The Road to Valdez (06-27-14)

It took us a few days to get from Haines, Alaska to Valdez, Alaska, and we had to go through Canada  again to get there. We took our time and enjoyed some sights along the way.

Our first day out took us through the Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve just outside of Haines. This 48,000 acre preserve is critical habitat for the Bald Eagle. They come here by the thousands late in the fall when most other rivers are freezing over.  The waters of the Chilkat River stay warmer longer, so it’s the last of the spawning areas for Salmon, a staple of an eagle diet. 

There’s a Bald Eagle Festival in November when the eagle population is at its highest.  This is someone else’s picture, not mine. I didn’t get any pictures of eagles, because we only saw two. 

We saw some great scenery, and several glaciers, but only two eagles.  I was a little disappointed, but we saw tons of eagles in Juneau and I spent a fair amount of time enjoying them, so I am not feeling like I missed out.  I just thought that they’d be more of them on the preserve, even though its summer.

Our first night was spent at a campground on Kluane Lake in the Yukon.  I’ll remember this area most for the beating our truck and our bodies took on this section of road. One of the things that’s drilled into you when you plan this trip is that the roads can be AWFUL. We’ve had pretty good luck so far, but this part of the highway had places where we were going only about 30 mph and even that seemed too fast.

After another full day of driving and crossing back into the U.S., we spent the night at Mosquito Lake Recreation Area in Alaska.  Mosquitoes are another big topic for discussion.  Paul and I  have bug spray, of course, plus we have sprayed some of our clothes and jackets with a special repellent. If we get desperate, we have nets to put over our heads. We are well prepared!

I have only been bitten once this whole trip.  That may have something to do with the fact that its been cold and rainy most of the time, but still,  maybe our precautions are helping. There weren’t really any mosquitoes at Mosquito Lake-just a great view at a free campground.

 

All roads lead to Tok- or at least, most major routes through Alaska go through the town of Tok. We stopped here overnight to get groceries and rinse some of the grime off the truck.

  We stayed at the Sourdough Campground. This place is full of friendly people and every night they have live music.  They also have a Sourdough Pancake tossing contest.  Anyone camper who wants to play gets two tries to toss a pancake into a bucket.  The emcee did a great job of teasing people and keeping the crowd laughing. 

The prize for succeeding is a free, all you can eat, sourdough pancake breakfast the next morning.  About 40 people played, and much to my surprise, I was one of the few who actually got the pancake in the bucket. Paul followed after me and he got it in too!

When everyone was done, the winners were called up and offered the chance to trade their breakfast for whatever was in mystery bucket number 1, 2 or 3. No one was interested in trading, so for the heck of it I traded for whatever was under bucket number 3.

I am very happy with my new prize, a small container of Chicken Shit.  It will be our new Christmas tree ornament :)

Haines, Alaska (06-24-14)

Haines was our last stop in Southeastern Alaska for this trip.  We sort of wanted to check out Sitka and Ketchikan, but decided not to attempt it this year. Ketchikan is significantly south of where we were-in the wrong direction. Once we left Haines, we were going north through Canada again to get to the other parts of Alaska.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.  We did spend two full days in Haines. After checking in at the RV park we took a drive along Chilkoot River.  With the rain and the fog, it was really eerie looking.  I didn’t get great pictures of it for some reason though.  Haines also has a lot of Totem Poles around town, and this was one of them.

The next day we hit the ground running so we’d have time to visit all three museums in town. The Sheldon Museum details the history of the town- the movie White Fang was filmed here- this is the sled from that movie.

More of interest to Paul is the Hammer Museum.

There are a couple of thousand hammers on display at this place. 

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This was my favorite one, although I think it would have been cool if he signed it “Tim, the tool man, Taylor”.

After all that learning we had to take a lunch break.  We chose a restaurant with a view.

By the way, my initial intent was that we would stay outside of town at the state park that only charges $10 a night instead of the going rate of $40, but it turns out that the town of Haines is very walkable, so we were able to park the truck and leave it there by staying in town.  Plus, we met fellow Escapees Pam and Red and got to spend some time with them.

After lunch we headed to the the Bald Eagle Foundation museum.  Obviously they have other birds there besides Bald Eagles.  They have 11 birds that have lost their ability to fly for a variety of reasons.

This Horned Owl looked like he wanted to bite my nose off.

This owl looked like she was playing coy with me.

The hawk was very nervous  and easily startled. 

