On the road again!

Well, we “crushed it” from McCarthy AK to Vancouver B.C. One one day of rest/fun, otherwise, 8/9 days driving, covering 2,250 miles. I’ll try to cover a few highlights, but truly we were driving all day. Almost all of this was done in the rain, and two of the days were the worst roads of the trip.

The first day from McCarthy to TOK, I covered in the McCarthy post. It was a monster mostly because we drove in the jeep from McCarthy to Chitina, then had to pack up and drive the RV up to TOK. The Richardson Highway that we were on was mostly good, and very picturesque, but there was a 50 mile stretch that was battered with frost heave (think about sections of road sunken by as much as 10 inches, wide enough to drop one tire down).

Here are a few pics of the long drive day to TOK.

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Kids having “School Time” on the drive. We try to do school on drive days, and math on non-drive days.
Goodbye Amazing place.
Goodbye Amazing place.
6 of the top 10 peaks in NA lie in this park.
6 of the top 10 peaks in NA lie in this park.
Cool shots of Wrangell Elias on our way north to Tok.
Cool shots of Wrangell Elias on our way north to Tok.

We spent the night in TOK after 3 stops (first park was too small for our rig, but they didn’t tell us until after we paid and had driven into the camping area), second park was too expensive and wouldn’t give us internet, third park worked great, but we were bascially by ourselves which was eerie.

The drive day from TOK to Kluane Lake (Destruction bay area), was the most intense of the trip. The Alaskan (or Alcan) highway just east of the Alaska border is by far, the worst stretch of that road. It’s littered with gravel patches, front heave, pot-holes etc. We had to deal with lots of construction, which usually means waiting as long as 15 minutes at a stoplight for a “pilot car” to come and lead you through a single lane of gravel or dirt road section. It rained most of the way. The moisture was actually really helpful though, as the pooling water helped me identify low spots in the road in advance. We drove until dusk because we wanted to stay at the “Cottonwood RV park” at Kluane Lake where Kane had the Grizzley near-miss. Unfortunately, it was closed for the season, so we had to keep going…

We drove around Kluane Lake in the dark. It turns out the RV is fine to drive in the dark, as long as there is no oncoming traffic. It was actually a pretty neat drive, but Kim was worried that we’d hit wildlife after one Grizzly Bear ran across the road right in front of us (it was large), and 5 minutes later we saw another Grizzley (a blond one ala Denali) running on the left side of the road. So we debated each “turnout” (mini gravel rest areas along side the road) as a potential place to “Boondock”. Many of the rest areas say “no overnight parking or camping”, but we eventually found one that was empty and devoid of such signs. Kim was pretty spooked about camping on the side of the road, in the middle of nowhere. I have to admit it did seem strange.

The next morning, we got up, and it was snowing! The ground was still to warm (probably 42 degrees F) for accumulation, but no doubt it was snowing. Furthermore, I opened the shade in the windshield, and there was an airplane parked directly in front of us! When I went out to get the Jeep ready to go, I waved at the pilot who waved back. After the jeep was ready to go, I walked over to the plane. It was a very well maintained “piper” (I assume a cub), white with read trim. The pilot rolled down the window and we had a nice chat. “Where’d you land this thing?”… “Right over there on the road”… “Everything OK?”… “Yeah, I can’t fly in this weather, this had happened before”… He told me he was headed to Arizona from the Kenai peninsula. We commiserated about gas mileage, and determined that we had about the same range (500 miles), but his efficiency is better (48 gallons vs 80 gallons).

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Big surprises in the morning. Snow, and a Piper Cub parked in front of us.
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Note from the pilot instructing us how to help him… notify air traffic control of his delay. Kim called from Haines Junction. (20 miles down the road)

I got back to the RV and told Kim the story, she said, “did you offer to help him?”. “I think I did, but I’m not sure”. So I went back over for round two. “Is there anything we can do to help you?… give you a ride to Whitehorse?”. He said no thanks, and we exchanged pleasantries. A few minutes later, back in the RV, there was a knock on the door. Jim was back with a request, could we notify air traffic control when we got to the next town (Haines Junction), and let them know that he was delayed by 3 hours. No problem Kim said, and we offered him some coffee or granola bars. He said no thanks, he had plenty of stuff with him.

We stopped at Haines Junction (one intersection with a police station and 4 businesses), Kim ran into a restaurant, told the story and borrowed their phone to call air traffic control. Good Deed for the day, CHECK!

It was another long, rainy day, ending at “Junction 37” where the Cassiar Highway starts (a right turn for us off of the Alcan). Where we said goodbye to the Alcan, and hello to the Cassiar. We camped at another semi-deserted RV park, which for some reason seems so much more secure than the pull-out on the side of the hiway.

From there, we headed south on the Cassiar. It turns out these mountains produce 80% of the worlds Jade, and we stopped in “Jade City” to learn about Jade mining, and look for souveniers. Jade is expensive! Dice were interesting at $10 apiece, but they were sold out. The kids settled on tiny bears with fish in their mouths. Still, it was fun, and… free coffee!

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Big hunk of Cassier Jade. These things were laying all around “Jade City”.
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We let them buy a little souvenir here, and they didn’t have to use their allowance. Very exciting time for them! Too bad, you can’t buy much for $10 here.

Kim had picked out a sweet place to camp called “Waters Edge RV Park”, and we drove all day to get there. Unfortunately, they were closed for the season, so we went another 60 miles to “Mountain Shadow RV Park”. It’s for sale, BTW… 1.2 Million. Really nice place, great view of the mountains, access to a nice lake, with a private hiking trail down to the lake. We stayed 2 nights to recharge the batteries. The kids had a great time down by the lake. Biking was tough because of the gravel they used in the campsite area, but it was nice to chill out for a full day and not do much.

