Leaving Deadhorse, AK

Once again, another picture, on our way back to Fairbanks, of the most beautiful lake I've seen all along this wonderful journey. Lake Grayling. The lake isn't as ripple free today because of the breeze, so you can't see the reflection of the mountains on the opposite shore. This lake is worth taking the trip to see.
Tommy enjoyed a nice long drink from the cold water. She is the best travel dog. Just today she leaned her head down over the back of Chris' seat....she needed some lap time. She usually chills very nicely on her bed behind his seat. She sleeps or just watches the world go by.
tThis is really cool. On the way up to Deadhorse & Prudhoe Bay, shortly after we left that wonderful camp near the gold-rush era town of Wiseman, we noted this gate to close the highway for air traffic! WHoooooooooooh! Where are the planes?????

Turns out that there is a landing strip right next to the road. It was used during the pipeline & road building years; and it is now totally used by Aleyeska Security. I was envisioning a plane dropping onto the road in front of us....
uThis is the bridge over the Yukon River.... where we got our flat tire on the way up. It is a formidable bridge in itself. It has wood decking and is about 1/3 of a mi. long and is uphill. The pipeline runs right along side of it. The Yukon River is still and has been for centuries, a main trafic method in this back country. I bought some ear rings from a lady who travels this river every day in her motor boat to sell her wares at Yukon Crossing.
Cleaning the Dalton Dirt from our camper and truck. Took over $20 to get the grime off....at $1 per minute at the car wash.

June 28th; Friday morning

We’ve done it…we’ve been here…we have succeeded! Driving the Dalton Road, the “Haul” Road, is a challenge, and we did it. It’s a road to be respected…for the flat tires, the broken wind shields, for the mosquitoes, for the dirt, dust, mud, bumpy gravel roads, semi-paved roads with huge humps and heaves, “wouldn’t wish it on my best friend” roads, and 12% grade hills. The wonders of it are: the awesomeness of God’s love in giving us these wonderful vistas of mountains, rolling hills, ande tundra for miles, the truckers who wave as they pass, the interesting people that we met, the (thankfully) lack of rain on the dirt roads (that would have turned them frightfully slick), and sunshine ALL DAY so we could enjoy more. And here a thank you is in order: for the windshield patching kit and CB (that some truckers, Aleyeska security moniter)...Thanks David....we were much more secure....oh, and for the tire patch it. We used it, but found out that we had 2 holes.
The engineering feat of building that road ranks right next to the feat of building the pipe line. The toughness of all the people who work in Deadhorse, Prudhoe Bay and the other oil fields is admirable. The entire place looks like a rugged outpost in Antartica, minus the snow.
Here’s some notes I wrote about Deadhorse and the oil fields after we left:
Deadhorse has Lake Colleen, a freshwater lake, which is part of its fresh water system. The oild fields are very spread out (for miles). To move drilling rigs from one area to the next, they wait until winter and move them on “ice roads” which they make.
The least paid person makes about $50,000 per year. In the summer they hire college kids (7-8,00) “stick pickers” whose job it is to walk around and clean up the tundra of trash that may have blown out there. (great job, huh?) The are has its own refinery to make diesel fuel. The tour guide said that they make the diesel from natural gas and the oil that comes out of the ground. (this was news to us) That is the largest natural gas facility in the world. That must be why ALL of the vehicles up there are diesel motors, even the power generator for Deadhorse. And they have these huge “bull rails” in front of all the buildings, which has electric cords running across the top of them: this is for all the trucks and vehicles to plug in when it’s cold. These “bull rails” really reminded me hitching posts in the wild west.
In Prudhoe Bay they have a power that runs on their own natural gas; that supplies all of the oil field’s power.
During our entire trip thus far, in spite of “watch for caribou” warnings, telling us that in our “Milepost” guide, etc., we saw only one lonely caribou grazing in the oil fields….he must have been lost. We had been told that the caribou were there…but were spread out in small groups; and were never where we were. Bummer!
We left Deadhorse about 3 p.m., headed south into the wide expanse of tundra, and saw the heard of muskox once again in the distance. The view returning down the Dalton was all new; everything was in reverse; views that I had not seen on the way up! The Atigun Pass awed me as much as the first time over it (in the Brooks Range); very rugged, snow streaked, and barren.
We drove a bit further than planned because we wanted to get to Wiseman and stay in one of their B & B’s. I was a bit disappointed with them; they didn’t seem very rugged…just beds in a room….not much on ambiance or gold-rush era style. So, we drove on 13 miles to Coldfoot. Got there about 7:30 pm and had the dinner buffet in their restaurant. (reminder: this place used to be a construction camp modular buildings, as is their “inn”…pretty much the same conditions that the crews lived in along the highway when it was being built in the 70’s)
The food was good; had to be to keep the truckers happy. We enjoyed chatting with a couple from Pennsylvania on a tour.
We camped in their RV area….nothing more than a fairly grassy, weedy area that was not the dust of the huge parking lot.

