September '05 Newsletter - Trip #4

Alaska Exploratory (8/22/05-9/12/05):

After sending off most of the group on the high-speed ferry back to Juneau, we went into high-speed mode ourselves and rocketed over to Haines Junction to reorganize for two person traveling mode. Showers, clean laundry, and a good night's rest prepared us for our long drive into central Alaska. Fairbanks was our destination and we hoped to make it in a couple of days leaving ample time for exploring Denali, Anchorage, and Seward.

The day dawned clear but the mountains were draped in fog making a spectacular scene as we started north on the Alaska Highway. It clouded up as drove through mile after mile of spruce forest, much of it under attack by spruce beetle, something akin to our Arizona bark beetle. Wildlife sighted along the way was limited to two adult moose and one baby moose. Coming into Delta, the air was clear and we enjoyed magnificent views of the Alaska Range to the west of us. We mistakenly surmised that one of the peaks might be Denali but were informed by an Anchorage resident that Denali couldn't be seen from Delta. Flocks of Canadian geese flew over in V formation as we prepared dinner at our campsite. The tourist season was coming to an end in Alaska, even for the birdlife.

As we approached Fairbanks there seemed to be more people living on the side roads in the bush. Other than the occasional mountain peak, the landscape reminded Susan of her home in northern Minnesota. Apparently many Iron Rangers end up in Alaska because the climate and countryside is reminiscent of home. The Fairbanks visitor center was located in a rather seedy area of downtown. We availed ourselves of the travel brochures and proceeded on to the library, which turned out to be a real treasure. None of the four WiFi stations in this large library had many users, so the service was quicker than we would have at home. Chena River State Park, our in-town campground was convenient to stores and okay for one night but terribly noisy after our quiet nights along the Alaskan Highway.

Information on Alaska's native peoples, animals, and history was well presented at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. One surprising display was about the Aleutian internment. Apparently 40 Aleutians with one missionary were captured when the Japanese took the furthest island in the chain during the WWII. After working in the labor camps in Japan only 20 returned. In fear of additional Japanese activities the US burned the Aleuts' villages and interned all of them in southeastern Alaska. Large mammals were exceptionally well displayed. A nine-foot brown bear mounted in fully erect pose, a polar bear and many types of seals, to name a few. Both mammoth and mastodon skeletons were exhibited and comparisons made. We could have spent much more than the couple of hours if we read all of the placard information.

Next we drove out to a gold dredge for lunch, then on to the Alaska pipeline display. The line runs from the Arctic at Prudhoe Bay to Valdez, Alaska. A number of small interpretive displays were located beside it. A couple of types of "pigs" were exhibited and their functions explained. When the 4' diameter pipeline was first filled, it ran cool for a while and a metal cylinder with course flexible scrapers on the sides for removing wax from the interior was sent down the line. After the pipeline reached temperature, a new "pig" was used to moderate flow and sense breakdowns in the pipe itself. Input oil temperatures of 140 degrees have cooled to 100 degrees by the time the oil reaches Valdez. Much effort is expended to make sure the pipeline doesn't melt the permafrost and destroy itself by sinking into the ground.

Many of Fairbanks' original log buildings were relocated in Pioneer Park. Most now have some form of tourist goods being sold from them. The park's native peoples museum featured an informative movie about the various Alaskan tribes. There was also a free museum that had a super collection of early Fairbanks items such as household appliances, farm tools, and dog sleds. Elaborate dioramas showcased placer, hydraulic, and frozen tundra gold mining. Tiring rapidly of dreary Fairbanks, we ventured southwest to Denali National Park.

