Archive for August 2013

Yukon Ho!

P1010295We have entered the Yukon Territory and with our new surroundings came much cooler temperatures (and significantly fewer bugs too!)

Our first stop was in the town of Watson Lake where we visited the Northern Lights museum. We’re hoping to see the Aurora Borealis (another name for the Northern Lights) while we’re up north here. The 11-year cycle for solar activity is at its peak this year so once it gets a little darker at night (hopefully in the next few weeks) our chances will be pretty good at catching a glimpse of them.

In the town of Teslin we got the opportunity to test out our travel medical insurance when Quinn fell and hit his head while sightseeing. It was a nasty fall and a bloody experience, but there were no stitches required and no apparent concussion, thank goodness. In fact Quinn recovered amazingly quickly and was running around again within a couple of hours.

Bridge over the Yukon River leading to the town of Teslin Lake

Bridge over the Yukon River leading to the town of Teslin

We stayed at a beautiful Territorial campground on Teslin lake where Quinn spotted some sea gulls flying overhead. He also spent some time tossing rocks into the lake trying to see how far he could throw each rock.

Next we got to sample the wonders of Whitehorse, the capital city of the Yukon Territory. We enjoyed a yummy salmon and rib dinner out and were able to try the local Yukon Red (amber) beer which was also a nice treat.

The Klondike is a sternwheel steam ship that ferried passengers and goods up and down the Yukon river from about 1900 until 1955.

The Klondike is a sternwheel steam ship that ferried passengers and goods up and down the Yukon river from about 1900 until 1955.

Witt rented a mountain bike and rode Grey Mountain — a “Top 10” ride according to a mountain biking magazine. Meanwhile Jen and Quinn rode the town trolley and discovered an amusement park in town for the weekend! Quinn was thrilled to be tall enough to go on several rides, including the Tilt-a-Wheel and the Ferris wheel.

Witt gets a mountain bike ride

Witt gets a mountain bike ride

And Quinn gets an airplane ride

And Quinn gets an airplane ride

By far the favorite attraction for us was the Yukon River Fish Ladder. This was one of the most amazing things we’ve ever seen! The fish ladder was built in the late 1950’s to help the salmon swim upstream (to spawn) past the then newly-built hydroelectric dam.

For starters, we were amazed to learn that adult salmon return to their place of birth to spawn all the way from the Bering Sea! In this case, that means a tough upriver swim of about 2000 miles from the west coast of Alaska. The journey takes them about 2 months and they do the whole trip without eating a single bite of food! It’s true that they spawn and die shortly afterwards, but it is still an astounding feat.

Scientists count the fish as they climb up the fish ladder to determine the viability of the local Chinook (or king) salmon population. There’s a gate that temporarily stops the salmons’ journey so they can record the data before opening the upstream gate to allow them to continue onward. There are underwater viewing windows that allow the scientists to do this work quickly. The whole process was so fascinating to us that we just had to return again the next morning!

The upstream gate is closed overnight, so when we arrived at the Fish Ladder in the morning there were about 30-40 salmon in the holding area awaiting passage to their upstream destinations. Since there are so many fish, the only way they can get an accurate count is to scoop up the salmon, one at a time, before releasing them upstream of the gate. This process was definitely more intrusive to the salmon, but the handlers were very careful not to hurt any of the fish.

The salmon swim up this ladder to circumvent the hydroelectric dam

The salmon swim up this ladder to circumvent the hydroelectric dam

"Sorting" the salmon

“Sorting” the salmon

Now we are heading north through the Yukon on the Klondike Highway. Yukon Ho!

On bugs and not really being at the top of the food chain

OK. This is it. All of our blog posts to this point have been at least rosy or somewhat so in one way or another. And know there’s this one. Brutal honesty.

“They” say that it’s always best to accentuate the positive. If there’s nothing good to say then don’t say anything. But then, that doesn’t really tell the whole story, does it?

The scenery in this part of the world IS beautiful beyond words. And then there’s the bugs.

It’s probably no secret that there is no love lost between myself and mosquitos. They love me (or at least my blood) but the feelings are definitely not mutual.

The hard and brutal truth is that when you travel in this part of the world you pretty much have to choose to travel in cold and darkness (winter) or you can travel in warmth and swarms of bugs (summer). It doesn’t take a rocket scientist (or in some cases, like this one, it might help if you’re NOT a rocket scientist) to realize that if you want to avoid the cold, that you’re going to have to embrace (or at least tolerate) the bugs.

