The Last Hurrah

I know that I said it would be a day or two for the conclusion. Well, I lied. On with the post!

July the 5th we left our lovely Dyea campground and hit the road for Skagway one last time. On our way out we passed Rocky Rd., Lois Lane, and my personal favorite Ragged Ass Rd. It just says it all doesn’t it? I found a great bakery/sandwich place and we had the yummiest -so fresh that they were still warm- cinnamon rolls and we bid adieu to the driving trip enroute to the ferry dock .

All vehicles are preassigned a lane, in our case the night before, and cue up. We were among the first to load and it is a real jigsaw puzzle for ferry workers. Fortunately, the lane assignments tell them your final destination, but it is quite a process loading a boat that has multiple destinations. We found our “state room” which was basically bunkbeds and a bathroom but worth the extra money. Passengers, who did not have rooms vied for the best sleeping spaces and it was blood sport. It required folks to stake their claims early. Because the boat originated in Skagway, those that boarded with us had the best choices. Some sleep outside under the solarium on lounge chairs. I felt a little voyeuristic each time I wanted to go up there, though. It is a bit like walking into someone’s bedroom without knocking or saying something like, “Hey are you decent?” The next most interesting accomodation was the tent city. It was erected on deck below the open air motel and was a conglomeration of families and single folks who bring their own tents and camp...well sort of camp.Then people set up bedrooms anywhere they found a chair, recliner, or couch inside the boat. The folks outside have the blowers and the noise of the engine, rudder, intakes, outflows, etc. To cope with the boat noise and the stranger next to you who might yell in their sleep or snore, earplugs must be deployed. In fact earplugs are mandatory for all of these arrangements.
I knew ahead of time that people basically sleep where ever they can and let the big fella know that WE MUST get a room. So, I took the top bunk due to head room problems for Greg. There was none. I could not even sit up let alone someone his height. Eventually we were enjoying our first Miller Time on the Columbia and ready for this part of the adventure.

Haines was the first stop and is not far from Skagway. The ferry workers did their jigsaw loading again and more foot passengers set up their outside and inside accommodations. Oh, and I forgot to mention that there are two decks for cars, but the second deck requires the car be driven onto an elevator. Kind of cool and in Haines a couple of semi trailers were loaded which was interesting, but they boxed in the truck/camper. No getting off first for us…their destination was also Bellingham.

Between July 5th and 7th we stopped at Haines, Juneau, Petersburgh, Wrangell (in the middle of the night) Sitka, and Ketchikan. We had layovers in both Sitka and Ketchikan and spent sometime wandering around both. By the time we arrived in Ketchikan the weather was spectacular. We discovered some rubber duckie remains which were likely casaulities of their duckie derby. Poor guys were beached on a rock. We treated ourselves to a crab feed at one of the local restaurants and then walked back to the Columbia and we were once again on our way. A pod of orca swam near the boat as we left and bald eagles soared above us. How perfect and later we saw we saw hump back whales breaching.

The ferry goes through the inside passage which made both Greg and I long for our boat again. While cruising by Bella Bella two tribal canoes passed the ferry. The captain slowed the boat to a crawl to let them go by and as they passed all of their paddles were hoisted straight up. They were saluting the boat. It was pretty cool. We were not close enough to see the carvings on the canoes, but WOW. Both Greg and I want to go back to the Queen Charlotte Islands and north of Vancouver Island, but in a small boat. There were so many nooks and crannies that I would love to explore.

