midnight panic at mcdonald's

September 28, 2013

Day: 27

Total mileage (car): 5501

Total mileage (including ferry): 6,346.5

It’s been a wild few days.  The mileage is rackin’ up.  We are in “go” mode. 

Hanging out at Kluane Lake.

The Big Girl lookin' good.

We stopped off in Whitehorse a night or so ago (they all blend together at this point) after a fun day of driving.  We had stopped and fished in Kluane Lake earlier.  CJ was hoping for a 30 lb Lake Trout that the lake is famous for – and planning to catch it on his 6 lb test line.  I suppose it’s a good thing he didn’t get any bites because I’m about 99% sure his pole would have broke.  The size of the lure was quite impressive, however, and he could really chuck that thing into the lake.  The Yukon is such a magnificent place.  We can’t wait to get back – I know Ceeg can’t wait to hook one of those big trout.  I can’t wait to eat it.

Goin' for the big one

Helloooo mountain goats by a really old cabin

Big fellow

So we roll into Whitehorse around midnight.  Colter is passed out and we are starving.  We hit up McDonald’s (Canadian ketchup is way too sweet by the way) and took out the map.  We’ve got 4 more days of driving and we need to figure out a plan of attack.  I plug in the numbers into my nifty difty iPhone and wait for Siri to tell me the fastest route.

“Whitehorse, Yukon Territory to Grand Canyon Village, Arizona:  4562 miles.”

CJ and I look at each other.  And then the panic sets in.  4500 miles?!?!!  4 days?!?!  There is just no bloody way it can be done.  Unless we drive for 4 days, 24 hours straight.  I’m sweating and the tears are starting to creep in.  How could we have misjudged the distance?  Didn’t we look at this a week or so ago?  How can our fabulous road trip end with such a brutal last leg?

CJ’s frantically eating his Big Mac and asking me to plug it in again.  Does it have the right Whitehorse?  Is it taking us to a different Grand Canyon?  Of course not, silly. 

And then my dear, dear husband has a moment of brilliance.  “Is that in miles or kilometers, Heather?” 4500 kilometers…2,000 miles.  Phew.  I admit I was still a bit shaken up but that definitely spared the tears. 

However, this did mean that we have had to cut out Banff and Glacier National Park.  But we’re already planning our next adventure northward – it is always great to have something to look forward to.  Looking back at all the pictures from this trip, I really can’t complain.

Moooooose!

It's cool, I'm riding a caribou.

Ridgecrest is never very far away...

Honk honk

Vroom vroom

Beep beep

On we go.  Today we still managed to play on old road building equipment (from building the Alaska highway back in the 40s) and fish along the Liard River.  As we drove south through British Columbia and the fabulous fall colors, we happened upon Liard Hot Springs.  What a fabulous way to end the day: A soak in the gorgeous waters before a long drive through the night.

That's my name!

 

Beautiful British Columbia

 

Hot springs :)

 

Liard Hot Springs....soooo lovely!

airing out

September 26, 2013

Day: 25

Total mileage (car): 4504

Total mileage (with ferry): 5349.5

Sun along the Matanuska River

When the sun is out in Alaska, you take advantage of it – especially after surviving what we have named, “Tropical Storm Chugach”.  We stopped along the Matanuska River for several hours.  The Malcolm’s claimed a small plot of land for some time.  We pulled our gear out of the truck, laid it all out and enjoyed the sun.  I made ham, cheese and avocado quesadillas.  Colter collected leaves and rocks. A mama moose and her calf wandered nearby and a bald eagle soared overhead.

Taking over.

Matanuska glacier (4 miles wide at the mouth and 20 miles long)

With all of our goods dry, we hiked along the river and fished for an hour or so.  No luck with fish.  But we had sun.

Let's go fishing, Dad!



Black bear print.

Birch trees in fall.

Wolf print.

Fishing on the Matanuska.

Tantrum-thirty!  He couldn't decide if he wanted his backpack on or off.

Fall fun

Can't get enough of those colors!

Sunset over Mt. Sanford in Wrangell St Elias

homeward bound

September 25, 2013

Day: 24

Total mileage (car): 4204

Total mileage (with ferry): 5,049.5

Happy little family - with a very sleepy toddler!

Our first night in a hotel all trip.  Our child decides to get sick and pop two teeth.  Sigh.  It was a brutal night, you might say.  Yet another thing we wouldn’t experience if our dear little Colt-n-beans wasn’t with us. Thank goodness the illness only last a few days and the teeth popped through quickly.  Back to his normal, chipper self.

Love the glacial waters behind him.

Someone was a bit grumpy.

What made up for it?  The 26 Glacier Cruise.  We had a short hour and a half drive to Whittier from Anchorage – along the Kenai Peninsula coast.  It can be summed up in one word: Wow.  To get to the town of Whittier, we drove through a mountain in a 2.5 mile long train tunnel constructed during WWII.  On the half hour, you can go towards Whittier, on the hour you can leave.  Colter’s new favorite word?  Tunnel.

Into the tunnel...

Once in Whittier, we hopped on the Klondike – apparently the fastest catamaran in Alaska.   We were all a bit exhausted and welcomed the chance to sit on a boat for five hours and let a Forest Service Ranger guide us through the happenings of twenty-six different glaciers (though I’m pretty sure we saw more than that).  We even enjoyed a fish and chips lunch – and Colter loved his hot dog.  Nasty chocolate mints to finish it off and I was desperately pleading with the old lady at the table near us to not feed them to my 22 month old child.  He’s just so darn cute not to give chocolate to.  Unless you’re his mother, that is. 

Yummy hot dog.

The catamaran, the Klondike

Prince William Sound.

It was a great day to be at sea: Relatively calm and only a few rain drops.  We didn’t see any icebergs calving, but there were plenty of them floating around in the glacial waters of Prince William Sound. We tasted iceberg.  Colter threw a wicked tantrum.  We ate homemade cookies and milk with our tablemates from Georgia.  We spotted porpoises, bald eagles and lots of sea otters.  All the while, we glided past glaciers. It was yet another wonderful day.

Nap thirty.  Post-tantrum. Mama sippin' a beer.

Sea otters playing in frigid waters.

woohoo!

Coxe glacier.

Yummy glacier.

Radness.

Hanging with Dad, checking out the icebergs.

 

Off the ship, back through the tunnel and into Portage Valley (Chugach National Forest) where we popped the top for the night. The storm clouds rolled in and small trickles of water down the mountainsides turned into roaring waterfalls.  The winds howled.  And our PopTop flooded. 

The storm begins....

This picture just doesn't do the winds any justice...

This wasn’t just any old rainstorm, mind you.  Wind gusts were over 85 mph and over 3 inches of rain fell in less than 12 hours.  For the first time in 23 days, we broke out our rain jackets.

Rain jackets and sandals?  Check.

With most of the water mopped up, we headed south to Seward for some afternoon fun at the Sea Life Center.  Colter loved seeing the sea lions and the seals up close and personal in the tanks.  CJ and I studied up on the life cycle of the different salmon.  We stayed dry.

Kenai Peninsula.

Directing the seas.

Downtown Seward.

The Sea Life Center.

And then?  We headed for Anchorage.  Which means, my friends, that today we officially started heading home.  After 5,000 miles and 96 hours, 22 minutes of journeying in these Northern lands, it is time to start the voyage south. 

Casting out.

CJ reels one in.