Into The Wilderness of Minnesota

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We arrived in Ely MN before noon on Friday. We stopped at the post office and picked up our mail, then headed to Fall Lake Campground, a unit of the Superior National Forest, about 10 miles east of Ely. We have spent the last three days getting ready for a two week canoe trip in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. It is amazing that we did not forget anything essential considering we left home 3 1/2 months ago without actually packing for this trip.

In all our past trips to the BWCAW we have traveled with our good friends Wayne and Lynda. This year Wayne and Lynda are going to New England instead, so we will be traveling alone in the Boundary Waters for the first time. We had not made a reservation for our entry, so this afternoon we went to our favorite outfitter to see what entry permits were available for our put-in tomorrow.. There were lots of choices, but most were for areas that were not particularly appealing. Finally we chose the entry point at Little Indian Souix River and snagged the last permit for that entry point. We put in there in 2005 and will roughly follow the route we did that year. We plan to take out on Sunday September 4. Until then we will be out of touch.

So that's the news from Lake Wobegon, where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average.

Ripping Across Canada

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After leaving British Columbia we entered Alberta. About this point the terrain became rather flat and dull and the temperature increased into the 80s. This was miserable for us since we hadn't hardly seen 70 degrees since May. At least the highway was good; straight and smooth. From here on out we are just making miles and trying to get to Ely MN for our camp site reservation on Friday August 19. We bought 95 gallons (360 liters) of fuel at the Flying J in Edmonton. We spent Monday night at a pull-off near Bezanson AB, We spent Tuesday and Wednesday nights in Walmarts at North Battleford SK and Portage la Prairie MB, respectively. We are making about 450 miles per day with frequent stops. We zigged south and bypassed Winnipeg and entered North Dakota north of Grand Forks. We spent Thursday night at another Walmart in Hibbing MN.

It's good to be back in the USA.

Repairs in Fort Saint John BC

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We spent last night at a rest area on the Alaska Highway about 30 miles west of Fort St. John BC. We cruised into Ft. St. John about 9:00 AM and saw the Inland Kenworth facility on the right. This is the Cummins service facility that we knew had the part I needed. I first drove past the facility, thinking, shoot, they won't have time to look at us either, as was the case in Whitehorse. But Dorcas said "What do we have to lose?" So I u-turned back to the shop.

There are actually two divisions here. One services over-the-road trucks and the other services heavy machinery and equipment. The truck service manager said they didn't work on motor homes. It apparently distresses the truckers when there are motor homes in the bays. He did hook us up to his diagnostic PC, and he confirmed what we already knew: bad Engine Speed Sensor. He said maybe the guys next door in the equipment division could work on it. Sure enough Derek said he could look at it right now. He did another computer diagnostic test which showed the same results. Bad engine speed sensor. We had had 255 events of lost engine RPM signal. There are actually two identical sensors; one is identified as the Engine Speed Sensor and the other is the Engine Position Sensor. They are identical parts, mounted side-by-side on the crankcase and perform similar functions. Apparently they also send redundant engine speed signals to the ECM, which is why the engine was still running. Normally, it is a simple job to replace the part; it is usually very accessible and an easy bolt-on. Kinda like a spark plug. But nothing is easy on a motor home. The frame rails obscured access, and there was other equipment in the way too. Derek could not even see the part, much less access it. He agreed to do the repair, but could not accurately estimate how long it would take until he started taking parts off. He guessed at least three hours, probably more, at $130/hour. OUCH! Well, we were a million miles from home, we were already in the bay, the part was available, he had time to it and we had the day to spare. We were probably operating on borrowed time anyway, so we bit the bullet and authorized the work. Derek suggested that since one sensor was bad, we might want to consider replacing the other while he was in there. What's another $50? Let's go all in!

Since we had some time to kill, we decided to drive on over to Dawson Creek, "Mile 0" on the Alaska Highway. It was 50 miles away and on our route, but we could save some time by going on over there and see the sights, rather than stopping again later. Dawson Creek was a major hub during the building of the Alaska Highway. The town is the western terminus of the Northern Alberta Railways and was used to bring equipment for the construction of the highway. There is a very nice museum there depicting the building of the highway. More than any other museum or exhibit we saw it showed the hardships and suffering the highway workers endured.



We visited the "Mile 0" marker in town one block south of the actual Alaska Highway. It is ironic that we first passed Mile 0 on our way home and almost 2 1/2 months after first entering Alaska. On our way back to Fort Saint John we detoured onto an original section of the historic Alaska Highway and crossed the historic wooden timber bridge over the Kiskatinaw River. The bridge was built on a curve to conform with the crossing of the gorge. It is the last remaining original timber bridge on the Alaska Highway.




