Enough adventure already

Well, the outdoor adventure part has been great. More national parks than I can count, l lost track at around 8. Plenty of mountains. So much wildlife we stop taking pictures. But geez, enough with the breakdowns already. Here we are in Billings Montana after the van broke down again. That rebuilt transmission we had done in Fairbanks gave out as we neared Billings. We were just driving along and we heard a loud squealing sound. Then there was no power. Called our towing club, they checked around Billings and found a company that has tow trucks and specializes in repairing transmissions. They do a lot of work on RVs. The driver usually drives the big wrecker, the kind that tows semis. He was filling in for a guy who was sick and was running the midsized truck that day. In the last month he towed in two big class A RVs that had less than 10,000 miles. They apparently work on so many RVs that they have installed AC outlets on one end of one of their lots. We stayed in the van that night, yesterday I guess. I am starting to loose track of time here. They got the van in this morning, found out the overdrive planetary gears went out. This time they are going to "remanufacture" the tranny not just "rebuild" it. They say they are installing heavy duty this and steel rather than aluminium that. Yada, yada. They even showed me the nice heavy duty torque converter plate they were putting on. He took me back in the shop and showed me how they test all the valves and if any leak at all, they re-machine the body, put in over size valves, more yada yada. All of this really means a lot more money. But he tells me this will make sure the tranny will not break down again and it will be strong enough to pull Mt McKinley over a couple feet.

We are sitting in a nice little hotel in Billlings. Drove around in a rented car today ($29.95/day), shopped for about 3 hours at the largest "antique" store I have ever seen. Even Kim said she was done with antiquing for a while. The hotel has a pool, hot tub and sauna. Went out to eat and now we are just sitting here watching TV in the room. Tomorrow they are supposed to be done with the van. We will be sitting in the waiting room at the repair shop all day. We should be back to Winona Friday....... maybe

Banff and Jasper again

Continuing on our way back south and east we went through Banff and Jasper parks again. Along the road we came across several mountain goats walking along. They were grazing along the side of the road and next to the river. Cute young ones

Stewart road

Here is the road I was telling you about

Stewart BC and Hyder AK

On our way down the Cassiar Highway we took a side trip to Stewart BC and Hyder AK. These two cities are on the coast. Neither town has much going on. Each has many houses for sale and Hyder is actually pretty dumpy. But the drive there is beautiful. High mountains on each side of the road. In one place the road is about 30 feet wide and 15 feet farther out are the sheer rock walls making for about a 60 foot wide space between them. Waterfalls everywhere. There was so many we quit taking pictures. On our way back out we saw a mother grizzly and her one year old cub. They hung out along side the road and we got a bunch of pics. They then got up on the road and walked along in front of us. We got some video too. Here is the sow checking around to see where Jr is.

Lynx

Monday June 22
Stayed near Whitehorse last night and drove to near Wartson Lake. Then headed south on the Cassiar Highway in British Columbia. Beautiful country with mountain, pine forest and many rivers and lakes. While driving I spotted a lynx sitting on a concrete barricade used as a guard rail. I pulled over about 75 feet from it and it jumped over the side. I grabbed the camera and quietly walked up to where I thought it had been. I looked over the side and it was there, within about 15 feet of me. It saw me and went down the bank about 10 feet and stopped. It was stalking something and wasn't really paying much attention to me. I snapped a picture of it on its hounces looking at the prey. It heard the camera click and I shoot a few more times as it moved a little farther down the hill. The camera wasn't focusing right but I got a couple shots anyway. Then, the camera came into focus and I got a great shot. It leaped after the prey which I never did see. It stopped after just 25 feet of the chase and slowly moved into the brush to where we couldn't see it any more.

The Yukon

The last few posts have been made from a campground at Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. We are heading into British Columbia down the Cassiar Highway to Prince George. Who knows if we will have internet available in the next few days. Thanks for reading and we will post again as soon as we can. There is so much more to tell about Alaska but thats all for now. The video is of a moose foraging the bottom of a small river on our way down the Dalton, just outside Fairbanks. the camera is shaking because, try as hard as I could, I was having trouble standing still while dozens of mosquitoes were on each arm, my neck, head and face. I wanted to get more but had to run for my life. Kim saw information that said a moose typically loses about a pint of blood per day to them.