As the ferry docked in Bellingham –we were among the last off the boat- I pondered where I had been, everything that I had done and seen. On this trip we logged 4145 driving miles, went to restored and unrestored mining towns and soaked in a luxurious hotspring. We visited more museums than two people ought to in a month and saw beautiful downtown Chicken, Alaska. We met so many people –the three guys from W. Virginia, a couple from Wisconsin on their way to the Arctic Circle, a family staying in Tok with three or four kids with one wanting to drive to Pt. Barrow until his Dad told him there was no road to Barrow, the friendly people that live in Whitehorse and Dawson City, YT, and while we were on the ferry a couple from NYC just starting their combination ferry/driving vacation- they got off at Ketchikan to catch another boat to Prince Rupert. To be able to experience Denali and its vastness and wonderful wildlife was such a highlight. Then there were the roads –the good, bad, ugly, and heaved. And the campgrounds –the good, bad ugly, and ones that stacked ‘em deep. Skagway and Dawson City helped to bring the last great gold rush to life. The beautiful water of Dyea and the trail head of the Chilkoot are still fresh in my mind. And the ferry ride home was the perfect way to end the Moose and Mosquito Tour. I miss the inside of the camper already….OK I don’t. It seems spacious until you live in it for a month, but boy was I grateful for the hard sides and solid roof especially with all the the wet weather that we had.

We left the moose and mosquitoes in the Yukon and Alaska which is where they belong. My moose memories move me -how’s that for alliteration. The marvelous moose provided a couple of kodak moments. Ah - the pictures that I have yet to take off the camera. You may want to come over some time and look through a few? I only snapped about 500.

The moose were great the mosquitoes not so bad and that’s it for Moose and Mosquito Tours.

To the followers and lurkers, thanks for hanging in there with me. Thanks too to Greg who bore the brunt of my attempts at humor.

It's been fun!
Mary

Skagway and Dyea

We made it home on July 9th via the Alaska State Ferry, but I need to bring all the official and unofficial folllowers up to speed since the last post.(I know there are a few of you out that are lurkers.) This will be the first of two posts because there is just so much to tell and I don’t want to get writer’s cramp or worse than that a brain cramp. I will do the last post tomorrow or maybe even Tuesday. So, when I last left you we were headed to Skagway……

July 2nd -we left Whitehorse bound for Skagway by way of the South Klondike Hwy. This is not to be confused with the North Klondike Hwy which is also called the Klondike Loop. That portion of it goes to Dawson City and then the Top of the World Hwy, Chicken, and the three guys from West Virginia on a holiday without their wives. You might remember that their wives were more than happy at the prospect of them being gone for the summer? Ok enough of the reminiscing.

The South Klondike Hwy is a great drive with impressive views and grades. For instance the 11 mile descent from the summit of White Pass has an 11% grade which is steep –to say the least. We passed through customs without too much trouble except that the big fella seems to become a bundle of nerves when he is asked questions by customs agents. The guy asked Greg the usual couple of questions like where are you going and where have you been. Easy stuff, right? Well, not so much for the big fella. When asked where we had been Greg said Canada, customs guy nods his head, then Greg adds…Denali was great! The customs guy clears his throat and informs the fella that Denali is in Alaska. Okie, dokie Greg should never,ever engage in small talk when trying to clear customs. This was not the first faux pas at a border crossing. At the Top of the World crossing when responding to a question about our destination, Greg said Chicken, and rather than just leave it there he added….”there’s not much else out there right?” The customs guy furrowed his brow –of course- and said, “Sir there is an entire state out there.” Oops.

Back to the matters at hand, we arrived safely in Skagway without campground reservations and were advised by one RV Park owner to go talk to the police to find a place to stay. Yikes, the police? I volunteered to do the talking this time and learned that there were three places we could park for a couple of nights. One was next to the river and looked like a tent city and was gross, the second one was a city campground someplace in Dyea that was 6-7 miles away but we could not find it, the third was a campground operated by the National Park Service that was also in Dyea. It had big sites with trees and was lovely. Camping there was a no brainer. The campground hosts met our car as we drove in and proceeded to tell us that the area was frequented by both grizzly and black bears. They advised something called bear mace and they had canisters of it clipped to their belts the size of water bottles. Also, more grizzlies were expected with a salmon run that could happen any day. Maybe camping here was not such a great idea after all. I swallowed hard, oh what the heck Greg and I don’t taste much like salmon. We found a great spot and settled-in for the next three nights.

