Mile 17069

 Today we want to take it easy after the long day yesterday.  We sleep in, have breakfast and then go to town to mail some stuff off at the post office.  After that we stop at the local coffee shop and it is almost lunch time before we leave Whitehorse, YT.  We catch the ALCAN again, and today it is the better road condition section, and we roll leisurely toward Watson Lake, YT.  No potholes, no bumps nor dips, no gravel sections, just smooth rolling along, what a pleasure.

SS Klondike II, Whitehorse, YT

Yukon River Crossing, George Johnston Museum, Teslin, YT

The ALCAN (the better section of today)

"Farewell Yukon, until we meet again, amidst the northern lights."  -  unknown

Mile 16793

 We leave Glennallen, AK this morning and continue our way on AK-1 to the Tok take-off.  But first we get a nice cloud free view of Mt. Drum, Mt. Sanford, and Mt. Wrangell.  Being early pays off.  

Mount Drum, Glennallen, AK

 The road continues like it was yesterday, in a very bad condition.  The dips and hives on the road are testing the suspension and if going a bit too fast it will lift you off your seat or let you slum into it.  On top come the sheer endless stretches of gravel road.  The way to Tok, AK is one of the worst stretches of any road on this trip thus far.  With the Alaska Range to our left and the Wrangell Mountain Range to our right with continue to Slana, AK.  

Wrangell Mountain Range

 In Tok we stop for lunch at Fast Eddy's and hope that joining the ALCAN here going to the border will improve the driving.  But nothing changes, and shortly before the Alaska - Yukon (US - CAN) border we are stopped by a road closure because of some forrest fires being left and right of the ALCAN.  We sit here for about three hours or so before the road is re-opened by US customs and we can continue the 20 miles to the Canada border check point.  

Waiting for the US Border Exit to open

The reason for the 20 mile road closure

 But any idea of the road improving hereafter vanishes as the dips and hives, and a lot more gravel road continues.  It is a very exhausting driving, and late evening we reach Destruction Bay, YT at the Kluane Lake.  

No words needed

The scenery is beautiful with the St. Elias Mountains on one side, and the Dawson Range to our left.  But we are shocked to see how little water the lake has today compared to what we saw 11 years ago.  We have a quick dinner and then continue around the lake to Haines Junction, YT, turning North to Whitehorse, YT.  The road is now much better, worth to be called a 'highway'.  

Kluane and Dawson Range

Haines Junction, YT

 Since it is very late already, wildlife is pretty close to the road and difficult to see.  We see a mother moose and two calves right next to the road, and a little later we drive right through a herd of deer (I didn't see any of them until I was right amidst them).  Frightening how late one sees those animals at night.  We arrive in Whitehorse at exactly midnight and are greeted by a beautiful red fox strolling over the parking lot as we turn in.

 It has been a difficult driving day, lots of miles on a road anything else but a highway, and exhausted we fall asleep.

"Potholes and Bumps?  Welcome to the real world.  Every road has them.  They're there to be navigated, avoided, driven over, or through to the other side.  Don't keep driving into them."  -  Nora Roberts, American author

Mile 16266

 We return from Homer, AK back to Palmer, AK back tracking the way we came and spendthe night again at the previous campsite.  Here we do a last laundry, have a nice shower and prepare for the continuation back into the Yukon.

 We get up with some cloud cover and hope this will clear soon.  After stopping for gas, some groceries and a fresh coffee we find our way on to Hwy-1, also called the Glenn Hwy and head out to Sutton, AK with the Chugach Mountains to our right, and the Talkeetna Mountain Range to our left.  

Chugach Mountains, Talkeetna Mountains

 It can't get better than that driving in-between those two impressive mountain ranges.  The weather clears a little bit, and this is very welcome as our next stop is the Matanuska Glacier.  Here we take a guided tour (and only this way you can access the glacier).  We have the guide to our own, no more people in our group other than Elke and me.  

Matnuska Glacier from AK-1 viewed

Matanuska Glacier terminus

Those crevasses can be hundreds of feet deep, ....

