Life is a journey, not always happy or sad but always interesting. Join me as we travel the winding road via this blog, on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/user/mabryatpinnacol), and on Instagram (@davidmabry).
Its August 24th and I thought, hoped, and prayed that I was done riding in the rain. The good news is that when I rode today I didn't actually get rained on; the bad news is that it snowed instead. I'm up in Leadville, CO which brags about its 10,000 feet elevation.
When we were driving south on the Cassiar Highway way up in Canada we noticed that some of the Aspen trees were already changing color signaling the approaching Fall. Even at 10,000 feet here in Leadville the Aspen probably won't start showing their Fall colors for another month so I was a tad bit surprised to ride through snow showers while enjoying Leadville's great Mineral Belt Trail.
I took the picture above across from the Leadville golf course where they were still wacking the little round ball while dressed in shorts. Looking back the way I had come the cloud cover cleared just enough to catch a glimpse of the snow covered peaks. Not bad for a summer bike ride but definitely unanticipated as far as the snow goes.
Who knows? Maybe they'll be firing up the snow making guns at the nearby ski areas in time for September skiing. That would be a first and most likely won't happen but here's hoping! Now, where'd I put my bike tights and booties...
If a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step then the journey home begins, at least for us, with a reluctant step on the gas pedal and a sad glance in the rear view mirror as we head south towards Denver. Some of the route mirrored the way we had driven up. This time around we were treated to the Canadian Rockies in their full splendor which means it was sunny and we could actually see them. The route from Prince George to Jasper takes you through some incredible scenery and Sophie and I agreed that it would be worth a trip unto itself to explore this area. Jasper remains a favorite for us and it must be the same for a lot of Canadians as this time through the town was hopping to the point of being very crowded. The campgrounds were all full so we continued south to one of the more remote campgrounds along the Icefields Parkway. Even that far out from Jasper the campground was quickly filling up so we were glad to land a spot for the night.
Cycling along this stretch of road can be heaven or it can be hell depending on the weather but as mentioned above we were finally being smiled on by the rain and sun gods which made for some nice riding. One of the real advantages of being on a saddle pedaling along at a lot slower speed than in a car is the ability to truly stop and smell the roses, breath the clean, fresh mountain air, and take pause when the hills become too many and too steep or the wind too strong. The legs may get weary but great scenery is a wonderful distraction and for me always motivates me to keep going if for no other reason than to see whats around the next corner or over the next hill.
Most of the traffic seemed to be heading north toward Jasper so on my side of the road it was only the occasional car that whooshed past me. Whereas the cars are supposed to pull over only in designated sidings cyclists can stop just about anywhere and taking pictures up here is a heck of a good excuse to stop for a couple of minutes and take it all in.
We had brought Sophie's fancy camera but to be perfectly honest every picture I have shared with you in these posts has been taken with our Samsung Galaxy phones. Her fancy camera never came out of its protective case but we were reaching for our phones to take a picture all the time.
As on most trips, there is often more to see and do than one can possibly accomplish. I did make a point at riding in to see Sweetheart Lake and was lucky to catch it at sunset on a beautiful summer evening. If places like this can't bring peace and contentment to the soul then I don't know what can.
Sweetheart Lake at sunset. Stop and sit a spell...
There is a campground at Sweetheart Lake and you can bet that on our next trip up this way I and my sweetheart will be staying here for at least one night. Any campground along this stretch brings its own vistas and it took some concentration on focusing on getting on down the road.
Here too there were glaciers aplenty to see, though as up north most are in dramatic retreat. Still, they command your attention and I was itching to get out the hiking boots and plant some footsteps on all the great trails we were passing.
But time and distance called us on. Once out of the mountains we quickly became aware of the summer heat which we were certainly not used to. Yet temps in the high 90's were a welcome change from highs in the 50's and 60's that were the norm in Alaska. For the first time on the trip we were able to don shorts and tees and break out the sunblock (only we were silly enough to actually pack sunblock for a trip to Alaska). By the time we reached the Colorado border our normal summer tans had reappeared and we looked more normal. Montana was spectacular as always and we were sad to leave Kalispell and the great camping along Highway 83. In Big Fork Sophie was actually able to buy a pound of Huckleberries fresh picked from a vendor off the side of the road. Needless to say they did not last long!
Wyoming was hot and windy as expected as we flew south on I-25. I always tell Sophie that you can tell when you hit Colorado as the traffic quadruples and the speeds go up by 10-15 mph. We only saw a handful of Colorado license plates on our entire journey but that shortage disappears the minute you see the "Welcome to Colorado" sign at the border with Wyoming. Make no mistake, I love Colorado but if our trip this summer to the uncrowded North showed us anything its that we are loving her to death.
