This campground is full of mosquitoes!!! They are coming inside the RV and biting us! But we did overrun the water in the bottom of the RV and that may have attracted them.
9:51 AM and we are ON THE ROAD AGAIN!!! We left Valley view to travel to Edmonton, Alberta Province; which is Canada's heartland where they grow wheat, produce oil and raise beef. It is called one of the Prairie Provinces which is a misnomer because there is lots of sparsely populated land here with lakes, rivers and forests. Not at all like the prairies in the US. This is the bedrock core of North America and is made of precambian rock which is one of the oldest in the world. Wheat is still king here and there are lots of grain silos. They produce other crops and livestock. I drove for 2 hours in this section because the roads are fairly empty and the towns are far apart.
We stayed at the Glowing Embers RV Park which has 273 full service sites, RV parts and services on site, a lounge, restaurant, banquet hall and a community garden with growing vegetables- ready to harvest. Pick a few, weed a few!!! We have never seen a RV place like this one! This is top class!!! They have a full house and we were just able to squeeze in with a reservation. I have never seen so many RVs in one place before. They even had another lot for storage of RVs and boats. Unreal!
We drove down the the West Edmonton Mall, the world's largest shopping mall. It has over 800 stores; 9 theme parks; the world's largest indoor water park with a 27.5 million gallon wave pool with 17 water slides; the world's largest indoor amusement park with 29 rides and 4 roller coasters; the world's largest deep sea adventure lake with an exact replica of Christopher Columbus' flagship, the Santa Maria, and a fleet of submarines, bumper boat derbies; Sea Life Caverns with an underground aquarium with 100 species of fish, sharks, sea turtles, penguins, reptiles and amphibians; Sea Lions Rock with sea lions from California giving 2 shows daily; a glow in the dark mini golf course; an 18 hole mini golf course complete with sand traps and water hazards; the Ice Palace with figure skating and hockey games and rec room for rent; IMAX 30 theatres; 100 restaurants, 2 hotels ; 4 themed streets: Bourbon with a New Orleans flavor, Chinatown with an actual very busy Far East Marketplace with all kinds of Asian foods represented for purchase, as if you were really in that country; an Europa block with the art and architecture reflecting the old European cities complete with boutiques and specialties stores; and WEM Main Street with your usual mall selection of stores plus some others. This huge indoor mall covers 48 square city blocks on 4 levels!!!! The people of Edmonton can go to a tropical setting and swim in the middle of January. There is everything imaginable found here to do. We know what they do now when the sun is barely seen in the winter months!
We went shopping in the 2 Dollar stores we found there, and were able to pick up some needed things for the RV, like head nets to stop mosquitoes, a set of small screwdrivers, a laundry bag and flashlights. Daddy went into the Casino, but wasn't impressed. It's hard to find craps up here in Alaska and Canada. We also went to the IMAX movies and saw Grown Ups. It was funny and it felt like I was back in the RV with only the boys again with all of the noises they make. Their theatres are more modern than ours: when you purchase tickets at one of the kiosks inside the theatre you can also preorder your popcorn, candy and drinks. When you get into the lobby, it is ready for you. The seats were extremely comfortable and the sound system was awesome. Everything was the newest state of the art. Even the popcorn tasted so much better. And Daddy didn't load it down with salt!!! Great!!!!!
We stayed at the mall until it closed and then went to a new Walmart. It must be the newest thing around here, because I've never seen a Walmart this crowded unless it's Christmas
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Wednesday, July 28, 2010; 435 mi, Fort Nelson to Valleyview, 435 miles
We were surprised last night. It actually got dark by midnight last night! I guess we are far enough south now.
Fort Nelson is in northeastern British Columbia and is the only sedimentary area producing oil and gas. Spectra Energy Natural Gas Gas Processing plant here is the largest in North America.
We left at 9:03 AM and crossed the Muskwa River Bridge which is the lowest point of the Alcan Highway. The grasses are in seed head stage and the fields are full of golden rod, lavender and fire weed. The dandelion seed heads are blowing all around. The grass on the roadsides are very green and 3 foot tall. I thought we would see some black bears today; but we didn't see even one. Maybe because they are doing some much road repair that the bears are staying away. I can see Queen Anne's Lace, a lavender shade of clover and daisies.
At 2:05 PM we left the Alaska Highway behind us seeing crop fields, bales of hay, green fie;d of forage crops, some bright yellow fields, maybe mustard?, and fields of a blue-green wheat. We stopped at the town of Beaver Lodge and I took a picture of a huge beaver at the cultural center. The beaver was 15 feet tall and the log he is cutting is 19 feet tall.
We are staying at Sherk's RV Park in Valley View. It is in the woods with farm fields all around it. In fact, the owners live in the white farmhouse that we passed on the road into here. Valley View is Canada's northernmost Agricultural Research Station and is the center for grain transportation for cereal grains, wheat, barley and oats. We passed a Reforestation Nursery that produces 11 million of seedlings per year.
We went into the town to eat dinner at the New Old Country Restaurant. They have a special: a huge homemade hamburger and fries for $3.95 Canadian!!! That is an incredible price. They also had an authentic German menu. I ordered Munich style pork loin with gravy, vegetable garnish, green beans and mashed potatoes with rye bread. We shared apple strudel with ice cream and whipped cream sprinkled with nutmeg! Everything was delicious!!! The restaurant had a great atmosphere, a collection of china teapots, a collection of beer coasters, and a huge collection of nutcrackers on a high shelf. No AC; but they really don't need it too much up here. And we passed a Rexall Drug store right across the street!
Daddy drove 435 miles today.
Fort Nelson is in northeastern British Columbia and is the only sedimentary area producing oil and gas. Spectra Energy Natural Gas Gas Processing plant here is the largest in North America.
We left at 9:03 AM and crossed the Muskwa River Bridge which is the lowest point of the Alcan Highway. The grasses are in seed head stage and the fields are full of golden rod, lavender and fire weed. The dandelion seed heads are blowing all around. The grass on the roadsides are very green and 3 foot tall. I thought we would see some black bears today; but we didn't see even one. Maybe because they are doing some much road repair that the bears are staying away. I can see Queen Anne's Lace, a lavender shade of clover and daisies.
At 2:05 PM we left the Alaska Highway behind us seeing crop fields, bales of hay, green fie;d of forage crops, some bright yellow fields, maybe mustard?, and fields of a blue-green wheat. We stopped at the town of Beaver Lodge and I took a picture of a huge beaver at the cultural center. The beaver was 15 feet tall and the log he is cutting is 19 feet tall.
We are staying at Sherk's RV Park in Valley View. It is in the woods with farm fields all around it. In fact, the owners live in the white farmhouse that we passed on the road into here. Valley View is Canada's northernmost Agricultural Research Station and is the center for grain transportation for cereal grains, wheat, barley and oats. We passed a Reforestation Nursery that produces 11 million of seedlings per year.
We went into the town to eat dinner at the New Old Country Restaurant. They have a special: a huge homemade hamburger and fries for $3.95 Canadian!!! That is an incredible price. They also had an authentic German menu. I ordered Munich style pork loin with gravy, vegetable garnish, green beans and mashed potatoes with rye bread. We shared apple strudel with ice cream and whipped cream sprinkled with nutmeg! Everything was delicious!!! The restaurant had a great atmosphere, a collection of china teapots, a collection of beer coasters, and a huge collection of nutcrackers on a high shelf. No AC; but they really don't need it too much up here. And we passed a Rexall Drug store right across the street!
Daddy drove 435 miles today.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010, 462 mi. Continental Divide Lodge to Fort Nelson
ON THE ROAD AGAIN!!!!! Time is 9:43 AM and we need to find some ICE for the fish. The roads are all curvy, following the flow of the rivers at the base of the mountains. 1:23 PM there are buffalo on the sides of the road- 6 on one side and 11 on the other side with at least 4 babies. Just before this at 12:29 PM a huge rock hit the bottom third center of the windshield and it arced into a little bigger than a softball! At 3:55 we saw 3 Stone Sheep cross the road and walk down the steep hillsides. It was a big male with huge horns, a mother and her baby lamb. They ran down the rocky hill to where we couldn't see them. I got out of the RV and walked to the edge to see them. Daddy said to not fall over the edge, he wouldn't come down to get me! Since I was really still, they walked back up the hill and across the road again and I got a couple pictures.Then at 3:58 we saw an elk eating along the same side of the road.
They say Alaska is the last frontier; that Montana has the biggest sky and the Yukon is larger than life. And it really is!!!
We sat in a line of RVs for 20 minutes, at least, and then had to follow a road repair truck for at least 4 miles (which was the length of road they were repairing) really slowly. That really cut into our driving time! They cleaned the road bed, put oil down then added loose gravel on top. This is the gravel that flies up and cracks our windshield.
