Update

Just a quick update to let you all know that we are alive and in Montana. Arrived here 2 days ago and I'm in love with this state! (I love it so much, I named my last dog Montana.) I will update you as to what we've done and what birds I've seen when I get my computer fixed. I have see a lot of STARLINGS since we got to Montana. Not used to seeing them. They are fair game for every Merlin in Anchorage. Bill is going to update his today or tomorrow and I'll get to mine when he lets me use his computer.

Take care!

Left Dawson Creek

we left Dawson Creek this morning and headed toward Prince George. We were going to make that our stop over the night, but since it was early, we kept on moving. We are now in an RV park in McBride, B.C. It's a very nice park. We great hosts. The whole place is grassy and they're putting all the big rigs in the pull-throughs with an empty one between us so we have some privacy. Tomorrow we leave for Jasper National Park in Alberta and then on to Banff.

Wildlife along the way:
white-tailed deer
black bear

Birds along the way:
Raven
Crows
Magpie
Robin
Chickadee (haven't been able to verify species as they seem to enjoy sitting on the top of the tallest tree in the park)
A raptor of some sort (hard to tell exactly what it was while traveling 100 km/h)
A small (3) flock of swans
Stellar's Jay
and a Blue Jay, eh

More Bison

Land walruses just hauled out on the side of the road with not a care in the world.

Sign Post Forest, Watson Lake, British Columbia

Wildlife Viewing

We went from Watson Lake to Ft. Nelson yesterday. Along the way we saw plenty of wildlife. The first thing we saw were horses along the road. They weren't wild, but I count them because they were on the side of the road. Then we saw a herd of bison hauled out along the road...

We also saw white tail deer; caribou (including a family unit: bull, cow, yearling); an elk (just 1, but I finally saw an elk!!); and a groundhog.

In the birding world, the first birds we saw were ravens. There are a lot of ravens around here. I also saw a bald eagle. I wasn't really expecting to see one here as the terrain is mostly fields. I think of them mostly along the coast, although this one was on a lake. I also got a Swainson's hawk (lifer!!). There were many of them flying over the fields looking for prey. Many juncos on the sides of the road. And a Blue Grouse (another lifer!!!) They were just hanging around the sides of the road too. The highway has very wide sides, making it easy for animals and birds to be there without getting into traffic. It makes the long, boring drive a little more interesting because you are always looking for things.

Last night (Tuesday), we stayed in Fort Nelson. Only saw a couple of white tail deer. But we did see two large flocks of geese flying overhead. And a peregrine falcon hunting in a pasture. This area is really big horse country. And cattle country. So there are plenty of pastures for birds of prey.

We finally made it to Dawson Creek, BC. We're planning on staying here 2 nights. We have to put everything back in place and get reorganized. My jeep looks like it went through a war zone. The windshield has lots of dings and 2 cracks. And the amber light covers are cracked. And the front is so chipped up it will need work. I feel sorry for it. We don't have a cover for it, but we will now. It looks like every other Alaskan vehicle, but it's only a year old and I was hoping to save it from this for at least another year. Oh well. It needs a good washing now. It's covered in rocks. Laundry needs to be done too. And vacuuming and cleaning and all that stuff. Yeah.

I'll try to write again tomorrow and let you all know what our plans are after we leave Dawson Creek. I think we're heading toward Prince George.

Back in Canada

We spent the night in Watson Lake, YT. There really isn't much here. As a matter of fact, there are only 2 RVs in the park right now. Last night there were 5. I think most people are farther south by now. Many of the parks are closing early this year due to a lack of visitors. We haven't seen the sign forest yet. We're going to walk over there now. Watson Lake does have a very nice park next to Wye Lake. There are a couple of scaup floating in the middle, and a few others on the other side that I really couldn't make out. Many, many ravens. And, just like in Alaska, only one raven per light pole, please. 2 are allowed, but only if they are a "couple."

On the drive from Skagway to here, we actually saw a coyote on the side of the road. It was really cool to see one. I don't think I've ever seen one in the wild like that. I'm still looking for elk.

It's raining here now. Just a light drizzle. Since the road conditions have improved remarkably since we left Whitehorse, it won't really matter. We are going to try to make it to Ft. Nelson tonight. Depending on the amount of stopping and looking, we may not get that far.