We arrived back at Inland Kenworth about 3:30 and Derek was still under the coach. I was dismayed to see my starter motor on the floor and all my engine coolant and hydraulic fluid in buckets. YIKES! Derek had replaced the sensors and was putting everything back together. Since the hydraulic system had been drained I asked him to replace a hydraulic hose which I had previously observed to show signs of cracking. In order to access the sensors he had to remove the starter, the hydraulic pumps and the air compressor. The compressor is water cooled, meaning the coolant had to be drained. I was lucky that he was very careful with the fluids. He had steam-cleaned his buckets and kept the buckets covered while doing the work. He was able to recover all these fluids. This was good, because I had spent almost $300 to replace these fluids in May. Derek finished up by 5:30. I was fortunate that he only charged me for 5 hours of labor. He had tested the other working sensor that he had replaced, and it was out of spec and appeared to be failing as well. It was a good thing we stopped.

Liard River Hotsprings BC

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Another must-do stop along the Alaska Highway is the Liard River Hotsprings.  It is a British Columbia provincial park and has a very nice campground.  We parked in site No. 13 where we had a very remarkable wildlife encounter.  We have seen a bear or a moose almost every day of our trip.  Our sightings have been so common that we rarely bother now to stop and take a picture.  We just point and say "bear"; maybe slow down in case it decides to run out into the highway.  I had made myself a promise that I would post no more bear or moose photos, but hey, when a sow and three cubs stroll through your camp site and climb a tree 50 feet away, what can you do?  Although they were black bears, the mama and at least one of the cubs was a reddish brown, perhaps cinnamon.  Actually only two of the cubs went up the tree.  Mama and the 3rd cub were rattling the bushes under the tree.  After a while the two cubs came down the tree and the whole family wandered away.  Big fun!





About 6:00 PM we walked to the hot springs and enjoyed a nice soak.  At the upper end of the spring head the water is almost unbearably hot.  At the lower end of the pool it is just tolerable.  The flow then passes over a small dam into another pool and the water there is very comfortable.  We visited the springs once more in the morning before checking out and continuing our journey southbound.



Since leaving Chicken and Alaska we have moved a significant distance southward.  It is also now the middle of August.  Consequently, we are finding that daylight length is approaching normal.  It is actually getting dark at night and staying that way until morning.  We now can tell when it is time to get up.

Watson Lake YT

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No trip down the Alaska Highway would be complete without a stop at Watson Lake and its famous "Signpost Forest". Watson Lake was created as a construction camp during the building of the Alaska Highway. In 1942, a simple signpost pointing out the distances to various points along the tote road was damaged by a bulldozer. Private Carl Lindley was ordered to repair the sign, and decided to personalize the job by adding a sign pointing towards his home town, Danville, Illinois, and giving the distance to it. Several other people added directions to their home towns, and the idea has been snowballing ever since. Today there are over 70,000 signs in the "Signpost Forest". The town adds new posts as necessary.



Dorcas had previously carved our message into a cedar shake we had liberated from a construction site.  Sign spaces within easy reach were non-existent. I leaned a timber against a post and tacked our sign up at about the 9-foot level. I hope we can find it if we ever go back!

We had read about The Northern Lights Centre and thought it might be interesting and fun. It was both. The main feature was a cool 3-D like video animating space travel and Canada's participation in the International Space Station, projected on a domed screen. It was like being at Disney. The second video presentation showcased the beautiful dancing northern lights.

Whitehorse YT

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We departed Dawson City late in the afternoon heading south and east on the Klondike Highway towards Whitehorse. We drove a few hours before spending the night on a roadside pull-out on a bluff overlooking the Pelly River and Pelly Crossing.



Whitehorse is by far the biggest town we have been in for a long while. About a week ago and a million miles away, in the boonies of Alaska, an engine warning light appeared on the coach. The error code indicated loss of engine RPM signal. The error appeared to be intermittent, and there seemed to be no loss of power or performance, so we had continued on. What else could we do?  Whitehorse has a Cummins engine service facility, so I dropped in to see if they could take a look. No go. It would be a week before they could get to us.  Besides that, they didn't have the part I need, the Engine Speed Sensor.  They located me the part at a Cummins facility in Fort St. John, BC, 825 miles away, but on our route.  If the part fails completely, the engine dies.  We're keeping our fingers crossed.



We decided to park at the local Walmart, partly because we still thought there was a chance we could end up in a service bay, and didn't want to waste money on a campground if we needed to move. We frequently park at Walmarts; most are very hospitable to RVs. This one actually had a large sign welcoming RVs and directing them where to park. During our 3-night stay in Whitehorse there were perhaps 40 more RVs in the lot. Cool!