Friday, June 27

We woke to a delightful 70 degrees with a bit o a breeze. Our entire trip down the hwy. had a very nice breeze, so the mosquitoes have not been a challenge. We treated ourselves once again to the breakfast buffet and visited with a young couple from California who had ridden all the way up on a Kowasaki and were, likewise, returning from Deadhorse. They were lots of fun to visit with and hear about their exploits. Now, riding motor bikes on this rode is a true adventure…even more than our trip. (those who pedal bikes are just crazy!)
We reflected that on the way up the highway, we had lost lots of the campers in Coldfoot; there were not that many once we got up to Deadhorse. We conjectured that some folks may travel as far as Coldfoot, or the Arctic Circle, and then return to Fairbanks. As matter of fact, I did read that there are tours like that.
Before we left Coldfoot, Chris patched our broken wind shield, got gas and we were off about 10 am. We again stopped for the sights at beautiful Grayling Lake. We tfinished the Dalton Hwy, almost exactly 5 days from getting on it. At that point we were about 80 mi. north of Fairbanks.
That brought us back to the big city to clean the muck & layers of dirt from the camper, and to do the loads of laundry. This laundry was strange for me, because they had 5 shower rooms also. (They only cost $4.50, as opposed to the $12 in Deadhorse…depends on how bad you want the shower!) I mentioned this to the attendant. She pointed out to me that many of the people don’t have running water in their homes, because they are built on perma frost; can’t put septic systems in perma frost, nor can you run water pipes. So these hardy people truck drinking water to their homes, as well as have priveys. The haul water just like we would haul fire wood. There are LOADS of these people, but they are largely outside of the city limits. So, that’ the long reason why there are showers at the Laundromat! Chris enjoyed one of these $4.50 showers!
Then we camped at Pioneer Park parking lot…..along with about 20 other motor homes, etc. Today we are headed for Chena Hot Springs….should feel good, in spite of the all night rain we’ve had….the first in a long time. It's been raining all night and morning.....the hot springs will be just fine!
So….until we “connect” again…

June 26: TOUR OF PRUDHOE BAY OIL FIELDS

This picture is on top of the Atigun Pass, going over the Brooks Range. This pic was taken far south of Prudhoe Bay, a couple of days ago.


This is Grayling Lake, taken on our way up here on the "haul road". Look very carefully and you can see the reflection of the mountain in the lake....awesome!
This is me (duh) picking stones in the Arctic Ocean. Yes, it is icewater...you can see the ice floating behind me. I decided to pick white stones out of the water for the grandkids....then decided to only pick up 6 stones....one for each family; a much wiser decision because it would be a lot of rocks to tote around.
We're holding ice from the Arctic Ocean; felt cold like ice anywhere. We decided against a polar bear swim, which we could have done at this point. Too cold for me. The tour guide said that the oldest person he had do the polar bear swim was about 82! That lady was made of far tougher stock than me! It was chilly out there; definitely sweater weather. I didn't have my jacket on; kind of wanted to "feel" how cold it was. I guess that it was about 50 degrees or so.

Tour: Of course I forgot my notes in the camper, so I'll wing it. We are going to take lots more pictures later today, and as usual they will have to wait until the next post, which will be several days from now in Fairbanks, after our return trip down the "haul road".

The tour was well worth the trip. There are 6-8,000 oil field workers up here at any one time; they work 12 hours on and 12 hours off, for 3 weeks on and 3 weeks off, 7 days a week. The company that they were for (and there are several) pay all their expenses: air flight up here from Anchorage, Fairbanks, Katzabu, etc., for their room, and meals. They have gyms, basketball courts, workout equipment, etc. One guy told us that you save lots of money here, cuz there's nothing to spend it on!

There are many, many wells (tour guide: too many to count) and they used to be quite a distance apart. Now with refined drilling and extracting proceedures, they can be as little as 8-10 feet apart; so you see all these little square huts dotting the landscapes....those are the actual wells. Ya don't see that many actual drilling rigs. When we take our drive after lunch I'll take some pictures that I'll have to post later. They have these huge exploration rigs that they drive out on ice roads (they make the ice roads)....so that they explore in the winter, and with the spring, the roads disappear, and there is no impact on the environment.

