Adventures in Alaska

We took 121 pictures yesterday. Digital photography rocks.

We headed up Rte 37 to 37A, called Glacier Highway. It goes to Hyder, Alaska, stays in Alaska for maybe 20 miles, then goes to a mine in BC. The paved part of the road goes by 34 glaciers, give or take a few. There are at least three times as many waterfalls. Near Hyder is a National Forest Service facility with a walkway on a salmon spawn stream, where the bears come for lunch. The salmon run in late July and early August. When we knew we were coming to Vancouver, we joked about finding an Alaskan cache. The one was only 900 miles out of our way. The others were thousands of miles away, and would require either a cruise or a road trip past Yellowknife. Isn't that where the ice road truckers go? We figured 900 miles would be good, and it was! We found our Alaska cache!

After the NFS facility, the road continues past Salmon Glacier, which is a miles-long river of ice, fed by other rivers of ice. It supposedly ends at the toe of another glacier, but we didn't make it that far. The road was narrow, winding, and slippery. The clouds came right down to the road. Andrew was very excited, because he wanted to touch a cloud. The fog was so thick that we were doing maybe 2 mph. We couldn't see any glaciers or mountains or even the edge of the road. But that's not why we didn't make it to the end of the road. Eventually, the clouds swirled and lifted and we could see the glacier we'd been following all this way. On the safe side of the road were alpine meadows, snow fields, and rocks. Lots of rock slides. These rock slides left sharp rocks all over the road. One of those rocks is why we didn't make it to the end.

We all knew when the tire blew, it was loud. But we drove just a bit more, hoping it was just the rock skittering off the underside of the van. Nope, it was flat as flat can be. (if you are the nervous kind, who can't figure out that we are now safe, let me reassure you that we are fine) After a 5 minute panic of not finding the spare in the back or under the back of the van, we found the spare under the front of the van. The manual was in shrink wrap in the jack compartment. A couple of nice old men in a little blue car with Saskatchewan plates stopped to give moral support. The tire was changed. We really wanted to go to the end of the road and stand at the toe of the glacier, but instead we had to turn around on the side of the mountain.

Turning around on the side of the mountain is not as easy as it sounds, and I know it sounds difficult. I was worried about the tire, about getting back without blowing another one, about turning around on the side of the mountain, about the grizzlies on the road, about the clouds, ok, I was worried. All that worry was wiped away in just a few minutes when we drove forward, looking for a wide spot in the road, and found a complete cul-de-sac turnaround spot. That wasn't what reassured me. In the middle of the turnaround was a giant cross made of some sort of pipe. That was what reassured me. It was a sign!

Sure enough, we made it off the mountain and back to the USA and back again to Canada, and to a town with a tire shop. I'd love to tell you that we have 4 good tires now, but the tire shop was out of our size tire. We're off to Smithers, where the cook at the restaurant last night tells me that their tire shop is open on Sundays.

And you'll have to wait on the pictures because the truck is loaded and I've got to log off.

Oh! We saw a bald eagle flying up close, too! Very cool.