At 2:30 every day they do a presentation about Bald Eagles, which includes feeding one.  This is a female, about 4 years old.  The feathers on her head are not completely white, but are getting close- that’s how they estimate the age.  The volunteer shared some interesting information.  Raptors are named for their feet-(rapt is Latin for “to grab”). Their talons use a ratchet system, so once a raptor grabs it’s prey, basically there is no way to force the talon open to release it. The talons exert 500 lbs of pressure per square inch.







The volunteer also made it clear that if he wasn't offering her food, she would not want anything to do with him.  In fact, she tried to stay as far away as possible and still get the food. I could joke and say I guess they don’t make good pets, but it’s illegal to even own the feather of an eagle (unless you are Native American). Actually, the presentation was very good, but then, I am an eagle enthusiast.


After a quick two day visit, we headed out of town…..

Mendenhall Glacier, Juneau (06-21-14)

On our first day in Juneau, we ran over to the Visitor Center for Mendenhall Glacier. Glaciers and icebergs are much prettier in the sunshine.

To get there we passed by Mendenhall Lake- a fairly young lake, it’s only a hundred years old and was created by the glacier. These were the first icebergs we saw while in Juneau.

Part of the attraction of Mendenhall Glacier is its accessibility.  You can easily hike the 1 mile trail to Nugget Falls and get close to the glacier itself.  I was glad we saw this before we saw Sawyer Glacier or we may have been disappointed because Sawyer Glacier in Tracy Arm Fjord is spectacular.

  The visitor center here has great information, and quite a few spotting scopes so people can get a closer look at the view.

From the time a snow flake lands on top of the glacier, it takes 200 years for it to work its way down into the glacier and get to the point where it will calve off at the front of the glacier.  So the ice in these icebergs is pretty much 200 years old.

The more challenging way to see the glacier is to hike to it. We found out about an ice cave in the glacier, and immediately made plans to see it. Since we walked from the campground, this was a 9 mile strenuous hike for us. Along the way we climbed boulders…

 

We crossed numerous streams- only some of which had bridges. We sure were glad we have good waterproof boots.

In one spot we had to pull ourselves up the boulders using a rope that someone conveniently placed there.

A few miles later we were rewarded with a new view of the glacier.  This glacier is 200 ft thick at the edge, and about a mile thick in the body of it.












It was still pretty far away and the trail wasn’t always well marked, but there were a lot of people on the trail with us.












Finally we were walking on the glacier itself.  Or, Paul was.  For a little while, I chickened out.  We had heard that the trail is dangerous-this part was pretty steep, and crumbly -and the caves- well, they are made of ice- who knows when they will cave in??.  It took me about 20 minutes to change my mind and find my way down to the glacier.  You can get a better sense of the enormity of this glacier in this picture.

Walking on the ice in this area is fairly easy. Its so dirty that its not very slippery at all.  There are holes that you have to watch out for though. 

Some of them are big enough to fall into.  Hmm, that didn’t make me too happy, but realistically it would be hard to actually fall into one.  You can see them.

Finding the ice cave made the hike worthwhile!

It was created by the stream from a nearby waterfall, and has been growing rapidly over the last few years, according to the locals. 

We easily made the decision not  to go into the cave.  I used the zoom lens to take pictures of those who did venture in. 









After relaxing with a snack it was time to start the trek back.  We were tired but definitely glad we made the effort to see this.

Juneau, Alaska (06-21-14)

Who knew that Juneau is in a rain forest?? Tongass National Forest, situated in southeast Alaska,  is the largest national forest in the U.S. and most of it is a rain forest.  I suppose we could have guessed by looking at the forecast.

As a state capital, Juneau probably ranks as one of the more difficult ones to get to. The only way to get there is by boat or by plane.  We took the ferry from Skagway.

The day we arrived was beautiful and the two and a half hour ferry ride was easy and uneventful.   This is the Juneau area.







Having seen the weather forecast we elected to take advantage of the nice weather to push on and go check out Mendenhall Glacier. The information about that will be in another post.

In our research of  things to do in Juneau, we found out about a small mining museum and decided that should be on our list of things to do on our second day- we figured if it was going to rain, we might as well be in a museum.  Except, much of this museum is outside.

Next on our agenda was a trip to the Red Dog Saloon, home to the Duck Fart- a shot that has Crown Royal, Baileys, and Kahlua.  Trying to get to the Red Dog was how we discovered that there are actually very few parking spots in Juneau that will fit us.  The only open one we found was a mile away, which meant….yup- a mile walk in the rain. 