So here we are. In northern British Columbia and on the verge of entering the Yukon and the bugs are EVERYWHERE!

Our van is fine. We’ve got mosquito netting where we need to so our sleeping areas are still sacred. The problem is that the rest of the world — and the part that we came to see — is OUTSIDE of the van.

It’s worse because the mosquitos seem to love to chomp into Quinn. His legs look like a red mountain chain of bug bites. He won’t wear long sleeves or pants and the mosquito repellant and citronella seem to be useless in the face of these mosquitos. Here, we are the amateurs and THEY are the pros.

The current quest (at least from my standpoint) is to continue to head north until the temps drop low enough at night that the bugs go away. Word has it that the mosquitos are usually only active in this part of the world until mid-August. It is now August 13th and the high today was 80 degrees Fahrenheit. We came close to a frost a few weeks ago in Banff NP, but it seems like it’ll be a LONG time before we will have a frost here or anywhere near here.

Yesterday, I thought about those yogis that meditate while bees swarm around them. Maybe I need to do something like that, except with mosquitos. Then, perhaps, I will be one with nature, instead of the one-who-does-anything-and-everything-to-avoid-bugs (especially those than bite)! Stay tuned to find out who dominates on this trip — the mosquitos or us!

P.S. The weather report says it’s supposed to snow in Inuvik, our next major stop, on Thursday. Maybe that will finally mean the end of the little buggers.

Liard River Hot Springs

From the Buckinghorse campsite / work camp, we drove north on the Alaska Highway. We stopped in Fort Nelson to resupply with food and fuel along with the requisite exploration of the local splash park. You might think that being nearly at nearly 60 degrees north latitude that it would be cold outside at least some of the time. In reality the temperatures have been quite warm (hot even) during the day, but it does cool off at night. So the outdoor splash park is definitely a pleasant diversion for us.

Fort Nelson splash park

Fort Nelson splash park

That night we found a very nice campsite in a provincial park, complete with river views and lots of tall shady trees. We ate like kings for dinner — mussels and wheat crackers for appetizers, salad, steak, corn on the cob, along with some nice red wine (from a box). The food plus the ambiance together were really upgrade from the buggy, hot, and noisy work campsite from the previous night.

Tetsa River

Tetsa River

Any river is good to throw rocks into

Any river is good to throw rocks into

There were several surprises in store for us on our drive the next day. We started our climb up the Canadian Rockies and oh how the views improved. The flat, treed terrain was replaced by towering peaks and glacial-fed rivers. Since we had to stop fairly frequently for the numerous ongoing construction projects, we got plenty of opportunities to really enjoy the scenery. It was also interesting to see the constant stream of RVs headed in the opposite direction from us. They are apparently returning from their northern adventures while we are still heading north.

We stopped at Summit Lake for some photos and ended up staying for a short hike and some lunch. This is the highest point (elevation-wise) on the Alaska Highway, yet the pass itself is surrounded by rocky peaks as they cradle the edges of the crystal-blue lake. The trail markings for our hike unfortunately petered out pretty quickly and since we didn’t really want to do much bush-wacking, we turned around after a short while ate our lunch on the shores of Summit Lake.

Summit Lake

Summit Lake

The road continued to provide excellent views. We passed Muncho Lake and almost decided to stay there for the night because the area was so beautiful. There were even several caribou grazing nearby to complete the scene. In the end, we opted to continue on to camp at Liard Hot Springs — a place whose reputation for being a “must stop” had been made clear to us by numerous other travelers.

Muncho Lake

Muncho Lake

Caribou on the road near Muncho Lake

Caribou on the road near Muncho Lake

The Liard River suspension bridge was built in 1943 and is the only remaining suspension bridge on the AK Highway

The Liard River suspension bridge was built in 1943 and is the only remaining suspension bridge on the AK Highway

The hot springs are amazing — they are still natural and rustic (and not cemented into a swimming pool) and they recently added beautiful changing areas right next to the pools. The hot springs are accessible from the campground via a nice boardwalk. Ahhh… the waters are very nice.

Ahhh... Hot Springs!

Ahhh… Hot Springs!

