It has been a while since this trip has been completed. It has been amazing seeing that there are still people viewing this blog so long after the trip has ended. I had placed the blog name throughout different locations in Alaska, I am curious to see how people have come across my blog! post in the comments below where you found it!

The working life is slowing my expeditions down but I hope to get out there again soon! Thanks for viewing!

Navigators Last Note

http://standstillblog.wordpress.com/2011/09/03/revelation-of-the-last-great-frontier/

Sudden Cloud Cabin

     It has been a while since we have typed out the blog and a lot has happened. Before leaving Whitehorse we stopped in town to do some shopping for supplies. The next big stop would be the Sudden Cloud Cabin, so we stocked up on dry food, camping fuel and some other supplies. Driving west we arrived outside of Watson Lake where we setup camp at Yukon Lake Recreation Park. We had a big fire celebrating the availability of free firewood and listened to music all night. We used the chicken stock from the night before and made Old Fashioned Baked Beans for dinner.  

     The next morning we headed towards Fort Nelson after a quick stop at the World Famous Sign Post Forest. Here we walked the rows upon rows, trying to find some signs from our hometowns out of the 70,000 posted signs. While there were none from Comox, Ricki found one from very close to where she lives.

     We wanted to leave a sign of course and decided the best option was to just make our own. Since we had no wood or paint, we had the brilliant idea to use Ricki’s flip flop which she had been carrying around since she dropped the other into Miles Canyon at the beginning of the trip. We had to round up a sharpie and I had to get Ricki on my shoulders to get our “sign” posted in an empty spot. We laughed.

     Leaving Watson Lake we made our way through mountain ranges, along beautiful lakes and lots of trees. After paying way too much for gas at Muncho Lake we made our way to Fort Nelson. We stocked up on groceries and hit the road again, driving right into a massive storm. We got to see some lightning and of course more rain and drove until we couldn’t keep our eyes open any longer. Ricki made some perogies for a quick dinner and we crawled into bed.

     We spent the night at the Bucking Horse Provincial Park where we awoke to freezing temperatures which we would later learn was -5 C. The tent was frozen stiff so we half ass packed it together and headed to the gas station for coffee at 6 am. Making our way to the Sikanni Chief Campground we got a hold of Kurt who was going to meet us there that afternoon. Arriving at the campground we were still too early, so the gate was locked. We turned around and headed up the gravel road looking for the spot where we would begin our hike into the cabin. The first 40 km were easy but the last stretch was a choice between 7 different routes. The first ones we drove down ended up on gasfields and our GPS did not line up with the coordinates on our map so we kept trying. Eventually we found the right well to park at, marked it in our GPS and headed back to the campground.

     Once we got there it was finally open and we began talking with the park attendant. After a bit of a discussion about leaving Kurt’s truck there he mentioned that the cabin was no longer there. “Apparently” it had been torn down last year by a local hunting guide. This of course was a huge disappointment for us but we decided to hike it anyway. He told us that we were dumb for trying to hike in there and that he would not call the police if we weren’t back by Monday. His in hospitality was surprising to us and after he told us that the cabin should never have been built there in the first place we decided to end the conversation and wait for Kurt. After many hours of pacing and planning out what would happen if the cabin wasn’t there we finally met up with him.

      We packed all our gear into three big back packs and made our way back down the gravel road. We were carrying everything we needed, food, a massive tarp, a tent, sleeping mats, and sleeping bags…. Sort of. Kurt was clever enough to forget his sleeping bag. Arriving at the well we left a note in our car saying how many of us there were and when we planned on being back at the truck. Hiking into the woods we picked up what we thought was the trail but shortly learned it was not. The grueling trek down to the cabin consisted of bush whacking the entire way. While walking down we noticed that there was a lot of dead fall since last time I was there (5 years ago). Scraping through the trees, braking branches, ducking under massive logs with our very heavy packs we huffed and puffed our way in the relative direction. We knew we had to follow a ravine down to the river and had a GPS with us that was not picking up signals properly. At one point we ended up on a small out cropping on the side of the ravine and had to crawl up the lose gravel on all fours. The whole way I was trying to remember if any of the parts looked familiar.

