Preparations

5/22/17 As many have advised me, a trip of this length and distance requires a lot of planning and forethought  in many different aspects. In each of these separate lists are essential. There is the truck, the emergency equipment, the camper and its systems,  the camping gear, the consumables, and the route planning.  Not new to the camper and its demands on the truck,  there was a base of knowledge to work with.

The truck is a 2016 Chevy Colorado 2.8 Duramax turbo charged diesel. This truck has been an improvement over the replaced Tacoma in that it has enormous engine torque (369 foot pounds) that equates to power. The fuel economy is 30% better and there is more space for gear with the added bench in place of the rear seats. The 'platform' (the truck bed) had to have support. Added to the original or replaced were: ride height adjusted shocks (Bilstein 5100), robust metal skid plates to protect the engine and transfer case, air lift suspension bags to level the load side to side, an 'add-a-leaf' added to the spring pack for the increased load, and a sway bar (Hellwig) to help cornering with the added weight. Lastly and most important E rated (10 ply) truck tires and spare to handle the added weight as well protect against sidewall blowouts.

The 2011 Eagle FourWheel pop up camper was bought new. Since, there have been a number of modifications. Yakima tracks on the roof for canoes and support for the 160 watt solar panel (a additional 90 watt portable panel is stored in the added box under the cab-over), initially a portable Engel fridge was replaced with a permanent Isotherm 65 refrigerator. An aluminum 'V' wind foil to help with milage, Brophy scissor steps, added cabinets, Blue Sea Charging relay connected to the three batteries, four 30 pound lift assists to help raising the roof, and many small amenities to make the camper our own.

Off road, "dispersed camping", requires a self-sufficiency in a number of ways but most importantly is having what is needed to extract oneself from getting stuck on the 'road less traveled'. Having two 'sand mats, essentially heavy duty four foot long traction plates to put under tires when your wheels have dug you into a hole, a three ton platform jack/jack stand to raise the truck, a heavy-duty compressor to refill 'aired down' or flat tire, a quality puncture repair kit, tow strap and chain, a good assortment of tools for mechanical and electrical problems, CB radio, emergency medical kit, spares of numerous vital truck and camper parts, 3 two gallon roto-pax diesel cans (mounted on the roof),  and a number of sensible doodads that make all repairs less difficult. This all may seem too much to deal with but once learned and done it does not detract from the experience but actually heightens the feeling of self reliance, confidence knowing you can go where it is quiet and peaceful, away from it all and not have to worry about safety. Knowing how most everything you depend on works is empowering.  It is worth it.

Lists. Where would I be without them? Over the last year I have made many and one that has been evolving for years is the camping equipment list. Actually there are a number of them each distinct. The backpack camping trip list, the canoe camping list, the motorcycle camping list and the camper equipment list; sometimes there is a combination as well. This particular trip is somewhat unique as there are a few legs of it that differ but in general it is a long trip with parts that will have us very far into the boonies. On one leg we will have the need to have diesel fuel dropped ahead for us as the truck, even with a 21 gallon tank, six gallons on the roof and approximately 20-22 mpg, we will be going into areas that are past our total range. Folks who live on a boat know how it is to refine the list by need and space to store it logically.

Food. So much of life surrounds it. When traveling it is in itself an activity. It is not a grab a meal. Thought to what would make you happy and healthy but not be a burden. Having a glass jar to throw away after a meal is both  not being "weight conscious" but also unsafe to have trash with smell to attract opportunistic feeders. A dry bear box storing sealed food as well as a solar powered refrigerator to keep beer cans cold (essential) make the trip a vacation not a forced march. Pre-planning a couple weeks of meals for two and packing it prudently takes time to hone the 'what works' list.

