July 31st – Exploring Dawson
Today started at midnight, like most days do, except we were
not relaxing in the van or asleep instead we had just finished the 11pm happy
hour and the midnight show at Diamond Tooth Gerties.
A short walk back to the
ferry and we were ready to hit the hay, ready for our next day in Dawson
City. So, when we awoke today it was a
bit rainy so we had a slow start to the morning. We headed up to Midnight Dome to get an aerial
view of Dawson City and then wandered around downtown and posted our last blog
post. The day wasn’t full of anything fun or exciting, but the evening is when
Dawson City comes alive. We started our
evening at the Downtown Hotel, the home of the Sour Toe Cocktail. We had
actually tried to have our sour toe cocktails last night but “toe time” was
completely booked up, so we knew what we would have to do tonight. We had dinner at the hotel and at 7:30 we
were able to get our names on the sign-up sheet. We selected our alcohol, the traditional
Yukon Jack whisky, and we waited until our names were called. With the guidance
from the captain “You can drink it fast, you can drink it slow, but your
lips must touch this gnarly toe” we both became members of the Sour Toe
Cocktail club and received our official paperwork. If you are hoping to become a member, make
sure you arrive for sign-up around 7:30 so you don’t miss out!
After our inaugural shots, we headed back to Diamond Tooth
Gertie’s for some gambling (Paul left a bit ahead, Kendra did not) and for the
10 pm show. The 10 pm show is more of a
can-can style show and we were even able to get pictures with the dancers
after! Of course, Paul was first in line and was thrilled to get a photo. After the show we headed back to our campsite
along the Yukon River where we had a campfire (with the free firewood provided
by Yukon Parks) and enjoyed the dusky sky.
August 1- It’s a long weekend?!?
Since we didn’t realize it was a long weekend until we got
off the Dempster, we weren’t sure how busy everything would be. We visited the Sternwheeler Graveyard where
Rupert decided he was too hot and laid down in a mud puddle. This is surprising for those of you who know
Rupert because he HATES getting his paws wet, he jumps over rain puddles to
avoid wet paws, so to lay in a puddle shows that it was a warm day out.
Next, we headed towards Alaska along the Top of the World
Highway. Kendra was going to do all the driving
and therefore do all the talking at the border since Paul is usually driving
at border crossings. Nothing eventful
happened, and it was a pretty easy crossing.
At this border crossing, there was a stop light, then a stop sign a bit
ahead once you got the green light, and then one more stop sign before leaving
the screening area. Since Kendra did not do the last border crossing properly,
she was prepared to stop at the light plus all stop signs. Instead, the light never turned green and the
border guard waved her ahead to the final stop sign, so maybe the Canadian
Border is doing things wrong…just saying.
The Top of the World Highway on the Yukon/Canadian side had
some amazing views but was significantly less paved than we had anticipated. After crossing into Alaska, the road quality
deteriorated and the views disappeared.
We stopped in Chicken Alaska, a must-see according to some tourist books
but alas it was merely a tourist trap so we continued down the road to Tok
(pronounced Toke) for the night. The
campground we stayed in had some friendly Californian van lifers and free
showers!!
It’s amazing the things you take for granted, like access to
your own bed and a shower whenever you please, but we had an amazing night's
sleep after a good (unlimited time) shower.
August 2nd – “Hello this is the North Pole Vet
calling”
We woke up and headed to tourist information. Tok was known as the first major center in
Alaska and was supposed to have a good visitors information area. Well after going I’m not sure they knew much
about their state. Their knowledge was
limited to about 30 miles around Tok and if you wanted a pamphlet or
information for other area of Alaska, well that would be $1 or so each. Crazy!
So instead, we took some pictures of information on our phones and drove
to Delta Junction, the official end of the Alaskan Highway.
The beginning of the Alaskan Highway is indicated by a
monument in Dawson Creek, one we had been to before, it was neat to be able to
see its complementary monument here. You
could also get a certificate celebrating your accomplishment of driving the
entire Alaskan highway, for $3 a certificate.
While we do love ourselves an official certificate, we passed on this
one.
