Alaska – The MoHo and Other Traveling Tales

August 5 Day 31 Haines to Robinson Road House

When leaving Haines, there are three choices. You can travel back to Haines Junction and the Alaska Highway by road, you can take the ferry to Skagway or points south all the way to Bellingham, or you can fly a tiny plane to Whitehorse. At first I thought we might take the ferry to Skagway and then drive north to Carcross. It seems a popular option, saving more than 200 miles of driving, and the cost between driving and the ferry is comparable.

Ferry fees are based on the length of your rig, both of them, including whatever is hanging off the back. In addition you pay a separate fare for each person and an additional fare for each kayak. It is 288 miles to Carcross from Haines on the road, and 65 miles to Carcross from Skagway on the ferry, just a short hour crossing from Haines. We chose to drive.

A couple of things figured into our decision, not the least of which was the beauty of the Haines Highway, the magnificent wildness of a road that is bordered on both sides by grizzly country, without many other vehicles. I may not be back to Alaska for a long time, I wanted to see the Haines Highway again. A second reason is probably a bit silly. Since we chose to drive the Klondike Loop, there is a section of the Alaska Highway that we missed between Tok and Whitehorse. By backtracking to Haines Junction and getting back on the highway there we will travel east to Whitehorse and once we reach Dawson Creek can claim that we drove every single mile of the Alcan.

It was cloudy when we left this morning, with the huge peaks behind Haines only showing their sparkling glaciers sporadically and then the skies softened into a more leaden gray as we crossed Haines Summit once again. I was glad for our day of beautiful skies on our first passing, but the grizzly country surrounding us still looked wild and magical. When we were stopped for the construction zone, I asked about the grizzly, and they smiled and said, No, he hadn’t been back, but another griz was seen this morning back at Goat Creek, where we had already passed.

Continuing north, we still had the road to ourselves, but the scenery didn’t seem quite as dramatic as the first time. It was closer to mid day, with flat light, but I also think that the drama unfolds differently depending on the direction of travel. We reached Haines Junction and turned again on the Alaska Highway headed east toward Whitehorse.

Not far from the Junction, we came to a delightful rest stop along the Aishihik River and the Tutchone community of Canyon Creek. We took some time to walk up to the bluff and the cemetery, with its small scale houses covering the graves of the people buried there.

The bluff is formed in sand from the end moraine marking the terminus of a huge glacial lake that once filled this part of the Yukon. Beyond Canyon Creek, the landscape broadened and the roadside was dry nearly white silts from the floor of the Pleistocene lake. The soils were dry, the grasses were brown, and the aspen was gray and dry from the ravages of the aspen leaf miner. Fire danger was listed as “high”, and I could definitely see why. Mo was driving and I found myself dropping off into a snooze with the boredom of this Yukon landscape.

We stopped in Whitehorse for fuel, remembering our rainy arrival almost a month ago, and continued south to the South Klondike Road and the side trip to Carcross. We hoped to boondock for a few nights, and sure enough the big gravel pullouts looked inviting. We chose a rest area, where in the Yukon you can park if you choose, and settled in for the evening behind a wall of protective trees near the old Robinson Roadhouse, now abandoned and just a shell of its former glory. After a walk exploring the area, we settled in to a quesadilla supper and some reading and writing time before we slept.

I heard on the news recently that there was a possibility of northern lights in this part of the country due to a huge solar flare, and had high hopes when I went to bed. The skies were clear and bright, but when I woke at 11 and then again at 1 to check, the clouds had returned. No northern lights for us this time around, I guess. It’s really a bit early, with the lights starting up in the fall. The night temperature dipped to 38F and our heater came on quite a bit during the night. Good to have the generator to keep things charged and ready for us to stay nice and cozy. I don’t think solar panels would be much good in this world with all the cloudy weather.

Tomorrow we will stop to explore Carcross a bit before continuing east through the Yukon toward Watson Lake on a part of the highway that we passed on our way west. Once beyond Watson Lake it will all be new to me as we travel east toward mile zero at Dawson Creek.

