Sharp's Travels

Gay was up and out early. He watched the tide going out from the top of the bluff.

Many of our group had left by the time I got up at 8am. There are 9 couples that have stayed an extra day here.

We went to the post office to drop off some mail and then stopped in to eat at Victoria’s. It was a restaurant in one of the historic buildings in Old Town Kenai. They had homemade soups and desserts. We had a bowl of soup, corn bread and pasta salad.

We headed out of town to find this quilt shop out in the boonies. You go back ½ mile on a dirt road---we went right by it and on up the road. We spotted it when we turned around and came back. Two other couples from our group were already there. It was just a beautiful shop.

We continued on out the Kenai Spur Highway all the way to the end of the road. We stopped at the overlook of Cook Inlet and looked down on the beach and spotted one of our group walking along the beach. We joined them for a while and then headed back towards town. We hadn’t gone but ½ mile when we saw a moose and her two calves along side of the road, eating leaves from the trees. I wasn’t quick enough to get a picture.

Back in town we stopped at another quilt shop and I picked up material for the backing for my quilt. Now all I need is a machine!

At 6 pm we had pot luck with all the couples left in the park. They did hot dogs and hamburgers on the grill and everyone brought a dish to pass. There was a nice variety of food again tonight.

Roger and Jen showed us pictures of their bear viewing trip. We are all excited now, we take the same trip on Thursday so stay tuned for BEAR PICTURES.

For pictures of the day see album: Kenai 7-29-08

The sun is shining, what a beautiful day. We went to the office and paid to stay an extra day. We jumped in the truck and went to look up a welder to do more welding on the trailer hitch. We got an appointment set up for Wednesday morning at 9am.

We found the post office and picked up our mail that was sent here and then stopped in to the Visitors Center and picked up information on the area. The gal there recommended the Brown Bus for lunch. We ordered fish and chips and took it back to the 5th wheel to eat.

I prepared my grape salad for the pot luck tonight and made a batch of chocolate chip cookies to give as thank you gifts to Spike, Roger, Johnny & Paulette.

We took the little path that wound down the bank onto the beach. We watched the dip netters pull in their catch in the big nets, then hit them over the head with a bat and throw it into their stash. Each Alaskan could get 25 fish for himself and 10 for each member of their household. Non-Alaskan’s were not allowed to dip net.

We walked back up to the campground and decided to do the walking tour of Old Kenai. We’d hardly begin when we caught a glimpse of an eagle being chased by the seagulls. He’d taken a fish head from them. The eagle landed in a tree by us and we got pictures of him sitting in the tree as well as when he stared to fly away. It’s our closest viewing of an eagle. This one had a wing span of 5 or 6 feet. We continued our tour and Gay had to stop every so often to get pictures of the supply planes flying overhead. It seems like one took off every 15 minutes.

By 5:30pm we went back to the 5th wheel to pick up our salad and head for our good bye pot luck.
Spike told us what to expect of the roads on the way home. He had a wonderful program all lined up. Many laughs were had by all. A few of us are staying an extra day here, but most pull out in the morning.

For pictures of the day see album: Kenai 7-28-08

If you check out our pictures today you will see a few from last night there also. We headed down the Homer Spit for supper and spotted where they were weighing and hanging someone’s catch of the day. We didn’t have the camera along so had to go back to the 5fh wheel to get it. We thought that sight deserved a picture or two. The big one was a halibut—150 lbs., the pot bellied ones were cod and the orange were yellow eyed Rockfish.

The local people of Homer Spit bury large Spruce trees upside down in the sand with the gnarled roots upward for eagles to land on. I got a picture of one of those but no eagles, darn!

Now for today, we met for our prayer meeting at 9:30 am and then headed out about 10am. It was foggy and misty so we didn’t stop for any pictures along the way. We had a moose run across the road in front of us shortly before we arrived in Kenai.

Kenai is located in the heart of the Kenai Peninsula. It has miles of sandy beaches, two mountain ranges and 4 active volcanoes. Kenai is the largest and oldest city on the peninsular.

We pulled into Beluga Lookout RV Park in Kenai around 1pm. We are up on the bluff overlooking Cook Inlet and the Kenai River. We looked down over the bluff and could see lots of people dip netting. We talked with a couple here in the park that were putting their nets together and heading for the river. Large nets are attached to long poles that are dragged through the water, hoping salmon swim in.

At 2pm we took a walking tour to an Old Russian Orthodox church. We were given the history of the church and then toured the Old Russian Cemetery. On our way back from the cemetery, Gay stopped at the fish cleaning station and got a few shots of people cleaning their salmon.

We are having a King Crab feast tonight at 6pm. We headed into town to pick up our King Crabs at Safe-Way. Spike had them all cooked and put aside for us to purchase. He was going to supply all the fixings, potato salad, coleslaw, rolls, pie and wine, cider or coffee, tea and hot chocolate. We all had a great time and everything was delicious.

As we were finishing we noticed the sun was beginning to shine. Maybe tomorrow will be another sunny day.

For pictures of the day see album: Homer to Kenai 7-27-08

Our mighty fishermen left at 5:45 this morning. The boat pulled out at 6 am. We got a call when they arrived back in port so we went down to see how they made out. I guess they all caught their limit. It was a cold, misty morning. Not a good day to be out on the water.

The shops down on the Spits are all up on stilts. We browsed through them and then took a ride up town to check things out. We took a ride back up on the hill as you come into town to check out the view again. If the weather clears tomorrow, Gay will drive up there again before we hook up to take a few more pictures.

All was quiet in camp much of the day due to the rainy weather.

For pictures of the day see album: Homer 7-26-08

We left this morning at 9:30am heading for Homer. The mountains had a dusting of fresh snow last night. It’s a sign summer is coming to an end.

We passed by the town of Soldotna and you could see combat fishing going on down on the Kenai River. The fishermen stood in a line all along the river at about 10 to 12 feet apart. The salmon are running and everyone is out fishing.

The Alaskan Peninsula was spectacular as we traveled on down towards Homer. There were cow parsnips (they look a lot like Queen Anne’s Lace, but can make you itch for days if you touch them), and purple lupine along the roadside.

We saw a moose with her 2 calves grazing along the highway. Cars were stopping blocking traffic, trying to take pictures. I managed, somehow, to get a picture as we drove by.

At mile 79 we stopped at a place that did wood carving with a chain saw. Everything was so life like. He also had a small cabin he’d done with bear heads in the ends of the logs. There were a lot of artistic designs in the entrance of the cabin.

