Back in the lower 48

August 17, 2009
Chimacum, WA

As always, click on any picture to enlarge...

Wow, what a strange feeling to be back in the "lower 48" after being gone for so many weeks. Here's the catch up on what's been going on.

We left Telkwa as planned on August 12th. We checked the road conditions based on the known forest fires and made the decision to bypass Whistler and Vancouver on this trip. BC-99 was still experiencing some impact from the forest fires, even though there had been some rain over the last few days, and we were feeling like it was more important to get somewhere where we could chill for a couple of weeks. The combination led us to make a beeline for the border. Well, there's no such thing as a "beeline" in that area, but we made pretty good time. We passed through the little town of Hope (why are all the places called "Hope" little towns?), with its many decorated poles and hydrants, the larger burg of Prince George (Oooo, Costco!), and eventually Chilliwack. As we got closer to the border, rest areas became less frequent, smaller, and restrictive ("Please limit your stay to 8 hours").

We stopped at the WalMart in Chilliwack only to find a 2-hour parking limit, so we headed for the border crossing at the little town of Sumas, purported to be much easier than the one at Blaine on I-5. Ha, I say! We had a heck of a time negotiating the narrow and curved entry way to the checkpoint, and were rewarded with an inquisition and search for our trouble. It didn't bother me too much if they wanted to look through the coach and car; I was just happy that I hadn't ripped the sides off on the concrete barriers. "Take your time".

From the border crossing, we headed west to pick up I-5 north of Bellingham, stopped at the first rest area to grab a bite and then headed to the next WalMart down the road to boondock for the night in a quiet place (rest areas on I-5 are generally not quiet). There were a few RVs there, but many more homeless people sleeping in their cars. Welcome back to the "real world".

From Bellingham, we made the big circle south and then northwest, through Seattle and Tacoma and up the western side of the Puget Sound. We did the math (OK, I did the math) and knew that the ferry from Keystone to Port Townsend would be a better deal, compared with the fuel to drive all the way around. "Sorry; no ferry for you" when I called for a reservation. Oh, well, it was worth a shot. Our destination was a park run by the Escapees, an RVing organization we've belonged to for several years, just south of Port Townsend. We'll stay here for probably two weeks before heading south through Oregon to northern California.

So, we've been chilling, just as we planned. Saturday, we headed up to Sequim for shopping, passing through several small towns and by a couple of interesting "locals". Sunday, as it turned out, there was a family event in the area. We planned to get in touch with Geri's niece's son, Michael, while we were here, since they now live in Puyallup, right near Tacoma. Well, it turns out that this weekend was their son Brandon's birthday, and Geri's niece, Cindy, was in town with her husband, Mike, and daughter, Jennifer. We quickly made plans to drive down yesterday afternoon, and had a good time visiting for a few hours. The weather has turned beautiful, so it was a great day.

Below, left to right, Mike and Mike (Cindy's husband and son); Leslie manages the crowd; birthday boy Brandon; Geri and Cindy



Today, we made a quick trip into Port Townsend, a quaint little village, if a little on the touristy side. I picked up a small clip at the local Napa to fix the linkage on one of the bay doors (nothing like going to dump the tanks and finding out that the door to the "wet bay" won't open), we had lunch at a brew pub (no oysters!), and found a bunch of interesting wines at the local independent wine shop (who can resist that?). From there, it was back "home" and out with the grill for a nice pork tenderloin, butter-sautéed red potatoes (aka "Grandma Reds"), and grilled zucchini. Paired with a 2000 Touriga-Nacional from the Dão in Portugal (going back tomorrow and buying the rest), and a splash of a Pedro Ximénez Solera Sherry - woo-hoo! A great meal completes a good day.

Below: A-ville well represented again in Port Townsend; interesting bumper at the Safeway

Back on the road - what clean coach and car?