When we stopped in Fort Nelson, British Columbia to fill up with diesel, I noticed a third crack in the CRV windshield. We were going to stay at the Westend RV Park where we stayed on our trip out west, but they were too busy to even tell us if they had a spot for us. So we went down the Bluebell RV Park and actually got excellent internet reception. Now I can catch up on my blog. We've been 3 days without cell phones and Internet and TV. Real Wilderness!!!
We took the fish out of the cooler and put it into the RV freezer, then took the food from the freezer and put it in the cooler. We'll leave the cooler inside the RV now. It'll be our coffee table! It'll stay cooler and save our expensive fish. It has really gotten warm compared to the temperatures we enjoyed in Alaska.
We were going to eat out at a sports bar just outside of town; but the CRV won't start now. So we're walking to a Boston Pizza; it's a block away.
Daddy drove 462 miles today.
They say Alaska is the last frontier; that Montana has the biggest sky and the Yukon is larger than life. And it really is!!!
We sat in a line of RVs for 20 minutes, at least, and then had to follow a road repair truck for at least 4 miles (which was the length of road they were repairing) really slowly. That really cut into our driving time! They cleaned the road bed, put oil down then added loose gravel on top. This is the gravel that flies up and cracks our windshield.
When we stopped in Fort Nelson, British Columbia to fill up with diesel, I noticed a third crack in the CRV windshield. We were going to stay at the Westend RV Park where we stayed on our trip out west, but they were too busy to even tell us if they had a spot for us. So we went down the Bluebell RV Park and actually got excellent internet reception. Now I can catch up on my blog. We've been 3 days without cell phones and Internet and TV. Real Wilderness!!!
We took the fish out of the cooler and put it into the RV freezer, then took the food from the freezer and put it in the cooler. We'll leave the cooler inside the RV now. It'll be our coffee table! It'll stay cooler and save our expensive fish. It has really gotten warm compared to the temperatures we enjoyed in Alaska.
We were going to eat out at a sports bar just outside of town; but the CRV won't start now. So we're walking to a Boston Pizza; it's a block away.
Daddy drove 462 miles today.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Monday, July 26, 2010.
ON THE ROAD AGAIN!!!! Time is 9:05 AM and we are crossing the White River named by Hudson's Bay Company explorer because of the white color of the water; which is due to the volcanic ash. There are millions of dandelions going to seed all over the roadsides growing amongst the purpley-pink seed heads of the fescue grass.
11:00 AM we can see the Kluane Lake. Between 300 and 400 years ago the Kaskawalsh Glacier moved across the Sims River and closed off the drainage for the Kluane Lake. The water rose 30 feet and the drainage reversed its direction. Before the glacier the water flowed south to the Gulf of Alaska. Now, the water flows to the northeast. It made a new channel and flows to the Yukon River. Instead of flowing 140 miles south to the Pacific Ocean; it flows 1400 miles north to the Bering Sea. Now the waters have receded, but the drainage has been permanently altered. The Kluane Mountains are an unbroken chain of mountains up to 8000 feet and are cut by a few valleys from glacier fed rivers and streams. The Duke Depression is a narrow through to the west of the Kluane Mountains that separates it from the St. Elias Mountains. Mount Logan has an elevation of 19,545 feet, which is the highest in Canada.
The Takhini River has a tributary- the Mendenhall River, that flows to Juneau through the Coast Mountains and forms the Mendenhall Glacier we visited in Juneau in June. The are called Takhini Stop was a glacial lake 10,000 years ago; and it was apparently very deep because the edge of the lake is high up in the mountain now. Now white spruce, aspen and birch trees are growing; elk, deer and owl live here; but no moose. We saw some sort of rodent run across the road, maybe a prairie dog.
We stopped in Whitehorse, Yukon at a Walmart. The town was named by the first miners here felt the foaming rapids on the Yukon River looked like white horses manes. The name stuck.
We drove on to arrive at the Continental Divide Lodge where we stayed on May 28th for a night. That was the first time we realized the sun wasn't setting. Before they had just opened for the season and the only flowers were some tiny blue ones close to the ground. Now, there is fireweed all over the place and all of the grasses are really tall. I guess that's what 24 hours of daylight gets you! We washed the RV inside and out. Then we fixed fried halibut strips from scratch with a spicy coating. Really good!!!
So far on the road all we have seen since we've arrived in Canada is the red fox and a prairie dog. No bears or moose. I'm disappointed.
Daddy drove 435 miles today.
11:00 AM we can see the Kluane Lake. Between 300 and 400 years ago the Kaskawalsh Glacier moved across the Sims River and closed off the drainage for the Kluane Lake. The water rose 30 feet and the drainage reversed its direction. Before the glacier the water flowed south to the Gulf of Alaska. Now, the water flows to the northeast. It made a new channel and flows to the Yukon River. Instead of flowing 140 miles south to the Pacific Ocean; it flows 1400 miles north to the Bering Sea. Now the waters have receded, but the drainage has been permanently altered. The Kluane Mountains are an unbroken chain of mountains up to 8000 feet and are cut by a few valleys from glacier fed rivers and streams. The Duke Depression is a narrow through to the west of the Kluane Mountains that separates it from the St. Elias Mountains. Mount Logan has an elevation of 19,545 feet, which is the highest in Canada.
The Takhini River has a tributary- the Mendenhall River, that flows to Juneau through the Coast Mountains and forms the Mendenhall Glacier we visited in Juneau in June. The are called Takhini Stop was a glacial lake 10,000 years ago; and it was apparently very deep because the edge of the lake is high up in the mountain now. Now white spruce, aspen and birch trees are growing; elk, deer and owl live here; but no moose. We saw some sort of rodent run across the road, maybe a prairie dog.
We stopped in Whitehorse, Yukon at a Walmart. The town was named by the first miners here felt the foaming rapids on the Yukon River looked like white horses manes. The name stuck.
We drove on to arrive at the Continental Divide Lodge where we stayed on May 28th for a night. That was the first time we realized the sun wasn't setting. Before they had just opened for the season and the only flowers were some tiny blue ones close to the ground. Now, there is fireweed all over the place and all of the grasses are really tall. I guess that's what 24 hours of daylight gets you! We washed the RV inside and out. Then we fixed fried halibut strips from scratch with a spicy coating. Really good!!!
So far on the road all we have seen since we've arrived in Canada is the red fox and a prairie dog. No bears or moose. I'm disappointed.
Daddy drove 435 miles today.
Sunday, July 25, 2010.
We left Anchorage this morning headed on the Alaska Highway towards Tok, Alaska and then on to Dawson Creek, British Columbia where the Alaska Highway ends. It was raining as we drove out. But by the time we were an hour away on the Glenn Highway the rain stopped and 2 hours out of Anchorage there was some blue sky.
We are driving to Tok from a different direction than we did when we came here; so it's going to be new territory to see from the Matanuska Glacier on to Tok. And this time there won't be any forest fires because they have had plenty of rain. Apparently, the summers in Alaska are their rainy seasons. Most of the towns after Matanuska Glacier all have native Alaskan names: Eklutna, Chickaloon, Little Nelchina, Talsona, Lake Mendeltna, Gakona. Then there are some towns with English names: Palmer, Copper River, Glenallen, Lake Louise. The road has gotten really rough with frost heaves and everything shakes when you drive over it. Of course you can't do the regular speed limit because you can't control the coach. We passed Sheep Mountain with Dall Sheep and many Caribou Crossing signs. We've seen deer and caribou and sheep. At Gunsight Mountain the elevation is 6441 feet and the mountain has an actual notch in it to place a gigantic rifle! Therefore the name.
We can see the Wrangell Mountains and the Mount St. Elias off to our right. On 11/3/2002 at 1:12 PM they had a 7.9 earthquake, which was the strongest ever on the Denali Fault. The Denali Fault runs from southeast Alaska through Canada, then back into Alaska into Denali State Park. It actually cuts Denali State Park in half. The Wrangell Mountains have Mount Sanford which is snow covered and has an elevation of 16,237 feet. It is a dormant volcano. Mount Jarvis has an elevation of 13,421 feet, Tanada Peak has an elevation of 9,240 and Noyes Mount has an elevation of 8,147 feet. Mount ST. Elias has an elevation of 18,029 feet which is the second tallest mountain in the US. Mount Blackburn has an elevation of 16,390 feet, Mount Wrangell has an elevation of14,163 feet, Mount Drum has an elevation of 12,010 feet and Mount Kimball has an elevation of 10,300 feet. These are all extremely high mountains and they basically have no roads going through them. That's why it is impossible to reach Juneau and the Inside Passage by road.
The Wrangell-St. Elias National Park is the largest in the US at 13.2 million acres with 9.7 million acres of it being wilderness formed by the Wrangell and Chugach Mountains. This state park has the largest collection of glaciers, including Malaspina Glacier, which is the largest Piedmont glacier formed by 2 or more glaciers flowing from confined valleys. The park is 1500 square miles- larger than the state of Rhode Island. Hubbard Glacier is from the St. Elias Mountains and is the most active glacier in the US. It advances forward at the speed of growing fingernails. There is a 300 foot waterfall in the upper Chitistone Canyon and the Lower Canyon has walls that rise 4000 feet above the river. Also 80% of the world's Trumpeter Swans nest here. The Trumpeter Swan is the largest of the 7 swan groups in the world. They have all black bills.The Tundra Swan nests here also, but they are much smaller and do not have an all black bill.
