Author: shawnbryan

Another lengthy spell in the wilds of Alaska, the Yukon and BC without cell service, wifi or other electronic distractions. We have traveled over 1,000 miles since the last post so I have some catching up to do. I had reported that when we left Wolf Creek we were headed to Watson Lake. Things change and instead we ended up at Snag Junction, just over the border from Alaska to the Yukon. It ended up being a long 265 mile day because we got stuck at the border crossing for almost an hour. Along the way we saw some big rocks.

From Snag Junction we traveled 275 miles to Wolf Creek, YT, just outside Whitehorse. This was a lucky find because we got just about the last site that we could fit our truck into. There was a huge graduation party going on and most of the campground was taken by folks celebrating graduation – loud music, karaoke (with lots of golden oldies), and lots of food and dancing. These folks knew how to party and we were thrilled to be at the other end of the campground. We could barely hear them!

From here we decided to take the Cassiar Highway so we headed east on the Alaska Highway to the junction with highway 37, the Cassiar, where we stopped for fuel before heading down the sparsely settled and service deprived Cassiar.

We traveled about 40 miles down the Cassiar and turned into Boya Lake Provincial Campground not expecting much but ready to quit for the day after 302 miles of rainy weather. Did we ever get a surprise.

Boya Lake is a hidden gem. We had no expectations and expected to just overnight there. We ended up spending two nights at this beautiful spot.

From Boya Lake we headed south of the Cassiar and made a stop at Jade City, home of the mining operations of Cassiar Mountain Jade.

Of course we had to contribute to the local economy and buy a few things to bring back home. Jade City is also starring in a Canadian Discovery Channel reality TV series (not seen in the US yet) so we bought a DVD just for the fun of watching the show.

From Jade City we continued on to Meziadin Provincial Campground for the night, remarkable only for the mosquitoes. Apparently BC has outsourced management of some campgrounds to private enterprises – unfortunately we found the private operations not up to the quality of the government run camps.

From Meziadin we continued south to the end of the Cassiar and turned east on the Yellowhead Highway, Canada 16. There is another name for this road that evokes more emotion – Highway of Tears. You can learn more about this sad stretch of road here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highway_of_Tears_murders or here http://highwayoftearsfilm.com/.

 

There are billboards along the road, reminders of the tragic history associated with this route.

We continued on to Houston, BC, where we stopped for a break and lunch. The city intrigued us because it advertises it has the world’s largest fly rod.

We ended this day in Fraser Lake, BC after another 300 mile day. Fraser is another example of the pride and generosity of these small Canadian towns.

From Fraser Lake we continued on the Yellowhead to McBride, BC and a nice little private campground, Beaverview. The folks running the campground were very gracious and pleasant – their mosquitoes, not so much. I mention the mosquitoes because we are starting to see a lot more mosquitoes and other bugs as we head farther south and move closer to July. While we were in the Alaska and the Yukon we were essentially bug free but it appears that luxury has come to an end. The truck windshield is now almost opaque at the end of the day and the front of the white camper is almost black from the carnage we wreak on the flying denizens of southern BC and Alberta.

Tonight we have concluded a 353 mile day at Spruce Grove RV Park in Fairmont Hot Springs, BC. We traveled down the Icefields Parkway, re-tracing our route of some weeks ago in reverse. The temperatures were in the mid to high 80’s as we arrived here so we opted again for power and water so we could run the AC and cool down after a long day driving. Tomorrow we will be back in the USA (assuming they will let back in), and probably boondocking somewhere around Kalispell or Missoula, MT since every campground from here to Missoula appears to be full up until after the 4th. We picked a tough weekend to head back – Canada’s 150th birthday followed by our 4th of July. Happy birthday to Canada and to us!

 

 

We left Denali three days ago and are now in a campground just outside Whitehorse. This is the first time we have had a cell signal for three days so perhaps that will help explain the lack of blog posts for the last three days. You can’t appreciate how big and how rural Alaska and the Yukon are until you travel up here. One hundred miles between small gas stations is normal. Grocery stores like what we are accustomed to only exist in the larger towns. That is not to say you can’t get around up here but you need to think ahead because there isn’t someone around every corner to help you out of a mess if you get into one.