We sure did feel like we deserved that drink, to warm us up! It was pretty good, and we enjoyed the live piano music while we ate our lunch.  These guys are good at getting people involved with the songs they are playing.

One of our adventures took us to Eagle Harbor, which is known for it’s concentration of Bald Eagles.  The salmon were jumping out of the water all over the place- plenty of Eagle food around!

We saw tons of Eagles- sometimes as many as a dozen in one tree! There were a lot of juveniles around as well, and for the first time, we got to see some courting, where a pair of eagles fly together, swooping apart and then together again.

The scenery itself was worth the drive out there- very dramatic and gorgeous.

The Alaskan Brewing Co. is located in Juneau and although I don’t feel compelled to visit every brewery I come across, I wanted to check this one out. I like their Alaskan White, which is similar to Blue Moon. 

They don’t give tours of the brewery itself but they do have a tasting tour where they talk about the history of the brewery and some of their beers. They are fairly unique in that they don’t have one master brewer, they have 7 brewers.  They also allow their employees to try their hand at making small batches of beer-called Rough Drafts.  If visitors like it, they make bigger and bigger batches.





There was plenty to keep us busy during our 5 days in Juneau.  We probably could have stayed longer but we wanted to book our return ferry when we booked the ferry to get there, so we guessed at how long we'd want to be there.

Tracy Arm Fjord (06-19-14)

We spent a fair amount of time researching potential day trips to take in Juneau, and the boat trip to Tracy Arm Fjord topped our list (not coincidentally it was at the top of Tripadvisor’s list too).

A fjord is a deep sea inlet, usually carved by glaciers. They are characterized by steep walls. We boarded the 56’ Captain Cook at the port in Juneau, at 7:45 AM for a 4 hour ride to get to the Tracy Arm Fjord. This will be an all day excursion.

Before we even left the harbor the captain stopped the boat when we all pointed to what we thought was a struggling Bald Eagle in the water.  We were sort of right.

The Bald Eagle was swimming! The captain explained that when an eagle swoops down and catches a fish, he will NOT let it go- not for any reason.  Even if the fish is too big for him to carry.  Instead, he will swim ashore with the fish in his talons. According to Steve, the captain, the eagle will drown before dropping its prey.  None of us had ever seen this behavior before.

Soon thereafter we stopped again- this time for a small group of three humpback whales. We saw a few tail flips but not much else.  They were pretty close to us though.

After a few more hours we made the turn into the fjord and saw our first iceberg. 

This one was a bonus because it had a Bald Eagle sitting atop it.

As we moved deeper into the fjord, more icebergs began appearing. I won’t lie, it was pretty exciting!

With steep walls surrounding us, there was no shortage of waterfalls.

The harbor seals were sunning themselves on the icebergs.

90% of an iceberg sits under the waterline, so maneuvering around them may not be as easy as it seems.

Soon there were so many icebergs  the captain slowed the boat to a crawl.

It seemed that we were surrounded by ice and harbor seals.  The seals come here to have their pups because Orcas don’t like icebergs so they don’t come looking for them here.

Sawyer Glacier was very impressive when it came into view.  It was even more impressive when we learned that the forward section is 200 feet thick and the back section is about 600 feet thick.  That does not include the 800 feet that sits beneath the surface of the water.  Wow.

The icebergs appear blue because the ice is so dense, when light hits it, most of the colors in the spectrum dissipate, or are absorbed.  The only color that is left for us to see is the blue.  We were so glad we picked the only sunny day to come and view this beautiful phenomenon!

The color was stunning!

 
 

The weather was awesome, with partly sunny skies and temperatures in the 50s, for the most part. It felt cold when the boat was moving, and when we were in and among the icebergs.  You could definitely tell who is from Alaska.  The captain was in short sleeves most of the day.

This is the only good weather we've had since the day we got here.  More on that later.

One of the awesome phenomenon to witness is the calving of a glacier.  Small or large pieces fall off into the water.  We were able to see several pieces calve off, and even though they looked pretty small, we were told that the smallest was bigger than a car.  A few seconds after they hit the water, a huge ”boom” is heard- similar to a crack of  thunder. Pieces that fall from above splinter, and do not make icebergs. Only the pieces that calve off from below the water usually form icebergs.

We spent an hour or so watching the glacier, the icebergs, and the wildlife. 

Eventually it was time to start the 4 hour trek back to the dock.  We didn't stop to see anything on the way back.  Many of us saw an Orca swimming near shore, but he wasn't breaking surface enough to get a good look.

As for the rest of Juneau…..that will be the next post….