P.S.

The summer solstice was over a month ago...however last night at 12:30 a.m. I could still read my watch without added light....!

New Segment of the Journey

We spent the last two days at China Hot Springs, a great place to unwind and relax, weather nice and warm. Tomorrow we head to Fairbanks for the birth of Junes new little grandaughter, starring Breanne who will be pushing and doing vocals, LJ who already had his starring role, Logan waiting for that special person to play with, June, who if the baby is 1/4 the beauty she is it will be a cutie, and a great family supporting cast. Film and pics later.

Re-Entering the Interior

Driving north from Valdez, the Richardson Highway follows the pipeline all the way to Fairbanks. Here is a shot as it comes back above ground after going under a river....



crossing a river.....

and with Tom and Truck....

Now we're on the Steese Highway north of Fairbanks. There since 1996 is Fort Knox Gold Mine. Alaska's largest operating gold mine....has produced nearly 3.5 million ounces of gold since 1996. Here is a picture of their water spout....they are doing hydraulic mining. (this picture is out of order...should be further down...)

Back on the Richardson Highway, here is a shot of the Alaska Range, Mts. Deborah, Hess and Hayes looking across the Tanana River.

and at the Knotty Shop, here is one of the larger breeds of mosquitoes.....

On the Steese Highway north of Fairbanks, here is Poker Flat Research Range, operated by the Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks. Primarily under contract to NASA, dedicated to auroral and upper atmospheric research. Only University-owned scientific rocket launching facility in the world and the only high latitude and auroral zone launch facility on US soil.

Just another summer day on the river....the Chatanika River....

And then on to Chena Hot Springs, outside of Fairbanks. Open year-round for over 100 years, a wonderful resort area. These are some of the original log cabins still remaining...

the hot pool.....

and the Aurora Ice Museum....actually an ice hotel open year round. Kept at 20 degrees it is full of various ice sculptures including a bar that serves apple martinis in ice glasses, while you sit on ice bar stools at the ice bar. There are also 3 rooms available for nightly rental, if you're so inclined. We weren't. Next it's on to Fairbanks and the arrival of Breanne's little girl on July 30.

Postscript

I forgot to tell you that the mill in Kennicott is 15 stories high in the front. Seems like a hell of a feat in 1910 and all the metal the brought in is still another feat...They did have a "silk stocking row" above the place, nice little houses that are now private cabins.. There wont be much more on this as we are heading to a hot spring to R&R for a few days,,, its a great big pool. Also has the ice hotel. Then to Fairbanks and the birth. June will stay there and I am heading "into the wild" for around 10 days...dont know where. Then when I get back we head out to the Artic Circle via the Yukon and Northwest Territories if the weather holds...if not we head back to the lower 48 or the "outside" as they call it up here.

R&R Russians and Roads

A few nights back we stayed {as June has stated} at a place where a family of Russians had bought. They were great people...We find out later the area is quite full of Russians, great farmers...The place had a old lodge that was haunted, {stated in a history of the area book}. Casper protected us... It was great to have a bush pilot come in and bring us our beer and gas and sleeping bags...Our dog sled was wore out from bringing us in....{A little BS thrown in} But the next day we went to a place I have seen on a few TV shows and lots of books and thought I would love to go there and never thought I would, and "I did"...Kennicott. What a place...It was a 95 miles one way, mostly one lane in. 35 miles of bad pavement and 60 miles of gravel and dirt...10 road, 1010 road, military road, and Fritz's freeway all at the same time. {a lot of people will know what I mean by those names and numbers}..5 miles a hr to 35....It was the old railroad bed and they buried the rails and ties under the road and at times they were coming up through the road. It was wild...they warned to bring spares and watch for rocks, holes and railroad spikes, and they were right..The spikes get ripped up when they grade the road, pulling out of the ties. Gnarly....We got there and then take a foot bridge across the river, then a shuttle to a old lovely place and then to Kennicott the next 5 miles...Its so unreal....They are really fixing the place up trying to save what can be saved. People are living there, shops are going in, and food can be bought. We stayed for 2 hrs and and one in McCarthy the little town...Camped that night and drove that road the next day....No Flats.....right on....I will never forget that place, it was kind of mystical to me and I have no idea why....We are now on the Copper River camping...I want to say one thing, I have never seen so many paved trails that parallel the highways and roads, also gravel ones...There are miles and miles and miles of them on any road anywhere...good for bikes, walking, atv,s , snowmobiles etc...Good for Alaska.....and its people

McCarthy/Kennicott

This blog actually begins as we were leaving Valdez. We were driving along and realized how really close we still are to Oregon. We felt right at home! Almost....


A funny thing happened on the way to Dayville, we ran into a dog team pulling a 4-wheeler....

Just before we got to the Pipeline Terminal, we came across something I have never seen before in 30 years living in Alaska.....a flashing sign....