After leaving Denali we traveled south on Alaska 3 to Cantwell where we picked up the Denali Highway, Alaska 8. This dirt road would have had spectacular views if the weather had been better but it was cloudy and rained off and on the entire day. The Denali Highway really is a trip through history. “While the highway opened in 1957 as the first road to allow access to Denali National Park, the history of the road as a route of adventure through the wilderness is a fabled tale in the history of Alaska.

From the earliest Americans through to the Copper River Basin-dwelling Athapaskan tribes, the present-day Tangle Lakes area was an important seasonal hunting ground. This area contains some of the earliest evidence of human occupation in North America. In the 225,000 acres of the Tangles Lakes Archaeological District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, over 400 archaeological sites have been documented. The modern-day history of the area began approximately 100 years ago, when gold miners in the Valdez Creek region, near the Susitna River, pioneered a trail to the east between the mining district and Paxson, and a little later westward from the mines toward present-day Cantwell. The current highway roughly follows these miners’ tracks for much of its distance.

Traveling the Denali Highway today is truly a path through awesome wilderness that links travelers to Alaska’s prehistoric past and gold rush history.” (http://www.denalihwy.com/area/denali-highway)

Once we traversed the Denali we traveled down route 4 beyond Paxon to Sourdough Campground where we spent the night. The state and provincial campgrounds are well maintained and a great deal at $12.00. It turns out that the river at Sourdough is one of the most popular and best producing fishing rivers in Alaska. Since we bought our non-resident licenses the day before we threw in a line and caught a number of little 6-8″ fish. We tossed them back and didn’t catch any of the trophy salmon or graylings that others have caught in this location but we had fun.

Next day we headed for the Yukon border at Beaver Creek and camped at Snag Junction, a YT provincial park.

Tonight we are camped just outside Whitehorse in Wolf Creek Campground, another provincial campground. There are no hookups or showers at these campground but with 40 gallons of fresh water we are pretty self sufficient for a week or so before we need to replenish our water supply. The trip here was a fairly easy 250 mile day so for the three days we have put about 750 miles behind us.

That’s all for tonight. Tomorrow we shoot for Watson Lake for a night before we swing south on the Cassiar.

So last night I promised more about Denali and our flight around the mountain. I also want to tell you we picked the absolute perfect day for our air tour. Not only was it a clear day but there was literally no turbulence out and back: a clear, smooth day is rare up here. Even our pilot was surprised and remarked on how rare it is to have a day like yesterday.

Now a few facts about the mountain and the park just because you really need some background for the photos. Denali rises about 18,000 feet (5,500 meters) from its base, which is a greater vertical rise than Everest’s 12,000-foot rise (3,700 meters) from its base at 17,000 feet (5,200 meters). So although Everest is higher, Denali is taller. The upper half of Denali is permanently covered with snow and many glaciers, some more than 30 miles (48 km) long. The mountain’s extreme cold, which can be minus 75 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 60 degrees Celsius) with wind chill down to minus 118 F (minus 83 C), can freeze a human in an instant. Denali is home to many glaciers. The glaciers range in thickness but the Ruth Glacier has a measured thickness of 3,800 feet. There have been thousands of attempts to summit Denali but only about half actually succeed.

The national park is 6,000,000 acres and contains just one, mostly gravel, road that is 92 miles long. Over 400,000 people visit Denali every year. The park is a designated wilderness and the challenge with that many visitors is to keep it that way. After spending a week here you begin to appreciate how big the park is but also how threatened it is by civilization and the increasing number of people wanting to visit.

Finally, a few snippets of video as we flew around the mountain.

Nothing captures the grandeur like being here but this is my attempt to share this glorious place with you.