Miles driven today: 268

Road condition: 2 lane paved highway with some areas of intermittent frost heave, but basically 55-60 mph road.

The rest of the photos for this day are linked here

August 4 Day 30 another day in Haines

Miles driven today in the MoHo: 0

Looking at a google map of the area around Haines, it is obvious that water plays a big part in the economy and history of the town. When we woke this morning, the skies were dark and the rain was continuous, and we looked at each other and shelved our plans to kayak the lovely Chilkoot Lake.

Instead we spent the morning catching up on bills and email, reading some blogs (I can’t possibly catch up on 275 recent posts!), and managing photos of the past two days.

By late morning, we decided it was time to explore another part of town, and walked up and down Main Street laughing at the unique style that is so typical of these small Alaskan towns. Many shops were closed, since it was Thursday. Why Thursday? No doubt everyone needs a break after the cruise ship sails away on Wednesday night. We still managed to browse some local art, found the liquor store for a bit of wine, and the local hardware store supplied a much needed grill brush for my little bbq.

By 2, we decided to again drive out to bear world on the Chilkoot, but the tide was out and the bears were not around. I did manage to get a photo of the quiet Chilkoot Lake, and we half wished for our kayak clothes after all. A couple of kayakers were on the lake, probably because they purchased the trip and couldn’t back out. The clouds were black and the rain came and went. We can kayak any time, so decided not to tempt the rain gods with our presence on that lovely water.

Instead we drove back through Haines and south on the west side of the peninsula to the Chilkat State Park. The two parks are very different! The road to Chilkat is narrow and winding, and the park road itself is blessed with a 14% grade and some serious washboards. The campground was nearly empty and it was thick and dark with vegetation and had no view of the inlet below. In addition, just before entering the park is a local community that is ‘interesting’ to say the least. They seemed to think that cars would grow if they threw them around in the forest. The houses were all ‘unique’, and it appeared that most folks hauled in their water. We saw more junk at one place than I have seen at most junk yards, and every house had its own private junk décor. Very strange.

We found the day use area down on the inlet, and even in the clouds and gray skies, the two nearby glaciers shone pale blue in the gray light . Of course, I played with the camera, with plenty of time to set up the tripod and shoot a couple of F22 1/20 second shots while Mo let Abby go for a swim. I guess the water wasn’t as cold as it looked, because she didn’t want to get out when it was time to go.

Driving back toward town, we passed a fish packing establishment that advertised a gift shop ‘Something Fishy”, in addition to fresh fish and drove down the long dirt driveway to find…nothing. Many red buildings and doors, and a couple of people around, but everything seemed locked up tight with a closed sign on the gift shop. Later in town, a waitress told us that the owner was getting his car fixed in Anchorage, that his wife was running things, and his son should have been out there, but of course they do run things out there “on an Alaskan time schedule”. Maybe a bit like being closed on Thursdays?

Back in town, I wanted some fresh halibut to celebrate our last night in Alaska, and we chose the Bamboo Room and Pioneer Bar. Another unique Alaskan place with a colorful history, it didn’t disappoint us when it came to the Halibut and Chips. We split the meal, at 25 bucks, and it was more than enough for us. Not cheap by any means, but oh so good! I also had a cup of fresh homemade mushroom soup that I think was the best I ever tasted.

After our early supper we decided to drive back out to the bear world and were rewarded with Momma and her two babies running down from the forest to the fish weir below to catch their supper. There were fewer people around, but more distance between us and the bears this time. It was interesting watching the interactions between the mom and her two kids. The boy cub was obviously much more adventurous than the girl. For a long time, Mom fished alone, but then the cubs ran down to the weir and started begging for fish. She didn’t give them any right away, and finally the boy got enough nerve to jump in and catch his own fish. The girl cub was still afraid, kept reaching out to Mom, and sure enough in a few minutes Mom threw up a big fish to her waiting daughter. She did this a few times while boy caught his own fish, and before long all three bears were feasting on fresh salmon.