     The inside was still very clean, and to our relief there was an old blanket, pillows, and foamy hanging from the ceiling.

While the pillows had been slightly chewed on by a mouse, the mouse trap was still empty, and we only found a few droppings. Our first order of business was to start a fire outside while we did a detailed walk around of the cabin. To our surprise there were wild strawberries, raspberries and Labrador tea growing on the roof.

     We cleared away some branches that had fallen onto the roof and cleared the area around the chimney. We noticed that a tree had broken off and was leaning over the cabin. Using our expert engineering practices we attached a pulley system to the tree where we could pull it clear of the cabin as we cut the tree down. Of course, it fell perfectly, missing the cabin.

     As the men were working, Ricki was busy making beef stew. We graciously ate the dinner around the fire and as the darkness began to roll in we moved inside. Here we started a little fire and played a game of cribbage while enjoying the warmth of Jack Daniels Tennessee Honey Whiskey. As it got later we decided to call it a night while Ricki kept us up noisily doing a Swiss crossword puzzle, she was drunkenly excited about her skills. Our choice of bed would be the demise of a good night’s sleep. While we had three inflatable air mattresses I ended up waking up with only one and none of them were actually inflated. The bed had a nasty edge on one of the planks which woke me early in the morning and hindered my ability to fall back asleep. Around 5 am my tossing and turning woke up the whole cabin so Ricki began breakfast consisting of bacon, eggs, and cheese on bagels as Kurt and I watched the sun rise.

     After a delicious breakfast we tried our hand at fishing and relaxed on the river bank.  Throughout the morning we ended up catching one small fish, which seemed like a mutation between who different species which ended up with a very unattractive fish. Tossing it back in the river we fished and skipped rocks a while longer and decided to call it a day. Heading back to the cabin Kurt and I decided we needed a better device to carry water up the river. Since a Yoke was the first thing that came to mind we set off with our project. First we split the log we cut down the day before in half using two axes and then carved out the shoulder sections with the chisel and axes. After all was said and done we tested out the system, it was at this point that we realized the two water containers in the cabin were different sizes so the balancing system would always be a problem. We were able to make it work by only partially filling one of the jugs, which made the balancing a lot easier.

     After we had a healthy supply of water we felt we had accomplished a lot that day and were satisfied with our results. Thinking it must be late in the afternoon we quickly realized that it was only 10 am. We sat around the fire and relaxed, then decided to clean up around the cabin. I had the brilliant idea to build a broom. Under the tough criticism of my fellow hikers I came up with a system that worked very well.

     After a while they both admitted that it was a fantastic design and were eager to try it out. After sweeping around the front of the cabin, weeding the small trees that were beginning to grow through the porch Kurt and Ricki cleaned up the inside. That morning we had noticed that there was some moss insulation missing between some of the logs so we began the process of stuffing all the little holes with fresh moss. After a few more hours of relaxing and doing small fixes here and there we headed to the river for some more fishing. This time both Ricki and I were going to try our hand at fly fishing. Kurt led the way by catching a few more fish, which of course we released.

     Then it was my turn, while the technique is fairly straightforward, getting it to work the way it should was difficult. With the wind blowing the line around and the hook whipping past my face on each wind up I ended up catching a massive fish….

     Ricki also enjoyed her time fly fishing; she ended up getting a small bite but nothing that she could reel in. When everyone was satisfied we headed back to the cabin for another night of cards and more food. After some complaints from Ricki and Kurt regarding the lack of flip flops, I decided that enough was enough and created a pair of birch bark sandals for them so I could further enjoy the silence of the cabin. 

     This night we decided to stack up the tarps under the air mattresses to get a better night’s sleep.

     The next morning we had another delicious breakfast by Chef Ricki, as Kurt and I organized our gear outside. After having everything packed up, cabin sealed, and stocked with new dry food and items we didn’t want to pack back out, we then headed back up to the car.