There are far too many pictures to sort through them all tonight but here’s the teaser. This morning we did a 14 mile bike ride from Savage River back to Riley Creek where we are camped. We took the bus out and rode back, enjoying a beautiful morning. Then this afternoon we booked a plane ride around Denali. The weather was perfect and we were blessed with some incredible views of this huge mountain. Tomorrow I’ll sort through the photos and video and give you a better sample of the flight but here are a few teaser shots to whet your appetite.

More to come tomorrow when I have a chance to sort through 120 photos and four or five videos. It was a spectacular 200 plus mile journey by air to circle around this monster of a mountain, larger in mass than Everest and with a larger vertical rise than Everest, though not as tall in elevation. More to come on Denali, stand by.

Today was a quiet day. We got in a couple of hikes close to the Riley Campground, where we are located. Nothing too strenuous or exciting and certainly no photos like yesterday’s adventure deep into the park.

Our first hike was around Horseshoe Lake, a small lake and beaver pond near our site.

The water is clear and cold and the trail winds around the lake and then up a fairly steep climb to the top for a total of about 3.8 miles.

We got a good glimpse of what the town outside Denali has done to build itself into the hillside. It is sort of an interesting way to accommodate the realities of a narrow valley bounded on one side by a mountain and on the other by a national park.

Our second hike was through the forest on the McKinley Trail. Again, not much photogenic about the hike, which was only about a mile and a half, but the park residents kept a wary eye on us to make sure we didn’t break any rules.

Our best news is that we were able to score an extra day here by watching the computer reservation system pretty regularly looking for cancellations. After three days of watching we got luck. The entire campground in booked full every day and the only way to get in now that tourist season has started in earnest is to watch for cancellations. It is sad to go by the reservations desk and see people lined up trying to get a site only to be turned away because there is no room. Over 400,000 people come here every year to visit so the few sites that exist are reserved, often a year ahead.

The forecast is for rain tomorrow but we shall see. The rain tends to be spotty and occasional. Perhaps we’ll have a chance to do a more challenging hike tomorrow, or get in some mountain biking. There is a really fun (but challenging) mountain bike trail that climbs up to the park headquarters several miles into the park. We tried a bit of it a couple of days ago and found it very challenging with some very steep uphills and some muddy spots. For us, that is a challenge since we are novices.

 

 

How does one describe a perfect Father’s Day? How about an 8 hour day on a bus taking a 134 mile round trip into the recesses of the Denali National Park and Preserve. This wilderness must be seen to be appreciated. No words or photos can capture the majesty of this very special place. We were fortunate; we saw 9 bears, many caribou, 7 moose, dall sheep, magpies, ptarmigans, a wolf and extraordinary scenery, including the top of Denali or Mount McKinley if you prefer. Only 30% of visitors to Denali get to see the top of the mountain so it was a special treat that we got a clear day and wonderful view of the mountain.

The bus driver and the rangers clearly have a special relationship with this place. They asked us to consider and reflect upon what the wilderness means to us. Is it necessary? Does it enrich us in some ethereal way that is hard to explain? Does it matter if it is here for our children’s children? The answer, at least for me, is we need the wild places. They are a place where we can reconnect with the simpler and more fundamental aspects of our lives; where we are just one more animal in the food chain; where we are not supreme but simply another. These are the places where we can be reminded that we were given creation to care for it, not to use it up.

This is just a brief glimpse into the splendor that is Denali. And yet for all its majesty is is also so fragile, so easily spoiled. After seeing the beauty and natural wonders of this place, how do you answer the question, “Do we need to protect and keep these wild places for our children’s children?”

 

Sorry, no pictures today. After our arrival and setup yesterday, today was a recoup day. Laundry is now done, the camper is a bit neater and cleaner and we have tickets for the day long tour into Denali tomorrow. If our tour is successful we should have some animal photos as well as some more scenery from the park.