We had lunch at a little trailer there selling brisket, bologna, pork, sausage or rib sandwiches or dinners. We bought a 3 meat dinner and had enough left over for another meal. It was delicious.

We passed by a couple of Russian Villages and Russian Orthodox Churches. The churches are very ornate on the outside. We hope to visit one of the towns on our way home.

We arrived in Homer about 5pm. We got set up and I fixed supper.

We took a walk along the beautiful Kachemak Bay. There were mountains on all sides of us.

Homer is famous for its Halibut Fishing Charters. A number of our group is going out tomorrow morning to try their luck.

We checked out the Homer Fishing Hole. People were standing all around it trying to catch something. The fish kept jumping right out of the water.

It is a nice, calm sunny evening. Tomorrow promises to have more of the same kind of weather.

For pictures of the day see album: Seward to Homer 7-25-08

At 10:30 we walked as a group to Kenai Fjords Boats for our Wildlife & glacier Tour. It was cold, windy and misty. We all posed for a group picture before boarding the boat at 11am. We had 8 tables reserved for our group. Each couple got a guide to Kenai Fjords National Park book. It talks about the creatures of the sea & land and about the glaciers.

We slowly cruised in Resurrection Bay and spotted a number of eagles high in the trees along the shore. We also saw a sea otter, puffins, and Dall’s Porpoise swimming right along beside the boat. We cruised close to the rocks and saw big groups of sea lions lying all over the rocks. They didn’t ever care the boat was so close to them. Also lots of gulls and murre birds all over the cliff walls.

We got word that the waves were up to 12 feet high out in the gulf so our 8 hour cruise was cut to 4 hours. They began preparation for out dinner of Salmon & Prime Rib, salad and rice. It was all very good.

We cruised by 4 glaciers, it didn’t begin to compare to being up close and personal like last night.

The captain got a call from another tour boat that there was a whale sighting. We headed in that direction and spotted a whale and her calf. IT WAS A MUST TO SEE A WHALE. Mission accomplished. We could see the backs as they came up and caught a view of the tail when they went down. OK!

They served us dessert and then we headed back to shore. We docked at 4:30pm and made a stop at the 5th wheel before walking uptown. The shops were neat but expensive. I did buy material for a quilting project. Hope it goes well.

We had a homemade ice cream cone and walked back to the 5th wheel in the rain Time to call it a night.

For pictures of the day see album: Seward 7-24-08

Everyone was told they could leave at their leisure this morning as long as they were out of the park by 10am. Spike knew if we all left together we would never make it through the lights together. We were told we could meet at our 10 minute break spot at mile 62.

It was only 47 degrees this morning. We closed up in the rain and headed out of the park at 8:45am. We traveled along the Seward Highway down along Turnagain Arm. The fog was hanging low over the mountains. Just after we passed Beluga Point we spotted 6 or 7 Beluga Whales out in Cook Inlet. The Belugas travel in packs so they can trap schools of salmon to eat.

We stopped at the same bakery we were at yesterday hoping to get a chance to try their scones. We were able to get 2 and take them along to the wayside at mile 52, where we met up with 5 or 6 of our group waiting for Spike.

Finally we were all together again and pulled in to take a 10 minute break.

Off we go—only about 45 miles to go to Seward.

Seward was founded in 1903 and named after William Seward, who bought Alaska from Russia in 1867. Seward is the beginning of the Alaska Railroad and the Iditarod Trail.

We got set up in Seward at the City RV Park right on Resurrection Bay. We had a quick lunch and then Spike took us on a city tour. He pointed out restaurants, shops and fishing spots.

At 3:30pm we all carpooled to Kenai National Park to get a look at Exit Glacier. We were given a guided tour up to within about a couple of thousand feet of the glacier. We were on our own from there. A group of us started wading in the water hoping to get to the toe of the glacier. The water became too deep and we climbed a hill and followed a path through the woods and worked our way up to within 150ft. of the side of the glacier. We got close enough to peer into deep blue glacial crevasses. What a beautiful site. Pictures do no do it justice.

We met up with the rest of our group back down the trail and headed back to our campground. We made one quick stop at the Bay’s edge to get a glimpse of the spawning salmon heading up stream. We spotted two huge red salmon. Hope we see more tomorrow.

For pictures of the day see album: Anchorage to Seward 7-23-08

Today was our free day. Gay was up early but I slept in until 7:30pm. We relaxed, had coffee and breakfast and then got ready to do our errands.

First off, the quilt store. I wanted to check out the Alaskan fabric at the quilt store. They had some neat stuff but I didn’t buy any.

Next stop was to fill the LP tank, just over $30 to fill our tank, expensive. We brought that back to the 5rh wheel and had some lunch.

Gay wanted to check out the Alaska Aviation Heritage Museum. It was a disappointment. They had a big display of old pictures and lots for a person to read but not many planes. That’s what we wanted to see was the planes.

We stopped at Fred Meyers for groceries and than over to their gas station to fuel up. We should be good on fuel now until we get to Kenai.

At 5pm we were all bussed over to the Alaska Wild Berry Park for a family style dinner and show. We had ribs, beef, chicken, halibut, coleslaw and corn fritters along with an ice cream bar.

The show started at 7am at the tent just outside the Sourdough restaurant. Dusty Sourdough told the legend of Alexander King, the guy that first found gold in Alaska. From there we went over to the Wild Berry Theater to see Hobo Jim perform. He sang a number of Alaskan songs he had written and played the guitar.

Our last stop of the evening was the Candy Kitchen and Gift Shop. They have the worlds largest chocolate falls—20 feet high. You could look into the kitchen and watch them make candy, jellies and jams.

Our bus was ready and waiting to take us back to the park at 9:30pm. On the way back we saw a moose and her 2 little ones grazing alone the interstate. Gay tried to get pictures but they didn’t come out.

For pictures of the day see album: Anchorage 7-22-08

It is a cloudy day, only about 54 degrees. We left the park at 10:30am and headed south on the Seward Highway. We drove along Cook Inlet and hoped we’d spot a Beluga Whale at Beluga Point. No luck there, but we looked up on the cliffs on the other side of the road and spotted 2 Dall sheep high up on the peaks.

We all packed a lunch and we pulled into a shopping complex that had a bakery in it so we all topped our sandwich off with a pastry or cookie from the bakery before heading out.

At Indian, Alaska we stopped at Indian Valley Meats. They are a custom processor of fish and exotic meats, including reindeer, venison, buffalo and all of Alaska’s wild game animals. They had samples out for us to try. Everyone bought something to take home.