We had been wrestling with where to go from Delta Junction,
we had two choices, South to Highway 8 (the Denali Highway) or head North to
Fairbanks. Due to cloudy weather and a
highly rated hot springs outside of Fairbanks Kendra made the executive
decision to go North.
The community just south of Fairbanks is the North Pole, a
bit of a tourist city with, you guessed it a giant Santa Claus with “Santa’s
House” and Reindeer Academy (aka stables).
We entered the “house”, took some pictures and bought a Christmas ornament. On the way towards the Hot Springs, we came
across a Vet.
As some of you may know Rupert takes special food due to a
health issue he has, a food that in Canada you can only buy from a Vet office. Well, we learned in the United States you
need a prescription to buy special dog food from the vet (which just like in
Canada can only be purchased from a vet) so after explaining the situation the
vet said that they could phone our vet back home and get a prescription then
they would sell it to us, we thought why not and crossed our fingers that it
would work.
5 minutes before closing our Local vet received a phone call
with call display stating it was from The North Pole Vet. Probably out of curiosity they picked up the
phone just to hear “Hello this is the North Pole Vent calling, we have a
patient of yours here. This thought of
what must have been going through our vet’s mind and wondering if this is a
joke call still puts a smile on my face.
Long story short Rupert can still eat his proper food (we will
need to get an official prescription from our vet to make sure we are covered
for future purchases).
We drove to the Hot Springs and spent the evening relaxing
in the hot pools. It was definitely a
highlight!
August 3rd – Into the Wild
We have very little to say about Fairbanks. We had hoped to find a café to relax in and
found none. We looked for things to do
and most tours started at a cost above $200 USD/person and had you leaving
Fairbanks. We walked around their cool
area “downtown” and checked out Pioneer Park, both of which were a
disappointment.
The only thing we really
enjoyed was going to the University of Alaska Fairbanks where the real bus from
the book Into the Wild is currently being restored by the Engineering Department.
It was moved a short time ago as its location was 20 miles down a hiking path where
people with little to no wilderness experience would try to go to causing many
people to require rescue or have their body recovered.
We left Fairbanks and thankfully came across a really cool
bar that caused Paul to burst into laughter.
He turned the van around and Kendra and Paul spent a couple hours
chatting to the bartender, having a pint and looking at the gift shop of Skinny
Dick’s Halfway Inn.
Just before Denali National Park, home to the tallest
mountain in North America, we came to Healy where Kendra read that the exact
replica of the bus used in the movie Into the Wild was stored and
available to anyone to take pictures at.
Well, who can turn down beers and pictures of such a famous bus?
August 4th – The mixed bag of Denali
Most people we had spoken to told us to skip Denali National
Park. Due to a landslide, you can no
longer get close to Mt Denali. For most
people not willing to spend hundreds of dollars to fly and get specialized
tours you can only go to Mile 12, Savage River, which for those who have not
gone to Denali before is nothing. Thankfully
it was a beautiful clear day so we were lucky to actually see Mt Denali from 80
miles away. We were told that this is
the first day in weeks that Denali was visible so we were pretty excited.
We did a few hikes but they were nothing to write home
about, again we were told the jaw-dropping hikes were beyond the landslide.
We ended our time in Denali by seeing a sled dog
demonstration that ended in a puppy race.
The demonstration was fine, the puppy race was as cute as you imagine it to be.
August 5th – South on the Park Highway
The Park Highway is the main highway that travels from
Anchorage to Fairbanks. It is a busy
route with countless tour buses most of which are owned by cruise ship
companies, specifically Princess and Holland America. These cruise ships even have their own hotels
only for cruise ship passengers. There
is also a rail line from two ports south of Anchorage that travel through
Anchorage all the way to Fairbanks with stops in all the key spots. Because of this, there are some incredible communities
we were told to check out, one being Talkeetna, so after doing some laundry
(and having a shower) we headed there.
It was an interesting tourist “city” with live music and market and
religious students asking us questions about what we believe happens when we
die. Unfortunately, torrential
downpours caused us to leave Telkeetna for a movie night in the van as we
listened to the rain.
August 6th – Okay, we are getting excited now!
We drove into Wasilla into the headquarters for the Iditarod
and learned about its past. We also saw
two very creepy taxidermized dogs. NEAT!
