Trip log: RV Trip to Alaska 2014 |
|
7/6/2014 Day 60 Meziadin Lake Campground to Prudhomme Provincial Campground 15 miles from Prince Rupert, BC; 230 miles We were promised bears! We were on the road sans breakfast by 6:20 because the campground lady said she has seen as many as 18 bears on the road when she drives it early. So: 1 bear. And that was fleeting. We finally stopped for breakfast after about 75 miles in a lovely rest area with a stream and our own private pull-through. I had to add air to the left inner dual again; it was at 74 psi, the others over 82. We then drove on to the junction of the Yellowhead Highway and on down toward Prince Rupert, stopping in Terrace for gas and dump/water at the Visitor’s Center.
We dropped the coach at Prudhomme Provincial Campground ($16 CDN, no hookups) and finding no way to pay the fee, left a note on the camp host trailer and drove into town for dinner and a ferry reconnaissance. Reservations for the ferry to Ketchikan and back were confirmed for $802, leaving Tuesday, July 8 and returning Friday, July 11.
We had dinner at the Breakers Pub in Cow Bay, one of the ones we frequented when we were here by boat, then walked the docks for old time’s sake and drove home. Now the problem is to secure a place to land when we get off the ferry from Ketchikan at 3:15 in the morning here in PR. It seems we can reserve a spot in this campground if we can get phone or internet service. Although the posters say the campground is closed from 11 PM to 7 AM, the camp host says they’ve discontinued that practice. |
|
7/5/2014 Day 59 Dease Lake to the junction of the Stewart/Hyder Highway at Meziadin Lake Campground; 185 miles |
|
7/3/2014 Day 57 Whitehorse, Yukon, to Rancheria Lodge and RV Park; 200 rv miles on the Alaska Highway This morning we drove down Miles Canyon just east of Whitehorse, a scenic road that goes along the Yukon River and the lake formed by the hydro dam in Whitehorse. The dam has made the rapids through Miles Canyon a non-passage, but prior to its construction this was a formidable riverboat passage. It’s a narrow slot canyon with vertical rock walls through which the Yukon boiled at a furious rate in earlier days and upset many a river traveler’s plans. Smaller paddlewheelers negotiated these rapids, but none the size of the Keno or the Klondike. At the dam is a wooden fish ladder to enable the salmon to return upriver from whence they were hatched in order to spawn and die. It also serves to allow researchers to count the fish and for interested observers to watch them through glass panels on the side of the ladder and through the open top along which a walkway runs. Very interesting and informative displays are in the small visitors center, donation supported.
Having thus killed most of the morning, we hooked up and left the RV park and headed east, late starting for us. It rained most of the way, sometimes pretty hard. At this point we’re retracing our route coming up. We stopped at the Teslin Tlinget Heritage Center where we looked at rings and bought two embroidered T-shirts, one Eagle and one Wolf. We stopped for the night at the Rancheria Lodge and RV Park, 60 miles from the Cassiar Highway junction on the Alaska Highway. This is a large place with all kinds of buildings and machinery and vehicles, but nothing seems to be operating. The very tiny café serves as headquarters, a paper sign taped to the door says “register here” which we did. Handing a $20 bill to the nice lady in the café with no other information exchanged got us a huge pull-through site with 30 Amp electric in the trees. Just what we like, but apparently nobody else does; we’re alone. There is a dump here, and water somewhere which we will find on the way out. Rained all night and still raining. |
|
7/7/2014 Day 61 Layover day in Prince Rupert vicinity The camp host here has gotten fed up with being “on call” all the time and is packing up to leave. We lazed around in the morning, then went out to Port Edward where we toured the Salmon Cannery Museum. Compared to the extremely clean working one we saw ten years ago in Haines, this one is a junk pile. |
|
7/8/2014 Day 62 Alaska Ferry Matanuska from Prince Rupert to Last Chance CG, Ketchikan; rv about 30 miles
It takes almost as long to get on the ferry as it takes for the ferry to get from PR to Ketchikan. We dumped and filled in Port Edward, then drove into Prince Rupert to secure dry ice to keep the freezer cold during the trip. This made us a little late getting to the ferry terminal. We were supposed to be there at 11 AM; we actually arrived at 11:30. I don’t think it made much difference in the boarding process though. We got through US Customs and into the ferry boarding lane by about 12:30, RV and Jeep more or less side by side in lanes 3 and 1 respectively. They were boarding large vehicles first, and of course they have to sort them according to destination as well: Ketchikan, Petersburg, Wrangell or Juneau. So they waved Russ in the RV on right after a huge bus, which of course got stuck making the turn onto the boarding ramp for 10 minutes. When my turn came they stopped me at the top of the ramp so they could adjust the height for the tide change. Finally we got the RV on, parked (behind the bus) and I got up to the observation deck at just after 2 PM Prince Rupert time, secured the two best seats in the place, and waited.
|
|
Again today, six bears, one cub with mama then another cub seemingly by himself (but most likely not!) and several adults. None of them appeared to be much spooked by traffic. One just grazed calmly at the side of the road as we stopped and watched.