We continued down Turnagain Arm, which is the narrow area of Cook Inlet on the north coast of Kenai Peninsula, to Portage. At one time many buildings existed here, but in 1964 the earthquake caused the land to drop between 6 to 12 feet along Turnagain Arm. The Portage area flooded forcing people to move. Remnants of buildings and trees destroyed by saltwater are all that remain of the original site.

We drove past Byron Glacier and by the Portage Glacier. The Portage Glacier is Alaska’s most visited natural attraction. The blue-green hues in the icebergs were beautiful. We stopped at the Begich Boggs Visitors Center and watched the film “Voices from the Ice”. It gives you a spatula view of many glaciers. Gay got pictures of small pieces of the iceberg floating down the inlet. Griffin even fished a piece of the glacier ice out of the water.

At Portage we also visited the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. They take in injured and orphaned animals year-round and provide spacious enclosures. Animals that cannot be released into the wild have a permanent home there. The shots of all the wild life today are all in this enclosure. We saw brown bear, black bear, bison, caribou, moose elk and an eagle.

We have also included pictures from Spike’s birthday party last night. Enjoy!

For pictures of the day see album: Anchorage 7-21-08

We had our Sunday Prayer Service at 8:30am at the park shelter. Spike’s wife and mother-in-law were there. They will be traveling the rest of the trip with us. After the service we roasted Spike. It was his birthday and we had given him a group birthday card along with a number of gag gifts. It was great fun.

We left at 9am to carpool for our city orientation/tour. We were shown all the shopping area and best restaurants to eat at. We went to the Ulu Factory and got a demonstration on how to use the Alaskan knife and could see where the handles and blades were made. Lots of purchases were made in there by our group.

The salmon run had started and we got to see several people fishing for them. Also saw several that had been caught.

Then we headed for Earthquake Park. Spike showed us where over 1000 feet of land dropped below sea level. It was a sub division at the time. The quake was rated at a 9.2 and 127 people died. Down town on 6th street one side of the street dropped 12 feet.

Spike took us through the Float Plane Harbor. There were hundreds and hundreds of planes—60% of the people here have airplane licenses. In the winter time they convert the planes from wheels or pontoons to skies. It is the only way they get into remote villages up here.

We stopped at the Millennium Hotel-Iditarod Race Headquarters for a coffee break. Spike wanted us to check out the lobby with all the stuffed Alaskan animals.

Spike pointed out the Black Elk Leather store and we stopped into the Alaska Fur Exchange. It had authentic Alaskan gifts. It had real animal head fur hats and lots of wall-mount heads of every species. You could get all the tools needed to do leather work and tons of beads for decorating clothing.

For lunch we went to the Market & Festival. We had deep fired Halibut, hushpuppies and fries. It was all real good. We walked around the grounds and checked out the booths. When we finished there we headed to the train station to take advantage of the tour of the Port of Anchorage.

We were bussed into the secured area and up to where they unloaded the ships, the containers are trucked away. They served us hot dogs and chips high up on the 3rd floor deck so we got a bird’s eye view of the operation.

Patty wanted to go to the quilt shop to collect more fabric for her Alaskan quilt. It was fun checking out all the animal prints. The guys patiently waited for us.

We checked out the book store and picked up a few more Clive Cussler books for Gay and then headed to the Army Surplus store to get a folding shovel to carry in the 5th wheel. We might need it to go gold panning again.

It was 5pm when we got back to the 5th wheel. We were free until 9pm when everyone gathered at the park shelter for birthday cake for Spike.

For pictures of the day see album: Anchorage 7-20-08

We are on the move today, destination Anchorage—233 miles. We were disappointed we didn’t see Mt. McKinley yesterday.

We left at 9:30am and had our first break at mile 50. Today will be our last big day of our caravan. We had views of the mountains as we traveled towards Anchorage. We got a glimpse of Mt. McKinley peaking through the clouds. That’s better than nothing. We’ll take it. I got a few pictures while we were driving along. On down the road we heard Spike come over the radio and say Mt. McKinley was in full view. He told us to pull into the wayside coming up if we wanted to take pictures. Gay snapped lots of pictures and got some really nice ones. We are happy now---we got to see Mt. McKinley.

For lunch we pulled into Big Sheep Lodge at mile 140. We had a quick soup & sandwich and were back on the road.

At mile 193 we took a 60 min. break at the Iditarod Trail Headquarters. Gay rode in the dog sled and I got to hold the 6wk old puppies.

We went into the museum and checked out the displays, photos and trophies of Iditarod winners. We watched a movie of dog sled racing and then it was back to our rigs and off to Golden Nugget Camper Park in Anchorage.

Anchorage is the hub of the entire state, population 282,000. We will be here for 4 days.

We were invited to BBQ/Pot Luck here at the campground as soon as we set up.

We will have an early turn-in; it will be a busy day tomorrow.

For pictures of the day see album: Denali to Anchorage 7-19-08

We were up early and went over to Subway for breakfast & coffee. While we were there we bought sub-sandwiches for our lunch to take along on our Denali Park excursion today. The park consists of 6 million acres.

We met Spike at his van to carpool over to the entrance of the park at 9am. Our bus left at 9:45am for our 6 hr trip into the park as far as Toklat at mile 53. It was raining and overcast. We did not see Mt. McKinley because the clouds hung low over the mountains. Mt. McKinley is 20,320 ft. high, the tallest mountain in North America. If a person sees Mt. McKinley they need to count themselves lucky. Clouds bump up against the peak all summer long, so Mt. McKinley is completely visible only around 20% of the time.

We made 2 bathroom stops and at each stop the guys would get out and wash the bus windows so we could see out, but within 5 to 10 minutes they were mud covered and you could hardly see anything.

When we were about midway in our trip we spotted some Dall sheep way up on the mountain side. They were just little white dots to us. Someone in the back of the bus spotted an eagle and that was about the extent of the animals we saw in the park.

Up at the top at Toklat we were at an elevation of 3, 090 ft. We only spent about 15 minutes there. We looked through their book store and display area.

The trip down was more of the same, muddy windows and a few more sheep.

We were back at the 5th wheel by 4:15. There aren’t many pictures for the day due to all the rain.

For pictures of the day see album: Denali Park 7-18-08

We left our campground at Fairbanks and at mile 50 we took a 45 min. break at the little town of Nenana. Their claim to fame is the Nenana Ice Classic, an annual lottery started by railroad workers in 1917 to guess when the ice covering the Tanana River would break up in the spring. You guess right down to the second. There were also lots of little log cabin shops to look through. The flowers at all the shops were beautiful.