Our plan has been to get to Alaska and it is so far away. It has taken a couple years to think about it and a whole year to plan. The logistics had a couple obvious givens. The truck camper has got to get there and we have time restrictions on each of us, e.g. Luann must teach right up to the day before the only ferry sets sail from Bellingham, Washington. The plan came down to me driving the truck camper, departing a week ahead, so that I could have the truck serviced in Washington before Luann arrived. Luann flies to Seattle, Washington the day before the ferry and we stay the night with her friends she taught with in Brazil who now live outside Seattle. The next morning we board, with our truck camper, the ferry from Bellingham, sailing for 5 days to Whittier, Alaska. From there our first stop will be visiting my nephew Mike in Seward and Homer. Thereafter ..... touring the backroads of Alaska eventually crossing on into The Yukon on the Top of the World 'highway'. Winding our way south then east on the dirt 'Campbell Highway', 368 miles of gravel to Watson Lake. From this road we will be taking retracing side trips hundreds of miles on side roads: Chicken, Eagle, Nahanni road up to the Northwest Territories. From there on the Cassiar Highway south to British Columbia and Alberta eventually into the States of Idaho, Montana, Wyoming. At that point depending on time we either both travel east to Buckland, Massachusetts or I do and Luann flies so as to have time to prepare for school. That's in the nutshell.

The time for departure is coming. This is the first blog attempt for us so a learning as well. In it we hope to post photos and maps as well as a diary of our travels. This way when we are in a place to be able to communicate we will post. I guess it will be as a trip wherein we will be testing the depth of the water with both feet. As ole Abe said: "In the end, it's not the years in your life, but the life in your years."

6/2/17 The first leg of the trip starts on the sixteenth of June. A solo drive cross country to Washington state. This will hopefully go smoothly but knowing the first couple days will be the rough part. Day one is a rural start from Buckland, Massachusetts... not near a major road so getting to the main route I-90 will take about an hour and forty-five minutes.  If the scales are open in New York I will stop and have the loaded truck/camper weighed which includes the front and rear axle loads, very important information to have.  The rear seats of the crew cabin were removed and a platform put in reducing weigh and allowing all of the gear and food etc to go more towards the front helping to distribute the load off the rear axle. No matter how you look at it getting 'out' of the northeast is a pain. Not so much in the first part but as one gets to western New York State it builds up. The goal is to get to Cleveland, Ohio or maybe Toledo (doubtful). Google maps is great in many ways but they ought to have a "reality" button. They say 10 hours....ya right. I am planning on 12 to get to Cleveland.  I know nuts... but hey it's like just get me past Chicago asap. The first night is a "Service Plaza" on I-90 that allows and has space for RV sleeping. That with bathrooms and food is all I need...that and ear plugs and eye-mask to get sleep. Up and out the next day for the kicker...It is a Saturday but still the road work and who knows what ball game will determine how it goes. I hope to get to Madison, Wis. for night two. There is another pull off for trucks right before the Wisconsin River.

From here on it is real traveling... wide open spaces across into South Dakota to the Grasslands. I intend to wander off in such and get a quiet night in open country.  Fourth night, Montana near Custer State Park rustic sights. On to Idaho or eastern Washington for the fifth night maybe near Frenchman's Coulee. If all goes well, the next day on to Bellevue WA for an oil change. BTW the pink marker is the route east to west, the blue is part of the return trip two months from now.

Packing. 6/11/17

Not something to try to do on the day before you leave. We put out 9 plastic cargo boxes, weeks ahead, on a table in the garage with a list on each: tools, spare parts truck and camper, fly fishing gear, camping gear, books and maps, footwear and the big food locker. We each had a duffle bag for clothes. Stuff sacks for rain gear, cold weather clothes. Stuff sacks for towels, bed linen and blanket (kept in camper). With the rear seats out and a carpeted plywood platform the plastic boxes stacked well. All light stuff on the drivers side stacked in the order of necessity.

In the rear seat foot space was the medical kit, three ton jack/stand. air compressor, tire repair kit, screen tent and poles. The camper sits up on a 3” platform in the truck bed. This increases the ‘empty’ space around the wheel wells accessed from both the outside (fly rod tubes, rear tarp awning, as well as through the inside turnbuckle doors: charcoal in big ziplock bags, ax, water tank white hose, and collapsable stainless hibachi grill and a tow chain. All out of the way but accessible. The two sand mats for extracting yourself from a hole are belted and locked to the back camper exterior wall. 

I had a conference in Connecticut so with camper mostly loaded I did a ‘trial run’ to get an idea of gas mileage and load feel. I discovered I needed a boost on the airbags on the driver’s side to compensate for the fact that the camper is made heavier on the that side, my diesel 21 gallon tank and DEF 5 gallon tank, is on that side as is the driver. The mileage surprised me. Going  seventy miles to the conference I got 27 MPG… nuts I know… on the way back which is up hill quite a bit I got 22 MPG. I am assuming without a severe head wind I hope to get 24 MPG on the way west with the cruise control.  We will find out.    

