Valdez to Haines Junction.........

Dateline Monday July 17, 2006. Bob Ain’t Stoppin’ your reporter.

Well, we took a boat tour out of Valdez on Saturday to see the Columbia glacier as it dumps major ice into the ocean. Weather was light rain most of the day, and the clouds were hanging just a few feet off the ground. We did get to see bald eagles, sea lions, and sea otters, but the big whales and bears were all avoiding the bad weather. Actually, most of the bears have gone up river now following the salmon for a free meal. At the glacier, we saw massive ice flow leaving the moraine deposits at the foot of the glacier, but we couldn’t get through to the glacier itself because of poor visibility and too much ice in the water. Will try to put up some pics of this later.

On Sunday, we left Valdez in almost rain conditions, and headed over the Thompson pass (Richardson Highway). At the top of the pass, we crossed into thinning clouds and sunshine. Coming down off the pass, we had our first good weather in a few days and turned up the Tok cutoff towards Tok. This road takes the prize for the most under construction path of our trip so far. Miles of construction going from loose gravel as we’ve seen before and then into orange sized smooth stones with no hard track to follow. Very difficult going. We saw one white car that had left the road and rolled several times. A few minutes later the police and ambulances went by in response. At one point we were following a pilot quide car through an active work area when we came upon a bid gravel ditch with several options for tracks to follow on the bike. I quick picked one, and Roy behind me picked another. I lucked out. But Roy got to the point that the rut was deeper than the ground clearance on the bike so he simply stood up and got off. Help came from the cars in line and got him out before I could even stop.

Through Tok, we then headed for the Canadian border and crossed into the Yukon. I hope Roy can post a picture of the ‘Hostel’ we stayed in last night. The bedding was SO bad we both slept in our sleeping bags……… Pretty funny! Now Monday, and we are at Haines Junction, about to turn south for Haines, AK. This ‘Haines Road’ should offer bears feeding, and eagle sightings as we work our way south to Haines. As I write this, Roy is yakking on the phone doing executive stuff that we are not allowed to understand. Me, I’m on vacation. See you in a coupla weeks!

Oh! One final item. Time for an animal count. So far we’ve:
-Grinned down 2 Grizzlies
-Done doughnuts around 5 or 6 deer
-Been entertained by about 26 Elk
-Soared by about 6 bald eagles
-Morphed next to 4 or 5 Moose
-Regarded countless Richardson Ground Squirrels
-Jacked repeated Rabbits
-Prairie dogs. Oh my, perhaps a zillion.

Very Truly Yours,
Ain’t