Annabel, Pat & Mollie: North to Alaska

On to Denali and Fairbanks

We spent 2 days at Denali on the way to Fairbanks. We arrived late at night and awoke to spectacular views of both the fall colors and “termination dust” (first of the winter snow) on the mountains around us. Saw 2 moose when we drove in the first evening (a cow up close, and a bull farther away). The next day, we took one of the last bus rides available for the season into the park. We saw Dall sheep, snowshoe hare, and another moose.

   On the way to Fairbanks on 9-17-07, we went down Stampede Road at Healy. This is the road featured so prominently in the book and movie, Into the Wild. While we were on Stampede Rd we came upon a mama moose and yearling along the roadside. We were able to watch them for a long time. Arrived late in Fairbanks to find that all 4 of the campgrounds we could find were all closed for the season! Finally located one near North Pole that still has a few sites open for now.

   We’re preparing for a 4-day side trip, flying to Nome. We’ll be leaving on Thursday and coming back on Monday. Mollie will be hanging out at Noah’s Ark Kennel while we’re gone.

Brooks Lodge Katmai National Park September

Bears! This time at the river platform (closer to camp) and IN camp! Lots of moms & babies. The close encounters were spectacular and provided an occasional adrenalin rush! We watched the bears fish and collect fish in the lower river near the bridge. There were times when the bridge was closed for hours because the bears were just too close for safety. And there were times when people moved around with ranger escorts between bears. At one point, I went from the platform back to camp, with escort, who told me we had just walked by 10 bears (that the rangers had eyes on!); some were in deep grass and woods and I did not see them all, only about four. Whew! We have a few photos showing how close the escorted folks came to some of the bears.

Once Annabel & I were walking on the beach in the evening when a bear walked out of the woods about 10 feet in front of us. On another occasion, 3 bears came right by our cabin (while Annabel was on the porch! See photo!). One of the rangers was actually rushed by a couple of bears he was trying to shoo away, and we happened to get a photo of that also! Got a photo of one of the bears that came by the dining hall, too. Also got a photo of another guest’s close encounter on the beach, too. Sophia Oldenkamp was watching a mom & cubs down the beach, when another bear walked out of the woods right near her! I was down the beach and watched the big bear walk on down the beach toward me. We are encouraged to stay 50 feet away from the bears, but obviously the bears don’t always cooperate.

While it is always dangerous to have such a close encounter with such a large predator, at least here it is nice to feel relatively safe so near the bears. They are somewhat habituated to the presence of people in camp and there is never any food available to them in camp. So they do not equate food with people. And the salmon here provide so much food that they are not anxious about getting enough. Only 2 people on record have been injured at the park, both while doing stupid things. And no one has been killed here. But still, being face to face with an 800 pound bear is a thrilling experience.

The bears look very different now than earlier in the summer. They have gained weight and have much fatter faces. Even their fur looks fuller since they are starting to grow their winter coats. Fall is apparent here, with yellow and red trees.

Anchorage

We are back at Anchorage, getting ready to fly via Pen Air on Tues to Brooks Lodge at Katmai Nat’l Park for 3 nights! Tour company is Katmailand at Anchorage. We’ll be seeing more bears and will post again on our return!

Valdez

 

  We stayed at the Sea Otter Campground next to the small boat marina and some fish processing places. Saw a large bunny in town and a large black bear out by the Pipeline Terminal. (Mollie even saw the bear!) During the night I heard seals or sea lions, but did not see them. The water of Valdez Harbor is right outside our camper. Later we were able to see harbor seals and also sea otters. The town is ringed by water, mountains and glaciers. We drove out gravel roads to the lake in front of the immense Valdez Glacier, which winds its way up the mountains behind town. 

  We went on a wildlife and glacier tour with the Stan Stephens Co on Valdez Spirit and loved it! The Columbia Glacier is the largest tidewater glacier in Prince William Sound, and was the last to start retreating in 1978. It puts tons of ice as icebergs into the water every day. We went through miles of various sized chunks of ice and got to within about 2 miles of the front of the glacier. It is too dangerous to get closer to the front because of the danger of calving ice and huge waves. Usually they are unable to get closer than 5 to 10 miles. Some of the ice chunks around were hundreds of feet tall, some large ones were stuck on the underwater moraine several miles out. During the trip, we saw a humpback whale, a minke whale, and orcas. (The trifecta of whale watching for Valdez!) Even got photos, including whale tail pix! We saw a bunch of Stellar Sea lions hauled out on an island. And a pair of eagles. And we saw puffins. Pat was able to get a long-sought-after photo of a tufted puffin (the version with a hairdo and no tuxedo – see pix). The day we left Valdez, we went by the pipeline terminal area again and were able to see the black bear!

Homer, then back to Anchorage

Good trip back to Homer. We saw lots of volcanoes from the plane! Some photos are posted. Picked up Mollie, who was happy to see us, but seemed to enjoy her stay with Sandy at Snowdogs. On Friday, we met Susanne and Chet Alexander for dinner in Homer at Land’s End at the end of the Homer Spit. It was really nice to have a visit with them! (I’m sure we talked their ears off, since we’ve mainly had each other and Mollie to talk to for 3 months!) Good to get caught up on all of the news from church and relax with friends! They will be starting the train portion of their trip that includes Denali in a day or two, which sounds really good. (don’t have to drive the train!) Anyway, we’re looking forward to sharing trip stories & photos wth them when we all get back to T-Town. Speaking of which, I understand there was a football game Labor Day weekend that we missed.

    On the way back to Anchorage, we visited Soldotna and Kenai briefly. And came through Cooper Landing, the home of our carved bear that lives in our camper with us, AL-bear.

