Blog Entry #9 Gold and everything before and after

Dear family and friends,

I think that most would agree that this trip could be wrapped up nicely were I to update this blog 10 times. A nice round number. So here is the next to the last and the last will come after we are home and might include a few favorite things, a bit of advice were I to be so bold, and our trip by the ‘numbers’.

So here we sit in a municipal park in Lander WY, with just one night and two more days of travel. Oops, I am already getting ahead of myself and much too philosophical when I am supposed to be sharing our trip “post-Denali”. I think we had a bit of post-Denali blues … but not to worry, we squared our shoulders and ‘carried on’ . 

Some highlights of the rest of the trip + Gold Fever

• Another Highway where we knew those gorgeous mountains were out there but could not be seen. The “Old Denali Highway” could be, we think, an amazing drive. But aside from a very dirty wet truck, we saw a lot of mist. We did not linger at the Tangle Lakes when we had been told we must, but in retrospect, we gained more time for what I called ‘gold fever’.

• On the way to Dawson City, we stopped in Delta Junction where I just must tell you that they close the schools when it gets below -50F. See maybe now you believe me when I say … those Alaskans are tough. I wish I had bought a picture book by a local teacher called “Recess at Minus Twenty!” The pictures of the kids getting ready to go out were something. This is a beautiful agricultural area, homesteaded in the 40’s

• Our search for gold began in “Chicken, Alaska” where they say the miners didn’t know how to spell “Ptarmigan”. Chicken is famous for well …. the beginning of the “Top of the World Highway” (a bit, a wee bit white knuckling) that drops you into Dawson City, Yukon. Chicken is also the location of Tisha’s school house if any of you have read “Tisha”. In Chicken we met a couple who have a gold mine … and have mined it for the past 30 years and in fact, raised all nine of their children during the mining season (summer!!!!). P.S. Gold panning, apart from a couple of tiny flakes that look great in my journal, gave me the ‘I got it’. Gold is so obvious in the bottom of a pan … and kind of exciting!

Outside of Tisha's schoolhouse sinking into the permafrost

• The Top of the World Hwy, once we were past the awful drop-offs, gave us a complete sense of there being no place higher in the universe. Absolutely endless views.

Those Canadians love their cairns -- fields of them!

• GOLD: As you history buffs know, the Klondike Gold Rush 1898 was brief (one year more or less) but its story so incredible as to represent something larger than the rush itself … for in fact, though 100,000 set out (times were abysmal), only 30,000 made it to Dawson City and only about 100 ever saw gold in their pan or their placer. And yet, exploring the tales of the courage of these Klondikers has been an amazing part of our travel. Remember, it was just so hard to get there!! Also, without the Gold Rush and WWII (the AlCan Hwy), we probably would not be visiting AK as we are now.

 Dawson City, YK: Parks Canada has done an absolutely amazing job of restoring Gold Rush era buildings and providing knowledgeable guides to provide the background and the details to make the buildings live. Robert Service’s (The Cremation of Sam McGee) cabin and his interpreter was one of my favorites. We spent two and a half days there and were enchanted. By the way, walking around a deserted town, along the amazing Yukon River at 10:30 at night in the bright sunshine has to be the consummate northern experience (about 140 miles south of the Arctic Circle).

Beautiful Gold Rush saloon looking ready to stand at the bar!

Robert Service's cabin with raspberry vines on the roof (in one of his poems as well).

 Skagway, AK: For almost the first time, we were able to experience a ‘magnificent highway’ without the clouds and mist. We sure appreciated it. If Dawson City was the end of the Klondike, then Skagway, with its Chilkoot Pass (think of those miners bent over going up those icy stairs on the pass as perhaps the most defining photo of this gold rush) was the beginning. Skagway is also very well preserved and if you can ignore the large cruise ships dominating the harbor, it is possible to get a good understanding of the place. We also visited Dyea … where the pass began and it is totally a ghost town though in that one frantic, crazy and gold-fevered year, it has SEVEN real estate offices.

The whole drive into Skagway was one ahhh after another

Those Klondikers didn't have a parks sign

-----or steps!  Hikers do it today in about 7 days.

This is most of what Dyea looks like today -- just rotting timbers

Just down from our campsite -- what is left of a 2 mile long wharf

The only thing left of this 'whole' city of 'gold'

• Other adventures …. Though in the same places just not about gold

 We just happened to be in Dawson City for the 10th Biennial Moosehide Celebration for the Han People (Interior Athabascan). It was amazing with dance and music. But my favorite part was a fiddle workshop led by a famous older Athabascan fiddler (fiddle has been part of the culture since ‘first contact’ with Europeans) and a brand new talent. And please note as you will see … one is never too old to learn.