I'm having computer issues, so I'm having to use Bill's computer (my wireless button doesn't want to work. I think it got disconnected somehow, maybe when Bill tried to ram my computer into the dresser.). I'm not sure how I'm going to be able to post my pictures, but I'll try. Also, wifi and internet is hard to come by here in the "wilderness" so I'm not sure how often we are going to be able to post.

On the road again!

The weather has not been cooperating with us much on this trip. It starts raining, and then stops. It’s windy, then not. So pictures have not been very easy to come by. But I’ll try to fill you in on what has happened in the last couple of days:

September 11, 12 – Haines, AK:
I’ve already written about bear viewing and eagle watching. The drive from Haines to Whitehorse was much better than the trip down. It wasn’t raining and it wasn’t as cold. And because it wasn’t raining, we were actually able to see what we drove through on the way down. The scenery was fantastic. The most spectacular fall colors I’ve seen in a long time. From Haines to the Chilkat Pass Summit is mostly rain forest. Tall, green evergreens with moss hanging from them. From there, the colors turned mostly gold and brown. With white on the top. (Termination dust!) As we went further toward Whitehorse, the colors were reds, oranges, golds, and yellows. Mostly yellow. It was really beautiful.

September 12-13 – Whitehorse, YT (Yukon Territory): We arrived here in the early afternoon and parked the RV in the Wal-Mart parking lot. Unlike the Wal-Mart in Anchorage, this one actually welcomed RVers. But the weather in Whitehorse was great. It was warm (around 60, maybe a little more), sunny, and breezy. A PERFECT fall day. Whitehorse is not very big, around 24,000 people. (The whole territory only has about 35,000.) It’s located along the Yukon River (yes, THAT Yukon River). The Main St. of town is very much a tourist destination. And out where we were staying was most definitely the shopping district. When we were here 17 years ago, we stayed at a campground on the Alaska Highway. We passed it when we got here. It must have been closed a long time ago. Too bad. It was pretty nice. Back to what I was saying…Whitehorse is the capital of the territory, so it has a lot of government buildings and all, but not much else. The one really cool thing it has is a walking path along the river. It starts at a very well maintained park and goes along the river to the fish ladders. (Didn’t get that far.) And of course, we hit the Yukon Brewing Co. Whitehorse is not really someplace you GO to. It’s more of some place you stop at while you’re traveling. But overall, not a bad little town.

September 13-15 – Skagway, AK: Got here earlier today, right around lunch time. It’s only about 100 miles from Whitehorse, so it wasn’t a bad trip, if you consider not being able to see a THING most of the way, not bad. Foggy, foggy, foggy. Somewhere out there was a landscape that looked like a “moonscape” and when you did get glimpses of it through the fog, it was actually eerie. The last 12 miles or so into Skagway is a downhill that clings to the side of one mountain while the White Pass & Yukon Route railroad clings to the other. Never actually saw the summit of the White Pass. We’re hoping when we leave on Monday it will be clearer and visible. Did some shopping today in the shops downtown. Many of them are having end of season sales. Tomorrow I want to check out more of the history of Skagway, and Bill wants to check out the Skagway Brewing Co. (I can’t wait until I get to my first winery; I’m getting tired of beer all the time!)There is a cruise ship in town today, and there is supposed to be one tomorrow. The girl in one of the shops said Tuesday and Wednesday there should be 5 of them! I don’t know where they put them, there are only 3 docks.

Sunday: Today we went to the old town of Dyea. It used to be a big bustling town of almost 10,000 people heading into the Yukon to find gold. Today it has the ruins of a warehouse and a row boat. There is nothing about the place to even make you think there were people once living here! It’s all covered over with spruce trees. Amazing. From there we saw an old cemetery where a lot of “stampeders” were buried. They were caught in an avalanche on Palm Sunday April 3, 1989. (Hmmm…Palm Sunday, avalanche; Good Friday, earthquake. Easter is not really a good time for Alaska.) About 70 people were killed. And we saw the start of the Chilkoot Trail. Not sure if it is the actual one the miner’s took, but it is the one you can hike over the Pass on.

