Skagway

Falls at Skagway
Overlooking the town

The Chilkoot Pass
Eagles

We spent Thursday and Friday in Skagway, Alaska. The drive there was one of the prettiest we have been on. The last 10 miles was down an 11 % grade, that's pretty steep!! The town is like going to a port town in the Bahama's. There are jewelry stores everywhere. Skagway is a stop on all the cruise ships to Alaska. When we were there there were 3 ships in the harbor. The streets were pretty crowded. There is a lot of history in the little town . It was the starting point on the Klondike gold rush. Most of the miners were dropped off there heading for the gold fields. We took a ranger lead walk around town. It was very interesting. The town is about 1/2 National Park, so a lot of the buildings are museums. Went to a stage show about the gold rush, it was great. We a had a real good time. Went on another ranger lead hike in Dyea, the other point of take off for the gold rush. The stories of what the miners went through to get to the gold fields was something else. We are setting in Hyder tonight after 2 long days on the road. We will stay here for 2 days so we can watch the bears. Hyder has a veiwing area above the river where the bears feed on salmon. Going there tomorrow. We have wifi here so I hope to post some good pics of the bears. We have not had cell service for a few days so if anyone is trying to get a hold of us, email us.

Till next time

Duane and Louuise

Heading outside

Heading outside is the term used by Alaskans when they leave here. We dropped the girls off at the airport on Monday. Spent Monday night at our friends Joe and Pat's. I did some repairs that needed done Tuesday morning then headed toward the border. Tonight we are in Whitehorse, YT. We are going toward Skagway, Alaska in the morning. It is about 90 miles from here. You have go into Canada to get there or take a ferry, we chose to drive it. So far we have not had any trouble with border crossings. We shall see if our luck holds. We have to cross back into the US to get to Skagway, then back to Canada.. On the way south we stopping at Hyder, Alaska so we will have to cross back into the US then back to Ca then back to the US when we get to lower 48 border. I sure hope our luck holds with no problem crossings. Still not real sure where we will end up at after getting back south. If the timing is right we are going to Ohio, if not California. Will make that decison when we get there. It depends on how long we take to get from here to the lower 48 border. Sorry I didn't have any new pics ready to post and to late to do it tonight.

Till next time
Duane and Louise

The Kenai

Stacy and Carrie

Stacy's big fish
View from the road to the Kenai

Russian church near Homer
Port at Homer
Lower Russian Lake
Light house near Homer

Bar in Homer
Fish we caught near Seward
Fish jumping the falls on the Russian River


Bears eating the fish jumping the falls on the Russian River
The baby bear
Mama bear fishing

After leaving Denali we headed for the Kenai. We pulled into our friend Bill's place and got the motorhome stuck!! It had been raining for a few days and things were pretty wet. After a few trys rocking the coach back and forth I was able to get free. We were real lucky on that one. The next day we drove to Seward for a look around. Seward is a very pretty little town at the bottom of the east side of the Kenai. While driving to the end of the road we saw a bunch of people fishing with bobbers on their lines in the bay. I went to the local fishing store to inquire what they might be using for bait. We decided to give it a try. In about 2 hours we had caught 7 Salmon and was out of bait. Stacy caught 3, Carrie caught 3 and I caught 1. Between Louise and the girls I didn't do much fishing, just baiting hooks and taking fish off the lines. All had a great time. We have no more room in the freezer so fishing is done for now. One day we took a boat tour of the Kenai Fjords National Park. We saw Orca and Humpback whales, Eagles, Puffins, Sea lions and a lot of glaciers. The one glacier was calving big chunks of ice. The sound of the ice cracking was VERY LOUD... The girls took a plane ride on Wednesday to view the glaciers and bears from the air. On Thursday we went to the Russian River National Forrest to hike. When we got to falls there was a mama bear and her cub fishing at the base of the falls. We were on a platform about 30 feet above where they were, it was great. We spent one day driving to Homer which is on the west side of the Kenai. Real nice drive but it was raining on the way down. The way back was nice and sunny. Today we were going back to Seward to walk around the town. I had gone to talk to Bill in his motorhome parked next to us. Stacy started out the door to come get me and there was a black bear standing right outside the coach. She beat a rapid retreat back into the coach. Alaska is great!!!! Tomorrow is a hike at Exit Glacier National Park . The girls leave on Monday so that day we will spend in Anchorage. My internet access has benn pretty spotty so please bear with me.

