Alaska – Page 5 – The MoHo and Other Traveling Tales

Day 12 July 17 The Top of the World

One of the reasons we thought to leave Dawson today was to avoid the 20 rig caravan scheduled to cross the Yukon on the ferry tomorrow morning. It is a good idea to check with the Information Center about possible caravans leaving on the ferry so you can adjust accordingly. I couldn’t quite imagine driving this wild place in a line of RV’s. At noon, when we drove down to the ferry, there was already a large line of cars, RV’s, and folks on foot crossing the river. The only way west from Dawson is to cross the Yukon River on the last existing ferry along this route, both the Perry Ferry and the Stewart Ferry are now replaced by bridges. The ferry is free, part of the Yukon highway system. Sometimes you are lucky and there is no wait, sometimes you are a second kind of lucky and there is. Our second kind of lucky turned out to be just an hour and a half of time to watch the ferry fight the incredibly strong current of the river loaded up with big Holland America busses and to visit with local folks here for the festival.

We initially planned to cross with the Tracker hooked up, but after seeing the big rigs and busses bumping on the exit across the river, we thought better of that plan and unhooked. Mo had to then get the Tracker back to the end of the line of passenger cars and we hoped we would still cross at the same time, but it didn’t look good. I actually enjoyed the wait, watching and visiting, eating another piece of the giant cinnamon bun from Beaumont Lodge, and just enjoying the gorgeous sunlight and the view.

When I finally loaded, first rig on the ferry, I was amazed to see Mo get waved on as the last rig because she was short enough to fill in the space. Perfect. The river was especially high and muddy, with a powerful current now and then laced with huge logs and debris. Must be a talented person who runs that boat! In no time, we were off the ferry and hooked up with the Protect-A-Tow in place ready to tackle the gravel road to Tok and the Alaska Highway.

I had read about this road, seen photos from other blogs, heard varying reviews from writers that didn’t give me a clue of what was actually in store for us. This, finally, was the wild north that I had come to see. This road, rough as it is, was magnificent, utterly breathtaking, awe-inspiring magic. I began to feel the magic within the first few miles, as we climbed the long grade to the ridgetop run that most of the road follows along the spine of the mountains.

…

The wild Yukon spread out before me to the east and north, and the deep valleys of the Yukon River and its tributaries to the south.

I wouldn’t have missed this part of our trip for anything. Every single penny of the trip is worth the wild and beautiful landscape we traveled today, on a road built only a few decades ago. Long ago, in Idaho, I worked in a wild area of the St Joe National Forest, and traveled a ridge run similar to this one for many miles into the back country. I loved that road, the 201, more than any other in my lifetime. This was the 201 on steroids, winding along the ridges, across open grassy slopes above timberline, with views into hundreds of miles of roadless wilderness only known to First Nations and old trappers. Hundreds of miles without a telephone pole, or a power transmission line, or a cell tower anywhere, or road the only ribbon of civilization crawling through to the distance. Not a clear cut in sight. Nothing but the wild Yukon into the wild Alaska.

I suppose the only mild disappointment was that we still saw no animals at all on the route. Oops, we did see one more squirrel run across the road, but that was it. Not a sheep or a bear or a caribou. So many warnings, both on signs and in the Milepost, indicated that at least here, we would see animals. Again, it was not to be.

After two very short hours, we crossed into Alaska. This northernmost border crossing was simple and quiet, with no one in front of us, even though we had seen a few rigs along the route. We were asked no questions except how long we had been out of the United States and how many pets we had. After the officer checked our passports and pet papers we were on our way. The rain that we watched building in the west finally overtook us at the border of Alaska and we drove on a bit, searching for a wide place along the road. As promised, the road turned to wet, rough dirty gravel, and Mo was glad to find a nice long turnout where we parked for the night.

Since the border behind us closed at 8, there was only a bit of traffic coming along behind us before everything was silent for the rest of the night. I say “night” very loosely. We gained an hour, so were worn out, fed and in bed by something silly like 6:30 with our books. At midnight, when I woke, it was a bright twilight evening, with the almost full moon rising over the ridge behind us. There is a small stream of water running down the mountain behind the rig, and I had hoped it might bring in some critters. It’s now 3:30 am and I have been writing for some time and have yet to see any critters in the morning light. It never got dark at all.

