Visit to Juneau, AK Aug 15, 2007

Last Sunday we took the ferry from Haines to Juneau, Alaska, where we were met by my cousin Henry. (Henry is the grandson of my Aunt Quack and Uncle Henry.) We left our RV and car in Haines. Juneau is about 50 miles from Haines. Although it is the capital of Alaska, there are no roads to Juneau. One has to get their by airplane or boat! However once you reach Juneau, there is an excellent road system running about twenty miles along the coast and over a bridge to Douglas Island, where my cousin lives.

We saw spectacular scenery on the ride down on the ferry. We were in the Lynn Canal (which seems like a long wide fjord to me, certainly is not a man-made canal) which is the northern part of the Inland Passage. We sailed out of the fjord, in which Haines lies, and sailed down between spectacular mountains, many capped with snow, and with views of various glaciers on the way. We took the “fast ferry” so the ride down took a little over two hours, while the return trip on the regular ferry took four and one-half hours – so you can see this is a very pleasant boat trip and a way to see the spectacular costal scenery of the Inside Passage.

We did a little walking in the forest on Douglas Island, Sunday. The natural growth along the coast is rain forest – not too unlike that seen on the Olympic peninsular in Washington. Juneau usually has over 200 days of rain a year, but we have been very fortunate to have beautiful sunny days on our trip to Juneau, and during most of our stay here in Haines.

The next day after we arrived, we went on a whale-watching trip. We went out on a boat into the bay. We saw several hump backed whales. Mostly we saw their backs, as they lay floating and then a spume of water as they blew (exhaled, I guess). Then we saw their tails as they dove. We were in the midst of a groups of two or three whales, at times within twenty or thirty feet from us. Toward the end of our trip we had a special treat. A baby whale, feeling exuberant, jumped into the air, showing off according to the guide with us. The whale did this three times! It all happened so fast, that Madeline found it impossible to get a picture.

We returned to port. Then Henry took us up to the Mendenhall Glacier. This glacier, which is a National Park, is just a short ways from downtown Juneau. One can easily walk on paved trails to within 150 yards, of the glacier. A large pond full of icebergs is in front of it. Pictures really do not do justice to the view. The glacier front must be fifty to eighty feed high, with a blue cast, but decidedly dirty from all scouring of the mountains. The flow lines in the glacier, as it proceeds down the mountain, are obvious, so one can readily tell that glaciers involve the movement of ice.

The next day we got up early, boarded the “slow” ferry, and had a leisurely ride home. We arrived back at Haines around 1:00 pm. Yesterday afternoon we went to a local museum that is involve with the history of hammers. There are hammers there of every description and designed for every use imaginable, such as hammers used by cobblers, coopers, farriers, blacksmiths, doctors, brewers (to hammer in bungs), carpenters, wood workers, and on and on. It was quite interesting, as are most collections of tools – but a bit overwhelming by the size and complexity of the collection.

Tomorrow we will take the RV and car on the ferry and go to Skagway --- a one-hour trip of about fifteen miles. Skagway and another nearby town, Dyea, were the principle places where the stampedes to Dawson City started during the Klondike Gold Rush. Haines and Valdez, which I have described in earlier blog postings, also had trails to Klondike, but were of far less importance and impact than from Dyea and Skagway.

Haines, Alaska, Aug 11, 2007

Since I last posted on our blog, we have driven from Valdez to Haines, Alaska. Haines like Valdez is on the coast, but there is not a direct road from Valdez. We had to return to Tok, and then follow the Alaska Highway south into the Yukon Territory, Canada, then turn back southwest again into Alaska. It was not a particularly long trip --- about 450 miles – but we took our time --- five days. After we got to Tok, we traveled over a part of the Alaska Highway that was new to us, so we saw lots of new scenery, characterized by long ranges of mountains, and deep valleys, with large and small lakes. The road was characterized by numerous frost heaves and pot holes, so much of the way we were driving at thirty five miles per hour. We camped in Canadian Provencal Parks three nights. These parks are beautiful, usually near a lake or a creek, and in one case a waterfall, with large and level campsites, but no facilities to speak of --- that is no water, dump stations or electricity, so we were doing good old fashioned camping.

We are really enjoying Haines, Alaska. Haines is a small town at the head of a narrow bay or fjord. Our RV is in a park facing the waterfront. Our view out the front window is the bay is surrounded by high snow capped mountains. The town has been important for fishing and canning and processing salmon. It was also the head of a minor trail to the Klondike during the gold rush, but was not nearly as important as Skagway (which we will visit later this week). Although fishing is still important, the canneries are gone, and the fish are sold to company ships that take them elsewhere for processing. However out in the bay we see many little boats bobbing in the wave with their gill nets out for salmon.

We met some Escapee friend we had traveled with earlier on our trip, and with them we went to a nearby placer gold mine, about twenty miles from town, up in the mountains. The mine is run by an 87-year old gentleman, who was formerly in the lumbering business. He caters to tourists, although it is obvious he is serious about his mining. He is a raconteur, and knows a lot of the local history, so listen to him describe his mine and his early experiences in the lumber business, was as interesting as the gold panning. (Madeline got a few gold flakes, but not enough for us to forego social security checks.)

I visited a salmon canning museum. A local man here became interested in salmon canning, and went about collecting old canning equipment. The equipment probably would have been current in the 1920’s to 1940’s. Most interesting was how the old cans were made. American Can sold a tin-can cylinder which was compressed (folded) into a rectangle. A machine expanded this back into a cylinder. Then another machine crimped a can bottom on. Subsequent machines butchered the fish and placed it into the can and then an additional lid was sealed on.