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View from our campsite at Mountain Shadow. I wonder if they used to have glaciers over there?
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Our lonely RV taken from the path to the lake.
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Jump-ropes, if you only use them for jumping, you’ve greatly underestimated them.

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Kat loved messing around by the lake, playing with various sticks down there.

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Some fun little places to hike around Mountain Shadow park. In hindsight, some of the “social trails” are really bear or moose trails.
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The trail from the campground leads to this view of the lake and crude bench. Very peaceful spot.
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The kids in the orange van were a pain in the butt on the road the next day! So slow

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Nary a fallen log is ever safe from scampering kids on this trip!

From there, we continued south. Some nice folks from MO we had met in Homer (Dempsey was his name), had told us about the bear watching in Hyder Alaska. Demp suggested that camping was better in Stewart B.C., and Hyder was a short drive over. It also happened that the Chiefs were playing the Eagles on Thursday Night Football this night. After some debate (and begging by me), we decided to camp in Stewart B.C. Thur night, so I could watch the Chiefs, and we could pop over to Hyder to see the bears.

Thankfully, there is at least one “sports” bar in Stewart, and Sportsnet broadcasts the Thur Night Football games in Canada. I found a spot to watch: “Casey’s Pub” adjacent to the “King George” hotel in Stewart. Got there 20 minutes till kick off, enough time to get the bartender to turn on the game, and settle in for some pregame. I ordered a Sleeman Honey Brown, and a Denver sandwich. Think ham, green pepper, onion, cheese, and scrambled eggs served on toast (with fries too). It was great. The Chiefs won handily, and the first half was full of big plays by the Chiefs defense and special teams. I got to know some of the regulars at Caseys… mostly guys there for the last 4 months working on a new bridge. I told them they needed to work on their grading on the west end of the temporary bridge, because I almost tipped over coming up.

This place is surreal.  Mountains, Glaciers, Fjords, RIvers, Bears.... and a nice little town built on mining, tourism, and shipping apparently.  The port never freezes over.
This place is surreal. Mountains, Glaciers, Fjords, RIvers, Bears…. and a nice little town built on mining, tourism, and shipping apparently. The port never freezes over.
This is the place that advertised on the web "come in to watch sports!".  Sounds perfect to me.
This is the place that advertised on the web “come in to watch sports!”. Sounds perfect to me.
Nothing on draft, list of beers were pretty much all boring.  This was actually pretty good.  A Sleeman commercial came on as I took my first sip, fate?
Nothing on draft, list of beers were pretty much all boring. This was actually pretty good. A Sleeman commercial came on as I took my first sip, fate?
I thought I was ordering an omelet (Denver Omelet), turns out it was a Denver Sandwich. Stick-to-your-ribs tasty!
I thought I was ordering an omelet (Denver Omelet), turns out it was a Denver Sandwich. Stick-to-your-ribs tasty!

The next morning, we got up “early”, and went to Hyder AK to look for bears. Quickly as we pulled into town, Kim spotted a black bear on the left side of the road, so we pulled over. Kim asked me to kill the engine, because our clutch is screeching. We got a pretty good look at him (20 seconds), before he went into the bushes and disappeared. We found the “wildlife viewing platform” west of town, and it was amazing. It’s like a boardwalk that juts out between the river and a little pool that is fed by another river. There were tons of fish (dead and alive) around there, and many birds hanging out (and some eating). We waited for maybe 30 minutes or so, but didn’t see any bears. The forest was really nice at 7:30, there was a light rain, and we enjoyed watching the birds and the fish. I guess the bear watching is best there when the salmon are spawning heavy. We should have gone to the dump (but we didn’t learn of this until we crossed the border and the Canadian border agent told us). We went home and rested, then later that day when we left town, I noticed that my pub buddies had corrected the problem that I complained about the night before! I honked to one of them, operating the heavy equipment on my way by, and he waved. It was weird.

So from there, we continued south and reached Vanderhoof B.C. We stayed at “Dave’s RV Park”. Nice enough place. While there, Kim received texts informing us of a friend’s suicide and another friends need for further brain surgery. We’ve been praying for them and their families regularly.

Some of these RV parks really try to nickel and dime you to death! WiFi: 3 dollars, Cable TV: 5 dollars, Shower: 75 cents, Sewer Hookups, charges for the 2 kids, etc etc. Drives me nuts sometimes!

The next day, we drove to Cache Creek. This part of the drive really surprised me, as we started back into the mountains, and the scenery was quite nice. We got there after dark, and it was tight. I’ve decided I don’t like driving the RV at night, because I can’t see 100 feet in front of me when there is oncoming traffic. It’s scary.

The kids played outside all morning at Cache Creek, the campground was “Brookside”, and as the name implies has a creek. It also had a nice playground (that was free!). The kids played, and we explored the creek looking for fish. It was a glorious morning.

The drive from Cache Creek to Vancouver was a bit rougher than I expected. Lots of it was coming across a mountain pass, lots of elevation changes, and some quick, windy sections that will sneak up on you. All two lanes to this point. Once we got close to Vancouver, we got a 4 lane road and thought we were in heaven! That ended when the heavy rain hit, and we got stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic in the tunnel. I had to go to the bathroom so badly, that I asked Kim to drive, she swapped in, and I went. It was her second chance to drive, and thankfully she only had to pull forward and stop 2/3 times. Worked like a champ!

Vancouver looks amazing so far. Coming in, I was reminded of San Francisco with the hills and the houses up on the hills overlooking the bay. Downtown has a Seattle vibe, but it seems a tad bit more diverse, and I’d say a healthy amount of “grit”. To me, it seems like a sweet spot between the two cities (San Fran and Seattle). But that’s a 3 day assessment. There is a ton going on, it’s very clean, and tons of residential stuff downtown. Seems to be thriving to me. They say forest fires are vital to renew the forests. I wonder if the same is true for cities? They evidently had a doozy in the late 1800’s. I Love this city! And Stanley Park is my new favorite city park!