By 4:30 PM we were at the Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge where winter comes in early October and stays until late April. It has the coldest temperatures in the state: -40 degrees to -72 degrees with 165 days a year below freezing. The Caribou leave here to go north to find lichens, which are a ancient fusion of algae and fungi.They will travel 200 miles to find lichens because lichens are loaded with carbs. If they can find plenty of lichens, then they can maintain their weight. But the wildfires in 2004 have burned 1 million acres north of the Alaska Highway and it takes 60 years for the lichens to build back up. So they don't think there will be many caribou around here this winter.
The Mentasta Mountians and the Nutzotin Mountains form the eastern end of the Alaskan Range. The roads are dirt here. Time is 5:15 PM and for 14 miles now we have been going over all dirt roads with lots of loose gravel.
They say there are 30 kinds of mosquitoes here. I believe it!!! The females bite just before they lay their eggs. They need a blood meal to get up the strength. The first mosquitoes in the spring and adult mosquitoes that spent the winter dormant. Then the other mosquitoes hatch from eggs for the rest of the summer. Until it freezes the mosquitoes will hunt for blood. Moose can lose a pint of blood in a day to mosquitoes. The black flies are bad too. They cut a plug of skin and then lick the blood. The deer flies are a bee-sized insect with a bite that hurts so bad even the caribou run from them!!! Talk about wild animals; these are really wild insects!!
At 5:56 we entered Canada! The road's been very, very rough with dirt, gravel, bumps, dips and chuckholes!!! This area is called "taiga" which is Russian for "land of little sticks". The land is boggy with bottle brush trees and the black spruce trees only grow slowly. A black spruce tree with a trunk 2 inches in diameter can be 100 years old. Whenever there are black spruce trees growing, no other trees will grow because the black spruce spreads out its roots above the permafrost and won't let anything else grow. The permafrost blocks the water drainage and limits root growth and soil fertility. We weren't into Canada 10 minutes when we saw a red fox strolling down the road. We hadn't seen any foxes in Alaska except in Denali.
The permafrost is a major challenge here because it freezes and melts on and off all year. That wreaks havoc with the roads and their driveability. They have run some scientific tests and programs to see if they can slow the melting down under the roadbed. The tests are still in the process now. Between the Donjek River and the Alaska border the soil is of glacial origin and very unsuitable for road embankments. This ice rich soil has very little strength and will always settle and then the road will drop. If we want to drive this way, we just have to deal with the wildness of the road too!
We found a campsite because we were tired of fighting the road. It's called Snag Harbor and has a tiny lake at the back of the beautiful woods. Snag Harbor's claim to fame is it has the lowest recorded temperature in Canada: -81.4 degrees F on 2/3/1947. Alaska's lowest recorded temperature was -80 degrees F on 1/23/1971 at Prospect Creek. The campground is absolutely gorgeous; but the mosquitoes are horrendous! The campfire won't even keep them away. They are out for blood!!!!
We are driving to Tok from a different direction than we did when we came here; so it's going to be new territory to see from the Matanuska Glacier on to Tok. And this time there won't be any forest fires because they have had plenty of rain. Apparently, the summers in Alaska are their rainy seasons. Most of the towns after Matanuska Glacier all have native Alaskan names: Eklutna, Chickaloon, Little Nelchina, Talsona, Lake Mendeltna, Gakona. Then there are some towns with English names: Palmer, Copper River, Glenallen, Lake Louise. The road has gotten really rough with frost heaves and everything shakes when you drive over it. Of course you can't do the regular speed limit because you can't control the coach. We passed Sheep Mountain with Dall Sheep and many Caribou Crossing signs. We've seen deer and caribou and sheep. At Gunsight Mountain the elevation is 6441 feet and the mountain has an actual notch in it to place a gigantic rifle! Therefore the name.
We can see the Wrangell Mountains and the Mount St. Elias off to our right. On 11/3/2002 at 1:12 PM they had a 7.9 earthquake, which was the strongest ever on the Denali Fault. The Denali Fault runs from southeast Alaska through Canada, then back into Alaska into Denali State Park. It actually cuts Denali State Park in half. The Wrangell Mountains have Mount Sanford which is snow covered and has an elevation of 16,237 feet. It is a dormant volcano. Mount Jarvis has an elevation of 13,421 feet, Tanada Peak has an elevation of 9,240 and Noyes Mount has an elevation of 8,147 feet. Mount ST. Elias has an elevation of 18,029 feet which is the second tallest mountain in the US. Mount Blackburn has an elevation of 16,390 feet, Mount Wrangell has an elevation of14,163 feet, Mount Drum has an elevation of 12,010 feet and Mount Kimball has an elevation of 10,300 feet. These are all extremely high mountains and they basically have no roads going through them. That's why it is impossible to reach Juneau and the Inside Passage by road.
The Wrangell-St. Elias National Park is the largest in the US at 13.2 million acres with 9.7 million acres of it being wilderness formed by the Wrangell and Chugach Mountains. This state park has the largest collection of glaciers, including Malaspina Glacier, which is the largest Piedmont glacier formed by 2 or more glaciers flowing from confined valleys. The park is 1500 square miles- larger than the state of Rhode Island. Hubbard Glacier is from the St. Elias Mountains and is the most active glacier in the US. It advances forward at the speed of growing fingernails. There is a 300 foot waterfall in the upper Chitistone Canyon and the Lower Canyon has walls that rise 4000 feet above the river. Also 80% of the world's Trumpeter Swans nest here. The Trumpeter Swan is the largest of the 7 swan groups in the world. They have all black bills.The Tundra Swan nests here also, but they are much smaller and do not have an all black bill.
By 4:30 PM we were at the Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge where winter comes in early October and stays until late April. It has the coldest temperatures in the state: -40 degrees to -72 degrees with 165 days a year below freezing. The Caribou leave here to go north to find lichens, which are a ancient fusion of algae and fungi.They will travel 200 miles to find lichens because lichens are loaded with carbs. If they can find plenty of lichens, then they can maintain their weight. But the wildfires in 2004 have burned 1 million acres north of the Alaska Highway and it takes 60 years for the lichens to build back up. So they don't think there will be many caribou around here this winter.
The Mentasta Mountians and the Nutzotin Mountains form the eastern end of the Alaskan Range. The roads are dirt here. Time is 5:15 PM and for 14 miles now we have been going over all dirt roads with lots of loose gravel.
They say there are 30 kinds of mosquitoes here. I believe it!!! The females bite just before they lay their eggs. They need a blood meal to get up the strength. The first mosquitoes in the spring and adult mosquitoes that spent the winter dormant. Then the other mosquitoes hatch from eggs for the rest of the summer. Until it freezes the mosquitoes will hunt for blood. Moose can lose a pint of blood in a day to mosquitoes. The black flies are bad too. They cut a plug of skin and then lick the blood. The deer flies are a bee-sized insect with a bite that hurts so bad even the caribou run from them!!! Talk about wild animals; these are really wild insects!!
At 5:56 we entered Canada! The road's been very, very rough with dirt, gravel, bumps, dips and chuckholes!!! This area is called "taiga" which is Russian for "land of little sticks". The land is boggy with bottle brush trees and the black spruce trees only grow slowly. A black spruce tree with a trunk 2 inches in diameter can be 100 years old. Whenever there are black spruce trees growing, no other trees will grow because the black spruce spreads out its roots above the permafrost and won't let anything else grow. The permafrost blocks the water drainage and limits root growth and soil fertility. We weren't into Canada 10 minutes when we saw a red fox strolling down the road. We hadn't seen any foxes in Alaska except in Denali.
The permafrost is a major challenge here because it freezes and melts on and off all year. That wreaks havoc with the roads and their driveability. They have run some scientific tests and programs to see if they can slow the melting down under the roadbed. The tests are still in the process now. Between the Donjek River and the Alaska border the soil is of glacial origin and very unsuitable for road embankments. This ice rich soil has very little strength and will always settle and then the road will drop. If we want to drive this way, we just have to deal with the wildness of the road too!
We found a campsite because we were tired of fighting the road. It's called Snag Harbor and has a tiny lake at the back of the beautiful woods. Snag Harbor's claim to fame is it has the lowest recorded temperature in Canada: -81.4 degrees F on 2/3/1947. Alaska's lowest recorded temperature was -80 degrees F on 1/23/1971 at Prospect Creek. The campground is absolutely gorgeous; but the mosquitoes are horrendous! The campfire won't even keep them away. They are out for blood!!!!
Saturday, July 24, 2010.
