McCarthy and Kennicott

We wake up at 5:45. In an hour Bob is here to take us to the footbridge in McCarthy.  We decided to not shake the Pleasure Way to pieces on the bad road.  Better someone else's jeep.

William and Bob looking at the former RR trestle that the McCarthy road goes over. The whole road is a RR grade. The rails were just pulled off and dirt put over the ties.

Me at the footbridge after a 3 hour ride. The facilities are in the background.

It is a beautiful day for this trip.

We are met on the other side of the footbridge by Jarrod and driven to Kennicott. In Kennicot Jarrod walks us around a bit then leaves us to tour the town while he finds someone to take us on the promised mine tour. We see a RR turn around, some old houses and some being fixed up and some old vehicles.  Nothing is really opening until the weekend. Other than a special group of Aussies, we are the first regular tourists.

The park is renovating some of the buildings.

We will tour the huge 14 story mine building in back of me.

The park rebuilt this bridge.

The bridge washed out in 2006.

We are taken on up to the mine and given a bit of time to explore on our own prior to the tour.  Even the Park office won't open until Friday.

There is still a lot of water here.

We head up a steep trail next to the side of the mine building. Here we are at the top.  The hard hats and the skills of our guide Lucas will keep us safe as we enter this old building.

It's a long way down.

We climb down through the mine building on many steep flights of stairs while Lucas tells us all about the concentration procedures. 
Thankfully the Golden Bar in McCarthy is open so we can have dinner at 5:30 prior to our 3 hour trip back with Bob.

William on the footbridge, ready to ride back to our little home.

Copper Center

From the Gakona Alaska RV Park we head to Glenallen to stock up on food and gas. The Wrangell-Saint Elias Visitor Center is just down the road.  We spend hours here as there is the main visitor center, an exhibit hall, theater and Cultural Center.

Out in front of the cultural center there was a fish trap that the local native people use for catching their allotment of salmon from the Copper River.

We also walked briskly along the nature trail through the boreal forest which was complete with authentic swarms of mosquitoes. The mosquito population is light as it is early in the season.

Looking into the National Park

William in the boreal forest on the trail

One leg of the trail was on part of the old Fairbanks to Valdez trail.  We could have just walked to Valdez. The boreal forest often looks much worse on the roadside. The trees are often growing in shallow soil on permafrost. The freeze and thaw causes them to grow poorly and often lean drunkenly.  The path here is quite dry. In the permafrost areas it would be boggy.

A tragedy in Copper Center

Last Saturday at about 2AM the Copper Center Roadhouse caught fire and burnt.  You could still smell it.  This was one of the original roadhouses along the Richardson Highway and was still in operation as a lodge and restaurant.  Just as things in the area were gearing up for Memorial Day weekend and the start of fishing season June first.  There are salmon in the river now.

A lot of the venues stay closed until the start of fishing season. So we are here at a place called Kenny Lake RV and Mercantile.  It is open because it is a combination store and gas station.  We have signed up for a drive and tour into the old Kennicott mine along the McCarthy Road.  The road is gravel in poor condition and we do not wish to rattle the old Pleasure Way to death.

The Tok Cutoff

May 21

Instead of taking the road on from Tok to Fairbanks, where there is now 24 hours of light, we head off into the wilderness. The road is called the Tok Cutoff to Valdez.

The morning started poorly with the RV park hot water not working in the showers and my laptop being balky. But eventually the water heater came on and the laptop issues resolved.

The road is fairly bad with miles under construction. Alaska has a ready made road sign that indicates when you are going from paved to gravel. The only pieces of road equipment we saw were a lone road grader smoothing some gravel and a water truck.

More lovely boreal forest. The trees have a malevolent look. They remind me of the trees when Snow White is first lost in the woods.

But we see some magnificent mountains, part of the Wrangell Saint Elias NP. Mt Drum has its head in the clouds, but Mt Sanford is exposed. William stopped on the bridge over the Chistochina River. Put on his hazard lights and took pictures. No one came by. Not a lot of traffic here.