Back on the road and only about 65 miles to go. We arrived at Denali Rainbow Village RV Park in Denali Park about 2pm. It didn’t take long for us to all get parked and set up. Gay & I had lunch and then checked out the shops.

It started raining and the temperature was about 54 degrees so we headed back to the 5th wheel, we got caught up on e-mails and settled in for the night.

For pictures of the day see album: Fairbanks to Denali 7-17-08

We slept in this morning till 7 am. It’s our free day so as soon as we got ready we headed to the Alaskan Wood Bowl Co. You could watch the manufacturing process through their in store windows. They could even engrave lettering or pictures in the bottom of the bowls.

Our next stop was the Alaskan Raw Fur Co. Every year they go from one remote cabin and village to the next to collect the winter’s harvest of furs. They have a wide selection of tanned furs, the timber wolves, wolverine, beaver, coyote, mink, otter, fox, lynx, ermine, rabbit, and on and on. It was quite a site. They also sold material there. They have some beautiful wild life prints. I ordered a bird print. As soon as they get their order in they will ship me the yardage I ordered.

We came back to the 5th wheel and had lunch and then we were off again with a couple from our group (Bill and Linda Shaw) to check out the Community Museum. They had an exhibit on the Flood of “67” here in Fairbanks. We also took in the Dog Mushing Museum. They had exhibits of dog sleds and the history of mushing in Alaska. They displayed posters and information on the Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race and the well-known Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

We went to the Visitors Center to pick up information on the surrounding area and take a few pictures of all the beautiful flowers there.

The highlight of our afternoon was our visit to the Ice Museum. We were shown a movie clip that shows you the process from start to finish of sculpting ice. They had large glass fronted walk-in display cases that maintained a constant temperature of 20 degrees. One had a dog team and sled. The mushers head was hollowed out so you could put your head through for a picture. They also had a log cabin and other animals carved in ice. When we were done taking pictures they gave a demonstration of carving the ice. He carved a bird on a branch in no time at all with a chain saw and grinder to get more detail.
We also saw Dr. Matt Nolan form the University of Alaska in Fairbanks, Institute of Engineering. He had just returned from the McCall Glacier in the Brooks Range with core samples taken from the glacier. They will be doing all kinds of testing to find out weather changes throughout thousands of years. At the glacier there are no trees or plants life to make any tests on. They may find evidence of these things trapped in the glacier.

We had one last stop to make before heading back to our campground and that was the Botanical Gardens. The flowers were beautiful. Gay got lots of pictures.

At 6:15pm we all carpooled over to Susan Butcher’s home for a catered in Salmon & Prime Rib dinner and a movie on Susan’s life. They had a big tent set up where they served our food, which was delicious and then we got to move to the theater tent to watch the movie. Jessie Royer and Brent Sass, both mushers, were there to tell us about their experiences running the Iditarod Race. We were given an opportunity to go out and visit the dogs and even hold the 4wk old puppies. We all got a group picture in the giant dog sled before heading back to our campground. I purchased Susan’s children’s book titled Granite and had her husband and daughter sign it for us. We had a great evening.

For pictures of the day see album: Fairbanks 7-16-08

This morning at 9am we all carpooled for our city tour of Fairbanks. We stopped at the Trans Alaska Pipeline System. Spike gave us the history of the pipeline and then we visited the gift shop and walked around taking a few pictures.

The pipeline is 800 miles long. 420 miles above ground where unstable permafrost makes it necessary to elevate the pipeline; and 380 miles below ground, where the pipe is buried in stable bedrock. It crosses three mountain ranges; the Brooks, Alaska and Chugach. It stretches from Prudhoe Bay on Alaska’s North Slope to Valdez. It has transported more than 14 billion barrels of oil since start-up. Pipeline construction began in March 1975 and was completed in June of 1977. More than 70,000 people helped create and construct the Alaska pipeline.

Spike showed us the Holley Roller Church named such because it was moved across the frozen river on logs to its present location, the State University, and the historic part of Fairbanks. We can go and visit these places on our own in our free time.

We had lunch back at the 5th wheel and we all met up at the park office to be bussed for our Riverboat Discovery Tour at 1pm.

We boarded a sternwheeler riverboat. We cruised on the Chena and Tanana Rivers. It was a 3 ½ hour cruise. We watched a bush pilot take off on the river beside us, circle around us and land again in the water by our boat. 60 % of the people here have a pilot license.

As we made our way out where the Chena & Tanana Rivers come together you could see the difference in the color of the water. The Chena is the clear water and the Tanana River is glacial-fed and is a chalky color.

We stopped by the shore of Susan Butcher’s home. She is a 4 time champion musher of the Iditarod. Susan passed away from cancer a few years ago but her husband and children were there to tell us about the dogs and give a demonstration of the dogs pulling a 4-wheeler. Jessie Royer, another musher who also runs the Iditarod was there with some of her dogs also.

On down the river we stopped for a guided walking tour of an authentic Athabascan Indian Village. We learned about their traditions and culture.

We were able to walk around the village after the tour to take pictures before boarding the boat to go back.

Our bus picked us up at 5:45 and took us back to the campground.

At 6:30 we were on the go again. We headed for Pioneer Park for an Alaska Salmon Bake. It was an all you can eat slow roasted prime rib, beer-battered Halibut & Cod and wood-grilled Salmon with salad bar and dessert. It was all so good.

After we all finished eating we wandered into Pioneer Park and checked out the shops. Spike showed were we could buy willow walking sticks in one of the shops there. We would have to finish them ourselves. Just about everyone in the group bought one.

We returned to the 5th wheel about 9pm. Gay checked out the pictures for today and uploaded everything for the blog. See album Fairbanks 7-15-08.

We left our campground in Tok this morning at 10am. We stopped at mile 70 in a wayside for a break. We drove in rain off and on all morning. We all took our umbrellas and hiked down to the Tanana River that ran along behind the wayside. That gave us our morning exercise, especially the hike back up.

At mile 115 we stopped for lunch at Rika’s Roadhouse. They had great soup and buffalo burgers. After lunch we toured the museum—Alaska Road Commission, Telegraph Station and Barracks. Gay’s got lots of pictures of that along with all the beautiful flowers there.

Just after we got back on the road we crossed the bridge and got our first glimpse of the Alaskan Pipeline. We’ll be seeing more of that while we are here in Fairbanks.