August 11, 2009
Quesnel, BC, Canada

Today was a driving day. Nothing special, jus about 300 miles from Telkwa to Quesnel, still in BC. We followed TC-16 to Prince George, then took BC-97 south. Good roads, limited construction, and just enough rain to dirty up the coach and car on the outside - but nowhere near what we saw farther north. We're neatly parked at the local WalMart, as expected. There's more weather on the way, so who knows how long the Internet will be connected?

Tomorrow will be another driving day. We'll continue to head south on BC-97, and make a decision mid-day on taking BC-99 to Vancouver via Whistler or staying on BC-97 to TC-1 toward the Canada/US border at Sumas.

Cleaning Up

August 10, 2009
Fort Telkwa, BC, Canada

The last few days have been a whirlwind of activity, although not the kind we're used to! From our Bear Glacier boondocking spot, Friday morning we continued south on BC-37 to Kitwanga, where we fueled up at the junction with Trans-Canada-16. Heading east on TC-16, we decided to stop in Smithers for lunch and found that they have a Safeway. Time to stock up on groceries! While the shopping was being done, I stopped at the hardware store for some specialized screws (have a slide lock strike plate that's loose) and checked out the route ahead. Lo and behold, there's an RV Park in the next town with a free high-pressure RV wash! Just what the doctor ordered after the last few weeks of collecting dirt. Bob & Marlene agreed, and we both pulled in for two nights. Geri was a little shocked at the sign they have by the front gate, but it turned out to be a good place to stop.

On Saturday, it was time to tackle washing the coach. I'd done the Range Rover the evening before, and I couldn't put it off any further. Having used their pressure washer on the RR, I decided to ask if it was OK to use the small one I'd picked up earlier in the trip right at our site. This would avoid having to unhook, and Geri was already doing laundry in the coach. The fine people in the office gave the OK, and I was ready to go. I started with the roof and then did all the outside, trying to work with (actually out of) the sun as it peeked in and out of the clouds. I even cleaned the inside of the bay doors (they were caked with road dirt along the bottom edge), the battery compartment, and the engine compartment. I'd have done the generator compartment as well, if I hadn't pulled so far into the site and left little room to open it. Later in the afternoon, I got the ladder and cleaned the water spots from the windows. I even washed the ladder!

While all this was going on, Geri was working hard on the inside, getting most of the laundry done and cleaning the bath and shower. When the day was done, we knew we needed another day or so to finish the inside, so we made the decision to stay another two nights.

Since Bob & Marlene were ready to roll, we said our "safe travels" and they headed out Sunday morning. We tackled the rest of the inside cleaning yesterday and spent today relaxing and putzing. Geri made dog food and cooked up some of the provisions we had in the freezer for easy on-the-road meals, then whipped up a great veal parm dinner. I started figuring out where we'll head next, recognizing that a) we're still wary of forest fires south of here and b) we're really in need of a place to chill for a couple of weeks prior to our upcoming caravan in California. I got far enough to know where we'll stay the next few nights, where we'll cross the border, and where we'll stay in Washington. Don't want to start planning too far in advance! I caught up on some bill paying and email reading as well (forgot to mention that the dish is back in operation, although our DirecTV receivers need reauthorization - have to call for TV). Overall, we're ready to hit the road south tomorrow, rain (it's rained on and off for two days - first rain we've seen in weeks) or shine.

Stewart, BC/Hyder, AK

August 6, 2009
Bear Glacier, Stewart, BC

Yesterday's travels were mostly uneventful. We continued south on the Cassiar Highway, making our way through some more construction zones. One was so "fresh" with gravel, I think they were using the through traffic (us) to pack it down for them. Slow going!

Once past Dease Lake, about halfway down the Cassiar, the road turned better, with some sections having been rebuilt as late as 2008. We went from slow to smooth, always wondering when it'd turn slow again. The rest of the day was pretty good, though. We caught up with Bob & Marlene at the junction of the road to Stewart/Hyder, made a bad choice for a stopping spot, and had to drive about two miles farther on looking for a place to turn around. Oh, well; it happens.

Once oriented in the right direction, we headed toward Stewart/Hyder but opted to stop at Bear Glacier, about 25 miles out. What a good call! We parked right across a small pond that's partially fed from the glacier. We had a great view and a quiet night. Geri got the best glacier picture of the bunch, posted below.