On the way back out Chilkoot road we an eagle above us so I stopped to try for some shots. I heard a cry and realized that his mate was calling to him nearby, so managed to get a shot of her as well. Even in the dark skies, it was fun to see the fierce eyes of these birds up close.

It was still raining sporadically and quite gloomy when we returned home, but another cruise ship sailing by from Skagway lit up the evening a bit. Tomorrow we will leave Alaska for the last time as we travel east into the Yukon, British Columbia, and Alberta on our way home. I am glad we took the time to come to Haines. When I planned this trip, it was hard to decide whether or not to take these roads from the main highway and Seward, Valdez, and Haines were iffy in the original plan. Still we haven’t had any reservations, and I am so glad. We have extended the trip by almost another week, and haven’t had to be anywhere at a specific time. It’s been wonderful.

The rest of the photos for this day are linked here

In case you missed it, the rest of the bear photos are linked here

August 3 Day 29 Kluane to Haines

We woke to brilliant sunlight streaming in the east facing windows around 5:30 and with hot tea in the cupholders were on the road by 6. At last the Alaska Highway filled all my highest dreams of what this road could be. We were all alone and the Yukon pavement was smooth and silent. When I lived in a beautiful part of the MotherLode in California, near Sonora, I dreamed of a road to myself. I couldn’t often see the beauty because there were usually 7 cars behind me wanting to go faster and 7 cars in front of me trying slow me down. Our drive today filled my yearning for the open road, a highway uncluttered with vehicles, wild and open and all my own.

Take a minute to watch the show and get a taste of what it felt like

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We took our time and pulled off often to catch the spectacular views of the St Elias Mountains. A stop at the Kluane National Park of Canada gave us just a taste of the wild expanse of ice that makes up more than half of this magnificent land. Adjacent to and combined with the Wrangell-St Elias, these two parks make up the largest contiguous extent of protected wilderness in the world, and are recognized by the United Nations as a World Heritage Site of great significance. Ice fever called, and I dreamed of returning and taking the time to fly over that vast icefield with glaciers radiating down on all sides.

The road was perfect, except for a short stretch after we crossed into British Columbia, and when we saw the construction signs we pulled to a stop, with no idea what waited for us there.

After a few moments, we noticed the flagger scanning the slopes to our east and of course, we looked up too. High on the hill above us, oblivious to the world below, a grizzly grazed intently for berries. The road folks exclaimed in awe that he was really a “big one”. It was thrilling to watch him move, so quickly and full of grace and power, even through the binoculars. The 300 lens could just barely capture him, but there he is, a real wild grizzly, no collar, no bands, unexpected, in the middle of nowhere. Without the construction slowdown we would have missed him.

