.  The one that I am using is called spitswspots.  I am a free user, therefore I have to sign in every hour.  That is no problem.

John

our perfect day on the Gulf of Alaska... and more... plus another new link for pictures

To the blog followers,

link to new pictures with description captions...

I  put these blogs up in hopes that some of you will just ride along with us on our adventure.  I enjoy doing this and a few of the followers have given positive feedback. I think that if you check "follow this blog box", you will receive email notification when a new posting is put up.
I do hope you enjoy riding along with us, so let's get going on another exciting day. Blogging also gives me a log of travel info.

August 19th... The day is perfect for a boat ride.  We are boarding the Glacier Express, a 150 foot 250 passenger excursion catamaran hull boat powered by two big Cat diesels.  Our adventure will be a 6 hour 120 mile trip out the Resurrection Bay, to the Gulf of Alaska, into the Aialik Bay, Holgate Glacier and back through Harbor and Chiswell Islands. Everything about the cruise was perfect, good weather, smooth sea, and lots of points of interest.  A Kenai Fjords National Park ranger narrated the entire trip.  We saw the hump back and the oraca (killer) whale. We saw Steller sea lions, Dall's porpoise, bald eagles, puffins, and a variety of other sea birds.  The Holgate glacier provided lot of action with the falling ice and the loud noise as it falls into the water. The captain stopped the engines as we just sat in the calm water with no other noise.  I got a series of shots using the rapid fire of my camera.  A nice lunch was provided as well as coffee, cookies and cokes. We were able to go anywhere on the boat because at this time of the season it is only about 50% booked. The captain of the boat would stop for just about anything of interest.  During WW2 this was a fortified area with bunkers high atop some of the mountain peaks.  I carried my GPS so I could monitor the location and the speed of the boat.  Top speed was ~27 mph and we traveled 126 miles. 

August 20th...  This was to be our last day in Seward, be we found more to do, so we extended another day.  We went to the Alaska Sealife Center. This is a 3-4 hour self guided tour of a Sealife research center.  We enjoyed it very much.  We then just sat and watched the fishing activities alone the shore. Every few minutes silver salmon were jumping out of the water and several fishermen were casting their lines out in hopes of catching a big one.  Quite a show.  From Aug 8-16, is the 54th Annual Silver Salmon Derby with prizes worth over $100,000.  That may be the reason we saw so many fishermen around the area, especially the dock area. On the way back to our campsite we stopped by our favorite hotspot, the Holiday Inn Express, and checked our email.  There are many others in Seward, but this one works well for me. At supper time, I built a smokey fire for the hoboes (ground beef, potato, carrot and onion wrapped in foil), an old Boy Scout favorite.  Seward is another town that we have enjoyed very much.  No disappointments, just great adventures everyday.

A little note of interest... This town was almost wiped off the map in the 1964 earthquake/tsunami.  There are still reminders in several location around town.  It was one of the towns most affected  by the Exxon Valdes tanker accident, and was involved in the recovery.

Tomorrow we move on to the western part of Kenai Peninsula, Homer, Kenai, Soldotna, and Anchor Point.

John and Barbara

Surveillance in Seward

With a sophisticated linked security camera system, we are tracking the Texans.   Even though this image is a poor screengrab, I'm sure we can zoom and enhance the photo to verify that it's them.

On to Anchorage and then Seward more exciting wandering in Alaska and new pic link

