David and Enid's Travels

Puffin, Alaska SeaLife Center, Seward, Alaska

Seward is a small town, and its main purpose for existence seems to be tourism.  There are a lot of tourist activities in town centering around Resurrection Bay which is the large bay forming the harbor, the fjords, and the glaciers that cut them.  There were a large number of RV’s parked along the beachfront today when we visited.

Once again it was a very wet day, with fog hanging low over the mountains, and drizzle off and on, mostly on, for all day.  In the morning we stopped at tourist information, went to the library and post office, and then drove about two miles south to a kayaking rental place.  We have a two for one coupon with the company in one of the advertising guides, and we thought we might go with them if it cleared up.  It didn’t, so we are thinking we probably won’t do that.

The road was narrow and rough, and we got our third flat tire of the trip while driving to the kayak rental place.  While I was changing it, one of the local residents came by, and said that it was pretty common to get flats on that road, and told us where we could get it changed.  We left the tire at the shop he recommended, and then drove to the Alaska SeaLife Center and ate our sandwiches for lunch.

The aquarium is quite nice, and has good exhibits of local types of marine life.  Unlike aquariums like Vancouver, it has no exotic tropical fish, as everything here is local.  They also have a display of sea birds, which dive into the same tanks as the fish.  The bigger tanks were visible below the water line as well, so you could see the fish and birds in the water at the same time.  Similar tanks held Stellar Sea Lions, and Harbour Seals. 

We spent a couple of hours touring the aquarium, then went back to get our tire.  It wasn’t done, but when we got there they fixed it for us right away.  After that we walked around the town.  There seem to be two parts: one where the tour boats depart from, and another part called “Old Seward”.  Both have shops that cater mostly to tourists.  However, I don’t think it has been a very good season.  In one store we overheard the clerk on the phone, and she said yesterday was the worst day she’d ever had, and she only made nine (or ninety, we aren’t quite sure) dollars.  From a conversation we had with one of the fjord cruise clerks we gather that there are some cruise ships that come in here, and that must be an important boost to the local economy.  The weather is supposed to be similar tomorrow, but clearing by Thursday.  We’ll stay until at least then, and if it clears go on a cruise of the fjords.

St. John Orthadox Cathedral, Eagle River, Alaska

We were slightly embarrassed to find that we had interrupted the going away party for Colleen and Father Robert’s son Ben, who is leaving to go to Washington, DC.  He had been working on the North Shore (the “slope”) oil fields for three years, and is now trying to make it as a musician with his band.  There were several of their friends there in the back yard when we arrived, and we enjoyed the brief conversation we had with them, and then more in depth talk to Colleen and Father Robert, Ben and Miriam (their daughter).  They were incredibly gracious in putting us up in their own bed, which was far more than we expected – we thought we could well sleep on the floor, as it would be no harder, and a lot drier than what we’ve been on for the last six weeks.

In any case we had a really pleasant evening, and this morning  Colleen took us to see the Antiochan Orthodox church, St. John Cathedral, where Father Robert is the assistant priest (his full time occupation is as a hospice nurse).  The icons are very strikingly done by a local woman painter.  There is also a tiny little chapel they have built on the site, St. Sergius chapel, which incorporates some elements of each of the different branches of the Orthodox Church.  There are four different kinds of windows, and four different kinds of crosses on the walls, plus other elements that we wouldn’t notice, not being familiar with their faith.  They hold a few services a year in this building which is about a ten minute walk through the forest from the main cathedral.

We managed to get out of REI in downtown Anchorage without exceeding our limit on the credit card.  The store is large, and they have a lot of gear.  Most of the hardware is very similar in price to that at MEC, but the clothing seems to be cheaper, and in greater variety.  We did make some interesting purchases.

It was very overcast today, and rained some, most heavily while we were driving down to this spot from Anchorage.  That’s unfortunate, as there appears to be some spectacular scenery, but we didn’t get a really good view of much of it in the cloud shrouded mountains.  Tomorrow we’ll be going into Seward, which is just over fifteen miles south from here.

