Back in the U.S., back in the U.S., back in the U.S.A. A! Pleasant to see the stars-n-stripes instead of the maple leaf. Happier to pay less than three dollars a gallon instead of four and fifty. British Columbia is a beautiful place, but everything is expensive. The tax on gasoline is some 40%. This seems to translate across the board to products, and a sales tax is added to every purchase. As punishing as this was to us, at least we can leave. The Canadians must live with it.

Much farther south now, we are at last in the land of solidly paved roads and even a radio station now and then. South of our camp of last night the Cassiar Highway became newly paved – with Macadam. Oh joy! The Yellowhead Highway was not as new, but was also a real road. Its only problem was traffic. Lots of trucks in a hurry, many with double trailers. They pulled us out of the wilderness and along to the City of Prince George.

Our travel from Palmer to Chicken was straightforward. In one day we traveled farther than we had in three days since reaching Alaska. We made time because we were backtracking most of the way and the weather was less than stellar. We camped at a rest stop and took an evening walk in the woods. Otherwise we drove past stick forest trees, muskeg bogs, mountains, and lakes. We turned up the Taylor Highway and passed large burn areas. These were brilliant pink with fireweed.

We prepare for our “Long Trip” from Anchorage to Montpelier, Montana. I checked the tires, the spares, and the changing equipment. I hope there are no flats or other automotive failures. I expect there to be bumpy roads, but hope that slow and careful driving will allow us to avoid problems. Others have given rave reviews of Chicken, Eagle, and Dawson City. We are up for the adventure of visiting them.

June 29, 2007 – Mountain View RV Park, Palmer, AK

Our Alaska adventure is coming to a close, or at least we are planning our retreat to the south. Tomorrow our friends Ed and Nancy fly home to Staunton Virginia after sharing six weeks of our journey across Alaska. We will replenish supplies and relax here on Sunday and then hit the road on Monday.

We will be retracing our path to Tok in northeast Alaska on that day. From there we plan to continue northeast to the tiny town of Chicken near the Canadian border. We will stay there at least two nights and probably visit the even more remote community of Eagle on the Yukon River. Then we will cross into the Yukon Territory of Canada. There the town of Dawson City has been very popular with travelers. From there we will turn south to Whitehorse and then follow the Cassiar Highway to Prince George and then east to Jasper in British Columbia.

We have left the Kenai Peninsula and after a day’s stop here will continue north tomorrow to Denali National Park. On our last day on the Kenai we joined salmon fishermen on the Russian River ferry across the glacial milky Kenai River. Fishermen and women lined the south shore casting into the more transparent water from the Russian River tributary. Their objective was to draw the fly across the mouth of a sockeye salmon and hook it across the mouth. You see snagging is illegal and it is tough to get a sex starved fish to bite!

Our objective was not to see the fishermen, but we did enjoy seeing the salmon coursing over the cobbles. Farther upstream at the mouth of the Russian River the water was clear and full of the large salmon. Fishing is prohibited upstream of the ferry cable. We had come to see the bears that were making the fishing a bit dicey. It did not take long to find a big one. The shaggy red brown bruin appeared at the shore of a wooded island. We watched from the top of the bluff as the beast waded out and then swam back to shore a few times. It wandered the length of the island and then crossed to another smaller one. Our friends got great photos as it grabbed what were probably fish scraps from the fishermen.

June 7, 2007 – Seward, AK

Rain falls this afternoon. Our friend Ed and Chuck work on chores in the motor home. Nancy and Anne are visiting the Sea Life Center in town. The Bear Creek RV Park is a small one about five miles out of town in the small community of Bear Creek along a stream of that name. It is not fancy, but has the necessary utilities and wireless internet. Varied thrushes chime in the surrounding woods. That is good enough for us.

We were happy to leave the Mid-town RV Park in downtown Anchorage. The location was great tactically and the price was good for a three week park during which time we flew to both St. Paul and Nome. The spaces however were too narrow and most of them were filled with folks who were barely making it in Alaska’s biggest City. We left our space much cleaner than when we found it. We could not do much to improve the rest rooms that could stand a good demolition and replacement.

Another short update from the Anchorage public library. We returned yesterday from a week's stay in Nome. This "bush" town on the Bering Sea was rough and dusty but provided a pleasant base for birding the sub-Arctic tundra.

We flew in by Alaska Air, stayed in the Extra-Dry Bed and Breakfast, and rented a Ford Explorer from Stampede Ventures.

The flights were grand, but clouds on the way up hid most views after our crossing of the bay outside Anchorage. Our return flight had better weather and we stopped at Kotzebue above the Arctic Circle before heading south. Kotzebue Bay remained largely frozen. The patterns and colors of the composite ice surface were gorgeous. Patches of open water appeared as small blue lines and polygons across the frozen surface.