more pictures

Hello Blog,

We left Denali  Saturday the 15th and headed south on the Parks highway #3 toward Anchorage.  The weather was a bit wet with a drizzle type rain, therefore there was no chance of viewing Mt Mckinley from the south side.  We decided to travel the extra 30 miles to Talkeetna, a old pioneer historic railroad town 130 miles south of Denali and in the Talkeetna Mountains.  The town is a big tourist stop because of charter services making connections to the railroad.  The Alaska Railroad serves passenger and freight from Seward in the south to Anchorage, Talkeetna, Denali, and then to Fairbanks to the north. It carries many passengers as one leg of tour packages.  We did a walking tour of Talkeetna, population of ~300, so that didn't take more a few hours.  The town serve as the base camp for all the climbing  and charter air operations for the  Mt McKindley charter services.  We visited the museum and did some shopping in the old log cabin type stores on the square.  Jay had made an overnight stop there on the Alaska Railroad last year and recommended the Roadhouse as a good place to eat.  We enjoyed our meal there.  It started business in 1944 and still very popular in the area. After that we continued on to south into the vegetable growing Mat-Su Valley area of Willow, Palmer, and Wasilla.  Both Wasilla and Willow are modern bustling cities with all the big name, big box stores found anywhere else. Starting around Willow, I got the sensation of these towns serving as bedroom towns for Anchorage.  We drove  into Anchorage about 1900 hrs.
Saturday night was spent at the WM accommodations in Anchorage.  We shopped at Sams Whse and Wallmart to restock the shelves.  We drove downtown and found that they are celebrating the 50 years of statehood.  We did a walking tour of the downtown area.  This is a clean and neat area with some of it rebuilt after the 1964 earthquake.  We visited the visitors centers and the exhibits in the Federal building. We did some shopping in various stores before leaving town.
We are now heading south toward our target of Seward.  The drive is beautiful.  We are driving along the railroad that is between the highway and the Turnagain Arm bay of the Cook inlet to the Gulf of Alaska.  On our left side is the Chugach Mountains with some blue sky and a few clouds hanging in the air around the sharp peaks of the mountains. This is in the Chugach national forest area.
As we drove, we encountered some rain showers and when I tried to turn off the windshield wipers, they would not turn off.  After messing with all the controls, I pulled the fuse.  Of course it started to rain again, so I had to install the fuse.  To my delight, everything went back to normal for the rest of the evening.  I know I will have to deal with this again as, things don't fix themselves. I suspect the intermittent wiper control as the problem.
As I have said in the past, this is an a continuing adventure and this is really a scenic route with the mountains, the clouds, and many lakes and streams.  We drove by the Johnson river and found fishermen standing shoulder to shoulder along the bank just as far as I could see, fly fishing for salmon sponning.
We stopped at a pull out along the highway with a information sign reading that this was a trail to the river for viewing fish.  I took the short trail and sure enough, the river was clear and several salmon chug were swimming by.  I could have netted them easily.  We decided this was a great place to stop for the night.  By this time it was getting toward dark and starting to rain.  We got into the Bigfoot and turned on the heater. The heater would not do anything.  I used a test light and found the thermostat to be working, therefore I would have to inspect the outside compartment.  We just covered up and went to bed.  In the morning, I removed the electronic control board and discovered a small green spot of corrosion caused by moisture and DC voltage.  I cleaned that up and sprayed it with WD-40.  I believe that it is fixed.  This was important because we use the heater every evening and morning.

Monday morning the 17th we drove the 30 miles to Seward and made camp in one of the town owned campground located 1 mile from town.  Nice campsite with all the different plants around it.  We went on a walking tour of the harbor area and gathered information about the points of interest.  We drove to Lowell Point and saw a few sea lions and a pair of adult  bald eagles in a tree.  Their nest had to be 6 feet in diameter and was about 50' up the tree.  On  Tuesday we are going to a glacier called "Exit Glacier" , a  glacier in Harding Icefields located in the Kenai Fjord National Park.  They offer Ranger talks and walking trails to see the Exit Glacier close up.   Monday evening we had a campfire and grilled hamburgers.

Tuesday we have the Exit Glacier visit and a visit to the tour boat companies on the Seward docks.  We may take a cruise out in Resurrection Bay and a glacier visit to the "calving" (glaciers shedding huge blocks of ice into the ocean) of the Holgate glacier viewed from the water.  Also we will see the big whales, puffins, sharks, Dall porpoise, steller sea lions, and a few bald eagles.  This time of the year, we can get good price discounts on the packages as the attendance is falling off.  Barbara made a crockpot with chicken, vegetables, and biscuits.  We will start the generator as we leave camp and when we get back, we will have a chicken and dumplings dinner.  While we where at the Exit Glacier we saw some friends that we had met at the Teklanika a few days, so we visited with them in the late evening and had a enjoyable time.  The crockpot worked perfect, it's nice to come back to the campsite and have the hot meal waiting  for us.