The drizzle we awoke to in Riley Campground the next morning didn't bode well for seeing Mt. McKinley (the official name, the park is Denali). It was also chilly so we had a hot breakfast before exploring the WAC (Wilderness Access Center) and the Visitor Center. The movie at the new VC appeared to be 70mm quality, very sharp. We were so impressed that we purchased the DVD. The displays were also excellent. Each of the animal types was exhibited and their interaction with and impact on their environment explained. Next we drove about 12 miles out to Savage River, the end of the road for personal vehicles. In 1972 the park limited visitation beyond this point to park buses. Fares run as high as $30.00 and probably generate more park revenue than entry fees. The sun shone intermittently through the clouds but Denali was shrouded. We climbed a short distance above the valley floor and took some interesting photos of the tundra and stream below. Autumn was in the air and vegetation was taking on orange, red, and yellow coloration.

Surprisingly, 50% or more of Denali's visitors still arrive by train. Large cruise ships seem to be linked into park visitation. Princess Lines is running buses to and from the train station, park, and commercial area on the highway. They also have a major hotel complex just outside the park boundary. Unfortunately during our first day at the park we saw only red squirrels in our campground and voles on our hike. There were signs to watch out for the moose in rut but none were seen. Our eyes swept vast expanses of tundra but the bears must have taken a day off. The clouds were a few hundred feet higher the next day and it was easier to see the new snow on the foothills of the Alaska Range but McKinley was still shrouded. We were aware that only 25-40% of park visitors actually see the mountain but were still disappointed after two days of clouds interspersed with showers. Our New Jersey friends were blessed with record temperatures and great views when they visited a couple of weeks earlier.

We gave it up and continued driving towards Anchorage, hoping for better views from the highway. Our best views were probably at the two developed pullouts in Denali State Park. We were able to see glaciers off the slopes of Denali. As we neared our campsite at the end of another frustrating travel day, we sighted two Trumpeter Swans with their three offspring in a pristine lake along the highway. Trumpeters return to the same lake year after year. Much of our time was spent driving through Alaska's seemingly endless forests, primarily birch and white spruce trees as we approached Anchorage.

Timing is everything; after intermittent rain much of the previous afternoon we awoke to brilliantly clear skies. It was obvious that Denali and most of the Alaska Range would be seen in their full glory today. We discussed driving back the 100+ miles for some unobstructed views but elected instead to visit Palmer, the site of the Alaska State Fair, arriving just in time to photograph the seemingly endless parade associated with the event. As in our tiny community, the local fire department, the police department, the corvette club (everyone in the area must have a corvette), marching bands, the ROTC group and even some real military groups, the queen of this and king of that with their princess waves, the local farm co-op, and anything else you could think of was in the parade. The farming cooperative float tossed fresh picked carrots that were as sweet as candy. In the aftermath, the roadway appeared to have had massive bunny visitation.

Palmer's Visitor Center had a phenominal historical display of items used by what they call the colonists. Apparently in the mid-30's FDR sent knowledgeable farmers from Minnesota, Wisconsin, and North Dakota to the Matanuska Valley to colonize the wilderness around Palmer, where there were only a few homesteaders. Families were granted 40 acres each through an on site lottery for specific farm units. Another group dubbed "transients" from the Los Angeles area aided the colonists in building their log or wood siding homes. Transients were expected to return home and part of their wages was payable only if they did so. The colonists were primarily folks whose farms had failed during the great depression. Perhaps FDR thought folks from northern climes of the lower states would have the best chance of surviving the harsh Alaskan climate.

Gold rushers initially populated Alaska and every place we visited had a story of found gold. Bob had read about the Independence Mine located high in Hatcher Pass, which on this exceptionally clear day offered the possibility of great views and some local history. We hiked to all of the self-guided stops there and even up to a non-connected mine site high above. We now understand the hard rock gold mining regime, why mercury was used during the extraction process and how it was recovered. We found the resulting "sponge gold" very interesting. Afterwards we drove up to Hatcher Pass and initially saw one parasail. Apparently the wind conditions are perfect for flying in this pass. Upon closer inspection, we discovered hordes of parasailers over the rise and were amazed when one of them took his dog along. The updrafts were extreme enough that each parasailer could fly back and forth along the ridge, pretty much any place they wanted to go. Some had even worked their way high above the takeoff zone. Their seat and backpack contraption appeared quite comfortable once they got aloft. Though our day started without much of a plan, it turned into a fine random walk.

