Final push South

Bear Glacier on the drive into Stewart, B.C.

Rolling off the ferry in Skagway I sensed the end of the trip was near even though I still had over 1500 miles ahead of me.  I've been  guilty on past trips of picking up the pace on the final few days of a trip once the "turn around point is reached" and simply pounding out miles with a home destination the only goal. As I rolled off the ferry in a driving rain late that night I committed to continuing my established slow pace and enjoy the remaining days.  I headed about 10 miles outside of Skagway to Dyea, Alaska where I located a nice level spot around midnight and made the mad dash to pop up the camper in a torrential downpour. Skagway and Dyea are the major ports which supplied the Klondike Gold Rush. Located 600 miles south of the gold fields, towns were the closest salt water ports to the Klondike gold fields.  They became boom towns that catered to the miners.  Each was the trailhead for going over the mountain pass to the fields. From Skagway, stampeders took the White Pass and from Dyea they took the Chilkoot Pass. The rain continued throughout the night and my plans for hiking a portion of the Chilkoot Trail was not looking good.  No hiking occurred the following morning so I started east to intercept the Cassiar Hwy.   First planned stops were Hyder,  Alaska and Stewart, B.C..  I should have probably skipped this as I had been to both before.  When I reached the turn off the rain continued to follow me but I went anyway in hopes that it would subside. It didn't!  I ended up driving in, camped in the rain and fog thick as soup, and left the following morning. Since departing Haines the weather had gotten bad and was headed to worse. I had to fight the urge to just start pounding out miles.  Finally, once I got a little further south the rain decreased but the temperatures were headed in the same direction I was......south.  I had been told of a wilderness road that skirts the Spatsizi Wilderness  by a fellow I camped next to in Alaska a few weeks ago. He went on and on about its lack of people, ample wildlife and beautiful scenery.Having looked at it on my map prior to hearing about it, I had kind of written it off as it didn't show any roads going in.  For some reason, my map didn't show the road he was telling me about.  He told me what to look for and sure enough I located it.   This is one of those areas where you have to look for it. The road, which is basically an old railroad grade, is dirt and in poor conditions in places and not well marked off the main.  Four-wheel drive is a must in here especially if the road is wet.  A real possibility exists of becoming stranded should one of the stream crossings become impassable on your drive out.  It's about 60 miles into the end of the road and then you come back out the same way.  It's a beautiful drive and I did see one black and one grizzly while here along with a couple of moose.  No pictures, I've posted enough bear and moose pictures.  I didn't get anything really good anyway as both of them were spotted with hardly any light left. I only encountered two people  total while  in the area. I ended up spending two nights and should probably have spent more, but the nights were getting damn cold, and to be honest, I was getting a little road weary. I really didn't take many pictures other than the Spatsizi Wilderness area once on the Cassiar Highway so I'll just post up the few I did take and wrap up the trip.  

Dusting of snow on the first night.  Temps in the high 20's.

Fall colors all the way in.

First bridge about 20 miles in.

Road skirts the river and in higher water conditions can easily flood the road.

Small creek with fall foliage.

 

Camp the first night

Aspens

 

Lake along the Cassiar Highway

Hunters I came across had taken a big bull moose earlier that morning.  They were very excited about the kill as they stated they really needed the meat for the winter.  I stopped and talked with them about the hunt and watched them dress out the moose.  Hate to see such a magnificent animal like this taken but at the same time I understand the subsistence it provides.  It's the idiots that do this for pure sport that I have a major problem with.

A few steaks hanging here.  

Once I got back out pavement,  the "home bug" bit me and I started pounding out the miles to get back across the border.  It was a great trip.  I ended up being on the road for almost 10 weeks and travelled a little over 11,000 miles, no breakdowns other than one flat, got stuck once, had many wildlife encounters, gazed on beautiful scenery and met some interesting people while roaming around British Colombia, Yukon, Northwest Territories and Alaska.  I'd load up and go again tomorrow.  There is just so much to see and do one could spend years and not see it all.  It is by far my most favorite area to explore and roam around in.  With any luck I'll be back up north soon.  In the meantime, Petey is already back in the planning stage for our next adventure. Hope you enjoyed following along via the Blog.

