This morning, Trish laid out M’s Junior Ranger badges and patches on the fabric that she is going to use to display them. We’ve been to quite a few National Parks and Monuments:
We drove South to Denali National Park, where the kids got to work on their Junior Ranger books:
Another badge for the collection:
We stopped by the kennels. The Park Service mushes sleds in the winter through the park for perimeter patrol, search and rescue, scientific research, and trail and facility maintenance:
The sled shed had some displays:
There are about 40 dogs here at the kennels:
A boy and his dog:
The dogs are quite regal:
Stop staring at me!
The tack room, which features the nameplates of dogs no longer at the kennel:
The main attraction of Denali National Park is Mt. McKinley, the tallest mountain in North America. From base to summit, McKinley is taller than Everest, and it is the largest mountain by volume of any mountain situated entirely above sea level. Sightings of the mountain are infamously elusive, as McKinley is so tall it generates its own clouds. There’s only a 30% chance of sighting McKinley on any given day. Today was very cloudy, so we drove South to overnight at a roadside free campground just North of where the best roadside views of the mountain can be had. Hopefully the weather will be good after Shabbos and we can see the mountain as we continue South.
This afternoon I replaced a couple of the cell antenna members that had been broken off by low hanging branches. This is the smallest diameter aluminum pipe Lowe’s had, hopefully it doesn’t affect the antenna’s tuning too much:
Good Shabbos from near Denali National Park! See the trip map for driving details and our current location.
This morning, we drove West to Fairbanks. While we did see two moose on Thursday’s drive, today we did not see any. After reaching Fairbanks and having lunch, we went to the visitor center which had an extensive exhibit area:
The kids completed their Junior Ranger books for the center and received their badges:
You know you’re in Alaska when…
From the visitor center, we went to Arctic Bowl and played a game. Here I am coaching B:
Not that I know what I’m doing myself:
M gives it a throw:
In the end, I narrowly avoided defeat by M, who had two strikes and a spare!
When we fill up the fresh water tank, water sometimes spills back into the “water closet” through the smaller overflow line or the larger vent line when we park at an angle, making a mess. I added hoses with shutoffs to these two holes so that this won’t happen anymore. I just have to remember to open them up again when we’re done driving for the day. This is only a problem when the tank is completely full:
Tomorrow, we will drive to Coldfoot, where we will leave the RV the following morning as we drive with just the truck to Prudhoe Bay, dip our toes in the Arctic Ocean, and drive back to Coldfoot in one day. The day after that, we will drive back down to Fairbanks. It’s a grueling 1,000 miles over 3 days, 75% of it on gravel roads, but we figure if we came this far, we might as well go as far North as we can by car. See the trip map for the driving legs to the Arctic as well as today’s drive and our current location.
A lot of water and mud gets thrown up onto the underside of the fifth wheel. The front compartment is leaking a bit as a result:
I’ve added monster-sized mud flaps, hopefully that will help:
After the mud flap installation, we drove into downtown and visited the MacBride Museum of Yukon History. The museum had an impressive collection of native animals:
Sam McGee’s cabin was also on site. Robert Service, a bank teller at the time, met Sam and asked to use his name in the now-famous poem, The Cremation of Sam McGee.
Old stagecoaches that used to travel between towns during the gold rush:
Is this a compliment?
This is the first electric generator that served the area. Pressurized water was shot into the cups on the left, which turned the generator:
Tourist fun:
White Pass, makers of the first shipping containers:
A local freight train:
Back at the RV, we spoke to the driver of this contraption, a 24 passenger tour bus with 24 sleeping births in the back. The hallway for the sleeping births slides out on the passenger side, and the passengers find their birth and climb a ladder if necessary to get in. Looks a little tight to me, but it’s pretty neat:
Before dinner, I finally got around to pulling out the over-range microwave oven and installing in its place a medicine cabinet door salvaged from the bathroom remodel:
Behold, over-range storage:
Despite encouraging the kids to not play with their food….
We hope to get an early start tomorrow, visit the SS Klondike, and then head North.
Shabbos was interesting at this latitude. Shabbos started at 10:30pm on Friday, but because of the shallow angle of the Sun relative to the horizon at sunset, Shabbos didn’t end until 12:16am on Sunday.
