RV Date 030899
Went to the grocery last night to get a few things. Prices in Anchorage are unbelievable! Milk is $3.93 per gallon. Tomatoes are $3.99 per pound and grapes are $2.99 per pound. We told the clerk we hoped he made a lot of money to be able to afford to live here.
Started out from Anchorage towards Valdez. Hit some very, very rough road that is being redone between Anchorage and Glennallen. We stop as usual for lunch, go into the RV and ..... DISASTER! The pantry had flown open and a brand new bottle of Grand Marnier is broken all over the floor! We briefly consider grabbing for straws but there is too much glass around. Sadly we mop up the floor being comforted that the smells emanating from the soaked carpet will be all we have to remember for some time to come.
Without further ado we head for Valdez and hit even worse road. We hit air on one bump and were convinced that all our dishes would be broken - to say nothing of the poor cat hitting the roof. When we stopped, though, everything was OK.
This was a very beautiful drive today. The sky was bright blue with lots of sunshine. Huge mountain vistas with lots of glaciers, lots and lots of rivers and creeks. One of the most striking things we have noticed about Alaska, and Canada for that matter, is that there are no fences! You could literally stop your car almost anywhere along the road, throw on your boots and backpack, pick up your compass and head off in any direction with no one or nothing to stop you. (Bears, of course, are another problem.) There are lots and lots of trails but, we suspect, most people don't use them once they get familiar with the area. People stop to fish wherever there is a likely stream with no fences to block their way to the water, or in the middle of the water, or under the water.
Another thing we have noticed is how low the timber line is. Because we are so far north, trees don't grow much above 2000 feet or so. That makes the mountains look very tall (which they are) and very bare (which they also are).
After coming over Thompson Pass, right next to Worthington Glacier, we're in Valdez for the night.
RV Date 040899
We have heard a lot of horror stories on the road but....a man this morning said he pulled into this campground only to discover the Jeep he was towing wasn't behind him! The bolts holding the hitch had apparently sheared off. He looked for it for two hours and couldn't find it. No telling where it is!
Went on a tour of the Alyeska Marine Terminal this morning. On the way there found out that Valdez was wiped out in the 1964 earthquake and resulting tidal wave. As a result, the existing town has been rebuilt since that time in a different place. Because it is new it has a feel of being planned. The downtown area and small boat harbor, for example, are well taken care of and tourist friendly. We contrast this with Homer which was completely the opposite.
The Marine Terminal is very interesting. We saw a tanker being loaded, saw all the various devices for recovering the bilge water from the tankers which is laden with oil and heard about all the plans now in place in case of another oil spill.
The pipeline is very controversial in Alaska right now because BP has proposed to buy out the interest of Arco. That would give BP a 70 something percent interest in the pipeline. People are afraid with this much clout things would change - and not for the better. There is real concern about the age of the pipeline and possible structural damage. It remains to be seen what will actually happen.
This afternoon we saw wild salmon spawning in a stream near town. It is incredible to watch these fish fight up to a very shallow body of water. They flop around and make lots of noise because half of their bodies are out of water. After spawning they die, and dead fish are prevalent in this small stream. Because it is so close to town, we believe bears and other wildlife that would ordinarily feed on these fish stay away.
Then we went salmon fishing in the bay. Mack caught two pinks and some other weird thing which we threw back. We watch sea otters playing about 50 feet from us. The salmon are right by the bank so no boats are required.
Tomorrow we head for home.
Supplemental Log
People have asked us questions which we have been unable to answer directly. Some are below.
What about golf? Golf courses up here are few and far between. The population of most areas won't support one and the slow growing season and harsh winters make them hard to keep up. There were 3 in Fairbanks - one of which advertised half price green fees after 10 pm - and the same in Anchorage. The one we wanted to play was in Denali until we found out it consisted of 5 holes. You could play as many holes as you wanted, but you would play the same 5 over and over again.
Are you going to take the ferry home? When we originally talked about this trip, we wanted to take the ferry from Valdez back to Bellingham, Washington. After we were told the price for our 50+ foot rig and ourselves we replied we didn't want to BUY the ferry, we merely wanted to ride on it for a while. That didn't change the price so we are driving both ways.
What about selling the rig up there? We talked about this and even lightened the load in case it might happen. What we found, however, were new RV lots in the bigger cities and towns and a used rig on every empty corner with a "For Sale" sign in the window. Decided we'd do better trying to sell it in the lower 48.
What about TV? Our satellite dish has not worked since Vancouver. Neither has anyone else we talked to. The satellite is so low on the horizon up here that the small 18 inch dishes can't receive it. They tell us a 24 inch dish works better. In Canada the CBC has been available on regular antenna in every small village and hamlet. In Alaska it's been tougher although we have had cable in many of the parks where we have stayed. Mostly we haven't missed it all that much. You will note, however, that we are leaving in time to try to get home before football season.
What about Canada? We could rave on and on about Canada and Canadians. We have never met a Canadian who was not smiling, friendly, helpful and polite. Even the customs official who tossed our rig looking for guns was smiling and polite! Anytime an idiot passed us on the road we knew it was an American. Their roads are far superior to those in Alaska. They understand the need for rest areas and for trash cans - there is one or the other every 30 to 50 miles or so. When they repair their roads they do not tear them up for two years. They fix small portions at a time and then move on. They honor their natives much more than Americans. In fact, instead of some tortured hyphenated name they simply refer to them as First Nations since they were here first. We think Canada is a great place!
Who wrote this log? We both did. Andi supplied the words while Mack supplied the editing and many of the ideas. As with most things we do, it was a collaborative effort.
Would you come back? Absolutely! But we would never drive the Alaska Highway again. Once in a lifetime is enough. There were many places where our behemoth 35 footer just wouldn't fit. What we would do is take the ferry so we could stop at places like Sitka and Juneau and then rent an RV in Anchorage and drive to where we wanted to go. Or we would put a camper on the pickup and still come on the ferry. That way we could spend as much time as we wanted without being on someone else's schedule.
Final Thoughts...
So now we head home - wherever that may be. We still don't know. We have talked about what the highlight of the trip was. Although we enjoyed all of the attractions we visited, we decided the highlight was the Place itself.
Our poor vocabulary really can't describe adequately what we have seen here. The immense vastness of this land. The incredible beauty that changes around every curve. From the mighty Yukon River in the north to the pristine quiet of Prince William Sound in the south. Mt. McKinley, or Denali as the natives call it, dominates the landscape for hundreds and hundreds of miles. The green hues of Emerald Lake and the tortured moonscape of the glaciated Tormented Valley. Coastline as beautiful as you have ever seen with plunging, glacier fed, waterfalls. Mountains so jagged they look as if they would cut the sky open. Ice blue glaciers falling off of mountaintops and into the seas. It is all so wild and so open and free.
This has truly been the trip of a lifetime and we would not have missed it for the world. Any of you who are thinking of coming to Alaska - quit thinking and start acting! You owe it to yourself to see this place.
The native Athabascans don't have a word for good-bye. They believe if someone or something touches you, it lives on in a piece of your heart. Instead they use the word T'aal.
T'aal Alaska!