Wednesday is clear and no rain is forecast, so we are going cruising.  I better get ready.  I'll report on our cruise in a few days, stay tuned.

John

Denali - Wonder Lake

I thought I'd put a couple of photos here.  These were taken in July 2008 from my campsite (#7) at Wonder Lake.  It was a lucky break in the clouds that day. Jay

Denali in the rear view mirror almost... and link to new pictures

Dear blog,

Link to a few more pictures

As every day has been, today was also another exciting adventure.  We started this day early with a visit to the sled dog demonstration. Dog sleds are the means of transportation that the year around Ranger staff uses to travel around Denali Park in the winter.  The Park has around 40 Alaska Husky sled dogs that are trained to carry supplies to the out posts in this park.  The ranger gave a talk on the type of dog and the sleds they use.  The dogs are out in the open and you can get up close and personal with them.  These dogs are ready to go to work.  When they harness up the first dog, the others are barking and straining at their leash, hoping to be chosen for today's task.  The ranger takes a short hot lap in a sled that has rear wheels on it because there is no snow, yet.  And I should mention, the lead dog is named King.  After the dog sled, we hiked the two miles back to the visitors center because it was a nice morning and the trail took us through a lush green spruce, birch, aspen taiga (boreal forest) filled with many flowers, and small animals. Back at the campsite, built a fire and grilled chicken for lunch.  Then off to the theater for a enjoyable Ranger program on the Lynx and the Wolverine.  After that, we stopped by the Murie Science and Learning Center for a few hours study of the park. The Murie is a library of information on park history and the different things that affect the day to day operation. 

Tomorrow we leave and head south toward Talkeetna, AK   We were just two of the approximately 450,000 people that visited this park this  year.  Barbara and I feel that this is a truly great adventure in a very special place.  The National Park service has kept this park just about the same as it was over a hundred years ago.  It doesn't have a lot of human shapeing or interventions.  The park is open June 15 to Sept 20th. 

FYI... filmmaker Ken Burns is doing a 12 hour, six episode public television series to highlight the 100 years of the National Park System.  Some of the footage will be from Denali, might be worth watching.  It starts this September.

I will send this in the morning because I have access to WIFI.  We will keep you posted

Our 10 day Denali National Park adventure and picture link

For our friends

new picture upload


For a little history about this trip.  We had planned along with two other couples to make a Alaska trip this year.  But as is the case, sometimes thing don't work and we had somethings come up that caused us to shift dates and plans.  It looked as if we could not travel to Alaska this year, maybe pushing it to 2010.
 In June, Barbara was talking to Jay, our son.  He had vacationed in Denali last year and he came up with the idea that he could schedule his vacation so as to meet in Banff, AB, Canada.  For many years we have had a interest in this area of Canada. We had, as a family visited Waterton Peace Park in the early '80 and marked it for a return.  Jay worked on his calendar and we were able to make ours fit and off to the Canadian Rockies we went.  We just extended ours to include a Denali trip.

We arrived at Denali Thursday, after traveling the 120 miles from Fairbanks.  We traveled through thick smoke from a forest fire west and south from Fairbanks. see picture in Pi Fires are commons here, mostly caused by lighting.  They can burn for a long time, but without the wind, they don't travel very fast.  This one was a big one that had been burning over a month and still not controlled.  The first night at the park was spent in Riley Creek campground, near the Wilderness Access Center.  This is a big place.  At the entrance, is a small town on state highway 3 with several large lodges, many parking lot style RV parks, gas station, park touring services, and plenty of restaurants, there just to serve the crowd of people that visit this park.  This park attracts people from all around the world.  This campground is filled with foreign visitors with rented motorhomes.  Very easy to spot the rentals, big sign on the side that say " 1-800-RENTRV".  We talked to a old German couple that said that every detail is arraigned by their travel club back home.   
This afternoon we were able to stop by the Riley Creek Mercantile, to tour the Denali visitor center, and attend a evening ranger program in the amphitheater about the myths that the Athabaskan Indians held about the big black ravens.  He weaved the Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven" into his talk that was mostly for the kids.
  
