3 July 08, Thursday
Our adventures today took us over the
Thompson Pass, not really that high, just under 3000 feet but the climb and decent is very steep; use a lower the gear, don’t use the brakes!
Bridal Veil Falls. Pictures just don’t do justice to these magnificent views.
2 July 08, Wednesday
to green mountain sides with ever more water falls. No matter which way you look, the view changes constantly and it is always breathtakingly beautiful.
This morning we had to wait for a long time at a road construction site. It amazed us at the amount of rocks and gravel which has to be moved to build a road here in the mountains. Once the road is finished and you drive on it, you don’t realize how much work went into building it; no wonder road building is a billion dollar industry. 
1 July 08, Tuesday
it is like an aquarium but specifically for the local animals and birds. We could see how the different birds dive for food; the different bone configurations of the Stellar seal and the harbour seal; they know how to make their talks interesting. Even the archaeological talk did not put as to sleep.
A short walk through “downtown” Seward did not reveal anything exciting so it was time for a siesta at our camp site. Unfortunately the neighbour was running the generator while he was somewhere else. Too loud for our comfort and off we went towards Anchorage.
30 June 08, Monday
We did see a lot of aquatic wildlife: killer whales or orcas; humpback whales; sea otter; sea lions and millions of birds. Some were nesting so precariously on the tiniest piece of rock. I can see the adults nesting there but how can a baby bird survive when at the end of the nest the ocean looms way down low and cold.
The otter had fun in the water feeding and frolicking around. They have no blubber, just thick and tight fur; 6 million hair to the square inch.
The weather was the best it could be, bright sunshine, perfect for taking pictures. The captain mentioned the rare Seward sunshine we enjoyed today; we were lucky to have such good weather for our trip.
We did not start the Sprinter engine today; first time we stayed in one spot for a day.
29 June 08, Sunday
I climbed a bit from a parking spot and picked up some snow to throw at Gertraut.
Our way continued to the Exit glacier and I had to jump over creeks and climb on rocks to reach the bottom of it. Then I broke a small piece loose and ate thousands of years old very clear ice. I took some to some along to share with Gertraut; it is very dense and lasts a long time in your mouth.
28 June 08, Saturday
The City campground was located several miles from the city, the facilities were not the nicest, but we were happy to find a quiet spot for the night.
27 June 08; Friday
We stopped at a wayside parking at the Chutina River where I took the time to treat the windshield with Rain-X. This really helps to keep the water off the glass; you barely need to use the wipers.
We visited the University of Alaska Museum and had a chance to see the wild animals; how huge they are from close by. They were only stuffed but the size is impressive. I don’t even want to meet a wolf in the wild, never mind a bear. The museum is housed in an extremely modern building; the video show about the aurora borealis was very interesting.
25 June 08, Wednesday
We arrived in Fairbanks, AK; our most northerly point on this trip. The sun has been shining, it is very warm and I am sitting only in shorts outside. It is 21:30 hrs and the sun is too bright to see something on the computer.
We went to an ice carving museum; they keep the displays at 20ºF so there is something to show the tourists.
We are next to the Chena river in a campground; airplanes are constantly moving overhead; we must be at the end of the runway, bad choice! Who can sleep any way during daylight. I fried potatoes and fresh fish for supper.
24 June 08, Tuesday
It must be getting boring for you that I always write about the weather but when you are travelling, sunshine makes a difference. I had to think about it, during the bright nights when I have difficulty falling asleep, that may be we are trading poor weather for no mosquitoes; so far we practically had none.
We see more and more log homes here in Alaska.
There was nothing at Delta Junction, AK to write home about.
We found a nice spot along a river and stopped for the night at: N 64º 32.341’ W 147º 01.254’
We had a look at the ferry line up and saw that another Sprinter was standing in the car line; a very short line. The RV line was several blocks long and the ferry only takes one or two big RV’s.
There was so little traffic on the gravel road we decided to continue and keep a minute or so from the traffic ahead. Later on they had put calcium on the surface, the dust was not half as bad as we had expected. The road was actually good in most places.
After crossing the border into Alaska we saw two moose, one of them with two calves; they took their time crossing the road and one even walked alongside to check us out. It is neat to see the wildlife from the vehicle. Once they are off the road and into the bush on the side they immediately and totally disappear. We just saw them, they can only be in a few feet, and you can’t find them any more.
There was even one setup with a small bulldozer and a bus camper; in for the long haul. It must be kicks, every time you take more gravel you may find the big one ---- and never have to work again, you hope. Must be a feeling like gambling.