The pipeline terminal in Valdez. Unfortunately there were no tankers in port at the time....

After Valdez, we camped at Tonsina River Campground - owned and operated by a Russian family that just moved here 2 months ago from Florida! There were only 2 of us parked in their campground. They said they had "fabulous" Russian food for dinner, so we thought we'd try some. Tom had some Borscht soup - that was great. Then he had a stuffed pepper and I had some kind of crepe thing, and I have to say, neither of us finished our meals. Not because it was too much food, either. Very plain, bland food with no flavor at all. While sitting in the camper that evening, we heard a different noise, and low and behold....an airplane was landing there to refuel! Here he is taking off...

On the way to McCarthy/Kennicott area, we came upon the mighty Copper River, where much of our grocery store fresh salmon comes from...

We kept driving, and it began to appear we were heading into the great unknown...

We cross the Copper River once again and these are campers with fish baskets out catching salmon....the baskets go around and catch the salmon - they slide into a bucket and wait to be

taken out. sorry I can't zoom in on the picture better!

The view from a bridge....

Another bridge that got our attention. Not a great view of it, but fortunately it is not in use any longer - an old railroad bridge!

Once in the town of McCarthy, you have to park and take a footbridge across a river, to be met by a shuttle driver that takes you to Kennicott and the old mine. There is a glacier there, Root Glacier. In front of the town is an enormous amount of Moraine. I believe this is Moraine Mertz. ;-)

Here is Root Glacier, as close as we could get to it.

The new Lodge ...very smokey unfortunately.

This is a picture of the old copper mill and mine. The first ore came out by train in 1911, filled with $250,000 worth of copper. It was shut down in 1938. During it's lifetime, it produced more than $200 million worth of ore.

another shot

As we were driving out of the area, I got another shot of the fish wheels....

God is Great, Beer is Good, People are Crazy

I think that would make a good song........The man upstairs knew what he was doing when these mountains formed...Its amazing how a person can still find each one so appealing and grand. You never get tired of them, especially if you are seeing them live, not on film. The beer here is top notch, they must have a great time in the winter during the down time. No matter where you go in this world you cant get away from ass____s. Especially drivers and pushy, icky, ishy, tourists. The good ones do make up for most of it. Valdez is a cool place, couldn't live here though, too much rain and average 325 inches of snow in the winter. Glaciers are phenomenal up close. Waterfalls here like you have never seen. Casper is holding strong, a very good rider he is, sleeps all night and is taking every camp like home...New smells are his forte'...

Valdez Views

Here is the view from our camp spot on Tuesday night, along the Glenn Highway.

Driving south on the Richardson Highway towards Valdez. It was smokey, so view not what it could be. From the motorhome in front of us, you can get an idea of the size of this hill...
'scuse the bugs on the windshield!

Worthington Glacier just outside Valdez. Back "in the old days" when we came to Valdez (say 25 years ago or more) you could walk right up to the glacier. I was shocked at how far back it has receded. Maybe Al is on to something....

distant waterfalls....

Mountain shot for Becky...

Closer up of the waterfalls...

Bridal Veil Falls on the edge of Valdez.

It was a bit hazy in Valdez, but we were really lucky to have no clouds here! If you look closely at the bottom of the hill across the water, those round things are part of the pipeline terminal. Valdez is where the pipeline ends and the oil gets shipped out from here. The terminal is across the bay from the town.

Part of the Valdez Harbor.

Princess Cruise ship in dock.

It's a big foggy today, so I don't know if we'll stick around here or where we'll end up tonight....

whoops

hit the wrong button before I got to comment on the following picture. It was taken in the town of Kenai, where the Kenai River flows into the Cook Inlet. At this particular time, they are using dipnets to catch salmon. When the king salmon (chinooks) are running, they fly fish shoulder to shoulder, as we call Combat fishing. We were a few days late to catch a picture of that. I have a short video clip on these dipnetters, but couldn't get it to download.....

P.

Off the Peninsula...

This picture is pretty self-explanatory! Anchor Point is on the Kenai Peninsula.

There were various Russian settlements on the Peninsula. Here is one of their Orthodox churches located in Ninilchik.

This Russian Orthodox church is in the town of Kenai. It was open, and we were given a brief history by the local priest.

Thatched-roof cabin along the way...

I'm TRYING to hold off on mountain pictures, but it's not easy...there are so many and they are so different and so beautiful!

Kenai Lake....

We are now north of Anchorage on the Glenn Highway. This is the Matanuska Glacier.

We are now heading to Valdez....weather looks a bit "iffy" but I have my fingers crossed. It is another beautiful drive and city.