After the past few days, Kendra had noticed and been making
comments that the rear passenger tire had been looking a little low. Paul had been checking it and filling it up
with air every couple of days but today it had lost 10 psi in just a few
hours. Paul was now very motivated to
get it repaired, especially since it was Saturday (and everywhere was closed on
Sunday) and we were in the major city of Anchorage.
Thankfully it was a cheap and quick fix to repair the tire,
so $30 and 30 minutes later we were back on the road exploring downtown Anchorage,
then watching a fishing derby, and ending our time having a beer and seeing the
largest chocolate waterfall PROBABLY in the world (according to the plaque near
the display).
Our time in Alaska thus far has been disappointing. In our opinion, Alaska has the same
environment and views as Northern BC and the Yukon but it was more expensive
with more tourists. As we left Anchorage
heading south down the Seward highway our spirits were lifted. The highway south of Anchorage is drop-dead
beautiful and it made us very excited for checking out port cities on the Kenai
Peninsula.
August 7th – Prettier in Whittier
We decided to drive to Whittier, a city known for over 90% (1400
people) of the population living in the same building. It is also a cruise ship port and terminus
location of the Alaska Railroad. This
city is also known for its Glaciers. We
entered the city (through a 2.3-mile one-lane tunnel that alternates between
vehicle traffic, and rail traffic both travelling north and south occupying the
same space). Of course, everything is
controlled by lights and people (to take your money for the toll).
Our first stop was the trailhead for Portage Pass which is a
6 km roundtrip hike up to the Portage Pass down to Portage Lake with constant
views of the Portage Glacier. It was a
beautiful day and the views were worth every step. This was one of the most recent
hikes Rupert was able to do with us. National
Parks in the USA do not allow pets on most trails.
After the hike, we headed towards the commercial area of
Whittier and watched cruise ship passengers line up and take photos. We entered a few shops and were told that the
Salmon run was currently on and that if we wanted to see salmon and bears that
there is a good spot up a dirt road.
After hearing this we jumped in the van, once were arrived at the spot
saw 4 black bears snagging fish right from the creek. It was so cool. (Paul saw 4 bears, Kendra
only saw 2).
After watching the last bear waddle into the woods, we
decided to go out for dinner to a place known for good seafood (it was okay)
and spend the rest of the evening watching a storm roll in, then listening to
the rain hitting the van.
August 8th – Barefoot on a Glacier
After such an excellent day yesterday, we decided to spend
the morning in a coffee shop people-watching and having a cup of coffee. There was only a small coffee shop in town
and due to cruise ship passengers, the coffee shop was packed so although we were
able to get a spot to sit down it was hard to feel comfortable.
After looking at the weather and seeing that it was supposed
to rain all week, we left Whittier with the hope of doing one more glacier hike
before heading further south, we chose the easy Byron Glacier hike a 3 km round
trip “hike” on a flat accessible trail. Because
of the easy hike, Paul decided to wear sandals which was not a wise decision
once we got to the glacier and learned that the trail can continue onto
it. His sandals had no grip at all, but
he knew his bare feet would have better grip so braving frostbite and with
little extra thought he removed his sandals and hiked up the glacier.
Lucky for Paul there were no negative repressions for his
foolishness. *He learned from Kendra’s mistake last year when she wore sandals
on a glacier, tripped, fell and tore a hole in her pants and scraped her knee,
so no sandals appears to be the better option if you are ever in a similar predicament.
We drove to Seward, Alaska to be met with more rain, there
were actually weather advisories for the next couple of days for extreme rain that
could result in rivers bursting their banks so we grabbed a pint, downloaded some
movies and found a quiet place in the woods to watch some movies and sleep.
August 9th – The Exit
The most famous hike in the area is to the Exit Glacier so after
waking up and seeing that it wasn’t actively raining, we jumped in the van and
did the hikes to the viewpoint of the Glacier.
It was nice but as mentioned before Whittier is Prettier.
As we headed back to the parking lot the skies
opened up and the rain started to come; however, today was the first day that
due to rain and consistent internet connection in a local coffee shop we had the
time to upload this blog post before we plan our exit out of Seward towards
Palmer and then to Valdez.