We have seen bears and eagles around here. At one park, salmon are swimming upstream to spawn. There is a large grizzly bear there just about all the time, either fishing or eating the remains of cleaned fish, left by fishermen. Nearby in the trees we see an occasional eagle, I suppose also fishing. At another park, about 15 miles away, we saw a black bear, harvesting berries. I believe Madeline now has filled her quota of bear pictures.

My cousin, Henry Hopkins lives in Juneau, Alaska – a city about twenty miles from here which can only be reached by boat. Although there are roads in Juneau, they only connect to places near Juneau, but not to any main highway. Juneau is the capital of Alaska, and there is a constant movement to move the capital elsewhere – resisted, of course, by people who live in Juneau. Henry and his family visited us last evening, on route back home from a visit to Fairbanks. Tomorrow we will go down to visit them, and the take a whale-watching trip on Monday. Should be fun.

7/31/207, Valdex, Alaska

Hello from Valdez, Alaska. We have had some problems posting pictures on the blog and also sending pictures via Email, so you will not be getting an illustrated travelogue.

We had a pleasant trip to Valdez from Tok. Although it was only 250 miles, sections of the road were very rough, with lots of frost heaves. Also there were stops to admire to admire the spectacular scenery --- lots of mountains streams and quite a few moose wading in the streams. To get to Valdez, it was necessary to cross a costal mountain range, which while not very high (about 5,000 feet), crosses alpine tundra, and very close to a big glacier. From the pass on top of the mountain we descended into a canyon, characterized with rain-forest type foliage and many very beautiful waterfalls.

The first few days we were here were sunny days with a daily shower in the evening or late afternoon. In the morning, the fog would gradually rise over the surrounding mountains, and we would be treated to views of glaciers (nine of them surrounding us) and several waterfalls tumbling down the sides of the mountains, many of them probably fed by high glaciers.

Valdez is an interesting town. The harbor is noted for being one of the most northern harbors that do not freeze. The town was started during the days of the Klondike Gold Rush, the last years of the nineteenth century. An “All American Route" to the Klondike up over the Valdez Glacier (which sits astride a mountain) was proposed as an easy way to transport supplies need to start mining, by pulling them on sleds up and over the mountain. The route was ill-fated. The trip was extremely difficult; would-be miners fell in crevasses, and suffered from the extreme cold. The trip down from the summit on the other side was nearly as difficult as the trip up. Rather than take several days to cross the glacier, it took several weeks. The town started as a point of departure, and later as a refuge for those who did not succeed.

In the 1960’s there was disastrous earthquake in Alaska, and it hit Valdez particularly hard. There were many deaths, and many buildings destroyed. When it came time to rebuild, study showed the “old town” was built on unstable soil, and it was decided to move the whole town (what house that could be moved and rebuilding the rest) to the present town site about four miles away. So mow the present town of Valdez (population of about 1400) is fairly new and modern.

The Alaska pipeline ends near here, across the bay. Of course the harbor is the site of the infamous oil spill from the Exxon Valdez tanker. Although the memory of this mishap is burned into the memory of the residents here, the actual site of the spill is perhaps fifteen miles away beyond the mouth of the harbor. Although the oil spill devastated a large part of the coast of Prince William Sound, much of the sound is still pristine and in good shape.

This is the height of salmon fishing season now. People line up on the shore of the bay and cast a red spoon out into the water. One can see the salmon out in the water, jumping about. Apparently the salmon are schooling in preparation for a run up the creeks to spawn. A daily fishing license costs twenty dollars, and that allows you to keep ten fish. The fish are about a foot long. People in the know say they only keep the female fish, as the flesh of the male fish is a little soft. The fishing seems to take place an hour before to an hour after high tide.

Every little steam, river and creek is full of salmon going upstream to spawn. These fish are turning red, and getting a long under slung jaw. The fish are pretty beaten up, with gashes in the skin. In one place there is a creek leading up to a power plant. A large screen has been placed over the stream to keep the fish from going up and interfering with the plant. The fish are so thick below the screen, one could really walk across them, if they wee not so slippery. Around the edges of the stream, the fish pile on top of each other, attempting to get up the stream. Of course, in a relatively short time all these fish will die. In most streams, I gather, they make it to some point, spawn, guard the eggs a few days, and then die.

We have seen other wild life here. At certain times of day, there are eagles, sitting in trees; I suppose getting ready to fish, when everyone is gone. One morning we saw a bear, out fishing. Madeline, actually saw the beat catch a fish!

We took a boat trip one day, out to see the glaciers and wildlife. The glaciers were a sight to see. The ice was all a light blue. One glacier was sending out a significant amount of icebergs that extended out several miles into the sea.

Tomorrow, we return to Tok. Then we will work our way down to Haines, Alaska, where we will meet some friends, and later visit my cousin Henry, who lives in Juneau

July 26, 2007, Chicken and Eagle

Hello everybody, since our last posting we have gone into Dawson (also known as Dawson City) to see the sights. We visited the town’s historical museum, much of which dealt, as you might guess, with the town’s early gold rush days. There was also a small railroad museum with two locomotives. In the early 1900’s a group of entrepreneurs incorporated a short line, narrow gauge, railroad, developed to serve the miners. All the railroad equipment and locomotives had to be shipped to Dawson from Whitehorse by steam boat, in many cases, disassembled. The railroad was mismanaged from the beginning, but eventually went broke, because the mines mostly became consolidated into several dredging companies, requiring less labor, and a decreasing population.

We visited Jack London’s cabin. Jack London was a relatively unsuccessful miner, whose cabin was originally 40 or 50 miles from Dawson. As a nutritionist I was interested to learn he nearly died from scurvy the final year he spent in the Yukon Territory, losing all his teeth. However he capitalized on his experiences in the Yukon Territory with his many best-selling books, such as “The Call of the Wild”, and short stories, such as “To Build a Fire”. I remember reading his books when I was in my early teens, but I suppose his writing is less popular now, and dated to some extent.

