The long journey

Wednesday (a sleepy missive)
My eyes snapped open at 7am... but It was refreshing to know that I didn't need to actually drive anywhere. I wandered along the now empty streets, snapping a few photos before the cruise ships let out their cargo and all became chaos. Next to the hotel was a small stream that had a few beat up salmon still struggling to stay put, while their deceased cohorts formed fish-jams downstream. I remember a documentary where they talked about how important all the fish carcasses were to the overall ecology of Alaskan Streams. They leave as little tykes, get all large and nutritious out at sea, and then bring all that yumminess back into the streams to be decimenated to bear, bird, and plant once they've finished their spawning trip.

I returned to the hotel to meet mom for breakfast. The cook, who I'd struck up a conversation with the previous day, kept bringing out stuff just for mom & me.

We then hightailed it to a ranger talk "Food of the Gold Rush", which was a bit disjointed, but entertaining and informative nonetheless. Then, looking at the throngs of tourists raiding the diamond and fir shops, we decided to leave town.

The trip out was gorgeous, and as we went over White pass (There were two passes out of the area. The famous Chilkoot pass, which left from Dyea, and the White pass. The Chilkoot was for people carrying their own stuff. It was shorter and steeper than the White Pass. People took horses on the white pass, but plenty of 'em (horses) died. We're talking thousands. The rub was that after getting food (Canadian customs required each miner bring 2 tons --a year's supply-- so that they wouldn't be a burden on towns in Canada), traveling to Alaska, hauling food/equip up the pass (30-40 trips, each lasting a day), Waiting for the lakes to break so they could float another 600+ miles to Dawson City..... all the gold bearing streams were totally staked out.

ANYWAY, the pass was gorgeous, with powder-blue lakes interspersed with deep blue lakes, mixed with dramatic rocks and some tenacious trees. Wow.

The rest of the day we drove, and drove, and drove, and drove. Went through Canadian customs--pleasant. Went through Whitehorse, where we got some not-so-great KFC to eat further down the road. We ate over by otter falls, on a bridge that was out of order.
Somewhere along the way, we saw a couple caribou. Elsewhere, we passed Kluane Lake, and visited a really beautiful visitor center in Haines Junction. Also, in HJ, we grabbed ice cream cones at the Village bakery which looks like a really cool place in high season. They were going to close on the 6th. Everywhere we drive, there are places either closing down or about to close soon. Skagway, for instance, has its last cruise ships on the 26th, and more than one person is eager to board up and enjoy the silence.

Later that night, we passed American customs and got some wierd questions like how much money we had, how long I expect to be in school, and how mom was leaving the state. I expected that going into a foreign country, but not Alaska. Weird.
Then there were 47 miles of construction (still better than the 150 miles of AlCan in Canada just prior to the border) before Tok. WE got in after 1am local time and had to got to a few hotels before finding one that was open -Golden bear Motel. Along the way we stopped to look at the stars, with a great many constellations vying for attention.

A Day In Skagway yawgakS ni yaD A

Tuesday
It's so nice to have a day to breathe, and very refreshing to know that I didn't need to drive anywhere today.
Breakfast in the hotel, where we were served by cute Bulgarian waitresses in pajamas. I caught up a little on the internet, then we joined the throng on the streets. The morning was spent looking for additional gear for mom... gloves, hat, scarf. NO scarves are apparently to be had in Skagway.

Poking into more stores.
Then, we took a walk to some point on the coast, just west of the shipping lane. There were 6 red helicopters flight seeing back and forth down the fjord. Along the way, we saw oodles of mushrooms, of which we took many photos.

I tracked down Gavin, who's working above a saloon. He uses metal detectors to find miner junk and enter it into the GPS. We arranged to meet for dinner, and then Mom and I hopped in the car to head to Dyea (Pronounce dah-yII!) to look for the grizzly bears that are supposed to be haunting the area. While we saw no griz, we did see plenty of scat. By the size of it, one would have thought there were rhinoceroses on the coastal flats. We also saw an eagle.

Along the way, there were people touring on foot, horseback, bicycle, and bus.

When we got back into town, it was after 6:30. Mom & I split ways, she went to repack do laundry and organize her stuff, while I met Gavin for a burger, beer, and reminiscence. It was great to rehash the old hiking club days, massaging those neurons associated with names and events from Flagstaff. It feels like such a long time ago, but I remember when it was all so new. He gave me a CD containing all the photos from "The Wall"

North! To Alaska, : Skagway

Monday 25 August 2008
Today was a long day... but not nearly as punishing as some of the more recent days. We started the morning at the Air Force Inn, in Watson Lake. After showers and some internetting, we moseyed over to the Belvedere for breakfast. I had french toast with blueberry-rhubarb sauce and little orange slices. Nice!