Tour guide also told us it's time for the caribou to be migrating to calving area right through here....but we saw only one. RATS! He also told me the difference between reigndeer and caribou....get ready.....reigndeer FLY!

Enough for now.

Until we "connect" again....

Deadhorse, Alaska

This is the fancy camp at the Arctic Caribou Inn & RV camp. That big pipe we're parked next to is "bull rail". Has electricity wires running along it; trucks plug block heaters into it, so that they will start the next morning when it's coldThe dirt along the way has really accumulated
The local gas station; the pump is actually inside and you can watch it through the window. When you go inside you read the directions, go back out and put the "spill pad" under the car (sign says "use spill padunder truck; spills are expensive"), pump gas and go inside and swipe card. It's totally do-it-yourself; at $5.40 per gal. If yo!!!u want assistance, it costs $20!!!
The Arctic Caribou Inn....where we are parked in their RV camp next to the bull rail
A view from the road.....rugged mountains in the distance.
more rugged beauty on the way into Deadhorse; probably still 80 miles or so before Deadhorse because it got really "Nebraska-like" flat right before Deadhorse
a muskox we saw in the distance. Picture is not good because it was so far away. We did see another herd of 15 or so with calves in the distance a few more miles down the road. These things look like hairy cows w/ horns; they spend the whole year here....got a huge winter coat.

Thursday, June 26.

We'll be going on our tour of Prudhoe Bay at 10 am. That's the ONLY way to get to the oil fields.

I'll write a bit after we come back. We slept real well last night; had the windows all closed because of the dust; shades down so it was semi-dark in the camper. Wonderful night.

Until we "connect" again...

We made it! DEADHORSE, AK and Prudhoe Bay

Here we are....finally made it north of the Arctic Circle. Was wonderful...and not at all what I expected.

Kalhabuk chapel in Wiseman, Ak; about 3 miles off of the Dalton Hwy. All of the buildings in this little town are from the gold rush era

This is how the perfectly dressed person needs to atire themselves in defense against the blood-thirsty and swarming mosquitos in this part of the world. We were all set for anything with our thermo-cells on our arms and nets on our heads. These mosquitos are MAN-EATERS!

We can't go further north....we're here.

Here's a photo of the pipeline. It's above ground in places, then it seems to be underground uder all of the rivers.

These pictures certainly are so out of order, but I don't have time to mess around when I get internet access....here's the pic of the tire that was only flat on the bottom. We pulled off in a Visitor Center just as we crossed the Yukon River Bridge. After we walked around to see things and take pictures, when we returned to the truck....we saw the tire. Funny thing was, a couple of soldiers pulled in after us and discovered they had a flat, too!

This is the wood deck of the Yukon River Bridge. Turns out that a lot of the stone, that they put before you come to the bridge, that they put down last year....was very sharp. They apparently had loads of flat tires last year from the stones. Changed out the tire and got it repaired in Coldfoot for $55.00. THIS is why they tell travelers to take TWO spare tires on rims.

June 21, 2008: The North Pole; Summer Solstice
I awoke early at the North Pole VFW and did my blog, get pictures ready for the blog, and began a scrapbook page for the Alaskan Hwy. I took pictures of the sunrise & sunset (2 hours apart. We were not in a big hurry to break camp. It was 73 degrees. We went looking for a Jiffy Lube for an oil changes. We traveled just over 5000 miles since the last oil Pchange just before we left Indiana. Then we found a book store w/ WiFi. Then, on to Pioneer Park for the afternoon. Walked around for several hours enjoying the gold-rush era log homes, and looked in lots of shops. This is a very nice historical place w/ no admission charge (definitely my style), and lots of little shops, restaurants, local art, etc. Relaxing. It was 85 degrees and a dry heat. Headed back to the North Pole and saw a cow moose & calf crossing the highway. Some yahoo in front of us honked at it and scared the calf half out of its wits.
Went to church at St. Nicholas Church in the North Pole. It was a very friendly church. I thought the tabernacle was very unique: a little log cabin. I already posted pics of that. I mentioned to the pastor that the song “Canticle of the Sun” was very appropriate, and that I had only related witches with celebrating the solstice. I smile and told me that there were thousands of witches at Stone Henge this morning and the sun didn’t shine. Smirk, smirk, rotfl.
Then, the steak fry solstice party at the VFW. Lots of friendly fellowship. To bed before the bon fire at midnight; pooped!