We are in Anchorage at the Golden Nugget RV Park. We have cleaned up the RV again and I had to wash clothes again. All of the clothes worn for fishing always reek!! The zipper on my Costco frogtoggs broke off of the jacket so I need to return it for another one. Plus we need water for our trip home. Once we leave Anchorage we won't find another Costco until Grande Prairie which is about 4 days driving time. Then we went to the movies to see the movie S.A.L.T. It was a really good movie although from the title I had my doubts. It has been raining yesterday and today. We leave tomorrow morning.
Friday, July 23, 2010.
We were supposed to go halibut fishing again today; just later in the afternoon when the tide is high. We were told it is better fishing in a high tide. We decided against it because we have quite a bit of fish now and Jimmy didn't enjoy getting sick the other day. Instead we went down to pick up our halibut and then to the fish processing plant to pick up our King salmon. They couldn't go out for halibut fishing anyway because it was too rough. So it was a good idea we decided to pack up and head back to Anchorage. We bought a cooler at Walmart, then had to go back to obtain a larger cooler. We have more fish than we thought!
Thursday, July 22, 2010.
At Chiechanski State Park we boarded the "King of the River" for the second time to go salmon fishing. Dean, the deaf mute, had his uncle and cousin on board too. Jimmy caught a 40 pound King salmon that was absolutely gorgeous. It had a good color and it was a female. When they filleted her, she had 2gallon Ziploc bags full of fish roe. She was caught before she could deposit her eggs in the rocks up stream. If she has gotten that far and deposited the eggs, she would have been a redder color on the outside and the meat inside would have been light in color and not good tasting. She really fought against being pulled in. It must have taken Jimmy 30 minutes to pull her in. I only had 1 bite, but the fish never got hooked. The other people on the boat caught some small salmon; but not any Kings. Now Daddy has his quota of King Salmon for the Kenai River. He can't catch any more. You can only catch 1 per day or a total of 2 per year in the Kenai River.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Up at 3:30 AM to leave for Ninilchik to go halibut fishing. It's windy and cold and we are bundled up against the wind. The ocean is rough and the boat's cabin is damp. At least they cleaned it up some. When Daddy and the boys went before, the cabin reeked!!! The seat cushions are so damp I can feel the wet through my jeans! So I put on my Costco rain suit bibs on, just to keep my legs dry. They are called frogtoggs and feel as light as paper! Just so they keep out the rain!
It took 45 minutes to 1 hour to get out far enough into the ocean to be able to fish. They launch the boats from the beach with bulldozers that back right into the ocean. At the beach they call the waterside Deep Creek. There were 2 other couples on the boat besides us and the captain and first mate. Only 4 can fish at a time because you would get into each other's way. So this 1 lady named Sandy and I didn't fish for a while.
The bait is herring and squid and it really stinks. When you cast off, the line has to go out really far because the ocean is about 130 feet deep. The water is so rough!!! It's hard to stand still. Daddy got sick from the waves and a large cup of coffee shaken up in his stomach.
We can see 3 of the volcanoes from the boat:Mt. Redoubt, Mt. Spurr and Mt. Iliamna. Mt. Redoubt has steam coming up from its top. Maybe it's getting ready to erupt. Way off in the distance there might be Mt. Augustine.
Daddy caught 2 good sized halibut; not as big as what the boys and him caught before, but good compared to what the others caught today. I caught 3, but 1 was tiny and thrown back. The other two of mine were still smaller than Daddy's. One of the other men kept catching ling cod, which are not in season now.
They filleted and freeze-vac-packed our halibut and are keeping it in their freezer until we are ready to pick it up. When we went into town they were catching salmon- sockeye- in the Kenai River right behind the visitor center. We went there to fish; Daddy put on his rubber bibs and went right into the stream. I stayed up on the dock after I tried the water once and got my boots full of water. They'll probably never dry now. We fished there for 6 hours and didn't catch a thing because when the reds come in to spawn, they don't go after bait. You just smack the water with a short rod and a hook on the end. As you pull it through the water it snags the fish, hopefully in the mouth. If you snag them anywhere but the mouth, you have to release the fish. It's only legal to hook it in the mouth. There is a sort of technique to this. Several successful fishermen showed us how to do it; but it's difficult with a casting rod. There were so many people fishing here it's called "combat fishing" because you are elbow to elbow.One girl had caught about 25 fish just today, but she either gave them away or released them back into the river. She only did it for the fun. She gave us 2 really good sized sockeye salmon to keep. Daddy filleted them and I wrapped them in saran wrap and put them in our freezer. They'll be really good eating.
It took 45 minutes to 1 hour to get out far enough into the ocean to be able to fish. They launch the boats from the beach with bulldozers that back right into the ocean. At the beach they call the waterside Deep Creek. There were 2 other couples on the boat besides us and the captain and first mate. Only 4 can fish at a time because you would get into each other's way. So this 1 lady named Sandy and I didn't fish for a while.
The bait is herring and squid and it really stinks. When you cast off, the line has to go out really far because the ocean is about 130 feet deep. The water is so rough!!! It's hard to stand still. Daddy got sick from the waves and a large cup of coffee shaken up in his stomach.
We can see 3 of the volcanoes from the boat:Mt. Redoubt, Mt. Spurr and Mt. Iliamna. Mt. Redoubt has steam coming up from its top. Maybe it's getting ready to erupt. Way off in the distance there might be Mt. Augustine.
Daddy caught 2 good sized halibut; not as big as what the boys and him caught before, but good compared to what the others caught today. I caught 3, but 1 was tiny and thrown back. The other two of mine were still smaller than Daddy's. One of the other men kept catching ling cod, which are not in season now.
They filleted and freeze-vac-packed our halibut and are keeping it in their freezer until we are ready to pick it up. When we went into town they were catching salmon- sockeye- in the Kenai River right behind the visitor center. We went there to fish; Daddy put on his rubber bibs and went right into the stream. I stayed up on the dock after I tried the water once and got my boots full of water. They'll probably never dry now. We fished there for 6 hours and didn't catch a thing because when the reds come in to spawn, they don't go after bait. You just smack the water with a short rod and a hook on the end. As you pull it through the water it snags the fish, hopefully in the mouth. If you snag them anywhere but the mouth, you have to release the fish. It's only legal to hook it in the mouth. There is a sort of technique to this. Several successful fishermen showed us how to do it; but it's difficult with a casting rod. There were so many people fishing here it's called "combat fishing" because you are elbow to elbow.One girl had caught about 25 fish just today, but she either gave them away or released them back into the river. She only did it for the fun. She gave us 2 really good sized sockeye salmon to keep. Daddy filleted them and I wrapped them in saran wrap and put them in our freezer. They'll be really good eating.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010.
We drove to the Kenai Peninsula to stay in Soldotna at Diamond M RV Ranch. It is a real working ranch with horses and cows and they have a large section for the RV Park. It is going to be a really nice park when it is finished. They have the RVs parked in a circle around a huge center fire, sort of like wagon trains. At the office they have a really good view of the Kenai River. By the way, it's raining.
Monday, July 19, 2010.
We were supposed to fly out of Jacksonville by 11:00, but the incoming plane was late from Atlanta and we have only 40 minutes to catch our connecting flight. We flew out at 12:15 and still made our connecting flight. The connecting flight was not completely full; just almost. I was able to have an empty seat next to me. At least this flight was just the right temperature. It was a great flight.
We arrived at 6:30 PM, right on time. After waiting for the luggage we found a taxi to go pick up the CRV. They fixed the AC. Thank heavens. All it needed was freon. So now we can get the RV and go to the Golden Nugget RV Park. But the RV was not where it was supposed to be. Daddy walked around the whole lot and it wasn't there. A man in one of the RVs there had an emergency number that we could call. One of the salesmen came out and had to find the key to unlock a gate way in the back where they placed our RV. This whole procedure took about one and a half hours. We couldn't get out of the outside gate so we had to sleep in the RV on the parking lot.
We arrived at 6:30 PM, right on time. After waiting for the luggage we found a taxi to go pick up the CRV. They fixed the AC. Thank heavens. All it needed was freon. So now we can get the RV and go to the Golden Nugget RV Park. But the RV was not where it was supposed to be. Daddy walked around the whole lot and it wasn't there. A man in one of the RVs there had an emergency number that we could call. One of the salesmen came out and had to find the key to unlock a gate way in the back where they placed our RV. This whole procedure took about one and a half hours. We couldn't get out of the outside gate so we had to sleep in the RV on the parking lot.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010.
Up at 5:30 AM; just Daddy and I, to get things together for the trip home. We had to clean out the refrigerator, straighten out the RV because it is sitting at the RV dealer while we are at home. I had to be sure all lunch meats, milk, yogurts, etc. weren't left in the refrigerator because we will be gone for 10 days. Then I had to vacuum and wash the floors and strip the beds and towels. We had to be sure the luggage didn't weigh too much and still be sure we have everything we need at home.
Then we had to clean out the car because we are spending the day in the car and then leaving the car at a place to repair the AC.