..... likewise those lakes

Glacier moraine and moulin

Glacier from 20,000 ft (courtesy of Wikipedia)

 We learn a lot about the Matanuska glacier, like the ice of the glacier needed about 600 years to reach the terminus of the glacier (a flowing rate of about 8 inches a day), the age of it (about 10,000 years at its present form), being about 500 to 700 ft thick, the source of it being Mt. Baker and Mt. Wickersham, the glacier is 27 miles long, and 4 miles wide at its terminus, and much, much more.  The hike up the glacier, and we only went two miles up the glacier, were so much information, it would be worth an entry on its own.

It is late afternoon when we finish our tour and we decide to only continue to Glennallen, AK (population 439) and call it the day.  We find a campsite, set up camp, have a quick dinner at one of the three "restaurants" and call it quit after all that hiking.  

Wood carving in Glennallen, AK

Mt. Drum from AK-1 (Hwy-1), right courtesy of Alaska.org

 Unfortunately  Mount Drum doesn't want to show its summit, and neither Mt. Sanford.  Maybe we have some more luck tomorrow, but what we can see is impressive. 

"The glacier was God's great plough .... set at work ages ago to grind, furrow, and knead over, as it were, the surface of the earth?"  -  Louis Agassiz, Swiss-American biologist and geologist, 1807-1873

Mile 15763

 After a couple of relaxing days in Palmer / Anchorage and doing a lot of nothing, we leave this morning and head back to Anchorage, AK, crossing the Knik River. 

The raven whispers to the bear: 

"I really enjoy watching you fish for Salmon in Ship Creek"

'Attaining balance within'

Eagle and Giant Clam & Raven stealing the Moon and Stars

Racing in the footsteps of a legend and Statue of a soldier in front of the Veterans Museum

 In Anchorage we stop for a quick second breakfast and find Hwy-1 again.  We follow the Turnagain Arm, one of my favorite coastal roads, with the Chugach Range to both sides.  The wind is blowing hefty, and when stopping at Beluga Point we could not find any because of the choppy waters.  

Looking for Belugas, Turnagain Arm

Portage Lake and Burns Glacier, and Baird peak; Byron Glacier

 At the end of the bay we turn in to Portage Lake and the same named glacier.  We take a hike at the Blue Ice Trail, but don't see very much of the Portage Glacier because of the rain setting in.  Since we are already here, we drive through the 2.5 miles long tunnel to Whittier, Ak.  We stop at the Lazy Otter Charters for a late lunch and stroll a bit around.  The town with its population of about 260 people is a major hub for cruise ships, next to being a seaport and railway port for the peninsula and Anchorage. 

Tunnel entry and exit to Whittier, AK

Harbor and Cruise Liner

Lots reminds me of the construction camps in the former Soviet Union

 Returning to Hwy-1 we continue our way to Soldotna, AK, and further South to Homer, AK.  The drive to Homer is breath taking with the white mountains of the Kenai Fjords National Park to the East, and the rolling hills down to the coast on the West.  We arrive in Homer late evening and are taken away by the view across the Kachemak Bay to the mountains of the same named State Park.

View across the Kachemak Bay

 Today we take it easy and explore Homer and Homer Spit, AK and the surroundings of Kachemak Bay. We have breakfast in Kachemak, AK at a little bagel shop, and then follow the road to its end along the bay.  We get an ever anew and a 'never getting enough of it' view of the glaciers and mountains of the Kenai Mountain Range.  Just breathtaking those mountains.  

Morning over Kachemak Bay

Kenai Mountain Range

 We return to Homer late morning and head to Homer Spit.  This area is the hot spot for any sport and/or professional fisher for Halibut, Salmon, Lingcod, and Rockfish.  The campsites are full with RV's and boot trailers, and in the afternoon the harbor is buzzing with the boots returning from the fishing trips.  Right at the harbor are shops preparing your fish and sending them home for you in cooler boxes.  But also fun are the many shops along the boardwalk.  

This will not stand a storm, Homer Spit, AK

Boardwalk Homer Spit, AK

View over the harbor, Homer Spit, AK

Many crafts and art shops one side of the Homer Spit Rd on the causeway, and lots of restaurants on the other side toward the harbor.  All seafood is fresh (wouldn't expect anything else) and delicious.  We soak in the atmosphere of this vibrant patch of town, and celebrate Elke's birthday with some good drinks and food.  After spending some money on local art and a birthday present, we let the day end lazily.

Happy Birthday Elke

"Don't just count the years, make your years count."  -  George Meredith, English novelist and poet, 1828-1909