North to Alaska

I know, it’s been a few days. We have been camping at Exit Glacier, just north of Seward. A bit of history – William Seward was Lincoln’s Secretary of State, and he was the person who organised to purchase Alaska from Russia for USD $7.2 million in 1867 – it worked out at about 2 cents per acre.
We spent 3 nights at a free campground in the Kenai Fjords National Park and it was superb. 12 tent sites, all nicely separated from each other, with a cooking shelter, bear-proof food locker, potable water and drop toilets. No RVs allowed, which is fine with us – some of those things are so big, they would run our not-so-little tent over and not even feel it. A park ranger visited each night to make sure everything was okay, and to educate campers about being bear and moose-aware. It’s bear country there!

The first night we were there with 2 other families – one on holidays from South Carolina and some locals who had lived in Alaska all their lives. Great people all of them. The next 2 nights there was a tour group there, and the dynamics were really different – groups aren’t interested in anyone but themselves, take over all the available space, break the rules about keeping the area bear-free and are generally best avoided. I’ve been in tour groups like that and hang my head in shame. Anyway …

We visited Exit Glacier, which is just up the road from the campground, and it’s an easy walk to get fairly close to the edge. Greg made the wise observation that ‘Glaciers and sausages are both better seen from a long distance, up close they both look pretty awful’. We also went to Bear Lake, where there is an artificial weir for salmon to jump up, and watched the salmon jump. It’s amazing, the ordeal these fish undergo to reproduce. They were being tagged and released. A couple of days later, we drove past the Kenai/Russian river junction and saw dozens of fishermen standing in the water, fishing for red salmon. Our eyes popped out of our heads, there were so many standing a couple of metres away from each other!

A couple of tour organisations offer boat cruises from Seward to see tidewater glaciers, marine and shore wildlife. We did an 8.5 hour cruise to Aialik tidewater glacier and watched it ‘calve’ – which is where huge bits of the glacier break off and fall into the water. We also saw lots of marine life – orcas, humpback whales, otters, sea lions, porpoises … and other wildlife, but by that time we were both seasick and not taking much notice of what was happening. It was a good tour, though and I was really pleased to see the tidewater glacier.

Campsite at the tent only area at Exit Glacier

No food in tents, no toothpaste or anything else smelly that attracts bears

Our bearspray (we have two cans now) to be kept handy at all times!

Exit Glacier in Kenai Fjords National Park

Up close at Exit Glacier

Aialik tidewater glacier

Tagging Salmon at BEar Creek

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Driving down the Glenn Highway to Anchorage on Thursday was very spectacular – the high snowy peaks of the Wrangell mountains, and 2 glaciers – the huge Worthington Glacier across a valley, and then the smaller but much closer Matanuska Glacier which was accessible via a privately-owned road, but we had our sights set on Anchorage and kept on going.

The highway is in a state of some disrepair due to frost-heave – where the frozen ground rises up and buckles the road’s surface. There are road repair gangs along the way, and sections where the asphalt has been removed and replaced with gravel. Compared with an outback Australian road, it’s still a very good road, though.

We’ve been having a few technical issues, and Thursday ended up being one of THOSE days. We went to a McDonalds north of Anchorage so that I could get coffee and we could use their WiFi to book a place to stay. The WiFi was really slow, and they kept having blackouts and ended up closing until they could figure out what to do, so we kept driving until we got to another McD’s that did have coffee and working WiFi. We booked a suite at a place near the airport, but after being in the suite for about 10 minutes, realised that their WiFi wasn’t working, so packed up, got our money back and went to another motel/RV park on the other side of town where the WiFi was actually working – we made sure before we checked in. We’re still fighting with booking.com about the first place as they are classifying it as a ‘no-show’.
Creekwood Inn, the place we’re staying in, is good – we have a studio apartment with a full kitchen, and there is a coin-operated laundry on site. Everything we need.

The last couple of days have been sunny and warm, with temps up to 70F – which I think is around 20C. We had lunch at the best restaurant in town, according to Trip Adviser – Moose’s Tooth Brewery and Pizzeria. And it was great! Hard Apple Ale, which was a beer rather than a cider, but definitely tasted like apples, and I had a White Pizza (feta, mozzarella, provolone cheeses, artichokes & sun-dried tomato), Greg had an Aloha Way (ham & pineapple). Then Key Lime pie and Rhubarb Crisp for dessert. If anyone can explain the difference between a crumble, a crisp, a betty and a buckle …. I’d love to know. Anyway, it was all delicious, great atmosphere and our waitress got extra brownie points for guessing correctly where we came from. She’s a local, but had spent a Christmas with a friend in NZ and we had a few laughs about how different a Southern Hemisphere Christmas is from an Alaskan one.

