Finishing the AlCan

From British Columbia to Alaska, the Alaskan Highway aka the AlCan, was the answer to the Japanese threat during World War II.  Completed in 1942, it ensured the United States and Canada could defend their northern borders as well as provide support to their Russian allies.  Our journey to the end of the AlCan ended in Fairbanks.

On Tuesday we headed into Tok as soon as we closed up the Visitors Center.  We stayed at the Tetlin NWR Headquarters, which allowed us to easily dump our black an gray water tanks, fill our fresh water tank, do our laundry and reconnect briefly with the world.

We were on the road the next morning by 10:00 am and spotted two moose before we even got to Delta Junction.  The first was a cow with twin calves who ran along the highway while considering crossing until she saw us.  The cow turned and gently nudged one of the calves toward the woods and away from the road.  It was an obvious gesture that mommy knew best as she taught her young ones road safety.  They disappeared safely into the woods and we drove on.

The views of the Alaskan Range were wonderful and we began to talk about our future trip to Denali. We still needed to make reservations and see if we could get more consecutive days off to make the trip.

Just south of town is the Delta Junction Meat Market.  A clean  processing plant that packages local domestic protein including reindeer, pork, elk, yak, and beef.  We sampled and then stocked our freezer.

Back on the road, we followed the Alaskan pipeline across the bridge honoring the black army brigade that helped construct the highway.  It's amazing bridges stand for so many years.  What beautiful works of architectural art they are!  The pipeline follows many miles of the Richardson Highway and became our shadow between Delta Junction and Fairbanks as it ran beside the highway, through the woods and along mountain ledges.

We arrived in Delta Junction and located the original mile post signaling the end of the Alaskan Highway. There is also a final milepost in Fairbanks which we address below.  One of the intentions of the highway was to join up with the north to south running Richardson Highway.  We took our photo with the milepost and Joy got silly with the worlds largest mosquito.

Nearing Fairbanks, we noted two significant military bases.  Eielson Airforce base and Ft. Wainwright Army base.  As we drove past Eielson, we warned by signs to not stop, stand or photograph, as the highway paralleled the airport where we saw C-130's and F-16's parked.  Joy, of course, ignored the signs and got a great shot of an airwacs doing touch and go's.

After driving on the first divided "highway" we'd seen in months, we saw signs for the North Pole. Driving right past Santa's house, we decided to save our visit for the trip home.

We drove to the county park that we had intended to stay at but all sites with electricity were full.  The air was also full - of mosquitoes - so we drove down the road to Rivers Edge RV park.  Clean and busy, the park was clean although a little cramped.  At least they had cable and yes, we watched TV!

After getting hooked up and taking care of the pups, we went out looking for Mexican food (the last time we've done so in Alaska.)  We found a promising restaurant and even had a Hispanic waiter; but alas, the food was gringo style.  Sweetened tomato sauce instead of enchilada sauce and microwave quality food.  The chips and salsa were actually good so we ate our fill.

The next day we went to the visitors center and cultural center.  We watched a movie about the aurora borealis, walked the river path to other attractions, and actually ran into some tourists from Germany we'd met at the Visitor Center back in Tetlin.  Eventually, we found the final AlCan milepost signifying when the the AlCan was rebuilt to make the road available to car travel and Fairbanks became the final milepost. It was the first city in Alaska available for tourism via automobile.

With our sightseeing done, we headed out to conduct business.  Keila and Frances conducted theirs at PetCo.  Keila got her nails trimmed, Frances found an antler and both got their next month's supply of dog food. After Petco, we all headed to the dog park as it had been quite a while since the pups were allowed to run off leash.  At the park, we met a nice young woman and her typical Alaskan street dog, long legged with long pointy ears, playful and energetic.

After dropping the pups back at the RV, we headed to Fred Meyers, a cross between Wal-Mart and Costco.  The store was enormous, clean, well stocked, and provided  great customer service.  We bumped into some more people we'd met at the Visitor Center - this time a graduate student who was studying the aurora borealis and her older sister.  We laughed as this was the third time we'd run into visitors we'd met at the refuge in other parts of the state.