I am finding, that even though “I am waiting as fast as I can”, I feel like a horse at the gate. 

6/18/17 As I sit typing this I will have to reprocess the last three days and sort it out. I had hoped to write each night,  the same way I thought I’d watch a movie on the iPad. Well sleep hit real fast as soon as I had set the camper up and had a bite to eat and a beer. Bam…  I have crossed the States and Canada before, when I was younger: Once on a hippie bus the Grey Rabbit, Once by hitch hiking and taking the Canadian National train, once on my old R50 BMW and  once on the R100 BMW with Luann on the back. All of these some time ago. 

I can still do the long hauls but I pay for it more now. Having left Friday just before 6 AM, the drive to the highway took an hour and 45 minutes. That got me into the Albany morning commute… child’s play compared with what lay ahead but at the time for a hill town man it was a shock. Rochester, Buffalo built up the realization of traveling into the old industrial northern cities whose roadways are worse for your life expectancy than demolition derby. What has happened to our beautiful roadway system?

On to Cleveland, Ohio but first Pennsylvania …even just a hundred miles is too much in Pennsylvania. Their roads are a disaster. Whoever was in charge of them should be made to drive them all day every day as punishment. Cleveland is another of the northern cities who has, what could be reinvented a cool city. As it is now it seems that is in the future as so much of its past still stands gone to seed. The first day was meant as an exit not a leisurely departure. I bolted the northeast with visions of wide open spaces ahead and it would be there I could slow the pace. The first day of 660 miles in 12 hours ended at a very clean roadside service plaza on I-90 called Indian Meadow. They have 12 RV parking slots in the back of the parking lot that have electric hook ups as well as a place for ‘blackwater’ dumping…for this they ask $20. As I needed none of that it was free. Ear plugs and airline eye patches were needed to blunt the highway noise and flood lights. I was so tired I slept pretty well. Alarm set for 5 am, coffee and such done I was on the road at 6 AM again.The plan was to make it through Chicago to Madison Wisconsin. 

Well all I can say is I will never do that again. I have not seen anything more than the trailer for “Fast and Furious” but I bet they were all filmed on this route. What has happened in the last 20 years? People, mostly young males drive at insane speeds with no regard for lanes nor any semblance of human empathy. They are in a video game. My new truck steering wheel is now 20 years older. Traffic continued to be fast and bumper to bumper all the way to Madison though the number of lanes went down from 5 to 2. The place I had thought would be acceptable to do as I had done the night before was packed solid ( a truck plaza on I-90 right before the Wisconsin River). So I kept going as I had gained an hour in Indiana being Central Time. I had researched a few free spots and had packed them away not thinking I had needed them. One of which Luann reminded me of and actually texted me the exit number. So on through Wisconsin (stopping at a rest area in Sand County…. yes the home of Aldo Leopold … a hero of mine) and arrived at the end of a 10 hour drive at the Town of Blue Earth, Minnesota. They have a beautiful …”ya-ah” …little town ….(spoiler alert) of none other then the home of The Jolly Green Giant! That is right! In the center is a 60 foot green giant and right next door is the town’s fair grounds with 10, no longer free, super spots for a small camper or tents (which are free). They have a shower, bathrooms and electricity if you want. The kind of place that is squeaky clean and left wide open with no vandalism or concerns. A real lucky spot for me. 

I had done 607 miles that second day, crossing over the Mississippi River. As soon as I did life changed. Driving became civilized and though still fast all were spread out and greatly diminished in number. Again getting up early and finishing a breakfast by 6:20 I was on the hi way at 6:30 this morning, day three. As I had gone further than expected I had either a day that I could travel farther again, a day to drive slowly (hard going into South Dakota) or a day I could drive the same number of hours but get off the interstate I-90 and drive out into the prairie on ‘blue highways’. This I did and I have to say… There is a LOT OF GRASS LANDS in South Dakota. It s astounding people (settlers) crossed this expanse in carts and wagons… Even at speeds of 70 MPH it goes on and on and what you see is a small fraction of what lies hundreds of miles off at 90 degrees from the road. Everyone drives a Chevy (GM) or a Ford. Big trucks doing a lot of miles. Literally I have not seen a Toyota once today. So I wandered up route 37 north to 34 west and on to 14 west. It goes through the Crow Reservation along the Missouri River and thereafter to Fort Pierre and eventually to Wall, South Dakota, home of THE Wall Drug store. The little town is nuts….everything a theme park tourist attraction. However…. it sits on the boundary of the Buffalo Gap National Grasslands where they abut the Badlands. As I type this the camper is being buffeted by fair-weather gusts as the camper sits on a bluff at the edge of the grasslands looking out on the badlands. A dispersed site in that we are allowed to go off on the dirt roads and camp within 300 feet of the road. There are a few others doing the same but they are at least a thousand feet or more away. It is quiet and it overlooks some great geology. All told I had a long day but less mileage today but the luck has held out. Rain last night but dry now. 1,767 miles  in 3 days. I hope to do a short 6 hour day tomorrow and get into Montana a bit off the beaten track too. 