Mt. Wrangell across the Copper River

We made it today to Eagle River, just outside Anchorage, where we are to meet with Colleen Polson (nee Crickett), Enid’s friend from Bickleigh.  Right now I am at the public library (which is closed today, as it’s Sunday, but there is a strong open wifi signal in the parking lot) and Enid is just across the street doing the laundry.

Once again this morning was very clear, and so we had excellent views across into the National Park, and could see all the tall mountains clearly.  We also saw a range of high snow clad mountains far to the north.  The drive across to Anchorage was uneventful, though we did stop at the Matanuska Glacier where it comes down out of the mountains.  It is very large, and fills the entire valley.  We had our lunch here of chicken sandwiches, including the wild cranberries which Enid cooked last night.

Tomorrow our plans are to be in Anchorage, do some shopping at REI, and then we will probably head down the Kenai Peninsula towards Seward.  We plan to stay there for around a week, and hope to go out on some ocean kayaking, and possibly an ice tour on a boat.

Keneicott historical mine site

Today was a wonderfully sunny day.  There were some clouds, but not enough to obscure the glaciers on the mountains as we drove the long and rough road into McCarthy and the Kennicott (or Kennecott – no-one seems certain how to spell it, and you see signs with both) mine site.  Our first glimpse of the mountains was just as we left our campsite, as both Mt. Sanford and Mt. Wrangell are easy to see from the road.  There is a massive icefield on Wrangell.  Yesterday it was so overcast and cloudy that we had no idea the mountains were there.

The road to the town of McCarthy is sixty miles long, just wide enough in most places for two cars, though when meeting other vehicles you both must pull completely over.  There are several spots that are single lane only, including a narrow cut through the rock just as you leave Chitina, as well as several of the bridges.  The road follows the old railway line into Kennicott, and at many places there are visible signs of old railway ties and occasionally complete rail lines embedded in the road.  The first five miles are very narrow and rough, as are the last fifteen – really full of potholes so that the Yukon rattled and shook along even at ten miles per hour.  It took us an hour and forty minutes to drive back, with no stops.

In the morning we did stop a lot along the way.  The first was at the Copper River.  There is a large flat area just after crossing the bridge.  Here there are many fish wheels set up.  As well there were a lot of fishermen using dip nets.  These are very large nets on long poles, perhaps twenty or thirty feet long.  Any Alaskan can dip net for salmon, and there would be no other way (other than the fish wheels) to catch them in the extremely silty water.  The Copper River is one of the most silt laden rivers in the world, so the water obscures the nets and the wheels and makes it an effective way to catch fish.

Our other stops along the McCarthy road were to photograph the high ice covered peaks of the Wrangell Mountains to the north.  On a map you can see that most of the interior of Wrangell – St. Elias National Park is covered with ice.  From the road you only get occasional glimpses of these high mountains in the interior, but when you do they are impressive.  Since the road is at an altitude of 300 to 400 metres, but the tops of the highest peaks rise over 4500 metres, they stand out spectacularly high.

At the end of the road is a small footbridge and a few parking areas to leave a vehicle.  The closest ones cost five dollars, so we parked in one about half a kilometre from the river where it was free, and walked to the bridge from there.  We crossed the bridge, and since a shuttle van arrived just as we got there, made a spur of the moment decision to go into the town and up to the mine site at Kennicott.  This was only twenty dollars for the two of us, but it was a very slow half hour ride over the potholes to the mine site.  We’re happy we went, as it was an interesting site to see.

The mine closed in 1938, but the buildings and much of the machinery was just left there.  No environmental impact studies in those days!  The National Parks Service is restoring some of the buildings to show them as they were in use.  We didn’t spend a lot of time, just over an hour walking around to the buildings that are open.  It was fascinating, and there are great views out over the moraine at the end of Root Glacier, up to the glacier icefall, and on into the mountains in the distance.

There really isn’t anywhere to camp along the entire road, so you would either have to stay in the Glacier Lodge, or if you had a motorhome (but who would want to bring one up this road) you could stay in the parking lots overnight for just five dollars.  There may be a hostel or some other site here, but I didn’t see it.  We didn’t plan to stay anyway, so left the bridge parking area just about 3:20 and got back to the town of Chitina by 5:00 pm, driving as fast as I could on this road without shaking the vehicle apart.  Since it was such a nice site we had yesterday we are once again camped in exactly the same location at Liberty Falls.