We drove to Alyeska Aerial Tram and Ski Resort. The tram operates all year because they have 2 restaurants at the top that stay open even when the skiing season has stopped. The tram holds 60 passengers and you can view Turnagain Arm from the top and several glaciers. This is the largest ski resort in Alaska and is close to Anchorage and the airport. Noah was really excited to be able to touch real snow!!! He always gets cold before the rest of us; but he didn't care how cold the snow was!!!
We ate a very large lunch/dinner at Applebee's before we drove to the airport. Anything there would be better than airplane food. Our plane was supposed to leave at 7:30, but the plane hadn't arrived on time. So now we fly out at 8:30 and hope that we can catch our connecting flight in Atlanta or we'll be late for Jacksonville.
The flight was crowded; every seat taken and it was hot. Luckily we are tired from rising so early this morning, and this flight lasts all night. Daddy and I were up against the galley so there was no air circulation. I never want those seats again. At one point Daddy was so uncomfortable he walked the cabin for 30 minutes.
Then we had to clean out the car because we are spending the day in the car and then leaving the car at a place to repair the AC.
We drove to Alyeska Aerial Tram and Ski Resort. The tram operates all year because they have 2 restaurants at the top that stay open even when the skiing season has stopped. The tram holds 60 passengers and you can view Turnagain Arm from the top and several glaciers. This is the largest ski resort in Alaska and is close to Anchorage and the airport. Noah was really excited to be able to touch real snow!!! He always gets cold before the rest of us; but he didn't care how cold the snow was!!!
We ate a very large lunch/dinner at Applebee's before we drove to the airport. Anything there would be better than airplane food. Our plane was supposed to leave at 7:30, but the plane hadn't arrived on time. So now we fly out at 8:30 and hope that we can catch our connecting flight in Atlanta or we'll be late for Jacksonville.
The flight was crowded; every seat taken and it was hot. Luckily we are tired from rising so early this morning, and this flight lasts all night. Daddy and I were up against the galley so there was no air circulation. I never want those seats again. At one point Daddy was so uncomfortable he walked the cabin for 30 minutes.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Tuesday, July 6, 2010.
Today we drove back to Anchorage to pack up to fly home on Wednesday. That was not an easy task; but at least most of the clothes were washed. We need to be up early tomorrow morning to be able to take the RV to the RV dealer for its oil change and maintenance while we are home. At least we don't have to pay storage for the 10 days we will be gone.
Tuesday, July 5, 2010.
Today we drove to Anchorage to pack up to fly home tomorrow night. It was not an easy task; but at least most of the clothes have been washed. We need to get up early tomorrow to drop the RV at the RV dealer for its oil change and maintenance. At least we don't have to pay storage for the 10 days we'll be home.
Monday, July 5, 2010.
We are still staying in Ninilchik at the RV park that sits up on the bluff. At night we can see moose grazing off the sides of the road and we are always seeing bald eagles watching us from the trees just next to us. At one point we wondered if the one would try to get our halibut cooking on the grill.
Jimmy and the boys went out to go hiking for a couple of hours and I stayed back to wash clothes. This park has only 1 washer and 1 dryer so it takes forever to do 5 loads of clothes. All four of us are signed up to go halibut fishing again to morrow; so I need to get the fish smell out of the clothes so they can be worn again. The halibut really stinks !!!
Across Cook Inlet to the other side is land called the "Ring of Fire". Under the water of Cook Inlet is the subduction zone where the Pacific plate goes under the North American continent. These tectonic plates move at the speed of a growing fingernail. This energy pushes up the areas mountain ranges causing frequent earthquakes. These were the moving plates that caused the 1964 9.2 earthquake that caused so much damage in Seward and Anchorage. There are 5 active volcanic peaks across from us: Mt. Spurr, Mt. Redoubt, Mt. Iliamna, Mt. Augustine and Mt. Douglass. Most of these are snow covered but they still erupt. Mt. Spurr is 11,000 feet high and erupted in 1953 and 1992. It spewed so much ash that Anchorage airport had to close. Mt. Redoubt is 6197 feet high and erupted on March 15, 2009 with the ash plumes rising 30,000 to 60,000 feet into the sky. When it erupted on December 14, 1989 it lasted until early 1990! The ash went 12 miles high into the clouds and disrupted the air traffic all the way to Texas! Mt. Iliamna is 10,016 feet high and is surrounded by glaciers. This volcano is relatively quiet. It erupted in 1741 and only several times since then. Mt. Augustine is 4134 feet high and on its own island. It erupted in 1883, 1908, 1935, 1963 - 1964, 1976, 1986, 2005 - 2006. This volcano poses a real threat of tsunamis. The island has a very irregular coastline which is evidence of frequent eruptions. The Alaska Volcano Observatory said 11 avalanches occurred in the past 2 million years. That comes out to one every 150 to 200 years. They say one is long overdue. Mt. Douglas is 7020 feet high and very hard to see except in the very early morning of an extremely clear day. It is hard to see behind the blue haze and clouds.
Jimmy and the boys went out to go hiking for a couple of hours and I stayed back to wash clothes. This park has only 1 washer and 1 dryer so it takes forever to do 5 loads of clothes. All four of us are signed up to go halibut fishing again to morrow; so I need to get the fish smell out of the clothes so they can be worn again. The halibut really stinks !!!
Across Cook Inlet to the other side is land called the "Ring of Fire". Under the water of Cook Inlet is the subduction zone where the Pacific plate goes under the North American continent. These tectonic plates move at the speed of a growing fingernail. This energy pushes up the areas mountain ranges causing frequent earthquakes. These were the moving plates that caused the 1964 9.2 earthquake that caused so much damage in Seward and Anchorage. There are 5 active volcanic peaks across from us: Mt. Spurr, Mt. Redoubt, Mt. Iliamna, Mt. Augustine and Mt. Douglass. Most of these are snow covered but they still erupt. Mt. Spurr is 11,000 feet high and erupted in 1953 and 1992. It spewed so much ash that Anchorage airport had to close. Mt. Redoubt is 6197 feet high and erupted on March 15, 2009 with the ash plumes rising 30,000 to 60,000 feet into the sky. When it erupted on December 14, 1989 it lasted until early 1990! The ash went 12 miles high into the clouds and disrupted the air traffic all the way to Texas! Mt. Iliamna is 10,016 feet high and is surrounded by glaciers. This volcano is relatively quiet. It erupted in 1741 and only several times since then. Mt. Augustine is 4134 feet high and on its own island. It erupted in 1883, 1908, 1935, 1963 - 1964, 1976, 1986, 2005 - 2006. This volcano poses a real threat of tsunamis. The island has a very irregular coastline which is evidence of frequent eruptions. The Alaska Volcano Observatory said 11 avalanches occurred in the past 2 million years. That comes out to one every 150 to 200 years. They say one is long overdue. Mt. Douglas is 7020 feet high and very hard to see except in the very early morning of an extremely clear day. It is hard to see behind the blue haze and clouds.
Sunday, July 4th, 2010- Independence Day
Today is rather cool and we are going to the local rodeo this afternoon. This was a first for Tyler and Noah. We had to explain to the boys why the bulls do not like the cowboys riding them and why they kick so hard to get that strap off.
They had bull rides for the younger crowd who hope to grow up to be bull riders. Of course, their bulls were much younger, therefore the boys didn't get thrown quite so far. There were even girls riding the young bulls.
At one point they called all children between the ages of 3 and 8 to go out into the bull ring with a really young bull. The idea was for one of the children to just touch the baby bull. But the little bull kept running away; so all of the kids received a prize.
There were also races where a teenage girl riding a horse would pull a younger child behind her on a piece of cowhide. These races were done three days in a row and the results tallied and added together. Today is the final run and the best score wins.
The teenage girls also performed in another race where they had to touch a young bull with a stick that had a sponge attached to the end. On this sponge was a paint of some sort so you could see exactly where she hit the bull. The idea was to do this in the shortest time possible and she had to touch the bull behind its neck. They all received points for this and it was tallied along with the 2 previous days.
Check out the pictures we took. We don't have very many because a moving bull or horse is hard to focus on.
It started raining so we went to the local store and bought huge ice cream cones and went back to the RV to watch TV.
They had bull rides for the younger crowd who hope to grow up to be bull riders. Of course, their bulls were much younger, therefore the boys didn't get thrown quite so far. There were even girls riding the young bulls.
At one point they called all children between the ages of 3 and 8 to go out into the bull ring with a really young bull. The idea was for one of the children to just touch the baby bull. But the little bull kept running away; so all of the kids received a prize.
There were also races where a teenage girl riding a horse would pull a younger child behind her on a piece of cowhide. These races were done three days in a row and the results tallied and added together. Today is the final run and the best score wins.
The teenage girls also performed in another race where they had to touch a young bull with a stick that had a sponge attached to the end. On this sponge was a paint of some sort so you could see exactly where she hit the bull. The idea was to do this in the shortest time possible and she had to touch the bull behind its neck. They all received points for this and it was tallied along with the 2 previous days.