Meziadin Lake is a great campground and we got site 59 with electric for $28, including wi-fi. Well, sort of wi-fi. It has 66 sites, many on the lake and the rest up in the trees. Some are cheek to jowl together, but others aren’t. There are only a few, maybe a half-dozen or so with electric, so we were lucky to get this one.
The left inside dual on the truck is losing air, about 5# over two days; not enough to worry about right now, but it bears watching. The left rear on the Jeep is exhibiting a very slow leak, as it has for months, takes a week or so to lose 5#. All other tires seem to be OK.
Spoiler Alert: Both tires continued to lose air very slowly. After we got home, the truck tire was found to have a screw through the tread but it was repairable. The Jeep tire had a roofing nail through the sidewall and was not repairable. |
|
Meziadin Lake Campground |
|
A very long way to haul groceries |
|
7/9/2014 Day 63 Ketchikan, Alaska I’m struck by how many different forms of touring there are in Alaska. We have heard of people who are canoeing down the Yukon River, nearly 1900 miles, from its headwaters near Skagway to the Bering Sea; there are folks on bicycles loaded with packs on their backs, over the rear wheel, over the front wheel; one fellow I overheard was going to ride (or push) his bike from Skagway up to the top of White Pass so he could ride down. There are lots of motorcycles, many pulling trailers; of course, RVs in all sizes and shapes from little teardrop trailers to huge busses; some people drive very small cars and tent-camp or just sleep in the back; there are hikers as well who cover astounding distances with nothing but what they can carry.
And, of course, you can get to Alaska by more conventional means: cruise ship, airline, private airplane, bus tour or private boat. The Alaska Marine Highway ferry system will take you almost anywhere reachable by water, vehicle and all, and if doing an overnight or multi-day passage you can even set up your tent on the aft upper deck, or rent a cabin if you like your comforts.
Once here you can take flightseeing trips, bear watching trips, whale and wildlife cruises, flights into the bush or up to the Arctic Circle. The Iditarod Trail crops up everywhere in southwest Alaska and you can hike all or parts of that, even take dog-sled rides on or near it. Since we are towing the Jeep, we have looked for and found several off highway roads that have proven to be very interesting. |
|
Herring Creek, Ketchikan |
|
And waited. When it got to be 3 PM and Donna had not shown up yet, I was getting concerned. Did the Jeep have a problem somehow? Was she sick or hurt? Was there no more room? Did she change her mind? Finally at about 3:15 here she came. It had taken all that time to load everyone else while she waited, first in lane #1 in front of the ramp. She and the Jeep finally got on and they parked her in the paint locker, the very most forward part of the bow. I could see why they did that: the Jeep is very short and can park anywhere.
So we reset our watches to Alaska time, 1 hour earlier. We arrived at about 8:15, just getting dusk, unloaded successfully; in fact we were both just about the first vehicles off. The terminal is a couple miles north of the actual town, but closer to the campgrounds we want. We made a left on the main (only) road west, drove out to Revilla Road and north 2 miles up to the Last Chance Campground where we found a great foresty site for $5 per night, no hookups. Very tight, but we got site #4 which is quite spacious, perfectly level and not reservable. Bear warning signs all over the campground.
On the way up on the ferry we were able to see the outlet of Venn Passage, the Canadian lighthouse at Dixon Entrance, Portland Canal, the anchorage at Foggy Bay with a yacht visible through the slot, Boca de Quaddra inlet which leads to Mink Bay and Misty Fjords lodge, Misty Fjords itself, Saxman, and finally the town of Ketchikan with all of its memories of our boating days. We also saw a few whales off in the distance while crossing Dixon Entrance; pretty small, probably humpbacks, probably juveniles; some jumping fish and a seal or sea lion. |
|
Ketchikan Main Street looking northwest
|
|
7/4/2014 Day 58 Rancheria Lodge to Cassiar Highway and Dease Lake Lions Campground, BC; 210 miles We saw a grizzly right off the bat after turning onto highway 37, the Cassiar. Then we saw a total of six more bears, all blacks until we got to the campground. One black bear was cinnamon colored and we managed to see him soon enough to stop beside him as he grazed about 20 feet from us. Then he started walking south, staying between 20 and 50 feet off the highway paralleling our own route. We kept up with him for probably 10 minutes and about a half mile.
Dease Lake Lions Campground is where we stayed coming up. This time there were about 5 others with us, but it has 16 spaces so it certainly wasn’t crowded. This one is $10 with no hookups, no dump and no water.
The 450-mile Cassiar Highway is far better than I remember it coming up, perhaps because we have become inured to bad roads. The surface is better than many of the Alaska roads we’ve been on, and it doesn’t feel particularly narrow. The north half has no lane striping and no shoulder to speak of to be sure, whereas the lower half does. But it’s a no-problem 45-50 MPH road all the way. |