Till next time

Duane and Louise

Denali

MOOSE

SHEEP
DENALI
VALLEY VIEW

DENALI
EAGLE
FOX

CARIBOU CHASING HIKERS

BIG CARIBOU
PTARMIGAN

BEAR CUBS PLAYING

BIG BEAR
CARIBOU

We picked up Stacy and Carrie on Saturday and headed north toward Denali. Sunday we went to Hacther Pass across the mountian. It was a ruff road but a very pretty drive that Louise and I had not been on yet. Monday found us at Denali National park. Our campground reservations wasn't untill Tuesday so we camped in a rest area outside the park after going into the park and setting up our bus rides into the park. You can only drive about 20 miles into the park, the rest of the way you have to take a bus. The road into the park is about 100 miles total. The first bus ride was to the 50 mile post. The second took us to the 80 mile range. We saw a lot of wildlife both days. The second day was a 16 hour ride in and back. Saw lots of Dall sheep and caibou. The highlight of the trip was seeing the 2 cubs playing. The mother and 3 cubs ran across the road in front of the bus. The mother and one cub disappeared over the mountian but the last 2 stopped to play. They stayed where we could see then for about 5 minutes or so, it was great. We saw 4 or 5 other bears on the 2 trips. The moose and fox were the only ones we saw of them. Saw several eagles but only got a couple of good pics of them. I got so many pics of sheep it was hard to choose which to use. I really need a longer lens for the sheep, they are way up on the mountians. It is real hard to get a shot of Denali, the mountian. Most of the time it is hidden in the clouds. The pics I posted were taken a few hours apart but were the best and the most of the mountian I could get. The one picture of the caribou and the hikers was a real thrill to watch. The hikers kept getting closer and closer to the caribou for a better picture. We were setting in the bus on the road watching them. All of a sudden the caribou charged the hikers and they took of running. The caribou stopped and started to walk away. The hikers turned around and started back toward the caribou. The caribou charged them again!!!! This time the hikers got smart and left the caribou alone. That is first time I ever seen anything like that. I'm glad it wasn't me he was chasing. We are in Palmer tonight, heading for the Keni in the morning.

Till next time

Duane and Louise

The Kenai

The view from the mountain behind the Dunlevy place

Fishing the Kenai river

Salmon we caught

Scenery along the Sewart Highway

Colorado Creek gold claim
Colorado Creek
We have been camped at Bill and Glenna Dunlevy's for the last week. They are a couple we met at the gold show when we first arrived in Alaska. The group from the GPAA gold show have been really great to us. We have spent a lot of our time running around with them. The Dunlevy's have some ground near Moose Pass on the Kenai where we stayed. We went fishing 3 days for Red Salmon. With the help of Bill to show us how it was done we filled our little freezer with fish. We ended up with 7 for the 3 days all weighing about 5 or 6 pounds each. MAN DO THEY FIGHT!!!! We had a blast. I caught 4 and Louise caught 3. On the 3rd day Louise stayed at camp while I went with the guys fishing. I saw my first grizzley bear!!! She and her club were walking along the river we were fishing on. Of coarse I didn't have my camera with me. We have been wanting to see a bear since we got here and Louise missed it. One day we went to Colrado Creek to do a little gold panning. We found a little but didn't stay there long. The weather was kind of bad that day. Today, Friday, we left to return to Anchorage to do the laundry before Stacy and Carrie get here on Sunday. We pick them up at 12:30 am!!!!! Then it's off to Denali National park.

Till next time

Duane and Louise

Ready to go

We are visiting with our friends Tedd and Sandi. I finally got all the parts I needed to repair the hitch and will be heading back out on Friday. I recieved and mailed in my papers to make my retirement final. We are going to a gold propectors meeting on Thursday night. Friday we are heading to the Kenai to do some fishing and maybe a some prospecting. I hope to get some good pics of that area and of the fish we catch.