There’s copper in them thar hills!

Well, first things first, big thanks to our friend Bob! We’d have never known about McCarthy or Kennecott if it weren’t for Bob’s crazy motorcycle trip, and telling us about it. We didn’t experience Wrangell Elias the way he did with cramp-ons and ice axes, but none-the-less had a great time learning some Alaskan history.

On our way back North from Valdez, we made a right turn and went to Chitina. We camped there, with amazing views of the edge of the largest NP in NA (13 Million Acres!). The next morning we loaded the jeep (actually unloaded first, then re-loaded) for our first “roadtrip within a roadtrip”. We drove 60 miles from Chitina to McCarthy in the jeep. This road is notoriously bad, and we’d been warned by folks we’d met already. It was rough and bumpy the first 5 miles and the last 10 miles or so, but otherwise pretty good. Amazing views, especially given the fall colors popping out now. One sort of damper was our jeep clutch started sounding like a worn out serpentine belt (very loud screeching), but we made it.

So, a bit of history… it turns out McCarthy is not really the main attraction to this area. It all started when a couple of prospectors went to a trade post in SE Alaska and saw Tlingit indians there trading beautiful copper made goods. Evidently, the Indians were not known to be big miners, so the prospectors had to ask “where’d you get this stuff?!” (I’m sure they played it cool at the time). I guess the answer was honest and detailed enough, that within a year the prospector’s were able to find the place. What they found was the single greatest source of grade A copper ever. They built a cabin, applied for a homestead claim, and went in search of investors.

The search took them to a newly graduated ivy league engineer named Steven Birch. Birch was naive enough to take on the task of designing the mine, and had rich neighbors. The rich neighbors got some other rich friends together (the Morgans of JP Morgan and the Guggenheims), and they started the Alaskan Syndicate which provided the 1 million in seed money required to start mining. They were able to mine enough silver to fund most of the rest of the construction of the copper operation. Depending on who you ask, they grossed between 100 and 300 million dollars (this is early 1900’s), in today’s money more like 2-6 Billion. According to our guide, the two original propectors were sqeezed out and didn’t get a dime. (after 5 years in court, they were unable to beat the fact that the judge was in the syndicates back pocket).

At any rate, once the grade A copper ran out, and the price of Copper dropped, the closed the mine and left it pretty much as it was.
Once they got tired or fighting all of the injury lawsuits, the syndicate donated the mine to the Park Service.

Birch had rules, and two of them contributed to high turn-over in the ranks: you can’t have your family with you, and you can’t drink liquor. As a result, enterprising minds got together, and founded the city of McCarthy, 5 miles down the road from the Kennecott mine. Here, hardworking minors could spend their $5.50 per shift on booze, gambling, and women! It was a raging success. In fact, it improved turn-over so much, Birch even secretly funneled money back into McCarthy.

So you have a really cool “deserted” Copper Mine, in the middle of nowhere, and a ghost town 5 miles down the road from nowhere. Today, if you live in McCarthy, you can pay to use a private bridge to bring cars over, but tourists can only arrive on foot. (or as Bob did via hand-operated trolly).

We parked our car at the foot bridge, walked across the bridge and up the hill 1/2 mile to McCarthy. The next shuttle was in about an hour. McCarthy was pretty cool, but mostly closed, so we did what we normally do, we ate granola bars, the kids found some dogs to pet and play fetch with. Kim engaged anyone she could find with her smiling, inquisitory banter. I looked for coffee, failed, found a bench and sat down.

After Kat wore out two dogs and started fetching her own stick, we got the bus and arrived in time for the 3:30 mill tour. We got lots of stories and history from our guide. We also were able to tour a bunkhouse, and the powerplant. Got some great pictures, and we could really feel this history of the place.

After the tour, we grabbed the last shuttle back to the bridge, and went to stay the night at the “large” cabin Kim had rented. I put large in quotes, because it was a one room cabin, which was actually quite nice and cozy, but it was only large in comparison to a couple of the “Apen Meadows B&B”‘s other cabins. It was great to do something different, but Kim and I actually missed the RV a bit (mostly having our own bedroom and a bathroom).

The next day, we drove back to Chitina, loaded up the RV, and drove to Tok. We all really enjoyed visiting McCarthy and the Kennecott mine. The kids LOVED the cabin, and were so excited to stay there. I’m haunted by the idea that the prospectors didn’t get any of the money (and I guess that they kind of screwed the indians too for that matter). I plan to research this story soon to learn more.

Here are pics from this great adventure. Thanks again for the reco Bob!

Stop… Homer Time!

If it’s any indication of how we feel about Homer, Alaska, we planned on possibly 2 nights here, and ended up staying 4. Even though, we’re not in a national park and we’ve seen some amazing things on our trip, Homer must be considered top 3 or better. It’s truly amazing. From the moment we drove in and caught our first glimpse of Kachemak Bay (and the range of snowy volcanoes across the way), to the last teary farewell, this place has captured our imagination and had our adrenaline pumping.

Homer is on the west side of the Kenai peninsula (mid-southern coast), and in a bay within a bay (Katchemak bay off of the Cook inlet). It’s a self proclaimed “Little Drinking Village with a Fishing Problem”. The bay itself is only 4 miles across, and the other side of the bay from Homer is a beautiful range of snowy volcanoes, glaciers, and glaciated fjords between them. The view really does take your breath away. There is a “spit” which is a 3 mile or so long gravel peninsula that juts out from Homer toward the other side of the bay. It turns out this was created by the terminal moraine (the rock pile pushed down by a huge glacier marking it’s furthest progression) of a huge glacier. This is home to many a fishing charter as well as commercial fisherman and a few tourist service type businesses (fishing store, restaurants, ice cream shop, motels, rv parks etc). It’s interesting how it’s clearly a tourist destination, but it still feels kind of native in some ways. Probably because it’s not really a family tourist destination as much as a sportsman destination. No strip malls, water parks, or mini-golf courses. It’s also curious how gritty it is, with ship “junkyards” etc next to the fishing lagoon. Not much pretense to be found here.