We departed from Dawson, last week, taking a ferry across the Yukon (no bridge) and then over the “Top of the World” Highway. This road is part paved, partly gravel, and partly oiled but in poor repair. We did not find the road as bad as we expected. The stretches through Yukon Territory war largely over alpine tundra, above the tree line. There were spectacular views of mountains on the left and on the right. After crossing the border into Alaska, the road turns to gravel. It is mostly, but not always two lanes wide, the shoulders are very soft due to permafrost, and one needed to know exactly where one’s tires were when meeting an approaching RV or truck, to avoid sinking into the soft shoulder and getting stuck. We spent a fairly leisurely day traveling, and stopped to boondock in a very pleasant BLM campground.

The next day we took our car, and went on a side trip to the small town of Eagle, about sixty miles north, on the Yukon River. As we went on our trip we ascended to a long stretch of road in an area covered with dense brush and aspen trees. We ran into many groups of caribou --- groups consisting of two to perhaps ten animals. There were males, females, and what appeared to be both new born and year-old calves. We later learned that this was an unusual event, seeing a herd this time of year; we were probably seeing a herd, migrating because of forest fires in some area where they usually summer.

The trip to Eagle was over the Forty Mile River area, where much of the gold was discovered prior to the rich strikes in the Klondike. The small towns are gone now, and many of the early roads seemed to have disappeared, so the forest in the valleys is really wilderness now.

Eagle is a pretty little town. At one time it was the center of activity in this part of Alaska. There was an army detachment in a fort, and a custom house, to handle trade between Dawson and Eagle. Eagle was named from eagles that used to soar above the cliffs on the Yukon River. The Yukon is quite wide here, and I will post a photo of the river and the cliffs. We visited the local museum, and got a guided tour through the old courthouse, that contained many artifacts from early days. There is a BLM ranger station supervising the fort of which there are several buildings remaining and area historical site, and helping travelers to the Yukon-Charley River Wilderness. There is also an Indian village nearby, but we did not visit. Madeline asked what people did for shopping for food and clothing. The answer was, they go to Fairbanks twice a year (over two hundred miles away), and depend on gardens for produce in the summer.

We returned to our campsite, and the next day we proceeded down the road, passing by the small town of Chicken. Chicken is an old gold mining town, said to be named “Chicken”, because the original settlers wanted to call it “Ptarmigan”, after the bird, common to the area, but none could spell the word. There is a development called “Beautiful Downtown Chicken” which includes a gift shop, a liquor store, saloon, café, and two outhouses (with the name, on a sign, “chicken poop”. The ceiling of the saloon is lined with hats, with an occasional pair of panties. It is said that the panties can only be put on the ceiling, if they are taken off in front of everyone! That gives you an idea of the level of humor in Chicken ---vulgar, scatological, but funny.

From Chicken, we continued on the road, until we reached the Alaskan Highway, and we drove on a few miles to the town of Tok. We are now in a campground, the Sourdough. There is nightly entertainment – a bluegrass band of the owner and two others, followed, by a pancake tossing contest. Toss a pancake into a bucket, if it goes in, you get a free pancake breakfast. Lots of kidding and lots of fun.

Tomorrow, we go to Valdez (pronounced Valdeez).

Dawson City, continued, July 18, 2007

Landscape from the Dempster Highway, en route to the Artic Circle

We drove from Mayo, YT to Dawson City on Friday the 13th. We had a couple of Friday-the-13th misfortunes.

Driving to Dawson, we crossed several places where the road was being repaired, and there were several miles of gravel, rather than paved road. Although we had made plans on how we were going to protect the windshield of our toad (towed car) when we were going over extended lengths of gravel road, somehow, we forgot all our plans and forged ahead. The result was a car windshield with three or four “stars” and three major cracks. We spent the next day trying to repair it with our windshield repair kits, with only fair success. We hope the windshield will hold until we return to the lower 48.

The second misfortune -- when we arrive in Dawson City and were relaxing, Dan’s front tooth, which is a false “pegged” tooth, fell out. The next day he tried to repair that with superglue. It held for about four hours, until he ate a raw carrot. He now looks like Alfred E. Newman.

These are minor mishaps, and we expected some problems would occur on our trip; but we will have lots to do when we get to a place where we can get mechanical and personal repairs.

After getting patched up as best we could, we took a journey on the Dempster Highway to the Artic Circle. The Dempster Highway is a dirt and gravel road that goes from just south of Dawson to Inuvik, a town in the Mackenzie River Delta in the Northwest Territory, about twenty miles from the Beaufort Sea. The entire trip is about 500 miles one way, but we only went about halfway to the Artic Circle. Because of potential road conditions and the lack of services (no gasoline or service station the first 240 miles on a road renowned for sharp shale causing flat tires, (Flat tires on an RV are a major, major problem), we drove our toad and stayed overnight at a motel ( the first motel after 240 miles).

The trip was a bit of an adventure. After traveling about 50 to 80 miles through spruce forest, we emerged upon tundra, which is similar to the alpine tundra in the Rockies in Colorado; only here it occurs at about 5,000 feet. When we got in the tundra area, we went through Oglive Mountains, and across a continental divide separating drainage to the Atlantic Ocean from drainage to the Artic Ocean. The landscape was mostly alpine or perhaps artic tundra, but in areas around rivers and creeks there were a lot of forest, so we were crossing many different types of landscape. After passing through the mountains, we came to long and high hills, with interspersing valleys. There were several types of flowers, but by far the most common was fireweed, the Yukon Territory’s territorial flower. In some stretches fireweed lines the road in a swath, ten to twenty feet wide --- beautiful. (The territorial bird is the raven, of which there are many in the wilderness.)