Sunday, June 22
We were on the road by 9 am; 67 degrees; blue sky and white clouds. The mosquitoes really started plaguing our lives last night. When were done batting at those pesky critters, t….I think I sahe inside of the camper looked like the Texas chain-saw massacre. And you can bet that most of the blood shed in those little critters was ours!
Sunrise was around 3 am. I think I saw it while fighting the mosquito wars. Sunset will be at 12:48 in Fairbanks; the day will have been 21 hours & 48 minutes long.
We did some grocery shopping for our trip up the Dalton Hwy. to Prudeau Bay. At 2 pm an had lunch than began our trip. It was 70 degrees and storm clouds were in the distance. We were happy to start to some cooler weather. It rained and we pulled off the road to wait it out; there was lots of thunder & lightening. Loved it! The road is paved at this point, but very poor and bumpy; and we’re not even on the Dalton yet! Still on the Elliot Hwy. Finally at 3:30 we turned onto the Dawson Hwy, otherwise known as “The Haul Road”. We stopped at Hess Creek to look for a camp site, but the mosquitoes were horrible so we decided to go on to the Yukon River Crossing.
While taking some pictures of the huge bridge at the Yukon River, etc., we returned to the truck and found we had a flat.
Two soldiers pulled in after us and had a flat, too Turns out that last year they graded the road just before the bridge and the stones were very sharp; gave lots of flat tires, courtesy of Alaska Road Commission.
Drove 61 miles on the Dalton and 142 miles all together on Sunday. We camped at “5 Mile Creek”. This was a camp for men working on the pipeline.

June 23rd: Monday on the Dalton; the Arctic Circle
Woke up to the broad day light at 3:30; on the road by 4:40 am. The road here has a gate that can close it off if the air strip right next to the road has to be used. The air strip is controlled by Alyeska Security. At 7 am we popped the camper and had breakfast at Finger Mtn. Some beautiful panorama pics from here. Then….ta dah!… we crossed the Arctic Circle at 8:30. It was 63 degrees; 66 degrees and 33 minutes latitude. The sun doesn’t set at all at the Arctic Circle on the Summer solstice (as opposed to 2 hrs. or so in Fairbanks). Got to Coldfoot and got the tire repaired; for $55! Like I said before…all is relative; just depends on how bad we wanted a tire fixed.
Then we were back on gravel road. The speed limit for the entire hwy. is 50 mph…but on this washboard gravel, Chris was averaging 30 mph much of the time.
We set up camp at Wiseman; about a mile off of the road, on river. This was a former gold rush camp and has been a thriving little town ever since. Beautiful place. Set up our screen tent. Laid my sun shower bag out in the sun. It’s plenty warm so I get to take a nice warm shower tonight and wash my hair….yippee! I found out that at Deadfoot (near Prudeau Bay) showers cost $10. Can ya believe? It’s all relative to how bad one wants it. Right now I would pay it….tee hee.
June 24: leaving Wiseman.
What an awesome place we were at right on the river. My solar energy shower was worth every cent. Water got plenty warm enough. Sure felt good to have a shampoo!
I figured out that since the sun doesn’t set at all here…what it IS doing is circling in the sky. Sound weird? It is. Nothing I ever expected, that’s for sure. Chris had no luck with his fishing adventure.
We left camp around 10:30 and it was 91 degrees….here above the Arctic circle. Took pictures of the rugged Sakakpok Mtn. There was a water truck spreading water on the road to keep dust down for road workers; just what we needed….more mud!
We’re 196 miles from Deadhorse.
We stopped at the Chandalar “shelf” while crossing the Atigan Pass over the Brooks Range. We met some truckers also at the “shelf”. Watched one of them pull out a little camp stove, put together a pot full of coffee and start brewing it! HAD to go over and talk to the young guy. He said he had enough bad coffee along this “haul” road, that he just had to start brewing his own. We have had the CB on; we know that the highway dept monitors channel 19, as well as police. Only have heard a couple of truckers, and highway construction flag people talking to each other.
At 3 p.m. we pulled off for the night. Traveled 83 bumpy miles; it’s 73 degrees; windy; and beautiful. No mosquitos…they would to be wear grappling hooks to keep from blowing away. We are just past pump #4; on the north slope of the Brooks Range of mountains; on the bank of the Atigun River, by Atigun River Bridge #2. Chris plans on going fishing tonight….perhaps fish for dinner???? No luck fishing. Perhaps better luck tomorrow.

Wednesday, June 25....Leaving Atigun River and arriving in Deadhorse, Prudhoe Bay, AK

We're here. Drove around a bit; it's the kind of a town that you really have no clue that you're actually in! Everything is prefab and above ground for the arctic winter. Loads of buildings around and they all seem to be in support of the oil field. Dirt is the only thing here that is free. Very grubby place, but fascinating. We are camped outside of the "hotel", which looks much like an army mess hall to me. It's a series of prefab buildings put together. This is where the showers cost $10, and the rooms with a private bath are $235 per person. But, we were pleasantly surprised that the gas was only $5.40 per gallon. We had heard horror stories of it being much more.