I turned the generator on to run a bit of heat in the 40*F outside temperatures and to keep the inverter on so I could charge up the computer. I feel like a newborn with my days and nights mixed up, just wondering if in this bright morning light I should now try to get some sleep. Mo keeps wanting to drive since she hates navigating, so at least she is back there snoozing away while I type and manage photos. Today we continue toward Chicken and Tok and once again will be on the Alaska Highway.

The Klondike/Top of the World loop certainly has it great moments and its downside. Still, I wouldn’t have missed it for anything. Here is a slide show of the journey.

Miles traveled today: about 125 between site15 at Dawson and 16 at our boondock site

Road condition: hard surface fine gravel with rough spots, steep grades up and down to the Alaska border. From the border to our boondock site, gravel that seems more like dirt, rutted and rough, but so far we haven’t had any mishaps inside or outside the MoHo and Tracker. Kayaks still on tight and all windows still intact.

If you want to see the rest of the photos, they are linked here

Alaska Bound 4 Days and Counting

Four days. 4 DAYS. How many lists do I have? Certainly a lot more than 4! I am blogging about this why? I have no clue, other than the fact that it helps me to write things down. It helps me to remember. I love to journal about times past, to write the stories as they happen, to sometimes summarize the stories years later, or summarize the year past. I also like to write about what I am planning, because it’s so much fun to go back after the planned event and read what I thought it might be like.

Alaska. We are embarking on the “epic journey”. Although as I follow along as other RV’rs travel this road I am thinking maybe it is no longer quite so epic. The highway has been tamed a bit, it seems, so I am not really expecting epic. I expect long, I expect a bit of monotony, I expect frost heaves and gravel.

I remember once about 40 years ago I saw the Canadian Rockies west of Calgary for the first time. Of course I had seen photos, but nothing really prepares you for the magnificent mass of those mountains. The closer we got to them, the less I could breathe, with their weight lying heavy in my chest. Truly breathtaking. I expect moments like that one to come in completely unexpected places.

Recently there was a blog discussion about places folks wanted to go in their RV, and Alaska was the subject of many comments, both pro and con. I don’t know why I want to go to Alaska, but I realize that it isn’t so much that I want to go to Alaska, as it is that I want to do the road. I want to know that I “did” the road. I know many people who did it in the days when it was a wild place, when gas was hard to come by, and the animals were everywhere. Now, as I read the blogs, I see the standard tourist destinations come up, the photos and stories, each with a different perspective, but still very similar. Has the road been completely tamed? Will we be one in a long line of RV’s plying the highway?

We haven’t made any reservations, wanting instead to stay flexible in our route and our timing. We have “plans”, though, thoughts about where we want to stay, and places we want to see. For me, big on the list are the lakes along the Cassiar Highway and a soak at Llaird Hot Springs, and I want to put my kayak in as many BC lakes as possible. Sure, I want to see “the mountain”, but I am not attached to it, and reading about the crowds in Denali makes it a bit less exciting.

For me, it is about the journey, about the feeling of the road opening up ahead to vistas I have never seen. Flat and boring spruce, or magnificent take-your-breath-away mountains and turquoise lakes. Either way, it’s new, and it’s far. I like the idea of “far”. I like actually being on the road, the driving part, the riding part, the moving part where your body is vibrating with the engine, where the unknown road opens up ahead of you, with the extra benefit of a bathroom ten feet away, and the dog and cat with us.

Mo has been the one checking and rechecking the MoHo, making sure all is well. All wasn’t well with the house batteries, they were five years old and heating up. Scary. Especially with all the photos of RV fires that have been in the blogs lately. Last minute trip to Klamath to buy new batteries. So many folks have talked about batteries, but I couldn’t remember where to find the discussions, so Mo just did her own research and came up with two 12 volt Trojans, for some reason not sealed, but supposedly the best. Once a year maintenance. Then, while installing the batteries, she blew the big 110 amp fuse on the inverter. No clue what was wrong, but after fiddling for a long time, she made an appointment at Central Point RV.