     We plan to visit Valdez, then back to Anchorage for our return to Brooks Lodge at Katmai National Park to see bears. 

Dutch Harbor Unalaska Aug 25-28

   We arrived Sat on the Tustumena, picked up our 4x4 crimson rental truck, and located our hotel, which (?) has no sign. Go figure. We found out there was a local fair in support of Fire&EMS. We enjoyed it. Good cookies! The fair is where we met Carolyn Reed, see below.
   From our room at Grand Aleutian Hotel, we can see and hear the pink salmon leaping like crazy in Margaret Bay right outside our window. We went on a tour Sunday with Bobbie – Extra Mile Tours – to get an intro to the area, with info on native peoples, WWII, birds, flowers, etc. What a fun trip! She drove us all over Dutch Harbor and Unalaska, pointing out sites of interest along the way. Great town and eagle pix. BTW, her hobby is monitoring local eagle nests, of which she observes over 40. From the observation bunkers atop Mt. Ballyhoo we could hear the mournful songs of whales echo in the fog. Annabel even got a brief look at one. Annabel went to the Museum of the Aleutians, where they have artifacts dating from 10,000 years ago up until WWII; including items recently unearthed in the construction of the local “Bridge to the Other Side (between Dutch Harbor & Unalaska).” Sunday evening we went to the shop of a local artist, Carolyn Reed, who sells not only her own work, but items from around the world. Sunday Mexican dinner was at Amelia’s.
   Monday, we plan to visit Summer Bay and the loop back to Unalaska.  We are due to catch our plane back to Homer on Tues.

Tustumena – Homer to Dutch – 4 nights Aug 21-25

This is a trip out the Aleutian Island chain off the end of the Alaska peninsula, as far as you can go by ferry. The ferry only visits once or twice a month. We got off back in Kodiak, where we walked a bit and spent the afternoon at the Chowder House, a café on the water (“drive or float by”). One of the places we got off the boat was a little fishing village called Chignik. Pop about 60. The major draw was a bakery that happened to be open! There was also a greeter dog that led me to the Chignik Variety Store, a small room in a local ladies’ house. There was a naturalist aboard the Tustumena, doing programs about birds and whales, and Aleutian Islands history. Our names were both drawn to go to Izembek National Wildlife Refuge while the ferry was at Cold Bay, pop 80ish mostly government folks. We were lucky to be 2 of the 15 who got to go.  We saw pigeon guillemots, puffins, and hundreds of black brants (small geese the size of mallards, hundreds of thousands of which stop at Cold Bay in the saltwater lagoon there to fatten up on their fall migration). We could see one of the local volcanoes from here. (We did not see Pavlof, which is currently very active, since we passed it about 4 am on the ferry.) We left the ferry at Dutch Harbor.

Homer Aug 19 to 21

  Camped right at the beach at Homer Spit Campground on the end of the spit which is the part of Homer that sticks out into Kachemak Bay. We napped until we recovered from the boat trip, then went off exploring. After enjoying a quick supper of Halibut tacos and guacamole we rode out the East End Road, where we saw glaciers and three moose (a Mom and 2 babies). The next day we had a delicious lunch at the Sourdough Bakery and Café. We’ve seen sea otters and a glacier from the camp site and a whale from the highway nearby.

Plans: When we leave, we will be leaving Mollie at the Wuffduh Snow Dog Kennel, outside of Anchor Point north of Homer on Tuesday the 21^st with a woman named Sandy, who has 19 huskies there! Mollie will get to be one of the boys for several days! We will be leaving on the ferry Tustumina Tuesday Aug 21 bound for Dutch Harbor, farthest point that the ferries go out the Aleutian chain of islands. We will be going by the Pavlov volcano, which is currently very active, lava and ash seen from nearby boats.  We are hoping for clear skies and smooth sailing!  The trip takes 4 nights. Then when we arrive at Dutch Harbor and Unalaska, we will be there for 3 nights at the Grand Aleutian Hotel. Then we fly back to Homer (by way of Anchorage) on Tuesday the 28^th and pick up the motorhome (from the airport longterm parking) and Mollie from the kennel.

Ferry from Kodiak to Homer

We were able to get Internet on the ferry Tustumina and worked on our blog photos some, but then we got out into rough ocean water and that was the end of that. The book rocked and rolled most of the night. After a few hours of sleep we arrived in Homer around eight am.

Kodiak – Aug 15 to 18

We stayed at Buskin Recreation Site Campground. Did several really fun things: We went on a bear viewing trip to Geographic Harbor on the Katmai coast (the other side of Katmai from Brooks Lodge where we went before), a place where photographers often come in groups to photograph bears. There were two groups already there with their scopes and cameras. We watched and photographed maybe twelve bears while standing on the plane’s floats. Then saw three more on Kodiak Island, plus a nanny and a baby goat, from the plane.  And we went out with Marion and Marty Owen of Galley Gourmet on their boat, Sea Breeze, for a brunch cruise. Marty took us on a tour of the harbor, and we saw sea lions sunning themselves and two sea otters, up close, plus a bald eagle and a fledgling in its nest.  (And puffins and cormorants).  Both outings were lots of fun. We also had a little adventure or two on our own: we drove to the top of Pillar Mountain behind Kodiak. And we drove south out of town a long way and saw animals on our way back (two bears and three foxes, and a couple of eagles, and an eagle nest). We visited the Wildlife Refuge Center, where we saw a video about the huge Kodiak bears and bought some souvenirs. Caught the AMHS ferry Tustumina to Homer.