The trouble with not having internet connection very often is that it is easy to put off writing this blog and then it becomes too late to remember what happened. For those of you who are interested in our whereabouts and route, you will be surprised to know that we are back in Montana, USA, having toured Alaska (and Yellowstone). The six weeks journey from Wyoming up to the far north and back has really been a separate expedition of nearly 8,000 miles.

By the way, for those of you with limited 'IT' skills (like me), if you click or select one of these photos, it will open in a bigger and more impressive format. If you don't, then it won't and you will moan to me about enormous mountain lions being small domestic pussies. Ample Ksample.

Alaska Highway – Dawson Creek, British Columbia, Mile 0 - Truck posing

Scrawny moose with 2 calves licking minerals from the road.

If driving to Alaska, as we obviously were, there are several routes possible but eventually they boil down to crossing into Alaska from Canada on the Alaska Highway (sometimes known as the Alcan Highway) or on the Top of the Word Highway. We chose to go in on the first and come back on the latter. We had a time constraint of being back in Billings, Montana on 22^nd August to pick-up the very best (and only) daughter from the airport; she is coming on a short visit to check up on us and to see if we need to be institutionalised yet or if the Nav needs rescuing. Six weeks for this trip might sound a long time but it is a very long way and there is a great deal to see, both there and en route.



Stone sheep in British Columbia – early morning ‘game drive’



Large buffalo bull

 

The Alaska Highway stretches 1422 miles from Dawson Creek in British Columbia to Delta Junction in  Alaska (obviously). It was built during WWII as a strategic route avoiding the reach of the Yellow Peril bombers and took more than 30,000 military and civilian contractors less than 8 months to complete. Many of the Army engineering regiments used were black American units; this seems a bit unfair to me, why couldn’t they have been used for tasks in warmer climes and people more acclimatised to freezing conditions sent to build the road? Today it is tar (or pavement – confusing?) the whole way and can be driven all year round. Having said that, the winter weather causes terrible problems, with frost heaves being a particular hazard.



Sleek and weary black bear

View through the windscreen of the Alaska Highway
 by my accurate statistical analysis, there are 2,844,000 trees lining the length of this road
 and that's just 1 tree deep.
 Imagine how many there are if you go back 1,000 miles either side of the tarmac.

 

At the start – Dawson Creek – hundreds of RV, campervans, lorries, bicyclists, wierdos (and us) gather to get sorted out before starting and to have their photos taken. The first few miles are then spent with drivers racing off at high speed and sedate Brit travellers thinking this is going to be hell. Luckily, after 50 miles or so, everyone is spread out and one is then often alone on the road for ages. The journey through British Columbia and the Yukon reminds one how vast Canada is and, in that region, how lovely it is.

Signpost forest - Watson Lake

Bald Eagle

 

My notes for the trip north are not much of a help here; they read – “few Knobs, loads of Beaver Creeks and Gulches. Impressive site of moose road-kill – half acre of bloodstain. Lots of animals – wolf, coyote, eagle (bald), caribou, eagle (golden), elk, porcupine, moose (live), buffalo, 5 Stone sheep, 4 rabbits, 3 black bears, 2 spruce grouse and lots of ravens”. In fact the first bear was particularly annoying as the Nav saw it before me and therefore won the 1^st-bear-seen prize. In her case it was a lifetime supply of chocolate. Not much of a problem really as I seem to provide that anyhow. If I had won I had a much better idea for a prize but I won’t divulge that here as I may be able to think of another 1^st-to-see competition later – alligator perhaps? – and win it.

 

The tribe, the village, the customer?

Alaska Hwy, camp on the Gerstle River

That's not the EU flag the Navs displaying - it's Alaska's

This was a large and not very friendly bear eating berries on the roadside.