With the holiday weekend coming up, we were a bit concerned, but she drove down early yesterday morning and was back in less than 6 hours with a new fuse, the generator problem solved, and the MoHo is mechanically ready to go. The technician said that the linkage to the carburetor in the generator was stuck, and that it needs to be run every few weeks to keep it clear. Mo thought the problem might have been related to the battery/inverter issue, so was glad that she had checked the generator before she went to Medford. They charged Mo 80 bucks for labor and 45 bucks (ouch) for the fuse. Hope we don’t blow that one very often. It was great to call the night before, get an appointment for the next morning, and have all the problems solved so quickly.

The other funny story is about the Protect-a Tow. We wanted to do business locally, and RV Trailer Warehouse in Medford finally agreed to order some in and promised to save one for us. The folks there weren’t too good about returning calls, or giving us any idea of when they might actually get one in, so Mo finally ordered one on the internet directly from the Canadian manufacturer. It was actually cheaper even with shipping that the local guy quoted. It was supposed to arrive within 8 to 12 business days via expedited mail. According to the tracking number, it was only processed through Toronto, Canada, on June 29th. When Mo went to Medford, she picked up a Protect-a-Tow from the folks who had ordered one and saved it for us. He said the return policy was good if we didn’t use the one we bought. We will hopefully return the one that shows up in the mail after we are long gone. Apologies to the local store, but if he had been more on top of keeping us informed, he would have had the sale, even if it WAS more expensive.

Our trip looks to be somewhere in the vicinity of 7,300 miles, just a little bit more than our cross country trip to Niagara last summer. Streets and Trips has been tweaked and shoved and waits patiently on the laptop. Lists like this: laptop, plug, external drive, baby laptop for Mo, plug, phone, plug, charger, camera, plug, charger, baby camera, plug, charger. GPS, GPS cord, tripods, Mo’s phone, plug, charger….GEEZ when will someone come up with a wireless charger and wireless power for all these toys. Oh yes, Kindle, and plug.

Another list: passports, animal certificates, copies of important documents saved to an external,cancel the TV, cancel the paper, cancel the mail. Mow the lawn and spray the Liquid Fence once last time. Make sure the house sitters have all the relevant phone numbers. Dog food. Cat food. Dog leash. Cat leash. Clothes for rain, clothes for being cold, clothes for being hot while still traveling through Oregon and Washington and maybe the first part of BC. How many shoes and what kind of shoes for each situation. Walking sticks. Dry bags for the kayaks. Find a dry bag for the camera in the kayak!

I finally resorted to paper lists, on those 5 inch hot pink lined Post It notes. One for each of the next four days, lined up in a row along the counter with the piles of stuff to go to the motorhome. More lists. Mo install the Protect-a Tow, blow the pine needles off all the roofs today. Make cookies. Make spaghetti sauce for freezer. And yes, “go to July Fourth Celebration in Klamath”. That one is on Monday, and thank goodness the parade and festivities don’t actually start until 5pm, so we have all day Monday to do “stuff”. Then Tuesday more stuff, and then finally Wednesday morning we are off.

Memorial Day

Ahh well, the flag is a bit fuzzy in this photo, do you think when I get that new DSLR I will have no more fuzzy photos??

It felt good to put up the American Flag this weekend, for many reasons, not the least of which is to show support for our troops and especially for my two grandson’s who have both served in Iraq. Patriotism means many things to many people, and each of us has our own definition. Looking at this flag flying in the spring winds reminds me of being twelve years old in the school playground, crying with emotion when they played the Star Spangled Banner and I saw that flag waving against the blue sky. Unencumbered by political discussions and partisan arguments, I loved my country, and was proud to be living in the United States of America. I still love my country, with full knowledge that it isn’t perfect, I would not choose any other. If you want to read an excellent story about the origins of Memorial Day, go to E-Squared and Mui’s blog here. You will also get to see an amazing photo of the American Flag to help remember the reason for this holiday.