    At first it was difficult to find the trail due to the massive overgrowth that had taken place. Luckily we ended up finding it and huffing and puffing our way up the very steep incline we made it to the car much faster than on the way in. Luckily the car was still parked there. It had a note on the windshield from Scott saying we should stop in and give him an update on the cabin. We tried finding his gas well that he was working on but must have missed it. Sorry Scott. We found it ironic that one of the only ten or so people on the planet that have been to this place found our car and knew where we were and left us a note.

     Making our way to the campground where we had left Kurts truck, we decided to keep the location of the cabin confidential and simply told the grumpy campground owner that we didn’t find it. As some might have noticed we also did not transmit an exact location of the cabin or the trail. This is due to not only the comments from the campground attendant but due to the fact that park rangers were going along known hiking trails and tearing down all the cabins during the beginning parts of the summer. We think that it would be a shame to see this happen to the Sudden Cloud Cabin and want to keep the little piece of paradise intact for as long as possible.

    Our next stop was Fort St John, where we met up with Kurt’s roommates James and Ryan. Here we had a big BBQ, fire, and had some beers. Swapping stories late into the night we headed to bed. Finally being in a house was a weird feeling after spending over 30 days sleeping in a tent, usually cold and wet.

     The next morning we all had a huge breakfast, thanks again to Ricki. After packing up our gear we said our farewells and headed towards Jasper. The drive was long and uneventful but after grabbing some groceries we finally found our spot for the night. For dinner we made a chicken caesar salad but substituted the chicken for turkey. This ended up being a bad decision. It is now getting late and we are looking forward to a good night’s sleep on our soft mattress and in warm temperatures. Tomorrow we are going to head towards Edmonton where I will be spending the next couple days catching up with friends and relaxing. Ricki has talked me into staying in the area to see the World of Outlaws sprint car races this coming weekend before making my way back to the island Monday morning.

Whitehorse Take Two

     Between the horrible rest area and the Haines Junction which was our next stop there was not much to see. We made a quick stop in Tok where we bought some more souvenirs and lunch. We ate a massive plate of nachos and a small sandwich which we devoured until we were about to explode as we updated the last couple blog entries. Heading towards the border, the frost heaved road tossed us around for many miles through thick forest and over bright blue lakes. The big rolling holes in the road were so bad that at one point all the stuff in the car hovered as we launched out of the hole and came crashing down once we hit the other side. Before reaching the border we stopped at the local duty free shop in search of Hawkens chewing tobacco. The store was going out of business so he only had a few items left, no Hawkens, so we settled for pop and energy drinks. Talking with the owner he mentioned that his was the last place to get cheap gas before we were back in Canada. Like foolish tourists we believed him and topped up our tank and jerry cans. It wasn’t until we drove 2 km down the road that we realized we had been ripped off,  not only was there another gas station but they were selling it for .20 less.

      We had a short wait at the border and made it through without a problem. As we were waiting at the border crossing it began to rain again, but like magic it stopped as soon as we crossed into the Yukon and the sun even came out. While we were both sad to leave Alaska we were happily looking forward to nicer weather. After a few more hours we arrived in Haines Junction. This small town offered lots of motels at a fair price but we decided to suck it up for one more night. Finding a campground with showers we quickly set up our tarp city. Once again it began to rain. We were finally hungry again and Ricki whipped up some delicious spaghetti, in the sauce we put the rest of the salmon, she was skeptical, but it turned out really well. We crawled into bed and watched Into the Wild, this was my first time watching this movie. Ricki spoke fondly of the book and film, I found it a very fascinating movie. It was also neat since we recognized many of the places in the movie, and got a real feeling of how life was like in the magic bus since we had visited it a few days earlier.

      We woke the next morning to silence and the sun trying to push through the clouds. We figured it was about 10 am, but after checking my watch we realized it was 12:30. It seems we really needed our sleep. We quickly packed up the tent and after some thought we realized it wasn’t actually 12:30, but since there is a time difference between Alaska and the Yukon, it was actually 1:30 in the afternoon. We felt pretty lazy but sleep was much needed. Before leaving town we stopped at the local bakery where we ate spanakopitas, Cinnabombs, and grabbed a salami sandwich to go. At the bakery there was also some fresh bread, we grabbed an exotic looking loaf which we have already forgotten what it contained but it sounded good at the time.