Well, there you have it. A trip not measured in miles (about 8,000) so much as places seen, people met, and memories made. Its good to be home, though I already yearn for the openness and freedom of the road. Thank you to all who have tagged along through these posts and in all of your journeys we wish you safe travels. See you on the road!
The Cassiar Highway proved to be a pleasant surprise as we continued our journey south. Most of the pavement was in good condition, the construction zones were relatively few and short, and it was not very crowded. About halfway to Prince George there is a turn that takes you about 40 miles to the towns of Stewart and Hyder. What makes them unique is that they are only about two miles apart yet one, Stewart, is in British Columbia, while the other, Hyder, is in Alaska. Despite their close physical proximity however, they are worlds apart.
Stewart is a beautiful small Canadian town that seems to pride itself on well-kept homes and a sense of a prim and proper way of conducting its affairs.
We stayed in the Rainey Creek Campground, which despite its spelling more than lived up to its name. If the good folks of Stewart could figure out a way to export moisture falling from the skies they'd all be gazillionaires. Rain it does in Stewart, but in all fairness you are in a coastal rain forest so we weren't too surprised, although not particularly overjoyed, to be breaking out the snorkels and rain gear yet again.
The reasons folks turn off the Cassiar for the relatively short but soggy jaunt to Stewart and Hyder are several. First, rain lovers feel like they've gone to heaven, second, there are several glaciers that can be seen close enough to shake hands with, and third, Hyder is known as a great place to observe the coastal Brown bear (what they call Grizzlies in this neck of the woods) fishing for salmon. Stewart and Hyder sit on the end of what's known as the Portland Canal which is a 90 mile long saltwater fjord that takes you out to the mighty Pacific. For Canadians, they can boast of Stewart being their northernmost ice-free port. Stewart is also home to the Toaster Museum, a quaint and actually very interesting restaurant that has thousands of antique toasters on display. It's absolutely amazing, at least it was to me through my rain-soaked brain, to see the multitude of ways mankind has invented to turn a perfectly good slice of white bread into a blackened slice of carbon (i.e. toast). Oh, and the food wasn't half bad either.
6,000 miles of driving and we end up at a toaster museum...
On the way into Stewart you pass some stunning scenery including the Bear Glacier, one of several in the area. I think glaciers are fascinating to a lot of people. I always wonder what was going on in the world when the early snows on the glacier were falling and who were some of the first people to see it. All of the glaciers are currently receding in this area and though still impressive one can only imagine what they looked like in their prime.
We never did see the elusive glacial ice worm known to frequent these ice sheets but locals tell us they are something to see.
Anyway, back to our story. While Stewart appears to be able to survive on its own quite nicely, thank you, the town of Hyder, 2 miles up the road and across the border, seems to be barely hanging on. And I think that's exactly the way the good folks of Hyder want it. We ventured into the Hyder General Store which is open whenever the owner feels like it (when he's not out fishing or hunting). Its a General Store in this case because there's generally nothing in it that anyone would actually need to buy. The inventory looks to be from the mid-1980's, and is covered in an inch of dust, and the whole place reeks of the owner's perpetually lit cigars. I truly believe the store is simply an excuse for the owner to have something to do during the summer (in the winter, like many Alaskans, he heads for Arizona). Still, if you want the scoop on Hyder and some interesting conversation, the Hyder General Store is a must. You don't live in Hyder if you like crowds - the population in the summer is barely 100 (Stewart boasts a whopping 700) and the owner indicates that several years ago the town was faced with the decision of starting to pay property tax and becoming an Alaskan Borough. At that time Hyder was still serviced by the Alaska Ferry system, but when the residents voted not just no, but H*** NO! to raising taxes the state retaliated by cancelling the ferry service. So now, the only way to get to Hyder, save by private boat, is to drive in through Canada. For a community to give up ferry service must have been a major economic blow, but again, the Hyderites seem perfectly content with that outcome.
Hyder's current claim to fame lies in two attractions: the Fish Creek Wildlife Observation Area where you can view the aforementioned salmon-fishing bears) and the Salmon Glacier which sits up a windy, pothole-filled, steep dirt road.