It was quite cold during the night.  My feet were chilly last night, so tonight I’m going to wear socks.  This morning though was a perfectly clear blue sky.  The tent fly was the driest it’s been for quite some time.  After breaking camp we drove to the start of the Skookum Volcano trail, just a little over a mile down the road from our campsite.

At first the trail was quite good, deceptively so it turns out.  There is a bit of rock sticking up making the beginning a bit rough, but then it turned into very easy walking, with a good trail and not too steep.  The first couple of kilometres are like that, almost as if you were walking in a park, with occasional large spruce trees, but mostly just tall willows.  As we got higher the willows got shorter, and soon we could hear the creek, although there was no water flowing on top at this point.  All the water must have been running beneath the rocks.  Not far after this the creek began to show, and soon there was quite a bit of water in it.  We waded across the creek, and that was the end of the good trail.  There were some rock cairns to mark where to go as you followed up the creek bed, but it was very rough and quite steep.  At almost three kilometres in the trail seemed to go up more steeply to the left side, and we followed that, but eventually it just petered out, and we never did find where the summit of the pass is.  We turned back at this point, ate our lunch, and then walked out.  If the trail continued, we could not locate it.

By this time it was starting to get cloudy.  We drove out of the park then, back to the Tok cutoff highway, and stopped at Glennallen.  Now it was almost completely overcast, so that we didn’t get very good views of the Wrangell – St. Elias mountains.  At Glennallen Enid was able to contact Colleen Polson (nee Crickett) and we have arranged to meet her at their home in Eagle River on Sunday night.  We planned to go to the south end of the Wrangell – St. Elias national park tomorrow in to McArthy, so drove down to Chitina, and as we got closer it started to rain.

We arrived at the Liberty Falls campground in the rain, and it didn’t look very good.  There were no level sites where we could set up our tent, though there were some platforms down near the river, but we’d have to carry everything down there.  It wasn’t far, but didn’t seem like a great plan in the rain.  So we drove another ten miles to the town of Chitina, and stopped at the one and only hotel.  It’s a renovated hotel originally built in 1914.  It certainly wasn’t fancy, but when we inquired about the price found it far more than we wanted to pay.  We drove back to where we had passed an RV park.  It didn’t look good, in fact it looked like it was closed.  There had been a sign on a building just north of that saying “cabins” but when we turned in we realized it was a hostel.  So we drove back to Liberty Falls, and that is where we stayed.

It stopped raining shortly after we arrived for the second time, so we got everything set up without getting it wet.  After supper Enid cleaned and cooked the cranberries we picked two days ago, so they will be nice to eat with chicken and pork.  We have almost a liter of them.  So the food is great, but we really can’t say the same for the weather.  It isn’t raining now, but it’s very cool and feels damp.  Unless it clears tomorrow morning, we will just be driving back to Glennallen to do some laundry, because we won’t be able to see any of the mountains in the park anyway.

Cooking sausages, Jack Creek campsite

We spent today along the Nabesna Road, an old, not very developed road into the North end of Wrangell – St. Elias National park and preserve.  Here the high glaciated mountain volcanoes of the Wrangell range are on the south of the road, with the lower Mentasta mountains to the north.

Just shortly after leaving our campsite we got our first glimpse of the 16000 foot high Mt. Sanford.  To its left is the lower active volcano of Mt. Wrangell.  Although we could occasionally see the tops of the mountains above the clouds, they were not always clearly visible.  The glimpses of the glaciers and ice-capped mountains were spectacular.