Whitehorse is near the headwaters to the Yukon river and the stampeders passed through here on their way to Dawson City and the Klondike. At Dawson City the Yukon was wide and muddy, but here it was clear, green and relatively narrow. There is a hydroelectric dam just outside of town, and we viewed the king salmon negotiating the fish ladder. These fish have migrated over 800 miles from the Bering Sea to spawn in the creeks in the headwaters of the Yukon. They hold the fish on the ladder in a viewing area for a short while so they can count them and determine their sex and whether they are hatchery-bred or wild.

The Yukon Transportation Museum here was very interesting and chronicled modes of travel from snow shoes and skis, dog sled, sleigh, horse drawn wagons, boats, all types of airplanes, buses, trucks, cars and trains. Lots of military vehicles were on display since Whitehorse was a military town. Nicely done museum.   A restored DC-3 was mounted on a post in front of the museum and served as a working wind vane.

Perhaps the highlight of Whitehorse was a tour and tasting at the Yukon Brewing Company. We sampled a number of brews and bought a couple of growlers. The brewery has a bottle washing machine and recycles used bottles from other breweries that have been shipped to the Yukon.



At Whitehorse we have again entered onto the Alaska Highway and have basically turned the corner and are headed towards home.

Dawson City YT

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One thing about the town of Chicken. There is no shortage of puns and cute sayings on T-shirts and bumper stickers related to chickens, eggs, etc.. Anyway, we scrambled out of town about 11:00 am, headed for the Canadian border. We continued on the Taylor Highway, until it cut north to Eagle AK (is there some sort of bird theme working here?) We then continued on the Top of the World Highway and crossed the border into the Yukon Territory. The crossing was smooth, but the border agent kept asking if we had been searched or had any trouble at any previous border crossing. The answer was no, but I figured if we had had trouble, he would have already been aware of it. So why ask?





At this point the road improved significantly. It was paved and relatively smooth. The topography also changed; it became almost alpine-like in appearance, with few trees. After a few hours we came to a high bluff and saw Dawson City from above. We descended the hill, crossed the Yukon River on the free ferry and proceeded to the Gold Rush Campground, where we made camp.






Dawson City is where it all happened. It is located at the confluence of the Yukon and Klondike Rivers and this is where the stampeders were all headed. Gold was discovered in 1896, but the word didn't get out until 1897. By 1898 the rush was on. About 100,000 stampeders headed for Dawson City, most through Skagway and Dyea and across the White Pass or Chilkoot Pass. After a grueling 40 mile hike, hauling 2000 pounds of gear, they could build a boat and put-in at Bennett Lake, the headwaters of the Yukon River. From there they could paddle, row, pole or sail to Dawson City about 600 miles down-river. Only about a third of the stampeders made it, and when they arrived at Dawson City, they found all the best claims had been already staked. Most went broke.





Dawson City is a very historic town with many original buildings still intact. We took a walking tour of town with a costumed interpreter from Parks Canada (the Canadian version of our National Park Service), where we toured the old post office, the Palace Grand Theatre, the Bank of British North America, and the Red Feather Saloon. A number of elaborate government buildings were also established during Dawson City's boom years. Dawson City has taken measures to assure that the city retains its historic character. New buildings must be built in the 1898 style.







A number of notable authors lived in or near Dawson City. Jack London came to Dawson City during the rush and his experiences inspired some of his greatest works. His cabin has been re-located to the town. Pierre Berton one of Canada's most prolific and popular authors grew up in Dawson City in the 1920s. Robert Service lived here some years after the rush and after he had already been established as a successful author, but still drew inspiration from the tales of the old stampeders living here. Service is perhaps best known for his verse "The Cremation of Sam McGee".

There are strange things done in the midnight sun
By the men who moil for gold;
The Arctic trails have their secret tales
That would make your blood run cold;
The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,
But the queerest they ever did see
Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge
I cremated Sam McGee.

Service composed the verse one evening while walking in Dawson City. He wrote it down the next morning from memory. The verse was complete except he didn't have a name for the title character; he needed a name to rhyme with "Tennessee". Service saw McGee's name on a bank form while working at the bank in Whitehorse and asked him for permission to use his name.

I personally like the blessing Service wrote on his 6th birthday, said to be his first poem:

God bless the cakes and bless the jam;

Bless the cheese and the cold boiled ham:
Bless the scones Aunt Jeannie makes,
And save us all from bellyaches.
Amen

Finally, We drove up on Bonanza Creek, the site of the Discovery strike that started the gold rush of 1898. The town owns a claim and lets visitors work the claim. We toured Dredge No. 4 one of the biggest gold dredges ever made, almost 300' long. Surprisingly, the dredge used electric power. All up and down the Klondike river, Bonanza Creek and other areas there were tell-tale ridges of dredge tailings.