We stayed overnight in a hotel, and the next day drove about 25 miles to the Artic Circle. As I should have known, but did not, the Artic Circle represents the most southerly point where the sun does not set on the first day of summer (the solstice). As you go north of the Artic Circle, the number of days which the sun does not set in the summer (or come up in the winter) increases.

The temperature was not particularly cold at the Artic Circle, or where we stayed overnight. Perhaps medium-weight-jacket temperature might be the best way to describe it. It did not seem particularly exotic to be there, but when I examined a map, I discovered there are only two places in North America where you can drive past the Artic Circle--- the Dempster Highway in Yukon Territory which we were on, and the Dalton Highway, which follow the pipeline to Prudhoe Bay in Alaska. Labrador for example lies well south of the Artic Circle. So I guess we really are explorers.

We returned to Dawson, where we are still doing touristy things. Our destination was the Klondike and we are here. I found out the Klondike, which refers to the gold bearing area, actually is a river that flows into the Yukon River in Dawson. In turn the gold-bearing creeks flow into the Klondike. The most famous of these creeks was Bonanza. Our campsite is at about the mouth of Bonanza Creek. Bonanza Creek although not a very impressive creek, is perhaps fifteen feet wide and about six to ten inches deep. One could easily wade across it. Yet about ten miles up this creek was the initial discovery of an immense quantity of placer gold, which led to the Klondike Gold Rush.

We visited the site of this first gold discovery yesterday, but there is little to see there, just some trees on a small creek. Up and down the length of the creek, there were huge piles of tailing and mining spoils. In some places an entire hill had been dug up, and mined for placer gold. Much of the creek and the area surrounding our campground was mined with dredges, so many of the buildings are built on piles of gravel remaining from the dredging.

There are still a number of small active placer mines in the area.

Today we will visit some of the local museums and Jack London and Robert Service’s cabin. Later we will be taking the “Top of the World Highway to Chicken, Alaska. This highway has a reputation of being difficult, especially in wet weather, so we will probably wait for a couple of day without rain, before we go.

In earlier pictures, I included a photo Madeline took of a sunset at our campsite here in Dawson. The picture was taken at around midnight1 I had already gone to bed when she took it.

To the Artic Circle, pictures, posted 7/28/2007

This picture of a sunset was taken at about a half hour after midnight. (I was long gone asleep, Madeline stayed up to photograph.




Mother moose and baby moose leaving from a pond, because too many people around.





This is a beautiful picture of the Dempster Highway, lined with fireweed.






Sunday before last, we took a trip up the Dempster highway to the Artic Circle, via the Dempster Highway out of Dawson city.. Above is a picture of me at the Artic Circle. The background shows the terrain, typical of that area -- tundra abd mountains.

Dawson City, YT July 18, 2007

These are pictures were taken at Dawson City, Yukon Territory. The first picture, which looks something like a river boat is actually a large dredge, that was in service from 1913 to the early 1960's. Mining by dredges, operated by large companies replaced many of the small individual placer miners. The dredge worked by pulling up buckets of pay dirt on a continuous chain of iron buckets on the right hand side of the dredge in the picture, processing the gold-containing gravel by sluices inside the dredge, and discarding the tailing to the left. The dredges operated in the bottom of small creeks, digging a pool of water as it removed the pay dirt, and filling the pool behind it with tailings. Thus, although not readily apparent,the dredge was floating in a continuously self-made pool of water. The pay dirt was typically in a band of gravel, ten to twenty feet deep, below a tremendous level of overburden. Much of the work of mining was removing this overburden, which was usually frozen with permafrost. Systems had to be used to melt the permafrost, before it could be removed.

The top picture was taken on top of a high hill (mountain?) overlooking Dawson City. The view is looking up the Yukon River. I wanted to give you an idea how large the Yukon River actually is.

A Pretty Good Looking Prospector

Good morning, everyone. We have had a little trouble uploading photos, so have been doing it piecemeal.

This prospector panned out two to three flakes of gold, when I took this picture.

Pictures from Mayo, YT; July 13, 2007

Below is a picture of the machine in a placer mine that reduces the volume of gold-containing ore to less than 0.1% of its original volume.

Below is a picture Moont Hildane, which reinds me to some extent of Mount Monadnock.

Mayo, YT; July 12, 2007

For the last two and half days we have been staying at a campground in Mayo, YT and taking day trips to explore. We are in the midst of an area in which there was silver mining area in the first fifty years or so of the twentieth century. The big silver mines were in the little towns of Elsa and Keno City, each of which now have populations of approximately five and twenty. In the silver mining days, silver ore was transported in bags to Mayo, where it was put on steamboats, (not unlike the steamboats that used to ply the Mississippi River) to be transshipped to Whitehorse, eventually ending up in smelters in Seattle. Mayo, once a major river port, now has a population of four or five hundred. About half the citizens belong to First Nation, which is a Canadian term for an Indian tribe. Mayo has a post office, government liquor store and various governmental offices, as well as one restaurant a grocery store, two gas stations and, of all things, a Chinese restaurant.

This area here in many ways is reminiscent of Southern New Hampshire, where I was raised. Many dirt roads in fair repair, lots of lakes (more and bigger than in New Hampshire), lots of gravel and gravel pits. The foliage is mostly aspen and black spruce, not too unlike New Hampshire grey birches and hemlocks. The thing that is most striking to me is that the whole area seems awfully lonesome. You can travel down a road, and you will probably see another car about once every half hour to an hour. When traveling, one rarely sees another house. There are side roads, but not very many of them and you get the feeling that you are about a mile from complete wilderness. The local mountain is Mount Haldane Mountain, which reminds me of our Mount Monadnock. A picture of Mount Haldane is above.