We started the day with a hike up the Caribou Creek trail.  This trail is a bit over 12 kilometers return, and climbs about 300 metres.  The lower part of the trail has been heavily gravelled which gave way under foot, so was somewhat hard to walk on.  Then the trail crossed an extensive muskeg area.  As the trail is also used by ATV’s (though it is now closed because it is so wet) this part was quite cut up.  However, there were trails around the worst parts that people have made, so it is easily passable.  At about 3.5 km you cross Caribou Creek, not very hard as it was only about 6 inches deep.  Later on you cross it twice more.  At the end of the trail is a very nice new cabin, with two wooden beds, and a stove.  We were expecting to see a ramshackle old building, as that is what is described in the guide.  However, this shelter has just been newly constructed, and from the log book in it, not too many people come to use it.  From the balcony of the cabin was a very nice view out south towards the Wrangell mountains, but unfortunately the tops of these were mostly cloud covered.

After we’d eaten lunch there we walked back down and then drove up the rest of the Nabesna Road to its end forty miles inside the park.  Along the way we saw many nice views of both mountains to the north and south of us.  There are several streams to cross, but only the first one had water running, the rest were completely dry.  They are pretty rough however, as the crossings are very rocky, so we went slowly to avoid damaging our tires any more.  We really didn’t want another flat away out here!

The guide says there are “several” campsites at Jack Creek, mile 35.  However, we could only see two, and one was occupied.  We set up our tent to claim the other, then drove on to the very end of the road.  We crossed a few more dry stream beds, and then reached a tiny airfield with a few houses.  There were some very small planes there.  We saw a couple of backpackers hiking back to their vehicle, and carrying a shotgun.  Yes, strange as it may seem to those of us in Canada, you can carry a gun in this park.  You can also subsistence hunt (you can do that in Kluane too if you are First Nations, but here anyone can do so).  On the way back we stopped at one of the streams and picked up a bunch of wood, as there isn’t any at this primitive campsite.  Two park rangers passed us while we were tying it on the roof, and waved, so I guess it’s OK to scrounge wood like that!  Just before supper tonight we heard several rooster crows.  There is a house a bit back a few hundred metres from here across the creek, so they must have chickens.  Later we heard several rapid gunshots, much to fast to be target shooting, so they must have been shooting at something.  The campers on the far side of the road have left, (and they left their fire burning, so Enid put it out) so now we are quite isolated out here.

It was quite cool and windy as we ate supper.  Since there is a nice fire pit here built out of lava rocks, and we had collected wood, we decided to have a wiener roast and did our sausages that way.  Enid also roasted a couple of marshmallows after supper tonight.  The wood I collected turned out not to be too good.  Although it is cured, it has also been in the water for a long time, so the interior is wet.  The smaller wood that Enid picked was better.  The wind has stopped, but there are still lots of clouds, and a few sprinkles of rain have just finished.

Mt. Sanford, Mt. Wrangell from Porcupine Creek area

After we left Tok, where we filled up with gas at $3.69 US per gallon, probably the cheapest gas we’ve had on the whole trip – except maybe in Alberta – we drove south on the Tok cutoff.  Along the way we ran into a bit of rain, not much, and we stopped at about 3:30 at the Porcupine Creek Alaskan Forest Service campground, just north of Slana.  It was absolutely empty when we got here, so we chose what looks like the very best tenting site, right near the little creek.

We got water from the creek, heated it on the stove, and washed.  Just as we finished it started to sprinkle rain.  Enid quickly took everything from the line while I was trying to finish getting clean.  It didn’t rain a lot, but we did put up the tarp, which was a good thing, as it rained a lot more while we ate supper.

Now it has cleared up again, so things are back on the line.  I am going to go find a dead tree to cut for firewood, to see if it will drive away some of the mosquitoes.  The sign here says you can use deadfall for campfires.

Eventually it did clear up and wasn’t a bad evening.  We got a couple of dead pieces of large willow, and some other deadfall to make a campfire — though it was very smoky.  Later on a van full of tourists, probably German came in and set up, then left right away.  They must have gone out to eat somewhere, though where around here I don’t know, as it’s very isolated.  They did come back later in the evening, just about dark.

Low bush cranberries on the Hidden Lake trail

Well, we finally made it here, only five days after our initial try.  We stopped at the visitor centre in Tok, and found that the highway past Chicken is still closed.  There were some very dissapointed Americans in the visitor centre, which may indicate why the rest of the world doesn’t really like them much.  I’m not sure how the poor lady at the counter was supposed to reopen the road!