We stopped at Santa Land in North Pole, Alaska. Santa was off today so Spike put on a Santa hat and played that part for us. Wonder is we’ll all get what we want for Christmas?

We went out in back of the gift shop and checked out the reindeer. I got them to eat right out of my hand. Their antlers were in the velvet. I’d never seen that before.

We pulled into our campground The River’s Edge in Fairbanks around 5pm. It didn’t take long and all the rigs were settled in.

After supper we went to the grocery store and then filled up with gas.

We put on 205 miles. It was a good day.

Gay has uploaded pictures for the day see album: Tok to Fairbanks 7-14-08

We were up and ready early and decided to take a walk up in the back of the campground. We hadn’t gone far when we spotted the moose with her 2 babies again. Gay took a lot of pictures in hopes we get one or two good ones. We met for a short prayer meeting at the park shelter at 9am. By 10:30am we were on the road to Tok. The roads were mostly asphalt with a few gravel patches to drive through. We only had 78 miles to go today.

We reached the Tundra Lodge Campground by noon and everyone was set up very quickly. We had some lunch and Gay started to wash our rig. It took him about 3 hours. It was awful dirty with all the dirt roads we’ve been on. Spike says we’ve done the worst of the roads, the rest should be good.

Tonight at 6pm we had our Survivor Party here in the camp. We made it over the Top of The World Highway. Spike supplied smoked salmon and everyone brought snacks. I brought veggies and dip and I baked some chocolate chip cookies. We all had a great time.

Gay has uploaded pictures of the day. See album: Chicken to Tok 7-13-08

It was almost 7am when we woke up this morning. We ate a quick bowl of cereal for breakfast. Members of our caravan slowly started to line up behind us. At 9am the border opened and we made our way across. The roads were still dirt covered and lots of pot holes. We drove slowly and took in all the beautiful scenery.

We arrived in Chicken at 11am. Chicken has a population of 21 in the summer, 6 in the winter. Chicken is getting more and more traffic each year as the Klondike Loop grows in popularity with motorist. The Chicken Creek Saloon and Café are some of the last remnants of the old frontier Alaska. The café is famous throughout Alaska for its good, real home made food, including homemade pies, cookies & cinnamon rolls.

We had lunch at Susan’s café. Spike had called ahead and had her fix chicken noodle soup and sandwiches for the caravan.

We checked out the old dredge on our way back from lunch. It operated on Chicken Creek between 1959 and 1967. They were land-locked floating machines, digging ponds that allowed them to float across the area to be mined.

We used our free time before to update our blog and load all the pictures until 4pm when we were given a personal tour of the old town of Chicken. There are a number of old buildings still standing and they have a bunch of old diaries to help them with the history back then. It has been declared an historic site and they are slowly restoring the buildings and will eventually give more tours there.

On our way to old Chicken we saw a moose and her 2 little ones. This is the first moose we’ve seen up here in Alaska.

At 6 pm a group of about 25 of us from the caravan went back over to Susan’s Café for BBQ Chicken dinner. It was excellent.

We walked back to the 5th wheel and uploaded the blog and pictures and turned in for the night.

Gay has uploaded pictures of the day. See two albums: Yukon/Alaska border to Chicken 7-12-08 and Chicken 7-12-08

At 9:15am we were all lined up at Spike’s, ready to head for our Commissioners Residence tour. We parked in town where the Yukon and Klondike rivers come together. You can clearly see, as they flow together, that the Yukon River is the dirty one and the Klondike River is the clear one. It looks weird to see the difference as they flow side by side.

At the Commissioners Residence we found out our tour guide was ill and we would have to reschedule our tour. We switched our Dredge #4 tour to the morning and the Commissioners Residence to the afternoon.

The Dredge #4 tour was very interesting. We watched a movie on the history of dredging and then we were given a guided tour of the dredge. For sixty years these huge machines dug up the ground of the Klondike region to extract gold. Dredge #4 is the largest wooden hulled bucket line dredge in North America. $32,000,000 of gold was sold in the Dawson area by the 100 miners that are in business here today. Dredge #4 ceased operating in 1960 when it sunk into the slit and mud of the Bonanza Creek. It remained this way for years until Parks Canada undertook a project to recover and restore it.

It was great to be able to go inside the dredge and see how it all works.

We had lunch back at the 5th wheel and by 1:30 we were ready for that tour of the Commissioners Residence. In 1996 Parks Canada completed an extensive restoration and refurbishing project on the Yukon’s Commissioners Residence. The gardens and the main floor have been carefully returned to their original state making one feel like they have stepped back in time. Wished we could have toured the entire house but they have no pictures to indicate which rooms were which upstairs to they decided if they couldn’t make it accurate they would not spend the money to redo the upstairs.

At 6pm we were on our way into town to have supper at Diamond Tooth Gerties Gambling Hall. I had a hamburger and Gay had a rib sandwich. Patty and I traded some money for tokens and did a little gambling in the slot machines. Patty won $7 and I just gave them all my money! The show started at 8:30. It was good. The lead gal had a beautiful voice and the can-can dancers were really good.

There were 3 caravan groups in Dawson, which meant about 79 units would have to cross the Yukon on the ferry. The ferry holds 1, sometimes 2 units at a time, plus they had to fit all the cars on that were waiting to cross. We talked it over with Charlie & Patty and decided to pack up right away and cross over tonight. It was a free ferry and only took about 15 minutes to load the ferry and cross to the other side. We traveled the TOP OF THE WORLD HIGHWAY. WOW! It was beautiful. We loved the scenery. The sky was beautiful. Now we know what they mean when they say the midnight sun. It was still light out at 1:20am when we reached the border. When you look at all the sunset pictures just remember they were all taken between 11pm and 1am. Looking down into the valleys was beautiful too. The roads were dirt and there were places where we had to dodge the pot holes, and there were also patches of asphalt. We took is easy and enjoyed the ride. A number of others in our group did the same thing but they stopped at mile 11 at a wayside and stayed the night. We pushed on as far as the border crossing. We arrived there at 1:20am and parked in line for the crossing to open at 9am. We were unlevel but just crawled into bed and made the best of it. I told Gay as long as he didn’t roll on me and push me out of bed I’d be fine.

Gay has uploaded pictures for the day See Album: Dawson City 7-11-08

We left our campground at 9:40am for our walking tour of historic Dawson City. We met our costumed guide at the Grand Palace Theater to begin the tour. They have restored the theater and have summer productions there.