We will be going into the oil fields tomorrow on a tour; that's the only way to get past security; and one has to register 24 hours ahead of time with ID so they can check our clearances. This is the only way to actually get to the Arctic Ocean. I read that you can actually take a Polar Bear dip in the Ocean....not for me! But, I'm not comming all this way and not going to see the ocean and Prudhoe Bay.

We'll be keeping our camper closed up pretty good tonight because everything is dusty; they send out water trucks to spray down the roads, etc. But it is about 60 degrees and very nice, so that shouldn't be a problem.

Enough for now. Will try to get some pics up tomorrow, but I don't think we'll be allowed pictures inside the oil fields....

So, until we "connect" again...

June 21: Pioneer Park and the North Pole

On our visit to the North Pole, we had the opportunity to visit Santa; good thing we didn't try to sit on his lap! You can tell by my shorts....beautiful warm and sunny day. Went to St. Nicholas Church for Mass...loved the name. Thought this tabernacle was most unique.

On Saturday, the 21st, the summer solstice, we drove to Pioneer Park; lots of stuff from Gold Rush era. Then to North Pole (started in 50's for tourist trap, but fun) Took pics of all the beautiful murals on the building; will try to remember to post later; no time right now. I try to get pics ready before I find internet....but couldn't this time.

Then to church at St. Nicholas church; afterward went back to the VFW post for their steak-fry and their solstice bon fire. Wonderful people; treated us like family the whole time we visited.

Only made it to 11 pm. planned on going to the midnight ball game; but too tired (go figure why)

Went to bed and were attacked by mosquitos! Don't know where they came from.

Heading for Dalton Hwy today; we suspect that we may be on the road for 1-2 weeks. driving to Prudeau Bay. Have no clue when we'll get internet again. But I will have more pics ready to post the next (if it's a fast connection)...but one thing for sure....we have to come back through Fairbanks, and I know where this hot spot is.

So, until we "connect" again.

June 21st; Summer Solstice; post for June 19

This church, Immaculate Conception, in Fairbanks has the unique distinction of many, many years ago to have been located in the "red light" district; the pastor got tired of the location. So one winter, after the China River had frozen, he put the church on logs, and rolled it accross the river to the present location. :-)

A "moose on the loose" as we were headed to the North Pole VFW to camp
"Camp VFW"
Chris fishing on Clearwater Creek...which is really a river....go figure
A roadhouse in Delta Junction where folks stayed during their long treks during the gold-rush era. swild roses; we knew these are rose-hips; high in vitamin C; makes wonderful tea

Hello again from the land of the Midnight Sun. Believe me, that is exactly what it means. Sunset yesterday morning was at 12:47 am and sunrise was 2:57 am; and that’s about 2 hours apart. It’s not dark during those 2 hours either. Always learned about this 24 hour daylight in school, it is uncanny when I’m actually here experiencing it. People just don’t seem to go to bed! They stay active much longer….because it’s because it is broad daylight for so long. Tonight there are parties, etc. going on, called, oddly enough, “Solstice” parties, a ball game with Fairbanks semi-pro team that starts at 10:45 pm and will not use any artificial light on the field, a 10K walk/run beginning at Alaska University, etc. There are also plenty of spring flowers planted around…and are quite far along. That’s because they grow very well here with their very long hours of sunlight.
We arrived in Fairbanks @ 3 pm on June 20, Thursday; it was 84 degrees. We found a campground on the Chena river, almost in town. Chilled for the evening, I did wash, and Rudy Laderack’s daughter, Shauna, who lives outside of Fairbanks, stopped by after work, visited a bit and gave us some pointers on the Dalton Hwy, also known as the “haul road” to Prudeau Bay, since she has traveled it. (The Dalton Hwy is the road from Fairbanks to Prudeau Bay, that runs along the Aleyeska pipeline….that’s where some of the oil in the US comes from. The road is primarily for semi trucks, the only supply for the oil fields on the north slope.)

