The Long Haul

Aug 17 to 23, 2010.  7 days of grueling driving, we covered 2,330 miles from Seward, AK to Whistler, BC.  From Seward, we considered our trip at it's climax and we were ready to work our way back.  It was such a leisurely way up, we were ready to book it fast back down.

Aug. 17 - drive to Anchorage AK on the Seward Hwy.  127 miles in the rain.  Stayed in the shittiest motel yet, the Econo Inn, with paper thin walls, cop cars and no sleep.

Aug. 18 - drive to Tok, AK on the Glenn Hwy.  314 miles in the rain.  Leaves are starting to change color to Fall.  Stayed in a clean cabin at Tok RV.

Aug. 19 - drive to Haines Junction, YT on the Yukon 1 Hwy.  291 miles in the rain and the worse driving to date on our trip.  Cold, with an average of 47 degrees through wet and cloudy.  We crossed the border and encountered the same bad roads from our way up but intensified 100 times over with rain creating muddy, liquid pot holes on unpaved roads for 14 miles before the Canadian border.  It took at least an hour, to get through 14 miles, including passing a semi and skidded on the mud in passing.  SCARY.  We then had to drive the incredible frost heaves with the gnarliest pot holes of the Yukon, through the rain for a good 150 miles before reaching Haines Junction.  A very tiring drive.  Stayed at Cozy Corner Motel.  Yeah, it was kinda cozy.

Aug. 20 - drive to Watson Lake, YT on the Alaska Hwy.  367 miles in the rain.  Stayed once again in the Airforce Lodge.  A slight faint of wildfire smoke.  Our original plan was to driving back south on a different highway, (the Cassiar Hwy) but with all the wildfires happening, and their on the fly road closures, we took the same route back through the Alaska Hwy.

Aug. 21 - drive to Dawson Creek, BC on the Alaska Hwy.  601 miles in the rain.  Our longest day of driving yet, as weather hit 42 degrees and averaged about 46 degrees.  We hit a crazy hail storm and decided to push through even further than our planned stop.  Stayed in a much deserved Comfort Inn with fluffy pillows.  Yeah, it's really like the commercial in their hotels.  Strong wildfire smoke for a good 50 miles to Dawson Creek, even with the rain.

Aug. 22 - drive to 100 Mile House, BC on the Cariboo Hwy.  456 miles in the rain, arrival at 11:30pm at the 100 Mile Motel.

Aug. 23 & 24 - drive to Whistler, BC on the Cariboo Hwy to the 99.  171 miles in our first day of sunshine!!!  Great day of driving with the beginning of the 99 comparable to the Yukon frost heaves, but not as bad (if you've been to the worse, everything seems easy!), driving through mountain switchbacks.  Treated ourselves to 2 nights in Whistler, staying near the olympic village at a 4 star hotel (we got a great deal online).  Ate well, slept well, plenty of summer sun, finally.

The only shot we took on our long haul drive.  A view of Matanuska Glacier from the Glenn Highway in Alaska.

Our only shot from Whistler, in front of the Olympic rings at Whistler Village, where the 2010 winter games took place.

Seward, AK

Aug. 15 & 16, 2010  From our stay in Anchorage, we travel 127 miles to Seward, on the Kenai Peninsula; finally touching the west coast from Resurrection Bay.  The drive was truly gorgeous but super wet and rainy, with glacier-capped mountains as we drove parallel to the waters of the Pacific from Turnagain Arm and then the Kenai Lake.  Unfortunately our planned camping was hindered with a strong rainstorm; we had to motel it yet again.  We also stayed an extra day waiting for the storm to clear out.  We were too cheap to take the ferry to see the icebergs and glaciers of the Kenai waters, but we took it easy and strolled the fishing village.  My birthday was spent driving through rain, but we also enjoyed an awesome rainy day hiking a 4 mile flooded road, round trip to Exit Glacier and had another grizzly bear siting.

Alaskan Halibut catches of the day, being thrown in the cart!

Salmon from Seward!

View of a typical clouded day in Seward.

Charlie liked this picture of himself posing with the stuffed goat at our motel.

Exit Glacier at Kenai Fjords National Park, driving view.

Another view of Exit Glacier in the center.

Walking to the glacier on the closed road.

We made it to Exit Glacier after 2 miles on a closed road!

Yay!

Exit Glacier turning into a riverbed. 

One more view.

Some of the crazy mushrooms we saw on our hike!

Charlie collecting black sand for his friends, Paul & Kat.

Another grizzly siting! A mama and her cubs! (wasn't able to get a good shot of the cubs' faces.)

The mama!

Anchorage, AK

Aug. 13 & 14, 2010 - From our truly astounding Denali Park stay, we drove 237 miles thru rain (where Charlie picked wild blueberries off the highway) to our motel in Anchorage; just over 18,000 miles from the start of our trip.  Another city stop, we took it easy for 2 days.  On the eve of my birthday - the 14th, we sauntered around the farmer's market, Charlie got me an awesome quartz to hang around my neck and we strolled downtown Anchorage.  Later in the evening, I received the most touching birthday text messages from my dad in the Philippines - the first time in his technological life he has ever texted on a cell phone!  Aww, I felt really tear-in-my-eye special.

Downtown Anchorage, AK on a constant rainy day.

Denali Park Dog Sled Kennel!