Dyea was originally a native settlement and was also the location of a town that sprung up as a result of the gold rush. The start of the Chilkoot trail is very close and in 1898 gold seekers made the grueling hike up the 30% grade to the summit and began their journey in Dyea. The summit is in Canada and the Mounties required that each miner have one ton of provisions and before the would be miners were allowed to enter the Yukon the Mounties checked off that they had the necessary supplies. Consequently, the one ton rule often required ten to twenty trips in order to get all of the gear assembled at the summit. This was a process that took weeks or even months to complete. I cannot fathom doing that today, but the prospect of gold and financial security was the driving force. At that time people were willing to endure great hardship for the promise of gold. We explored what was left of Dyea which is not much, but the Park Service provides a self guided tour that explains where the town buildings were located and why Dyea disappeared. We walked out to Dyea flats where the Taiya river empties into the bay and watched the crows hop around in the wetlands. The water was a beautiful milky blue green color and the inlet is very narrow. And there were no bears waiting for a salmon buffet. Aw nuts! By the time we returned to the camper it was raining and we had a wonderful Miller Time inside. A martini for you know who, gin& tonic pour moi, and smoked salmon! If there were any bears in the vicinity, they would have been all over that salmon; it was delicious.

We ventured into Skagway the next day and the cruise ships were in town. Skagway is a big destination for them and the little town was inundated with people. Cruise ship passengers walk around a lot, buy things, and provide a boost to the local economy. We decided to take a ranger lead tour of the buildings that date from the gold rush. It was a good way to learn the history of the town and the people who were there prior to and during the Stampede. We opted for a ride on the White Pass and Yukon Railroad. The line was built from Skagway to Whitehorse between 1898 -1900 and once completed was a much easier route to the gold fields. Many continued to hike the Chilkoot but eventually the railroad became the preferred option and Dyea quickly became a ghost town. The ride lasted three hours and it did not leave us much time to poke around Skagway. We headed back to our lovely campsite for beer and brats and a roaring campfire in the pouring rain. It was quite a sight. The fella makes great campfires –all those years of scouts paid off- and one little guy riding his bike around remarked to Greg, “Dude, that is a big fire.” Yup it was.

Ok, the 4th of July in Skagway was like nothing that I have ever experienced. Not even the Pioneer Day Parade in Cle Elum can top this. The festivities begin of course with a parade. The route goes down Broadway for about six blocks which is about the length of the street. The people of Skagway love their parade so much that they turn the whole thing around and get a second look. It goes back down Broadway. There was only one marching band –a bunch of bagpipers from Whitehorse, YT. The big deal were the floats and cash prizes were awarded to the best ones. Super heros was the theme and some expanded on it in rather creative ways. The Red Onion Saloon float looked suspiciously like a brothel. They won a prize. I suppose the madames and their girls were considered super heros back in 1898? Just a thought. The National Park Service had a giant ranger that looked a bit like Dudley Do-Right and of course a couple of grizzly bears hanging around.

 The grand prize went to a local bike excursion company. They had superman suspended from a contraption with a cable that allowed him to fly around in large circles. The problem here was that Superman was unable to control the arc or stop himself. A young woman Lois Lane maybe, acted as his spotter and she was looking pretty tired by the 2nd pass down Broadway.

The egg throwing contest was next. Did you know that Skagway holds the Guiness World Record for having the most people participate in an egg toss? Well there you go –apparently it happened two years ago and they even signed-up folks from the cruise ships to participate. Over 1000 people lined the streets in 2008 and tossed eggs. You gotta agree, 1000+ people tossing eggs is impressive. Anyway this year the toss was only a couple of blocks long and all but the most skilled were quickly eliminated. There was a toss-off because the finalists kept breaking their eggs. However, the winning pair was two young women. Yippee and we walked carefully on the board walks the rest of the day. There was egg slime everywhere. By the way, the name of the egg toss ‘official’ was Buck Wheat. I am not making this up! Trust me folks, we took his picture.

