September 2019 – Living the Dream

08/22 – 08-25/19 Time to head south and start making our way back down to the lower 48. After our adventure in the Interior of AK we spent the night in Fairbanks and another at Deadman Lake again. We decided to make our way down to Haines, AK and then hop the Ferry to Skagway. We stopped at the Welcome to AK sign to take a photo since it was early in the morning and not so crowded and busy as when we arrived. Better late than never. The scenery on the Haines Highway through the Yukon, BC, and back into AK was spectacular and different that anything we had seen previously. We pulled into Haines and stopped at the grocery store before heading to camp. Weather was a little cloudy and damp but we make our way out to Chilkat State Park where there was plenty of open camping spaces so we settled in and took Sierra out for a walk. I of course took the camera along just in case. Sierra and I walked down to the inlet and as we were walking back another camper told us there was a mother and baby moose making there way through the campground. He said he saw Mike trying to take pictures with his Phone. It was almost dark but I was able to get a couple of shots before my battery died. When I got back to camp, Mike said she and the calf had walked right through our campsite. Mike and I drove into town to check out the local farmers Market and saw the set of Dalton City that was constructed for the Disney movie White Fang. We enjoyed poking around the town of Haines, walking the Docks and driving around Fort William H Seward’s historic buildings. We heard there was another campground on the opposite side of the town beyond the Ferry Terminal where there was a fishing weir and where bears often congregated. After filling up with fuel we made our way out to Chilkoot Campground. We passed the weir on the way there and saw a number of people with long lenses….looks like we were in the right place to see the bears. We found a beautiful campsite right next to the lake and walked back down the road to the fish weir. The fish and game dept. monitors the fish that are passing through the weir and also helps to keep people and bears getting to close together. We were told that there had been a bear at the weir earlier but there were none on our first walk down. Walking back into camp we noticed a strong smell of gas. We looked under the camper a saw that the fuel tank was leaking. We drove the camper back into Haines to find a parts store and spent the next few hours working in their parking lot to seal the leak with some epoxy designed for just such an event. The patch seemed to hold and so we headed back to our camping spot. We met Holly and Terry who were also hoping to get some good photos and had been traveling specifically to destinations where they could view bears. We walked back to camp and were just finishing a game of cribbage when she stopped by our campsite to let us know that there was a couple of bears at the weir. I grabbed the camera and we made our way down and were able to get a few pics of the bears fishing and chowing down on Salmon. What a thrill! Getting a picture of a Grizzly bear in the wild was on my bucket list! Check!!! Over the next few days we enjoyed numerous walks to look for, and photograph the bears, wildlife and scenery. At one point all the fisherman on the river were bunched together on a island. We assumed correctly that there was a large bear close by and were able to get another bunch of great bear photos. We stopped off at the Haines Brewery and toasted our wonderful luck with a pint of Spruce Tip Ale. We also enjoyed one of the tastiest and beautifully presented meals of this entire trip at the Pilot Light Restaurant. I don’t usually take pictures of my food but couldn’t resist snapping a quick photo of my halibut tacos. While conversing with the waitress we learned that her family owns a restaurant near Hearst Castle, she gave us the name and we will definitely stop by when we travel down the California coast with Mom and Dad next month. We fell in love with the town of Haines and would love to return here someday for another visit.