So, that’s where we stand. Just want to let you know that while we are in Canada, we do not have cell phone service. But we can be reached via email as we do have some access to wifi while we travel. After Skagway, our next stop is Watson Lake back in the Yukon Territory. From there, who knows? :o)

Haines, AK

We’ve been in Haines, AK (yes, we’re back in the USA) for 2 days. Yesterday it rained and was extremely windy. Today was much better, but seemed colder. We stayed on an extra day because we really wanted to see everything we could before we left state. Yesterday there was a cruise ship in, so all the gift shops and stores were open most of the day. Luckily we got to a few of them, because today many of them are closed. As a matter of fact, the RV park we are in closes in 4 days and they have pretty much everything ready to shut down.

Today we drove around Fort William H Seward. It is mostly privately owned now, but the integrity of the place is still intact. The fort was put in place to help calm tensions between the US and Canada during the gold rush era. "In WWI and WWII, the Fort was a trianing base for Alaska recruits. During the Second World War it was a rest and recreation center for troops who served int eh North Pacific Theater. At the end of the War, it was declared suplus property."

Then we went out to look for bears. Brown bears. They are feeding by the Chilkat River and are the main attraction anyone here.

Haines is also known for its eagles. Just outside of town is the Alaska Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve and every year they have a festival in November when the eagles show up for the winter. But since we already have thousands upon thousands of pictures of eagles, I won’t put one here.

There is a lot of Tlingit history in Haines. Many of the buildings have totem poles and other carvings. We didn’t really go into the Native history too much since we both know a lot already. And my schooling has given be a greater understanding of the ways and culture of the people of the area.

Many birds on this part of the trip. So far I have logged an eagle, rave, northwestern crow (many, many crows), magpie, stellar’s jay, chickadee, mew gull, glaucous-winged gull, bonaparte’s gull, common merganser, common goldeneye. The mammals seen so far are squirrels and bears. And that’s all.

Tomorrow we leave for Whitehorse in Yukon Territory. We are going to try to spend a day or 2 there. It’s a big place and they have a brewery too. Then back into the US and Alaska. We are going to try to spend a day or 2 in Skagway. Mainly we want to learn more about the gold rush days.

I don't think I've mentioned it, but Bill have been blogging too. His site is called "The Wandering GRYWHL" and can be found at http://thewanderinggrywhl.blogspot.com. (He has better pictures.)

We don't seem to have any cell service in Canada, or at least we haven't been close enough to civilization to have cell service. We try to use any wifi signals we can get, so if I can't get a post every day, I'll do one as soon as I can.

Until we meet again...

Pictures along the Haines Highway

Oh, Canada!

What a trip! The Alaska Highway has to be the worst road in the world! Unbelievable. It took us forever to get here. We are now in Haines Junction in the Yukon Territory of Canada. Between the road construction and the frost heaves, it made the whole trip slow going. It is a very rough road. Not one I would want to drive a huge RV regularly. I have a few new dings on the jeep windshield, but other than the mud and dirt, it seems to have survived rather well.

I did some birding in Tok while we were there. Mostly at the campground, but a few other birds along the way. I of course, made a list.

Dark-eyed junco (many, many of them)
Black-capped Chickadee
Chestnut-backed Chickadee
Fox sparrow
Gray Jay
Raven
American Robin
3-toed Woodpecker
Ruby Crowned Kinglet
Merlin
White-crowned sparrow
many swans along the way
a couple of different hawks that could not be positively identified
Osprey

I've noticed as I read the past couple of posts I made that my writing has taken on a very clipped manor. Too many text messages I guess. I will try to do better in the future. The problem is that my mind is working a mile a minute, but my fingers only work 3/4 mile a minute.

Oh, and I have been corrected as to the nature of the hunters on the Glenn Highway and Tok Cutoff. They are most likely hunting moose, not caribou.

And speaking of large wild animals, we saw a cow moose and her twins. And then we saw a family of lynx. An adult and her kittens? Kits? Babies. You get the idea. I think there were 4 of them. They were cute.

Meika has now discovered squirrels. And, in true form to her nature, she's determined to find every one of them. She can be so stubborn. Then she started stalking birds. And since we are in the mist of fall migration, she's becoming annoying. One of these days she's going to get her squirrel and then she won't have anything to do on this trip.