(Most of you blog readers know that you can click on the photo to zoom in and see more detail)

The Alaska planning is moving forward in earnest. My daughter and her husband have done the highway in their big rig several times in the last year, and her one bit of advice was, “Take extra headlights”. Mo is attempting to offset the broken headlight thing with a bit of ingenuity, and hopefully it will help a bit. This morning she was looking through her photos of her last trip on the highway and found a shot of her last attempt and they never had a broken headlight. I think there was a lot more gravel on the road in 1974 than we will encounter this summer, but all it takes is one good hit.

We also have ordered the Protect-a-Tow recommended by Linda to try to offset some of the damage from flying gravel between the rig and the Tracker. There are several options out there, but this seems to be the favorite of many folks doing the highway with a toad. Rain, of course, is a given, even if we have some good weather, it is just about certain that we will have rain. Living in the northwest mountains, we already have plenty of fleece, boots, rain gear and flannel, so the trip should feel just about like the past few months of cold, wet springtime at home. I am especially grateful that we will be in the cozy MoHo, unlike Mo’s first trip in the Scout, hiding out inside with mosquito coils burning while it rained.

We do plan to have campfires whenever possible, but will not be taking any firewood. The “Burn It Where You Buy It” rule is in effect in most places in the western forests, and while I haven’t read the full rules yet, I would bet we couldn’t take firewood into Canada anyway. Instead we are packing plenty of firestarter and Mo is taking her baby chain saw to take advantage of whatever may be found locally en route.

And yes. Rather than borrowing my daughter’s very expensive professional Nikon equipment, I ordered my own camera, the Nikon D5100 with a metal mount 55 to 300 lens, which Al says will probably pull my arms out of their sockets. The 18-55 will hopefully get those great wide angle views that I will need in the vast expanses of the north country. I read everything I could find comparing Nikon DSLR’s and appreciated Al’s link to Ken Rockwell’s site, a truly amazing resource.

Of course, the biggest job seems to be thinking about and planning our route. I have played and adjusted and researched and am still fiddling with the thing a bit, trying to get an idea of the time we will need to really do all that we want to do and yet still leave some loose, unscheduled time to take advantage of whatever amazing moments choose to present themselves to us. According to the “Streets and Trips” plan, we are now up to 39 days and approximately 6500 miles for the MoHo, with some possible side trips in the Tracker that aren’t included. Since I am still working part time, I can’t have a completely open-ended trip, and besides, Rocky Point in summer is one of the best places in the world and we don’t want to miss all of it.

I have been sitting with the hard copy maps, Mo’s favorite, the laptop, and the 2011 Milepost, trying to get an idea of where we might stay along the way, how many miles a day we can expect to drive, and what we don’t want to miss. I really do love the planning part, and hope that all the planning won’t interfere with the spontaneous, wild moments I hope to experience as well. I’m following along right now as several RV’rs travel through Alaska, and it’s really interesting to see the different perspective of people who are even traveling together on the same route. I’m sure our trip will have it’s own flavor as well.

In the midst of working my regular job and planning for the upcoming trip, I have been gardening, planting goodies in the greenhouse, and watching tiny seeds sprout. The days are still about 20 degrees below normal, and when I open the door to the greenhouse, my glasses fog up immediately with warmth and humidity. At night it stays above freezing, even though we have had frosts in the more open areas of the property. I planted a row of new roses along the driveway to replace the sad twigs that couldn’t handle the hard winter. The new roses are a hardy shrub variety that are grown on their own root stock and are reputed to bloom with as little as 4 hours of daily sunlight. With our big forest, sunlight is always an issue for blooming plants. I also bought a killer 4 gallon backpack sprayer so that I can saturate the property with nasty smelling “Liquid Fence” to thwart the deer and rabbits. I’ll let you know how it works when the summer is over and the dry fall brings in those ravenous critters to eat everything in sight.

With snow in the mountains, 4-wheelers in the forest, and traffic everywhere, I am grateful to be spending this holiday quietly at home after an overnight visit from my daughter and granddaughter. For a couple of girls often plugged in to electronic stuff, a game of dominoes last night on the dining table was a bit different, and I laughed so hard I couldn’t breathe with some of their antics. A bacon and waffle breakfast was just the send off for them to return home and enjoy a much deserved day off.