Aug. 12, 2010 - Sled dogs have been a apart of Denali Park's history since the beginning.  The ranger service offers an introduction to their wonderful team of dogs that provide cultural, low-impact, & sustainable patrol of the park during winter season.  These intelligent Alaskan husky, work dogs (who's preferred outdoor temp is minus 10 degrees!) know the ins and outs of the park and never get lost, even in the most blinding thickness of snow.  We met the 29 huskies in their kennels and at play during the demonstration as well as 2 pups newly born.  Each husky is given an Athabascan Indian name.  This was such a wonderful experience to see such happy dogs at play (they don't consider running the sleds work, they get super excited to ride), as well as they were sooooo adorable.

Alaskan huskies going for a run!

Resting from the run.

Charlie poses with the awesome huskies!

Denali Park Backcountry Wildlife

Aug. 10, 2010 - During our back country bus tour of Denali, we witnessed wildlife in their natural habitat.  So rad.  We saw our first grizzly bear, grizzly cubs at play, caribou crossing, moose hiding in the brush, Dall sheep lazing around on the hillside, a Ptarmigan bird looking for micro-sized food, and sub-arctic squirrels looking for trouble.  At camp, we also saw an arctic fox lurking around in the black spruce for squirrels.  It was truly a highlight to view the animal wildlife alive and at play.

OMG. our first grizzly bear siting!  Even from afar, we were too happy to see them.  Too cute, these cubs were playing!

Mama and her cubs... We were on a cliff road, that's why pics are tiny.

More mama and cubs walking!

Caribou crossing.

The ptarmigan.  Alaska's state bird.

Arctic ground squirrel.

Dall sheep, regally perched on a hill.  And overlooking fabulous tundra.

These male Dall Sheep are totally enjoying their homeland vistas.

Denali Park Backcountry Landscape

Aug. 10, 2010  What a most memorable day.  Charlie and I head out with our bus tickets to check out Denali's back country flora and fauna in this 6 million acre park and preserve.  A lottery only allows private vehicles to travel the full 92 miles of unpaved road a few days in the year.  Aside from that, it's park and tour buses only.  We had the best view, as no one claimed the front seat, even as we arrived last on the 6:45am bus to Wonder Lake.  The landscape quickly changed from Taiga to Tundra the further & higher up we drove through the Alaska Range.  Never have we seen such vistas and a plethora of green radiating from the earth.  We soaked in Denali's alpine tundra landscape, which has been home to Athabascan Indians for thousands of years.

 Front of the bus!  We had thee best views!

Mt. McKinley/Denali, soaring at 20,320 feet, the highest peak in North America.  The only view we got of the peaks at 7 am.  The rest of the stay, they were shrouded in clouds.

 Sun rays peaking.  Heavenly views of tundra at Denali National Park.

Dramatic and vast open country.

The best landscape we've seen on this trip.  View from a short hike at Eielson Center.

Dew drops on the grassy tundra.

 Charlie and the views, and the awesome walking stick he whittled from birch, complete with bear bell. haha. (Charlie wanted me to add, he carved this from a birch tree he chopped down, all by himself, oh so vain.)

Our brilliant bus driver, Cissy, drove us 85 miles into the back roads to Wonder Lake.

Denali Park Hikes

Aug. 9 & 11, 2010 - Denali had much to offer for us, we were glad we stayed awhile.  On 2 separate days, we hiked about 9 miles total of a few trails and took in the gorgeous Taiga and Tundra terrain in the front country of the park.  Black spruce and paper birch litters the landscape, slowly turning into grassy Tundra as you climb higher in this ecotone. 

Crossing the Alaska railway on our hike.

A few of many robust mushrooms seen on our park hikes.

Hike to Horseshoe Lake.  A view of a beaver dam!

Another view of Horseshoe Lake with an even larger beaver dam.

A rewarding, incredible view of the Alaska Range from the Mt. Healy overlook; after a strenuous 1,700 ft elevation gain of a hike!! 

Denali Park - Riley Creek Campground

Aug. 8 - 12, 2010 - After Fairbanks, we drive 119 miles on Hwy 3 to Denali National Park and Preserve.  Our 5 night stay was nothing short of spectacular.  Charlie and I couldn't believe that we actually made it here, our mecca for this trip, thousands of miles on the bike through rain, snow, wildfire smoke, wind, bad roads & more away from home.  Denali did not disappoint, not even with it's constant everyday rain.  Our accessible camp in Riley Creek was walking distance to the visitor center, grocery, showers and even wifi that we accessed at the end of the trip.  We truly recommend Alaska for everyone, and Denali is a must.  Our camp was made into a 5 night, 6 day home and we explored both front and back country.

Just a few miles more on the highway to Denali.

Charlie acquired a hatchet, therefore he chopped into pieces a dead, standing birch tree.

Charlie, poses proud of his tree-chopping manliness.

Our 5 day camp, all ready for the rain.

A gorgeous, 11pm sunset from our camp.

Fairbanks, AK

Aug. 6 & 7, 2010 - From Delta Junction, we drive highway 2, a short 98 and a half miles to Fairbanks; a 2 night stop before our mecca camping trip in Denali.  Originally planned for 1 night, we opted for 2 to enjoy the local fare (as in the state fair).  We enjoy doing nothing, eating at the local bar and going to the State Fair opening on a super rainy day.  Charlie and I had an easy day walking around the fairgrounds, ducking from the rain and petting the animals!  A pleasurable stay in Fairbanks.

The state fair welcome entrance.

Oh yeah, chainsaw carving competition.

Contest for the largest cabbages and cauliflower! Amazing!

OMG. Thee fluffiest chickens EVER!!!

Charlie completely enamored by the fluffy chickens!

On to the sheep, my favorite.

Too cute!