We crossed Haines Pass, with more wonderful interpretive signs about the gold rush and an especially well done description of the habitat variations from tundra to hemlock forest as we descended into the valley. The rapid change was dramatic, and beautiful, as we suddenly were surrounded by the thick, dark forest and the broad glacially fed Chilkat River, home to more than 3,500 eagles in the fall at the Eagle Reserve.

~~~~~

Once we arrived in Haines, we took advantage of the sunny afternoon to walk around Fort Seward and explore the shops and galleries on the Fort grounds. Fort Seward was built in 1902 and operated until 1947. Eventually it was bought by a group of war veterans and the grounds and buildings are privately owned with hotels, restaurants and galleries. I especially enjoyed walking through the Native Arts Center and seeing the huge mess of artistic creativity in the main carving room.

But the main reason we took the extra time to come to Haines was for the bears, and it was time to go find them. There is a large population of both black and brown bear in Haines, but it is especially famous for the bear viewing along the Chilkoot River at Chilkoot State Park just 9 miles north of town.

We unexpectedly drove in Haines on a “cruise ship Wednesday” the only day that ships dock here, so the bear viewing site was full of people in cars and buses, with tour groups and people walking along the road. It was a zoo, just without fences. Even so, it was wonderful to see these big brown bears up close and personal.

The only ‘fence’ was the park officer walking around trying to corral all the folks who would think of getting to close to a momma grizzly and her babies. She seemed somewhat frustrated with some folks especially, and said to me, “Fine, let them get mauled, they deserve it”. She was saddened especially by the fact that the two cubs will no doubt end up being killed from their exposure to too many people. They can’t relocate these big brown bears because they stubbornly return to their homelands in record time.

If you look closely at the lower right photo in the collage, you will see a salmon fisherman of the human variety. These fishermen compete with the bears for the spawning salmon, but if a bear comes too close they will run away, leaving behind their catch. This results in bears discovering that humans are a great source of food. The saying goes, “A fed bear is a dead bear”. Sad

Still, it was thrilling to watch Mama and her little ones, a male and a female just a year and a half old. Mama was a great swimmer, and her babies were carefully staying in the shallow water as they watched her fish. The boy cub was much braver than the light boned delicate little girl but he still didn’t go all the way out to fight the strong current with Mama. Even with her collar and bands, it was wonderful seeing this great wild 7 year old bear fishing in her world, traveling the same routes her mother did and fishing the same waters while she taught her babies. There is another mom with 3 cubs in the area and 2 other males but we didn’t see them on this trip.

After our bear time, we went back to town to our home on the water at Oceanside RV Park. It’s not fancy, but it has full hookups, TV and WiFi and with our planned two day stay, it’s nice to have amenities. Our freezer stores are getting a bit low, so we went to the Lighthouse Bar just down the road for great burgers while we watched the light change over the inlet. Somehow coming to Haines was a full circle return from our cruise last summer when we watched Haines in the distance as we passed by on the Princess. It was fun to watch the cruise ships pass on the Lynn Canal as we settled into the evening.

Miles travel today: 214

Road condition: excellent 2 lane paved highway with a short stretch of gravel construction in BC

The rest of the photos for this day are linked here

A LOT of photos of the bears are linked here

August 2 day 28 Tok to Kluane Lake boondock

The night temperatures have been in the low to mid 40’s for most of our trip, so when we have hookups it’s nice to use the small electric space heater to keep things cozy. Last night the winds blew a lot but it never rained. I took my time and read blogs and wrote some more while Mo cooked a good breakfast. The nearly empty park was almost full this morning when we woke. I’m glad that we have managed to do this trip so far with no reservations, but we usually get off the road by 3 or 4 in the afternoon and that seems to be the magic time for getting a site.

The route to Haines through Haines Junction is more than 400 miles so we knew that we would choose to find another boondock site for tonight somewhere along the way. We also knew there was a border crossing into the Yukon and it would be time to turn the phones to airplane mode to avoid lots of hefty charges. It’s been great having the iPhone available for email when I don’t have full internet on the computer in addition to Google Maps since our GPS charger won’t connect. Once back in Canada, I’ll have to rely on paper maps again. Whew! I surely do like my satellite imagery of where I am traveling.