This post represents the first two days or our time in Homer. I apologize in advance for the verbosity.

So our first day, we drove over from Sterling on AK Highway 1, and rolled in early afternoon. We settled in at the “Ocean View RV Park” which offers a phenomenal view of the bay. The nice man working there took time to offer some suggestions and answer questions. He told us we could fish from the end of the Spit or the Lagoon, but offered no detail on how.

We decided to start by heading to the visitor center, the “Alaska Islands and Ocean Visitor Center”. It was a really nice place offering movies and interactive displays about the area. We met a couple working there from Kimberling City MO. It turned out they were across the street from us at the RV Park. We shared some great stories with them, and got some good advice. We had hoped to go clamming here, but found out we need a “minus” tide for that, and we missed it by a week. We found out about a marine life program at the dock, which is a nice alternative to tide-pooling in the absence of really low tides. The kids raided the gift store, and Kane bought an edible plants guide to go along with his mushroom guide previously purchased. Kat bought a stuffed puffin keychain. The center closed at 5 and we left, confusing a few European families coming in on our way out with a (according to kim unfriendly toned) “they closed at 5”, which were summarily ignored.

From there we went down to the spit to check out the fishing situation. We drove down to the end, and there was a motel at the very end, a commercial dock just prior, and wedged between the two a barren place with several cars jammed in. We found a spot there and parked the jeep. Down on the beach (black sand and pebbles), about a dozen or so people were standing along the shore fishing. It’s a pretty interesting sight really seeing people fishing right from the beach… ocean fishing with no boat or even a pier! It didn’t take long for Kane to zero in on an Asian gentleman in bib-waders, because he was pulling in huge fish two at a time, nearly every cast. Kane ran down to the beach and stood about 5 feet from the guy and watched him. He had a long leader on his line with a huge lead sinker at the end, TWO hooks, and some sort of bait.

About ten feet to his left were an older gentleman wearing a pair of keenes, jeans, a t-shirt, and a fedora. He was with a 12 year old (whom we all assumed was a girl due to his long braided hair and androgynous face). They were taking turns casting out and catching regularly as well. I asked the guy if he minded some questions, and we ended up spending 1/2 hour with “Deacon” and “Finn”. It turned out Finn’s parents own the wood-fired pizza joint (Finn’s) on the spit, and Deacon is Finns grandfather from Boston. Deacon’s been coming to Homer every summer for the past 5 years or so, and is the resident expert on the topic of “end-of-the-spit fishing”. School was in session and Kane and I were apt pupils. According to Deacon, the fish processing place on the spit, dumps their waste (fish guts, heads etc) via a pipeline, that ends right where they (and the other guy) were fishing. He showed us their rig (similar to the other, but they used flies that looked like shrimp rather than real bait… Deacon called it the “fish-bomb”), told us where to go to get set up (The Sport Shack), and even hooked a fish and let Kane reel it in. They were giving their fish to the other guy rather than releasing it. We heard some lore about silver salmon and halibut being caught there, but all we saw were Pollock and perhaps a few cod while we were there. We didn’t care, the opportunity to catch significantly sized fish from the ocean was too good to pass up, and if it’s good enough for Mrs. Paul, we figured it was good enough for us too! We’d be back and ready to try our luck the next day, and Kane was already giddy with anticipation.

After that, we drove back halfway down the spit and found a place to park. Right as we parked, we noticed one of the charter fishing trips had returned to the shop right in front of us, and they were hanging out their catch. A huge haul of salmon and halibut (nice ones), but a monster was hanging at the end… a 231 lb Halibut. It was literally 6-7 feet long, and hanging another 2 feel up in the air. Incredible. We went down to the beach and went for a walk. The kids collected shells, and we “tried” to keep our nikes clean as the tide rolled in. It was really nice to be on the ocean (our first time this trip), and to see the spectacular display across the bay as the sun struck the volcanoes and glaciers laterally from the west.

It was getting late, and we’d heard from two independent sources that “boardwalk fish-n-chips” was good, so we decided to splurge and eat out for dinner. We ordered 3 adult orders of Halibut fish-n-chips, and the kids bought their own lemonade and root beer. (we’ve been getting water every time we eat out, but kids can choose to spend their own money otherwise). The food was good, the view was incredible, and it felt nice not to worry about cooking and cleaning!

After dinner we decided to explore a bit more, and took a drive up and around the top of the ridge to the north of downtown Homer. Most of the homes in Homer are build on the ridge, with parallel roads running at different elevations, all facing bay, spit, and volcanoes. Not a lot of zoning going on, so there is a pretty diverse range of architectures, size, and maintenance all withing a fairly small area. The view from the top was breathtaking, and we stopped to snap a few pictures.

That was quite a first day, but would pale in comparison to day 2.

Our second day in Homer was epic, and probably my single favorite day of our trip so far. Here’s how it went:

1) got up, had bacon, eggs, and bagels for breakfast
2) went to the farmers market and scored some amazing loot
3) came home for lunch and sampled aforementioned loot
4) went to the Wynn nature center for what turned out to be a guided hike
5) Kim and Kids were dropped off at the pier and did a marine life exploration program
6) Scott went to the “Sport Shack” to gear up for fishing, and went home to get snacks etc
7) Scott picked up family at pier, and we went fishing at the end of the spit
8) kim went to McDonalds to get dinner
9) We went home, kids went to bed, Scott cleaned fish, Kim went to grocery store, Scott cooked the Salmon that had been thawed for two days.