June 20th, Friday
We went on a tour of historic Fairbanks. We figured that this would allow us to see the most important places. We were not disappointed. Our tour guide was a retired wild-life biologist who has lived here for 30+ years. We stopped at many places that were important to the birth & growth of Fairbanks during the gold rush, a cultural museum at the University of Alaska, the pipeline, etc. Well worth our time.
Then we had to do a re-stock shopping trip to Wal-Mart.
It’s odd going into a Wal-Mart store that is not a “super” Wal-Mart and has only a “grocery shelf” and not the fresh meat and produce section. So then we have to go elsewhere to find our apples, lettuce, etc. Then we had to go looking for some hip boots for Chris; the ones that brought along were all of 30 years old…and oddly enough, sprung a leak; can’t imagine why. We accomplished our mission. While Chris was in the store, I met a chaperone for a group of 45 8th graders from Marshall, MI. I noticed the sign on one of their vans…and of course, me, being “me”, had to speak to them. They have been doing this trek to Alaska for about 20 years with these students from Marshall middle school and been quite successful. I was impressed. It was 90 degrees during our shopping expedition.
After our shopping excursions, we set out to find the VFW post in the North Pole. We had seen a note in the Milepost Magazine (that has become our “bible” along the Alaska Hwy, telling us information at each mile). The day before we had been unsuccessful at h it because of road construction. This time we called ahead and found Post 10029, North Pole, AK in a log cabin.
These folks were wonderfully enjoyable to spend the evening with (and they make super hamburgers!). We spent the hours listening to stories of how everybody got to Alaska and their adventures. Many settled here after their military service at Eielson Air Force Base (here in Fairbank area). Talking about the summer solstice on the 21st, they told me that after Saturday, their days will get shorter by 7 minutes a day! Add that up…49 minutes a week; days will be getting shorter by almost an hour a week! It boggles my mind. So, by December 21st, they will have only about 2 hours of “almost” day-light per day, as contrasted to today, where there is only about 2 hours of “almost” night. Sure is a very different part of the world.
Today we will be going to the “North Pole”, to Saturday evening Mass at St. Nicholas Church in the North Pole (go figure), then back to the Solstice Party and steak fry at the VFW, and the baseball game afterward. We’ll back here to camp…in the wee hours of the morning. They’ve extended hospitality to us for as long as we wish. And they certainly made us feel like family.
The famous or infamous mosquitoes have begun to plague our lives. We are prepared, though, with the thermo-cell. They work wonderfully and we don’t have near the problem we could have.
For the first time since we traveled through Canada, we have had cell service, and have enjoyed catching up on the news from home with the kids. But we have to be real cautious about not calling them too late, as our time in Alaska is 4 hours earlier than in Indiana.
Until we “connect” again….

June 19; The Land of the Midnight Sun

I scrapbooked these 2 pages yesterday of the glaci ers in Jasper National Park. I hope

you'll be able to read some of the writing??? If you can't, the background "paper"

is actually a picture of the rocks that were "etched" by rocks in the receeding glacier eons ago.

Really was fun to see it

Made it all the way to the end of the Alaskan Highway. We even have a certificate! It was an interesting, challenging and wonderful opportunity to make this trip. I hope you are all sharing in our excitement when you read this blog.

I'm going to make this short tonight since I took so long doing our laundry....we're in Fairbanks now and at this campsite, lots of people in the laundrymat....took hours; one would think I was using a stone at the creek. Going on a tour of historic Fairbanks tomorrow. It's 11:30 pm right now....and still broad daylight. It's so wierd. I'm hoping to stay up at night on Saturday, the Summer solstice and take some pictures at midnight. We'll see if I actually make it.

So....until we "connect" again....

Tuesday, June 17: Haines Junction to Tok, Alaska

We've made it all the way. We're here and the day is beautiful.

These following pics are not necessarily in the order taken, because I take so long between posts to get them on!
This was our wonderful campsite last night (Tuesday) at Deadman's Lake, Alaska. Not far inside of the border. If you look hard in the trees to the left, you will see our camper. Not a bad spot, huh?

This was at Rancheria Falls. Beautiful walk there....I think I wrote about it in past blog
Another view at Rancheria Falls. Not really much of a falls...looks more like a rapids to me, but they called it a "falls".
Could have been a trapper's cabin?; saw it beside the road

Catholic Mission in Haines Junction. I think that this was the church that we missed Mass by an hour.