We are a little over 5 thousand miles and more than 35 days on the road and at the Teklanika campground 30 miles west into Denali for 10 days.  As I type this, I look out the front window of the Bigfoot and see a view of the Teklanika River and the mountains in the background.  From this campground, we can only go west on the green shuttle bus , but that takes us to all the areas west of mile 30.  It takes us to our selected area and we get off and can spend several hours and then to get back to Teklanika we can choose any east bound shuttle.  It makes a stop at least every hour.  Tomorrow we will take the shuttle to Wonder Lake in hopes of catching a view of Mt Kinley at 20,320 feet, the tallest in North America.  During our stay in Teklanika we can use that bus as transportation to any location and get on off just by telling the driver. 

Our day 37 adventure  started at 0745 hrs and took 7 1/2 hrs and traveled 110 miles was to Wonder Lake.  The driver was a woman with 8 years of driving in this park.  She has a microphone on and will comment on the park features and the many animals that we see along the way.  The road is gravel and very narrow in spots. Denali offers new and different beauty that Barbara and I have never seen before.  The braided rivers, the glaciers, the lakes, the mountains with their many different looks offer a 360 view that keeps one entertained for the whole trip.  Our turn around point was the Wonder Lake campground on the bank of the lake.  Jay camped in the number 7 spot last year, so we decided to get our picture made in that same location.  Phylis, the camp ground host joined us in the picture with Mt. McKinley in the background.  She has been hosting in this location for 20 years and I would guess that she is nearing her 80's.  She is a very delightful to speak with. Jay had told us about her and to look her up if we got to Wonder Lake.  Yesterday was a day just to ride the bus and plan for the days to come.  We had purchased a back pack at the Canadian Tire store in Dawson Creek for ~$8 (good buy), so we packed it with sandwiches and snacks along with water and bear spray, so we were set for the day. This backpack has a very loud shrill audible device built into it that will scare any animal away.  Have not needed it yet, but first person reports confirm that bears are in many places.  We also carry bear spray with us at all times. We have seen many bears at a distance on our trips on the bus.

On Saturday the 8th we did some housekeeping, hiked some of the trails at this campground and planned for the next day. Had a nice evening around the campfire with some fellow travelers from BC.

Sunday the 9th was a rain out. It started raining in the early morning hours and continued off and on most of the day.  We watched DVD movies for part of the day, than around 7 PM the sky cleared and the sun came out.  The very long days of sun are now becoming shorter and by midnight, it is only the  moon.