The oil field

We made it to Deadhorse at just about midnight. Looked for the one and only gas station. Drove around the town but couldn't find it even using the map of the town in our guide book. Finally located it - there was a sign but the building looked like an industrial truck shop. The gas pump is a hose that comes from the building into a steel box mounted on the wall of the building. You go inside an entrance area, pay by credit card there and then go back out to pump your gas. The whole town is industrial without one single house. In fact, the population is actually zero, there are no permanent residents. Everyone is there for a shift consisting of 1 or 2 weeks, then flies out of the airport there back to either Fairbanks or Anchorage for days off. During the summer there are about 2000 people, in the winter 6000 to 10000. Most of the oil work is done in the winter to prevent damage to the environment. Almost all wildlife, birds, water fowl etc migrate out. The tundra becomes frozen so movement of machines and equipment is on the ice and snow. They actually creat roads using large water truck to lay donw 8 to 18 feet of ice to drive on.

After we arrived, we "slept" in the SUV from about 1:00am to 6:00am and then took a bus tour of the oil field and went to the ocean. It was about 32 degrees out with a steady wind of about 20 miles per hour making for a windchill around 10 degrees. The water was much warmer than the air. After the tour, we headed back. We made more stops along the way to see the sights. Tooks tons of great scenic pics. I intended to camp on the way back but Kim didn't want to sleep in a tent so we continued back to the mechanics lot and slept in the van. That was Friday night. And he had the van finished already even though I had told him he had until Sat afternoon. I do love our little van camper - we can sleep anywhere, wayside rest stops, Walmart parking lots, on wreckers and in mechanics yards.

The photo is of musk ox on the oil fields

The Artic Ocean

Welll obviously from the last post you know we made it. No trouble with the little SUV. This is me in the Artic Ocean. Notice the ice of the ocean in the background. Oh, you can't see it? Well, thats because our ace photographer Kim took the picture and assured me the ice was visible. The other pic is of us crossing the Artic Circle. Deadhorse is about 400 more miles north. This picture was taken by a Bureau of Land Management person who greets people at the wayside there. She had practice taking pics of people with the sign visible.

On the way up we stopped for gas at Coldfoot. Next civilization - Deadhorse 244 miles away. The town of Coldfoot is made up of the Artic National Wildlife Refuge/Gates of the Artic National Park Vistor Center on one side of the highway and a resturant, gift shop, gas station on the other. Surprisingly gas was only about a dollar more per gallon than Fairbanks. The road before Coldfoot was paved for a time, then turned into gravel. After Coldfoot is almost all gravel until just outside Deadhorse. Strangely, the roads in the town of Deadhorse are gravel. In someplaces the highway gravel is packed so hard and smooth its almost like pavement. At others its more like a normal gravel road. At still other places its like a washboard or worse - many potholes some of them large. In places I could drive 50mph, but the average was around 35 to 40. In the bad areas 25 mph was pushing it. The trucks hauling to Deadhorse cruise along at 50 no matter what. They have larger tires with more plys so they hold up better as well as much better suspension systems. I kept an eye on the mirrors and would pull over to let them pass. When they approached from the opposite direction, it is custom for cars and trucks to move way over to the side. After about an hour on the gravel north of Coldfoot, I checked my side mirrors and no trucks. I decided to check the rear view mirror and discovered nothing but black. The rear window had become so covered with dust and mud that it was completely opaque. It stayed that way until we returned.

The Dalton Highway

After about 5 hours sleep in our Chevy Chase Van I walked two blocks to a mechanic shop the tow driver told me about. He told me he could take a look at it and after waiting for a couple hours in the tow yard, another driver showed up and dropped us and the van off. The tranny was shot. Ron called around for a rebuilt - no one in Alaska had one. Called Ford for a new one - 15 days to get it. He said there was a parts store in Fairbanks that had the parts and he could do the work. Wow. To find somebody with the experience to do a rebuild is rare. To find someone who will do it right away is a miracle. And I just happened to walk into his shop!

I have to tell you that all of these places don't look professional. The tow truck driver lives next to his impound lot which has about 30 old, most never to run again vehicles. His house is run down but he is in the process of building a new shop - attached to the house in an L shape. He graciously let us use the bathroom in his old house - a 1970s vintage trailer home next door which he has now abandoned for the newer house/shop. The mechanics yard was about the same except he only has 10 dead cars, a couple snomobiles and several air boats. Two bulldogs greeted me as I entered the lot. Always, always make friends with the junkyard dogs first. Turns out they were friendly.