One thing that is different is that the rivers are large, and long. May of the rivers are navigable, and steamboats wee a major form of transportation in the early 1900’s, with many landings, to take on wood. The Yukon is a major river going from Whitehorse, up to Dawson city, and then down through Alaska. On the road to Dawson from Whitehorse, there are many overviews and the Yukon our Mississippi or Missouri River for size and width, and is often in the middle of a very beautiful valley, surrounded by mountains.

Silver mining is pretty much defunct now. There is a little gold mining – more about that later. We are staying at an RV park associated with a motel, neither the RV park or the motel seem very busy. However once or twice a day a helicopter lands in front of us and two or three people get on or off. We discovered that there is exploratory drilling going on out about a 45 minute helicopter trip from here. We are seeing some of the drilling worker leaving or returning from a 12-hour shift. They say the drilling company interested in any minerals they find, and if they find a productive spot, I suppose it will be mined.

What have we been doing? The first day we toured Mayo. This mostly involved going to the visitors Center and learning the history of the area. Yesterday we drove to the two Silver mining towns, Elsa and Keno City. Elsa is closed to the public and people there are protecting the area hoping, I suppose, to be able to open the silver mine some day. Keno City (population about 20) has an interesting museum, mostly dealing either with mining or the past history of the town’s glory days. We ate lunch at the local snack bar (hotdog and potato chips) and then drove up to the top of Keno Hill, the site of the original big silver strike. It was very cold up there. Although there were some interesting hikes we could take, it was just too cold (There was still snow in shaded spots from the winter.) Keno Hill would be a mountain in New Hampshire, about as high as the Pack Monad nocks. We then drove home, Madie stopping to unsuccessfully pan gold.

Today we drove to a placer gold mine. This is a sort of family affair. The mine was started by our guide’s grandfather, and is now run by his father and brother. It sure makes gold mining seem like uncertain and arduous work. Placer mining means that they are mining gold that has deposited in old creek beds, or glacial run-off. Placer mining differs from “hard-rock” mining, because there are no rocks that have to be crushed, etc. Essentially the process involves finding which level of gravel contains the gold (usually the gravel down near bed rock), then removing over-burden until the level containing gold is reached. Then the gold-containing gravel is dumped into a machine, whose name I forget, which is really a classifier. (See picture) It removes the big stones, dumped out one end, then the lighter gravel, comes out each side, until a small amount of pebbles and sand remains, caught on baffles and matting like a door mat, that hopefully contains the gold. This in turn is removed for further classification to get concentrated gold, in another smaller classifier. This final step of concentration takes place about every week and a half, so it takes that long until one is sure they are mining in the right spot. And will have a pay day. A picture of the machine that does the first separation is above.

After this wonderful tour with all this explanation, we (Madeline, I am not that patient) had a chance to pan gold (See picture). Madeline panned out about three flakes. That was pretty good, I think, but she wonders if she should not return the pan for one that recovers more gold.

We are having a wonderful time. Tomorrow, we leave for Dawson City.

Opps! Cant get the pictures upoaded today. I''try again another day.

July 8, 2007 - Whitehorse, YT

Where the Buffalo still roam in Canada!

It is Sunday night and we will be leaving Whitehorse after a three day visit. W e will also be leaving our new friend, Mike and Annette, who will be traveling on but in a little different direction.

Yesterday we went to a local museum, "The Yukon Beringia Interruptive Center”. I have a special interest because my brother, Dave, a geologist, spent a large part of his career studying Beringia and became an expert on the subject. Beringia refers to the Bering Land Bridge that formed during the last Ice Age, when the formation of glaciers removed so much water that the level of the world’s oceans lowered. This lead to the migration of animals and probably plants from Asia to the North American contentment, and, of course, in the reverse direction. The museum was excellent with many excellent exhibits as well as some very good and informative movies.

A high point on the museum visit was a demonstration of spear –throwing using the hinged spear-throwing tool used by aboriginal peoples. After the demonstration we had an opportunity to try it ourselves. It is not as easy as it appears. One thing I learned was that mastodons and mammoths, although both large elephant-like animals were quite different. Mastodons were browsing type animals living of branches and bark of trees, and became extinct, probably due to loss of habitat—trees and forests giving way to grass land. Mammoths were grass-eaters. I asked the question, why could not mastodons eat grass? The answer lies in their teeth. Mastodons had teeth more designed like ours for cutting, while mammoths had huge teeth, which have a series of fine groves, enabling them to grind grasses to fine particles, which could then be digested.

Today we went to another local museum which dealt with the history of the area. A large part of the museum dealt with various techniques for gold mining, and also with the various routes the miner-to-be took to reach Dawson City -- also our eventual destination. The rigors of their trip were enormous – almost unimaginable. Sadly, by the time many of the men reach Dawson City, most of the claims with good prospects for gold had been filed. However, a short time later, another gold rush started toward Nome Alaska.

July 6, 2007 -- Whitehorse, YT

Today we are in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. We left Toad River last Monday after spending the weekend. We thought we would stay at Toad River until it stopped raining, but we eventually gave up and started moving. He rains have abated, but we still seem to get showers every day. Above see a picture of a moose calf that I described in out last post.

Monday night we stopped at Laird Hot Springs, a Provincial Park, which has two Hot springs Madeline and I went dipping. The spring pool was about four feet deep. As we got closer and closer to the spring, which was at one end of the pool, the water got hotter and hotter, until eventually it was hotter than we could stand. The water was somewhat sulfurous, which I guess is supposed to help cure whatever ails you.

We met some Escapee friends, Mike and Annette; we had met them earlier in Dawson Creek, and have been traveling (Leapfrogging) with them the last several days.

On Tuesday night we stopped at a restaurant, by a lake, that offered free camping and a boat ride, if we ate there (Mukluk Annie’s Salmon Bake). We had a good time. The boat was a pontoon boat, captained by the man who started the restaurant seventeen years ago, is now retired (turned the business over to his sons), and operates the boat for fun. He was a raconteur, and told many entertaining stories about life in the Yukon Territories.