We stopped at the Hart D Ranch, Slana, AK to visit an art gallery. One woman who looks close to our age is now running an RV Park, lodge rooms, nearby park campground and the town post office by herself now. Her mom, who used to run the post office, and her husband are dead now so she is hanging on by herself. Though she has a for sale sign on the front. We bought a tapestry bag that I can make into a pillow cover. The pillows she had in the same design came already stuffed and we have room for only small souvenirs. Her bronze statuary is lovely, but too pricey for us. She took us into her rooms to run the Visa card. She has a huge beautiful macaw named Yukon in the living room. He said bye, bye to us when we left.

We made a blistering 121 miles today and are spending the night at the Gakona Alaska RV Park by the Copper River.

 The river looks very silty from the winter run-off. But I guess the fish don't mind as there apparently are a lot. Fishing season won't start until June 1, but the directions for fishermen say that because of bears you must clean your fish at the river and throw the guts in the river. It will get down to freezing tonight. That is fine with us. The breeze and the cold keep the mosquitoes at bay.

From Haines Junction to Tok

May 19

At Haines Junction we have connected with the Alaska Highway and continue north. We must be part of the early run of tourists because we continue to find that venues are either just open or not open yet.

The Kluane NP Visitor Center in Haines Junction had only been open a couple days. Further along we stop at the Sheep Mountain Visitor Center and it also had only been open 2 days. The rangers said they counted 60 Dall Sheep on the mountain this morning. The tiny white spots on the mountain are sheep. I tried taking some shots as close as I could get my camera to focus and on the big lap top screen you can tell they are white animals.

William at Sheep Mountain. A few sheep are the white specks.

Closeup of the sheep

cropped picture of sheep

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It is cold and windy here. The wind blows off of the glacier that is just around the bend in this flat glaciated valley at the bottom of Kluane Lake. Sometimes the wind blows up the glacial dust, loess, enveloping the whole place in a dust storm.

Last night we landed in Burwash Landing on Kluane Lake, Yukon, Canada. After looking at the menu at the Lodge restaurant we decide to try breakfast in the morning.

We hook up right next to the lake. I think the lake comes closer when the snow finishes melting.

Frozen Kluane Lake

After dinner we try the walking tour around Burwash Landing.

 Picture  of me and the Josephine 

William out on an old pier

Much of this town seems to now be First Nation. 

The Catholic Church probably has mass about as often as the church in Sawyers Bar, once a month.

 The Our Lady of Kluane shrine.

The museum was open, just.

 A picture of me with a stuffed Dall Sheep.

We also climb a bank to find the first spring flowers, crocus, have sprung open here.

 Crocus

We walked on a sort of path along the top of the bank. This was fine until the coming down part. As usual my foot slipped. Luckily I did not land in the mud.

May 20
We started out the morning with a hearty breakfast. William had the Burwash Landing Special. Two large pancakes, two eggs and two pieces of bacon. I had an egg sandwich. One egg, one piece of bacon in two pieces of toast.

The Alaska Highway is rough in spots here in the Yukon. Little red flags mark the spots they are thinking about repairing. Bump signs mark the spots they have given up on. A bit of the road was washboard gravel.

We stop at most everyplace with interpretive sign boards.

 This was Pick Handle Lake about 63 miles from Burwash Landing.

The road gets much better after we leave Canada and get back into Alaska.

We are spending the night at the Sourdough Campground in Tok, Alaska. Before we came over here we stopped at a couple of shops in town. One was the Burnt Paw which advertized itself as having sled dog outfitting gear and husky puppies. No puppies. The owner had just sold the last one. She said it was getting hard to keep puppies around as prices were high for feed and the breeders did not breed as many. I asked what she was selling the pups for and she said $300. I suggested she ought to double the price. Make it really hurt for those tourists who would buy those cold weather pups and take them to Florida.

The Sourdough Campground does not have all their popular entertainments up and running yet. No pancake throw. No buffet pancake breakfast with entertainment. But the mosquitoes are up and running. William says they are twice the size of those at home. Personally I try to avoid mosquitoes everywhere. The wifi is strong only right next to the office. So I will try to upload this in the AM if the Mosquitoes have settled down.