1st view of the Salmon Glacier. Look closely to the upper
right and you can barely see the road heading over the ridge
The Milepost actually has a caution in red about the road to the Salmon Glacier and it was indeed the worst strip of non-pavement we traveled during our trip. That said, its worth the white-knuckled drive. At the top you see not only the glacier but also a gentleman selling postcards and books on the glacier. He spends his summers (I think he said 20 or more) camping, in a tent, in the parking lot overlooking said glacier. Now, as spectacular as the glacier is, even for a nutcase like me (according to my wife who ought to know), spending your nights alone in a tent above timberline in the same place summer after summer is pretty extreme. But he does have some wonderful pictures of the glacier to show for it as featured on his postcards ("50 cents each or 3 for $1.00").
Would you want to spend your summer in the tent to the left?
Good news is, summers up here are just a couple of weeks long.
The collapsed ice visible on the right of the picture is known as Summit Lake and up until mid-July is filled with water. At some point the water breaks through an ice dam and the water flows under the glacier into the Salmon River raising the river level by 4-5 feet for several days. We were there just after this had happened and in the river valley below the glacier were able to go out on the riverbed and see some of the ice blocks the surge had left behind.
The really wonderful news about being at the glacier? It wasn't raining! Although the icefield played hide and seek through the clouds we stayed dry (though not warm) during our stint of watching ice flow.
Surviving our perilous trek back down the road we stopped at the Fish Creek Observation Area to practice our patience and wait out the bears who for whatever reason don't understand that tourists are on a schedule and have places to go and things to see. Fortunately our visit coincided with a time when they weren't napping in the woods (or doing whatever it is bears do in the woods) and were able to see several bears feast on the hapless salmon swimming upstream to spawn (which is fish-speak for having sex underwater). Rangers tell us these salmon average 25-30 lbs. and the bears can eat one in several minutes. Interestingly, according to the rangers, the part of the salmon that humans consume the bears generally leave behind as being too high in protein. The bears are interested in putting on fat for the upcoming winter so they focus on the brains and roe (if the fish is female) of the salmon. Fear not that the rest goes to waste; there were plenty of birds, including bald eagles, scavenging the leftovers and apparently black bears also dine here as well.
The rangers, who are well armed, keep bear and tourist separated with the gawking tourists crowding along an elevated boardwalk. Occasionally the inquisitive bears get too close and try to get on the boardwalk at which point the visitors conclude they've seen enough and are escorted to safety via another route by the Forest Service staff.
The Forest Service also has a nice exhibit demonstrating why you really don't want to meet Mr. Bear up close and personal. Both Black Bears and Grizzlies have impressive claws that can, and do, inflict serious bodily injury to people every year (approximately 3 people per year are killed by bears in the U.S. and Canada).
Sophie shaking hands with a Coastal Brown (Grizzly) bear's claws
Brown Bear (Grizzly) claws on the left,
Black bear claws on the right...
So despite its size, or lack thereof, the little town of Hyder, Alaska does pack quite a punch tourist-wise and is well worth the trip. From here we'll be heading back through Prince George, Jasper and points south but the memories of the Stewart/Hyder area will remain far longer than it takes for us to eventually dry out.
The Sylvan Go heads out towards Alaska from Glacier
National Park
We took a Sylvan GO camper with us on this trip. We could have opted for an RV or some similar road yacht but for us the Sylvan pop-down camper was a big step up from tenting which is what we've done the last 26 years. For us the major advantage of the Sylvan was about comfort on an extended trip and not sleeping on the ground. The Sylvan GO, manufactured in Brevard, North Carolina, is an unusual enough camper that I thought I'd share a little about it. We never did see another one up north, and only met one person (in Alaska) who had heard of them though he had never seen one.
Entering Alberta, overlooking Waterton Lakes
Doesn't get much more comfortable than this!
The Sylvan is a pop-down camper in that the tent is stored in the grey hardshell cover which is cranked upward, opened, and the tent comes down whereupon you put in three support poles and whoila! home away from home. Overall, we were very happy with the camper. It handled some high winds and a lot (a lot!) of rain with no problem. The trailer appears exceptionally well made and features 10" tires which handled the terrain better than my car's tires. We had a lot of practice setting up, and taking down the tent in all sorts of conditions, many of them inclement, and could get it fully set up in about 10 minutes. Our gear was carried on the trailer bed in plastic containers and the most time-consuming thing was unloading them off the trailer so the tent bottom could rest on the trailer bed.
Inside, the GO had plenty of room for four adults - two of the human, two of the canine variety. The large windows offer the option of screens (mesh), clear plastic to zip up to keep the weather out, and a privacy shade that also zips up. It comes with two tables which can also be used as sleeping platforms. For us, we'll probably only take one table in the future as we preferred sleeping on the side 'wings' of the camper while still allowing the maximum of interior space. If I took it on another trip up north I'd try really hard to figure out a way to heat it as in Alaska it did get cold at night especially when it was raining. Wearing lots of clothing helped but one advantage of a hard-shelled camper or RV certainly is the ability to stay warm.