We toured the Bank of British North America. What a neat old building. It had a tin roof on it. We were shown the brothel, which was in business up until 1960---if you can believe that!

The Red Feather Saloon was neat. It had been restored back to its original state. We saw the Klondike Tanning Co. hardware store and the Westminster Hotel built back in 1901. We made a stop at the Post Office. The woodwork in these old building was beautiful. We got a behind the scenes view of Dawson’s past.

Spike took us up to the RCMP Cemetery. There were 8 or 9 sections in the cemetery. Everyone had to be buried in their own little sections.

Back in our vehicles again and up we go to the Midnight Dome. From the top, at 3200 ft, you get a spectacular view of the Klondike. You could walk out on the bluff and see for miles.

We also checked out Jack London’s cabin. He came to the Yukon looking for gold in 1897 at the age of 21. He built his own cabin and we got to check it all out. While he didn’t strike it rich, he later turned his Klondike adventures into fame and fortune writing books. Call of the Wild and White Fang were two of his well known books.

We also stopped at the log home of Robert Service, a well known poet. His cabin was called a gentleman’s cabin. It was much nicer than Jack London’s. This one had 2 rooms.

At 7pm we all gathered up our boots and gold mining pans and headed out with Spike to Bonanza Creek to try out our luck at panning for gold. We were lucky enough to find a few little tiny bits of gold. I also found 7 garnets and 2 quartz. It was fun. We shoveled up our dirt, sifted it and were all standing in the river panning it out. Before we knew it was 9:30pm and still light of course. By the time we got home it was 10:15pm. It was time to call it a day.

Gay has uploaded pictures of the day. See album: Dawson City 7-10-08

We left Whitehorse at 8:30am. By 10:30 we arrived at Braeburn Lodge for their famous Sticky Buns. Spike had phones ahead to let them know he had 24 rigs coming and each couple would want one of their sticky buns. They were huge! We saved some of ours for tomorrow morning. Spike said people fly in for sticky buns and coffee. There was a little grass covered runway right across the street from the lodge.

The scenery along this section of the highway was just scrubby trees on both sides of the highway. Nothing much to see or take pictures of so I had a hard time keeping my eyes open. We did hit a few gravel patches and one section that were quite a few miles of gravel. One 5th wheel in our group ended up with a hole in his windshield. A vehicle coming in the opposite direction threw a rock up and hit the windshield.

The road sides were lined with more of that fireweed. It is such a deep pink—so pretty.

We stopped for lunch at mile 179 at Pelly Crossing. Everyone grabbed a bite to eat in their rigs and then we checked out the little museum there. It was all about the Selkirk people and their traditions. It was neat to read about them. We spent about 45 minutes there before moving on.

Our next stop was at mile 297 at the Tintina Trench-Plate Separation. Beneath the Tintina Trench is a fault line along which the bedrock has shifted. It has had a dramatic impact on the river. It was all very interesting to read about. We were high above the valley and some of our crew was hitting golf balls off into the valley below.

We arrived in Dawson City around 5pm, got set up and then Spike took us on a tour of the town. We will be ready to take in the sites tomorrow.

Gay has uploaded pictures of the day. See album: Whitehorse to Dawson City 7-9-08

We are free today to check out the shops, get groceries and top of with gas.

We went into town about 10:30am. We stopped at the visitor’s center to watch their film “As the Crow Flies.” It’s all about the Yukon. From there it was on down to the Smith House for our free parking pass and Whitehorse pin.

We checked out the Bear’s Paw Quilt shop. They had beautiful quilting fabrics and wildlife prints.

We stopped to take a few pictures of the Old Log Church built in 1900. It’s one of the oldest buildings in Whitehorse. The backs of the buildings across the street were all painted with murals. It looked as if there was an ally between the buildings, a bicycle leaning against one of the buildings, barrels on one side of the alley, a truck along side of the buildings. It had store fronts and boardwalks like an old town. It was a nice way to beautify the backs of buildings.

We also checked out the store Up North. It was a gallery of items all make by native Yukon’s. They had beautiful things.

We had to get a picture of the Slab of Native Copper outside the MacBride Museum. It weighs 2,590 lbs. In 1950 prospectors found the copper on the upper White River. This is the Yukon’s largest copper nugget.

Gay wanted to check out the Canadian Tire store and then it’s was off to the Canadian Super Store. It’s like our Wal-Mart. We picked up a few groceries and then headed back to the 5th wheel.

At 5:45 we headed for the hall here in the park for our grilled steak dinner. Michelle Phillips, lady musher, was our guest. She sat at our table so we got to ask her lots of questions regarding the Yukon Quest and how she trains her dogs. After dinner she got up in front of our group and told us about her life as a musher and what she goes through to compete in the races. We became one of her sponsors for this year’s race. For $50 we will get her newsletters and will be updated on the race. We bought her 1000 Mile Dog Sled Journal and CD. It was an interesting evening.

We had to make another urn downtown to check out the Log Skyscraper. In 1939 Martin Berrigan came to Whitehorse as a carpenter. Anyone who could build a cabin could make a lot of cash. To maximize space and accommodate more people, he built 2 & 3 story structures known locally as the “Log Skyscrapers”. They were neat to see. Good thing it doesn’t get dark until around 11:30pm so we got a number of pictures.

Gay has uploaded pictures of the day. See album: Whitehorse 7/8/08

Whitehorse is a city with the population of 24,000 people and capitol of the Yukon.

Our day began at 10am with a stop at the Yukon River, Whitehorse Rapids and Dam with the Whitehorse fish ladder. The rapids were very pretty. The fish ladder is the longest wooden fish ladder in the world. It helps the Salmon make their way up to their spawning site. They have glass viewing windows that allow you to see the fish make their way up stream.

Miles Canyon was another stop. The water was the prettiest green color. The canyon walls looked like ancient roman pillars, a beautiful site. There was a suspension bridge that stretched across the canyon. We all ventured across. It swayed as we walked an awesome view from up there.

We came back to the 5th wheel for lunch and at 1 pm we carpooled over to the S.S. Klondike for a tour. This sternwheeler represents an age when the city of Whitehorse served a major function as the transportation hub of the entire region here. It was something to see how the 1st and 2nd class passengers traveled. We toured the sternwheeler from top to bottom. Gay got lots of great pictures of all of it.

We also visited the Beringia Center. It details our ice age past and offers exhibits on the Woolly Mammoth, Giant Steppe Bison, Giant Beavers (400 lbs.) and much more. The pictures may give you an overlook of what we saw. We’re taking in lots of history here.