Karen Fiore had told us we shouldn't miss the Native Heritage Cultural Center on the outskirts of Anchorage. She opined that it might take quite some time to see it all and she was right. We arrived around 10:00 AM on another overcast, dreary day, kept busy until 3:00 PM and could have stayed longer. In addition to the excellent indoor interpretive displays there was an outdoor presentation of five Alaska native groups' lifestyles. A guide took small groups to each site where a tribal representative presented artifacts and information about the dwelling. Some of the things one could enjoy: watching a totem pole being carved, going into a Tlingit cedar house, looking inside the underground sod house of the northern coastal tribes, checking out the log structure of the Athabascans. Each location featured artifacts or tools used by various tribes.

Of special interest was a lost history of the Salmi people presented at one of the stations. In the late 1800's, Salmi reindeer herders were brought to Alaska from the far northern regions of Scandinavia to teach the tribes how to herd reindeer. Several hundred Salmi, wives and children included, came to New York by boat, then by train to San Francisco, and then by boat to northern Alaska in the Bering Sea region. Several hundred reindeer were also imported to replace depleted Caribou stocks. Within a decade there were 600,000 reindeer in Alaska and they were even exporting reindeer meat to the lower 48. Eventually many of the Salmi returned home but some stayed and melded with the native population. Eventually the normal foods of the natives recovered and reindeer herding was given up. The reindeer merged into the caribou stock much as the Salmi merged with the native lifestyle. After the outside viewing we returned to watch native dancing with Susan joining in when audience participation was suggested. It wasn't obvious that she was able to copy their moves but she sure had fun.

Busy with chores, we didn't get to the Anchorage Museum until mid afternoon. The lower floor was committed to artwork, both Alaskan scenes and art from several periods and in many styles. The upper floor was reserved for Alaskan history starting with the native culture of a few hundred years ago and progressing through the modern era, including the Alaskan pipeline. Again each of the dominant native groups (southeastern rainforest, Athabascan, Aleutian, St. Lawrence Island and the Yukon River coastal region tribes, and the far north Eskimos (who didn't live in igloos as it turns out) had full sized models of their dwellings displayed along with artifacts used in their daily activities. Similar setups were displayed for the early settlers. An interesting use of the museum's second floor corridor walls was white poster boards with early Alaskan settler's family names and pictures of the first family member and their children. There were many Scandinavian names but a surprising number of settlers came from the west coast of the US, which must have been sparsely populated at that time.

Afterwards we headed south along Cook Inlet and the Turnagain Arm. The former is named after the famous English explorer Captain Cook and the latter he named out of his frustration at not finding the Northwest Passage that he repeatedly sought. The tide was out so we did not get to see the infamous tidal bore that is sometimes as high as 6' moving at 15 miles per hour. Several people have died stuck in the mud and overwhelmed by the incoming tide. As we passed the Whittier turn and headed toward Seward, Portal Glacier was easily discerned on the horizon. The weather cleared somewhat as we approached our lakeshore camp.

In the morning we quickly covered the short distance to Seward, locating a seaside campground. We picnicked nearby, watching fish jump while we ate lunch. We took a short drive to the end of the gravel road to snap a few pictures of Resurrection Bay. Arriving at Exit Glacier in the late afternoon, we were just in time for the ranger led nature hike, which turned into a personal tour as we were the only people interested in joining her. This gal normally worked on the boats representing the NPS on the 6-hour trips to Kenai Fiords. Prior to that she worked at the commercial aquarium. It soon became obvious she didn't have a lot to share with regard to Exit Glacier and its surroundings. She pointed out Alder trees and Cottonwoods, bear claw marks in trees, and picked up some moose poop to show to us, but after that there wasn't much happening. When she returned to the VC, we walked to the base of the glacier and took a few photos. The area was roped off with warnings about falling ice so of course we promptly stepped over the ropes and started working our way up the glacier/moraine seam. The proximity of the ice and being able to look into the blue crevices made for some good photos. We continued until we were well above the overlook trail and then cut over to it to return. While the sky glowed with evening light at our beachfront property, we ate dinner, talked to some of the other folks parked around us, and took more photos.