Haines Junction

I am here in the Laundry room at Kluane RV Kampground in Haines Junction, Yukon, Canada. The wifi only reaches this far.  Haines Junction has 800 permanent residents, but the only grocery store went OOB last year. The residents have to drive to Whitehorse, 200 miles round trip, to get groceries.  The RV park stocks nothing but chips and soda.  The manager said he would put in a full mini mart but the owner is too old and won't let him.

 Most of the trip from Haines was in a flat valley, but we went over two summits right out of Haines in near whiteout conditions again, similar to going over White Pass. At least the road was not frozen. The icy rain/snow was hitting a road that had warmed up in the sun and the steam from the road and the lowering clouds and precipitation made it almost impossible to see.  William slowed down.

Between the time change and the lack of pullouts we ate lunch about 4PM Canadian time.  We pulled over at a large road maintenance garage with a school bus next to it that appeared to have hit a moose.  The moose accident must have been a while ago as we saw no animals.

 Huge high mountains in front of the tiny Pleasure Way.

Another view of the mountains.

My cell phone is off line as I have had to turn off all data functions in Canada with the high Roaming charges.  We will be in Canada for a few days before we swing back into Alaska.

The charming town of Haines

We began our walkabout town this sunny day by heading toward the cruise ship dock. Once a week a cruise ship may come here and this is the Welcome sign the tourists see. The merchants of the town also line the walk with flowers.

We had walked around most of Fort Seward and investigated the Alaska Indian Arts center. This shows the former officers quarters of Ft Seward from the doorway of the Hotel Halsingland. They had a very ambitious dinner menu posted for their dining room. One entree item was rabbit sausage with spaetzle, brussels sprouts and a mustard jus.

Another view of the officers quarters and parade grounds.

Lunch was back over in Haines proper at the Bamboo Room.  I had a very nice dish, halibut taco salad, no shell.  William had their famous halibut fish and chips.  We shared the taco salad and brought 1/2 the fish and chips home.  Beer is right on a sunny day.

 

 

 

 

We spent most of the afternoon enjoying the displays at the Sheldon Museum.  I am especially fond of the Tlingit weaving and designs.

The hammer museum is closed until next week.  William was disappointed.

No whitewater on the bay. The high mountains all around glitter with snow.  Our RV looks out on this view.

From Skagway to Haines

On our last day in Skagway we went to the Days of 98 show.  Before the show William posed on stage.

He really looked like he belonged back in 1898.  We had fun and highly recommend the show if you are ever in Skagway.
Too soon we drive onto the ferry for a very smooth glide across the water to Haines.  Goodbye to the cold wind and cruise ships of Skagway.

We settle down in a very small RV park next to the bay. Town is just around the corner.  Already we have met a fisherman from New Hampshire and a young man who lives on a boat in the harbor. He came from Fort Bragg.

This morning we set out to walk about town. The totem pole in front of the library has an amusing feature. Totem Carving for Dummies.

I got some craft supplies. This is an artsy town and I feel artistically inspired. We shall see what I do with embroidery thread and stiff canvas.

We spent the rest of the morning at the American Bald Eagle Foundation.  We like to spend time at interpretive educational displays. Did you know there are 5 colors of black bear? Black, brown, blonde, blue-black and white.

 Moose grow pretty big here

 Closer than I would ever get to a brown bear (grizzly)

 That wolf is giving William the eye

 Ravens, a very smart bird

Lynx, such soft looking paws

While we were finishing lunch at Fireweed we planned what we might do with the rest of the afternoon.  We find out that many venues will not open until next week, some not until June.  So we decide to grocery shop and come back to our little home.

 

William's Birthday in Skagway

We turned left at the Visitor Center to go to Centennial Park.  There is always one more thing to see.

 I like this rotary snow plow 

 direction post

 William fits right in.

Lunch was at the Skagway Brewing Company. An excellent experience.

The usual suspects

We walked a couple miles to the Gold Rush Cemetery after lunch.

 The graves of Jeff "Soapy" Smith

and Frank Reid, who died in a shootout in 1898.

We hiked on up to the Lower Reid Falls.

On our way back through town I spotted this interesting house on a narrow lot. Two shotgun houses piled one on top of the other.