Monday, Aug 10th, morning temps dropped down into the lower 20s degrees.  That gave the windows a good coating of frost, but, by 0800 the temp is already 36 degrees with clear skys.  I get to watch the sun come up over the mountain and it looks like another beautiful day in store and we are getting ready for a Denali adventure.  The bus stop is about 1/8 mile away.
We are fortunate to have a warm trailer with  the cold weather package.  We turn down the heat at night and the heater comes some on to keep it at the set point.  Power and battery management come into play everyday, as there is only two times a day that generators can be used.  We have been unhooked from the grid now for 41 days and so far no problems.
We boarded the shuttle bus to the Eielson Visitor Center and very soon we started to seen the bears, caribou, and a big moose.  This was a special day because the driver spotted a big grizzly along side the road, about 100 yards to our right.  The bear was moving toward us and would be crossing in front, therefore we advanced very slowly and would stop once in a while to observe.  The bear stopped at a stream and just laid down in the stream for about 5 minutes, got up shaking the water off, and then crossed directly in front of us.  He would look at us, but seemed undisturbed.
We ate our picnic lunch at the Eielson, looked at all the exhibits, and did a short hike on one of the trails.  This is a 12 million dollar visitor center and is very politically and architecturally correct, I think it may be a indoctrination center to shape the young minds.  One note, this building was awarded the highest honor for being  self sufficient (off the grid as there are no power lines in the park, beyond the entrance) as far as the electrical needs.  It has a 5KW hydro on a small creek, 2.5 KW of solar panels, and a propane powered generator of some kind.  Guess what, they have a 12.5 KW trailer mounted Kohler running the place.  One of the displays in the visitor is a computer screen that shows the different power sources and how each one is working.  The ranger in charge told me that it has not worked for the summer season and that the solar panel system inverters are a big problem (the company that installed them is not supporting them) and on top of that the propane generator is not working and the hydro is also off line (lack of water in the creek).  He told me that they are embarrassed and that is why the computer screen is off line.  The power was off twice while we were there as they are switching from the very limited solar to the Kohler each time the sky gets cloudy.  There is a park maintenance ranger stationed there to do this.
On the way back from Eielson, the bus had to make a quick stop for a red fox sitting in the road.  The fox just sat there and looked at us.  The driver moved to the right as far as possible, but the fox just sat there.  Everyone got great pictures at a distance of 15-20 feet. This was a beautiful red fox that entertained us for about 10 minutes.
Not far down the road we saw a big gray wolf chasing a snow shoe hare.  This happened right next to the road in front of us.  Survival of the fittest played out in Denali today.
We got a 1 mile hike in as we asked the driver to let us off the bus before we got to the our campgrounds.  Nice hiking weather as the temps are in the 20's at night and upper 50's during the day.  We saw the first change of the foliage indicating the summer is gone and the autumn is here today.  Just a note about the long hours of daylight.  This is changing very quickly... 6min and 38 secs of less day light than the day before. Within the next week we will have more than 1 hour less daylight.  I guess we better head south.
Another nice campfire to end the day of adventure.    We watched another movie... Get Smart.

Wednesday...
Got up to another cold frosty morning with sun and about 27 degrees.  We decided to pack a lunch and do a hike down the Teklanika river to the bridge.  It was a nice hike of about 4 1/2 miles and 4 1/2 hours on a braided river bed of rocks and sand.  At the present the river is narrow compared to the size of the river bed, so we chose to walk in the river bed.  We spotted a pair of caribou on the other side from us.  Lots of bear tracks and scat, but we did not see one today. My pocket GPS reported that the first leg took us 2hrs and 3 minutes and that equaled 1.05 mph.  It was slow walking because of the rocks and many channels of the braided river.  Sometimes we were forced to backtrack and reroute.  We also saw more signs of the quickly approaching autumn with the birch leaves turning color.  The cool evening and the clear skies told it was going to get cold tonight.  Another campfire and a movie... Monster Mother-in-law

Thursday...
It really did get cold.  We recorded a 20 degree outdoor reading about 0600 hrs.  I looked at the propane level and decided we could stay for only another day before heading back to the entrance.  It was easy to see the propane level as there was a nice frost ring around the tank. This coldsnap had caused us to use more propane than expected. 
We caught another bus that took us back to the Eielson center.  There are some trails and events that we wanted to see before we left.  On the way there, we saw a young gray wolf stalking a snow shoe hare.  The wolf/hare thing played out right next to the bus.  This time the hare was lucky, the wolf pounced but the hare went into a hole just in time.  The wolf just got a mouth full of fluff. The wolf started digging, but gave up.  Lucky day for the hare. 
We stopped several time to view Mt. McKinley, the skies were clear and this morning was the first time we had seen it.  Very spectacular!  At our first viewing we were 30 miles away and it dwarfed the mountains around it. At Eielson we were about 15 miles away. Sure looks cold up there!  One of the rangers that was working at Eielson also works on the North face where most of the climbing takes place.  He said that an average year 500 attempt to climb and about 40 percent succeed in making it.  He also said the park maintains climbing ropes on the difficult areas.  Many fly into the glacier, that would let them start about half way up. He has been to the summit many times. 
We returned to the campsite around 1800 hrs and made ready for our departure  tomorrow.  We will camp at Reilly Creek tomorrow and the following night.