The plan for tomorrow is to head back into the US and Alaska. We are going to head to Haines for the night. Apparently they have a brewing company. Lord help us we should miss one. Then we are planning to come back to Canada and head for Skagway. This, of course, depends on what kind of grief we get from the US Customs and then from the Canadian Customs on the way back. We truly didn't have any problems getting through customs today. We only answered the questions they asked and didn't offer any other information. They didn't look through the RV or anything. We have heard from other people of the Customs people going through the RV on their way back from Skagway. If we have any trouble going to Haines, we won't be going to Skagway. I can't handle it.

I have pictures, but we are on a limited wifi, so when I get to one that is fast and strong, I'll put pictures on the blog. Talk to you all soon.

More Pictures

This is the nasty construction.

Matanuska Glacier

Another picture from along the way.

Seward and Beyond

We spent 2 days in Kenai checking out all the microbreweries. From there we went to Seward for the night. Stopped at the Apollo for pizza and checked the mail. Saw 2 Great Blue Herons in the trees above the lagoon. One was definitely an adult, and I think the other was a juvenile. Have never seen a heron in a tree. Then, in the same trees were 2 very juvenile bald eagles. As in this year's young. They were very dark in color. At first I thought one was a hawk, but as soon as I got a look at the profile, it was surely an eagle.

Only spent the one night and then heading back toward Anchorage. Had a few last loose ends to tie up before heading out. Tried to spend the night at the Eagle River Campground, but it was full. We ended up in the Eagle River Fred Meyer parking lot. Took Ben and Michelle to Pizza Man for dinner. Finally met their dog Roxie. She's a bundle of fun. I think Eugene would like her. She has energy like him. Meika would be OK with her for a while, then go lay down somewhere.

We had to take the dogs to the vet for their wellness certificates so they can go through Canada. Eugene is a svelt 98lbs, while Meika is a whopping 85! Guess who needs to loose weight? But she doesn't seem to care. She still has a lot of energy, so that's a good sign.

Yesterday we started our trip. We landed about 6pm in Tok. Driving the Glenn Highway and the Tok Cutoff was horrible. The whole thing, especially once you get farther north, is nothing but frost heaves. Not a good thing for a large RV. Now I know why many of the people who come here in RVs leave via Fairbanks. The only thing we saw were trucks with ATVs attached. It's hunting season, you know. Caribou. Maybe moose. Mostly caribou.

And if anyone is planning on driving up to Sheep Mountain Lodge or Matanuska Glacier or points beyond, be aware that there is road construction around MP92 through MP97. It is 1 lane with a pilot car. It looks like they are putting a straighter road in. It will be nice when it is done.

These are 2 pictures taken along the way. I didn't write down where I took them, but they are on the road to Tok.

In Kenai

The place looks different when it's not full of dipnetters and fish carcasses

I didn't think it was possible that there would be more gulls than when the fish are running, but I was wrong. There are.

Heading to Seward today. It's been raining on and off the 2 days we've been here. We had to hit the 3 micro breweries while we were here. Bill collects growlers. Not that we have anywhere to put them all. Hopefully it won't be raining in Seward. Tomorrow we go back to Anchorage. We should be able to leave Sunday, a day earlier than we thought. The journey begins....

Meika for President!

Go Meika!

Eugene's bored with the whole thing aready.

Fun things to do at the fair

Other than eat, that is.

You can watch the stunt dogs.

Or you can watch the backhoe rodeo. This guy is trying to roll raw eggs into the bucket without breaking one. He broke one.

And just what would the fair be without the piglets? These 11 little cuties were born Saturday morning.

Isn't he just the cutest?

We are now in the parking lot of the Fred Meyer's on Dimond Blvd. We'll be moving on in the morning. The dogs need to go to the vet for their wellness certificates to travel through Canada. And tomorrow (Tuesday), is Bill's official last day of work. We'll be staying in the ASD parking lot tomorrow night so he can attend a meeting on Wednesday morning. Then off to the Kenai Peninsula.

Oh, and lest I forget: Happy Birthday Mom!!!!!