      We also made a detour to what we thought was an abandoned airport. After 12 km of offroading we ended up turning around due to a deep water swamp crossing that we didnt want to get stuck in. On this trail there were other large puddles, which did a great job of cleaning the undercarriage of the truck.

      The next stop was Whitehorse, we arrived into town to the seemingly identical weather as when we left a few weeks ago. While updating the blog at the local Starbucks we had a discussion with a local who was clearly intoxicated, since he was telling us the same story over and over. Since we had seen most of Whitehorse on our last visit we decided to grab some food and head to the campground. At the local grocery store we purchased dinner. This included a whole chicken, pastry dough, and some new spices. Heading to the Wolf Creek Campground we discussed our game plan for cooking the chicken. We chose the same campsite as our last visit and as I set up the tarp once again Ricki began to work on dinner. The beer can chicken was placed in a tinfoil lined bowl and covered with the same setup as well. For dessert, the pastry was filled with apple cinnamon cream cheese, then topped with fresh wild blueberries which had been picked a few days earlier. Since the dough was still frozen, we placed it in the engine compartment where the heat from the engine slowly thawed it. After a lot of work and an amazingly little amount of dishes we had dinner.

      I must say, the chicken was one of the tenderest and delicious ones I have ever had. The side dish of cream corn and garlic bread complemented the chicken well. The dessert turned out amazing; unfortunately we could barely eat any of it since we were so full, so we will be having it for breakfast. I find it amazing the food I get to eat on this trip and how everything actually turns out very well. Shockingly, the rain began to fall again as we sat beside the fire until the late hours of the night. Ricki cooked the rest of the chicken bones into a delicious beer and rum stock which we will get to enjoy tomorrow.

      We do not have any plans for tomorrow, we may stay here another day or head towards Watson Lake. The next big thing we are looking forward to and planning for is the hike to the Sudden Cloud Cabin located along the Sikanni Chief River. The plan is to do this on Friday and meet up with some friends at the local campground before we hike to the cabin on Saturday morning.

The Last of Alaska

      After Robi had written that blog entry I had woke up with him trying to record my snoring and was wide awake. We decided to watch a movie that we tried downloading months ago in Kelowna and never got around to watching. We ended up staying up until all hours watching Nowhere Boy, the story of John Lennon. It was raining like crazy outside and it was really nice to just watch a movie and relax for a night. We got a good sleep and turns out that we would need it.

      We woke up and I made wild blueberry pancakes for breakfast as Robi made a game plan for packing up the tent to keep it as dry as possible. I of course ended up giving the winning suggestions to make the whole ordeal a little bit more organized. Silly boys, they think they are so swift. ( He is now lecturing me about how I have no idea about his plan and that men are far more superior to women in the whole planning of tarp taking down processes ) Typical.

     We got on the road as quick as possible; out of the rain and on our way to Kennicott Mine and the tiny village of McCarthy. Chitina was the last small town to check out before hitting the gravel road to this remote village in the Wrangell-St.Elias National Park. With its 13.2 million acres of untouched & untamed land it is America’s largest national park and is home to the Kennecott Copper Mine, a National Historic Landmark.

      The McCarthy Road is nothing we weren’t ready for or used to by now. 60 miles of potholed, muddy, rut ridden rough winding road. It is now the early autumn in Alaska and the scenery was beautiful with specs of yellows and reds across the vast mountain faces. There was also a few old railroad trestle to explore about halfway, of course we got out and took some pictures and stretched our legs.

     After two hours we made it to the end of the road where we would have to park, cross the Kennicott River on a footbridge and catch a shuttle to the mine itself. It felt so secluded and almost wild, there were no sounds; of cars passing, radios blaring or anything really, just silence. We grabbed a pizza from the only place to grab a bite and sat and looked over the moraines of the Kennicott Glacier and were in complete awe of the authenticity of this little hidden jewel on a dead end road.

