Iskut, BC to Stewart, BC

This picture was taken at our current campground in Stewart, BC. No picture can do justice to the majesty and beauty of BC, YT and AK. It’s like the Grand Canyon, you have to see it in person. The mountains up here are just spectacular.

7/30/10: We continued South on Cassiar Highway today to Stewart, BC. It was another beautiful day and an equally beautiful drive. We stopped for lunch at a nice lodge in Bell, BC, joined by fellow travelers from 5 other rigs. On the way down to Stewart, located at the head of the Portland Canal, a narrow saltwater fjord approximately 90 miles long, we passed many glaciers (see pictures of some of them attached to the email forwarding this blog). After dinner, we gathered into car pools to drive over to Hyder, AK, just a few miles away, to a bear watching area alongside a creek where salmon were starting to run. There were some salmon working their way up the creek, but, unfortunately, no bears. We were told that we were a few weeks too early. In a few weeks there would be more salmon and, of course, more bears.

7/31/10: Today was a Free Day. The first order of business was to get my car washed…I’m not even sure what color it is any more. We wandered around town in the morning…didn’t take long, it’s very small. At 5:00 p.m. this evening, the host held a Bash for all those that had birthdays or anniversaries during the caravan. Cake was served and gifts were given to all from the hosts, small comical gifts that meant something to each receiver. Throughout our caravan, Marcia has been looking for a USA Today newspaper. She finally realized that she wasn’t going to find one in the Canadian portion of our travels, but was really taken back when she found none in Alaska, which is a US State. She was given a USA Today, a week old, but a USA Today. The hosts had found it in Juneau.

Iskut, BC

Iskut, BC, population 12. Beautiful weather was enjoyed on this, a day off. A group of us decided to put together a quartet (ended up with 9 in our quartet, 3 leads, 2 tenors, 2 baritones and 2 basses), a work up an Alaskan parody to “Let Me Call You Sweetheart” for the Farewell Dinner Banquet in Prince George, BC, next week. We had our first rehearsal at 11:00 a.m.

In that no one in our group had been able to attend GNR (Winnebago’s annual Grand National Rally attended each year by +/- 1,600 units), as we were all in Alaska at the time, our hosts decided to have our own GAR, Grand Alaska Rally. Started at 2:00 p.m., we began with games, Frisbee, Blongo Ball (Snake/Crazy Golf) and Jenga (a giant size version of). We stopped long enough to have a group picture taken then held a seminal where various of us shared tips about our rigs. The hosts then presented information on upcoming Rallies and Caravans. For dinner, we had a baked potato meal with all the fixins, including ice cream sundaes. The festivities ended with a sing-along.

Whitehorse, YT to Iskut, BC

Enroute to Iskut, we stopped in at Jade City, named for the jade deposits in the Princess Jade Mine, one of the largest jade deposits in the world. At the Mountain Jade Store and Gift Shop you could see raw jade, jade jewelry and carvings crafted from local Cassiar jade.

7/26/10: Travel Day 1 of 3 on our journey from Skagway, AK to Iskut, BC (see previous blog).

7/27/10: Travel Day 2 of our journey from Skagway, AK to Iskut, BC, saw some beautiful weather and good roads, but nothing special to report other than the usual beautiful scenery. We spent the night in a Watson Lake, YT campground that we had stayed in much earlier in our travels.

7/28/10: Travel Day 3 to Iskut, BC, a thriving city of 12. This was the first of several days travelling on the Cassiar Highway. Just a mile or two onto the highway, we smelled smoke…there was a forest fire somewhere East of us. We stopped at Jade City (see above) and then traveled on to our campground in Iskut. Once again, the weather was wonderful and the campground was beautiful. We’re finally back into shorts and tee shirts.

Note: We found out the next day that the fire had crossed the Cassiar Highway and that the highway was closed. We got through just in time. Also, a few days after we drove the Top of the World Highway, it got washed out and probably won’t reopen until at least next year, so we’ve lucked in twice now.