Add-on

I would have liked to gone fishing, but a few times I have been out on charters and never enjoyed it, actually didnt like it because of all the other people, its a zoo....I would like to find a person that would just take June and I.....If you thought streams were crowded with fisherman in Oregon, you ought to see Alaska....boat to boat, shoulder to shoulder...not fun for me...Im sure there are places were that doesnt happened but I dont know where they are at. People are here from most states fishing for salmon and halibut...We have had a few moose step out on the highway right in front of us and if you dont think thats a rush...They are so big the first thought is its something from another world..but its just a good ol moose with legs any woman would love to have. lol. We did see caribou yesterday....We just turned 5000 miles on this trip so far. We had 3000 when we got here and put another 2000 in Alaska. Im thinking we will have around 9000 or 10,000 when we get back.....I cant wait to get back to Bend so we can go for a drive somewhere...

Home run in Homer

It was hard leaving Seward, [in fact we are talking about returning this week]. The trip on the way out was suppose to be a short one but June lost the top of a crown so we called Homer and she got a appt there to have it fixed...But we did take a gravel road off the main hwy, and saw some great country in between the smoke that was getting bad from a forest fire. We did see it but the smoke kept us from getting good pics, maybe we will get some on the way back...But going down into Homer we got out of the smoke as the hwy went along the coast of the Cook Inlet...Great scenery again. Our camp spot was top notch....#5...was the spot...even got my bald head burned...We were way above the water on the edge of a cliff. Then the next day we drove into Homer and it is quite a sight to see it for the first time as you drive down into it. The 4 mile spit which goes out into the inlet is the focal point for the town. It was washed over by the tsunami in 1964. I saw a picture of it happening in a museum.. We would have been goners...We stayed on the spit 2 nights in two different places....Lots of stuff happening on the spit, lots of stores, restaurants, tours, etc., maybe a bar or two. We stuffed ourselves with halibut, fixed many different ways....out of this world...I dont know whats wrong with me, but wine and hummers have not been as important, for some reason Ive got my beer goggles on...I think its the great beer they brew around here....There is one they allow you to have only 2 pints..Dang. This morning we woke up after only 12 hours of sleep and it was foggy. So we went to the hills above Homer which was in the sun and looked the place over...It would be real easy to live there...Also Talkeetna, but so far I like Seward as my favorite...Maybe a home in all 3. It was great to take the boat down lower to the town of Seldovia, a old Russian town, and the only way to it is by boat or plane... its ok to drive 4 wheelers on the road...Talk about another cool place, I could live there too.. So peaceful and kicked back and very beautiful....Now we are in the town of Kenai and will investigate in tomorrow....film at whenever we get up...

Keen Eye on the Kenai....

The view from our campground in Seward, once the smoke cleared...

The view from Safeway in Seward.

We left Seward and kept driving to get out of the smoke. There is a big fire near the town of Soldotna, which is in the middle of the peninsula. We ended up nearly in Homer, at a state campground. This is our view from inside the camper....

and outside the camper...

"I can see Russia from here"....

Actually, on a clear day it should have been Mt. Redoubt.

another view. For a minute we thought we were in Belize again.

In Homer now, on The Spit, where most all the fishing takes place. Homer is known as "the halibut fishing capital of the world". While this is a salmon and not a halibut, Nice Catch. (I'm referring to the one on the right)

An unsual shop...

We actually went to Homer sooner than expected, because June had a crown come out while in Seward. Placed a call to a dentist in Homer, and was able to get in Friday, so we speeded up our travel a bit to get to Homer. Will cover what we missed on the way back up the road. Here's the specimen.

One of the most historic buildings in Homer is the Salty Dawg bar. Here 'tis...

And on the inside.... No, we didn't stay long. Interesting to see, but very crowded and you can still smell every cigarette ever smoked in there. We happened to stop in right when they opened the doors at 11 a.m. and got a picture.

Homer was having a smoke/haze/fog problem also, but when it lifted we got some great glacier views. Here's one.... This glacier is part of the Harding Ice Field that we saw over in Seward.

When the charter fishing boats come in, they put on quite a show displaying the fish and then cleaning them.

Saturday we took a tour boat trip across Katchemak Bay to an old Russian village called Seldovia. On the way we went by Gull Rock, a big rookery with thousands of sea birds.

This picture is from one of the nearby rocks where we happened to spot a seal.

Hard to see, but here is part of Gull Rock....

A Seldovian sign....

My next painting:

Part of the old village

Some unusual homes....

?

A halibut charter had just returned in Selovia, and here they are cleaning the fish...

We had been the first to board the boat in the morning, and got front row seats on the top, outer deck. Very smug we were. Then when we hit open seas, with all the fog and no sunshine, we

got very cold. The captain came out and said there was room for us in the wheelhouse, so we

got special privileges on the way back! Captain Ron in the green shirt.

Sunday morning, Homer spit was completely fogged in, so we decided to find sun. We've ended up tonight in the town of Kenai, where we'll explore and have adventures tomorrow. Stay tuned.