Balaclavas are all the rage
when camping in the great north
Sophie sports new mukluks to
stay warm in the Alaskan
'summer'
The trailer was exceptionally well-behaved when towed behind my Toyota Sienna. When camping we did buy and use plastic leveling blocks for the wheels of the trailer as the ground we camped on was not always level and flat. The GO has two clear plastic windows at either end of each side's sleeping shelf and in rainy Alaska the condensation was bad enough that it would occasionally drip on me when sleeping.
It would be nice to be able to vent, or open these windows but that's a minor nit. The GO also comes with two inflatable sleeping pads one of which our pups punctured within a couple of days but even with that it still provided decent padding underneath our sleeping bags.
The floor of the Sylvan is heavy-duty nylon but to protect it we went to the hardware store and bought those foam floor squares and cut them to fit. That worked very well. Alternatively we had thought about buying some indoor/outdoor carpet but thought that would be harder to keep clean. We also bought a broom which we used religiously to keep rocks and other debris from getting into the tent.
Ideally the GO would be set up where you were planning to stay for a couple of days and for the most part this was the case with us though we had enough travel days where we would take the camper down in the morning and put it up again at night then get up and do it all again. No big deal, but its more work than just hopping in the front seat of an RV, coffee mug in hand, and simply driving away.
Camping at the 'Mile Zero' campground at the start of the Alaska Highway. A rare sunny day so plenty of juice for the solar panel behind me...
We had bought separately a solar panel and battery to supply our electronics (cell phones, bike computers, Kindle, and Ipad). Of course, when I bought the solar panel I was in Colorado which boasts of 300 days of sunshine a year. Where I was going, Alaska, probably boasts of 300 days of overcast skies a year so there were times when I couldn't keep the solar-charged battery full. I guess that's why they make car chargers which worked fine in a pinch (although the engine obviously has to be running to charge anything which didn't always make sense when we were camping - the Toyota Sienna is a pretty expensive generator!). I understand that Sylvan now offers a very nice solar panel/battery option, but I only paid $250 for mine and theirs is more than a thousand although theirs is substantially more powerful.
Aah! The joy of setting up in the rain!
At least the dogs know how to stay dry...
Rain was a reality we had to deal with many days. Whenever possible we would wait for the rain to let up before stowing the tent in order to give it a chance to dry. However, there were several times we had to put the tent away soaking wet because the rain wasn't quitting anytime soon. Just like any tent, you want to get it set up and dry as soon as you can to avoid musty odors and mildew.
As you can see from some of the pictures we had racks on the GO to carry bikes or the kayaks. There were a couple of nights I cranked up the camper with the bikes still up there but most days made the effort to remove them to save wear and tear on the cable system that raises the camper portion. That said, the GO never complained about the load on top even when in the camping setup. I also noticed that the equipment on the GO stayed cleaner behind the van which in the picture to the right is sorely in need of a wash.
The GO has a nice green storage compartment in the front which is where we kept the solar panel/battery, Charging battery for the car just in case (I used it to jump the Toyota one time in Wasilla, AK, once in Whitehorse on a fellow camper's motorcycle, and once more on some campers car ion Dawson City), our kayak paddles, a camping toilet which we never needed, and a bicycle pump. It kept everything very dry through some horrendous rainstorms.
Its tough to get across exactly how roomy the GO tent is but there was plenty of space for sleeping and the table had loads of room for flashlights, bear spray, electronics, etc.
The GO also has an optional canopy that extends from the tent door and we used it on several occasions. It has plenty of room for a couple of chairs, two wet people, and two soggy canines to get out of the weather without going in the tent.
I wonder if they could add mosquito netting on the open sides and fronts????
So there you have a quick tour. The Sylvan site has some good video on the manufacturing process as well as segments of the GO in action. We'd highly recommend the GO as a great, relatively inexpensive camper that did everything we asked of it and came through like a champ. Now, where are the smores?
Sophie is a teacher and on an academic calendar so eventually the time came to head south. From Whitehorse you have a couple of options to get back to the good old US of A. we could go back the way we came via the Alaska Highway but we had a sense of been there done that. Option two would send us to Skagway and Haines where we could pick up the Alaska Marine Ferry and take a boat trip south. Rumor was that the rates for the Alaska Ferry had gone through the roof as the Ferry system was being used to subsidize the Alaska State budget which was seeing some serious shortfalls due to the decline in oil prices and therefor a dramatically reduced flow of oil through the Alaska Pipeline. Option three would see us head east out of Whitehorse almost to Watson Lake (home of the Sign Forest I blogged about on our way north). Turning south we would take the Cassiar Highway to Prince George with a side trip along the way to Stewart, Canada/Hyder, Alaska.