Friday night we heard something moving around in the basement, and we were pretty sure we had a mouse in the RV. In an RV with slides, there are gaps where the hydraulic pistons that actuate the slides enter the undercarriage of the RV. There’s nothing that can be done about this, as the gap is needed to allow the piston to move freely. In cold, wet places, I guess mice smell the food and get up into the RV to find food and somewhere warm and dry to hang out.
Saturday afternoon, around 9pm, we heard the mouse under the kitchen island. Shortly thereafter, he went running across the floor. By blocking off various doors and openings, we were able to get him to jump out of an open door. After Shabbos was over, we set traps in case he came back. This morning, we had caught him in one of our traps. I guess he couldn’t resist coming back in again.
This morning, before we left Clements Lake, I built a cowling for the WiFi Antenna. I had purchased the tub a week ago, but it took this long to find the time to get it installed. This will protect the cell antenna and the WiFi antenna’s center column from being damaged by low hanging branches:
I also finished adding the gas plumbing that allows our catalytic heater to be used in the new RV:
I added a quick release inline with the gas supply under the stove top:
When the catalytic heater’s hose is attached, the hose runs out from under the stove top:
Heading West, we arrived after 10 miles at the town of Stewart, BC. There’s no cell phone coverage anywhere in this area, but we did find WiFi at the local general store:
Continuing West, we crossed out of BC and into Alaska’s Southern panhandle at the three-block town of Hyder, Alaska. We’ve made it to Alaska!
Following Fish Creek, we pulled off into an observation area for watching bears feeding on migrating salmon. Unfortunately, the salmon won’t start running for another few weeks, which might explain why we seem to have beat the crowds here. We didn’t see any bears, but we did see plenty of great views of the river and surrounding terrain:
We continued North onto Granduc Road, following the Salmon Glacier self guided auto tour. The road was gravel and precipitous, but we could see the Salmon River far below as well as a glacial kettle, the blue-water pool seen here:
After 15 miles of driving North, we crossed back into Canada. 5 miles of further driving up to about 3,700 feet above sea level, we reached the Salmon Glacier, Canada’s 5th largest glacier:
On the way back down, we stopped to look at the part of the glacier that is lower down and not covered by snow. The blue ice of the glacier is more evident here:
By now the truck has taken on its Alaska two-tone paint job:
Here’s the terminal end of the glacier:
Returning to Hyder, we crossed back into Canada. The border guard gave us quite an interrogation, which was amusing since the only way into and out of Hyder is via this crossing, so obviously we’ve already been vetted the first time we came into Canada.
Hitching back up in Stewart, BC, we had dinner:
We tried to fill up at the one gas station in town, but it was closed for the night. We have enough gas to get to the next gas station on the Cassiar, about 100 miles away, but not enough to get to the next one if that station is out of action, so we will return to Stewart tomorrow to fill up before heading back to the Cassiar highway. Since Stewart itself is posted as having no overnight parking, we left Stewart. Driving out of town, we didn’t see any pullouts where we could park overnight until we reached Clements Lake, where we were last night.
As I was writing this post, I saw a mouse go running by. I’m not sure if we just picked this one up since we’ve been parked here, or maybe he’s been with us since Shabbos. I put out the traps again, and hopefully we will catch him overnight.
See the trip map for today’s drive and out current location.
The door clasp that holds the RV’s door open is too short because we have a mezuzah mounted to the door frame and the door collides with the mezuzah before it is fully open. The solution was to buy a length of toilet fresh water supply pipe, cut the door clasp in half, and shove the two halves into either end of the pipe. This allowed me to extend the class by about 10 inches:
Leaving the Walmart at Williams Lake, we stopped to fill up on diesel. I had to triple check the pump since in the US diesel is always the green handle, but here it’s yellow, and green is for unleaded:
At a bit under $6 per gallon, it’s no surprise that our first gas station visit in Canada set a new record for the most expensive yet:
On the way out of town, we stopped at the local tourist center. We picked up many pounds of brochures. The center had this car on display, they look like they’re ready for fun:
The theatre showing a regional promotional video was quite authentic:
You could also pretend to be having outdoor adventures:
M loves fishing:
We did laundry today, so we got off to a late start. We drove about 3 hours north to Prince George, British Columbia, where we are overnighting at the Walmart here. This is the last town we will see before we head west on the Cassiar Highway and reach Yellowknife in the Yukon. See the trip map for details.
Facebook
Instagram
Email