Photo of the Week - Moose Meets Ram

When a Dodge Ram 3500 hits a moose there are no winners.  This truck hit a moose somewhere on the Taylor Highway, but was still able to drive into Chicken under its own power.  Pretty tough truck.  No report on the condition of the moose.

Chicken AK

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To get to Chicken AK one must travel up the Taylor Highway from Tok. The first part of the road is paved and has huge frost heaves. It then turns to dirt and becomes very narrow with soft shoulders. When it rains the fine sand becomes very slick. It is barely wide enough for two cars to pass, much less two RVs. There are steep drops and no guard rails. They say one or two RVs roll off the side each year. Joy! It was clear and dry the day we passed, so we had little difficulty. When we met an oncoming vehicle we would pull over and slow down or just stop.




Everybody ought to go to Chicken, at least once. It's a pretty authentic Alaskan bush gold camp. Legend has it, when the sourdoughs were naming the town, they wanted to name it Ptarmigan, after the bird that is so common in the area. The problem was they couldn't agree on how to spell "Ptarmigan" and didn't want to be embarrassed. So they settled on "Chicken" instead. Sounds a bit far-fetched to me, but the locals swear it's true; all six of the year-round residents.



There are basically three establishments in Chicken: 1. the Town of Chicken/Chicken Creek/Goldpanner, 2. Beautiful Downtown Chicken/Chicken Creek Cafe/Chicken Creek Saloon and 3. Chicken Gold Camp and Outpost. All provide some camping service ranging from dry camping to 30A hookup. Each operates it's own generator for electricity. There is no cell service and no land phone in Chicken, although one establishment claimed to have a satellite phone, available for emergencies. All three do provide satellite based internet service. Mail comes by air three days per week. The road to Chicken is not plowed in the winter, so most folks leave. About a half dozen hang around and endure the -50F winter temperatures. They have a functioning fire department, although there has never been a call. They have a drill and start up the pumper once a year to make sure it is working.



Chicken is also home to the Pedro Gold Dredge. A dredge is a gigantic gold mining machine. It scoops up ore in a bucket train up front, processes the ore in its belly and extracts the gold, and spits the tailings out the back end. It floats in a creek of its own making and gradually moves forward as the ore is extracted. The Pedro Dredge originally operated on Pedro Creek north of Fairbanks in 1938. In 1958 the the Pedro was moved to Chicken Creek, where it operated until 1967.

Gakona AK

Happy Anniversary! On August 1 I celebrated the fifth year of my retirement. Life is still good.



Upon leaving Chitina we continued north on the Richardson Highway and stopped once again at the Visitor Center for the Wrangell-St.Elias National Park. We watched a film on the Kennecott Mines and listened to a ranger talk on wolves. Unfortunately the clouds were hiding the mountains, as is often the case. We again continued north on the Richardson Highway a few miles past the Tok Cut-off. There we parked the coach at a roadside pull-off and spent the night. The next morning we continued north on the Richardson Highway in the Honda, bound for Paxson and the Isabel Pass. At Isabel Pass we viewed the Gulkana Glacier. After viewing Isabel Pass and the glacier we doubled back and then drove about 40 miles out the Denali Highway. The Denali Highway was built in 1957 and was the only road to Denali National Park until the George Parks Highway was built in 1972. It was cloudy and drizzly, and we had hoped to see wildlife on this road, but nothing was out today. We went as far as Maclaren Summit (4086'). Finally we returned to where the coach was parked and spent another night in the pull-off.

The next morning we doubled back to the Tok Cut-off and headed north towards Tok. We stopped at the historic Gakona Lodge, built in 1929, an old Alaskan roadhouse. The eleven structures here are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. We stopped again at the Nebesna Ranger Station, Wrangell-St. Elias NP. We had intended to drive out the Nebesna road for some excellent views of the mountains. However, it was again drizzling and cloudy, and we expected the mountain views would be obscured. After much heeing and hawing we decided to drive on out the road, and, miraculously, it began to clear and the sun began to shine. We drove about 30 miles out the road. At that point there are three fords that must be negotiated to continue. Each is somewhat worse than the next one, and passage depends on your vehicle clearance and the amount of recent rain. Much to Dorcas' dismay, we forded the first creek, Trail Creek. Piece of cake. I think we could have negotiated the second one, Lost Creek, but Dorcas talked me out of it. Just as well. The third ford was less than a mile further and would probably not have been passable in our vehicle. We turned back to pick up the coach at the ranger station. We continued a bit further up the Tok Cut-off and parked for the night at a pull-out near the Slana River.

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