For us, option three was the easy choice, but first there was another road beckoning to the small community of Atlin along the shores of, you guessed it, Atlin Lake. Atlin Lake is 90 miles long and the area is sometimes referred to as the Shangri-La of the north. How could we pass that up?
At the southern end of the lake is the Llewellyn Glacier. The Llewellyn is part of the Juneau Icefield which is the fifth largest in the western hemisphere and covers approximately 1,500 square miles.
The community of Atlin is somewhat unique. Today's population is 300 to 500 full-time hardy residents. During the Klondyke Gold Rush of 1898, the population was 10,000. Apparently Atlin is unincorporated and has no city government. Instead, everything is done by citizen committee. This includes the running of two campgrounds we availed ourselves of - Pine Creek Campround near town and Warm Bay about 14 miles farther south down the lake. The Pine Creek Campground was nestled in the pines as its name suggests and when we were there it was us and just one other site being occupied.
The Warm Bay campsite was more popular and it turned out to be our favorite for the entire trip. We were in one of only 5 sites and were lucky to get one right on the shore of the lake.
We were also blessed with spectacular (sunny and warm!) weather that allowed us to get some kayaking, swimming, and mountain biking in. They don't call it Warm Bay for nothing, and between the smooth as glass conditions for kayaking and warm water (relatively! It is a glacier-fed lake...) for swimming it almost made us forget the rains of Alaska.
Note the strategic placement of the can
of bear spray for easy access...
Ever the fashionista!
Atlin boasts of only two snow-free months, July and August, when the highs average in the mid-60 degree range. Record low for Atlin is -58 degrees so you won't see me and Sophie there in December and January but apparently the Aurora Borealis is spectacular; there's even a site that forecasts the Aurora. While we didn't see the Aurora, Atlin Lake more than made up for it by way of it's spectacular sunsets.
Needless to say, it was very difficult to leave this wonderful oasis. If the entire Alaska trip had been like this, well, tell the post office to start forwarding my mail 'cause I'm not coming home. After a couple of days of course it was a weather change that prompted us to load up and journey on. As we left, we watched a group of intrepid women kayakers setting out in the intermittent rain on a week-long paddle towards the glacier at the end of the lake. We wished them well then turned our back on beautiful Atlin Lake already planning for a return visit.
The loon cries on Atlin Lake Still silent and peaceful In her summer frill Yet change is in the air The poplars herald with colorful flair The approaching season with shock and awe Will soon cancel out this ephemeral thaw As winter draws her inscrutable shade Across river, forest, and sunlit glade Until then I watch my Sophie with dimpled smile Creating memories that I'll file To review again some future day When summer at Atlin Lake is so far away I watch her on the water as she dances there Paddling out full of wonder and without a care At Atlin Lake, I'll remember her there
This one's for the dog lovers out there. We made this journey with our two pups who we refer to as Suburban (rather than Siberian) Huskies on account of their being, just slightly, spoiled. We weren't quite sure how they would travel but they've been troopers the whole way, even when I and Sophie were not. So here's to the dogs - Yukon and Bentley - who shared our journey, who shared with us their beds, and who will forever share our hearts. Woof! And thank you, pups, for not barking at (and drawing the attention of) all the bears!
Introducing the cast of characters...
My name is Yukon and I was abandoned
as a puppy in Kansas.
and I'm Bentley (or Mr. Bentley as
my owners call me). I got into
trouble at my first home chasing
cattle so they put me up
for adoption.
We love sleeping in in the morning, but our
owners do hog the beds
I really like to stretch out and sleep on my back
Getting a proper night's sleep
gets us ready for a new day, after
mealtime that is
We're growing Huskies so we have big
appetites. I'm Yukon and I eat almost
as much as David
We've visited lots of places this summer, though we can't
pronounce all the names...
And see, and sniff, all sorts of interesting things
We visited with some of our sled dog cousins...
And saw Alaska's highest mountains
and some glaciers that were really cool!
We tried to sign up for the Yukon Quest but were too early... we were heartbroken
We roasted marshmallows and made smores
and when I got tired and it was time to go night night I'd go in my camper
I had first dibs on the best place to sleep
though I had to put up with this funny looking guy (P.S. he snores, but so do I)
But best of all we went through all of it together!