We then headed downtown to the Klondike Rib & Salmon BBQ for supper. We had BBQ Ribs. They were delicious. We were told dessert was a must to. I had apple cake with a special sauce, topped with ice cream. Gay had the all berry pie topped with ice cream.

Our evening show didn’t start for another hour so after we finished supper we walked around town. We found a few stores open to check out.

We met Spike and the gang in time for the Frantic Follies Vaudeville Revue. It was a variety show with skits, singing and can-can girls. We got out of the show at 10 pm. It was still daylight and the sun was shinning. It’s hard to get use to that!

Gay has uploaded pictures of the day. See album: Whitehorse 7-7-08

We packed up in the rain this morning. Everyone is on their own to the first stop. Coming up out of Skagway we were right up in the clouds. We could hardly see in front of us. We were the first to arrive at Carcross Visitors Center. We checked out the R.M.P.C. Barracks and the shops. As soon as we were all together again, we had a quick prayer meeting and pulled out heading for Caribou Crossing for our BBQ Chicken dinner. We were served our chicken and potato from a little building outside the main dining hall. As we filed in we were given our coleslaw and coffee. The rolls and donuts were on a separate table as we went to our tables. It was all delicious. We checked out the wild life museum. What a display.

The highlight of this stop was the dog sled ride. Michelle Phillips, the number one Lady Musher in all of Canada and the Yukon, keeps some of her dogs there. She trains them during the summer by having them pull sleds on wheels through the wooded area there. I was on a sled with 5 other people. We were on our way back when the lead dogs took a wrong turn and then became tangled around a tree. While Michelle was trying to get them untangled, the dogs got involved in a fight. They all started attacking one dog. It was scary to see her in amongst the fighting dogs. Finally everything got worked out and we were on our way. It was neat to ride behind the dogs.

We were less than 50 miles from our campground in Whitehorse when we left Caribou Crossing. We arrived at 3:30pm. We all parked and Spike took us on a city tour so we would know where to find things.

Gay worked on updating the blogs and pictures. We have had no internet service so haven’t been able to post anything for the last 4 days. You all will have to go back and catch up on the trip. Enjoy.

For pictures of the day see album: Skagway to Whitehorse 7/6/08

We were real slow moving this morning. We didn’t have any schedule to meet. By 10 am we were ready to walk uptown and do a few more pictures of the town.

We visited the Moore family homestead here in Skagway. They were a family that settled in this valley to capitalize on the future gold rush.

We stopped into the Skagway News Depot and I bought a few books by Sue Henry. She writes adventures of Alaska. I’m told it’s a good reading.

We had an early lunch so we could be down at the train station for our afternoon excursion to White Pass summit. It was a 3 hr, 40-mile round trip from Skagway to the summit of the White Pass—a 2,865ft elevation. We climbed 20 miles up to the summit. The tight curves of the White Pass called for a narrow gauge railroad. The rails are 3ft apart on a 10ft road bed.

It’s a narrated tour with cascading waterfalls, two tunnels, sky high trestles and spectacular scenery. The train was pulled by vintage diesel locomotives.

We spent the whole trip up on the viewing stand at the back of the car and sat in our seats for the return trip.

When we arrived back in Skagway we decided to have an early dinner. We went to a restaurant within walking distance of the campground. It was a good thing we went early. They opened at 4pm and by 4:30 people were waiting already. We had deep fried halibut and fries. It was very good. Of course we thought we needed dessert so we walked back to town for a hand dipped ice-cream. Now our night is complete.

Gay has uploaded pictures of the day. See album: Skagway-White Pass 7/5/08

We were up and ready to leave for uptown by 8am. It was raining so we took an umbrella and made our way up there. A little rain doesn’t stop you when you are on a mission. There was one particular store that was giving a 20 % discount between 7:30am and 9:30am. We got some good deals in there. When they checked us out they gave us a 20% coupon for a jewelry store called Money Maker. They fashion jewelry out of money. They make it all right there in the store. I bought earrings and a necklace and they are making me a bracelet to match and we will go tomorrow to pick it up.

We went out the back door of the Match Maker and into a little courtyard. Over in the corner we spotted a glass jewelry store. They had some beautiful stuff. I bought another necklace and earrings.

At 10am it was time for the 4th of July parade. The kiddy parade was first, followed by the regular parade. They had bag pipes players, mounted police, fire trucks, saloon girls from the shows in town and bands. Spike was also in the parade dressed again as Frank Reid. He had a shoot out with the con-artist of Skagway, Soapy Smith. Gay got a lot of nice pictures of all of this.

Right after the parade they had the egg toss. We signed up for that. Skagway is trying to get into the Guinness Book of Records for the most people participating in an egg toss. There were over 900 of us. We won’t know if we made it for about 3 months. It takes them that long to tally it all up. There was a helicopter filming it all.

They also had a picnic basket & dessert auction, foot races, tug-of-war, arm wrestling, slow bike race, horseshoe tournament, spike driving contest and the Ducky Derby, lots of fun things going on.

We made our way back to the 5th wheel for lunch. Afterwards Gay decided to wash the truck. It needed a bath after traveling the dusty roads.

About 3pm we got a call from the Money Maker jewelry store letting us know my bracelet was ready. We walked up to pick it up. It is real pretty. Gay got a few more pictures of the town. We stopped and watched the spike driving contest. They had rail road ties laid down in the street with train tracks laid on them. Each contestant had to drive in 5 spikes and the one who did it in the shortest amount of time was the winner.

We decided to try the pizza joint for supper. It was nice to have some good pizza for a change.

At 5:30 we went to watch the Ducky Derby. Number 104 won. Who ever held that ticket won $1000? They also drew 5 ducks at random and they each won $100 each. It was something to see all the little ducks floating down the river.

Even though it rained this morning everyone made the best of it and had a great day.

Gay has uploaded pictures of the day. See album: Skagway 7/4/08

Today was a full day. At 8:40 am Spike took us to the visitor’s center where we watched the film “Days of Adventure Dreams of Gold” and we had a presentation by a ranger on the history of the area.

We went to the post office to pick up our mail. We haven’t had any mail for about 3 weeks. We headed back to the 5th wheel to check it out and had lunch.

At 12:50 we met Spike at the camp office. He was dressed up a Frank Reid, a guy from the 1800’s that shot and killed Soapy Smith, a con-man from Skagway. A few people from our group were dressed in costumes also and they all put on a skit about the shoot out that killed both Frank & Soapy. Gay got lots of pictures of that.