Bill Stephens, renown Athbascan fiddler and his young student

Sierra Noble (Metis fiddler from Winnepeg) and a Han elder still willing to learn.  Inspiring!

 Boondocking on the sand flats on the site of Old Dyea. Folks were fishing in the creek and then it seemed they were all watching something intently. Our photos will show you exactly what.

Alerted by a car, this Grizzly sniffed and then went back to very aerobic fishing.

After Skagway we have been heading home. We had a smoky trip down the Cassiar Hwy behind a pilot car due to a forest fire to Stewart BC/Hyder AK … another fantastic highway that was misted out but as you will see still clear enough to be spectacular. But our photos of the bear watching will surely suggest that the smoke and mist were worth it. On to our friends Mike and Ev (back to the beginning) and a lovely short visit to Yellowstone (a bit like a quick cuppa with an old friend) and a grand hike in the Tetons.

Mama and her April cub in the shallow Fish Creek fishing for Chum Salmon

Love to our families and to all of you. And will be back to you one more time in a couple of weeks. Thanks to all for looking and listening!

JP and Tom

Blog Entry # 8 All Denali National Park

Dear family and friends,

I will anchor this blog with three quotes:

1. Emerson (or another Transcendental writer) was quoted on one of the Park’s interpretive signs. He said something to the effect that it is futile to try to describe beautiful scenery with words. There will be a prize of my ‘hoped to perfect’ ginger cookies to the person who can discover this quote exactly (where was my notebook???)

2. One of our Ranger interpreters said … “Denali really gets to you”.

3. And while you will think that everyone I meet throws up their arms as our wonderful guide Aurita (Hi Rita!) did in Haines to describe the wonders of the moment ….. But we met a young man in Riley Campground and during our greetings we asked him how he was … and he (truly) threw up his arms and said, “I’m in Denali!”

After these few next words, we think that our photos (in line with quote #1) will do a much better job sharing our time in this utterly amazing National Park.

• We love Denali. We are already plotting to get back.

• We want to thank Becky and Rick Wageman for telling us we must camp at Teklanika Campground (into the Park 29 miles where once you are in you must stay for at least 3 days … we managed 4 because someone left early). The Park is very protected with no cars beyond mile 15 of 103. Buses are the only option.

• One does not really see Denali until past mile 29 so it is imperative that you take the bus at least into the beautiful Eielson Visitor Center at mile 66 (for Hayes … got a LEED platinum certification). This is not a quick trip … took 2.5 hours to go from mile 29 to 66 with a few stops along the way. Including one white knuckle pass where the driver described one of the several hairpin turns as “Poison Pass .. one drop and you are dead”.

• There are few trails in Denali and for us well-trained hikers, it was very hard to not hear “please stay on the trail” in our head at all times.

• On a sad note, our campground was only a couple of miles from where the young man from “Into the Wild” died. Folks visit it like a memorial. A ranger told us that had he just climbed up the ridge, he would have seen Park buses. We totally ‘got’ how powerful the Teklanika River would have been in the spring run-off. It still has some pretty wild channels in mid-summer. And we could also appreciate his confusion as to plants that were edible.

And now for the beauty of Denali. We hope you will get to see this place for yourself because our skills as photographers cannot begin to capture its vastness, wildness and unsurpassed beauty. And even though it is not absolutely necessary in order to be totally enchanted … we did get the icing on the cake by seeing the mountain on our last day! Denali or as it was once called … Mt. McKinley -- in almost all of its 20000 feet of grandeur.


Flora

Whitish Gentian

Alpine Hawk's Beard (on the flats of the braided Teklanika River)

Drawf Fireweed

Mountain Forget-Me-Nots (tucked in the tundra!)

Monkshood (bluer than in Colorado)

Fauna

Arctic Red Squirrel

Willow Ptarmigan and chick to the left

Snowshoe Hare with summer coloring

Young caribou

Dall sheep -- on the road

Our most thrilling sighting ... a wolf pack ... three of the five pups

Mama Grizzly and spring Cub

The rare yellow arctic grader (bus driver humor!)

Scenery

Denali -- our first view of the mountain ... after 7 days!

Beautiful braided Teklanika River (glacial and full of silt)

Eielson Visitor Center (mile 66 on the Parks Rd.)

Eielson area

Denali for a few moments of awe

On the Teklanika River

Thanks to all of you who follow this blog.  Hugs to our kids.