We considered taking a Kenai Fiords boat trip to view more glaciers and wildlife but with clouds swirling around Resurrection Bay and only the occasional ray of sunshine breaking through it didn't look good at launch time. After lunch we drove in light drizzle back towards Anchorage on the Seward Highway. The novelty of these seemingly endless afternoon showers was beginning to wear on Bob. Eventually we reached the turn to Whittier and Portage Glacier. Whittier is only 15 miles or so away at this point but one must coordinate their trip through the railway tunnel. On the first half hour traffic goes towards Anchorage, on the second half hour towards Whittier, when a train comes all vehicular traffic ceases. We left that to be experienced the following day and picked an excellent campsite under a high glacier that fed a stream behind our campsite. After establishing our camp at one of the nicest sites we had on the trip, we headed for the visitor center and a look at the glaciers around Portage Lake. The VC was heavy on audio/visual do-it-yourself stuff and was pretty noisy. Both the exhibits and the movie were interesting but anti-climatic after all of the museums and other exhibits we'd viewed recently. It was drizzling when we got back to our campsite.

Heavy rains that lasted most of the night cleared to a blue-skied morning. There were glaciers on both sides of the Whittier Tunnel. Above Whittier there is an ice field that sends streams cascading down the mountainside. A couple hundred full time residents who are primarily involved in fishing or the tourist business comprise the town. Things must get pretty quiet in the winter when up to 30 foot of snow accumulates. Even the tunnel becomes problematic as giant icicles stick to the tracks and avalanches and snow accumulation makes it difficult to keep the line open.

Whittier was cold and there wasn't much to do there. Susan found an obscure reference to there being reindeer at one of the tourist shops. Bob thought it highly unlikely but we checked it out anyway. It turned out Violet and Elizabeth would normally have been there but since there was no cruise ship in port that day the shop owner didn't want to take the hour or so needed to herd them to and from the waterfront. However she did tell us where she had the two males (Quitos and Jolie) and the girls penned. Susan spent a quarter in a gumball machine to get some specialized reindeer pellets and off we went. Their owner didn't think they would take food out of Susan's hand but that wasn't a problem. One big male wolfed most of it down and she soon wished she had brought more. Susan is pretty certain that she also spotted Santa disguised as a fisherman. Her 5-year-old great nephew Cooper was pretty excited to get a reindeer postcard and hear about her Santa encounter.

While eating dinner at a dockside restaurant, (the only type there is in Whittier) we watched the SS Kennicott come into port as predicted almost six hours before departure time. This was going to be a long three nights on the boat. After loading our truck we searched out an excellent spot to hang out and sleep in a seldom-used lounge at the rear of the ship. We awoke the next morning in darkness with the motors quiet, apparently in Valdez. Low hanging clouds and fog obscured some of the peaks around us but it appeared that it was going to be a fairly clear morning. Sometime later the boat stirred up the motors again and we cruised out of the port. Valdez looked to be a lot like Whittier; not much except oil holding-tanks. 10 miles or so out in the bay we could see icebergs floating for several miles along the shore to the north of us. White capped mountains lurked in the clouds and we saw several lengthy glaciers some of which reached the shoreline and spaulled off floating icebergs.

As the day wore on the sky cleared and when close to shore we had great views of the coastal ranges. The third highest peak in North America, Mt. St. Elias, loomed on the horizon, its top shrouded in clouds. The captain remarked on the PA system how unusual this was but by nightfall it was fully visible with no cloud cover at all. The sparsedly filled Kennicott was like a ghost ship with many passengers staying in their cabins, the bar, the cafeteria, or the front lounge.