The sun does come out now and then, the grass is getting much greener, and I even spent most of the day outside yesterday enjoying the colors of spring.

Alaska planning and a BIG thank you!

Tentative route for our Alaskan Highway Trip in June.

It’s been a while since I wrote, and I wanted to take a moment to say a big “Thank You” to everyone who posted helpful websites, blog addresses, and ideas about how we might begin planning our Alaska trip. I am currently working three weeks in a row, so I can have a few extra work-free weeks for our next trip down south, commencing Saturday March 19th. In between plugging away with numbers on the NASIS soils database, I have taken some evening time for playing with the Streets and Trips program and trying to get comfortable with the software and the planning process.

Mo traveled the highway in 1974, and I love looking at the old slides.

I am pretty intuitive with computers and software, but still had to fiddle around a bit before I could get much done. I’m getting better and better as I practice, and actually exported the GPS file for our planned Southern Desert route to my Nuvi Garmin yesterday. Looks good! I am excited to give the whole mobile navigation thing a try, especially with the option to navigate without cell phone reception or a computer connection. I don’t have a wireless card, and in the Canadian part of the Alaska trip especially, it would be irrelevant. I love Garmin Girl, but the better ability to control and review routes and maps while in motion with a full size computer screen seems like it will be a good thing. Mo is just shaking her head, asking how I plan to watch the phone, the GPS, and the computer all at once while telling her which way to turn! LOL

I had the Alaska trip programmed for “fastest” and our driving speed as slower than average, and couldn’t figure out the route it kept trying to take me through British Columbia. We definitely want to return via Jasper and Banff, since the weather might be warmer in Late July than mid June in that part of Alberta. However, until now, I had never heard of the beautiful Highway 37 Stewart-Cassiar route through British Columbia. After a bit of internet research, we decided to take that way north from Seattle, heading west from Prince George instead of due north to Dawson Creek and Mile 0. We will see all that on the way back, and our Highway 37 route will intercept the Highway in the vicinity of Laird Springs somewhere. There is a stretch with 249 miles between gas stations on 37, but just as the AlCan route, most of the road is paved.

The other big thing to think about is how to protect the baby car from rocks. I saw many options for some kind of gravel protection devices, so that will give Mo something to think about and construct before we head north in mid-June. Even though the highway is almost completely paved, there are still long stretches of gravel, and 90 miles of gravel could do a lot of damage. I am already looking at the shiny MoHo and thinking about all those dings and chips that will probably be a great reminder of our trip on the mighty Road.

In the mean time, I have actually managed to keep reading most of the blogs that I follow, enjoying everyone’s travels and trying to comment as much as I can. Although sometimes I do take the option of reading directly from the Google reader and there are no comment options in there, but it sure goes a lot more quickly.

Tentative plan for the March Desert Southwest Trip

I am watching the Desert Southwest with particular interest as the temperatures begin to heat up. Originally we planned to travel in late February, but Mo’s brother had a bit of a serious bout of illness and we wanted to be home if need be. Brother is doing great, postponed trip is on the calendar for a next Saturday departure, and the desert is heating up fast. Whew! We originally thought we could do some great boondocking in the Borrego Springs area, but with our dog and cat, I would imaging that we will need to have electricity for air conditioning to keep the pets cool while we hike some of those great canyons I have been seeing on all the blogs. We also plan to check out the casinos in Laughlin, and try out a couple of the Army Family Camps near Tucson and at Fort Huachuca where Mo was stationed for a few months while in the Army Reserves. Of course, there are always family and friends who winter in the southwest that we want to meet along the way as well.