Check out the pictures we took. We don't have very many because a moving bull or horse is hard to focus on.
It started raining so we went to the local store and bought huge ice cream cones and went back to the RV to watch TV.
Friday, July 23, 2010
Saturday, July 3, 2010.
Today the boys and Daddy drove down to Homer, Alaska on the bottom of the Kenai Peninsula which has a population of 5500. Homer is considered to be the end of the road because the road goes right into the bay. The bay is called Kachemak Bay , a Russian word that means high cliffs on the water. They also say the name means smoky bay because smoke used to rise from the smoldering coal seams jutting up from the clay bluffs. In the early days these coal seams were burning from causes unknown. Now because of erosion of these bluffs you can find huge pieces of lignite and bituminous coal right on the beach. In fact the supply of coal in Homer is 400,000,000 tons. From the late 1800s to 1907 a railroad line carried the coal right onto the Homer spit from the bluffs; but it was abandoned when the gold seekers came for the fields of gold in Hope and Sunrise. These bluffs are 1200 feet high and are the southern rim of the western plateau of the Kenai Peninsula. From June through September they are a pretty site with verdant greens and pastel wildflowers. In the fall the flowers become yellow
The Homer Spit is a long, narrow bar of land that juts out into the bay 4.3 miles into the bay.This spit is a terminal moraine made of sand, gravel, coal and debris left from a retreating glacier. The road from the Kenai Peninsula to here is called the Sterling Highway and it runs right out onto the Spit. In 1964 when Alaska had its big earthquake, the land on the spit sank 4 to 6 feet.Now the Spit is a major dock facility for boats loading and unloading, servicing and refrigeration. They ship out large amounts of Cook Inlet fish from the canneries in Homer. Their deep water port makes it a favorite spot for cruise and cargo ships. Homer is known as the capital of halibut fishing and draws thousands of fishermen each year. One of the RV parks is right on the spit at the water.
Across the Kachemak Bay from Homer is the Kachemak Bay Sate Park. There are 400,000 acres here that the government has opened for people to explore. It has mountains, streams, creeks, forests, glaciers and lots of wild animals.
The Homer Spit is a long, narrow bar of land that juts out into the bay 4.3 miles into the bay.This spit is a terminal moraine made of sand, gravel, coal and debris left from a retreating glacier. The road from the Kenai Peninsula to here is called the Sterling Highway and it runs right out onto the Spit. In 1964 when Alaska had its big earthquake, the land on the spit sank 4 to 6 feet.Now the Spit is a major dock facility for boats loading and unloading, servicing and refrigeration. They ship out large amounts of Cook Inlet fish from the canneries in Homer. Their deep water port makes it a favorite spot for cruise and cargo ships. Homer is known as the capital of halibut fishing and draws thousands of fishermen each year. One of the RV parks is right on the spit at the water.
Across the Kachemak Bay from Homer is the Kachemak Bay Sate Park. There are 400,000 acres here that the government has opened for people to explore. It has mountains, streams, creeks, forests, glaciers and lots of wild animals.
Friday, July 2, 2010.
Today I had to wash all of the smelly fish clothes because they reek!!! We had to let them sit outside overnight to air out. It still didn't do any good; but at least the smell wasn't in the RV or the car. Tyler was able to wear Daddy's extra pair of boots to fish and Noah wore my boots because I didn't go on the halibut trip. They have also been wearing the boots when they hike up to streams to fly fish. The boys are having a ball and seeing things most people never get to see.
Tonight we did a float trip down the Kenai River to Skilak Lake. We were supposed to see bear along the riversides; but there weren't any. We saw plenty of fishermen, in the water, in boats, and from the banks. There were camps along the way where you could camp out overnight, but there was no road to reach them. You had to float into the camps and bring all of your supplies with you. That is really rustic. I bet those people could see bears. We saw 1 boat that had a huge umbrella over top of it using it as a sail. The current is pretty swift, but all of the rapids were extremely mild. I didn't want even moderate rapids and Noah is too young to go on those. Maybe Daddy and Tyler can take a white water trip in the next few days. Noah and I will have to find something else to do.
Some parts of the Russian River are closed to salmon fishing because too many fishermen left the fish carcasses on the shore and the bears got into them. A few bears have attacked the people because they wanted the fish too. So now those spots are closed. Alaska requires strict rules about the salmon fishing and they are so far ahead of us in being green. This state is truly the last frontier. They are really into preserving the environment. If they weren't doing this, the salmon might have been extinct already.
Many spots on the rivers have fish hatcheries that produce wild salmon fry, not farmed. They are released into the wild as fry, so they can swim out in the ocean. That's where they become the size we can catch now.
There was a family of 4 on this float trip with us who had 2 young boys about 3 years old. They were a set of twins and Noah really enjoyed playing with them. There was 1 spot along the bluff that we passed that had an old, old car buried in the bluff. They assume this occurred when the earthquake hit Alaska in 1964.
Tonight we did a float trip down the Kenai River to Skilak Lake. We were supposed to see bear along the riversides; but there weren't any. We saw plenty of fishermen, in the water, in boats, and from the banks. There were camps along the way where you could camp out overnight, but there was no road to reach them. You had to float into the camps and bring all of your supplies with you. That is really rustic. I bet those people could see bears. We saw 1 boat that had a huge umbrella over top of it using it as a sail. The current is pretty swift, but all of the rapids were extremely mild. I didn't want even moderate rapids and Noah is too young to go on those. Maybe Daddy and Tyler can take a white water trip in the next few days. Noah and I will have to find something else to do.
Some parts of the Russian River are closed to salmon fishing because too many fishermen left the fish carcasses on the shore and the bears got into them. A few bears have attacked the people because they wanted the fish too. So now those spots are closed. Alaska requires strict rules about the salmon fishing and they are so far ahead of us in being green. This state is truly the last frontier. They are really into preserving the environment. If they weren't doing this, the salmon might have been extinct already.
Many spots on the rivers have fish hatcheries that produce wild salmon fry, not farmed. They are released into the wild as fry, so they can swim out in the ocean. That's where they become the size we can catch now.
There was a family of 4 on this float trip with us who had 2 young boys about 3 years old. They were a set of twins and Noah really enjoyed playing with them. There was 1 spot along the bluff that we passed that had an old, old car buried in the bluff. They assume this occurred when the earthquake hit Alaska in 1964.
Thursday, July 1, 2010.
Today we are going salmon fishing on the Kenai River. The company is called "King of the River" and it was a very enjoyable trip. They explained how to cast and hold the rod. Two of our rods had herring as bait; the other two rods had salmon fish eggs for bait. Within the first 20 minutes after casting I had a huge hit on my rod. It took me 45 minutes to reel the line in. My shoulders and arms ached so much I thought they would fall off. When I finally got the line all the way up to the boat, we saw a 50 pound salmon on the line. These fish are so strong that the captain likes to wear them out beside the boat before pulling them in. So they did that; but the fish eventually swam under the boat and cut the line with the propeller and we lost him. Daddy said that was a trophy fish, "a once in a lifetime" and I lost him!!! I didn't catch a single fish the rest of the day. If I had, I wouldn't have been able to reel it in. My arms felt like limp noodles!! Noah's fish kept eating the bait off, but never getting hooked. Tyler caught a small King called a "jack king" which we could keep and not have to record. You are only allowed 1 King Salmon per day; 2 King Salmon per year from the Kenai River. Daddy caught a couple salmon under 20 pounds which we could keep. They are now in the freezer in the RV. I had to get rid of some of our frozen food to make space for the fish.
We ate halibut and salmon grilled outside with a seafood rub and olive oil. It was delicious!!!! I could probably eat that everyday and still not get tired of it. Fresh fish tastes so much better. By the end of this summer we will a freezer full of halibut and salmon. I guess I can keep my big freezer after all!!!
We ate halibut and salmon grilled outside with a seafood rub and olive oil. It was delicious!!!! I could probably eat that everyday and still not get tired of it. Fresh fish tastes so much better. By the end of this summer we will a freezer full of halibut and salmon. I guess I can keep my big freezer after all!!!
Wednesday, June 30, 2010.
Today we are driving to Ninilchik to stay at a RV site on the bluff above Cook Inlet which flows out to the ocean. We have seen so many bald eagles; some are still teenager and immature. The immature bald eagles have brown and white speckled breasts. They won't be an adult til they are 5 years old. Then they will get the white head and tail feathers. The bald eagles mate for life and stay here year round. They do not fly south for the winter. They just keep adding sticks and branches to their nests. Sometimes the nests become so large that they will collapse and have to build a new one. The view from this bluff is amazing. You can see the mountainous volcanoes across the inlet from us. Some still have snow on their tops. The one erupted last year. Any volcano which has erupted in the last 100 years is considered active!!!