Another note reminds me that during a picnic break on a little used and dusty track, 3 very bad looking baddies turned up in a beaten-up car and approached us in the most menacing way – they had knives, they smelt of booze, they hadn’t shaved(!!), they were going to kill us – if we were lucky. As it happened, they were charming local Indians called Edward, Melvin and Eric and only wanted a chat and to tell us how much they loved their land and that we should be sure not to miss their local city (Winker) Watson Lake, pop 4. It would have been hard to miss as the A Hwy went right through. They urged us to attend the International air show and indeed we did see a medium sized yellow helicopter formation flying with itself. Melvin’s father fought in Europe during the 2^nd WW and his grandpa in the 1^st – they must have felt a long way from home. Another tribe of Indians in the area  are called the Champagne Indians! Yes; I’m not joking, their main village is also called Champagne and I think they must have been given the name by some French trappers with a sense of humour before the Brits took over and ruled with much more decorum.

Eventually we arrived safely at the US border post just beyond Beaver Creek. Here we met the most odious, rude and, it must be said, ugly American we have seen in 12,000miles and 5 months. She was on duty and her already bad day got much worse when we polled-up. I made the mistake of driving past the red stop light and this made her cross. Luckily with much grovelling and telling her how pretty she was, we managed to defuse the situation and were let in (without a full body search). The question remains – how can the American authorities allow their border officials be so awful? Others travellers that we have spoken to have had similar treatment; these are often the first Americans that outsiders meet and they give a terrible impression. They are so untypical of all the friendly and polite people we have met so far. I will tell the president when called in for my post tour de-brief (who will win? Obama - Mickey Rooney – Marsh Romney?)

The Alaska or Alyeska  pipeline, sometimes above ground and sometimes below. Earthquake and ice-proof.

Glacier on the Richardson Highway

Anyhow, Alaska! It is a brilliant state and definitely worth the long drive; in fact they journey there and back was an equally great time.  Rather than describe everything, I will include more photos with captions which will hopefully be less boring. I also try to include a map but I’m not too confident of success. If anyone is planning an Alaskan trip, then I would be very keen to recommend places to go and things to do. If any of you are keen on fishing, and I know you both are, then Alaska is a must.

Mt Hayes, Alaska Range, South side from our camp

A happy pixie blogging

We decided not to go to the Arctic coast as the road is unreliable, it’s a very long way, you have to stop when you get to the oilfields and we would see equally fantastic sights further south. Many people do make this trip and are particularly annoying as they invariably don’t wash the very thick mud/dust from the back of their cars for ages and wear it as a sort of badge – posing ponces, I call them. (The Nav has just read this bit and asks why I don’t wash “my” truck then- that’s not the same thing and anyway, I’m not in the RAF). 

Mt McKinley from Denali Hwy

 

Gold at the end? We couldn't find it.

Our first leg through Alaska was south from Delta Junction on the Richardson Highway and then across the Denali Highway to visit Denali National Park. This was our first drive through serious mountain ranges – the Alaska Range – with very snowy top, glaciers and ice fields. The Denali Highway runs along the southern edge of these mountains and is lovely. It’s a 133 mile bumpy track that has to be taken slowly but is well worth the effort. We stayed a night in a perfect spot – on a spur overlooking a 20 mile wide valley to the Sustina and West Fork glaciers coming out of 13,000’ mountains stretching for about 80 miles across our front. This view alone was worth the 3,000 miles trip from Wyoming. The next morning Bob and his son Corrie arrived to check out the state of his meat-rack! It seems the he and his extended family of about 50 relations come and camp there in September for caribou and moose hunting. They hang the meat for a few days and then share it out and sell the balance to a dealer. None of the petty regulations that we have to suffer in England. Our next camp was just short of the Parks Highway and was a useful stopover for our trip to the tourist infested, rule-bound Denali National Park. We thought that we should be able to see the famed Mount McKinley from here and there it was. Only 3% of visitors ever get to see the peak as it is normally covered in cloud. In fact, the information woman in the Park said no, you can’t see Mt McK from the Denali Highway – it’s not possible. Well – there it was, rising majestically from the shimmering plains – no, that’s Kilimanjaro - this was a big snowy lump.

A charming German couple on the magic bus.