The following day we moved on. We had a minor mishap crossing a bridge which was being worked on by he road crew. The bridge lane was 110 inches wide – our motor home is 101 inches wide. Turns out I did not know where the sides of the motor home were, as accurately as I thought, so we now have some bad scrapes and dents on one side.

We are now in Whitehorse for a few days. Whitehorse is on the Yukon River, and is at the foot of Whitehorse Rapids, a dangerous set of rapids, named because they reminded the Klondike travelers of the heads of white horses. These would-be miners, usually bypassed the rapids, by having a commercial outfit portage their goods, and hired pilots to take their boats through them. They were required by the Canadian government to carry enough supplies to suffice them for a year – over a ton of supplies per person. After bypassing the rapids, the travelers would embark again, to travel up the Yukon River to Dawson City.

This weekend we will visit some of the local museums, catch up on our laundry, hike a little and then leave for the Klondike on Monday.

Toad River, BC June 30, 2007

Today we are in a very nice campground at a place called Toad River, British Columbia. We are about 400 miles out of Dawson Creek and are on our third day of our trip. This campground is on a small pond in the middle of the Canadian Rockies. – a beautiful setting. We will probably stay here a day or two to enjoy the scenery.

So far, while traveling we have seen two bears, a deer, a young caribou, and a large herd of Stone’s sheep. (I think the Stone’s Sheep are a small version of Big Horn Sheep, but probably a different species.)

We could not see the bears long enough to get a picture. They seem to be foraging for berries along the cleared space on the side of the road. One bear stood on his hind feet to look at us as we passed. However, if we stop, the bears disappear, so I think they are shy of human contact.

The herd of sheep was on the side of a mountain road on a steep bank. I think they come to this spot for minerals, as they seem to be nibbling the rocks on the ground. I do know from my nutrition days that animals will crave phosphorous and will go great distances for licks. The same thing with salt, but I think sheep in particular seem to crave high phosphorous licks.

When we got to our campground last night, we found we were camped on a pond, partially backed up by a beaver dam (See photo of pond and beaver hut against mountain backdrop.) Then Madeline spotted a young moose wallowing in the water, ducking its head completely in the water to eat water plants. Across the pond, on the shore Mother Moose was watching to be sure young moose was safe.

June 27, 2007 Dawson,City, BC

We are in Dawson Creek, British Columbia at the southern end of the Alaskan Highway. This is the official Mile Zero. We are just catching upon stuff today – minor repairs, laundry, car washing, bug-on-windshield removal and exciting stuff like that. We will start moving north tomorrow or perhaps the next day. There is a museum we want to see, as well as a pioneer village, with lots of information on the local agriculture.

The trip up here was interesting. We went over prairie in Montana and southern Alberta, with the Rocky Mountains off on the west often showing up. One night we stayed at an awful campground outside of Calgary with the fanciful name of “Whispering Spruce’. The campground was crowded with older trailers and motor homes of semi-permanent residents, with not a tree in sight --- no spruce to whisper to.

As we continued north, the landscape stayed mostly flat, but instead of prairie, became heavily forested with spruce, white birches, alders and poplar trees. Dawson Creek is a little more open and seems to be an agricultural area with many farms.

As we get farther north, the nights become shorter.—about five to six hours.

We are having lots of fun. We are meeting lots of people like us on the same type of trip. Of course, as always, every one has a story to tell.

Merry Widow Gold and Health Mine June 22, 2007

We are now residents of South Dakota. The move was not too bad --- not too many boxes to pack, or appliances to install! We will still get our mail in Texas for a while. When we return from our northern sojourn into Canada and Alaska, we will make arrangements to get the mail situation straightened out.

We had a pleasant trip from Spearfish, South Dakota to here, Basin, Montana. We are north of Butte and south of Helena. We saw elk and deer beside the road on the way o here. We passed the Custer Battlefield on the Little Bighorn, but we did not stop, as we had spent a full day there several years ago. This is pretty country, especially now before everything is dried up. It is difficult to believe this part of the country was occupied only by Indians 150 years ago -- not so long ago to a man (me) who is nearly 75 year old. Sitting Bull was a chief of the Dakota Sioux at that time, and used to regularly war with the invading white man. Later on, after he was forcefully settled on a reservation, he had a chance to visit the cities in the East. He said, he had had no idea there were so many White people, and if had known, he would have realized there was no way they could win their wars. Parenthetically, I wonder what Sitting Bull would have thought about immigration. I guess by his actions, you would have to say he was opposed. This all raises an interesting question about the rights of inhabitants living in a stone age civilization versus settlers with much higher level of technology, and a more developed sense of government and infrastructure. It is pretty obvious how it is going to end!

We are staying at a campground that has an old gold mine (The Merry Widow Mine) on its site. It is up the hill about a quarter of a mile from the campground. What is noteworthy is that there is significant level of radon gas about 500 feet into the mine. Somehow, people have decided that the radon gas helps cure a number of ill such as arthritis, rheumatism, allergies and the like. People come here and pay to be allowed to stay in the mine for several hours. They claim this gives them relief from their ills and pains. There is also a lady living in an RV here who prepare meals for those campers who wish them. Thus at meal time, there is a kind of social hour down where the meals are served, where we can learn about how successful the radon treatment were. It is interesting that folks pay money to breath radon, while other folks pay money to keep radon out of their basements.

Go figure!

On the Road Again, June 18, 2007

Finally, we have hit the road, after an extended stay in Colorado. We spent a lot of time getting ready for our summer trip to Dawson City in the Yukon Territory. We have spent considerable time shopping for an assistive hearing device, and after looking at several versions, settled on one from Williams Sound, a later version of the one we have had, which is getting beaten up. We also had to get glasses replaced for Madeline, some RV repairs, and teeth cleaned and checked, Anyway – finally we are done and we hit the road yesterday, Monday.