Anyway, we left our campsite fairly early Alaska time, as we have now gained another hour.  The road for the first 100 kilometres surrounding the border is very bad.  It has enormous frost heaves, and the pavement is often broken.  There are a couple of places where they are doing research on the permafrost and roads.  They have pipes down into the ground to conduct cold air there, and also were shielding the edge with a white reflector.  I honestly can’t say I think it’s doing much good!

After we crossed the border we stopped at the Tetlin National Wildlife refuge, and I bought a field guide to North American birds.  Shortly after this we found a small hike to Hidden Lake, about a mile in.  The lake is just small, but it is stocked with rianbow trout, and on the way in we met two parties of people that had been fishing.  One had more guns than fishing rods though!  We saw a lot of cranberries on the way in, but didn’t have anything to pick them into, so when we got back to the Yukon we got out our cooking pots, walked back about 5 minutes on the trail, and picked for half an hour.  We got a litre bag full of them, so Enid will cook that up for use with our pork chops and chicken.  There are also a lot of blueberries, but they are not the same flavour as ours.  They are very sour, and not nearly as good, so we never picked any of them.  They do have a similar flavor, but the bushes are different shaped leaves, and they’re not very sweet.

We are heading towards Anchorage next.  It will take us a couple of days to get there at the rate we’re travelling and enjoying the scenery.  After that we will be going to the Kenai peninsula.

Looking out over Slim's Rivertowards Kaskawulsh Glacier

We almost set a record – three days with no rain, but the streak broke this afternoon, as we drove though some rain.  Not a lot mind you, though it does feel as if it could rain shortly.

We decided to leave Deazdeash Lake this morning, as it was once again very windy, and quite cold off the lake.  It was a wise decision, as the rest of the day was quite pleasant.  We stopped in Haines Junction to get gas and propane.  The propane tank was actually almost full, and it certainly is now, as the service station operator overfilled it, so that it blew some out the pressure relief valve.  We tried to find the library in Haines Junction to use the Internet, but it wasn’t open until afternoon.

We went into the Tachal Dahl information centre at the very south end of Kluane Lake.  Slim’s River enters the lake here, and dumps a great deal of silt into the lake.  Where the water enters the lake looks muddy, then it suddenly changes to a beautiful turquoise blue.  We inquired about the Sheep Creek hike, and they informed us that there was a grizzly bear that had surprised some hikers who decided to walk the extra 2.5 kilometers down the road to the trail head this morning.  They said we should drive there.  As if we wouldn’t take any advantage of a vehicle over foot anyway!

As we left the information centre we saw a helicopter flying overhead.  It landed just as we got to the trail head.  A ranger came over and talked to us, and said they couldn’t see the bear from the helicopter, but warned us to be careful.  We started the hike, and about 500 metres in there is a memorial sign to a young woman who was killed by a grizzly here in 1996.  We were extra careful and made lots of noise.  We also saw a bit of very fresh scat, and lots of fresh tracks in the very dusty trail.  On the way back most of the tracks had been obliterated by the six or so other people who were hiking up the trail after us.

We didn’t go too far, but stopped for lunch at the 2 kilometer mark where there was a very nice view out over the Slim’s River valley toward the Kaskawulsh Glacier.  We spoke to the ranger again when we got back, and told him that we’d seen the tracks, the scat, and that all the berries were stripped from the soapberry bushes.  He decided that he wanted to see for himself, so he started up the trail just before we left to continue on.

We were planning on stopping to camp at the Congdon Creek campsite, but there was a big warning sign there not to camp in tents.  The campground wasn’t closed, but there were a lot of soapberries on the bushes, so we decided to leave the grounds for the trailers and RV’s.  The road past the north end of Kluane Lake is incredibly rough.  There are many frost heaves, and the pavement is quite broken.  We thought of stopping at the Lake Creek campgrounds, but it started raining just as we arrived.  It would probably be a good enough campsite, though there was no one else there, so we decided to keep going.