 

Dall sheep ram in Denali National Park

 

Green Bus route - Denali NP

Denali Park was the only disappointment of our trip. It is a true wilderness and they try their best to keep it that way. This means that visitors can only enter the park on expensive shuttle/tour buses. If one wants to see any animals close-up one needs to book seats in advance for one of the early busses. For reasons best known to himself, our driver was a Mexican called Manuel Ramos (wasn’t he the boss in the Philippines?) and had quite a broad accent (aye-yai-yai-caramba!). He encouraged our fellow passengers to shriek stop if we saw anything and he would then do his best to park with a view. There were some of the normal gits on board including a know-all who described “ a herd of ptarmigan”, “caribou work in groups” and “that sheep is a full-coiler” describing a Dall sheep’s horns. (When the Nav dug me in my ribs, I refrained from saying that I had spotted a 3-coiler earlier in the morning on a shovel recce). We did see the previously mentioned animals and a couple of grizzly bears but there was such a crush to photograph them from the magic bus windows that it was hardly worth it. There were a couple of very german Germans who squashed the Nav flat and bashed me on my head in their attempts to get the perfect snap. I got my own back by taking a picture of them – they smelt and I suspect she had hairy armpits.

The Nav at Exit Glacier, Kenai Peninsular
It's much bigger than it looks - she is some distance from it

 On our way further south, we stopped off at the switched-on Nissan garage in Anchorage for a full service. This included the fitting of oil filters that we had to have UPSed from our garage in Dorchester thanks to the efficient and helpful Eric Moore of their parts dept. Fighting-fit again we headed down the Kenai peninsula to Seward where we spent 3 nights in the area and made our base in a deserted car park looking out at Exit glacier. There is a trail which leads to the top of the glacier and onto the ice-field but, as a young and fit – in the ‘fit’ sense – girl I spoke to said it was an 8 to 9 hour strenuous hike, we decided to join the trippers and stroll to the foot of the ice. We also had a rather nervous walk for 3 or 4 miles up the Resurrection river. We were nervous due to the fact that the path featured four very large and fresh bear dumps. An Alaskan teenage girl called Valerie had disappeared 10 days earlier from a near-by campground and there were sad signs up asking for info about her. I think it was a bear! (or she eloped). People here take the threat of bears very seriously and many carry industrial sized canisters of anti-bear pepper spray.

One of these was true



Seward Harbour, Kenai Peninsular

 

Seward is a nice little town and is the centre of the Kenai game fishing industry. It manages to retain a small-town charm despite the influx of thousands of grim ‘explorers’ paying day visits on huge ocean liners. Having said that, they have cottoned onto the fact that they should charge an arm and a leg for everything including fish. We thought we would treat ourselves to some nice fresh fish from the quay and could only afford a minute piece of rather dull hot-smoked salmon for about 6 quid.

Matanuska glacier from Glenn Hwy

 camped on top of pipeline, mile 27 glacier -
7 barrels a second

 

On our way back through Anchorage, we had arranged to have the tracking and alignment etc checked on the truck.  This is not as simple a procedure as it should be. Not many places can fit a pickup with a camper on the back onto their machines. The other problem is the old one of not understanding small European-made vehicles. They couldn’t find out the settings needed for us so had to “adjust it by eye”. Well, better than nothing I suppose.

We wanted to go down to Valdez which is about a long day’s drive from the capital and is, like most roads in Alaska, through stunning scenery. We climbed the Matanuska valley and passed it’s impressive glacier on the Glenn Highway before turning south on the Richardson. We camped 27 miles north of Valdez at the foot of the imaginatively named 27 Mile glacier at the top of the Thompson Pass. We thought we were just on an isolated and quiet, if surprisingly straight, gravel track but we later learnt that it was the course of the Alaska pipeline and we had 7 barrels a second throbbing beneath our bed on their way to the terminal a Valdez. One isn’t really meant to be anywhere near this strategic resource but no one told us to clear-orf.

I will have this salmon

Well - I would have had it if you lot buggered off

Valdez Harbour

Pinks queuing to spawn

 

Sea otters salmon fishing

 

Like Seward, Valdez is another nice small town and is even more isolated. It started life as the setting off point for all the many misguided fools on the Alaskan gold rush. Here we saw a very obliging black bear trying to catch spawning salmon in a stream on the edge of town. His style was slightly cramped by the clicking of camera shutters (including mine) of 7 or 8 spectators. The local ranger, whose office was next door, said that bears were cleaning out the salmon from this small stream. Further round Prince William Sound, opposite the town there is a salmon hatchery at Solomon Gulch which harvests the roe and then rears and releases in an effort to maintain quality. When a ‘run’ is on, the numbers have to be seen to be believed. Alaskans, bears, sea otters and sealions are just some of those who prey upon this easy catch. Some charming US marines, on leave very kindly gave us a whole filleted fish for our bbq; if a Marine can catch them, anyone can.