Daddy, Noah and Tyler went halibut fishing in the ocean. It took 1 hour by boat to get to the ocean. The water was pretty mild that day and sunny. They caught lots of halibut and kept only 2 of the largest per person. There was a man on board from the Air Force base. He caught a 175 pound halibut!!! That was bigger than Tyler. When they pulled him on deck his tail whipped around and smacked Noah in the butt. He had blood all down his pants leg! Daddy said Tyler's and Noah's eyes were like saucers when they saw the size of that fish. The crew is allowed to keep 2 fish per person, so they gave their catch to us also. By the time the fish are cut into fillets and the heads and carcasses disposed of, we had 66 pounds of fish to ship home. That cost $300., but that is better than us buying a freezer to place in the RV! We have no idea where we would put one and then have to run the generator 24--7 to keep the freezer running. Paying $300 is cheaper, believe it or not!!!
Daddy, Noah and Tyler went halibut fishing in the ocean. It took 1 hour by boat to get to the ocean. The water was pretty mild that day and sunny. They caught lots of halibut and kept only 2 of the largest per person. There was a man on board from the Air Force base. He caught a 175 pound halibut!!! That was bigger than Tyler. When they pulled him on deck his tail whipped around and smacked Noah in the butt. He had blood all down his pants leg! Daddy said Tyler's and Noah's eyes were like saucers when they saw the size of that fish. The crew is allowed to keep 2 fish per person, so they gave their catch to us also. By the time the fish are cut into fillets and the heads and carcasses disposed of, we had 66 pounds of fish to ship home. That cost $300., but that is better than us buying a freezer to place in the RV! We have no idea where we would put one and then have to run the generator 24--7 to keep the freezer running. Paying $300 is cheaper, believe it or not!!!
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
To reach Whittier, Alaska, you need to go through the Anton Anderson Memorial tunnel which is single lane only and you share it with the railroad. Every 15 minutes they change the direction traffic can flow and they change from vehicles to rail traffic. It is the longest highway tunnel and the longest combined highway/railroad tunnel in North America. A one way trip through the tunnel lasts 6.5 minutes and the top speed is 25 mph. Jet and portal fans together make up the ventilation system.
Whittier is a small town (population- 300) surrounded by mountains on one side and Prince William Sound on the other. They receive 20 feet of snow annually and 14 feet of rain. The town has an ice-free deep-water port, 1200 feet deep. They frequently have clouds and fog so thick that from a distance the town is not visible. The U.S. used this information during WWII and created the town as a port, petroleum delivery center and as a military supply base. Because you can rarely see it from the water and in the air, it was a great benefit to our troops and the Japanese had no idea it existed.
The town is named after the poet John Greenleaf Whittier. The tunnel,built in 1942-1943, was a 12.4 mile-long railway line for the safeguarding of military supplies from the port of Whittier. The west side of the tunnel is the Bear Valley and the east side is Portage Valley. The tunnel was named in 1976 for the engineer of the tunnel- Anton Anderson.
The tunnel only allows vehicles and trains inside except for 2 hours on one Sunday in June when the annual Walk to Whittier takes place. The tolls are charged for a round trip and are based on the vehicle class. Motorcycles, cars and small RVs without a two car are charged $12. Our RV is 38 feet and has a tow car, so that costs $35. We decided to just drive the car through because the height was rather short. The military was decommissioned in the 1960s and Whittier was incorporated in 1969.
The 14 story Begich Towers was used for the US Army for family housing and civilian bachelor quarters. Now it is condominiums where half of the town's population lives and the government offices. The other half of the population lives in the Buckner Building or Whittier Manor. The town depends solely on the fishing industry and tourism now since the military activities have stopped.
The Begich, Boggs Visitor Center is located on Portage Lake just before you enter the tunnel to Whittier. It focuses on the Chugach National Forest. The Portage Glacier is visible from here. Snowflakes are the frozen breath of the sea. This is the first step of a glacier's formation. Through time and pressure the glacier are formed. The Chugach Mountains have rivers of ice flowing and 1/3 of the forest still is moving ice. The Chugach Mountain Glaciers are master sculptors of the land. When a warming trend comes along, the glacier starts melting and the frozen snowflakes return to the sea again as water. The crevasses in the glaciers can be as deep as a 10 story building and can be hidden from view by snow. These glaciers can move 1 foot in a day and you can hear it grinding as it moves. The melted water flows under the glacier and forms sculptures.
The tundra around the glacier supports many organisms. The marsh is the cradle and nursery for many species. The iceworm lives right on the glacier. The land left behind after the glacier has moved is extremely harsh. It takes 3 years before anything can grow here.
You can still see remnants of the Valdez Oil Spill when the sea otters dig up clams to eat. The oil has gotten into the clams and when the sea otters eat them, they'll die. When they tried to fix up the Valdez oil spill by burning off the oil floating on top, the Orcas were killed because they had to surface to breathe. They inhaled the toxic fumes. Hundreds of them were killed.
There are 26 glaciers on Prince William Sound. We took a cruise on the Aurora Ferry to view them. Whittier is at the top of the Passage Canal and the port here is called Port Wells named by Captain Vancouver in the 18th century. Prince William Sound has 2100 square miles of islands and fjords carved 15 million years ago by glaciation. It is surrounded by the Chugach National Forest which is the second largest forest in North America. The land itself is larger than the state of Vermont. It has the largest intact marine ecosystem in North America and is the northernmost rain forest. The epicenter of the 1964 9.2 earthquake is here; so it is still an active seismic region. Most of the glaciers are named after colleges: the northwest side after the women's colleges and the southwest side after the men's colleges (Amherst, Bryn Mawr, Crescent, Williams, Yale, Dartmouth, Barnard, Smith,Harvard, Downer, Vassar, Wellesley, Holyoke).
When the glaciers break apart and melt, they form icebergs. 85% of the iceberg is below the water; only 15% shows. The sea otters use the icebergs to sleep, rest and play on. They have the densest fur of any animal in the world. They have no blubber to keep them warm. They are the largest member of the weasel family. We saw them sliding down some icebergs like sliding board. In the late 1800s when Russia was claiming this land, they almost slaughtered the sea otters to extinction. The native would never kill a female that had a pup or was pregnant. The Russians and the ruthless fur trappers killed any sea otter they saw.
The Harriman Fjord was named after Harriman in the 18th century when he took John Muir and John Barrows, the great scientist, and they found a water route inside. The Serpentine Glacier has lost its middle so it's separated and looks like 2 instead of one. The Surprise Glacier has a stripe down its side. Some of the huge cracks in the glacier are 100 feet deep. If you fall into these crevasses, it is so cold you would freeze to death before they could get you out. The medial moraine from these two glaciers are coming together at the bottom.
The icebergs are divided into 4 groups: brash- 0 to 3 feet above water, growler- 3 to 7 feet above water, bergie bits- 7 to 10 above water, and the iceberg- over 10 feet showing above water. We could feel the catamaran hitting them as we rode closer. We weren't able to go as far as usual because there were too many icebergs floating around. We could get stuck here and the water temperature is 38 to 42 degrees. One of the icebergs turned as we went over top of it and we could see a huge granite rock stuck into its side. When the ice falls off above the water it is called a "belly flopper". If it shoots off under the water it is called a "shooter". The mountain at the top where the glaciers are formed receive 100 feet of snow a year. When the bergie bits let air escape it is called "SNAP, CRACKLE, POP " !!! The Tidewater Glaciers move under their own power toward the water and they end up in the ocean.
There was a naturalist on board to teach kids about the glaciers in a school. We placed Noah in this and he graduated with a certificate!!! It was a very comfortable boat and was heated so you could stay inside and not freeze to death. We saw black-legged kittiwakes nests. They lay their eggs on the rocks. When the sun warms the rock up the eggs get warm and eventually hatch. When there is a large population of kittiwakes, the watershed is healthy. The kittiwakes are an indicator species.
Whittier is a small town (population- 300) surrounded by mountains on one side and Prince William Sound on the other. They receive 20 feet of snow annually and 14 feet of rain. The town has an ice-free deep-water port, 1200 feet deep. They frequently have clouds and fog so thick that from a distance the town is not visible. The U.S. used this information during WWII and created the town as a port, petroleum delivery center and as a military supply base. Because you can rarely see it from the water and in the air, it was a great benefit to our troops and the Japanese had no idea it existed.
The town is named after the poet John Greenleaf Whittier. The tunnel,built in 1942-1943, was a 12.4 mile-long railway line for the safeguarding of military supplies from the port of Whittier. The west side of the tunnel is the Bear Valley and the east side is Portage Valley. The tunnel was named in 1976 for the engineer of the tunnel- Anton Anderson.
The tunnel only allows vehicles and trains inside except for 2 hours on one Sunday in June when the annual Walk to Whittier takes place. The tolls are charged for a round trip and are based on the vehicle class. Motorcycles, cars and small RVs without a two car are charged $12. Our RV is 38 feet and has a tow car, so that costs $35. We decided to just drive the car through because the height was rather short. The military was decommissioned in the 1960s and Whittier was incorporated in 1969.