Our first attempt and break down ocurred on Tuesday. Wed we got the word that tranny was dead. Ron said he could probably start working on the tranny on Thurs or Friday since we needed the van back fast. Cool. The wrecker guy who has owned the wrecker company for 12 years suggested not taking the van on the Dalton because he has seen the gravel damage the tanks of RVs. All the research I had done said no one rents vehicles for use on the Dalton. I would have done that to save the RV. Dave said he had heard one company was dong it now. I called around to rental places and found one that rents trucks to go up the Dalton but none available for 10 days. Another place said they did have a Ford Taurus that we could take up there. No thanks. Rent a Wreck had a small SUV coming back the next morning (Thurs) but we would have to have it back by Saturday since it was going out on Sunday. They rent out Ford Escapes, put on the heaviest Load Range E tires you can buy and give you a spare E tires as well as the donut. Sold. So we rented the Escape at 11:00am on Thursday and began the adventure to the Artic Ocean

continued

The above picture is the midnight sun at Prudhoe Bay. It was taken at 12:08 am local time.

First Attempt to the Artic Ocean

Man, were do I begin. Denali was great. Then on to Fairbanks. A few days there to get the alternator fixed on the van. Toured around while waiting to get in the shop. Then we began the big adventure to Deadhorse/Prudhoe Bay. Went 3 hours north of Fairbanks on the Dalton Highway and blew the transmission. We were still on the mostly blacktop portion so it was unrelated to the highway. Just too many mountains for this van since it was built. Who knows how many times the previos owners went over mountains, but on this trip alone we have been in the Rocky Mountain, Alaskan Range, and too many others to even remember let alone list. We have driven at least 1500 miles up and down mountains. Actually probably closer to 2500 since most of the trip has been in and around the mountains and we now have traveled over 6000 miles. Got a flatbed tow truck to take us back to Fairbanks. I use Allstate Motor Club. they were great, no questions about our crazy location or how far the tow was. They sent an experienced guy who was great. But, it took him 4 hours to get to us and 6 hours to get back since he had a big truck and couldn't go so fast. We got back to Fairbanks at 3:00am but who can tell since its light for 24 hours! Kim was shocked to find out the time. The wrecker guy gave us a step ladder and we climbed in our camper to sleep. I burst out laughing while we were brushing our teeth. Kim thought the long day had been too much for me but I explained I had remembered seeing a clip of the Chevy Chase movie Vacation in which there is a close up of him sitting in his vehicle bouncing down the road. The camera then pans out to show the vehicle mounted on a truck. That was us! The picture is us just outside Fairbanks at 3:00am.

Fairbanks

Greetings from Fairbanks,

We left Denali today and headed to Fairbanks. Stopped at the Stampede Trail of "Into the Wild" fame. Drove back in to 8 Mile Lake but could go no furher with the camper. The trail becomes a 4x4 muddy road and then after some more miles (unknown, depends on who you talk to) you have to cross the Savage River. Then, you have to hike in about 10 or 14 miles to get to the bus. The river is uncrossable according most people, but I found one gear shop where the clerk told me there is a guy taking people back there. He was out there now. I left my number since he was supposed to be back Friday night but no luck when we stopped in on our way out of town on Sat afternoon.

My laptop has died. So I am using a computer at the campground we checked into in Fairbanks. I don't know if I will be able to get my laptop back up or not, so this might be the last post for a while. Do check back in a couple days to see.

Gotta let the campground have their computer back. Thanks for following this blog and I sure hope to be back here soon.

more From Denali

This is our second day in Denali. We got here last evening and checked into one of the campgrounds. All campgrounds in Denali have no hookups like water or electric which is fine with us. We managed to get to the Ranger talk on wolves about 5 minutes late. Wolves as you know live in packs but there is a tremendous family relationship involved as well. The Ranger talked about a specific pack here in the park and how it has changed over the last several years due to the death of the alpha male, a lone wolf coming in, falling for the daughter of the alpha female and eventually taking the role of alpha male. We did a short hike up the Savage River today. Tomorrow we will be going all the way back to Wonder Lake. You can only drive in about 15 miles into the park, which is Savage River. After that you take the park buses. The end of the road is about 85 miles in near Wonder Lake. It takes about 5 hours one way. You buy a ticket and then can get off at any point to walk into the wilderness. Then you walk back to the road and get on a bus when it comes past. We plan a couple stops and then about an hour at Wonder Lake. Bus leaves at 7:15am and with the planned stops we will back at about 9:15pm. We have to pack lunch, supper and snacks. No services anywhere along the way, but we can get water at Wonder Lake.