With a stop for groceries at the Tok Three Bear Market, a propane fill-up at the Chevron station next door, and a gas up stop at the Three Bears station at 4.06 per gallon, we were ready to roll. The skies were cloudy, but not so bad that we couldn’t see at least part of the landscape where we traveled.

Within a few miles we came to the junction with the Taylor Highway, our route a couple of weeks ago when we first came into Alaska. What a difference some traveling makes. My perception of Alaska now is very much different than it was on that previous cloudy day when we passed through Tok. Someone recently mentioned in a blog that Tok is the place we all have to visit at least twice, one entering Alaska and once leaving. It’s the only way through from Canada if you are driving into Alaska.

Not far past the junction is the new bridge across the mighty Tanana River. “Mighty” seems to be the word of the day when describing these broad, braided, glacial rivers with their heavy load of silt and debris roaring to the Bering Sea. The Tanana is a mighty river, and the new information rest area on the east side of the river did it justice. Since the new bridge was only completed in 2010, the center was new, and had informative signs with natural and human history of the river and the bridge and the world the river travels. The highway was quiet this morning, and we had the entire area to ourselves while I took photos and marveled at the river.

I am really enjoying all the interpretive signs that are along the roadways, both in Alaska and in the Yukon. People have developed some beautiful art and told wonderful stories. Somewhere I am sure there are glossy brochures with the same information, but I really love having the photo record of those stories right with my photos. I take a lot of photos of those signs, a habit I just developed in the last couple of years. In fact, sometimes if an information area is too crowded, I’ll photograph the signs and read the information later in the photo at my leisure. It works for me anyway.

I was in charge of reading the Milepost and deciding which areas needed our attention. There were so many rest stops and interpretive areas along the way that we weren’t making very much progress toward our destination. I almost skipped the Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge Information Center. What a sad loss that would have been. We stopped in at the beautifully crafted spruce log building and enjoyed every part of this beautiful place, including the native people there telling stories and showing their craftsmanship.

The center had signs everywhere saying, “Touch Gently”, something I really loved since I always want to touch things to “see” them. I felt the incredible softness of a lynx pelt, the hollow haired warmth of a caribou coat, the smelly stiffness of dried fish, and played like a kid with the molded animal feet making prints in the sand to identify. Then we watched the 15 minute movie about the Great Migration of the Tetlin Valley. This movie was so beautiful it made me cry. In fact, writing about it right now I feel that sting behind my eyes of emotion. The native music and voices that narrated the story of the refuge were haunting. They told of the birds that rest and nest here, the history of the place, and the beauty of the fall migration and the winter snows. I’m so grateful that we stopped instead of saying, “Do we really need to see another Information Center?” as we almost did.

Not long after Tetlin, we arrived at the Canadian border, but the actual customs entry site is about 27 more miles down the road. We slid quickly through the check station: “7 bottles of beer, 1/2 a bottle of wine, we will be in Canada one night on our way to Haines, and no we don’t have any guns or weapons.” “Welcome to Canada”. They didn’t even ask for the pet papers this time.

Somehow we managed to get behind 3 rigs, all pulling fifth wheels and trailers, and the gravel and frost heaves were starting in earnest. Mo followed the slower rigs for a lot of miles and I felt like I was in an RV train. Somehow this was my bad expectation for this trip come to life as I watched the rear end of a huge Montana fifth wheel bounce around in front of me.

We were in a wild part of the Yukon in a cluster of rigs and no one was giving up their space, including Mo! The only thing that saved me at last was a triad of beautiful trumpeter swans below the road on a small lake. Finally we had to pull over to the side and let the two rigs we had passed go by. I got the photos, and the nice part was that it was a long time before we caught up the the train again.

As the afternoon progressed, we decided that with nearly 200 miles behind us it was time to look for a boondock site of our own. There are some rest stops near Kluane Lake that are signed and fairly well known as stopovers, but I wasn’t really excited about the idea of 7 or 8 rigs joining me for the night. A few miles past Discovery Bay, we saw a big gravel pit on the west side of the highway, and then found the road leading back in to a perfect site all our own. We are off the road a quarter mile or so, with plenty of space when Mo turned around to face the sliver of Kluane Lake that is visible from here.