We’ve decided to stay for an extra day to take a break from all the driving. Witt and Quinn are getting haircuts and there’s some minor van repairs that need to be done.

Haircut time!

Haircut time!

I guess Quinn isn't a fan of haircuts by mom...

I guess Quinn isn’t a fan of haircuts by mom…

Starting the AlCan 38 Years Earlier

StartofAlCan

Thirty eight years ago – 1975 – we quit our jobs in  CA, put Witt in this VW Van and headed for Alaska. It was getting just too crowded in CA. We weren’t sure how long we were going to stay and we didn’t really have much of a plan. But our “stuff” was stored and we were free.

camping2

 

We camped where we could. And Witt played where and when he could and was always happy.

We arrived at Dawson Creek and we believe this is the exact spot Quinn and Jen were standing in their photo – but much improved now!

Dawson Creek was the last stop to get prepared – travelers highly advised that we get chicken wire to put around the windshield to help prevent rocks from cracking the windshield. This was the beginning of a 2000 mile gravel road journey with not many services along the way. Henry cut out a hole about 4″ x 8″ to pier through and hopefully avoid the potholes and rocks from other vehicles.

WireMeshonVW Well, about a week later, this is what we looked like, along with a nice big crack in the windshield right where the view hole was. There weren’t really many camp grounds along the way – we mostly pulled out along the side of the road and camped where we could.

VWRoughroad

 

Plenty of opportunities for Witt to fish along the way. We could only wish back then that we could have had Witt, Jen and Quinn’s 4 wheel drive. It would have worked perfectly at that time and day. But, oh well, we had so much fun and ignorance is bliss.

WittFishing

A note to Witt and Jen. With the current RV luxuries, you guys are roughing it on a scale greater than we experienced, going further, faster and into more remote areas and making contributions along the way. We are loving the virtual travel with you!!!! And thank you so much for posting these wonderful events! H&K

 

 

Starting the Alaska Highway

Only in Alberta (at least that I know of) can you find used oil derrick lots. Need a nodding donkey to put on your property to pump a little oil? Just head down to Mike’s. No credit check required. Start pumping today!

After leaving Grande Cache, we headed north to Grand Prairie. True to its name, just before we entered the city the mountains we had been travelling through gave way to a flat plain. We spent the afternoon at… Wait… Yep, the water park! We were hungry after all of the swimming so we found a park to cook dinner, then headed out of town, following the signs to Alaska (even though Alaska is still over 1000 miles away). We camped for the night at a small campground on a hill overlooking the town. It was very pleasant and we had the whole place to ourselves.

Looking out across the Grand Prairie

Looking out across the Grand Prairie

The next day we drove to Dawson Creek, the official starting point of the Alaska Highway. The history of the highway is fascinating, but the short of it is that after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the US decided that it needed to protect Alaska from an invasion of North America. At the time there was no good way to transport men and equipment north, so it was decided that a highway needed to be built. The US army started work in Dawson Creek in March of 1942 and finished 8 months and 1345 miles later under the worst possible working conditions. To this day it remains one of the most impressive road building feats in history.

The mile 0 marker for the Alaska Highway

The mile 0 marker for the Alaska Highway

Leaving from Dawson city I wondered what it was like for my parents, 40 odd years ago, driving through the same places. The difference is that today we have a 4×4 van to drive the nicely paved highway, and my parents set off on the then gravel road in a VW camper! Mom and dad, care to chime in with some stories?

Today large sections of the road have been rerouted or straightened, so it’s difficult to know when you’re actually driving on the original road. We took a detour to drive over the last remaining bridge constructed as part of the original highway that is still in use.

The Kiskatinaw River Bridge is the only original bridge still in use.

The Kiskatinaw River Bridge is the only original bridge still in use.

At present the road serves primarily to access the oil and gas deposits being exploited up here. Probably 60% of the traffic is heavy trucks hauling drilling equipment, and another 30% is RVs.

We camped in a provincial campground our first night on the road. It’s located near a large work camp that houses drilling workers. We talked with a lady with two small children at the campground. Her husband works in the drilling fields, and she comes up with their kids and camps here for the summer so that the family can be together. He will be working here until next April. It seems like two thirds or so of the campground is occupied by drilling workers’ families.

Oil workers' camp

Oil workers’ camp

"Fishing" on the Buckinghorse River

“Fishing” on the Buckinghorse River

Camp!

Camp!