The photo is not from Denali. I haven't gotten those loaded on the computer yet. This is a mother black bear and her cub taken in BC along the Alaskan Highway. We were just driving along and saw a car pulled over up ahead. The bear was off the side of the road, less than a hundred yards. She keep an eye on the cars but didn't seem real concerned. When a couple of people stopped and got out, she moved up the hill and behind the trees.

The connection here is fairly slow. We have to be at the bus at 6:45 so that's it for tonight. More to come! The picture would not upload, the mosquitos (sp) are eating me up so you will have to wait for the image

Can't resist one more photo

This is from out boat tour of Kenai Fjords National Park. Humpbackwhale with calf and Orca in background. Humpback repeatedly thumped the water to warn the Orca to stay away. We saw Humpback whales, Orca (killer whales), sea lions, etc, etc.... I took nearly 500 photos that day.

Out of time to blog

That last post was about our adventure days ago. We are now in Denali National Park. More to come in a bit but just wanted to post one more picture. This is a waterfall in Jasper.

Praying for rain?

Who in their right mind prays for rain on an outdoor vacation? Well, just outside of Ft St John Yukon (or was it British Columbia?), we were getting gas and ran into some folks traveling to Fairbanks. They were from Minnesota! Imagine that. They told us that the Alaskan Highway was closed due to a forest fire. It was Friday and the road was scheduled to remain closed until Monday morning. Man, sitting for nearly 3 days in Ft St John with nothing to do. So, pray for rain! Just as we got to the town, at about 2:00pm local time, the road reopened. No delay. We continued to drive but got stopped with a line of cars about 5 miles out of town. No what. But a pilot car showed up with a line following from the opposite direction. We then were led through. The fire had burned one side of the road and there were firefighters actually running hoses into the woods and pumping water from pools next to the highway. Two helicopters were dipping in the river, the smoke got thick. Kim said "are we supposed to be on this road?" I was beginning to wonder myself. Visibility was down to around 500 to 800 feet. But the pilot car should know what was ok so we continued and made it through.

The Alaskan Highway

The last few days have been great. First stop was Banff National Park in the Canadian Rockies. One word - beautiful. Tons of mountains, streams, lakes, glaciers. Then on to Jasper. One word - gorgeous. More mountains, streams, lakes, glaciers. So far we have seen black bears, Dahl Sheep, mountain goats, elk, caribou, mouse, and a wolf crossing the road in front of us. About 50 feet in front of use. We have pictures of all of the above, but the wolf was farther away by the time we got pictures.

Just a few hours ago we started the Alaskan Highway at Dawson Creek British Columbia. Its about 1400 miles long and ends near Fairbanks. We will be turning off the Alcan at Tok, AK to head south to Seward.

The weather has been great. Only a little drizzle one day in Montana. Mostly sunny, warm days with cool nights. Kim freezes at night of course but that was to be expected. Highs in the 60s mostly which is great hiking weather.

The photo is at Lake Louise in Banff Park. I had the camera white balance setting on indicator so they are too blue. The magic of computer photoshop will fix it later. Its set properly now.

North to Alaska!

The First Day

We left at about 8:15. Beside gas stops, we ate supper in the parking lot at Wall Drug in South Dakota. Checked out some of the photos on display from the late 1800s including pictures of Custer and his troops. Lots of photos of the Native Americans and their culture. Continue on to Gillette WY, just over 700 miles. We slept in the parking lot of a Flying J truck stop. We are eating cereal now and will be on the interstate in a few minutes. Nothing to photograph of significance so far. Western Minnesota and all of South Dakota was mostly flat farm land or prairie. One interesting sight was near Austin MN. There were about 200 wind turbines all producing clean electricity. There were a few others along the way but this was a high concentration. It was interesting to see that many.