In the morning, we woke to find a new neighbor had pulled in during the night. A guy driving a SUV towing a cargo trailer had stopped, almost out of gas. Bob let him borrow their car to go to town for fuel; nice guy!

Once we were on the road, we headed into Stewart, BC. It's a small port town (Canada's most northern ice-free harbor) that relies on logging more than anything these days. We saw thousands of logs piled up or floating in the harbor, waiting to be loaded on ships bound for who knows where. We left the coaches parked at the Visitor's Centre, and headed across the border to the funky little town of Hyder, Alaska. It's pretty small and only accessible by road from Stewart. We had the easiest border crossing of the trip - the US doesn't even maintain a checkpoint, so we didn't even have to stop!

Once in Hyder, we were disappointed to find that the road up to Salmon Glacier was under repair and they were only letting two tour busses (actually a school bus) up there a week. We know it was a school bus since we saw it leave town. We knew we weren't going to hang around waiting for the next bus, or for the road to open, so we headed to the Fish Creek Wildlife Viewing Area. This is one of the best places to see bears catching salmon - except we were there at the wrong time of day. We watched the salmon for a while and decided to save Hyder for our next trip.

We collected the coaches, Geri saw a colorful fire hydrant, we took advantage of the free dump/water station in town, and then we headed back to our new favorite spot overlooking Bear Glacier for another restful evening.

On the way south from Skagway

August 4, 2009
Jade City, BC, Canada

Yesterday was a simple driving day. We left Skagway midday (a late start for us) and headed back up the hill for Carcross. It was a short drive, but we wanted to stop for pictures at some of the turnouts we'd "saved" for the return trip. Well, that's a lesson learned - don't do that! The smoke was so bad we really weren't able to get many shots once we left Skagway. Geri took a shot of a tourist trap in town (note the signs on the building next door), and more of a small waterfall along the highway. There are a number of these small falls along the roads, fed by snowmelt (yes, there's still some snow melting at elevation in August.




We caught up with Bob & Marlene in a small town called Carcross, back in the Yukon Territory. It was originally called "Caribou Crossing", but later shortened. We bookdocked in a large lot in the middle of the small town, where it was pretty quiet. If they had sidewalks, they'd have been rolled up before sunset (now a 10:30 PM event).

Today was a little more complicated, but still basically a driving day. We left Carcross and headed back toward the Alaska Highway on the "Tagish Cut-off". It was a smooth drive all the way to Watson Lake, where we fueled up at the PetroPass card-lock site. After a quick lunch, we headed south on the Cassiar Highway. Well, we were in for a surprise. We found some of the worst road conditions we've seen all summer, and that includes the "dreaded Top of the World Highway" into Dawson City. Bad construction zones, no shoulders, and severe frost heaves were all in abundance. To make matters worse, we caught up with a series of slow-moving RVs (mostly travel trailers and fifth wheels - and don't you know some idiots were passing everyone in the gravel stretches? I thought we were at the dirt-track races ("They're two-wide in the corners, Jimmy!"). We let that whole crowd pass or fall back after a while, but the road didn't improve much. We made it to a place called Jade City, where a large portion of the world's jade is mined and processed (who knew?). We stopped in the shop and looked over the mining and processing equipment outside, but didn't feel tempted by anything other than their free overnight RV parking. Friendly people, though.

Click here for pictures.

Tomorrow, we'll continue down the Cassiar Highway, looking for better road conditions and heading for the little towns of Stewart, BC, and Hyder, AK.

Historic Dyea

August 2, 2009
Dyea, AK

Awaking to a cloudy day for a change, we decided to make the trip out to the historic town at Dyea. Pronounced "die-yea", it's a preservation site of the National Park Service (yes, we're back in the US at this point), and we use the term "preservation" very loosely. Once a thriving port, only a few traces are left just over 100 years later.