Skagway, AK to Whitehorse, YT

Today was Travel Day 1 of 3 from Skagway, AK to Iskut, BC. To start, we had to climb for 16 miles out of Skagway, Elevation 0, up and over White Pass, Elevation 3290. Once over the Pass, we had to go through Canadian Customs. For the next 15 or 20 miles, we were driving along the Summit Lakes. At one point, a bear walked out onto the road, then off and back on again. Marcia was finally able to get some pictures of a bear. Later, near Carcross, YT, a moose crossed the road in front of us, but, being a shy animal, disappeared into the woods before we could get a picture. We stopped at Crystal Lake for some pictures, a beautiful multicolored lake, then headed into Whitehorse, YT and did some grocery shopping before checking into the campground. Once set up, we did some laundry. The evening ended with a Steak BBQ Dinner provided by the campground.

Skagway, AK - Day 2

This morning we went on a White Pass Summit Excursion. We traveled up from Skagway, Elevation 0, to White Pass Summit, Elevation 2,865, and on to and back from Fraser, BC, aboard the WP&YR (White Pass and Yukon Route) aboard restored, replica coaches pulled by vintage diesel locomotives. White Pass is one of the two passes that the prospecters in the Klondike Gold Rush of 1898 had to travel over from Skagway to get to Whitehorse, where they could then board boats down the Yukon River to the gold fields. Each person had to carry a ton of supplies up and over the Chilkoot Pass or the longer, less steep White Pass. The railroad was started in May of 1898 and was completed in two-years, two-months and two-days. Tens of thousands of men and 450 tons on explosives overcame harsh and challenging climate and geography to create the “Railway Built of Gold”. From Skagway to almost 3,000 feet at the summit, the train climbs steep grades of almost 3.9 percent, travels over some trestles and through 2 tunnels. The tight curves on the White Pass called for a narrow gauge railroad.

Skagway, AK - Day 1

While in Juneau today, we were bussed up to the Mendenhall Glacier, a tongue of ice stretching 12 miles from the Juneau Icefield to Mendenhall Lake. At its widest point, the glacier is more than 1.5 miles wide, with ice 100 to 1800 feet thick. The Juneau Icefield is the fifth largest icefield in North America, stretching across a 1,500 square mile area that straddles the boundary between Alaska and Canada. The Mendenhall Glacier is one of 39large and over 100 smaller valley glaciers in the Juneau Icefield.

Today was to be a very long 12 to 13 hour day, so Marcia stayed back to care for our and other caravaner’s dogs. The group boarded the Fjordland Express, a beautiful catamaran scenic cruise boat at 7:45 a.m. for Juneau. It was just short of a 4-hour cruise to Juneau, but with plenty to see along the way. We traveled the Lynn Canal to and from Juneau, a glacier created waterway with 5 to 7 thousand foot high mountains on either side. We saw many eagles, harbor seals, Stellar Sea Lions and humpback whales going and coming from Juneau. We arrived back at Skagway at 8:30 p.m.

Juneau is the capital of Alaska, only reachable by either airplane or boat. It is very much a tourist town, supported by the many cruise ships that stop there. People who cruise must buy jewelry, because every other shop was a jeweler.

Fairbanks to Skagway, AK

This trip took three travel days, Fairbanks to Tok, Tok to Destruction Bay, Destruction Bay to Skagway. Day one saw some rain, but it had stopped by the time we reached Tok, so we set up an assembly line and washed our rigs. Day two saw more rain, and the road to Destruction Bay was horrible…lots of frost heaves and sunken spots. It did turn clear by the time we reached the campground and there the owner put on a wonderful BBQ dinner followed by some entertainment by him and his band, aptly called “Loose Gravel”. Day three started out beautiful, but about halfway between Whitehorse and Skagway, we hit rain again. Driving over White Pass, we hit the densest fog I have ever encountered. Apparently normal, both the Canadian and US Customs are below the summit by about ten miles each way. A 3,000 foot grade down to Skagway completed this part of our journey.