Tomorrow, we get South Dakota drivers license, and that will be the final step of our changing our residence to South Dakota. We will still receive mail at both our old Texas address and our new South Dakota address. When we get back from our summer trip, we will give you all our new address.

Not much else to report for now,

Colorado Days, June 3, 2007

We arrived in Colorado before Memorial Day. We are staying in a city campground in Lyons. It is quite pleasant with a creek bubbling and gurgling behind us --- of course, I can’t hear it, but I have been assured that it is pleasant. Madeline says it lulls her to sleep.

We are visiting my daughter, Debbie, who lives in Boulder. Over Memorial Day weekend, my daughter, Diana, who lives in Los Vegas, flew out to visit us and her sister. So all in all we has a festive weekend, and a chance to do a lot of family visiting.

In Boulder, there is an annual 10-kilometer race walk on Memorial Day. There were 50,000 people participating in the event this year, so as you can guess, this was a pretty big thing. It was lots of fun. This year, Debbie, Diana, Madeline and I walked, while Debbie’s husband, who likes to run, ran the event. Along the course, there were people playing in little bands –there was an Elvis impersonator and belly dancers. Some people set their lawn sprinklers along the road, so you could get cooled off. Every mile or two there were people handing out water and Gator-Aid.

The “race” finishes in the University of Colorado football stadium. There, a box of snacks (power bars, cookies made from organic foodstuffs, etc) and a bottle of soda or a can of beer are handed out. Then two real races are started inside the stadium with several teams of women and then men from countries such as China, Japan, Kenya, and Mexico race a 10 kilometer race. The race starts and ends in the stadium, with the main course outside in the streets. At the mid-point, the runners come into the stadium and circle the track once. The whole race is televised on to two screens in the stadium, so it is possible to sit there and watch the entire race start, develop and finish! Lots of fun.

There is also a 3-day Craft Fair in Boulder, which we went to on the day preceding Memorial Day. In addition to crafts, there is a small midway, also lots of music, and venders selling lots of stuff, but also handing out enough free food samples, to feed you for a day!

We are getting lots of chores done, in preparation for our trip to the Klondike and the Alaskan panhandle. Not very exciting stuff to talk about.

Desert Adventures, May 19, 2007

Since our last posting, we have been moving about a bit and are now in Torrey, Utah, between Capital Reef National Park and Grand Escalante National Monument. I will relate some of our travels and adventures, which will have a few pictures.

Two weeks ago we were in Blanding, resting and watching a small snowstorm. From there we went west to Natural Bridges National Monument. In this National Monument there are three natural bridges. We had visited them the previous week, but arrived so late, we only had time to visit one bridge, of which there was a picture in our previous post. This time we hiked to the other two bridges. Each natural bridge has its own beauty, and they are all different -- different because one is quite old, and has no active stream under it. Another is middle aged and another quite young and still in the process of getting larger. (Natural Bridges are formed as the result of streams in horseshoe bends in meandering and deepening canyons, finally cutting through the "legs" of the horseshoe.) A picture of one of the aging natural bridges is above. right.

Here, it seems almost everywhere, there were ruins of ancient native American dwellings and petroglyphs. On the left there is a sample of the petroglyphs seen at this Natural Bridges Monument. These are thought to be about 1,000 to 1,500 year old. The images are obviously of wild animals. These differ somewhat from images of older petroglyphs and pictographs, which are discussed further, below.

From Natural Bridges National Monument, we traveled to the other side of the Colorado River, crossing by bridge at the extreme northern end of Lake Powell. The scenery was fabulous and beyond my ability to describe adequately. It was quite warm on the cliffs overlooking the river/lake, while there were beautiful snow capped mountains in the background. An example of what I am describing is on the right.

We finally landed up near Goblin State Park. The State park campground had no hookups, so we decided to boondock at a BLM campground, where running our generator would not annoy other campers. Also we are trying to get some boondocking experience with out new (to us) rig to see what is needed to improve our abilities to be self sustaining.

Goblin State Park is interesting. The park is on the edge of the San Rafael Swell, huge anticline, characterized by spectacular cliffs, canyons, and high plateaus. The Goblins are red round boulders of various sizes, posed on top of each other. These are the remains old ancient tidal waters. The formations resemble goblins to some people, and mushrooms and toadstools to others. The soil (which must of been mud at an earlier time) holding these boulders together is

being eroded. What is amazing that we were

allowed to walk and crawl about these formations, which must cover an area of about 100 acres. A picture of typical "goblins' is on the right.

While here we also did some four-wheeling on the back roads. originally we had planned to go to the Maize District of Canyonlands. However this proved to be a long drive. Four -wheeling in the Maize District seems to be designed for those willing to take a 3-day trip, pack extra fuel, etc -- a little too primitive for us. Hiking and back packing in that area is said to be fabulous, but perhaps more for those young in body as well as young at heart.

On the left see me negotiating large rocks. Below see a high balancing rock. This is on a spire that is perhaps thirty feet high, and this is one of the sights we saw on our back-road trip.

Instead of going to the Maize in Canyonlands NP, we opted for a seven-mile hike up Horseshoe Canyon, a part of the western section of Canyonlands

National Park. The was the famed Grand Gallery,

a collection of very ancient pictographs, and sometimes combination of pictographs and petroglyphs. A picture of Madeline and I under the Gallery is on the right. The pictographs are on a cliff perhaps twenty feet above the ground. Th panal extends about one hundred feet. while it is possible to get quite close to the pictures, there is a chain barrier to prevent this.