Top of the World Highway going over the top of the world

As the weather was becoming a little unsettled we decided that we would start our long trip back south without staying in Wrangle – St Elias National Park. It is very spectacular and has the largest non-polar ice-field in the world but that is not much cop if the cloud level is low and one can only see.... cloud. The road out of Alaska is much feared as having a rough reputation but in fact the Taylor/Top of the World Highway to Dawson City was great. The mainly un-paved road is in reasonable condition and if one does not need to race everywhere at 60 mph, almost any vehicle should manage it. The road takes a lot of hammering and therefore needs continuous repair. These are the bits where one needs to be careful. It is a lovely stretch of country through high rolling hills at, or just above the tree-line. One will remember that I said that there are only two roads into Alaska but even so, they are not busy; during one camp on the Top of the World Hwy we only had two cars pass us in 9 hours.

 

 

Nav sitting on top of the world

 

What a grizzly bear produces when it eats berries

 

and this, when it eats valeries

 

Dawson City is a great little town built for the gold rush and hasn’t changed much since. It feels like it would like to be a theme park but fails; it’s nicer. From here we followed the North Klondike, Stewart-Cassiar and Yellowhead  Highways. Despite having been overloaded with spectacular, snow-capped mountain ranges in Alaska, we still loved this beautiful drive.

The old Alaska Highway - not much used, we camped in the road.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Heli logging - it's a doddle

Some highlights included watching the very skilful pilots ‘heli-logging’. I know from some friends who have flown choppers before that flying in mountains, carrying under-slung loads, intermittent visibility and working near tall trees are all hard to do without the odd hiccup and falling out of the sky. These boys were doing all of the above at the same time. They were clearing enormous trees by winching them up and then piling them into giant pyramids so that they could dry out prior to burning. Another less dangerous highlight was listening to a Japanese girl in a small Canadian library trying to pronounce the word didgeridoo on Skype! Annoyingly she wouldn’t talk louder for us to put it in context.  I suspect that I might find it equally difficult to pronounce one or two Japanese words. We saw a very obliging bear walking on Bear Glacier (possibly put there by the Canadian Tourist Board?)  

 

I'm amazed it works - they've stuck the tail rotor on top

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is what they buid - these are big trees

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A very obliging black bear on Bear Glacier, Stewart, British Columbia

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stewart - logging operations on a wet and misty day

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Perhaps the most dramatic part of the drive south was the part through Jasper and Banff National Parks. There were heaps of seriously spectacular scenery and perfect weather. It was only spoilt by the huge crowds and comparatively heavy traffic. We tried to look at a waterfall but were elbowed out of the way by hoards of camera wielding members of the former axis – Germans and friends of the ‘didgeridoo-girl’. And so back  to the welcoming arms of America. We had driven about 8,000 miles on this side trip and we loved it. An interesting observation is that Canadian drivers are generally rude and aggressive. Lorries are particularly lethal and for us to drive at or below the speed limit is dangerously slow as far as they are concerned.

 Here are a few more snaps which I couldn't fit into the right bits of text.

 

Spot the Nav - Ancient Cedar Forest, Yellowhead Hwy, British Columbia

 

Rearguard Falls, Fraser River

 

 

Mt Robson named after numerous famous Geordies - highest in Canadian Rockies

 

Jasper Banff Nat Pk - Maligne Lake

Jasper Banff Nat Pk - Athabaska river from Kerkeslin Camp

 

Now that's what I call a full-coiler
Big Horn Ram, Jasper National Park



 

 

That's all for now - my little fingers are worn to stubs and you will all (both) be asleep.I'm getting seriously behind with this and may have to miss a chunk. We will see.

 

Toodle-pip