     After watching Robi eat five slices of pizza I cut him off and we started to explore the mill town. There was so much to see and we only had a few hours before the last shuttle back to the footbridge. We travelled back in time and began our self guided tour through the old buildings and tried to imagine what life could have been like there in the early 1900’s. Of course as navigator, I have been nothing but reading and I must sometimes forget to tell Robi all the cool facts about all these places because he’s always asking questions to which I have the correct answer or same answer as the Park Rangers. Oops.

     After touring the buildings, most of which were amazingly restored, we decided to take a walk along one of the trails that leads us to a viewing point above the mill. There was a small foot bridge over a small waterfall and rock staircases wandering through berry brush and I of course stopped to pick some raspberries, my favorite. We had the complete intent of finishing the loop trail, yet when we got to the top of the mill we stumbled across this…..

     Someone else must likes berries too… we quickly began our way back down the path we came from and started out familiar karaoke routine to make sure we were well heard by our little friend who couldn’t have been very far away.

     By the time we made it back down to the main part of the town the sun was beginning to set and the last shuttle to McCarthy would be showing up soon. We took a few more pictures and gazed over the glacier one more time, listening to the distant sounds of it melting away under the rocks.

     McCarthy was only four miles away and made a great stop for some old time pictures of trucks and buildings. History itself sat settled in these tiny towns and it made an amazing way to spend our last day in Alaska. It was the true feeling of the “Last Great Frontier” and the untouched piece of Alaska we had been searching for. I stumbled across a line from one of the pamphlets from the mine which I feel compelled to share because it really summed up the visit for me.

"Artifacts are a testament to lives lived and lost, hopes realized and shattered and the rich heritage of our nation. Take nothing from Kennecott but the inspiration for your soul, questions for your mind and photographs for your memories.”

     Robi and I decided that we wanted to at least get off the McCarthy Road by nightfall so we once again set off on the grueling gravel. It was 10 pm by the time we were off that road and either of us were anywhere close to tired since we slept in that morning. We made sure there was a 24 hour gas station on our route and decided to keep on truckin. We were making great time and had made some coffee at a wayside so there was no chance of tired being an option. We then passed by a van in the ditch with about 15 people standing around it scratching their heads. We looked at each other and knew we had to turn back and help them out. They must not have thought we were very useful at first because they almost refused our help until the words “ten thousand pound winch” came out of Robi’s mouth. After a few minutes of set up and trying to explain to the maybe not so bright driver on how to maneuver himself, we had them pulled out and back on track. Everyone clapped; they were so glad that we had come to the rescue. This time four ice cold Budweiser’s were inserted into our fridge and we giggled as we drove away.

       An hour or so later we were finally beginning to feel tired and there was no campground or RV Park worth pulling into at 2 in the morning so we figured we would just call it quits at a rest area. There was something special about this rest area we would only discover by morning. We set the tent up just as it began to rain and both quickly fell asleep. I have never had an alarm clock so amazingly effective until this morning when I awoke to the sweet sounds of a 966 Loader back blading gravel on pavement and the squeal of rocks and steel only 20 feet from our tent. We were up and awake instantly ready to get the hell out of that rest area!!

GOODBYE ALASKA!!

IT WAS FUN.

<3

      Some of you may wonder why our recent SPOT tracker was transmitting from the middle of Byers Lake… No Land Cruisers can’t float. We rented a canoe for the afternoon and headed out for a paddle under the heat of the sun. While the lake was small we took our time and enjoyed the silence of the water and the calm feeling of being out on the water. At one end of the lake there was an inlet stream. At the mouth there were hundreds of huge Salmon that were waiting to spawn upstream and as we paddled closer we could see large dark shadows darting away in massive schools of panicked fish.

      We paddled up stream for a few minutes and then let ourselves drift back down into the lake. Pulling over at the nearest landing point we had some chips and salsa for lunch and watched the clouds roll over Mount McKinley in the distance. We explored the rest of the lake until the clouds started rolling in then we headed towards shore and set out to the Denali National Park.

