Hyder, Alaska

Welcome to Camp Run-a-Muck in Hyder, Alaska, the last ghost town of the great frontier!  This little town is a sister town to Stewart, British Columbia, which sits at the end of Portland Canal.  The mail is delivered twice a week by sea plane, if the weather permits.  It is where the Tongass National Forest starts, the largest National Forest in the United States.  This is a temperate rain forest -- 120 inches of rain a season and lots of the flora you would see in a rain forest.  It also receives approximately 42 feet (that's right FEET) of snow in the winter.  It's at the end of a road, so you only see it if you plan it.

I saw my first glacier, Bear Glacier, on the side of the mountain driving down into Hyder.  This is where the movie Insomnia was filmed.  We had a nice fresh Halibut dinner on Monday night with a little skit performed by the staff.

Our group that broke down just as we were leaving Hazelton were able to rejoin us in Hyder.  They were welcomed with shouts and applause -- the rest of us hoping that it won't happen to us! 

Hyder is where they built a viewing platform to watch the bears grab the salmon out of the lake to eat.  We didn't see any because the salmon aren't quite there yet -- it will happen mid-July according to the ranger.  We did see a black bear foraging in the trash can across the street from the campground at the motel and an eagle eating something in the middle of the road.  The wildflowers are beautiful and really starting to come out.  There are mountains everywhere you look and they're majestic, beautiful, and covered with snow at the top.  The waterfalls were amazing, too, and hopefully I'll get a picture of those attached at the next post.

The group seems to be gelling and everyone getting along.  It's staying light later now (as in later than 11:00 PM). 

We all have radios in our rigs and Spike, our tour guide, gives us running commentary as we drive along giving us the history of the area, interesting things to look for, and answers questions (also alerts us when traffic conditions worsen or there's a bear by the side of the road).

We're having a great time!   Wish you were here!

K'San Campground

Last night was our first meeting as a group for the tour.  There are 22 rigs along for the tour and approximately 45 people.  The process has started for checking out each rig, installing rock shields on the front of vehicles and protective plastic for those who want it on the front of their rigs.  After spending a good two hours trying to scrub all the bugs we acquired along the trip off the front of the fifth wheel, we opted to have a plastic cover installed for the duration of the trip. 

This area of British Columbia (which I misspelled on the title of my last post) is gorgeous.  We are nestled between huge mountains to the west and a large river to the north.  We're trying to get used to the idea that it's light outside until 11:00 pm and starts getting light around 3:30 am! 

There are almost as many dogs along on the trip as people.  I joked that not only do we need to learn all the people's names, but all the pet's names, too!  (At least the people have name badges.)

There are a few more rigs around the bend in the road, but this is the bulk of them. 

Tomorrow morning we start our tour with the local first nation tribe in this area, then a salmon potluck dinner!

Arrival in Hazelton, British Colombia

We arrived at K'San Campground yesterday around noon for the start of our Alaskan tour.  There are already about 12 rigs here that are on the tour.  The scenery is gorgeous, big mountains and a river by the campground (which also means bugs).  We were in Seattle for four nights and it rained and was cloudy all except the Friday before our departure, which happened to be the day of our lunch reservations at the Sky City restaurant in the Space Needle.  The sun came out, it warmed up, and it was beautiful!  The only thing we didn't get to see was Mt. Rainier -- I think it's a prop they use in their tourism advertisements and postcards. 

After leaving Seattle, we headed to the Canadian border.  Crossing the border wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be -- they didn't ask for paperwork on the animals at all (although we DO have the paperwork). 

Will add more later -- we're headed to a township 63 kilometers away to stock up on some groceries.

Redwood Tree?

This tree was growing out of the redwood tree next to our campsite outside of Crescent City, California.  It was very interesting looking, to say the least.  Although it's hard to see, at the top it's leafy and healthy.  I wonder if it will keep growing out and up?

Imagine our Surprise

While stopping for gas in Oregon, imagine our surprise when an attendant (clean cut and in uniform) came out to pump the gas and wash the windshield for us!  The attendant stated it was customary in the state of Oregon for this to happen.  WOW!  We are spending two days in Florence, Oregon, right along the coast line (two blocks from the beach).  The sun has been shining, but the breeze off the water is a little cool.  It'll be nice to relax and catch up on laundry.  We are finally at the Pacific Ocean!