Some details:

Farmers Market – we had scoped out the location on our way to explore the Spit the first day, so finding it was no problem. Parking was interesting, because it was packed! We gave the kids their 2 dollar allowance, and headed in. For me, it’s probably my second favorite farmers market ever. Terrific and unique produce (like really cool purple cauliflower, and tasty light green hybrid of cauliflower and broccoli), the thickest, juiciest snap peas ever, Fresh fish and seafood etc. Amazing homemade products: Amish maple cinnamon rolls, russian made salsa, typical $1 cookies and kettle corn (which the kids spent their 2 dollars on). We bought all that. For seafood, we bought 2 lbs of golden crab legs (not eaten yet), and a lb or crab tails (which were good). The market was a success, and really started the day off right. You could tell it was mostly locals, and it was a really decent opportunity to watch people as well… crusty old guy buying plants for his garden, fellow gardeners swapping pointers with vendors, old friends catching up one last time before they leave Homer until next summer. One other interesting thing, after we bought the snap peas and the carrots at the “Steller Gardens” booth, this guy came over to share some maple syrup with the kids working at the booth. They were talking about his trip back to the “lower 48” last year to Vermont, where he did the sugaring and made the syrup. That got my attention because we’ve been blessed to go to Vermont a few times over the last 5 years, thanks to our friends the Hardemans. We chatted a bit about Vermont, then he was sharing the syrup, he started talking with the guy working the booth about the location of the farm (“Stellar Farm”), and he said “it’s about 12 miles east of here, it’s Eve and Eivan’s place… Eve’s garden”. That struck a chord with me because before we left (when we still had TV) we had watched a few episodes of “Alaska:The Last Frontier” reality TV show about Alaskan homesteaders. Eivan and Eve are one of the families they follow on that show. What’s really funny though is, on the show, they make it seem as though they are “in the middle of nowhere”, when in reality, they are about 10 miles from a Safeway. The next day, I also talked with a kayaking guide who lives down the street from Eivans dad “Otto”, another mainstay of the show, I guess Otto plows this guys driveway for him. Small world.

Wynn Nature Center – So Kim really wanted to go to this place, and I thought it sounded like “just another hike”, and kind of wanted to skip it. I’m really glad I didn’t. We went up there, and right away I was intrigued because they parking lot had really nice landcape, ironwork signs, fresh cedar walkways etc, and there was only one other car in the lot. We walked along the boardwalk back into the place, and there were nice placards providing info on plants and animals around the area, and a sign that said “$7 fee for day-use”. Then I started to regret it again… 30 bucks to do a hike… yuck! Well, wrong again. We went on back, and there was a young kid sitting at a log cabin… you could see craft areas where educational programs take place there frequently. Kim said “do we pay you, or are you here by yourself”? He says “Both”. Then he asked if we were there for the guided hike, scheduled to leave in 15 minutes. Well, we weren’t, but now that you mention it… The kid was named “Robroy Macgregor” (though for 2/3 of the hike, we thought his name was Rob Roy). What a great guide, he’s recently graduated from college with a forestry degree, and it was his first summer in Alaska, but you’d never know it. It was amazing. He made apple cider for the kids, he made a phone call for us to inquire about another guided tour for us in Peterson Bay, he went and got boots for another lady to borrow for the hike. Besides being nice and accommodating, he knew a ton about all of the plants and animals around the area. We learned about some of the berries that are edible in the area, and some that are not. We learned about medicinal traits of some plants, and how the Monkshood is used by Eskimos to poison tip their whaling spears. (don’t eat Monkshood BTW). What Robroy didn’t tell us about the area, a couple of the other visitors on the hike did… we had two older ladies with us, who seemed to be very knowledgeable, so we bounced questions off of them from time to time. It turned out, that they were both recently retired from careers in the National Park Service! This hike really made us appreciate having guides with us in these places… I’m sure we’ll seek out guided hikes when we can from now on.

Marine Life Exploration – I did not attend this, I dropped off Kim and the kids near the pier at 4:00 and came back at 5:00. I can tell you this, it must have been amazing, because I came back at 5, with new fishing gear to take Kane fishing, and he just wanted to talk about how great the program was. Pretty ironic, because when I dropped them off, Kane was BEGGING to come with me to the Sport Shack to buy fishing gear instead. Evidently, Kane and Kat were the only ones there for the 4:00 tour, and they got to go around the pier (it’s huge), and find all kinds of marine life, touch/hold them, and learn about them. This included sea cucumbers, urchins, sea-stars, and anemone. After the program ended, Kane spotted a jelly-fish from the ramp back up to the street level.

Fishing at the end of the spit – So, in anticipation of some ocean fishing or salmon fishing from the bank, we had gone to “Trust Worthy Hardware and Fishing” in Soldotna (on the recommendation of our salmon fishing guide, Jason), and procured two pole/reel combos (one for salmon, and one for ocean fishing). They are medium to strong stiffness, longer rods, with open-faced spinner reels, capable of dealing with up to 25 lb test line. We had the line and the rods, but we had yet to put the line on the rods, or of course set up the rigs for bottom fishing. So we spent probably a 1/2 hour getting our line on the rods, and getting ready to fish. We used 20lb test braided line, with special mono-filament leaders that I bought at the Sport Shack. The leaders had 2 oz weights at the bottom, and above that, staggered by 10 inches were to “sub-leaders” (12 inch leaders coming off of the main leader) with hooks for bait attached. I asked the guy at the shop what the rig was called, and he said it was a “end-of-the-spit rig” (I’m sure there is a name for it, but he didn’t care enough to recall). He said it’s a great rig for bottom fishing with bait. I bought three of those rigs (1 for each of our new poles, and 1 extra), and a package of frozen Herring to cut up for bait.