08/14 – 08/21/19 Our little Caravan made our way up to Fairbanks where we spent the night at Pioneer Park. We enjoyed exploring many of the historical buildings and museums and of course the proverbial gift shops. In the morning we said a heartfelt goodbye to Jim, Jackie and Bob who continued heading south through Canada back to the lower 48 while we spent the next week with our friends the Bouldings. We met up with Charlie, Robin, and Tory Boulding in Fairbanks after not seeing them since they had sailed in and visited us while we were Caretaking GSJ Island in the USVI. We had first met them in 2009 on the Island of Barbuda and again when we sailed together from St. Marten to the BVI in Nov of 2010. (Click on Highlighted Script for previous blog entries and Information) We told them that we would one day visit them in AK and we were determined to keep that promise. On Friday morning, we drove 4.5 hours from Fairbanks to Manley Hot Springs ahead of Charlie, Robin, and Tory while they finished up with Appointments. We met them at a small cabin they keep in Manley before loading up a couple of daypacks and the dog and headed down to the slough to help load up their boat with numerous groceries, supplies and a large Satellite Dish for one of their neighbors. The 5 of us, Sierra and their house dog Nook, boarded their river boat for the 20 mile trip to their homestead on the Tanana River. With Charlie at the helm, dodging sandbars, and floating debris, we relaxed as he navigated us up the rising Tanana River while the Robin and Tory pointed out places of interest and regaled us with stories of life along the river. After dropping off the Satellite Dish we made our way to their little slice of Paradise in the heart of the Alaska Interior. We tied off the boat to a tree next to their fishwheel and helped offload the supplies. They settled us into their one room guest cabin and proceeded to show us around their property consisting of around 35 acres, 2 Cabins, Shop, Smokehouse, Garden & Cache. Sierra was in dog heaven. She feasted on a number of pieces of dried fish that had been buried by one of their 6 sled dogs around the property and would curl up for a nap in the straw just like they did. The homestead is completely off the grid, true AK wilderness living. Their water is caught in rain barrels and is carried into the house for washing and cooking. Light is provided via windows and propane lights. They have a generator to charge the house batteries and a small solar panel that keeps their house batteries topped off. They do have some electric lights that are used when the generator is running. There is no phone but they do have the ability via Hughes Net to access the Internet so they can keep in touch with the outside world and their friends and family. There is no indoor plumbing but an outhouse is provided for comfort. They told us the small window in the front door was installed after a couple of close encounters with bears on their front porch. Their main cabin consists of a living space, a sleeping loft, a back bedroom, and a kitchen complete with an old fashioned but wonderfully functional wood burning oven, propane stovetop and another central wood burning stove for heat. Their refrigerator is a cold hole into the permafrost under the kitchen floor. Their garden provides them fresh vegetables and they hunt and fish for their meat. Part of their summer is spent at their Fish Camp where they catch the King Salmon that is a staple of their diet. We spent the next few days taking excursions on the Tanana and Kantishna Rivers, we fished for Northern Pike, picnicked, scouted for Moose, as hunting season is near, and visited some historical sites including part of the original Iditerod trail used to transport diphtheria serum from Seward to Nome AK. We stopped at the Tolovana Roadhouse that is now used for Sled Dog Excursions in the winter. We were also a witness to history in the making when we traveled up river and watched as the Kantishna river beginning to cut a new channel through a narrow bank that separated a mile long loop in the river. The Bouldings had been watching this spot during floods for the last 30 years knowing that it would happen one day. We helped where we could with summer chores, splitting kindling, harvesting the garden, helping with meal prep and clean up, and a bit of maintenance around their place. We picked green beans, summer and winter squash, carrots, kale, & a lot of peas. Robin canned 16 quarts while we were there. The rising river made it imperative to get as much as we could harvested. Robin fed us like kings and queens, baking bread and Apple Cake in her oven and an amazingly wonderful and huge King salmon filet for dinner. We also had a marvelous Moose stew and Bear and Cranberry sandwiches for lunch. Her Cranberry-banana jam is delicious! We spent our evenings together reminiscing and sharing stories of sled dog rearing and racing, sailing, & travels, past and present, as well as unpacking the large box of homeschooling books for Tory. As the river continued to rise the flooding around the cabins got deeper and eventually was above the level of our rubber boots, graciously provided to us by our hosts. We had to resort to using the canoe to travel between the cabins. I don’t know of too many people who would choose this lifestyle and Robin told us there are not too many people they would even consider inviting out to the homestead, especially during flood season. After the river had crested and started to recede, we decided we had better start our journey home to Colorado or risk being tempted to look for a place to build our own cabin in the AK wilderness. Charlie, Robin and Tory reluctantly carried Mike, Sierra and I back to Manley where we had parked the RV. We were sad to leave them but extremely honored and delighted to be their guests and felt so privileged to be allowed to experience and participate in this grand adventure for this brief but joyful reunion. We hope they will come visit us someday in Pagosa Springs or perhaps we can meet up again during our mutual travels. To our dear friends the Bouldings, Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. We will miss you! Fair Winds & stay warm till we meet again.