The next morning, on our way out of town, we conducted our last piece of business - getting the tires rotated on the Jeep and having someone look at a faulty valve extension on the RV. We found a tire shop large enough to work on the RV.  They were friendly and helpful and let the dogs hang out with us in the shop as they worked on the vehicles.  It was cold and rainy so we enjoyed all being together.

Within an hour, we back on the road and headed to the North Pole!  Growing up, Joy's neighbor, Pinky, and her family were from Alaska.  They moved to Minnesota after working on the pipeline.  Pinky often told Joy about meeting Santa Claus in North Pole but Joy never believed her - until now.  North Pole, Alaska is home to Santa's shop and post office where it is Christmas every day of the year.  The shop is full of not just decorations, but clothing, gifts, and fudge.  Joy lined up to sit on Santa's lap just like all the children - thankfully, she wasn't arrested.

We purchased our few items, including fudge, and got back on the road.  The stretch between Delta Junction and Tok provided several more moose to view and we now tell our visitors to look for them when we find out they're traveling that same stretch of road.

On our way home, about 10 miles from the visitor's center, we rounded a corner and found this juvenile black bear sitting smack dab in the middle of the road.  We came to a stop as he stood up, glared at us, and walked away.

We would hear several visitors report to us about seeing him as the summer went on but luckily, we don't think he got any closer to our campsite.  Juvenile black bears are unpredictable and certainly not the animal you want to confront.

Touched By An Owl

Joy had just arrived back to the Visitors Center when Kathy announced, "Guess where I'm going?" She was headed out to help rescue an injured owl.  Two visitors had reported seeing it on the side of the road between the US and Canadian border checkpoints.  They provided mile and kilometer post numbers and even showed Kathy and a picture of the poor little thing.  Technically, it was in Canada but the park ranger called and cleared it with the US Border patrol so that we could bring the bird back into Alaska for treatment.

We gathered up leather gloves, a box, several towels and a shirt.  We brought the shirt because it was lightweight but large enough to cover the bird's head, making him/her feel safer.  As we drove, we started wondering if maybe it the numbers were actually past the Canadian checkpoint.  We started worrying that we'd have to turn around at the checkpoint and that the owl would be left to fend for himself.

We drove on and stopped and asked a road construction crew if they'd seen the injured owl.  They reported they had not seen it in either direction so we continued to drive towards the Canadian checkpoint, eyes peeled on the left shoulder.   

Finally, Joy spotted something small and black.  We slowed down - it was a piece of tire.  The road was covered with fresh gravel and the shoulders were covered with fresh, deep gravel.  Finally, Kathy spotted the little guy, wings outstretched, yellow eyes gleaming sitting in the fresh loose gravel nearly in the lane of traffic.  Kathy turned the truck around and drove down the embankment and parked.  As Joy walked near him, he used his wings to scoot about five feet from where he'd been siting in a burrow he'd been creating in the gravel.  He scooted dangerously close to the edge of the shoulder, which dropped off about 5 feet to the tundra below.  Kathy put her gloves on as Joy warned her of the owl's talons.

We both approached the bird from opposite sides and, although owls can nearly turn their heads 360 degrees, he wasn't quite able to watch both of us at the same time.  He was surprisingly alert and, except for his inability to walk or fly, looked healthy.  As Kathy approached him, he turned to look at her, giving Joy the perfect opportunity to gently lay the shirt over his head.  He stayed still, didn't fight, and allowed Joy to carefully scoop him up and place him in the box.

He was much smaller than we'd thought - maybe a juvenile.  Safely in the box and in the middle of the front seat between us, the owl began the 90 + mile trip to Tok, where he would be turned over to one of the refuge's biologists and eventually delivered to a veterinarian for care. Kathy tried to ease the truck up the loose, deep gravel embankment.  The first try was cut short by on coming traffic so we waited.  Joy suggested she use four-wheel drive but Kathy just gunned it a little harder instead and, after digging some pretty good grooves into the freshly laid gravel, we were up the hill and back onto the road.  Kathy figures it was just a small payback to the cursed roads of Canada and Alaska.

