August 9, 2009

Home at 6 pm.

Thoughts and impressions.  It is a long long drive to Alaska. Montana is not up north.  Alaska is a huge and sparsely populated state.  There is so much land untouched.  Wonderful.  The mosquitoes were not as bad as expected.  Forest fires were worse.  Didn't see many birds, strange. Sorry we didn't see the mountains.  There is alot of subsistance living.  Shacky cabins.  Didn't see many large houses.  Must be in cities. Internet and Sirrus radio reception is not reliable.  Salmon is so important and the count is getting less.  Fisherman are crazy to catch the fish.  Salmon is important to people and animals. Alaska has much that reminded me of Montana only bigger and farther and more.  More wildness, more forests, bigger and more rivers and glaciers, more animals not just in parks, homesteading not to long ago($2.50 per acre).  Interesting trip.  Cost $5500.  Otto and Spoon did well.  Otto is glad to be home.Conrad too.  Me, I suppose.  Spoon,I don't know.

August 7 and 8 2009

On to Glacier.  Hadn't been here is  a long time.  Drove over Logan Pass,"Going to the Sun".  Narrow and beautiful.  Ate at Saint Mary's.  Camped at Lake McDonald's campground.  Finished up the last of the meals I cooked.  Good timing.

August 6, 2009

Shelby"s BD.  Mailed Travis his BD present.  Some very interesting towns along the Highway 20 across the top of Washington.  Stopped at a lake for lunch and are staying at an RV park in Kettle Falls on the Columbia River and and LakeRoosevelt, formed by Grand Coulee Dam.  Hot so enjoying the air in the RV. Home soon.

August 5,2009

We arrived back in the lower 48 and went into the Cascades National Park.  We took 2 short walks.  On the first one I got stung 2 times by I guess a hornet.  He was powerful and my hand an leg got quite swollen.  We went to a talk that night on Native Ameican stories.  We camped by a lake that was a beautiful blue.  It was on the Skagit River and there were 3 dams and lakes on it. Too badfor the salmon that used to spawn there.  No more. Nice park created in 1968 so fairly new.  to see it one must hike.  A black tailed deer in campsite.  Old growth forest surrounded our RV. Conrad is a tree ugger and lumberjack.

August 4, 2009

Heading home fast.  We camped at Spences Bridge at a very old RV park.  It is not even in the books and most of the electric plugs are for 20 amp which is what my mom and dad used.  It was a place from the way past.  The washer and drier were in an old vacant house that at one time was the home of the owners,but now housed a Mexican picker to help the new owners harvest their crops.  Oh, they had a fruit stand and the fruit and vegs were great. We took a short walk up a goat trail to a waterfall. I did fine until night then started getting bad dreams. All was fine and we moved on the next day.

August 3, 2009

We camped at Boyes Lake.  It was a provincial campground and nice like all the others.  So clean.  It was hot so we stayed quiet.  Otto stood in the lake to cool off.

Aug 1 and 2nd, 2009

We drove to Stewart BC and Hyder, Alaska.  We camped on top of the hill and then drove down the 44 miles.  We camped by a lake and went swimming both days.  Stewart is a very quaint little town that retains some of the charm of days gone by.  Hyder, Alaska is quite rundown.  Stewart has paved roads and a border crossing, Hyder has dirt roads and no border crossing.We did see bears at the viewing platform.  We saw 2 brown bears fishing for salmon and 2 black bears strolling the road.  Beautiful scenery.  Glaciers and glaciated mountains.

July 30and 31, 2009

Moved on to Whitehorse, Yukon.  We camped at an RV Park so the animals could have air(It is hot) and I wanted to wash clothes and shower.  We went out to dinner at the place 3 people had told us about.  We had ribs and they were good.  Will have left overs tomorrow.  We bought some groceries in some very confusing stores and went home to bed.