Again we awoke to the sounds of landing, this time in Yakatuk. Upon our second rising we talked to a young man who had spent much of the evening in his sleeping bag on the front deck. Apparently the northern lights had been magnificent. The bell clear evening revealed curtains of shimmering green light starting around 11:00 PM but intensifying as the evening wore on. Snow-covered peaks continued along the shore and Bob thought he saw Dry Bay - the end of the Tatshenshini and Alsek river run - pass by. Beautiful weather made for a spectacular, smooth trip, however three days on a ship could be pretty boring shrouded in fog or worse in foul weather all of the way down the coast.

Low clouds around 15,000' Mount Fairweather didn't hide the glaciers streaming off its sides. Closer to the coast, it loomed taller on the horizon than Mt. St Elias did even though it was 3000' lower. One thing Bob has noticed is the human eye can pick up much more than our camera can. Most of the time the ship was 10-15 miles off shore making land based mountains look puny compared to the intervening sea below and the cloud filled sky above. Atmospheric haze also greatly cuts the contrast. We may have to rely on our memories of this excellent trip. Eventually the ship made a hard left and was cruising due east into the inner channel, approaching Juneau. Shortly thereafter we saw the massive Butler Glacier cascading down to the sea. We passed by the entrance to Glacier Bay but by then the fog and clouds thickened again and there wasn't much to be seen. The ship was in port at Juneau until the wee hours of the morning, so we zonked out and were sleeping when it pulled away. Our three sleeping compartment companions in the lower rear lounge got off so we were all alone that evening with loads of space, lots of chairs, lots of windows, and even our own bathroom.

Sleeping gear is supposed to be stowed by 8:00 AM so we reluctantly got going the next morning. Suz was off getting coffee while I staggered around waking up. Suddenly it dawned on me that open sea and the shore were on the wrong sides of the ship. Then I noticed the sun had come up in the west and that really threw me for a loop. The only possibilities were that we were headed north not south or that we had entered a parallel universe where things were turned around. The purser soon announced that we had a medical emergency and were headed back towards Juneau. The call for medically trained personnel netted 4 nurses out of the 59 passengers. A Coast Guard helicopter dispatched from Juneau would take close to an hour to reach us so our ship's captain had decided to reduce that time by turning around. Our steaming north counteracting a brisk breeze from the south aided this delicate maneuver.

Bob ate breakfast while viewing a pod of Orcas gamboling several hundred feet away. First he noticed the blow spouts and then the arched backs of the whales would momentarily break the surface. They seemed too small to be humpbacks but it was not possible to see the distinctive white body striping of Orcas. The helicopter arrived as he was sauntering back and he made a mad dash for his camera. It hung above the ship for many minutes before lowering an EMT to review the situation and stabilize the possible heart attack victim. Bob got some great photos from the top deck but was eventually asked to move to the front of the ship or down a level, since if the helicopter crashed there might be a giant fireball. The ship's crew preferred not to incinerate one of their passengers. Early on Bob noticed three of the crew on a high deck in full fireman suits with the fire hose out so the possibility of that fireball was high enough to have the captain worried.

The ship did a majestic 180-degree turn and eventually the purser came on and announced we were fours hours behind schedule. Instead of arriving at 10:30 PM it seemed we would be in port during the wee hours of the morning. When we returned to the area Bob saw the whales earlier they were gone. The crew informed us that we had experienced one of the calmest crossings from Valdez to Juneau in quite some time. Views of the glaciers and high mountains were as good as it gets. Around noon we reached the Frederick Sound and humpback whales were spouting all around us. The sun occasionally glinted off their backs as they gracefully surfaced, arched their bodies, and plunged back down below. Suz ran around checking them out with her binoculars.