We finally stopped for the day at the Snag Junction campground.  We have a nice site high up from the tiny lake that is here, so we should be dry if it rains.  The site is nice and open, so if there is any breeze it will help to keep the bugs away (and there are quite a few mosquitoes.)  I walked down to the lake and got water that we used to wash.  We were the second campers in here today, but now the site is starting to fill up, mostly with trailers, but there is another family here right across from us with a tent.

Tatshenshini River

Again we awoke to a very overcast day, with clouds hanging low over the mountains.  It was very cool all day, but it didn’t rain.  However, the wind is still very strong, and it is not really nice weather.

We weren’t sure we would be going hiking today, since it really looked like rain.  Instead we drove south on the Haines Highway, and stopped at the tiny village of Klukshu, which is just outside the park.  We hoped that we could see someone fishing there, but they are not.  I spoke to a First Nations man who came to the river, and he told me it has been very dry here, with no rain for a month.  I said, “it looks like it will rain today.”

He replied, “it looks like that every day, but it never rains.”

 It is so dry that their spring from which they normally get their drinking water has dried up, and so they were taking water from the small Klukshu River.  He said there were some salmon coming up the river, but that they weren’t fishing for them here, but, “there is a weir at Dalton Post, about 10 kilometres down the road, at the bottom of the big hill.”

We decided we would drive down to there, but had little luck finding it.  Although there were several roads marked on the GPS which showed trails into Dalton Post, none of them existed.  We continued on down the highway until we reached Million Dollar Falls campground.  It would be a nice campground, but they have it posted for no tenting, we assume because of bears, which are now fishing for salmon in the rivers here.  There was a well-constructed trail that went to several overlooks over the falls on the Takhanne River.

We drove on, looking for some road into Dalton Post, and it was obvious that there wasn’t one, so we turned around.  As we drove back towards our campsite on Dezadeash Lake, we kept looking and saw a small road that was unsigned, leading to the west.  It looked like it was in the right location, and we followed it.  This road was marked on the GPS, though none of the other roads that intersect it exist.  A few hundred metres down this trail is a large sign warning not to use it with large RV’s.  The road was pretty rough, but since it hasn’t rained, it is ok.  We drove to a large parking area, with lots of signs about fishing and bears, many bear proof garbage cans, and were really surprised to see the Yukon government worker there cleaning up toilets. 

Enid saw something on the water, either canoes or rafts.  We continued down the rough road to see if we could see what they were, crossed a small bridge, and saw the remains of some old cabins.  A little farther on we came to another clearing, and there were two groups of people there.  One was a commercial outfit from Alaska, getting ready to put their rafts into the river.  They were watching another group of rafters (the ones Enid had seen upstream) who were having some difficulty finding the right channel in the river, got stuck, and had to wade their rafts off the small rapids in the shallows.

The other group of people were six young men from Switzerland.  They had been hiking across the Yukon, and were now camped here at this spot.  A group of their friends had been here a year or two ago, and had constructed a bake oven out of mud and rocks from the river.   We spoke to one of the men, and he indicated that they had used the oven to bake a pizza yesterday, and that it worked quite well.

Totally by accident we have discovered where they start raft trips down the Tatshenshini River.  We ate our lunch on the bank of the river, and watched as the commercial group got their gear together.  Just as we were about to leave, another group of rafters showed up.  From here to the Pacific Ocean is about 140 miles, and 650 metres drop in elevation, so the river must be pretty quick.  The Tatshenshini is a famous rafting river, and also coincidentally the model name of the first good tent we ever owned.

The sun had come out by now, and so we decided to hike into St. Elias Lake.  It is an easy hike, of eight kilometres, with just 120 m elevation gain.  We hiked in and out in two hours to a very pretty lake surrounded by mountains.  There is a campsite at the lake, though no one was camped there.  All along the way we saw a great deal of grizzly bear scat, so Enid sang a lot, and I called out “Hello” loudly every time we came to blind corners, or spots where there was a lot of brush beside the trail.  There was also old wolf scat on the trail, full of white fur, so it must have been there since winter.

Tonight it has gotten very cloudy again, the wind is strong, and it’s not very warm.  Enid and I both have our toques on, and a pretty good fire going in the fire pit.