After dropping Joy off at the Visitor's Center, Kathy and the owl, later named Blueberry, drove the remaining 85 miles to Tok.  Upon arriving, there wasn't a biologist to be found since it was Saturday night.  Finally, after about an hour, one of the biologist's (Kathy's favorite) arrived.  She gently removed Blueberry from the box, told Kathy he was a Hawk Owl, and looked him over for injuries.  It was obvious that his wing was damaged.  There was a small smudge of blood in the box but they couldn't find it's source.

The biologist watered Blueberry and eventually fed him chicken as they watched TV together in the refuge bunkhouse.  The next evening, a group of guests from Anchorage agreed to transport Blueberry to the bird rehab/sanctuary in Anchorage and off he went.

We wondered for a couple of weeks about Blueberry's status and asked the refuge volunteer coordinator to check on him for us.  She did just this morning and, sadly, Blueberry's injuries were too severe to be treated and he was euthanized.  The vet said that both Blueberry's leg and wing were severely fractured most likely due to being struck by a vehicle. The vet confirmed that he was a young bird, just as we thoughts.

With teary eyes we thanked her for the update.  Although it wasn't the news we had hoped for, we were grateful that Blueberry did not suffer on the side of the road, get hit by yet another vehicle, or eaten by a predator.  We are grateful to the refuge for supporting us in his rescue - he definitely touched us even during the little time we spent with him.

This is what Blueberry, when fully grown, would have looked like.

Welcome to Tetlin, part 2

After meeting the couple we were replacing, as well as the two park rangers who are Athabascan Native Americans, we were back on the road to drive 83 more miles west to the refuge headquarters in Tok. The road is paved, although there are areas of damage due to frost heaves. It’s a beautiful drive. We arrived at HQ and parked in the RV spot at the end of a row of cabins used by seasonal employees and volunteers. 

Although the site has access to power and sewer, the placement of both made it rather difficult to decide where to park. We knew we had to buy a power cord extension for the site at the visitor’s center so we parked close to the power outlet and didn’t immediately worry about being close to the dump access. The HQ maintains a really nice bunkhouse, which includes a living area with wi-fi and satellite TV, a kitchen, 2 refrigerators, and a washer and dryer. It also has a large enclosed porch area and provides 3-4 mountain bikes for staff and volunteers to use as needed.

The next morning, we shopped for and found the extension cord at, of all places, the Three Bears grocery store. We moved the RV to the other side of the sewer pipe so we could dump and used our new extension cord to reach the power outlet. During the move, we pulled up alongside the building and filled our fresh water tank. Later in the day, a second large RV arrived. We assumed it belonged to the other volunteer couple who would be hosting the refuge campground at Deadman Lake.

Patty and Ward are from Florida and are veteran public land volunteers. They have two dogs both mixed breed and both 13 years old. Next to arrive was Les, the summer maintenance assistant. He is from Arlington, VA and had volunteered at the refuge back in 1986. He travels alone so he stays in one of the cabins. He was a helicopter pilot in Vietnam but doesn’t fly anymore. It was July 2nd and after hours so several scientists and other employees that live in the cabins milled about and we introduced ourselves. We found the showers and the laundry facilities so we were set.

We went out to dinner at Fast Eddies Restaurant for pizza and were delighted to find that both the food and service were great. We ran into Gail and Bill, the couple we were replacing, and their partners Cliff and Nancy, who would be replaced by Ward and Patty. They invited us to join them at the Alaska music show across the parking lot. Sure enough, Alaskan Sweetgrass was an acoustic trio including two of the refuge’s seasonal employees, brother and sister Huck and Jordan. Huck plays banjo, Jordan plays the fiddle and they are joined by a local songwriter/musician on guitar. The group entertained us with tales about the building of Alaska and the AlCan highway, as well as jokes, poetry and blue grass and folk music. It was very entertaining and a wonderful welcome to Alaska. We highly recommend the show, which occurs every night of the summer for 90 days straight in Tok.

The next morning we walked the dogs down a wonderful path recently completed behind the headquarters. Low bush cranberries were abundant but only a few appeared to be ripe. We now know that they won't be ripe until the fall.  Frances, of course, found the squirrels and Keila just wanted to sniff around because snowshoe hares were playing hide and go seek with her.  We met Kay Lynn, the volunteer coordinator that Kathy had been pen paling with for several months.