The skies are almost clear, the wind is blowing but we are protected by the forest on the west side of the rig. I cooked some tender and tasty boneless chicken breasts on the weberQ and they turned out juicy and perfect. I sure do like that little bbq. Funny thing is that while it is small enough to pack around, the grill itself weighs more than the entire bbq!

Tomorrow we will travel back into Alaska to Haines where we plan to spend a couple of days exploring and hopefully at last seeing the big brown bears fishing for salmon.

Miles traveled today: about 225

Road condition: Good until we entered the Yukon, then it got very rough with lots of frost heaves and gravel and some construction

The rest of the photos for this day are linked here

August 1 Day 27 Valdez to Tok

(Not sure if you have noticed, but if you hover your mouse over the photos, my captions show up. I just discovered this myself recently. Also, as usual, you can click on any photo to enlarge it)

It rained hard all night at Valdez, but the MoHo was cozy and dry and we both slept really well after our day on the cruise boat. As we packed in to leave, the rain was soft but not terribly cold and we dumped the tanks, took on fresh water, and hooked up the baby car for the trip back north.

The drive through Keystone Canyon was subdued and I was so glad that we had the chance to see it in the sunlight. Even in the rain the landscape was lovely, but there was no real hint of the spectacular scenery that surrounded us as we crossed Thompson Pass, passed Worthington Glacier and again followed the route along the Copper River north.

Like many other small settlements in this part of Alaska, Copper Center has a fairly recent history. It was founded in 1896 as an agricultural experiment center, and was the first white settlement in the area. When the gold rush hit, the miners traveled over the glaciers and joined the Eagle Trail to Forty Mile and on to Dawson. The post office and telegraph station were both built in 1901, and the historic roadhouse began in 1897 to be replaced in 1932. It is still in operation, with a bright neon sign on the historic building proclaiming, “OPEN”.

We just ambled through town along the loop road before ascending back up to a viewpoint of the great Copper River, only 300 miles long but carrying a load of glacial silt larger than rivers many times its size. I loved seeing this river, the home of the best tasting wild salmon I can buy back in Oregon when it comes into season, just three weeks each year. Now of course, I have tasted Prince William Sound sockeye salmon and that Copper River fish has some competition.

We again stopped in at the Hub to gas up and upload photos from the free WiFi while we waiting in line for a pump. It is certainly a popular place. Before long we reached the Tok Cutoff, the Alaska 1 road that takes us directly east to Tok rather than following the Richardson Highway all the way to Delta Junction. As soon as we were on the cutoff, the road construction began in earnest, with many miles of gravel and some serious frost heaves almost all the way to Tok.

There were a few viewpoints along the way, and we stopped for photos, but the gray day and monochromatic light didn’t inspire me much. I knew that some truly gorgeous volcanoes were just out of reach in the clouds and could only imagine what I was missing.

We arrived in Tok, deciding to stay at the Tok RV Village because they advertised WiFi and Cable television. I am not sure how long it’s been since we saw the news, but hookups, TV, a laundromat, and some internet time were big on the list. The folks at this RV park weren’t particularly friendly, and WiFi was that dang Tengo thing that costs 6.95 per day, the washers were 3.50 per load, and there were something like 5 channels on the tube. The place was set up nicely though, with big pull through sites and when we arrived around 3 it was basically empty.

Within an hour it started filling up and we saw the lineup for the rig wash and wondered if it was free. There were 3 and 4 rigs at a time waiting to get all that grime off their shiny paint. We waited too, and around 8 Mo said, “Let’s GO”, and we disconnected and drove the MoHo and still attached Tracker across the way for a good wash. The charge was just 15.50 for unlimited time for both rigs so I think we washed for about half an hour before everything was shiny again. Who knows how long it will last, but at least we got the salty layer from the sea air removed before we add another layer of dust and dirt.

The news predicted a big storm for Valdez, with 80 mph winds in the sound and once again we were star blessed to be in the right place at the right time and missed the worst of it. The predictions for tomorrow include rain and gloom, but I have figured out that most of the time that shifts a bit and so far we haven’t really been socked in with hard rain for any length of time since that stretch between Talkeetna and Anchorage.

A good simple day on the road.

Miles traveled: about 250

Road condition: Valdez to the Tok Cutoff, reasonably OK, with just some frost heaves and a bit of gravel here and there. Tok Cutoff is a pain, but not unmanageable if you keep your speed down. Knock on wood, we still have no chips in the windows or big dings on the rigs.

There are a few more photos for this day linked here