We are experiencing fall already in Alaska! As we drove north from Anchorage on Tuesday (August 25) we started noticing the changing colors. The furthest northern point on our drive was Tok, Alaska and then we started heading south through the Yukon Territory. The first picture shows the beautiful fall colors that grace the countryside along the way.

The second picture is in Wrangell St. Elias National Park on our backpacking trip there. You can see our tent, it's a little yellow dot in the valley. We had good weather the first day but soon were overcome with rain and cold, so we ditched the place a day early. Also, this park, established by Jimmy Carter in 1979 is a shared use park with hunters and ATV'ers, so the trails are torn up. We were two weeks into the hunting season (sheep and moose) so the animals had literally headed for the hills and were nowhere to be seen. Not the most successful backpacking we've done, but interesting, always interesting.

The drive through the Yukon Territory into Haines, AK was full of tremendous views of mountains and lakes. The third picture is Kathleen Lake in the Kluane National Park (Canada). Haines is also a beautiful city in a beautiful setting, with two inlets coming in from the ocean and surrounding the town, and a full 360 degrees of mountains all around. We hiked Mt. Riley to get this view. Haines is also a rainforest so this amazing mushroom is real! It looks like it comes from a Disney movie but is really growing in our campground about 6 feet from our tent. Our poor tent is wet all the time and we hope it doesn't give up the ghost before the trip is over. We are expecting drier weather soon, very soon... Love to you all, Ruth and Brian

Hello from Homer Alaska,
It is raining today so we are at the Homer Library.

We left Denali National Park last Monday and drove for about an hour when we hit a delay. A tanker filled with super cooled liquefied methane gas overturned on the highway. The road was closed at Cantwell, about 20 miles south of Denali Park and wouldn't open for another 12 hours or so. There wasn't a lot of lodging in the area of Cantwell and what there was was full. One possible lodge had closed, and on the door was this sign: "No food, no beds, no liquor, and don't bother the woman in the cabin out back. She is mentally unstable and has a gun." Well, you know you're in Alaska, where every information sign has been used for target practice by someone. I think everyone owns at least one gun here.

So we just pitched a tent on the side of the road. This being Alaska the spot was beautiful as you can see from this first photo. We woke up to fog, frost and beautiful views of Mt. McKinley. We saw moose while drinking our coffee before we drove on. In Alaska even the side of the road is spectacularly beautiful.

We drove to Seward and found a great campsite in Kenai Fjords Natinal Park close to the Exit Glacier Visitor Center and the next day we hiked along the Exit glacier up to the Harding Ice Field. It was a four mile hike, one way with an elevation gain of 3000 feet. This is a fairly strenuous day hike but it was well worth it as it was both interesting and beautiful. The ice field is 300 square miles of ice that feeds dozens of glaciers. The ice is thick, perhaps up to a mile, no one really knows. Anyway, it was an other worldly sight and really fun getting there.

The following day we went on a boat tour of Kenai Fjords National Park. We were out about eight hours. The photo here of some sea lions is a bit lame but the tour wasn't. We saw a couple of Humpback whales pretty close and I got some pictures with a 35 millimeter camera. I hope they turned out. We also got a close look at a glacier ending at the sea. It was dramatic in color (blue), size (400-600 ft. high) and sound (it cracked and crashed loudly as small pieces feel into the ocean). As for other wildlife, we saw sea otters, dolphins, water birds including eagles, murres, puffins, cormorants and lots and lots of gulls.

Finally last night we stayed at a bed and breakfast in Nikolaevsk, a tiny town of Old Believers Russian Orthodox, a sect that broke off from the Russian Orthodox Church in the 17th century. Nikolaevsk was settled in the sixties as the Old believers fled communist Russia. They are a bit to Russian Orthodoxy what the Amish are to Protestant Christianity. However I think the Amish are doing quite a bit better. It was an interesting side trip. The picture is of Nina, the B&B hostess. She fed us an authentic Russian meal, for a rather hefty price. It was an interesting to visit.

Thanks for the comments, it is fun to hear from you.

Love, Brian and Ruth

Hello From Alaska,
We just completed a week at Denali National Park. Of all our plans this was the one place I was most eager to see. We were blessed with great weather as evidenced by the picture of Mount McKinley. Most visitors to the park do not see much of the mountain. We had beautiful views on three days.

The picture of McKinley is taken from Wonder Lake which is a 5 hour bus ride from the entrance of the park. You cannot drive your car into the park. At the end of the road is a campground that we stayed at for 3 days. We saw bear, a wolf, caribou, eagles, fox and more from the bus.