6/18/17 A map of the fourth days expected drive from the Bad Lands to Custer State Park in Montana where a shower would be good idea.

6/19/17 So as the old Yiddish saying goes... Man plans, God laughs. 

Waking up in the middle of the night looking out the screen window there was a planet (in the east so Saturn?) and the sickle moon over the Badlands ...hard to get back to sleep. Waking at 5:30 (still 7:30 in my head) I wanted coffee... oh the shame... instead of sitting with a nice bowl of cereal watching the day begin slowly... duh... I broke camp and head to Wall. A sad tourist town. No coffee. Really. So I set sail on the tarmac hoping to find the elusive good cup of coffee ... not gas station brew.  Gawd.... I actually think I'd drink a Coke before that. After a 50 minuter drive on I-90 I found a cup. Should have sat with my cereal bowl...there is a lesson in there I am sure. The plan was to head to Custer National Forest and boon dock camp in the woods... as I got there I could see the forest has suffered from the blight and it is heart breaking, so many dead trees. I continued on with hope of stumbling on something and wanted to see the Little Big Horn but that too was a miss at $30. 

A command decision was made (easy flying solo) to keep going. Getting off 212 onto the I-90 again was a shock but it did allow me to make up time. There has been a persistent 30 mph wind from west and I watched my MPG plummet. I have to admit right here I overloaded the truck. Way too much stuff. I have really built up the suspension and it is handling it with aplomb. But the load up hill in a stiff wind (power is there and I can fly as fast as I want with the turbo diesel with 369 pounds of torque) but the mpg goes way down.  And so it goes.

I decided to go to the 9 hour mark and then look for camp. There was a town that looked good in name: Big Timber... so I pulled off and luckily found a small info booth just closing. A nice lady said she knew a quiet place on a fast stream with trout... nuff said.  And here I sit alongside a roaring stream with a cold beer after a wonderful shower. I am indeed a lucky man. So the map below shows the days route and all told not a big mileage day 475 but I am in a good position to make Idaho tomorrow up somewhere near Lolo pass... I hear there are boon docking spots up into the forest roads. Again ...we will seer what tomorrow brings. For now I could stare at this stream a long time.