After I grabbed Gas, we wandered about the signpost forest that contains signs from every corner of the world. Originally intended to express the feeling of loneliness & distance for one guy, it now contains thousands and thousands of signs (many of which may or may not have been stolen from street corners and construction sites) commemorating peoples journeys through Watson Lake. I chatted briefly with a lady at the visitor center who told me that Homer Alaska's sign had been extradited a couple times, but keeps coming back.

Drive drive drive... Lunch in Teslin. The terrain we're going through is mountains and swamp and tundra. After lunch, we made a brief rest stop where I showed mom Crowberries, Blueberries, Labrador Tea, and a voluminous amount of cranberries (Lignonberries).

We eventually found our way to Whitehorse, where I devised the following plan: We're going to Skagway for a day & half. Then we'll drive to Haines Jct or Tok, and then on to Fairbanks. This plan, is dependent, of course, on how we're feeling.

We drove to Skagway, along the way seeing a black bear and a bald eagle. The road was beautiful, with fall happening in patches along the mountains and roadside. In the mountains, there's an amazing area of scoured landscape, scattered trees, and lots of water. Then there was lots of fog.

As I write this, I'm in a hotel room in Skagway. I can barely express my joy at being back in Alaska, even though I have a long way to go before I actually make it "home". We drove the town which is larger than I expected... stopped at the Westmark, a hotel that had reasonable AAA rates, and checked in. Then, we went to one of two restaurants that were open -- a Thai place. Mmm -- not as good as Fairbanks Thai, but pretty darn good. PLUS, they had Alaskan Amber. A beer which I know and like. How at home is this? very.

The waiter gave some good advice about what to do "Take the train" "hike up to the lake" "see wildlife from a trail that starts at the airport". I intend to take him up on at least 2 of 3 items. Currently, though, a wet wind is howling through town, slowing down only enough to make the "wind blowing through town" sound.

Shovel your roof off.

Sunday, Day 10
Late morning getting out of Fort Nelson. Woke up after a good night's sleep, feeling like I need only 10 more hours of sleep to feel "normal". Multiple days of 8am-Midnight are beginning to leave me a little flat.
We ate a nice little breakfast provided by the hotel (Lakeview Inn), then packed, checked weather, and --surprise, surprise-- I called ahead to make reservations in Watson Lake. My original "plan" had been to try to drive all the way to Whitehorse, YT, but that would have been a 600+ mile day, and experience was showing that that sort of mileage is actually relatively unobtainable.

I chatted up the girl at the front desk (Tanya), who has lived there for the last 12 years. Heavy snows this winter collapsed the roof of the local ice skating / curling rink.

Lunch was at Muncho's Lake (I think) where I had a nice litle discussion about rocks and obsidian with a guy who worked on the highway. His wife was serving lunch; good soup & chili.

The drive itself was very pleasant. We started off in the rolling hills just west of fort nelson. Pretty soon, though, we were in more mountainous terrain. The rest of the drive was through mountains. Today's wildlife included a bunch of woods bison and caribou. We also stopped to poke around an aluvial fan, shortly after lunch.

Sasquatch

Even less to report today. We drove and drove and drove. Dinner was great: Sasquatch. Made it to Fort Nelson just before midnight local time (Now, we're in Pacific time)

Total distance today: 537 miles
Northward Travel: 4.75 degrees

We're like in Canada, eh?

Started in Conrad, MT and made it to Whitecourt, AB having driven through Lethbridge, Calgary (mom drove the traffic jam, and did just fine), and Edmondton. Not really too much to say. The entirety of the trip was with wheat fields and the like.
We entered Canada without incident, and stopped at the first town to get some Canadian dough. Just outside town was a great little visitor center, with a T-rex (no photos) and plenty of rocks for people to climb upon.

Further down the road, in the town of Nanton(?), we stopped for a stretch, and stopped in to a cafe for some coffee & saskatoon pie. Mmm.. The pie was good, with what looked like blueberries, only they were mostly intact, keeping a pleasant "i'm eating berries" texture.

In the end, we were going to camp, but couldn't find a place. As I searched for a campground, we passed a couple gas processing plants (?) with flames shooting out of the smokestacks. The bright light of the plants was in stark contrast to the dark of the night that surrounded them. Failing in our quest to find a campground, I decided to just camp somewhere off the road. Having selected a relatively flat wide spot, I dug out the gear. I had a couple of the tent rods ready, when I started to smell something dead nearby. In the end, we opted to stay at a hotel (a 15 minute drive back, wrong direction). I selected a hotel at random, which only had smoking rooms left. These rooms didn't smell like smoke though, so we stayed despite the wierd bubble windows.