We visited Captain Cook’s statue, overlooking Cook Inlet. What a guy! What an explorer! We have been kind of collecting visits to Cook statues and memorials around the world. There is one commemorating his death in Hawaii, on the Big Island, and another one on South Bruny Island that we visited in April, and now this one at the other end of the world, here in Alaska.

We have been driving around Anchorage a bit, and have noticed how many businesses call themselves ‘Arctic – something’, or ‘Polar – something’, which seems a bit misleading as the Arctic Circle is at least 1000kms north of here.

Heading south to Seward today, then further south along the Kenai Peninsula to Homer to do some camping, glacier-watching and other outdoorsy stuff. We have to come back through Anch to head further north to Denali, Fairbanks and beyond.

And here’s the song I wanted to share a few posts ago – Michelle Shocked’s ‘Anchorage’.

http://www.jukebo.com/michelle-shocked/music-clip,anchorage,x5pxsl.html

Pizzas at the Mooses Tooth Anchorge

Captain Cook statue in Anchorage at the head of Cook inlet

Been offline for a couple of days, camping in the Yukon and then across the border in Alaska.
We’ve hit the Big Smoke now, but sadly I couldn’t find a Youtube clip of the most appropriate song. Michelle Shocked seems to have removed her songs from Youtube. Anyway, Leroy says ‘hello’.

I’ll update the blog with posts from the last few days soon.

We’ve just got off the ferry from Bellingham and now we’re in Skagway, staying at the Westmark Hotel overnight so that we can get some food, do some washing and have a look around here. Fay and Ron will be interested to know that the Westmark is owned by the Holland America Line, and there’s a huge cruise ship docked here. Actually, there are 4 cruise ships here today. We’re waiting until a bit later before we go out exploring, so that we can avoid the crowds.

But let’s backtrack to the ferry trip …. gosh, it was good!

I wrote the last post on Greg’s phone while we were waiting to leave Bellingham, and our decision not to put the tent on the deck was further reinforced on the first night, when it rained and was windy enough that one tent almost got blown away. The occupant wasn’t in it, but some guys grabbed it before it fluttered away. We were also glad that we hadn’t used the tent from a community point of view, because we would have isolated ourselves from our fellow-travellers, and missed out on a lot.
When we got to the ferry terminal we had divided our responsibilities – Greg drove the car on, while I took the tent and our super-dooper luxury Thermarest mattresses, walked onto the ferry and got us a couple of sunbeds in the solarium after having a look at a couple of indoor lounge areas and rejecting them in favour of something more outdoorsy. I got on the ferry a couple of hours before Greg – by the time he found me, all the sunbeds and most of the floor space in the solarium had gone. So we settled in and made the most of our ‘space’ – the 2 sunbeds pushed together, with just enough space around the edge for our fridge bag & various other bits & pieces, with the window sill and railing coming in handy for holding and hanging stuff. We met some lovely people, swapped lots of stories and got to see whatever was happening on the water and on land because it was just a few steps away from us. Whales, eagles, icebergs, a glacier or two. At night the overhead heaters in the solarium were turned up, so it was always warm enough.
The ferry had a cafe, but we were able to self-cater as there was a microwave and toaster in the dining room, plus ice, chilled and boiling water and vending machines. Some of the meals in the cafe sounded okay though – ham hocks and lima beans, and one that still has me scratching my head … grilled roast beef.
The Inside Passage was beautiful – so many tree-covered islands, with some really narrow channels at times. Then after we went past Ketchikan, the first stop on the journey, we started seeing ice-capped peaks on the mainland. A picture postcard every few metres.
Skagway was the gateway to the Klondike Gold Rush of the late 19th century. It had all the usual attractions designed to separate men from their money – saloons, painted ladies, gambling and thieves. The main part of the town looks like it did back then, and there’s even a Brothel Museum here (I’m sure I’ll find something witty and amusing to say about that later). Greg has been out exploring, and came back to report that it’s all very expensive and touristy. No surprises there. We’ll go out hunter-gathering at the local supermarket in a while.

Car Deck call. Every 8 hours on the Bellingham to Ketchikan section we are allowed to go down to our car for 15 minutes to get supplies. Most people go down to exercise their dogs (and Cats!)

Judy relaxing in our “berth” in the solarium

The number of tents decrease over the days as they blow down of get to wet.

Sunset on the inside passage ferry about 10pm

We were safe on the Alasakan Ferry with Australian life-rafts

We passed lots of barges towed by tugs along the inside passage

Our last day on the Ferry was bright and sunny