We actually drove southerly most of the day so our night stop at a rest area is at:
22 June 08, Sunday
It is just before 9PM and I am sitting without a shirt and write my report. It is 27ºC, no wind, no insects of any kind. I have to sit inside the camper on the steps because the sun is as strong right now as it is at noon; too bright to see the screen. It is truly day-light all night; incredible, when you have not experienced it.
We took a walking tour with Parks Canada of the “City” and heard all about the short lived gold rush. However it did bring enough people here to have a small city of about 1500 permanent residents. The sidewalks are made of wooden planks; the main street, the highway is paved up to the centre line, the rest is gravel.
The houses are built on the permafrost and have no basements. As the ground shifts, the houses need to be “adjusted” from time to time
It is very beautiful here-------no way would I want to live here.
We took a campground right in town: N 64º 03.836 W 139º 25.527’
21 June 08, Saturday
My location is N 64º 04.065 W 139º 23.788’ Elevation 885m.
I am sitting on top of the Midnight Dome in Dawson City, YT. We came here to see the solstice.
I am so very happy that we could actually be here at the right time of the year; I sort of had hoped for it but never even planned to be here. As a matter of fact, we were settled for the night along the Klondike River some 40 km away, and then I grabbed the Milepost book once more to see what to plan for tomorrow and I read all about the Midnight Dome.
We saw the Five Finger Rapids, a major obstacle in the Yukon River for the paddlewheel steamboat a hundred years ago. We heard about this problem for the boats when we took a tour of the Klondike
20 June 08, Friday
We also spent some time visiting the second Klondike ship; a paddle wheeler of giant proportions. It is resorted and a Nat. Historic Site of Parks Canada.
Overnight stop at: N 60º 43.960’ W 135º 04.113’ Whitehorse, YT
19 June 08, Thursday,
It was a three hour trip, and after seeing so much natural beauty on the way up, we had to fight hard not to fall asleep on the trip down. We reached 3000 feet elevation; lots of snow next to the train and very clear water. The train turned around when it reached the continental divide.
I purposely don’t write about the high cost of Diesel fuel; who wants to remember that; but we spend about half as much as we did before with the fifth wheel trailer.
Overnight stop at: N 59º 28.035’ W 135º 18.316’ Skagway, AK
17 June 08, Tuesday
At the ferry check in we decided to buy some extra distance and go all the way to Skagway in Alaska. Our ferry or the ship is called Matanuska; 408 feet long 74 feet wide with 3029 tonnes. Skagway seems to be more the tourist destination than Haines, AK; as a matter of fact, the town lives off the tourists. There is no more gold rush; fishing is better in other places, some logging continues but it is easier to get money out of tourists. Just about all the cruise ships stop here; one day in summer they had 12 thousand people disembark and storm into town.
Every time our ferry was docked we could get at our Sprinter and take the things up to our cabin which we forgot. The cabin was just that, a cabin with three beds; shower, sink and toilet; but we did sleep in a bed. There were many young people “camping” on deck. They even are allowed to put up tents in the rear; this time there were so few passengers, it was not necessary.
The trip was quite exciting; we went through some narrows where you thought you could touch the side of the mountains. Even though it was cold, we had pretty good visibility. We did see whales, many dolphins, sea otters; it was interesting enough to keep you eyes peeled on the water.
We also met two couples in motor homes, which we had met on the road before. I am sure we will be running into them again here in Alaska; there are not so many roads.
We walked only once on land, in Wrangell, Alaska. Our stops were either too short or it was midnight or some other time when you don’t feel like walking around. The bed was cosier.
Getting back into our Sprinter today,
16 June 08, Monday
We arrived at Prince Rupert today, and again in rain; the weather is starting to wear me down. I am ready for some sunshine. The views along the Skeena river and the snow covered mountain tops would have been fantastic in sunshine. We also saw many waterfalls cascading down the mountain sides.
Prince Rupert is a deep sea port, but there were no large ships to watch being loaded, just containers piled high on the wharf.
even saw a couple of moose and a bear. We also met a couple which is travelling with a trailer filled with 7 large dogs and a big parrot. They had to stop at motels because the dogs all had to come along on the trip. They came from California also on their way to Alaska.
14 June 08, Saturday
Guess what! It rained most of the night again. We had some clothes from Alfred to drop off at a Thrift Store in town, Prince George; buy some fuel and then we headed west again. The sun started to come through occasionally.