Then there was what they called the dump tank. Not a dunk tank, but a dump tank. It was a toilet that flushed when a target was hit. The dumpees were local firemen, police, and others. It was a chilly day and the dumpees looked pretty cold. There was a slow bike race; the object was to be the last to cross the finish line. The rules did not allow any ground touches.This required incredible balance and skill and it had several divisions. The kids went first, then the women, then two different age groups of men. Cash prizes for the winners. Have all you bike fiends got your tickets to Skagway for next year’s event? Hmmm? The spike driving contest drew a big crowd. This was the muscle man event. Contestants set railroad spikes on a track and you guessed it drove them into a railroad tie. The one who did it in the fastest time won hold on...YES a cash prize! There were so many contestants that it was still in progress when we left for our campground. Maybe it was a big prize? We left with warm memories (OK maybe not warm memories but memories alright!)
It was our last night camping and we had a wonderful campfire and needed to eat as much of the food that we had left as possible. No refrigeration on the Alaska State Ferry. We gave some of our left over food to the camp hosts who were grateful and still had their cans of bear mace firmly attached to their belts! Maybe the bears arrived after we left, but we said our goodbyes and were off to the ferry line.
Mary

You will need to wait another day or two for the grand finale! Keep checking back.

Canada Day in Whitehorse--still on the way to Skagway

July 1, Happy Canada Day!

Wild life sightings: One bear foraging just off the road. Greg stopped and I got my camera ready. The darn bear was much faster than me and was in the brush and out of camera range in a blink. We could still see him, but it would have been one of those pictures that you look at later and say geeze I wonder why I took that one.

Do you ever wonder how the manufacturers of RV’s decide what to name each model? It is something that has occurred to me on this trip. They have names like, prowler, canyon trail, adventurer, and MONTANA. There are many with the word wilderness in the name, although they are too big to go anywhere near the wilderness and seem to be driven by people from Texas. Wouldn’t you know it. My absolute favorite though is “Big Mama.” It wasn’t really the name of the RV but the semi cab that pulled it. Greg just added, "you know it was a Volvo." And where do you think “Big Mama,” was from? That’s right, Texas.

We are in Whitehorse for the second time, but we had to come through here again in order to get to Skagway. Besides, there was a museum that we missed the first time.Greg was having museum withdrawals and I indulged him. It was the Whitehorse City Museum and actually it was quite good. Again, it was one of those small town gems. Great care has been taken to display local historical artifacts and pictures. Most of it was on mining and the gold rush, but some of it was about the early settlers. There was a wonderful exhibit on the tribes that live in the area. The explanations were good and had a professional touch.

Since it is Canada Day, there were festivities going on and a parade. We did not catch the parade, but while we were walking near the river noticed a crowd gathering. We got there just in time to see a crane that was parked on a bridge holding a large bag that was dangling high above the water. Suddenly the bottom of the bag opened and released a load of rubber ducks that were swept in a big yellow swirl down the Yukon River. We were witnessing the Duck Races. A couple of the duckies were superior swimmers and were quickly out in front. It is every duck for him or herself and it is death defying. Rubber (plastic) ducks shooting the rapids! The crowd then runs along the river banks hoping to beat the ducks to the finish line. Parents with strollers, kids on bikes, even dogs take off, but they are no match for the current. Race officials have nets and are stationed both on shore and in boats. They wait for just the right moment to scoop up the yellow mass of bathtub toys. The current spreads them out some and I imagine they miss a few. The Yukon empties into the Bering Sea and I’d bet a duckie or two has made it all the way down the river. It reminded me a bit of the milk carton races on Green Lake, only this is even sillier. Oh and one more thing about Canada Day this far north. No fireworks. It does not get dark enough. Bummer.