The 14 story Begich Towers was used for the US Army for family housing and civilian bachelor quarters. Now it is condominiums where half of the town's population lives and the government offices. The other half of the population lives in the Buckner Building or Whittier Manor. The town depends solely on the fishing industry and tourism now since the military activities have stopped.
The Begich, Boggs Visitor Center is located on Portage Lake just before you enter the tunnel to Whittier. It focuses on the Chugach National Forest. The Portage Glacier is visible from here. Snowflakes are the frozen breath of the sea. This is the first step of a glacier's formation. Through time and pressure the glacier are formed. The Chugach Mountains have rivers of ice flowing and 1/3 of the forest still is moving ice. The Chugach Mountain Glaciers are master sculptors of the land. When a warming trend comes along, the glacier starts melting and the frozen snowflakes return to the sea again as water. The crevasses in the glaciers can be as deep as a 10 story building and can be hidden from view by snow. These glaciers can move 1 foot in a day and you can hear it grinding as it moves. The melted water flows under the glacier and forms sculptures.
The tundra around the glacier supports many organisms. The marsh is the cradle and nursery for many species. The iceworm lives right on the glacier. The land left behind after the glacier has moved is extremely harsh. It takes 3 years before anything can grow here.
You can still see remnants of the Valdez Oil Spill when the sea otters dig up clams to eat. The oil has gotten into the clams and when the sea otters eat them, they'll die. When they tried to fix up the Valdez oil spill by burning off the oil floating on top, the Orcas were killed because they had to surface to breathe. They inhaled the toxic fumes. Hundreds of them were killed.
There are 26 glaciers on Prince William Sound. We took a cruise on the Aurora Ferry to view them. Whittier is at the top of the Passage Canal and the port here is called Port Wells named by Captain Vancouver in the 18th century. Prince William Sound has 2100 square miles of islands and fjords carved 15 million years ago by glaciation. It is surrounded by the Chugach National Forest which is the second largest forest in North America. The land itself is larger than the state of Vermont. It has the largest intact marine ecosystem in North America and is the northernmost rain forest. The epicenter of the 1964 9.2 earthquake is here; so it is still an active seismic region. Most of the glaciers are named after colleges: the northwest side after the women's colleges and the southwest side after the men's colleges (Amherst, Bryn Mawr, Crescent, Williams, Yale, Dartmouth, Barnard, Smith,Harvard, Downer, Vassar, Wellesley, Holyoke).
When the glaciers break apart and melt, they form icebergs. 85% of the iceberg is below the water; only 15% shows. The sea otters use the icebergs to sleep, rest and play on. They have the densest fur of any animal in the world. They have no blubber to keep them warm. They are the largest member of the weasel family. We saw them sliding down some icebergs like sliding board. In the late 1800s when Russia was claiming this land, they almost slaughtered the sea otters to extinction. The native would never kill a female that had a pup or was pregnant. The Russians and the ruthless fur trappers killed any sea otter they saw.
The Harriman Fjord was named after Harriman in the 18th century when he took John Muir and John Barrows, the great scientist, and they found a water route inside. The Serpentine Glacier has lost its middle so it's separated and looks like 2 instead of one. The Surprise Glacier has a stripe down its side. Some of the huge cracks in the glacier are 100 feet deep. If you fall into these crevasses, it is so cold you would freeze to death before they could get you out. The medial moraine from these two glaciers are coming together at the bottom.
The icebergs are divided into 4 groups: brash- 0 to 3 feet above water, growler- 3 to 7 feet above water, bergie bits- 7 to 10 above water, and the iceberg- over 10 feet showing above water. We could feel the catamaran hitting them as we rode closer. We weren't able to go as far as usual because there were too many icebergs floating around. We could get stuck here and the water temperature is 38 to 42 degrees. One of the icebergs turned as we went over top of it and we could see a huge granite rock stuck into its side. When the ice falls off above the water it is called a "belly flopper". If it shoots off under the water it is called a "shooter". The mountain at the top where the glaciers are formed receive 100 feet of snow a year. When the bergie bits let air escape it is called "SNAP, CRACKLE, POP " !!! The Tidewater Glaciers move under their own power toward the water and they end up in the ocean.
There was a naturalist on board to teach kids about the glaciers in a school. We placed Noah in this and he graduated with a certificate!!! It was a very comfortable boat and was heated so you could stay inside and not freeze to death. We saw black-legged kittiwakes nests. They lay their eggs on the rocks. When the sun warms the rock up the eggs get warm and eventually hatch. When there is a large population of kittiwakes, the watershed is healthy. The kittiwakes are an indicator species.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Monday, June 28, 2010.
We are staying at the Golden Nugget RV Park and it is really nice; but super crowded. There must be 3 caravans staying here now besides the people that live here for 4 months. The laundry has 20 washers and 15 dryers! Awesome!!!
The boys were excited and tired when they arrived. It was a rather long flight for them and a completely new experience with them on their own. But they did great. They were shocked that the sun was still shining at 11 PM!!!!We had to hurry them to bed because we have to be up early tomorrow morning to drive to Whittier
The boys were excited and tired when they arrived. It was a rather long flight for them and a completely new experience with them on their own. But they did great. They were shocked that the sun was still shining at 11 PM!!!!We had to hurry them to bed because we have to be up early tomorrow morning to drive to Whittier
Sunday, June 27, 2010.
Today we are in Soldotna on the Kenai Penninsula and it is raining moose and elk!!!! We had plans to fish the Kenai River today from the banks, but not with this rain! There are no museums to visit here so we are going to leave early and drive up to Anchorage. The boys fly in tomorrow night, so we need to be up there anyway. At least Anchorage has things to do in the rain.
Saturday, June 26, 2010
This morning Daddy went into the town to pick up the flash/frozen fish he caught yesterday. Now I had to find room in the freezer for the fish. Then we left Seward for Soldotna on the Kenai Penninsula. We stopped to buy propane on the way. A gallon of milk costs $5.98 here! We saw a cow moose with 2 of her calves on our way. I was able to obtain okay pictures of them.
Then we stopped at the Begich, Boggs Visitor Center at Portage Lake to view the Portage Glacier and Byron Glacier. It was raining, windy and cold; so we decide if we had seen one glacier, we've seen them all. How different could they be- they're all frozen ice and rock! Plus the visitor center was closing in 20 minutes. This is also the turnoff for the town of Whittier which is on the other side of the mountain. You have to drive through the 2.5 mile Anton-Anderson Memorial Tunnel that is only one lane and must be shared by cars and trains. So they have a schedule that changes every 15 minutes. At each end of the tunnel are staging areas where you wait for your turn. The fee charged is round trip but also dependent on the vehicle class. For our RV and two car it would cost $35. We decided to wait until the boys are here instead of paying that fee twice. We will go through the tunnel when we take the glacier cruise out of Whittier.
We are staying in the Edgewater RV Park right on the highway. It is a little noisy, but it's the weekend and traffic is heavy. We ate some of the halibut Daddy caught in Seward. On the grill it is awesome!!! Then we went to Dairy Queen to get ice cream. These places are open very late because it never gets dark here. The RV Park is right on the Kenai River. They have wooden steps down to the river and a boardwalk along the river so you can fish from the banks. They even have fish tables to clean the fish and throw the carcass into the river. Tomorrow we will try to fish from here.
Then we stopped at the Begich, Boggs Visitor Center at Portage Lake to view the Portage Glacier and Byron Glacier. It was raining, windy and cold; so we decide if we had seen one glacier, we've seen them all. How different could they be- they're all frozen ice and rock! Plus the visitor center was closing in 20 minutes. This is also the turnoff for the town of Whittier which is on the other side of the mountain. You have to drive through the 2.5 mile Anton-Anderson Memorial Tunnel that is only one lane and must be shared by cars and trains. So they have a schedule that changes every 15 minutes. At each end of the tunnel are staging areas where you wait for your turn. The fee charged is round trip but also dependent on the vehicle class. For our RV and two car it would cost $35. We decided to wait until the boys are here instead of paying that fee twice. We will go through the tunnel when we take the glacier cruise out of Whittier.
We are staying in the Edgewater RV Park right on the highway. It is a little noisy, but it's the weekend and traffic is heavy. We ate some of the halibut Daddy caught in Seward. On the grill it is awesome!!! Then we went to Dairy Queen to get ice cream. These places are open very late because it never gets dark here. The RV Park is right on the Kenai River. They have wooden steps down to the river and a boardwalk along the river so you can fish from the banks. They even have fish tables to clean the fish and throw the carcass into the river. Tomorrow we will try to fish from here.
Friday, July 9, 2010
Friday, July 2, 2010
Halibut Fishing Trip
Noah, Tyler, and Jim stand in front of the days catch. There were six on the boat in Nimilchik, Alaska in the Kenai region and we caught a total of 14 Halibut. The largest fish was 175 pounds caught by a air force guy. Our catch included 6 halibut about 30 pounds which is average. After fileting we got 66 pounds of meat, don't quite know where we are going to put it yet, the freezer is already full of fish.
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