Bill and Me in the Wee RV - North to Alaska

Greetings from Lac La Hache, British Columbia

At the end of the 28^th day of our journey we have logged 7,140 road miles in addition to 408 nautical miles on the Alaska Marine Highway and said good-bye to Alaska. Since my last post from the gorgeous Kenai Peninsula we looped back through Anchorage over to eastern Alaska, stopped in Haines long enough for Bill's daily ice cream fix, then drove the Wee RV aboard a ferry for a two day trip on the Alaska Marine Highway through the Inside Passage down to Prince Rupert, Canada. We are now headed to Vancouver, BC. We’ve crossed the Canada/US  border so many times this month they probably have us on a “watch list” for a dirty RV with two bicycles hanging off the front and suspicious activity. However, my Canadian exposure hasn’t helped much because, as the official bookkeeper and navigator of this trek, I still have to depend on my cheat sheet converting liters to gallons and kilometers to miles.

Before I show you some of Bill's new photos I want to share from my journal some cool trivia I’ve learned about local lingo and culture in Alaska:

    *A Sourdough is any Alaska or Yukon old-timer.

    *A Cheechako is a newcomer, generally someone who hasn’t spent a winter in Alaska.

    *Native Alaskans are referred to as “First Nation”. 

    *Chaga is a wild mushroom that looks like burnt charcoal and is almost as hard as wood. It grows as a parasite on birch trees in extremely cold regions of northern latitudes like Alaska. I looked this up after seeing a big sign that said "Got Chaga". (Sounded to me like it might be some kind of social disease!)
  *In Barrow, Alaska the sun comes up around May 10 and doesn't set again until around August 2. That's eighty-five straight days of light. Talk about light therapy! Then the trade-off comes; in winter they have seventy-seven days without sunlight.

   OK, that's enough Alaska trivia. Now it's time for the show...

       We took a walk along the beach under some 

           cliffs near Homer and saw 75 or more American

     bald eagles nesting and feeding on halibut. It was

an amazing sight to behold! 

Young eagles have brown speckled 

feathers and do not get the white head

until fully matured. This guy is chowing 

down on a halibut we watched him

take away from the seagulls who caught it.

These halibut are the biggest fish I

have ever seen. Who but Bill would

take a picture of a skeleton to prove it?

Here a salmon, there a salmon,

everywhere a salmon!

Bill wanted to show his forestry friends

this alternative use for log skidders.

Kluane National Park was in one of the

Canadian crossings we had to make

to get where we wanted to go in Alaska.

This old raggedy fellow was having

breakfast along the road as we passed.

                                 The Russian influence is evident in
                    names of streets, rivers, and towns. 
                    This is a historic Russian Orthodox
                    church and cemetery in Ninilchik where
                    we camped and saw all the eagles.

Besides the falls, this area's claim to fame is 

having the coldest recorded temperature 

in North America of -81.4 degrees in 1947.

We had never heard of this US National

Park and were pleasantly surprised that

our route took us right by it.

Hammer Museum in Haines, AK

where we caught the ferry.

The first ferry on the Alaska Marine Hwy we

took didn't leave until 2:00 AM and was to arrive 

in Juneau at 6:00 AM so we didn't get a cabin for

that leg of the journey. You should have seen Bill and

me trying to sleep on two couches in the ferry's cocktail

lounge! Several passengers actually pitched tents on the

deck and anchored them down with duct tape. Many others

stretched out on deck chairs with sleeping bags. By the 

next ferry boarding we were smart enough to get a wee

cabin which was surprisingly comfortable, especially 

after our basic training in close space living.

Scenes along the Alaska Marine Highway:

Somebody's private little "row boat"

Tug in the harbor

Semis, RVs,cars,trucks, motorcycles
and bicycles all rode the ferry.

Float planes were everywhere

View from rear of our ferry, The Taku

                                   

Whimsical fellow in yard on one island stop.
I'm sure they get tired  of tourists
tromping by gaping at their homes.

   

                            Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau

                    Couldn't resist this Juneau Bug shot!

         Hopefully we'll reach Vancouver tomorrow and
              try our hand at navigating a big city instead of
              the wilderness. Stay tuned to see if Wild Bill can
              parallel park the Wee RV in downtown Vancouver....