More Denali -- yesterday, 7/19 (part 4)

First, yet another Carribou -- followed by the close-ups of...

... a Momma moose (cow in science terms), and her two babies -- on the side of the road.

Momma had to shoot us her moon shot (just for spite, I suppose!).

More at Denali -- yesterday, 7/19 (part 3)

One last shot of Fannie at PolyChrome -- or was this the Ranger Station at Toklat River?

WOW.... finally saw a bear at Denali --- in the river, crossing and sniffing the air (for food or strangers?).
Don tries on a set of Carribou horns -- just about fits.



This last shot is (yet, another?) Carribou -- off in the distance.

All told, we saw well over 30 snow-shoe hares, a couple dozen Ptarmagins (state bird), two sets of Dall sheep (group of 4, another group of 3), 2 grizzly bears (the local blonde bimbos who really do have more fun!), over 20 Carribou, and, just as we were returning from the last stop, we saw what follows...

More at Denali -- yesterday, 7/19

Here, Don poses at the first "rest stop" on the shuttle bus to Toklat River --- we wanted to see wild-life and check out the Teklanika River campground (nearly all 50 RV sites could accomodate our rig!)

If you look hard enough, there's another Carribou in the middle of the green stuff!

And, then, there's Fannie posing at the PolyChrome Overlook "2nd rest stop"... ultimately, got her "Toklat River" passport stamp --- something worth riding 3 hours to obtain(?).

Skipping ahead, abit... yesterday (7/19) at Denali

It's abit hard to see -- the Ptarmagin, the Alaska state bird... two pics, the 2nd one is easier to notice the family of 3 birds.


Followed by many instances of Carribou; different from the moose, both females AND males develop antlers...

Here you see just one of the two water falls from the glacier...

then, Fannie & Karen, on the trail...





The trail leads to a viewing platform, beyond which we walked on the rocks at the base of the falls.

17-19 Jun -- Stopovers en route, Williams Lake to Prince Rupert

in Beaumont Provincial Park then Glacier View RV park in Smithers... very pretty, and NICE weather!!!



This is at Smithers, Twin Falls Glacier is visible from the Glacier View RV Park, behind Fannie & Karen --- notice the baby bear (in the pic with Paul & Don)?




Here, Fannie is on the trail we took to get a close-up view of the glacier.

17-Jun -- morning Mass, then onward to Prince Rupert

We attended Mass in Williams Lake (while visiting Christy & Bernie, Fannie’s long-lost, best-work-friend from Manila). These are shots in front of Christy’s church (Sacred Heart, same place they were married, 38 years ago) – Alfred, Bernie, Mrs. Alfred, Fannie & Christy, (Alfred & wife were, also, their Alaska travel companions from years past). Wish we could have heard the carillons play!

16-Jun -- visiting with Christy & Bernie

Here marked the arrival of Paul & Karen – the OFFICIAL start of our travel journey together, NORTH to Alaska!



Probst – German style toast to friendship and fellowship, dinner at Christy’s home in Williams Lake, BC!

Day 8 thru 22 (?!?) -- from Prince Rupert to Juneau

Juneau is the Capital city of Akaska --- the ONLY one that cannot be reached by land; only access is by air or by water!

I don't have much more "air time" today, so will post my draft, then hope we can edit this one later, while still in Haines. We just have not had much Internet access, at all; we must shop for Wi-Fi spots via the campgrounds, as the public library approach can be difficult when trying to balance the interests of all four travelers. We just spent 2 days on a ferry that *MAY* have had Wi-Fi, but we didn't think it would,,,, and, none of us thought to ask!?! Oh, well...

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(following draft was done a couple days ago, 29-Jun, while on the 27-hr ferry passage)

WELL,,, some of you have been asking, WHERE THE HECK ARE YOU GUYS?!?

We have had minimal Internet access since crossing into Canada; only ONE campground (Glacier View RV Park near Smithers, BC) for me; there was one other site, during our 3 days in Prince Rupert, but was not reachable from my RV – I had to use Paul’s kitchen table, and didn’t want to abuse my visit so early in our journey. As luck would have it, there were problems with the pending invoices on all THREE of my recent contracts with Sun – each has a different set of administrators, so it was like dealing with a different company – this sucked all the time I could find to get onto a public library terminal (while camped in Wrangell, AK) to interact with the real world.

Oh, Canada – 12-Jun thru 22-Jun
(Border crossing @ Linden, WA – 2hrs; travel to Williams Lake – 2 days)




Here are some shots taken during our visit to Williams Lake (Thurs, 14-Jun thru Sun, 17-Jun)… camped at the Stampede Campground, the venue for their version of Stampede (it’s like the one in Calgary, second in size!). Christy and Bernie were so very gracious – treating us to dinner (twice!), along with a brief tour of their country side (nearby Fraser River canyon, rolling hills, flowers & logging roads)!

WELL,,, we are FINALLY, in Alaska --- I will try posting our travel schedule as a separate attachment; the only parts that match reality are the ferry passages and stop-off points.

So far, our Alaska Adventure has been…
o 20-22 Jun – in and around Prince Rupert (skipped the Ksan museum & exhibits as they were evacuated two weeks earlier, to higher ground, following massive mudslides in Teslin area);
o 22-Jun, Prince Rupert, BC, departure for Ketchikan, AK, stayed at Signal Creek campground (USFS, no hook-ups or phone signal, otherwise very nice camping ambiance!);
o 22-24 Jun – in Ketchikan, AK, touring totem sites, downtown area, etc
o 24-Jun, Ketchikan departure for Wrangell, AK (Arrival 11:30pm – it’s only dark here from about 1030pm thru 0230am, so parking in the dark became Fannie’s job… I could not handle it!)
o 25-28 Jun – in Wrangell, AK (Could have stayed FREE at USFS Nemo Point campsite, but didn’t find it until touring on the last day; could have had full-hookups and Wi-Fi for $5 per day less money, but didn’t learn about that one until we got on the ferry to leave); rainy until Thurs, then blue skies & sunshine reign supreme!
o 28-Jun, Wrangell departure for Juneau (with stop-overs in Petersburg & Sitka, along the way) – this was a LONG passage (27 hours);
o 29-Jun thru 01-Jul – in Juneau for TWO nights, WiFi and full-service hookups (Yippee),,, first time since 18-Jun…. and, we only stayed one day (sigh), so didn’t get to upload the pics I had planned; will try to add them while still in Haines (but early morning, when other folks are not competing!)

Alas, we have arrived in Haines, the "top" of the inside passage; it's 1030pm, we are going to have a stiff drink, and try to get some rest... will hope to find FAST upload in the morning --- have many pics to add, and catch you up on all our doings over the past 10 days of on/off ferry passages (Ketchikan, Wrangell and Juneau -- of course, we attended Mass at 830 this morning, at the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary!)

Ciao, for now.
-Don & Fannie

p.s. FYI -- I have now edited this entry -- still trying to learn how to do offline edits; I just got a tool that *might* work, so will try it tonight. MEANWHILE, I will add some more pics, using a "new" BLOG-day entry, to start catching you up on some of our adventure.

p.p.s. ALL IS GOING WELL, SO FAR; NO MISHAPS, a couple close encounters with trees and bugs, but no damage (other than alot of bug-bites!@!) We left Haines, during the height of their July 4th celebration; arrived at Haines Jctn, YT, just before dinner time (traveled about 180 miles). Tomorrow, we head to Beaver Creek, YT... Found a Canadian "DQ" for dinner -- the pizza was okay, the (scooped, Nestle) ice cream was excellent, the soft-serve was un-spectacular (according to Karen, who surrendered hers to Paul).