We headed to town and shopped for groceries, the extension cord, a sewer hose extension, and mosquito repellent.  We found everything we needed at the local grocery store, Three Bears Outpost, but decided not to buy the sewer hose just yet.  We decided to be tourists at one shop in town because we had heard of a 5 lb gold nugget at the Jack Wade Gold and Gift Shop.  We were friendly and inquisitive enough to get an invitation to visit her house to learn more about diamond willow.  We each held the 24 kt lump of expensive mineral..  We finished the day with a short bike ride in what is a very bike friendly town, Tok.

On July 4th, we skipped the parade and other festivities in town in order to drive back out to the center to spend more time with the Bill and Gail.  We stopped at the refuge pull outs and read the interpretive signs to help prepare ourselves, discussing our questions for the current volunteers.  Bill and Gail were enthusiastic, energetic, and welcoming although not entirely ready to leave. They had a wonderful summer, learned a lot and had a lot to share with us.  Bill took us on an interpretive hike down a trail behind the visitor center to a pair of old trappers cabins.  They were even more interesting and intriguing than Joy had imagined after reading about them in the literature Kay Lynn had provided.  Joy suggested we ask if we could help inventory the cabins' contents since they had never been emptied.

After more research, we discovered that the next big project the refuge was working on was cleaning out the cabins and rebuilding the roofs, making them safer so visitors can go inside them.  Joy offered to use her metal detector on the dirt floors to see if there are any other treasures hiding beneath their feet and the refuge director told her to go for it. Kathy learned about the sprinkler system for the grass roof, the generator, how to fix broken sinks and some of the store activities.

On Sunday we washed the Jeep and the RVs by hand and brush. It took most of the day to remove the "Yukon gold" and the 4000+ miles of bugs we'd collected. We used dryer sheets to remove the bugs and, with a little extra elbow grease, worked like a charm. We cleaned the inside too before realizing it was going to rain. We re-read some of our materials, jotted down a few questions and waited for the night to pass so we could anxiously begin our new lives as paid volunteers.

"Welcome to Tetlin!"

Leaving Haines seemed somehow sad.  It was the longest time we had spent in one place since leaving Houston (3 nights) and we had had such a wonderful time and feel like we made such a great connection with Drake that passing the airport on the way out of town made us gloomy – just like the weather.

By the time we arrived at the Canadian border (again) it was sprinkling. A female inspection officer came out of the building after running our license plates and asked the usual questions. This time when Kathy reported we had pepper spray with us, the she asked to see it. She decided it was concealable and that we could not bring it in to Canada.  We had the options of turning around and leaving back in the US, or voluntarily surrendering it to her for destruction.  Kathy filled out the proper forms and we were back on the road. Right after the Canadian crossing, the road began a “slight” incline - a “slight” incline that lasted for at least 15 miles. Soon we were near the Wrangell and St. Elias mountain ranges.  Snow was within hiking distance which meant the temperatures were much colder now.  We thought that the roads weren't as bad as people had warned us they would be and we figured we had missed the worst ones because we had avoided Whitehorse by cutting west to Skagway. When we got to the juncture of Highway 1 again, at Haines Junction, we realized we just hadn’t gotten to the bad parts yet!

We saw very few trucks or RVs and even fewer cars that day.  The road was lonely and desolate as we came upon Kluane Lake .  It looked like fog was hanging over part of the lake but as we neared we realized it was dust blowing in very strong winds along the top of the water from the sandy, shallow end of the lake.
Like most lakes we’d encountered so far, Kluane Lake is huge!

You arrive near the south edge and turn left following the edge around and across an area where the lake bed is exposed.  This is where the winds blow the glacial flour across the top of the water and it looks like a sand storm in the Sahara – over a lake.  As you round another corner, the interpretative center sits near a roadside turn-out which is where we stopped to walk the dogs.  Joy wanted to take them down to the waters’ edge but the shores were gray rock looking ready for a landslide.  We drove fifteen more miles and found a provincial park right on the shore of the lake and decided to camp there for the night.