So Kim setup camp on the beach (cooler with ice, waiting for fish), snacks, lawn chair, blanket, tackle box. Kane and I got the poles ready. It occurred to me before the first cast, that I didn’t really know what the technique was, so I quizzed a fellow fisherman who said, get it to the bottom, and let it sit until you feel a bite (maybe 4-5 minutes for him), you may try bouncing it in a bit… I’ve caught’m on the way back in before. So I heaved it out. Within minutes, Kane and I were reeling in fish like crazy… sometimes two at a time. We quickly realized that our casts needed to be out beyond the pylons to be effective, so I was casting for both of us when it was convenient. The stiffer, longer pole was much more effective for doing this, so over time, we started taking turns using it.

Early on, I had two small Halibut come in on one cast. I wasn’t sure if they were flounder or Halibut, so I asked the guy next to me (nice retired army guy from Achorage…originally from Mississippi), and he told me how to distinguish between the two by looking at the location of the eyes. Halibut transform, midlife into bottom feeding fish, and their right eye moves to the left side of their head (and their right side turns white and becomes their “under belly”). They are really odd looking fish. He also told me that we could only keep two Halibut, so I decided to release them. In hindsight, I should have kept the larger of the two. We ended up only keeping one Halibut, which was smaller, because we wanted to try it, and it was really super yummy. Tastier than the Pollock. We caught tons of Pollock, we kept the first 4 decent ones (or what we thought was decent), then started releasing them.

It was hilarious to me that in 24 hours, we had become the “experts” dominating the fishing down there. Tourists would run over to look at our fish, snap pictures of themselves standing next to our fish etc. A bit later, a couple of young boys from Wasilla (the HQ of the Iditirod sled-dogging race), came over to fish with rental poles (they forgot their poles at home). They started out down the beach aways, and after awhile came over to ask for tips, as they failed to catch anything and Kane was reeling them on on every cast. I helped them, we gave them some of our fish that we caught, and Kane even let them reel in some fish that he hooked (paying it forward). I was casting for them a few times, but the problem was their rods and setup, would not allow them to cast far enough out to be effective. When we left at 8:30 or 9:00, they were still fishing and had not caught anything. They appreciated the fish that we gave them. One of the last fish we caught was huge, and we decided to keep it, but it would not fit in our cooler, so we gave it to them.

Along with the Halibut and the Pollock, we caught several sea-stars. Kat loved taking the sea-stars off the line, playing with them, and putting them back in the ocean. When other small children would be nearby, she’d take a sea-star over to them so they could hold it and touch it. It was so cute… she was a trooper while we fished for 4 hours. She did reel in a fish or two that I hooked, and she enjoyed that.

One more incident of note while fishing, and a little context. Deacon (and again our friend from Mississippi confirmed) told us that the area where he was fishing was the end of a pipeline of fish waste coming from the processing plant up the spit. The reason the fishing is so prime is the fish come in there to feed on the heads and guts of the halibuts that are brought in by the fishing operations. The other things that like to feed on the fish and the waste are seagulls. As a result, when the waste is being flushed, the gulls congregate just above the end of the pipeline (the exact spot where were were casting to). There must be up to 2-300 gulls at times on the surface of the water, in a 30 foot diameter circle over the end of the pipeline. So I was baiting my hooks, when I heard the boys from Wasilla say “he caught a bird!”… I wasn’t too surprised, because there had been times when I reeled in my bait, that a gull waited for my hook to come out of the water, and it stole my herring. I did think “whatever poor sap got a bird hooked, is in for some fun getting it unhooked”, but I kept on baiting my hook. Then I heard Kane giggling… that sort of “i can’t believe what’s happening to me right now” giggle. Cold chills when down my spine. I looked back, and Kane was reeling in his line and 10 feet from the shore, a gull was twisting, flapping, and squawking, being dragged toward shore. Of course, Kim was off getting dinner for us, so I was there with just the kids. I on put my fish cleaning gloves (kind of like chain mail) headed toward the chaos. Kane was still reeling, and was started to try to “pick up” the bird by lifting up on the rod tip. I implored him to stop, as it was allowing the bird to twist and flail in the air, becoming more entwined, and also putting more tension on his wings that were caught up in the line. (he had not hooked the gull, the gull got tangled up in his line). About that time, the bird was close to shore and super distressed. I got over there and grabbed the line to start to try to untie it… naturally, the bird would submit as it would be obvious that I was there to help him right? WRONG, it freaked out even more and started biting my hands and fingers! So I was struggling for what seemed like an eternity and made a tad bit of progress, then a good Samaritan came over and offered to help. So I grabbed the bird by the neck (loosely people, don’t call PETA) and held it, while he untangled the line from the birds wings. Together we got him free in about 3 minutes, by myself it would have taken 15, if ever. Once the line was off, the bird took off like a shot. After, I thanked the guy who helped and he said “it happened to me earlier and so I felt sorry for you over here by yourself”. Unfortunately, since Kim was not there, and I was busy, we don’t have any pictures of this, but I’ll never forget it anyway!

After we got home, it was getting dark, we put the kids in bed, and I was dreading going back outside in the dark to fillet the fish. It’s not something I’ve done much of, and I don’t enjoy it (does anyone?). Also, each species seems to differ, and I’d never handled a Halibut or Pollock. On top of that, my knife when dull on me after the first fish. It was a pain, but I got them done, fillets soaking in icy salt water, and everything cleaned up by around 10:00. We had pulled out 1.5 lbs of Kanes Salmon for dinner the night before (we decided to eat out two nights in a row), and so we decided to go ahead and cook the salmon that night too. I pan fried in in butter to sear it, and finished it in the oven. It turned out really good, and we used it for breakfast and lunch over the next couple of days.