I am getting more and more worried about the leak in the roof. We had bought some caulking and some rubbing alcohol to do a good cleaning job, now all I needed was a ladder to climb on the roof and try to remove all the old stuff. When we entered the small town of Vanderhoof, BC I saw a place where I spotted a ladder on the side of a truck; a construction truck. I took all my willpower and knocked on the house door and a friendly old lady came out. While I was explaining to her what I had in mind, her son, the contractor came driving on the yard on his ATV. He made even room for our Sprinter under the roof so I could work even if it started to rain again, and it did. I cleaned up the joints and caulked as well as possible; still not knowing where the actual leak is. I hope I fixed it. He also told me of a material he used to seal eaves troughs; may be that’s what I should get when I get home.
Anyways, Dan’s wife has been diagnosed with cancer half a year ago; she spends a lot of time at the hospital all the way in Vancouver. She has a very bad cancer and their Church ad a fund-raiser supper this evening. So, that’s where we went for supper and to spend some money at the silent auction. We found out that this has been a Old Mennonite settlement long time ago; many have moved to Belize and to Bolivia years ago. But there were names like Toews, Friesen, Tiessen, Giesbrecht and more. It almost felt like home here. We had a good time talking with the locals and enjoyed the evening.
Dan invited us to come back and stay here in his yard under the roof over night. We gladly accepted his invitation.
13 June 08, Friday
We must have hit the rainy season here; we had rain off and on all day. The tall mountains are behind us for now giving way to lots of trees and fast flowing rivers.
We did see several bears along the road, even a brown cub.
Overnight at: N 53º 51.873’ W 122º 47.062
12 June 08, Thursday
We had breakfast together, took another picture of Alfred in front of his house and drove on, happy to be on the road again. I found a place to top up the propane tank; filled up the fuel and now we were ready to leave civilization behind us. The sun was shining and the temperature slowly rose to 20ºC only to get back down to 12 in rain in the evening again.
We drove through Banff and walked a bit around Lake Louise. We followed the Icefields Parkway to Jasper, a real treat to drive this road in sunshine. The mountains are high and all the tops are still snow covered. When we drove this road a few years ago in the beginning of July we had a big snowfall; 6” so much that the people mover would not drive the visitors to the Columbia Ice field. There was also some wild life for us to photograph: Elk, Mountain Sheep and Mountain Goat; no bears so far.
We crossed into B.C. and found a nice campground in the woods, with hot showers too.
Our overnight stop is at: N 53º 01.439’ W 119º 14.820’
11 June 08, Wednesday
After a shower and filling and emptying the water and sewer tanks we said good-bye to the friendly group. They were going to visit a museum.
I had called Alfred and told him we would be visiting him in the afternoon. He is 87 now, just had his birthday at the end of May. He spent his birthday in the hospital; clogged arteries. He had been planting his garden and when he felt shaky he took, I believe he said nitro-glycerine, and kept working. Bad move; he spent three weeks in the hospital.
We said we would show up around 4 PM but when we stopped near his house he was already waiting at the window. He was very, very happy to see us. His older daughter also came and we had supper at Swiss Chalet. We spent the evening listening to his favoured subject; but we knew this, expected it and we showed due interest.
We spent the night in front of his house in our camper and had a surprisingly quiet night; or we were tired enough not to hear anything.
N 51º 01.439’ W 114º 06.195
10 June 08, Tuesday
We did not drive anywhere today. We took part in a Leisure Travel brand rally or get together. 9 couples came in their motor homes. The organizers never know how many actually will show up. Of course we were the ones travelling the furthest. It is a very friendly group; many of them already know each other from other meetings.
Leisure Travel has just been taken over by Triple “E”, a very well known RV manufacturer from Manitoba. A potluck dinner was planned and we had a variety of good food. It was rather cold but there is a shelter with a stove and I kept a strong fire going; we were all comfortable. It kept raining and somehow I can’t forget that there is a leak somewhere in the roof of the Sprinter and that worries me. Had I not known about it, I would be more at ease now.
Guess what happened during the night? ----- it rained-----
9 June 08, Monday
Last time we visited Edmonton we enjoyed walking the West Mall with all it’s attractions, so this time we took our time to look around again. We found out that it is not that interesting if you have really nothing to buy; and just buy something for the sake of buying we don’t do. So all we did was to eat lunch there.
The Leisure Travel Motor homes group had a rally at Wetaskiwin, near Edmonton. We need a brake from driving so we will be joining them for a couple of days.