Dyea was the starting point for the Chilkoot Trail, used by the early stampeders headed for Dawson City in the Yukon in 1897-1898. Each person wanting to cross the mountains into Canada was required to bring a year's worth of supplies with them - roughly two tons of "stuff" - to ensure that they could survive. They had to have everything shipped in by steamer from Seattle, then carried (by themselves or by hired help, usually Native Americans/First Nations people, depending on which side of the border you were on) over the 3,000'+ Chilkoot Pass, then by boat (many self-constructed on the fly) across the lakes and down the Yukon River. It took the better part of a year, depending on the seasons and weather, to make the journey. No wonder they called it "gold fever" - you had to be crazy to try!

Now, all that's left of Dyea are some ruins in what's become a wooded glen, and a few pilings out in the tidal flats. Abandoned in the early-1900s, most of the structures were salvaged for scrap or left to rot. The pier, which extended out into the tidal bay for two miles to reach deeper water, is almost gone. Interestingly, because the valley was formed by glacial forces in the last Ice Age, the land is "springing back" at the rate of 3/4" per year - that means that the town site is over 6' higher than it was during the Gold Rush, changing the ability to support plant life - the whole thing is treed over at this point, to the point where it's remarkable to imagine that there was a bustling port town there just 100+ years ago. Being from the east coast, where "historical" sites are generally from the 1620s-1860s timeframes, it's an interesting change of perspective.

After a self-guided walking tour and a 15 minute session with the on-site Park Ranger talking about the history, we had lunch in the car, spotting a black bear poking his nose out of the brush in the process. We then drove out on the tidal flats to the ruins of the pier, startling a bald eagle resting on one of the pilings in the process. On the way back to Skagway, we stopped at two cemeteries: one in Dyea called "Slide Cemetery" (over 70 people were killed on Palm Sunday, 1898, when a spring avalanche caught everyone by surprise) and the other in Skagway. It's amazing that these cemeteries survive, deep in the woods as they are today.

On the hill above the Skagway "Gold Rush Cemetery", I found a small waterfall that was worth a few photos. It was more interesting than the "world's largest gold nugget" - a painted boulder, ha ha.

Click here for pictures.

On to Skagway

August 1, 2009
Skagway, AK

It was a relatively quiet day. We drove the 150+/- miles from Whitehorse to Skagway, traveling down the historic Klondike Highway. I'm not sure why it's so historic, since it was the last mode of transportation built, lagging behind the Yukon River (since the last Ice Age), the Chilkoot Trail (walking trail used by the First Nations people as a trading route, followed by the early Gold Rush stampeders), the railroad (the White Pass & Yukon Route was completed in the early 1900s), and then the actual roads in the 1940-1960 timeframe.

In any case, it was an easy drive. We stopped at Emerald Lake and learned about how the calcium carbonate deposits left in the Ice Age cause the distinct coloration of the water. We passed the small town of Carcross (where Bob & Marlene were waiting for us - we didn't see them and they didn't see us - oops) and headed down into Skagway. Many of the port cities and towns have the same winding, descending access roads: Valdez, Seward, Homer, Skagway. Now that we're near the southeast panhandle of Alaska, there is a border crossing involved in getting to each Alaskan town, since coastal access is by water only.

We arrived in Skagway early in the afternoon and checked into one of the three RV parks in town, and older place with pretty tight site spacing. As I was backing into the spot, one of the "neighbors" was out with his camera; I'm sure he was waiting for an accident of some kind. Sorry, fella. For two nights, we can make anything work. Bob & Marlene arrived shortly thereafter and took the spot next to us.

Late in the afternoon, we drove "downtown" for souvenir shopping, dodging the cruise boat people, then headed up to a scenic overlook for a couple of late day pictures. I had a hankering for pizza, but we met a "local" at the overlook who steered us to a fish/BBQ place down by the docks. Was he working on commission? Who knows. They had some interesting decorations inside and out. The food was good - Geri had halibut and chips and I had ribs (almost as good as I can make at home). We had a good time with Bob & Marlene, trying to guess if the hostess was wearing a thong. And that's all I'm goin' to say about that.