That’s the story of our first 1 and a half days in Homer! I told you it was Epic… gallery of pictures:

The Big Stick

I’ve never been much of a fisherman, Kane however, is natural born. He’s spent enough time with his Papa (Kim’s Dad) to learn his craft, and to exhibit the passion and patience equal to Bill Dance. He flat out loves to fish.

And so, how could we take the lad to Alaska, and not turn him loose? After Fairbanks, Denali NP, and Anchorage, we planned to spend some time exploring the Kenai Peninsula (AKA “Alaska’s Playground”) which is famous for two things… salmon and halibut fishing. Our first stop in Kenai was Cooper Landing, which is at the top of the Kenai River, and a great place to take a fishing trip along the “upper Kenai”. This is a pretty big, fast, beautiful river. The water is the milky, aqua blue, that is telltale of glacial melt.

This is typical of this stretch of river... beautiful mountains, and wide & fast glacier water.
This is typical of this stretch of river… beautiful mountains, and wide & fast glacier water.

Guided fishing trips are a bit pricy, so just Kane and I went. We booked a 1/2 day (4 hour) trip in a drift boat (the guide is also the rower). The guide’s name was Jason, and when I spoke to Jason on the phone, he was in full “expectation setting” mode. He strongly suggested that we fish for trout in order to keep Kane busy, happy, and engaged. He said, he had be “killing’m” this season until 3/4 trips ago, and they stopped biting. I told him that we’d really hoped to catch a salmon, and suggested that we start going for Salmon and shift gears to trout if need be. He grumbled about the trout fishing being best at the top of the trip etc. The thing is, Jason has no idea the depth of patience and terrific attitude on the water that Kane has.

Kane ready to go at the start of the trip!  Ever the optimist.
Kane ready to go at the start of the trip! Ever the optimist.

When the trip started (we started at 7am), Jason said, well, if you want to hunt Salmon, you need time, we better just go for it! He gave us a quick lesson on the gear (pretty heavy graphite rods, with braided 30 lb test line, open faced spinner reels, monofiiment leaders, and vibrax spinners), and we drifted down to the first “silver hole”. It turns out the best place to fish for salmon are the “calm waters” on the back side of bends. Jason coached us to cast upstream, and reel the lures in across the break in the water (the line where the swift current meets the calm water). As we pulled into the first hole, we could see salmon jumping (mostly red sockeyes that we could not keep and were too mature to eat anyway). As we moved down the river, we started to see more silvers roll at the top of the water. The fish were there, but not biting.

After about 1 hour, with no bites, we started experimenting with different lures. We could still see the fish there taunting us almost.

At a bit past 2 hours, with no bites, Kane looked at me and said “do you want to start fishing for trout?”. I was shocked that he was losing his confidence, but I suppose probably the fact that we’d not caught anything in a few weeks, and he knew the trip cost real money. I told him, we can see the fish here, we just need to find the right lures, let’s keep trying. Literally two casts later, Kane caught a 10 pound silver salmon. He was thrilled. Jason tried to get him to howl like a coyote, but that was a bit beyond his comfort zone! If Kat were there, I’m sure she would have howled for him! Jason clubbed it to death, we snapped a few pics, and he put it on a stringer.

Catch #1 i the net getting ready to be clubbed.
Catch #1 i the net getting ready to be clubbed.
That smile should tell you when I snapped this one.
That smile should tell you when I snapped this one.
One happy camper.
One happy camper.

I asked Jason to switch my lure to match Kanes… it was a bright orange vibrax spinner. He obliged.

About 20 minutes later, Kane catches ANOTHER 10 pounder! Now he’s really excited. Jason started calling Kane “Big Stick”. When other boats came by with nothing caught, he would hold up the fish and announce that they were caught by the 10 year old! If Kane had a hat on, it would have been shredded like the Hulk’s clothing.

Jason was surly, but Kane didn't notice, and didn't care (especially after he caught fish)
Jason was surly, but Kane didn’t notice, and didn’t care (especially after he caught fish)

Heading to the next hole, I looked at my lure and realized Jason had put a shiny brass spinner on my rod instead of the orange one. My bad, I should have checked it out sooner. He apologized and switched it to the right one.

After that, Kane caught a couple of really small fish (trout and dolly varden char). I never did catch anything. I had one bite early on, but didn’t get the hook set.

Two happy campers.
Two happy campers.

All in all, a great day, I was so happy for Kane to catch a salmon, catching two was incredible. We took the fillets to a place to have them vacuum packed, as we knew we’d have about 10 lbs of fish and would not be able to eat it all in time. We had 9 lbs, and we had 7 of it processed. We ate the other 2 for dinner… chose the safe route and baked it, but next time we’ll use the grill. It was really good. Biggest surprise was when we pulled it out of the fridge to prepare it (6 hours after it was filleted), it had absolutely no smell whatsoever! Amazing!!

The lone fillet that we didn't have vacuum packed and frozen.  It was gorgeous and didn't have any odor at all!
The lone fillet that we didn’t have vacuum packed and frozen. It was gorgeous and didn’t have any odor at all!
Butter, lemon, dill, and garlic... ready for the oven.  Next time... we will grill.
Butter, lemon, dill, and garlic… ready for the oven. Next time… we will grill.
From river to plate in 7 hours.
From river to plate in 7 hours.
Loving it!
Loving it!

Denali!