This is a picture of the Catholic Mission in Beaver Creek (furthest west town in Canada); note that it is made out of a WWII quonset hut.
On the road at 7:30 am; 50 degrees and sunny. Didn’t seem to get very chilly last night; rained a bit but not evidence of drenching on the groeund this am. Just 200 miles to the Alaska border; should do that easy today.
Saw 2 timber wolves run across the road; also a rainbow. We stopped so far today in Destruction Bay, Burwash, and Beaver Creek (the furthest west town in Canada, and 20 miles from
The Alaskan border & Customs.
Burwash had an awesome museum with First Natiown displays
About the native ancestors & crafts. Then there was a walking tour of a trappers cabin. A few hundred feet away was the second of 3 Catholic mission churches. (Haines Junction, Burwash, and Beaver Creek; the 1st & 3rd being salvaged quonset huts salvaged from the building of the Alaskan Hwy.) The church in Burwash had a museum attached in the old school house, priest’s quarters, etc. Totally interesting. I was disappointed when we got to Beaver Creek and found that the little mission church was locked; I really wanted to go in and see it and take pictures. Stopping at the Visitor Center (which employed of th 2 of the village’s 80 residents), I told him of my wish to see inside of the mission church. He just told me where the key was hid at the church. Bingo! It was awesome; 5 plywood pews on each side. The priest travels between the 3 missions for alternating Sunday Masses. Didn’t hear where he was during the week; but it goes without saying that his parish is monstrously huge! I know some of these churches have lay service on off Sundays; but I’m sure without Communion service, because there was no Eucharist kept at either of the 2 quaint little churches we stopped in.
We crossed into Alaska at 2:45; took us about 2 minutes at customs. We came across a free wildlife refuge campground at Deadman’s Lake. Stopped here for the night at 2;30; traveled 229 miles today. The night was beautiful. That evening we had a nice nature walk w/ a Fish & Wildlife Officer, Cora; since she was an Athabascan Indian by heritage, and was raised in a small family unit in the “boonies”, she was raised knowing the medicinal uses of many plants. She showed us “pitch” off of pine trees, used to patch their canoes….AND they used it for chewing gum when they didn’t have any. J
We plan on staying a second in this awesome camp site on the lake. Really quiet, friendly, and close to nature. We saw 2 moose on the other side of the lake (too far away for my camera to take a picture). They were eating the vegetation at the edge of the lake (in the lake) because of its high salt content. Of course we had red squirrels “raising cain”.
It was light at 11 pm; don’t know much past that because I was asleep! But Cora said that even in the middle of the night now it’s not really dark. I just know that it’s light when I go to sleep at 11 pm and it’s light when I wake up….anywhere from 4 am on.

June 18:
We decided to not stay at Deadman’s Lake since it was raining, and didn’t look like it was going to stop any time soon. Left camp at 9:15 am, 53 degrees, raining. Heading west on Alaskan Hwy toward Tok, about 60 miles.
Lots of road construction.
Stopping in Tok, Alaska to do this post; the crossroads to Alaska because everyone must either enter or exit Alaska through Tok. Chris is downstairs buying his fishing license…is he ready!
So, until we “connect” again….

June 16; Monday; Alaska Hwy in Yukon

What a stupendous morning!!!! Clear blue sky; not a storm cloud in sight. (Usually there’s a dark cloud somewhere IF it’s not raining; haven’t been in rain to speak of since Saturday night.) Weather wise, it’s the most beautiful day since Iowa. It’s 54 degrees now; rolling hills; forests of pine & poplar; snow capped mountains in the distance. Awesome view.
Haven’t seen any caribou yet….just loads of signs to watch out for them.
Chris is trying to listen to the playoff of the 08 PGA but the XM reception is getting patchy now; something I knew about before we left home.
Meeting lots of folks who have already been on the road for months and heading for Alaska; lots of seniors, too. (I guess we have to be that old to be able to get away from home for this long!)Stopped to take a nice walk to see the Rancheria Falls; extremely beautiful. Took lots of pictures. It clouded over (RATS!) and was abt. 50 degrees.

Just a quick entry now; stopped at noon for gas and a sandwich....62 degrees....and surprisingly have internet....no pics ready for blog yet....got lots of good ones for the next time.

Sooooo, 'til we "connect" again....

Father's Day in the North Country

I'm trying to get some of the pics up to date in the last few min. before I go to bed tonight. It's almost 11 pm and only beginning to be dusk. Just sweat shirt weather. wonderful with no rain.

This is a sculpture of a surveyor in Dawson Creek, made of scrap metal. It is pointing the direction of the Alaska Hwy since the surveyors went first in the construction of the road.
We crossed the Yukon border 5-6 times before entering Watson Lake village.
Chris putting up the sign he made and we brought from home.
Another one of our mile-stones completed!
It is Monday am about 7:15 am and it is 43 degrees and we're " headed north.
'till we "connect" again....

June 14: Alaska Hwy; Mile #143, Pink Mountain

This is "Mile 0" in Dawson Creek. The original post was knocked down by a local drunk driver in 1946. So, this was the replacement. It is literally in the middle of a "round-a-bout" so we couldn't really go out and get our picture in front of it. The building right behind it is a museum that has lots of stuff on the history of building the Alaskan Highway.