We did manage to get in a bicycle ride today. There are some great mountain bike trails well worth exploring. I felt my receding cold a bit as I was gasping for air on some of the uphill climbs but it felt good to get out and into the fresh air. We also need to practice a bit with the new semi-fat bikes we bought for this trip. I actually lofted the front wheel on one steep climb, surprising myself just a bit as the front wheel came up. I’ll need to learn to moderate just a bit to keep that front wheel down where it belongs. You can tell I’m a novice mountain biker!

The park is exceedingly quiet and clean and the campsites are very private and well spaced. We had hoped to camp farther into the park at Savage River but Riley has actually turned out to be a great place from which to launch our adventures. There is a store nearby as well as flush toilets and the laundry and showers.

With any luck we’ll have some pictures to share tomorrow.

Time to catch up a bit. Between lack of connectivity and my cold the blog has taken a bit of a hit. But we are now in Denali for 5 nights in a wooded site in the Riley Campground. But let’s back up to the top of the world highway. We got out of our camp site in Dawson City at around 0730 to get to the ferry across the Yukon River. We weren’t first in line!

Once across the Yukon we began the climb to the Top of the World Highway. The road was in surprisingly good condition and views from up top were spectacular.

What we didn’t realize was that the worst of the highway was yet to come. We went from the well maintained Top of the World Highway to a narrow winding road with 1,000 foot drop offs on one side and hills on the other.

The road was also under construction and we had to wait outside of Chicken for them to dump gravel and roll it to make the road passable.

From Chicken to Tok was a much better drive. The road had a few bumps but at least it was paved.

We arrived at Denali around 0930 and picked out a site. After a birthday dinner for Helen at The Bake we drove up to the topof the campground and got a good look at Denali – a rare day with no clouds obscuring the peak. We are not settled in for 5 days and hope to do some biking, hiking and touring.

 

 

Three hundred and forty three miles. A long day on some pretty rough roads but we arrived. Did the walking tour of Dawson last evening and both of us were dead on our feet at the end. We are cheek by jowl in a parking lot with campers so close on either side we couldn’t open an awning if we wanted to. But this campground is in downtown Dawson so we can walk to almost everything. Tomorrow we have several tours lined up. The Parcs Canada folks do a great job of explaining the history and preservation of Dawson so we should come away with a real understanding of how the community has developed and changed over the years.

That said, this is a town struggling to survive on tourism and mining. And tourism has slowed according to some of the locals, though you wouldn’t know it by the number of vehicles lined up to get in here earlier today. What has surprised me is the number of tourists here from Austria and Germany. Not sure what the draw is but the folks on either side of us are from Germany and half the people in Klondike Kates tonight were either Swiss, Austrian or German (my best guess since I don’t speak the language). Perhaps it is the lure of big open spaces for folks from Europe, where countries are smaller and more densely populated. Or perhaps it is the weak Canadian dollar compared to the Euro. Whatever the reason, we have seen many folks from Europe since we entered Canada.

Helen and I did the Claim 33 gold panning class today and then went to claim 6, the free gold panning claim to try our hand at finding gold. We then toured Robert Sample’s cabin and did tea at the Commissioner’s house, both tours put of by Parc Canada and both extremely well done.

What follows is a sample of Dawson City.

Tomorrow we go over the Top of the World highway to Chicken Alaska.

 

Today was an “easy”day, only 6 hours to get from Watson Lake to Whitehorse. We stayed an extra day at Watson Lake provincial campground just because it was so peaceful and quiet. Helen took a couple of pictures that give you a feel for the quiet beauty of the place.The road to Whitehorse was in pretty good condition most of the way. There was one long stretch of gravel but the rest of the road was good pavement. There were a few nice views along the way.

Tomorrow will be a LONG day. Whitehorse to Dawson City is 350 miles and the Milepost says it will take a minimum of 6 hours which means for us closer to ten with stops for fuel, dog walks and food. We are planning on two days in Dawson City to do some of the touristy stuff like panning for gold and going to see the big dredge. From Dawson City we plan on taking the Top of the World highway to Chicken, Alaska and then on to Fairbanks where I hope to do an oil change on the truck since we are overdue for one.