[pct-l] North to Alaska

[Jim and/or Ginny Owen]

Or, more accurately - greetings from Alaska. The last time most of you heard from 
us we were in Utah intending to head to Idaho to go for a long hike.  But since our 
planned long distance hike is out for this year, the plans changed. So we headed 
north to the Canadian border via Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.  In Wyoming we 
visited the Legend Rock and Medicine Lodge petroglyph sites, then spent a couple 
days in Yellowstone watching the wildlife (lots of bears and gaggles of bison).  We 
saw 9 black bears in two days, including two adorable cubs that wrestled and 
played for the tourists while mama munched grass or napped.  That was fun.  
 
>From there is was a short hop over to Big Sky, Montana for a short visit with Gary 
and Millie (Bear bag and Sweet Pea).  Thence to Salmon, Idaho to visit the good 
people who helped us when Ginny got hurt during our 1999 CDT thruhike.  It was 
really good to see everybody there – it’s been too long.  
 Then we headed north – stopping along the way for the Buffalo Eddy petroglyph site 
on the Washington side of the Snake River and for several National Monuments. 
Did y’all know that the Nez Perce aren’t the Nez Perce?  They were mis-named by 
the French trappers.  In reality, they’re the “People of the Coyote”.  But I won’t try to 
spell their name for themselves – I can’t even say it, let alone spell it.  
 
We also stopped in Coeur D’Alene, Idaho for some repair work on the truck.  We 
thought it might be better to get the ball joints replaced there than somewhere in 
Canada.  
We hoped the rain that began to accompany us in mid-May would stop when we 
crossed the Canadian border, but the border proved to be no barrier to rain and 
clouds.  
 
Rather than do the “usual” Alcan highway route, we drove up the west side of the 
Canadian Rockies, then west to the coast.  A really fun spot was a hike near Terrace 
in a park where a local artist carved numerous faces in the trees - little  tiny ones (3-
6" or so for the most part) in the bark of cottonwood trees.  We found about 45 in 
our 2 1/2 mile hike.  We spent a couple of days in Prince Rupert looking for totem 
poles and doing short hikes, then headed north on the Cassiar Highway, passing 
through a couple of First Nation villages with really nice totem pole collections.  
There was still lots of snow on the peaks and glaciers with beautiful waterfalls 
dropping from the snow and ice.  Photography has been difficult because of the rain, 
but it is beautiful. We had a spell of two and a half weeks there where it rained every 
day, then had a couple of days of sunshine but then rain came back. 
 
We didn't do much hiking in Canada as a result, but we managed a few short walks 
along the way. Many of the provincial parks and campgrounds have short hiking 
trails or nature walks.  We took it slow and easy. Gas is outrageous in Canada - we 
paid $1.42/liter or $5.68 gallon.  In one place it was $6.20/gallon. Ouch! Seems like 
the price of everything is correspondingly high.  (i.e. beer at $13+ a six pack or 
basic breakfast for $10). We've been camping for the most part, which is less 
expensive than motels, though even there inflation has hit.
 
 
We crossed the border to Alaska on June 10, June 16 and June 19 – the first time in 
Hyder, AK as we drove up the Cassiar Highway, the second time at Skagway, AK, 
where we took a ferry to Haines, then the third time via the Alcan Highway to Tok, 
AK.  From there we drove south to get to the Denali Highway (if you can really call a 
120 mile graded dirt road a highway – only in Alaska!!!)  so we could get to Cantwell 
in time to meet Beau (Bleeder guy) and Ninon (and their 8 sled dogs) before they 
left the area.  We spent some time with them and then went north and spent a 
couple of days in Denali – including a long, long, but VERY good, day trip to 
Kantishna.  We saw 7 grizzly bears, 5 moose, 3 owls, a beaver, several herds of 
caribou and many Dall sheep. Even got a few good photos.  
 
Didn’t see much of Denali (formerly known as Mt. McKinley) while we were there, but 
the next day the mountain cleared and we got beaucoup photos. (We spent most of 
that evening sitting at a viewpoint watching the clouds come and go).  The next 
morning was just beautiful – and we got photos of Denali from several different 
viewpoints – including several on Kesugi Ridge and one in Talkeetna – as we drove 
south to Anchorage.  
 
Anchorage – has the biggest REI that we’ve ever seen (including the one in Seattle).  
Other than that and cheap (?) gas ($4.269/gal) at Costco, Anchorage is just another 
city with too many people, too much traffic, etc.  
 