I apologize in advance for the volume of pictures in this post! We just left Denali National Park in Alaska this morning, but I think it will always have a place in our hearts… we loved it. The pictures below tell the story of 2 of our days in Denali. As context, there is one road that runs roughly east to west in the park. People are only allowed to drive about 15 miles into the park, beyond that, you can only take a park bus and get dropped off (or simply ride the bus into and back out of the park if you wish). We camped at about mile 13 at Savage River, which was lovely, great treed sites, easy walking distance to the river, the bus stop, and a hiking trail. (Savage Alpine Trail)

The first day:
We took the park bus from Savage River to Toklat River (this was the shortest and cheapest bus ticket)… we didn’t figure we’d want to spend more than 6 hours on the bus (3 out and 3 back). We rode out, got some decent shots of Denali (Mt McKinley), the highest peak in North America at over 20,000 ft. Had lunch at Toklat. Road the bus back to “Polychrome Pass” (the most picturesqe stop), and did a hike there. We decided to take the “road less traveled” and hiked North from the road rather then South toward the pass. It turned out great because we soon discovered that the area North of the road was covered with wild blueberries. It also allowed us to hike through some bush, over a recently dried up lake for some cool animal prints, and to reach some “attainable” mountains to climb. We all went up a couple hundred feet, and then Kane went up another 5-600 or so by himself. It was amazing! The day ended with blueberry pancakes back at the campsite.

Day two:
On our campground host’s advice, we took the Savage Alpine trail from our campground up the mountain and back down about 4 miles west further into the park. It was marked as a “strenuous” hike, which was our first, and luckily we started on the more mild side. When we reached the last mile (the decline), things got really steep. Once we reached the crest of the trail, Kane and I hiked on up the rest of the way (there is some debate about how far), I’ll say 500 feet on up to the apex of the mountain. Along the way we saw (and passed) a group of Dall sheep. It was incredible.

Denali was amazing… the landscape is like nothing we’ve every seen, wildlife incredible, and the fact that you can hike anywhere you want (on or off the trail) helps put it over the top. These pictures really can’t even scratch the surface of the majesty of this place. It’s 360 degrees of incredible from almost anywhere, and it’s 6 million acres (the size of New Hampshire).

Kluane Lake – Who Knew?

Well, we’ll add this one to the list of amazing places we never heard of before. I don’t imagine you end up on the shores of Lake Kluane any other way other than driving the Alcan hiway. The RV park there, “Cottonwood RV Park”, was a class act. In fact, many of the folks staying there stayed twice (on the way up and the way back) because it is so nice.

We messed around mostly trying to fish off the bank, and did manage to get in a nice hike up the Sheep Mountain Trail in Kluane NP. (the lake is just outside the park to the East)

I felt so bad for Kane fishing all day on Sunday without a bite, I told him he could fish in on Monday morning when he got up (we suggested he wait until 7:30). He comes running back in at 7:50 all excited, I figured for sure he caught a lake trout. It turns out, he saw a Grizzly Bear walking about 15 yards away, and ran inside. The owners of the camp said they had not seen any bears this year. Kane said he was “excited and scared… mostly scared”. I felt “excited and dumb… mostly dumb”. The bear was confirmed later by another camper, so he was right about what he saw.

And… we made to to Alaska!!! It’s so cool how you can feel this sense of “homeland” once you cross the border. Also how the actual border is unprotected, just basically a slot cut through the trees, and a sign. Fun having the kids jump back and forth a bit!

Viewpoint from our hike in the Kluane National Park.
Viewpoint from our hike in the Kluane National Park.
Great place to eat pancakes.
Great place to eat pancakes.
Voted "best view" for our campsites so far.
Voted “best view” for our campsites so far.
Kane fishing from the front of our campsite at Kluane Lake.  We didn't catch anything here, but we had fun trying.
Kane fishing from the front of our campsite at Kluane Lake. We didn’t catch anything here, but we had fun trying.
Last day in Whitehorse, kids fishing in hidden lakes.  Had some fun "off-roading" in the jeep looking for these lakes!
Last day in Whitehorse, kids fishing in hidden lakes. Had some fun “off-roading” in the jeep looking for these lakes!
We actually made it!
We actually made it!
Kane is still in the Yukon, while Kat is firmly in Alaska.
Kane is still in the Yukon, while Kat is firmly in Alaska.
Easy to dodge the draft on this bench!
Easy to dodge the draft on this bench!

Black Hills of South Dakota

We came to the Black Hills of South Dakota with one thing in mind… Mount Rushmore. Borglums masterpiece did not disappoint, however, it was not the hero of the stay. The real hero of the Black Hills is… the Black Hills. Specifically Custer State Park.

What a beauty the park is. My Aunt and Uncle had told me the week before we left that Custer State Park was nice. I have to admit even still, Kim and I hesitated at the gate to pay the entrance fee (I think it was $15). Boy that was laughable in hindsight. The park is filled with beautiful lakes, the most amazing Ponderosa pine forests, and wildlife galore. We all fell in love with this place. If you think of Babler when you think of state parks, forget everything you thought you knew about state parks! (no offense to Babler fans, it’s nice too) 🙂

This is one place that will be tugging at my heart for years to come. I hope we get to go back someday.

Badlands

We had a great time in the Badlands. First of all, it was our first National Park of the trip, so it will always have that! Second, it’s one of the only parks that literally allows you to go anywhere. Hiking and climbing is encouraged, and not just on the trail. Our two monkeys took full advantage!

There is something spectacular about driving over the plains of mid South Dakota, and coming upon this desolate place… As our cousin Vincent said “it’s like the surface of the moon”. Weather was beautiful, park rangers were friendly, and scenery incredible.

What planet is this?

yellowstone_cooked_tree
This was taken at Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park. Most of the springs here are dried up, and it truly looks like the landscape of a different planet. The trees actually drink in the calcified water (the hot water percolates up through limestone and brings the calcium to the top, creating travertine), and turns white.

Prairie Dog Closeup

Kat using DS and Kane using Sony Bloggie to capture prairie dog in Badlands, South Dakota.
Kat using DS and Kane using Sony Bloggie to capture prairie dog in Badlands, South Dakota.

I love this picture of the kids chasing down the prairie dogs with cameras.  They are so excited to see any type of wildlife, and to be able to document their trip!

Video taken by Kane on his Bloggie:

Praire Dog Video

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