This was a lighthouse outside Crescent City, California, where we spent last night.  Love the water!

The Run with the Harleys

We left Winnemucca (where the wind blew the whole time) and spent the next night in Verdi, Nevada, west of Reno, two miles from the Nevada/California border.  It was an RV park nestled up in the mountains and the views were gorgeous (I'll put pictures up soon).  The next two nights we spent in Grass Valley, California, at the Nevada County Fairgrounds.  It was a pretty place and very quiet.  We had dinner with Gary and Pat Orechwa the first night, then traveled down to Manteca the next day to visit Brett and Brian.  It's always good to see your kids and catch up with their lives.  That evening Gary and Pat came over to our "home on wheels" and visited, which was a special treat for us!

The next morning we took the trailer over and had four new tires installed.  It seemed like a good idea since we still have 10,000 miles left on this trip.  After leaving Grass Valley, we meandered north/northwest on Highway 20, which is a two-lane, curvy road, but very picturesque.  After we passed I-5, we noticed quite a few motorcycles on the road, all headed the same direction.  All the way from Highway 20, to Highway 101, and north, we kept seeing more and more Harley Davidsons in groups.  We decided to go beyond where we were planning on staying that night, and wound up at Redwoods River Resort north of Leggett, California.  Turns out that there is a Harley bike rally this weekend all up and down Highway 101.  The resort personnel warned us that it would be noisy, as they weren't enforcing their normal "quiet time" while the rally was there.  We had driven far enough we decided to stay anyway.  It wasn't that bad, really.  Some of the riders were up and leaving by 6:00 this morning, which seemed early to us, but who knows where they're headed next! Now we're headed to Crescent City and the Giant Redwoods!

The Wind Blew us to Winnemucca

We got an early start today and were supposed to spend the night in Battle Mountain, Nevada, but it was only 11:30, so we decided to drive on to Winnemucca.  It wasn't too bad until then, but the wind started blowing really hard.  We decided that Winnemucca was a good place to stop before we wound up on the side of the road.  At least we'll have the rest of the day to relax and head to an RV park outside Reno for tomorrow night.  No pictures as yet.  I'm trying to figure out a better way to post pictures to the blog without too much work.  Until next time!

If It's Friday, This Must be Salt Lake City

We arrived in Provo, Utah, around 11:30 this morning and decided to scope out a Camping World to have our air conditioner checked out.  The 90-degree heat in Moab helped us realize we needed cool air, and our air conditioner didn't want to cooperate -- 90 outside, 85 inside.  Fortunately it was something simple and didn't cost much to have it fixed.  We left Camping World three hours later and headed to the Salt Lake City KOA campground, which is very close to downtown Salt Lake City.  They even have a shuttle that will take you to and from Temple Square!  We'll be here for two days and then head on westward to California.  Thank goodness for air conditioning!

Our Journey Begins!

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Tuesday, June 1, we left Gorham Scout Ranch and headed to Pagosa Springs, Colorado, our first night on the road for our Alaska RV Tour!  (Thank you, Donna, for taking the picture.)  We had dinner with our friends Jim & Deneice at their gorgeous home in Pagosa (it's for sale if anyone is looking)!  Now it's June 2, and we're in Moab, Utah, for two nights.  Last time we came through Moab, we wanted to hike a trail but were unable to because it rained all night.  I don't think we'll have that problem this time, at 2:45 PM it's already 87 degrees.  After Moab, we're heading to Salt Lake City to sight see, then to Nevada, and on to California to visit some family.  Then we'll head up the coast through Oregon and Washington state on our way to Hazelton, British Columbia.

We're excited to finally be on the way.  It seems like forever since we made the reservations for this tour, but so much has happened and changed since then, that it probably just makes it seem longer.  Ziva and Casey settled right in to the traveling routine, probably more so than Wayne and myself.

We plan to update a little more frequently from this point onward.  We will definitely have more pictures.