     We pulled into the park to check out the local visitor center, it ended up being closed, we continued driving anyways. We knew that there was a fee to drive on the road yet we could not figure out where to pay. Confused we continued driving into the park hoping we would find a toll booth. Driving for about 20 minutes we started to feel uneasy being in the park without having paid so we decided to turn around and check it out in the morning. We headed into the town of Denali and checked out a local pizzeria; unfortunately two busses full of senior tourists had taken up the whole restaurant so there was no room for us. After cursing the travelers who sit on a bus all day like sardines we headed towards the village of Healy. There we went to the 49^th State Brewery to have dinner and at this place we could fill up our Growlers. This bar was located in the brewery itself and had a massive circular bar with an elevated fireplace in the middle which we huddled around. The orders here were massive, I had the Table Top burger, and it was literally a table top. The bun itself was about 9” in diameter and was stacked with onion rings, a massive patty, and all the fixings one would ask for. Ricki had a Rueben which was also larger then her face, this time she had learnt from her subway experience and only ate half. Finishing my burger I got complements from the waitress and people around me for finishing the whole thing. I felt like a real man… and then I felt way too full.

     We slowly made our way out to the car feeling 10 pounds heavier and went to the neighboring campground. The sites here were tight and it took some maneuvering to get the Land cruiser between the trees, leaving enough room for the tent to open. After we were all set up the neighbors came over and wanted a tour of the tent. They were very excited about the whole vehicle and wanted to see all the little details and gadgets I had onboard. I kept the men amused while Ricki had girl talk with the wives, sharing stories of the horribly bumpy roads and hearing tales of their fishing adventure in Valdez.

     After the tour they headed back to their trailer while Ricki and I played another game of Risk… I Lost. Right before we went to bed, the now slightly intoxicated neighbors came back and asked if we wanted some salmon. They handed us a massive piece of frozen fish, roughly 3 feet long. When they were out fishing in Valdez they did well fishing and had already sent home 60 pounds of salmon and now didn’t know what to do with the rest. As the rain began to fall we hit the hay. Waking up once again to the pouring rain we packed up our wet tent and headed to the showers. After a nice hot shower we went to go update the blog. Turns out there actually was no WiFi so we were delayed another day on uploading. The weather outside was miserably, cold, rainy and cloudy so we decided we had given Denali enough chances and headed to our next destination.

     Before we left we stopped at the local pub we were at the night before and took some pictures in front of the Magic Bus this was the bus used in the movie Into the Wild. While the actual bus is still in the woods outside of Denali, the 10 mile hike that had already taken the life of one person was not appealing to us, so we settled with the one from the movie. Inside the van were pictures and diary entries from the actual adventure of Christopher McCandless itself. The whole thing had an eerie feel to it and to actually be surrounded by the pieces of his sad yet inspiring story was a little overwhelming.

     We took our pictures and headed along the Denali Highway. While the views were spectacular we didn’t stop much, this road was all gravel. Compared to the Dalton Hwy it was a fantastic drive. The one time we stopped was to take some pictures and Ricki noticed some blueberry bushes. We quickly realized we hit blueberry heaven and filled the rest of our bucket within minutes.

      Before we reached our new home we stopped at the Sourdough RV Park, the friendly staff at the roadhouse gave us some lemon juice for our salmon bake. After driving down the road for a few hundred feet we reached the Sourdough State Campground. After driving the wrong way on the one way street (the campground was empty) we of course ran into the camp host (not literally) she angrily told us to turn around and drive the right way on the gravel path. We setup camp, made a fire while Ricki went all out on dinner. For starters we had devilled eggs.

The main course was of course our freshly caught Salmon cooked over the fire.

Dessert was some sort of chocolate, hemp granola, blueberry thing. It was delicious.

     We set up our tarp city due to the rain clouds on the horizon. We are now laying in our tent with the rain dripping on the tarp. Ricki is already snoring beside me, we smell of salmon so I’m trying to stay awake a listen for any bears in the area. Tomorrow we plan on heading to the Kennikott Mine with hopes of good weather and finally some internet to update this blog.