Until next time,

Tom and JP

Blog Entry #7 From Wrangell-St. Elias to the Kenai Peninsula

Greetings friends and family,

Here we sit in Teklanika River campground at Mile 29 on the Park Road in Denali National Park. Our time here will be another great adventure to share. But as this is a blog in arrears, here are the highlights since our last posting. We are in love with Alaska, in case it isn’t obvious. I’m thinking I will need a tee-shirt that says … “Don’t Ask About My Alaskan Vacation Unless You Have All Day”.This is a most special place on this planet and we hope that someday you, too, will discover its wonders. It is certainly a trip of discoveries.



Highlights:

 Anchorage: While no doubt there are many fine things to do and discover in this city (including we hear some wonderful hiking) our schedule just didn’t give us wiggle room. One of our mantras has had to be … ‘we cannot do it all’. In our one day, we did visit the very wonderful “Alaska Native Heritage Center” -- opened cooperatively by all the native tribes in Alaska -- both to introduce the 6 major cultures to the rest of the world and to create a place to preserve these cultures (especially for their urban young people). Watching the high school students demonstrate dances and act as interpreters in the recreated ‘village’ was inspiring.

 Turnagain Arm: This 50 mile stretch of road from Anchorage to the Kenai has to be one of the more breathtaking drives of our trip. The sheer magnificence of water and rugged snowcapped mountains was spectacular. Midway along the “Arm” one can view a ‘Bore Tide’ and we planned our trip so we could witness this phenomenon. Anchorage has huge tides … and these tides rush into the shallow Arm and if you hit it right … all of a sudden you see this 6 foot wall of water coming toward you. It does not last long but while it is happening you question what you are seeing.

 Salmon: What I knew about salmon before this trip included this: when wild Alaskan salmon was on sale at our local supermarket, I considered us very lucky. Many of you know that Tom and I have been reading Michener’s Alaska together. There is a section on the salmon and everything we read in the novel has been confirmed by what we have learned here. I fell in love with the salmon.

The unbelievable life cycle of this fish, deserves a bit of time in this blog. If a Sockeye (Red) Salmon successfully makes it back to its natal lake or stream bed, it has survived unbelievable odds -- not to mention changing its whole physiology from fresh to salt and then salt to fresh!!! We have now seen salmon caught in nets, at a hatchery (not a really pretty sight), leaping out of the lake right beyond the hooks of a fly fisherman, resting in a pool before leaping (full-body) right out of the water up a large set of rapids, and lastly being caught by a Grizzly. It is an awesome biological tale.

It was pouring rain here but fun to see the salmon leaping!

Note: 1.Fishing Wheels are used by Alaskan Natives and citizens of rural Alaska for subsistence fishing (there is also subsistence hunting for game) that is allowed each year.

2. Fishing Walks with ladders to allow fishermen to get in the water, preserve salmon habitat on the stream beds and still allow sport and subsistence fishing.

 Harbors and boats: Both SE Alaska and the Kenai provided us with many, many hours of harbor walking. As you can see, many Alaskan harbors are very beautiful and some boats are equally beautiful while some are not. Had lots of fun with the names … two categories: women and other.

 Homer and the Kenai: We loved the beaches; watching people clamming; being in a campsite so close to high tide that I worried we might have to rename our camper “The Sea Turtle”; amazed by the utterly amazing turquoise blue of the Kenai River and Lake Kenai; and really appreciated 2 full days of sunshine.

 Flora Update: Will let the photos speak … in this order: lupine, fireweed, cow parsnip and what I called ‘the stump garden’.

 Fauna Update: It continues to be a thrill to see these wonderful wild animals in their own habitat just living their lives as they would if we weren’t peeking.

o We were all by ourselves on a pullout in the Kenai, there I was watching 5 Common Loons (not so common to me) paddle and dive. Tom looked out suddenly and said … ‘what is that?’ Well, there was mama moose and baby moose swimming across the lake. Photo here, but we sure wished for our friend Darryl’s camera skills. Baby kept right up with mama and they were not just dawdling … in fact, at first I thought baby was riding on mama’s back.

Believe me we wish these images were larger ... but enjoy the sense of it all

o The Sea Otter right in front of our camper during that Homer high tide … turning somersaults for about 20 minutes just for us.

o A juvenile and mature bald eagle on the beach at Homer

o Two beautiful Trumpeter Swans who appeared to have choreographed their graceful movements in the water with one seeming to ‘follow’ the other.

That’s it for now … thinking of all of you with special thoughts to our kids!  A shout out to my sister Amy for a quick recovery from knee surgery! 

Until we post again,

JP and Tom