At 1:30 we all carpooled for Spike’s city tour. The main street of Broadway is lined with boardwalks. The buildings all have false fronts on them, creating a unique atmosphere of an old gold rush town. There are lots of shops to check out.

We headed out of town towards Dyea to the Chilkoot Trail. This 33-mile trail was the route to the Klondike gold fields. Over 30,000 gold seekers toiled up its stair steps. Most scaled the pass 20 to 40 times shuttling their required ton of goods.

We all went up the first leg of the trail and signed the guest book. Some went higher on up the trail, including Gay. The stair steps were a combination of tree routs and rocks. It was a tuff climb.

We hopped in our cars and headed back down towards Skagway. We stopped at a pull-off to see an overview of Skagway from on top of the ridge. Spike supplied water and cookies for everyone.

Klondike Cemetery was our next stop. This is where Frank Reid and Soapy Smith were buried. We moved on out the back of the cemetery and up the hill to Reid Falls. The water comes barreling down the cliffs, just a beautiful site.

We had free time back at the 5th wheel. I fixed prawns and a salad for supper.

At 6:45 we hopped into Spike’s van and he drove us up to the Eagles Hall for an hour of mock gambling before our “Days of 98” show with Soapy Smith. Some of our group was pulled up on stage to join the performers in the show. It was great---the singing, dancing and dance hall girls.

Gay & I walked back to the 5th wheel. The wind picked up and it was cold. The fireworks were scheduled for 11:30pm. We bundled up and took our folding chairs down by the boat dock and watched the fireworks being shot off over the bay. It was a neat scene with the mountains in the background, the boats in the harbor and the fireworks going off over the water. They were done by 1200 am and we headed back to crawl into bed and get warm.

Gay has uploaded pictures of the day. See album: Skagway 7/3/08

We are traveling the Alaskan Highway along the snow covered Coast Mountain range today. The wild flowers called fireweed is in bloom along the roadside. It’s a real pretty deep pink in color. There is some yellow are little arctic poppies mixed in. It’s just beautiful.

We stopped for our first break at mile 83. Spike passed out the itinerary for our 4 day stay in Skagway and they took pictures of all the dogs on this trip, 14 in all. Spike wants to post it on his site.

Off we go again. We pulled into Teslin for our lunch break about 12:30. Most of us fueled up here and then had lunch in our rigs.

There was a beautiful museum there also. It has all the wildlife displayed that is in the area. The taxidermist did a wonderful job. It is so life like. We spent about an hour there before we pushed on.

The countryside was so beautiful. Spike does such a wonderful job narrating the trip. Some of the lakes we went by had mirrored images in them. Just like glass. Our roads are very good today. We could move right along.

We went through the community of Tagish where Michelle Phillips lives. She is one of the lady mushers that drive in the Yukon Quest dog sled race. We saw a dog team in training. They were pulling a sled on wheels right along a trail by the road.

We took a 10 minute photo break after going through Carcross before making that last trek down into Skagway. It was an 8 % grade downhill and we had lots of twists and turns but we all made it ok. Spike lead us to the campground entrance and the owner parked us one by one.

We walked to a nearby restaurant to eat with the Wiley’s. It was Griffin’s birthday so he got to pick the place. We had excellent meals and then returned to the camp for birthday cake.

It doesn’t begin to get dark here until 11:30 so we decided to walk up town and check of the stores. None of them were open of course but we know right where we want to go tomorrow!

Gay has uploaded pictures of the day. See album: Watson Lake to Skagway

We left our campsite in Dease Lake at 9:30am. We had 145 miles to cover today. We saw a fox and a bear. The bear was quite a ways ahead of us, running on the side of the road before he ducked into the trees.

We took a 10 minute break at mile 47 and looked for gold nuggets in hillside and rocks along the highway. Last year’s group found a nugget but we weren’t so lucky. We stopped right by a beautiful lake and while I was gold digging Gay was up on top of the 5th wheel taking pictures of the lake with a reflection of the surrounding mountains in the water. How pretty! He also got a picture of all the units lined along the road.

Our next stop was at Jade City. This is where 80% of the world’s jade is mined. The gal at the gift shop gave a great presentation about jade and we all shopped till we dropped. We had time left over for a quick sandwich for lunch before the caravan moved on.

We had some gravel roads with big pot holes. You had to weave your way around them. We arrived in the Downtown RV Park in Watson Lake around 5pm. After we got set up we headed to the grocery store to pick up milk, bread etc. We were their last customers of the day. Glad we made it.

After supper we met up with the Wiley’s and we all headed to the Sign Post Forrest to put up our signs. We brought a ladder along because we wanted our sign to be way up high.

Watson Lake is famous for their collection of sings. It all started back in 1942 when a homesick GI who was working on the Alaska Highway erected a sign pointing to his hometown of Danville, IL. New signs are added to the collection each year by visitors who wish to recognize their own communities. There are now over 40,000 signs.

We also went to Watson Lake’s Northern Lights Center and watched a presentation of the Northern Lights. You sat in a chair that relined back and you watched the movie on a sphere like screen. It was really neat.

All in all it was a very interesting day.

Gay has uploaded pictures of the day. See album: Dease Lake to Watson Lake

Everyone was on their own this morning. We could travel at our leisure from Hyder to our lunch break 98 miles on up HWY 37 at Bell II Lodge.

We left the campground by 7:20am and we slowly made our way up the highway stopping to take pictures as we wanted. The scenery was fabulous---lots of waterfalls.

We arrived at the 98 mile marker at 10:30am. We went into the restaurant at 11am for lunch. We had their clam chowder and we split a sandwich. It was all very good.

By noon we were on the road again. We traveled with the Coast Mountains on one side and the Skeena Mountains on the other. Breathtaking views!

One of the units in our caravan had a flat tire and our mechanic was right there and changed it for them and they were back on the road in no time.

The second unit had an overheating problem. The tail gunner & our mechanic stopped with him to check things our. They had him drop the car he was towing and limped on into the campground with him. They will be able to get a better look at then. Our mechanic will have a busy night trying to fix everyone’s problems.

As people were setting up, the unit next to ours couldn’t put one of their slides out. He will have to leave the group tomorrow and head into Whitehorse and get it fixed and join up with us again in Skagway.

We did 245 miles today. We had road construction to deal with and we were all tired when we arrived at the park.

Gay has uploaded pictures of the day. See album: Hyder to Dease Lake