Of course, you know...these pictures were taken a couple of days ago....and now the journaling r is from Friday night to right now.....Sunday afternoon. here we go...

We camped last night in a campground because we REALLY
omwanted hot showers. Raining when we camped, rained all night and continues to rain…the gentleman in the camp said that yesterday they had 3” of snow. The rain killed that, but I saw the remnants. When I registered yesterday, I asked if the rain was an “all-day-er”; this old lady “who looked like an old prospecter’s wife, wrinkled & weathered, shook her head “yes”; I asked if could be an “all-night-er” and she nodded again; then, from behind the door, a man said: “Could be an ‘an all-month-er’!”
Didn’t get any pictures at the campground because I didn’t want to get the camera wet. We took a walk along a 4-wheeler
path running beside the highway. Tommy thought it was bunny season because because of the snow and cold; she getting her nose in the brush trying to kick one up. We spent a while playing “turkeyfoot” dominoes. Learned that game from Don & Katy Esterline last month.
We did meet some folks who camped right next to us froam Baldwin, Mi. They didn’t know Bob & Sheila Myers, because they lived past the old fish hatchery (Porter Road?) towards Idlewild, and weren’t in Bob’s district. Strange world where you meet people. Parked on the other side of us were some folks pulling a trailer returning from Tok, Alaska to their home in Idaho. They have a farm in Danville, IN. Yup, small world.
Drove of rain about rain about 10 am; patchy clouds with blue sky showing through; temp up to 54 degrees and sun shine!!!!
Just saw a black bear beside the road; got pics. Will post them next time cuz they’re still in the camera.
Stopped in Ft. Nelson for some sight-seeing and lunch.
Ft. Nelson’s geographical position is –122 degrees, 50’ 32” by 59 degrees 49’ 14”
The day has turned beautiful; we shed our rain suits. It’s 61 degrees, but the mosquitoes have arrived. We went to the Ft.
Nelson Heritage Museum. Very interesting; saw vintage video of building the Alaskan Hwy. Then we at lunch along the side of a road in town; pulled out a chair, clothes bin for a table and relaxed.
Now we are headed for Laird Hot springs.
Camped Saturday at Laird Hot Springs Provincial Campground.
Beautiful natural hot springs with temperatures ranging from 108 to 126 degrees….and yes they were that hot! We walked to it from our campsite; it was about ½ mile, and ½ of that was on a boardwalk through a wetlands that supports 14 species of orchids that can survive at this latitude d/t the hot springs. We didn’t see any blooming. We opened the camper’s windows to help take the dampness from all the rains out of it, hung out Chris’ rain suit over the camp chair and left for the hot springs. Had a wonderful walk. The springs were quite large; had changing rooms. Lots of folks in the springs; gravel bottom; board walk and rails all around. One end was cooler than the other end various stairs down to the different ends. The water was so hot that I couldn’t get in at first…had to walk to the cooler end and work my way to the hot end. Of course we met folks while in the springs to chat. Didn’t take the camera because of the clouds and threat. After we had soaked sufficiently in the awesome heat, we started back to camp. On the way back to camp the drizzle turned to a downpour and by the time we got back we were dripping. Needless to say….Chris’ rain suit was drenched inside and out, and it rained into the camper. Did a bit of mop-up and enjoyed the evening. Some loud and drunk neighbors didn’t seem to bother us when we hit the sack (9:30…early for us now) because we never heard a thing and fell asleep immediately!
It’s fun leap-frogging with folks. We’ ve met a couple of folks from Baldwin, MI when we camped in Pink Mountain. They camped same place with us yesterday; enjoyed visiting with them. When we see someone we have previously chatted with, the next time we see them on the road, there are big waves, like long friends! Just out of Ft. Nelsons today, at a road side pull off for pics, we met Team Snooks, some geocachers from Florida. They’ve been on the road since Feb. and their vacation is following one cach to the next; could be several hundred miles apart. We met another couple, from Pennsylvania, who have been on the road since November.

Now we're stopped in Watson Lake, Yukon Territory. Chris has put his sign up in the "sign forest"; it's sunny and I hope it doesn't rain....loving the sun! will write more later.

Friday, June 13; DAWSON CREEK; ALASKA HWY MILE 0

Here's the pictures that I promised you yesterday....We're at the beginning of the Alaska Hwy.

Left Grand Prairie and our Walmart "campground" at about 8:30 this am. There were about 14 other campers there. We have played hop-scotch with several folks along the way and they tend to be very friendly.
We're off and heading down the road. Of course, have no clue when we get internet again. It's 65 degrees.