Travelled further North by 5 degrees, 54 minutes.

Weather is here, Wish you were beautiful

4 degrees further north, 6.5 degrees further west. 511 miles for today's total.

Today was the long slog across Montana. I had hopes that we'd be in Canada today, but the drive has taken longer than expected. We started the morning in Gillette, WY which is experiencing a huge energy boom; result: expensive hotels and lots and lots of people. All of which, so far as I can tell, were trying to use the same toaster this morning, at the same time.

We finally started traveling after 10am, after I finished messing around with online stuff (uploading photos to facebook, catching up with this blog, etc) while Mom repacked the cooler. We grabbed groceries in Sheridan, WY with which we'd make lunch, and then headed over to Montana. There were no rest-stops until a good long while into WY.
Lunch was on picnic benches in an old town that belonged to the town's historical society. Tasty sandwiches on croissants. mmm. Also, hallelujah, we saw our first rain today.
Deeper into Montana, just before sunset, we witnessed some fantastic cloud formations. There was a storm passing over us that had mammatus clouds roiling out the bottom. We were hoping to see some tornadic activity, but had to settle for a strong wind and cold raindrops.

Cold? yep. Ah, it's SO nice to be chilly; it's been so long. I threw on some jeans, and then we took scildy-zillion photos of the sunset and double-rainbows associated with the storm. This portion of the storm passed by like some gigantic silent pink/gray beast. Impressive.

I was still hoping to make it into Canada today, but we had to settle for Conrad, MT. I'm bushed. I've already heard a train go by (oops) so I'm hoping all the training I've done in Flagstaff will pay off. G'night.

To the Devil with ye

Today we were going to try to make it to Billings. it didn't happen. However, instead, we saw (from a distance) the Crazy Horse memorial, which promises to rival Mt. Rushmore. I can't help but vaguely wonder, however, if any Native American tribes would be in favor of this blowing up of the mountain. Without actually going in, I may never know.

Breakfast was at a nice little bakery in Custer, followed by a scenic loop through Custer State Park ($10) where we saw a great many pronghorn antelope, as well as the occasional lone bull bison. There was a bison herd, but I'd seen 'em before, and these were too close to corrals and paddocks for me to bother trying to get their photos.

Lunchtime (2:00, notice the slipping schedule...) was at Cadillac Jack's in Deadwood. Meh. Casino. My Caesar salad was OK, but mom's sandwich didn't cut it.

We drove on 'till we hit Devil's tower, where we hung out in the KOA store, munching ice cream and filling out postcards. Actually, we were stalling, 'cause the heat was a little overwhelming. By the time we got to the visitor center, it was after 5pm.

My first impression was that the tower wasn't all that big. My second impression, as we got close, was that the tower was somehow related to Moby Dick. There were a huge number of birds (vultures?) circling around, taking advantage of the thermals rising from the mountain.

The mountain is absolutely gorgeous. Mom and I took a walk around the base (1.3 mi), after I'd set up a camera to do time-interval photography hoping to catch the shadows crawling across the monument. As of this writing, I haven't looked at 'em yet.

Total mileage for today: 255. Tomorrow will be at least double that as I work my way towards Alaska.

The Rush of patriotism

I slept really well in the new tent, with my learned Alaskan talent for ignoring bright light while sleeping. The moon is nearly full, so the entire night was well lit. No rain fly for the tent meant that, had we not had a full moon, we would have been able to watch the rest of the stars whirling past.

We started the morning with a small hike over Saddle Pass, which took us up, above the prairie, through the formations to a higher prarie. The whole area is striped purple and gray and tan, very much like a prairie-floored painted desert. Despite steep slopes and heights, we both managed to do the whole round-trip without incident.

Then, after a good breakfast at the nearby lodge, we packed up tent and drove the length of loop drive towards Wall. The badland features encroached upon the road, with fingers of dirt mounds to either side- - sometimes rising above us, sometimes dropping away below. But always nearby, and always interesting.

We stopped at the big-pig dig, which was a big bust. No activity was going on. However, we enjoyed wandering along taking pictures of flowers.

The final overlook was what we actually took for badlands. It looked into a beautiful, dry land with spires that stretched out for a distance that said "this would really suck to have to find your way through". Meanwhile Bighorn meandered about on the nearby mountain.

After a stop at Wall drug and DQ, we headed off towards Mt. Rushmore. (I almost didn't mention: There's a place across from Wall where I ordered an Indian Taco. Blech. It was OK, but it didn't hold even the tiniest candle to the Navajo Tacos to which I am accustomed -- ex. Cameron, AZ) Despite our general lack of enthusiasm for a defaced mountain depicting political figures, we dropped in: how could we not, if it were so close?