Unable to make up the lost time, the ship reached Ketchikan much later than expected. After playing cards for awhile trying to stay awake Bob, finally gave it up and went into a dark portion of the forward lounge and crashed on the floor. Suz worked on a jigsaw puzzle until we finally disembarked after midnight. Too groggy to search out a campground, we made ourselves at home in the 72 hour ferry parking lot and went back to sleep. Bob woke up with a stiff hip, probably caused by his sleeping time on the floor of the Kennicott. We started our day at the Safeway a mile or so from the dock. Starbucks strong coffee and some ridiculously sweet breakfast treats got the old blood flowing. While Bob read the paper and moaned about his hip Susan picked up food for the next couple of days.

It wasn't raining so we picnic breakfasted on cereal and hot drinks followed by lots of Aleve to reduce Bob's joint problems. Refreshed we visited Saxman Totem Park to see the totems and carving shed. Both were excellent although a bit crowded since five cruise ships (15,000 potential passengers) were in town. We took our time photographing, eventually continuing on to Creek Street and the renovated houses of ill repute on tidewater piles. The areas of town proximate to the cruise ships are like a giant carnival. Locals have mixed emotions about the adverse effects these hordes of cruise tourists have on their small towns but they sure seem to love the jobs and money brought into their economies.

With two days in Ketchikan we headed for Totem Bight Historic Park to look at more totem poles and another cedar house. This was a great site as it was more consistent with its surroundings and relatively free of cruise ship folks while we were there. After making the rounds we continued to Settler's Cove and set up camp. The campground sported a couple of nature walks, one along the ocean and one to a waterfall. By this time, with some heavy Vitamin I dousing, Bob's sore hip had come around and we hiked both trails. At the waterfall we passed the time watching salmon fight their way up the creek. It became apparent their varying degrees of success more or less depended on the route taken and wouldn't be obvious to a fish. In this case, natural selection definitely involved a significant degree of luck. Where the creek met the ocean, the salmon in the water were commingled with the seagulls on land. The seagulls may have been eating the dead salmon but they seemed to leave the lives ones alone even though they were swimming in very shallow water. It seemed more like the gulls acted as a cheering section.

It was evident around our campsite that night that Ketchikan gets lots of rain. The cedar and hemlock rain forest is covered with mosses and the ground under the trees is a spongy carpet of green. During the night, the rain came! Unable to cook at our campsite, we returned to Totem Bight to breakfast under their covered picnic area. We spent much of the day cowering indoors at the waterside Safeway or the downtown library or some other sheltered place. We went out to dinner at a Thai-Chinese restaurant, located in the historic Creek Street section of town. It was raining too hard to make use of their outside deck but the food was excellent. Portions looked enormous but quickly disappeared.

Thirty-six hours later it was still raining and we felt rather like the homeless people living in our Safeway store. With only a few hours remaining in the morning before we caught the ferry, we decided to check out some of the indoor museums we hadn't seen yet. It was easy to spend an hour at the informative National Forest site, which was free for family groups with a golden age or golden eagle permit. The enormous Tongass Trading Post, tourist trap extraordinaire near the cruise ship dock, was a great place to pick up last minute inexpensive gifts. We purchased several Ulus (Alaskan fishing knives used for beheading and gutting fish), one for our own use and several for gifts.

The Columbia had been in port for several hours when we loaded the truck into the hold. It seemed much fuller than the other ships. We found a place in the lower lounge to set up our stuff for the 36 hours we would be on board before reaching Bellingham. The Columbia is not as well designed for quiet sleeping as either the Kennicott or the Matanuska ferries were. The Columbia features a more upscale formal dining room and a very limited option snack bar. The Kennicott and Matanuska have one much less formal dining place with pretty darn good food.

We spent the day reading and watching the sea activity when something interesting came along. The captain, perhaps the purser, occasionally announced the presence of whales or other wildlife. There were frequent whale sightings but the most impressive was a male Orca off the port bow. We watched him frolic for a while but unfortunately he and the ship were not going in the same direction. Every day on the Alaska Marine Ferry ships was clear with relatively calm sailing. We crashed early because we knew we were going to be in Bellingham at 7:00 AM.