We went to dinner at the same restaurant as the first time that we were here, and sat with a nice couple from the area. This is when I learned that the beautiful campground that we stayed at last night -Pine Lake- is known for having grizzly bears. Good thing that I didn’t know. I was walking around by myself this morning hoping to see a moose. I would have been mighty surprised if I’d met a bear.
After dinner we took in the Frantic Follies which was recommended to us by two locals. It was a vaudevillian type show that is supposed to be set during the gold rush. Of course it was full of corny humor, but it was entertaining and that leads me to:

Tomorrow we head for Skagway and I don’t know if I will have internet access. Because it is Fourth of July on Sunday, all of the campgrounds there are booked. Apparently, the city opens up some property for those of us who neglected to remember that it is a big holiday and it requires reservations. On Sunday the fifth, we board the Alaska State Ferry and arrive in Bellingham on the ninth. I am hoping that the ferry has internet, but I don’t know so this could be my last posting until we arrive home. There will be a summary post once we get back. I have really enjoyed doing this and I hope this isn’t the last time from up north. Thanks for following us and do check back,you never know! The weather looks to be getting better!
Mary

On the way to Skagway

June 30, 2010 Pine Lake YT
Wildlife sightings: a couple of raptors and that’s it. Not even a mosquito today, let alone a moose. I suspect that all flying insects were grounded due to very wet and rainy conditions. This was another day of describing the scenery that is out there and making the best of it.

We left Tok this morning after an all-you-can eat breakfast buffet. Greasy spoon at its finest and I had a bad stomach for the rest of the day. One serving and I was done. Nothing bothers Iron Gut Greg and he took advantage of the all you can eat dining experience. We had a late lunch.

As it turns out the camper battery had a bad cell and there was no choice but to replace it. The bad roads may have caused a short somewhere and caused one cell to give up the ghost. $107 later with the new battery installed, we were off again and made it to Haines Junction, YT. Haines, AK is not too far from Haines Junction, but in the opposite direction of where we need to be. We were trying to make it to Whitehorse, which is a mere 394 miles from Tok. Alas, we did not make it.

Today we were back on the Alaska Hwy, but on a portion that is in very bad shape. Both the YT and the state of Alaska are working on it, but the frost heave problem has not been solved. This was maybe the worst paved road that we have experienced to date. Giant RV eating frost heaves are sometimes marked and sometimes unmarked. I cannot fathom trying to pull a fifth wheel or drive one of those RV’s the size of a city bus on this section. It was slow going and exhausting for both driver and passenger. If you spot them before you hit them, it is sometimes possible to drive around or go very slowly through them. However, sometimes they come up fast and the brake needs to be applied taking evasive maneuvers if possible. Sometimes you just hit them. There is never just one, usually a whole line of them.

We drove by beautiful Kluane Lake. It’s milky green-blue color reminded me of Lake Louise. Kluane Lake is much larger than Lake Louise; the road winds around one side of it for many miles. The clouds drifted around and every now and then a mountain peak emerged for a moment. I could tell that it was a beautiful place. We found a spot next to the lake in a small town named Destruction Bay. Soldiers working on the Alaska Hwy dubbed it after a big storm leveled buildings where supplies were stored for the highway project. Both the building and most of the supplies were lost in the storm.

We stopped about 90 or so miles north of Whitehorse at a government campground –Pine Lake. It was very nice quiet, and we were not the only ones there. This made us both feel better.

part of the outhouse exhibit at Muk Luk Land

I almost forgot to give you the scoop about Muk Luk Land.
There is quite a bit of muck in Muk Luk Land. There are old trucks, copy machines, more broken down snow machines than you can imagine, an engine that powered Tok for a time, an old pipeline pump, a WWII Weasel (whatever that is), a collection of outhouses that were donated (!), the first truck that hauled freight from Seattle -looking like it was the first truck that hauled freight from Seattle-, a Santa Rocket- don’t ask, a giant Muk Luk that hangs at the entrance, and the grand finale was a collection of cereal boxes pasted to the ceiling of the gift shop. I would not categorize this as a museum or an amusement park. It is truly in a class all by itself. The folks that run it are very sweet retired school teachers who are making money on what appears to be a serious hoarding problem. We can now say that we have been to Muk Luk Land. Greg’s parting comment was, “Now I think we have seen it all.”
Mary