So we headed south in the rain to the Kenai.  Stayed last night in Soldotna and 
tonight we’re in Homer with the eagles.  We have taken a lot of bald eagle pictures – 
they're all over the coastal towns in both Canada and the US  (Prince Rupert, 
Skagway, Haines and Homer).  In Prince Rupert, we saw six circling at one point, 
and four in a tree a short while later. One sat on the dock all day while tourists took 
its picture.  In Homer, they seem to like the lamp posts.  
 
One thing about Alaska is that it’s EXPENSIVE.  Gas is generally $4.60 or more. It 
was $5.12 in one place (near Denali).  And we haven’t stayed in a motel but once 
since we left Idaho – tried last night and they wanted $126 for a room next to the 
bar – on a Friday night.  No, thanks – I’d rather be rained on.  Camping prices vary 
from $10 at the recreation sites to $78 at one fancy RV park in Homer.  (No, we’re 
not staying there.)  We’ve mostly been staying at the municipal campgrounds – 
simple and basic but very inexpensive.  Every few days we stay at an RV park so we 
can get a shower and electricity to download pictures into the computer.
 
Another of the things we discovered about Alaska is that it’s “technology-challenged” 
- many of the places we’ve stayed have advertised WIFI – but when we got there, it 
wasn’t working – or hadn’t been installed yet – or ……. whatever.  So when we’ve 
had the time, we haven’t had Internet access ----- and when we’ve had access, we 
haven’t had time.  Since we haven’t been staying in motels we haven’t had phone 
access either.  Standing out at a phone booth next to a gas station getting chewed 
on by mosquitoes isn’t fun and we figure if anyone really needs to talk to us, we do 
get internet occasionally.  Yes, the Alaska state bird is ubiquitous this time of year.  
So far it hasn’t been too bad except in a few spots, partly because it has been so 
cold.  We’ve had a lot of days that never got above 60, so only the really intrepid 
biters have been active.  When it warms up though, they swarm.
 
This really is the “Land of the Midnight Sun” – or a very close approximation thereof.  
It stays light enough to read until at least midnight (without headlamps).  As far as 
we can tell it never does get dark enough to see stars at this time of year.   Makes 
sleeping kinda chancy.  We find ourselves reading until sunset and then realizing that 
it’s after midnight.
 
Aside from the National Parks, we haven’t seen as much wildlife as we expected: 
mostly moose down low and Dall sheep high in the cliffs.  We saw moose cows with 
twin calves twice in two days.  There were a couple of black bears on the Cassiar 
Hwy, eating grass next to the road.  We did a short cruise out of Valdez and saw a 
humpback whale, a couple of sea otters and hordes of sea lions.  It was too early in 
the season for most of the whales.  Evidently several kinds of salmon haven’t shown 
up yet where they were expected.  Several rivers have been closed to fishing, 
making for some unhappy tourists. (The Kenai is evidently doing okay, we saw 
fishermen standing shoulder to shoulder in the river yesterday – combat fishing they 
call it.)  We’ve spent some time enjoying watching bird activity:  a flock of puffins 
diving for fish in unison, a couple of sandhill cranes strutting their stuff in a wet 
meadow, some gulls washing in a river after eating a salmon, and an osprey 
shimmying in mid-flight. 
 
We have really enjoyed driving through so much spectacular country.  Despite all the 
rain, the mountains are really beautiful, even wreathed in clouds. Like a lot of places 
in the West, summer was very slow to appear this year.  There is still a lot of snow 
streaking the sides of the mountains, aside from the many glaciers and icefields.  
(We considered hiking the Chilkoot Trail in Skagway and were told we’d need 
snowshoes and ice axes, even though it was mid-June.  Oh well.)  Waterfalls are 
abundant and the rivers are high.  Wildflowers are also abundant.  Lupine lines the 
highways.  We’re too early for much fireweed, but we’ve seen lots of alpine flowers 
in the high country and lupine, wild roses, geraniums, iris, violets, etc. in the lower 
country around the lakes.  The trips to Hyder, Skagway, Haines and Valdez were 
especially scenic, well worth the detour even with gas as expensive as it is.  
 
We’re hoping to do some hiking here in the Kenai over the next week.  Unlike most 
of Alaska, this area has some good developed backpacking trails that climb up into 
the Alpine quite quickly and stay high for miles.  We’ve been doing mostly very short 
hikes but Jim is feeling ready to test his foot by something a bit more ambitious.  If 
the first hike goes well, we’ll try some of the others before heading north again.  If 
not, we’ll continue our driving tour of Alaska.  It has been really good so far.  Even 
though we haven’t done as much walking as we’d like, we’ve seen a lot of beauty, 
and that’s what we came for.  It is inescapable here – everywhere we turn there are 
mountains, rivers, lakes, glaciers, etc.  And even an occasional animal.
 
Walk softly,
Jim & Ginnyhttp://www.spiriteaglehome.com/