When we got off the ship it was another dreary day that later cleared. Before we left Ketchikan, we had scheduled a visit with Mark and Joyce Jennings. We drove from Bellingham down to Seattle, stopping in Edmond to use the WiFi service Starbucks offered inside a VFC market. Arriving at Mercer Island early, we took the loop drive, viewing multi-million dollar homes. Mark later told us that half million dollar, 2000 square foot Mercer Island homes are being bull dozed to be replaced with even larger astronomically priced ones. After lunching at a pretty little park at the south of the island we continued on to Mark and Joyce's. We used their laundry to wash up some presentable clothes so we could join them for a casually dressed production of "George M". First we went to dinner close to the closed air force base theatre and then we took in the show staged by local talent. Perhaps culturally deprived Bob and Suz enjoyed the show more than Mark and Joyce did. Being an aficionado of old musicals, Bob especially enjoyed it. He favorably compared the performance with the patriotic Yankee Doodle Dandy, a 1942 Jimmy Cagney version of the story.

Then we drove and drove and drove. We left Seattle about 10:00 AM in a rain storm, headed for as close to home as we could get, another burn run across the lower 48. It was hard driving over the Cascade Range but once we reached the other side it began to clear as we roared through southeastern Washington, the northeastern corner of Oregon, and on to Idaho. We reached Boise around 4:30 PM but were determined to continue on, our goal was to reach our old favorite sleeping spot, the Flying J truck stop in Nephi, south of Salt Lake City. Bob drove straight through for six hours arriving there around midnight. A funny thing happened along the way.

Coming out of Provo with only 30 miles to go, Bob was unsure of the speed limit. It had been 65 in the cities south of SLC, so we were proceeding along at 65 when a car roared past him with a cop on its tail. Susan was dozing in the back and Bob casually mentioned to her how someone was going to get a ticket. He assumed the followed party was speeding since they passed so quickly. It got really interesting when the cop car nearly went off the left side of the road while passing us, then swerved in front of us and matched our speed. We had previously avoided a couple of truck drivers who were obviously sleep impaired so both of us thought, "we may have an impaired officer here". The car then slowed down to 62, 60, and eventually under 60. A cop car blocking us with a possibly impaired driver with the power to arrest us. Wonderful! Well it's legal to pass a cop and Bob then saw a 75-mile per hour sign so we accelerated and passed. Minutes went by with the cop car now speeding up to stay on our rear bumper. Eventually, the lights began flashing and we were pulled over. Both of us were puzzled.

A cute petite uniformed blonde came up to the passenger side of our truck and curtly asked for Bob's driver's license and evidence of vehicle insurance. She mentioned two illegal lane changes (that she forced, Bob didn't use turn signals to pull out beside her but did use them to pull over when her lights went on), passenger in the back without a seat belt (she wanted to verify it wasn't a child, an adult was apparently okay), going too slow (not illegal but it made her concerned about possible impairment). When he suggested he had thought she was driving impaired and was going so slow to avoid her, she decided he wasn't impaired. She had been on her way home and found us interesting because of our slow speed. After checking the vehicle papers and license she decided to give us a warning but then her printer didn't work so no warning either. After all of this excitement, we stopped in Nephi for six hours sleep. Suz took over driving the next morning getting us down to Mount Carmel Junction, the first place she could find a second cup of coffee. Alternating every couple of hours we reached Flagstaff by 1:00 PM, made a few short stops there and were home by 4:00 PM.

What a wonderful place Alaska is! Because of the distances involved we will probably never drive there from the lower 48 again but we are planning another basecamp trip in 2007. An 8-day trip originating out of Anchorage would range from Seward to Denali and focus on glaciers, high mountains, and native culture. We're envisioning two days in Denali using the bus for a full day trip to Wonder Lake, a couple of days of sightseeing around Seward, a cruise in the Kenai Fiords for a day, and possibly a half-day raft trip on one of the many glacial rivers. We're hoping next trip to sight the elusive grizz! From a distance that is.

Participants: Susan Groth & Bob Marley

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