Like most of the Canadian parks and recreation sites that we’d camped at, this was beautiful, clean and well maintained.  The Canadian parks provide free fire wood and that’s always a plus.  This park had 60 sites but we counted only 39 accessible because the park was closed to tent campers due to increased bear activity. We had been told that there had been an increase in brown bear (grizzly) activity in this area and had kept our eyes peeled for one the entire drive without success.

We chose site #1 one tucked back in the woods with a view of the lake. After we parked, a young German woman asked us for change so that she could pay the $12 instead of $15 for her site.  Canadian parks are paid by leaving money in an envelope and drop box.  We initially thought we didn't have any Canadian change to pay the $2 (Kathy had a $10 Canadian bill on her) but we then remembered that we had several loonies ($1 Canadian coins) in the front of the RV.  Kathy took the 5 loonies over to the German couple’s site and gave them 2 loonies asking nothing in exchange – figuring she still had 3 loonies left to pay for our site.  Somehow, she ended up a loonie short and had to use 4 U.S. quarters to pay $1 of our $12 fee.  We still have no idea what happened to the other loonies and think we’ll find them at some point in the oddest place.

After setting up, we walked down to the lake.  The wind was blowing pretty good and the lake actually looked more like an ocean, with waves and white foam, than a lake.  It was also pretty darn cold! The view was extraordinary!  Standing on the rocky beach, you could turn in around in a circle and see mountains that surrounded you for 360 degrees.  It was the most beautiful place Kathy has ever stood and it brought her to tears.

For Joy, it was a rock hound's delight! She’s discovering that she’s a closeted geologist and while Kathy keeps her eye to the sky for mountains, Joy keeps hers to the ground for rocks (and gold.)  We built our version of a Native American rock sculpture, as did several visitors before us, and then walked along the beach looking for agates. Joy reminisced about a childhood trip to Mille Lacs Lake in Minnesota and agate hunting with her mom. We returned to our site, ate dinner and built a fire.

Kathy had a wonderful roaring fire in no time so we decided to make S’mores.  I was leery with bear activity and marshmallows and chocolate but we cooked quickly and enjoyed the fruits of our labor.  We were exhausted from the drive so we went to bed early. Frances was ready to play at her usual 5 AM and we decided to get an early start on the road so we were off by 8 AM.

The road led to Destruction Bay, a town that was named during the building of the Alaska Highway for all of the equipment it destroyed during construction.  Let it be known that it continues to live up to its name as it has some of the worst roads we’ve ever driven on.  Apparently, the US definition of the word “paved” and the Yukon definition of the word “paved” differ quite significantly.  Not only were the roads not paved for several miles, they were gravel with a washboard base which shook the RV to its very core, even at 20 mph. Kathy kept looking up at the new flat screen TV that was installed this past summer and hoped that wouldn’t fall on Joy’s head!

When we finally arrived at the actual “road construction,” we had to wait in line for a pilot truck to lead us beside the shoulders they were working on.  Yes – the shoulders, not the frickin’ roads! We are still trying to figure out how to get back down to the lower 48 without driving that section of the Yukon again.  Kathy keeps picturing a helicopter with the RV and Jeep dangling underneath as it flies back to Kluane Lake! When we neared the end of construction we were almost at the Canadian border.  Kathy swore that once we crossed border we would be driving on blacktop again and threatened to stop the RV, get out, and kiss it.

Entering Alaska USA was a quick meeting with a friendly smiling border patrol agent who simply asked about any fruits and vegetables.  We had purposely not stocked any but did tell a small white lie as we said “no” and then remembered we had two plums in the fridge.

About 9 miles after the checkpoint we rolled upon the Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge Visitor’s Center, the place we would call home for the next 2 months.  Although we were driving another 83 miles to the refuge headquarters, we decided to stop in and take a look around.  We also knew that our future boss, Kay Lynn, might be at the center.  

The building is almost as spectacular as the view from its deck.  It’s a huge cabin built in the trapper cabin style only much larger and with a much nicer and larger food cache (not used for food.)  We walked in the front door and heard a cheerful voice say, “Welcome to Tetlin.”