Petey is thinking Key West sounds good about January!

It's time to point it South

Camping alongside Kluane Lake in the Yukon Territory

While in Valdez I could sense a change in the air.  The nights were getting cold, the sun was disappearing much sooner in the afternoons and one could feel that winter up here was still a ways off but coming on.  I was firing up the propane heater in the camper just about nightly now and dreading the slow crawl out of the warm sleeping bag each morning.  Lying in the camper one night as I listened to the drumming of heavy rain outside I began to waiver on my planned route back up north to Denali.  The original plan was after Valdez to make the 500 mile drive back up north for another week in Denali.   I had been given a Denali Road lottery ticket which is hard to come by.  This lottery ticket allows 400 vehicles to drive the entire Denali Road on the last two days prior to the park closing down for the winter.  No other time of the year this is permitted and if you get lucky and catch a bluebird day it can be a drive one won't forget. After the rain continued to pound all night and making the slow crawl out of that warm bed the following morning I went into town to find out what the weather forecast for Denali would be the following week.  It was not good with lows around 30 degrees plus a little snow/rain mix.  The dreary forecast and thought of adding another thousand miles to put me back in the vicinity where I currently was made the decision for me.  It was time to point it south and start working my way back to the lower 48.  I decided to leave Valdez that morning after a little breakfast and some hot coffee and head for Haines, Alaska.  I had been to Haines before when I came up on the bike and really enjoyed the area.  It's a little harbor town with a year-round population of about 2000 residents that is surrounded by beautiful scenery, ample wildlife viewing and is designated as the Adventure Capital of Alaska. Some of the premier heli-skiing in North America can be found here.  The weather in Haines was forecast to be partly sunny for the next few days.  Another reason I wanted to go to Haines was the really good chance of seeing more Grizzlies.  Not like I hadn't seen a butt load of them already on this trip but I'm fascinated by them and never seem to tire of watching them.   I should have been a bear biologist! For anyone reading this blog it's probably getting a little boring at this point.  More rural Alaska and bears.  Enough you're probably thinking.  Bear with me, this will be the last of them even though I saw more on the drive down the Cassiar Highway.  So it was off to Haines which is about an 800 mile drive and I knew it would take me a few nights to get there. This is certainly not a chore as the drive takes you through some  stunning scenery which includes skirting along the  Kluane National Park in the Yukon Territory. Regarding Haines, I have another book recommendation, which I read while on my bike trip last summer, is written by a local resident of Haines titled, If You Lived Here I'd Know your Name . If coming to Haines, it's an entertaining read on the people, history and daily life in Haines.     

View from camp outside Haines Junction in the Yukon.  Kluane National Park in the distance.

Drive along Kluane Lake

Chilkoot River draining into the inlet.

Haines along the waterfront

Side trip on one of the few dirt roads leading into Kluane National Park.  Goes in about twenty miles where it dead ends.  I only made it about 10 miles in as the road was washed out at a stream crossing . Kluane is a massive park where if you want to really explore it you have to hike.  When hiking here you should always keep the signage below in mind.  I saw two large grizzlies on the drive back in here.  Both just meandering down the middle of the dirt road I was on.

Road leading up over the pass towards Haines, Ak.

Haines, Ak

  Of course.....more of my favorite subjects up here in Alaska......

When something this large stands up and starts looking around you take notice.  Is she looking at something larger than her or is she looking for me?

Didn't really shoot many pics while in Haines as I was starting to get photo weary and needed to just put it away for a few days.  Hung out down by the waterfront, the library, local brew pub, the local coffee house meeting some of the locals, did some hiking and spent the evenings up on the Chilkoot River looking for bears. After two nights in Haines, I booked passage on the ferry over to Skagway.   It's only about an hour ride across the inlet and saves about 300 miles of driving.  When you figure the savings in time and gas it's not a bad deal to just jump on the ferry.

Drive down the Cassiar Highway next.......