Till next time
Duane and Louise

The down side of the rv life

Bent hitch

Hole I cut to get to the bolts

After the trip from Tok to Palmer we stayed at our friends Joe and Pat for a few days. The road from Tok was full of frost heaves. For those that don't know, frost heaves are where the ground freezes and pushes up or drops down the blacktop. You will be driving along and all of a sudden hit what seems like a speed bump. I was walking around the coach checking things out before we were to leave and I looked at the hitch. I couldn't believe my eyes, the hitch on the coach was BENT!!! Apparently the car got above the hicth and pushed down on it. I checked the the hook-up on the Jeep and it was LOOSE!!!! One bolt was gone, the other 3 were loose. Looking at the Jeep I couldn't figure out how to get to the bolts to fix them. The only way was to take the front cowling off the Jeep. That would require me to break all the little snap rivets that cars are put together with now a days. I didn't want to do that, soooo I cut away part of the plastic cowling so I could get a wrench on the bolts. The bolt that was gone I had to redrill and tap with a larger bolt. It took me about 4 hours of work to get things fixed. Today I went to find a new drop hitch to replace the bent one. When I got there, they had one. The down side is they told me there was a guy on the way to buy it, that had called in right before I got there. I waited around to see if the guy showed up, he did, he bought it. Now I have wait till Tuesday when they are suppose to get more in. One of my tow chains had a bad rub spot so I bought news cables while I was there. Here in Alaska they don't stock a lot of things, they order it for you. The prices are a little higher but what choice do you have. On Friday, Jeremy, our son, had to go to Shreveport to GM for me. I got all my retirement papers from GM that had to be signed by the Rep at work. Since I couldn't get there, he had to go for me. While he was there I had to get on the phone with the Rep so he could explain everything to me before he would sign them. Now Jeremy has to mail them to me so I can add the other documents they need and sign them. I will officially be retired August first. The paper work will not make it on time so I will have a delay in my pay. Jeremy has been great to do all this for us. Other then a bad day or two, we are still having a great time. Today we are parked at Tedd and Sandi's, friends we met at the gold show. They are great people to visit with . Tedd took me around looking for the parts I needed to fix the the coach. We will be here till the part gets in and the mail gets here.
Till next time
Duane and Louise

In Palmer again for a few days

Simon Andrew Latimer

6-21-07

Jackson Henry Buechter

7-5-07

Valley view

Tazlina Glacier

Since we have have been on our journey we have 2 new additions to the family. Meet Simon and Jack, our first 2 Grandsons. We have 2 Granddaughters, Madeleine and Allie. We are getting grandkids spread out over the country now. Two in Ohio, one in Texas and one in California. Maybe it's a good thing we live in a motorhome. When we get back from Alaska we will have to to flip a coin to see which way we go first. We are spending a couple of days at our friends' house in Palmer. We spent the day at the doctors office. Louise was feeling a little under the weather and we thought we had better get her looked at. Seems she may have an infection so she was given drugs. Hopefully that will take care of it. Our insurance has a web site where we can go to find doctors in the area that take our insurance. Makes it fairly easy to locate them when we need them. I just hope we don't need them often!! The weather has been rainy for the last week. Other then that we are having a great time.

Till next time

Duane and Louise

Tok, Alaska

We left Chicken and drove to Tok. We have been ask how Chicken got it's name. The story is that they wanted to name it Ptarmigan, after the bird, but no one knew how to spell it. So they just named it Chicken. The drive was only 80 miles but rained all way. We decided to stop in Tok for the night in a camp ground so we could fill the fresh water tank, empty dirty water tanks and do the laundry. Tomorrow we will head south toward the Kenai. Planning to do some fishing and prospecting along the way. Sorry no new pics for today.
Till next time
Duane and Louise

Panning in Chicken

Getting ready to pan

Digging for gold

We are in Chicken with the Anchorage gold prospers group. I have been going to the claim with the group doing some panning. Finding a little. Some of the guys are finding quite a bit, so far I have not been that lucky. Louise

Back in Chicken

Glacier river view

Lake at rest area we stayed at

The office of the mining camp

The Gold Prospectors of Anchorage camp

We are back in Chicken, AK for a get together of the Anchorage Gold Prospectors Asso. They are having an Alaska miners Fourth of July party tomorrow. Big steak cook out. I have going with the guys to the stream panning for gold. Found some but not enough to pay off the motorhome yet.....lol Three of the guys have found quite a bit. I haven't found that hot spot yet. I will try again on Thursday. We will be here till maybe Sunday, not sure. The weather has been a little rainy the last few days, not bad, just showers off and on all day. I take a rain coat to the stream, can't let a little rain stop us. Louise has been visiting with other wives. There is one of the ladies that is a quilter and one that knits so they have something to talk about. She has been working another quilt and catching up on her reading.

Till next time
Duane and Louise