We got a special treat. We had arrived at the sit around noon, ate lunch, and took photos. Then a ranger appeared, having hiked in. He ate his lunch and visited with us and a few other hikers. Then he walked off to the pictographs on the cliff, unhooked the barrier chain,and said" Come on, let me show you how the look up close. Just be sure you don't touch them, as the grease from your fingers will destroy the paint. He then proceeded to show us all of the pictograph, and we were right next to them -- as if in an art museum!

These pictographs differ from any we had seen earlier. For on thing most of the figures had no arms. The body was decorated with stripes and various types of designs. These pictographs are said to be from the "barrier' period. They are at least

2,000 years old, and perhaps as much as 8,000 years old. Unlike some other rock art, they definitely are not Native American graffiti. Some of the symbols and signs seem to represent a calender, and some of the alignment of figures seem to be aligned with summer and winter solstice. There are a number of slot canyons in the area, that are quite amenable to hiking. One day we hiked up one of them, Wild Horse Creek Canyon. The canyon, while very beautiful, at times became quite narrow (see picture on the left). Sometimes one could barely pass through. it was a beautiful hike, and timely for the middle of the day, since one was usually in the shade.

From the Saint Rafeal Swell area we moved to Capital Reef-Grand Escalante area. Originally we planned to hike and four wheel in Grand Escalante., but again we found the facilities for nearby activities, too primitive for our taste, and the distance too great for comfortable facilities. We need to try another time when we are a little fresher.

We have had some good time, however. Mostly we have been riding about--sightseeing. One day we took a nice long trip along the Water Pocket fold. This is a long chain of cliffs, caused by folding of the earth, and probably was responsible for the name "Capital Reef". There are only occasional ways to cross this "Reef" through occasional canyons cut by creek. The scenery is spectacular.

We will be here a few more days, then we leave for Boulder, where we will meet up with family, and get ourselves ready for our next adventure; a trip to the Klondike.

Pictures Arizona/Utah May 6, 2007

These two pictures were taken in the San Juan River Valley, near Bluff, Utah. The archaic ruins are in remarkably good shape. The Petroglyphs are extensive. This is a sample of some of the best ones.
Below, see a photo of one of the natural bridges, in Natural Bridge National monument. This is said to be the second largest in US, second to Rainbow Bridge which is on the shore of Lake Powell in Glen Canyon.

Below is a picture of me at the base of the Superstition Mountains, near Phoenix.

A beautiful desert sunset. It always makes me feel good to be out here again.

The Goosnecks in Gooseneck State Park. The meandering river became trapped, when the Colorado Plateau rose.

Southeastern Utah, May 6, 2007

Since our last posting, we have been on the move!

We went from Phoenix up to Prescott, AZ, where we camped (boondocked) in a beautiful National Forest campground out in the woods. Madeline’s brother lives in Prescott, so we had a chance to do some more family visiting. Madeline’s nephew, Clayton, has recently bought a house and spends half his time living with his mother and dad, and the rest of the time living in his house. The house is a fixer-upper, so he had lots to do. Clayton is in his finishing year in junior College. He is also works as a fire fighter, working on forest fires. The summer season for his work is fast approaching.

After a few days in Prescott, catching up on errands, reading mail, and family visiting, we drove north, ending up in Bluff, Utah. Bluff is a small village in Southeastern Utah. It is on the edge if the Navajo Indian reservation and was settled in the late 1800’s by Mormon pioneers. The pioneer’s trip to Bluff was an interesting one. They made a trail south and more or less blasted a passage across the Colorado River at a place nor called “Hole in the Rock” They then worked their way east more or less following the San Juan River. What they did not realize was that they were blocked by an escarpment called Comb Ridge. They tried to bypass the escarpment by going to the San Juan River and following it up. This they did, but after tremendous work, since Comb Ridge goes down to the San Juan River. Finally, six months after starting their journey, the pioneers reached the area which is now known as Bluff, which was short of their original destination. They decided enough was enough, and they settled at Bluff.

We have had several adventurous trips from Bluff. One day we went to Goosenecks Canyon. This is a place where the San Juan River once meandered. Then the Colorado Plateau gradually rose, making the meandering river into a deep meandering canyon. We also took a road north from the canyon. The paved road suddenly turned into dirt road and proceeded to climb, with a series of hair-pin curves, up the side of a cliff to the top of a plateau. From this plateau we drove out to a spot overlooking the canyon some 1000 to 1500 feet below! Off to the distance we could see the spires of Monument Valley.

Another part of a same trip was through “Valley of the Gods”. This is is sort of a poor man’s Monument Valley, with lots of striking rock formations out in the desert.

We have spent quite a bit of time looking at archaic Indian ruins as well as petroglyphs. One day we visited Hovenweep National Monument. This is set of striking ruins in a canyon, and also on top of the canyon. The ruins were in fairly good shape, after some stabilization by the government people. The most striking thing about then were several high towers in building both in he canyon and on the rim of the canyon.

Last Thursday, we visited some interesting archaic Indian sites down on he San Juan River. These can only be reached by hiking, rafting or a 10 mile ride with 4-wheel drive. (We drove.) It was a pretty trip over fairly rough road down a long wash. We got a little lost a couple of times, but that added to the fun. Finally we came to two pueblo ruins set under cliffs. These were in remarkable shape. One could walk into the ruins and look at everything carefully. There were traces of corn and other seeds, shards of pottery. What an experience to see these thing, almost as if you were the first one ever to be there since they were abandoned 1000 years ago.

From there we drove on and at the end of the “road”, we found a cliff just full of petroglyphs. These were beautiful – really striking – and among the nicest we have ever seen. While there we ran across a midden ((refuse pile) full of pottery shards, flint striking and some curious stones that looked like broken grinding stones.

We have now left Bluff, moving north a few miles to Blanding. We are a little higher elevation, and yesterday it snowed. So much about our concern about wanting to be here before it gets too hot!