My first impression was that of an airport. The monument is designed to handle an absolutely amazing number of people in its 6-section, multi-tiered parking garage. Then, there's a long walkway with plenty of visitor facilities, that leads past the state flags to an amphitheater and viewing area. The presidents were impressive, looking out from the mountain. It's definitely something to be viewed in person.

We took the little walk around the base of the mountain, where we poked at the geology, smelled the Ponderosa pines (I missed that vanilla / butter smell). A few information signs existed that contained factoids on each president. Under later consideration, if I were to care a bunch of political figures into the mountain, Washington, Jefferson, T. Roosevelt, and Lincoln would probably be the ones. I'd already come around to thinking "not bad!"

THEN there was the ranger program. We almost left, but the new influx of people convinced us that this was something to check out. The ranger started off with some presidential trivia, and then moved on to discussing the flag. What I didn't know, and most people seem not to, is that the Star Spangled banner was a poem with 4 verses. (Read them all HERE). The first verse, which is the one we sing at baseball games and such, is actually the one that asks whether the flag was there. The second verse discussed how they couldn't quite tell which flag it was still up on the ramparts. The third needles the British. These three were spoken poetry-style by the ranger. Then she sang the fourth verse, beautifully, which extols Francis Scott Key's feelings upon seeing the flag. It's beautiful, and I can understand finally why it made our national anthem. However, I'm left wondering why we only sing the part where we're wondering if our flag still is up there.

After this, there was a short video (absolutely perfect audio system, blaring out across a possible audience of thousands) discussing briefly the presidents, and the creation of Mount Rushmore. Finally, service members from the audience came down to participate in the evening's putting away of the colors. I doubt there are many flags in this country that are so well taken care of as the one at Mount Rushmore. It was great to have my own patriotism recharged a bit, for sometimes it gets buried beneath the cynicism directed at the current administration.

Finally, after the event was over, we headed down into town to stay at a hotel. The previous day had been hot, and and we were ready for showers. After checking into the hotel at the top of the hill (others were full) we showered, charged batteries, and wandered down into town to find dinner. All dining areas were closed except for one that offered up a buffet. One casual walk past the buffet platters led us to the conclusion that we were better off without. old. very old.

Then back at the hotel, I started to plan the rest of the trip. It looks like we'll need to hightail it past Devils tower tomorrow and start our journey north. Meanwhile, we're both starting to suffer what we can only assume is allergies. You can see the grass seed drifting through the air in South Dakota.
Till tomorrow...

A Corney day

Well, the long days seem to be the norm, I guess. (duh)
This morning, we ate a lovely breakfast outside, then wandered into town to mail mom's postcards. They've such a neat, tidy downtown.
As we left the town of Canistota, we took a bunch of farming photos; mom had remembered that this month's Firehouse gallary show has to do with farming.

Then, we went towards Mitchell, SD. There, we visited the corn palace (everything it promises to be!). Lunch was next door at the Stadium. The waitress there was in the peace corps in some eastern European country I'd never heard of, but then she returned. After lunch, we wandered a couple doors down for a cup of joe and some internet time. Again, I ended up talking to the people in there about Alaska and volcanoes. In exchange, I was let in on a sad story about a child, a rock, and a goldfish. Meanwhile, the internet wasn't working, and they couldn't get it to work. Roughing it :)

The badlands were calling, so we bade Mitchell goodbye and headed back onto the interstate to continue our westerning. Just before the Missouri river, we checked out a visitor center/overlook. They had a great display of Louis and Clark stuff. Loved their spellings. What a cool scientist, too. We'd finally reached, by the appearances of vegetation, some juniper land. We're definitely getting further west!

We arrived in the badlands in the early evening, with plenty of time to do a small hike to the window overview. Pretty! We found a nearby campground, then zipped down the park road to get some more sunset photos in.

Camp was a nice affair with my humongous tent finally winning my approval. The thing is BIG, 6 people big, and not meant for wind. Original misgivings were tossed aside as I got used to the luxury of not stepping on anyone, or anything, and being able to stand up inside.

Dinner was almost at the nearby trading post. Then almost at the park entrance. Then almost in the nearby town of interior. In the end, it turned out to be a Turkey Tetrazzini backpacker dinner. Tasty!

BTW, Not sure if I mentioned it in my previous post. I'm still beating myself up for not pulling over and taking a photo of the 60' Jolly Green Giant in Blue Earth, MN that we passed on I-90.