link to pictures with descriptive captions
Sept 4th 2009 Labor day weekend
note... This blog entry is a little screwed up and jumps around a little. Did not mean it to be that way, but we have been busy and writing while driving is a bit difficult. just kidding but time for blogging has been a little short.
We are still in Valdez enjoying the town and our wonderful adventure in Alaska. The season is changing from summer to fall rapidly. The nights are now in the 40s with the days warming into the 60s. Each day seems to be noticeably shorter by a few minutes, we still have ample sunlight for our activities. Today we drove over to the other side of the bay to the Valdez Marine Terminal. This is the oil facility that loads the oil on the tankers that transport it to the rest of the world. This is almost a small city with all support infrastructure. About 800,000 barrels pass through the VMT each day at a speed of about 3 mph. A barrel is 42 gallons and the transport time from Prudhoe Bay to VMT is 12 days.
Along with the VMT is Alyeska Ship Escort/Response Vessel System (SERVS) that hopefully has the resources and talent to contain any oil spill that might happen. All tankers that enter the Prince William Sound are double hull tankers and have special escort ships that maintain precision guidance in the channel.
Just the amount of human effort that went into these projects is truly hard to believe.
In the afternoon we decided to break camp and head back north to Glennallen. This is the big turn-around that starts us on the route back home. We still have a lot of places to go and both of us still have the adventuresome spirt. So here we go... At Glennallen we take the Tok cutoff (Alaska A1) that takes us back to the Alcan Highway. The big WOW of this 250 mile stretch is that we drive almost all of it around the west and north perimeter of the Wrangell-St. Elias national park. We have the pleasure of view the breath taking views from the north as well as the west. Our camping spot for the evening is a pull out along the north side of Cobb Lake. The trees in this picture are black spruce with white spruce mixed in. Trees don't grow very tall here and the tree line is only about 3000 feet altitude. If you look at the routing of the Acan Highway, it is easy to see why the road goes north so much, the Wrangell-St. Elias mountains are in the way. Just a note about the road condition, bumpy with lots of pot holes, frost heaves, and many pavement breaks (gravel replacement sections). We just have to slow down and enjoy the scenery.
Sept 6, 2009
We had a nice drive this morning into Tok. More bad road and great scenery. The tourist season is winding down and the stores are having clearance sales, so that entertained Barb while I did some work.
It is time for maintenance on the Suburban again, this time in addition to the normal items, it will get a new fuel filter. The trailer will need the brakes adjusted. Both will get a good wash and detail cleaning. There is a service station there that if you fill up, you can use their wash facility.
After the wash job and some shopping in Tok we decided to continue our drive to the southeast and overnight in the Yukon Territory. The Yukon Provincial campgrounds are always very nice. These campgrounds are a bargain, check out my pictures with the captions and you will see why there are so nice. We stopped about 30 miles into the Yukon Territory at the Snag Junction Campground for the night. There were only 2 sites left and we took one that was on the lake. It was late and getting dark, so we didn't scout around any.
Sept 7, 2009
Got up the this morning and we were delighted to find this was a beautiful place. It in fact was so nice we just decided to spend another night here. I caught up on the maintenance stuff and Barb found things to occupy her time. We built a fire in the early afternoon and had our hobo special again for supper. We were looking at the Mile Post and found that one of the featured photos was of our campsite #4 looking over the picnic table out onto this lake surrounded by trees and mountains. Of course, I also tried to take the same and will attach it to this blog. Earlier in the day we met Denny and his wife from Anchorage that were overnighting in another site. He has lived in Alaska for years and knows a lot about the area. He came by our site and alerted us that he observed a common loon, bald eagle, 2 trumpeter swans, from the bank of the lake. We also got a good look at these. The trees, crystal clear blue sky, mountains, and a full moon were all reflecting in the water. Another WOW on our Alaska Adventure.
Sept 8, 2009
Another spectacular morning with the lows in the high 20s and the clear skies. A low hanging moisture cloud is just above the water. No sign of the swans or any other wildlife. About dark last night a group of around 20 German tourist camped in the group site. This morning some of them went down to the lake to brush their teeth.
Our plan for today is to drive the 280 miles to Whitehorse, and stop at the Walmart there for supplies and overnight stay. We need a few items at Walmart and propane for the RV. We stopped several times during the day and got to Walmart around 7pm.
When we get to Whitehorse, we will have driven all of the Alaska Highway (Alcan) 1520 miles one way (Dawson Creek to Delta Junction and on to Fairbanks) or around 3,000 miles round trip. This give us a total miles in Alaska of around 5000. Our total mileage is 7800 miles from Lubbock.
Tomorrow we leave Whitehorse and travel to Carcross in the evening. I think I will leave the trailer at the campground in Carcross for the day trip to Skagway on thursday.
John and Barbara from Whitehorse YT
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