#54 WHITE PASS AND YUKON ROUTE

Many of us have heard the stories of the Yukon gold rush of 1898. After the first few prospectors return south with tales of riches to be made it is estimated that 50,000 people arrived in Skagway seeking to get rich. The only way to the Yukon at that time was to climb the Chilnoot trail through the mountain pass to take the rivers north. It was a long arduous climb and many died or gave up and went home. In 1901 the rail line was built through the pass. Today it is a International Historic Civil Engineering Landmark. The rail line climbs nearly 3000feet in just 20 miles.
This is the train just beginning the run up the mountain.

There are some places that mountain side is really steep.

The wooden trestle over a canyon.

The train crosses the international border. This is the only place where you can cross the CAN/USA border without reporting to customs.

However you cannot get off the train. Flags, US, AK BC YT CAN

Believe it or not. That is the trail the the Yukoners traveled up the pass. People traveled in both directions, we were told that it was so crowded that if a person stepped out of line it could take a day or so to get back in. Because many people showed up with nothing but a few supplies and died on the trail the RCMP set up a post on the trail and required every person to have one year of supplies before they were allowed to go on. Those supplies weighed nearly 2000 pounds so a person had to make 20 or more trips up and down the pass and often had their supplies stolen.

A tunnel through the mountain The rail line over the pass of 20.8 miles was built in 18 months. Tens of thousands of men and 450 tons of explosives were used.

Some of the many wildflowers on the route.

The original bridge. Lucky for us we didn't use that one.

#53 ON THE ROAD TO HAINES

We never get tired of seeing the mountains, we were in Valdez for 7 days and it rained some every day. Valdez gets only about 50 days of sunshine every year. It was in the low 40's every morning and there was snow on the mountains above 3500 feet. Valdez gets about 25 feet of snow every year but about 20 miles north in the mountain pass they get over 50 feet

. Finally we get a day of sunshine and many of the peaks were visible.

Sometime traffic gets heavy on the highway. This was a momma and three cubs. Normally they have only two cubs.

A black rabbit.

This is made for some serious snow moving. It will be in use soon, it is dropping close to freezing overnight now and we see snow lower on the mountains everyday.

#52 MEARES GLACIER

On the way out to the glacier face we find these sea otters, they stay together in the ocean in groups of dozens

They float on their backs and often you see the babies laying on their mothers stomach.

The Steller sea Lion weigh up to 1200 pounds, they eat and sleep. (welfare lions) Too lazy to go to shore they climb on the bouy.

Ice bergs from the Columbia Glacier, there we so many that the face was closed. This one has melted down quite a bit. You can see the water running off on the right. Only 10 % of icebergs are above the surface so must be very careful to approach them.

This one is incredibly beautiful. Ice absorbs all colours except blue therefore ice looks blue

We are approching Meares. Glaciers are formed when snow piles up over many hundreds of years and become so heavy that all the air is forced out and turns into ice. When they get heavy enough they begin to slide down the mountains. Most of the one that are on land melt and just tapers down to nothing like the ones we saw earlier. This one flows into the ocean and the front breaks off as it gets to warmer seawater so it is still a wall of ice . It is about 1/2 mile wide and 7 miles long at the face is is about 150 feet high.

Here we are still about 2 miles away so you can see how big it is. We get to about 1000 feet from the face. Its pretty hard to describe, so I'll let you just enjoy the pictures.

Those dark spots are Harbor seals. they are great swimmers but poor on land so they spend most of their resting time on the small ice bergs in front of the glaciers. They can dive to over 600 feet for food.

We had to wait a extra 2 days for the weather to clear but sure are glad we did. Pictures cannot show how magnificent this really looked .

#51 FISH HATCHERY AT VALDEZ

We thought this was kinda interesting how this whole system works. Apparently only about 30% of fish eggs laid in the wild hatch. Many eggs get eaten by other fish and many do not get fertilized

These are silver or pink salmon. Here there are several thousand answering the call of nature to return to their place of birth to spawn.

Instead of a river they are directed into this chute where they make their way up to the top.

And wait here for the final sacrifice. Instead of spawning naturally they are sliced open and the eggs are put into a pail and later transfered to moving water. There are about 3 female fish to every male and the male sperm is put in with the eggs and mixed in. The fish remains are used to make dog food.

Now that is a lot of eggs and therefore a lot of adult fish for all you fishermen next year.

We had a cruise out to the face of a couple of glaciers booked for today (Aug 18) but the weather is bad, the seas are rough so it was cancelled and rebooked for Sat.
. That gives us a couple of days now to relax and catch up.

Some time back I discovered that we had broken the drain from the sink and the water was just running out on the ground. It likely got hit by a rock when we were on a gravel road. Not wanting to poulute the beautiful state too much we arranged to get the repair done in Anchorage. We were at the repair depot right at 0800 and were told that it would be no problem, would take about 1 1/2 hours at $110 per hours. So we sat back to wait. Nearly 6 hours later the job is done and we were thinking oh oh big bill, but were told that the estimate was good and were charged only $165 plus material. Gotta love honest repairmen.

#50 TOWARD VALDEZ

A railroad tunnel was begun on this spot in 1899. It was started by 8 different groups interested in getting a railway to the north. They had a disagreement, then a gun fight and the tunnel was never completed. .

Bridal veil fall starts as snow melt higher up the mountain. It dropps here about 150 feet

This must be the bride. You can tell by our clothing that it is cool her. Most mornings we get up to temps under 40 and the high of the day is about 65F.

#49 THE GLENN HIGHWAY

The Matanuska Glacier is the largest glacier accessible by highway in Alaska. It It is 4 miles wide at its widest and 27 miles long.

Looking back on the length of the Glacier. The river below is a number of small streams called a braided river. The glacier had deposited the rows of gravel and the streams run between them. Farther out they run together and form a good sized river.

Finally got some recognition.

At this stop there were a bunch of turkeys interested in the motorcycles. The bikers were on their way to south Carolina.

the young turkeys were busy eating dead bugs from our bumper.

#48 Pictures from Lowell Murray Studio

The pictures speak for themselves.

#47 LEAVING KENAI

Our last night in Kenai we found our way back to the place we had stopped for lunch earlier in the week and spent the night. This picture was taken about 2300h

This one was taken about 2200h and has the full moon directly over the mountain peak.

Taken through the window as we drive. This area of Alaska has the highest accident rate in the state. The locals say it is the tourists looking around and the tourist say it is the locals trying to pass the tourist driving to slow.

Look at the height of those delphiniums  Even though the growing season is short, the 23-24 hours of sunlight make for lots of growth. These are growing at the Murray Lowell Studio. Mr. Lowell left Iowa in the early '60's to homestead and paint Alaska. His talent is clear when you visit the studio and show room. We took pictures of his painting but do not show to well.
Mr. Lowell was there when we were and we were able to meet him and talk a bit. He is a very humble man and gives God all the credit for his talent.

HOMER SPIT. The spit runs out into the bay a couple of miles. There were hundreds of cars and RV's. About the most expensive place we have found so far. This poor boy didn't stay around too long.

#46 KENAI VOLCANOS

Alaska has over 100 valconos and about 40 of those have been active in the past 100 years.

These are across the inlet from Kenai pennisula one over them was streming the day we were there. You can see them at www.avo.alaska.edu

The trees make a nice frame for Redoubt mt.

Close up of redoubt

Part of the chain of mountians

These ones have glaciers.

Not a volcano or a mountian or a forest but kinda cute.