Denali doesn't have vary many trails so when we went into the backcountry to camp for 2 nights we were all alone. The picture of our tent captures a bit of the feeling of being in the backcountry. We took a long day hike from our camp spot on a river bar and had a bit of an adventure. The views of the mountains surounding us were beautiful as we walked along. At one point we were on the side of a steep hill. There was a social path (a path created by animals and or the few people who hike in the same area) that was at most 6 inches wide. If you stepped off the trail you would slide down the hill. Probably not a fatal mistake but likely one that would cause injury, a very bad thing when you are alone. So we were very careful and successful in crossing this rather scary part of the hike. We had only walked another 10 yards when we looked up and saw the pictured grizzly bear about 100 yards ahead of us. The "safe" distance for bears is 300 yards so we were too close. The protocol for encountering a bear is to calmly back away and change your course. We didn't want to do this as the only way back was over a rather treacherous narrow path. So we stopped and stood there while the bear looked up at us and continued to eat berries. I wasn't sure what we would do if he started to amble toward us. I will never know because he slowly moved the opposite direction away from us. as soon as we felt like it was no longer paying attention to us we moved toward him and down the hill. Other than this occasion all our bear sitings have been from the bus or a much safer distance.

Hello from Anchorage,
After our Chilkoot Trail adventure we drove with our friend Steve from Skagway to Anchorage where we have stayed with Cheryl's brother Bob and his wife Chin. Chin is a marvelous cook and we have enjoyed wild salmon, caribou and clams.

Bob took Steve, Ruth and I out on an overnight kayaking trip to Resurrection Bay near Seward. The weather was overcast on the first day and rainy on the second so we cut the trip a bit short. Never the less we had a great time seeing wildlife. Bald Eagles were common and the first picture is of an eagle eating a fish while the seagulls wait for the scraps that are left over. We had puffins flying around us, they seemed to be curious and came close to check us out. In the water we saw sea otters, sea lions, porpoises and lots of flopping fish which were mostly salmon.
Below you see Ruth and I paddling away with a sunlit mountain in the background and Ruth, Steve and I wearing our life vests and water skirts. The later kept the water out of the kayak while we paddled. Today, Monday, we drive to Denali National Park. This is probably the location I am most excited to go to. The weather has been fairly cool and rainy so we are hoping we get some clear skies. We hope you are all well.
Brian and Ruth

Hello Everyone,

This post will focus on our Chilkoot Trail hike. The Chilkoot is the 33 mile hike the gold rushers took in 1898 to reach the head waters of the Yukon River system. They then traveled by boat to reach the Klondike river and, in theory, gold. Far more people lost life or limb than got rich on gold and the whole story is fascinating. I recommend Klondike Fever by Pierre Burton if you are interested in reading more.

The hike is difficult. You can see us looking clean and fresh at the start. Ruth and I are with our good friend Steve Benz. The first day was a 12 mile trek through the forest with only modest elevation gain. (no pictures) The second day took us over the pass with about a 3000 foot gain on an eight mile day. There is a famous photograph of the gold rushers hiking up to the pass on the "golden staircase". The staircase was cut out of ice in the winter and in the summer it is a boulder field. It is extremely steep and treacherous and we were all concerned about a loose rock slipping and causing us to break an ankle. In fact Steve's mother-in-law broke her ankle at this point several years ago and had to be air lifted out by helicopter. Fortunately we had no similar mishaps. The picture of Ruth gives some idea of what this portion of the trail was like.

After the summit we walked through a lot of snow which was also dangerous because at a certain point slipping meant a likely slide into an icy lake. Ruth did slip but a pole stopped her slid before she gained much momentum. As the pictures show the weather was damp and misty at the top. Fortunately by the end third day the weather cleared and we were able to dry out and warm up. The second to last picture was our campsite on the third night and the last picture is Bennett Lake, the end of the trail. We took a train back down the mountain from Bennett Lake back to Skagway where we started.

We were all tired and a bit sore. The best thing about this trail was the history. There was a lot of 19th century trash along the way which was fascinating to look at. We saw the remains of boats, sleds, shoes, engines, tram cables, countless tin cans and more. While I am glad we took the hike it was not the pristine isolated backpacking experience we usually have. There were lots of people on the trail and we shared the camping areas with as many as 40 people. While it is fun to share an experience with others I find it even more enjoyable to share a space alone with the wildlife of that area. That will be the experience I expect we will have in Denali National Park.

Right now we are in Anchorage staying with friends and enjoying civilization before we set out again. More later.

Brian