McCarthy & Valdez - Alaska

Root Glacier viewed from camp outside McCarthy

Got back from Katmai National Park late that afternoon after a bumpy flight back to Homer.  Seeing as it wasn't getting dark until around 9 pm I decided to load up and start heading north back towards Anchorage.  Figured I'd just pull over after knocking off some miles.  Next destination was McCarthy.  This is another area that was on my list to check out.  I had started this way when I was up here on my motorcycle trip last summer but I wimped out due to heavy rains. I had started in but the road was a mud fest and the forecast was for more rain. This is another one of those Alaskan roads where it's one way in, dead ends and then back out.  This one is about 90 miles in with about 60 of that being dirt. Since I was in the truck this year I had no excuse not to make it to McCarthy.  Of course, since I wasn't on the bike the weather was perfect.  Wish I could have described the road as perfect.  It was beat to hell and the roughest, most pot-holed I'd traveled this trip.  Was slow going as it took me bout 51/2 hours to do the 60 miles. Later learned from a local in McCarthy that the state hadn't graded since early May and the road was the worse he'd seen it in over 20 years.  Just my luck!  You can't actually drive all the way into McCarthy unless you're on a motorcycle or small ATV as there is a wide footbridge which crosses the Chitina River about a mile or so outside of town.  You can either walk or catch a shuttle into town and the Kennicott Mine area.  Camping is allowed along the river ($20 per night with no services, other than a pit toilet, as it's on private land)  at the footbridge with great views of the Root Glacier.  Expensive for simply a place to park but the views are incredible. The town of McCarthy is an interesting place with a year-round population of about 3 dozen people.  No power to anything in town unless provided by generator, no paved streets, couple of stop signs, no gas station, one bar, couple of boarding houses and one small grocery store.  It is a remote town literally at the end of the road.  If coming to camp for a few nights, I would suggest that you be well stocked prior to arriving.  Not much here and what is available is expensive.  Town proper is located in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. The town has a lot of interesting history and worth reading up on prior to visiting.  A really good read is Pilgrim's Wilderness.  

Due north of McCarthy at the end of the road shown in red, to the right of Mt. Sanford, is the Nabesna Road where I had been a couple of weeks earlier.  Lot of wilderness between the two points.

Old part of the railroad trestle paralleling the road into McCarthy.  Originally the only way into the area.  Was used for hauling Cooper Ore out of the Kennicott Mine.  Was quite an engineering feat building this railroad into the area considering the weather and terrain.

Probably the most remote coffee house I've ever been to.  Sits about 15 miles outside of McCarthy and trust me when I tell you......there is nothing else here other than a few remote cabins.  Hung out here for a few hours with a couple of guys that live back in here year round.  To say they are "off the grid" is an understatement.  Was an interesting couple of hours hearing some of their winter exploits.

Liberty Falls.  On the road heading into McCarthy.

Had a couple of different campsites while in the area.  Ended up spending four nights just outside McCarthy.

Some hikers crossing the base of the glacier.

Did quite a bit of hiking during the four days I spent here.  From the Kennicott mine area there are numerous hikes to choose from.  This one goes in for about 9 miles alongside the Root Glacier.

Fall colors were on full display.

Old mine perched up on the ridgeline.  Wanted to go up and explore this but ran out of time.  Had also just about bumped into a nice sized grizzly where the trail started up here.  Close enough to grab for the bear spray but should have gone for the camera instead.  At the time, spray seemed like the better choice though.  He headed up the trail towards the old mine so I thought I'd let him have it.  Pretty thick brush and I didn't feel like following him into it.

Petey having a little dinner with a view later that evening.

Lake at the base of the glacier.

Downtown McCarthy

Potato Head dining establishment in McCarthy.  Excellent food!

About 5 miles outside of McCarthy you can visit the Kennicott Mine which is now owned and operated by the National Park Service.  Can easily spend a day here hiking around and touring the old buildings.

Rough life here in McCarthy.  Great area to visit if you're into old mining history, hiking and just want to get away from it all.  It's a cool place at the end of the road.  I hope to get back here one day.

From McCarthy I headed to Valdez and ran into rain.....and lots of it.  This was now my third time in Valdez and I have yet to be there without rain.  Not being able to do much else I spent only two nights but was able to get a few wildlife shot as the weather just didn't want to co-operate.  Shame because Valdez is a beautiful area.  

Young eagle down along the waterfront.

This guy was tearing up the Salmon.  He ate well during the 30 minutes I watched him.

 Headed to Haines, Alaska from here...........