Our trip home will be up a road that is a favorite of ours, Highway 395, and we will boondock in the Alabama Hills where Al and Kelly have been recently. After reading Al’s blog, I especially want to take the time this year to go to the visitor center at Manzanar and to the Movie Museum in Lone Pine. We finally decided that we probably didn’t need to take the kayaks to the desert this time. Sigh. I thought maybe we could try out the Salton Sea, or Lake Havasu, or drop into Lake Mead for a bit. But we also didn’t want them to blow off in the high winds I keep reading about, especially it we could only manage a few hours of kayaking, and that only a slim possibility anyway. We will pop on the bikes, however, I am sure we can use them somewhere!

Winter view from the hot tub

On a final note for this wet, drippy, dirty-snow-piled-up Saturday, I am fiddling some more with the Alaska plans. Linda and Bob, who traveled the highway and kept a wonderful blog about their travels, suggested we “take it slow” and we plan to do that. Laurie, who shares fabulous information about camp grounds, and FOOD! among all sorts of other RV’r knowledge, suggested we opt for no reservations and stay spontaneous, so we are doing that as well, but still trying to plan with an idea for how far we can drive in a day and where we might want to stay. I am looking forward a lot to a possible visit with Laurie and Odel on our way through Sacramento next week to say “Hi, and Goodbye” to Odel’s bad knee one last time before his big new knee adventure!

Streets and Trips does a great job of estimating times and gas costs, although who knows what that will be like in another three months when we actually commence on our journey.

I have read several blogs lately where folks are apologizing for not blogging daily and trying to determine just how important it is to do that. I do love the daily bloggers, people like Al and Rick and several others who are so committed to great photos and stories and commentary. I so appreciate gaining readers, but I also want to blog when something is happening, and not try to come up with something just because I blog, or to struggle to make each day “blog worthy”. So, I’ll be quiet at times, when I am working and not much is happening, and then when we are on the road, I’ll write as often as I need to in order to remember what I have been doing! I’m really not sure how in the world I will begin to blog about our desert trip since half the Canadian population has already photographed and written extensively about most of the places we will be going. Can I just say “ditto, ditto, and ditto” and link to everyone’s blog?

In the midst of all this lighthearted frivolity, I have to say I have watched the happenings in Japan with fear and awe and prayers for everyone there. As an earth scientist, well versed in the Cascadia Subduction Zone here in our own Pacific Northwest, I breathe silent prayers for all of us as well.

Alaska. Planning begins. Oh My.

Just a short little post today. I am hoping for some responses from some of the folks on blogland who have traveled the Alaska Highway in an RV. I know I read a great blog last summer about someone’s trip, but somehow lost it and have no idea who it was. If you are reading, forgive me! We ordered the very BIG “Milepost” publication and it was delivered yesterday to our snowy driveway by a very determined UPS delivery truck. Those big brown trucks have NO traction it seems, but he was laughing as he slid up the driveway. I am getting to know him quite well, since just a few days ago he also delivered my shiny new DVD for “Streets and Trips”, which is a bit less intimidating than the “Milepost”.

I got the software installed and immediately plugged in the first leg of our trip to get an idea of the possible route. What a great program! Once I entered the estimated price for gasoline and our estimated mpg, I had an idea of how many miles we had ahead of us and how much money I need to save up for the summer! whew. Who knows how things will be by then regarding gas prices, but there is still no better time than now. Once those prices go up they don’t often go back down for long.

Last night I sat down with the “Milepost” and after an hour or so looked at Mo in consternation and said, “Maybe we should just start driving and see what happens. I have no idea how to plan this trip!” She laughed with me, having done the road in the past, she thought that wasn’t a bad idea. The trick is to have plenty of money, plenty of time, and to stay loose. Lots of mosquito repellent helps, as well as good rain gear and a good attitude. I did find one blog on the lonely planet, and the driver talked about the beauty, but also about the many miles and miles of flat nothing.

So, if anyone out there reading this has traveled the Highway, could you please comment or send an email to me with your blog address? I want all the information I can get from real people doing the real thing, rather than all the advertisements and tours and such that keeps showing up on searches for “Alaska Highway in an RV blog”. I even went to RVForum and when I search “Alaska”, my own silly post about deciding to “go” to Alaska is the one that comes up first. Geez. HELP?!

It is Mo’s birthday today, and so far it’s been a good one. She’s getting the birthday calls as I write.