Thursday we spent the day at Reilly Creek and the visitor center.  I am at the lodge and somewhat pressed for time because of a low battery on the computer, so that is it for now.

John and Barbara

got Coldfeet about going north to Coldfoot, AK.... Blog may go dark for up to 10 days

Hello friends, 
t
he first two pictures are from the UAF campus
the last two are from the sawmill where we got the wood.  This place is huge with these conveyor spitting out wood as we worked below them on the pile.

We have enjoyed Fairbanks very much.  This is our 5th day here and our 35 day on the road.  We spent almost all day on the University of Alaska at Fairbanks campus on Sunday.  We visited the excellent museum along with the Botanical gardens.  Also visited the large animal research facility.  Today we shopped for campfire wood and the best price was at the sawmill.  Got a good size load for $16 dollars, of course we had to load it., but with the cheap help that came with me,  we got it done quickly,   It is much better than buying the little 6 dollar bundles. 

Barbara and I decided not to go any further north, instead we will leave and head toward Denali National Park tomorrow.  This is the home to the tallest mountin in the US.  We will be staying in the park at the 30 mile mark.  Teklinika campground is the one that once in, you don't leave until you leave the park.  No travel other than the inside park shuttle. The only wifi hotspot is at the entrance, that is also the only cell site.
This is somebody else work on Teklinika, but it has some nice pictures.

John and Barbara

Picasa link to alaska album 9

WE STRUCK GOLD in Fairbanks, AK and new picture link

Picture link to extra pics
In the 1st photo, Barbara is talking to Jay on the Skype phone. This campground has free Wifi that allows us to use the USB connected phone on the notebook computer. This has allowed us to have phone service all through Canada. Only Version and Alltel work in Canada and at roaming rate of about $1.25 a minute.

In the third photo is the gold that I panned. After weighting, it amounted to about $21.00 worth.

In the 4th or last photo, Barbara is holding a $40,000 gold nugget mined from a local mine a few years ago. They didn't allow us to take it.

Hello Blog

I am behind in my blog updates. It is easy to fall behind because we have been busy from sun up to sun down, and that is about 20 hrs a day. We try to get about 7 hrs sleep, but it is hard to sleep when the sun is shining in the window at midnight. We purchased three windshield sun blockers at Walmart and fitted them to our bedroom windows yesterday. That really helped.

We are in Fairbanks at the Chena River State Campground. Very nice and affordable, it is located in town on the treed banks of the Chena River that runs through the middle of Fairbanks.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chena_River The campground has some hookups, but to save a little money, we chose the dry sites as we don't really need the hookups.

Yesterday we did a few of the popular tourist sites. The first one was a trip to Fox, an old historic gold mining town about 12 miles north east on highway 2. This is a gold mine that is still operational using a water and sluthe seprater. The mine is called a "drift" mine and they allow the public to pan for gold. We panned and were rewarded with a small amount of gold. Not really nuggets but gold grains. In any case it was fun and valued at a few dollars that we did not have to declare. The second was a 3+ hour stern wheel riverboat trip down the Chena that was fun and educational. We were happy with both.

Today was an day to do laundry and some general planning as to the rest of our stay in Fairbanks. Our plans call for visits the Georgeson Botanical Gardens , the University of Alaska Museum of the North, and the Large Animal Research Station. These are all located on the University Campus only a few miles from our campsite. We also will visit the Pioneer Air Museum. We also planned our time and route to Denali National Park, about 130 mile southwest toward Anchorage.

Stay tuned, we may head for the Arctic Circle to check the weather, aren't for sure, yet. We would take Highway 11 north on to Coldfoot and Wiseman.

John

This is a link, to the routing that we followed getting here. We are at the 5K mile mark because traveled a lot of extra miles while in Banff and Jasper with Jay.