6/21/17
Seem to be still on Eastern time waking again as 4:30. up at 5:00. The roar of the Boulder River was great to wake up to. Tidying up the the camper bags that go into the cab… a bowl of cereal and off I went back to Big Timber to hop back on I-90. As usual what I thought would be the day’s events turned out about 50% right. Montana is big. Drove to Missoula (3 hours) and got a coffee as I was fading. Was there in 1998 for the BMWMOA Rally. Luann and I drove two up on the R100 (1991)… don’t think I would want to do that again as we did five long days as well and those are exhausting on a bike. Still glad I did it while I could.
As per the advice I received about the passes, three in Montana and 2 in Idaho, there was some white knuckle driving. A heavy truck handles very differently on a steep on a steep incline. Wild up and down thousands of feet through countless curves with 75-80 mph speed limits. The “plan” was to stop at Cabelas on the Idaho/Washington border to get some bear pepper spray and some practice canisters to get the feel for using it… don’t think I’d have time to read the directions one more time if Griz wants to eat me. As always coming into the American strip shopping miles is not too much unlike a feeding frenzy I’ve seen on the Paranå River in Paraguay. I got in and out and was happy to get back up in the hills.
Decided to try a spot to boondock (dispersed) camp about an hour and a half off I-90… this proved to not to be a good idea as I ended up on the far side, the wrong side of a wetland an hour out in the ‘moors’ of Eastern Washington… ending at a chained gate on public land … a tangible dichotomy if there ever was one. As my Irish family would say “you are stuck in the arse-end of nowhere without a clue” and indeed I was. Technically my truck was on public land so I was tempted to stay where I was (it had taken a long ride in on gravel) but as there were numerous shell casings on the ground and a couple live rounds, Even though I had already clocked 10 hours driving, I thought perhaps I’d try elsewhere. I found a BLM site and put that into Google maps after getting out to the main road… it brought me 30 minutes later to another dead end road with the Google announcement “you have arrived at your destination!” … not bloody likely. Trying another time with another GPS Maps.ME app ( I downloaded all state maps before leaving so I could be offline with routing on GPS). This Got me to where I am now, at a BLM campsite at Roosevelt Lake (way above the Grand Coulee Dam). Free. The wind is wild up here off the water and the cottonwoods are suffering limbs loss. It was another unplanned 11 hour drive. Strangely enough though tired, I spent a lot of time laughing at circumstance … why not… I was safe with food water and a place to sleep no matter where I ended up at dark.
Tomorrow’s “plan” is to find some National Park as close to Bellevue Washington where on Thursday morning I have a scheduled service appointment for the truck …fresh oil and filter for AK. With the miles we will be putting on I brought a complete oil/filter change with me for latter as Dexos 2 is hard to find. I also brought a sealable oil drain pan to drop off at some auto place when full. Lots of details

6/22/17 Middle Forks of the Snoqualmie River, in the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest sitting in a beautiful grove of tall evergreens with deep moss and fern beneath. Tiredness is creeping up as the end of the first leg of the trip approaches. Of course par for the course there was a big sign that said “Road Closed” but I ignored it and kept going until I was to be physically stopped. I am only 100 miles away from Seattle. I got to this camp area at noon and had a nice hour and half walk, The mountains here go straight up and the river is cold, fast and clear. Stumps of trees logged off years ago are on average  6-8 feet diameter some monsters even bigger. They must have towered over these that are ‘only’ 100 feet tall. Wished they had left a few standing. 

Here’s a heads up: Just so you know…. spend long enough behind the wheel of a truck packed to the gills and you can be certain to loose something everyday. But! I know where all the stuff goes. If you can’t find something it is always stuck way down between the console and the seat. I have found myself there once too. You’d think they’d make it an inch wider so your hand doesn’t go into spasm trying to fish whatever was lost out. Reminds me of John Candy in ‘Planes Trains and Automobiles’…  

The dead bugs are 1/2” thick on the front of the truck and camper. I have been told to wear them as a badge, I believe this to be good advice since one will need a sandblaster to get them off anyway why bother… it is only going to keep happening. My concern is the weight gain!

Forgot the other event yesterday when lost in the ‘moors’ and a tad punchy after confronting   the chained gate just when I was thinking of sleep…. back on the road! After a few miles of washboard vibration that could loosen your molars, I looked in the rearview mirror which offers a view through the camper and out the back door. Funny,,,,, I can’t seem to see anything…. let’s see what could be blocking the back window? *&&#@! !!!! The fridge door is open! I stopped and opened the camper rear door …what was supposed to be on the inside wasn’t and the fridge door was jammed so I could not get inside the camper… hmmmm. Some more hand spasms later, you’ll be relieved to know that not one can of beer was damaged! (and luckily the juice and milk containers though battered didn’t spill). 

After all those miles If that is the worst of it I think I can thank my lucky stars.

Ferry route  http://www.dot.state.ak.us/amhs/routes.shtml

Overland description of Waterway  

https://expeditionportal.com/overland-alaska-the-alaska-marine-highway/

Vessel tracking   http://www.dot.state.ak.us/amhs/map.shtml

June 23, 

Picked up Luann from the Seattle airport and drove up the coast to Edmonds WA. where we stayed with her friends (and now mine) from the years teaching in Rio de Janeiro. They are now living here. Enjoyed the hospitality and walks along the coast. A fine way to regroup and relax. 

June 24

Truck/camper on the MV Kennicott ferry bound for the Alaska Marine Highway . Our first 24 hours of a five night four day trip as I type this has been warn and sunny but very windy on deck if not sheltered. We have a 5’x8’ room-ette with 2 bunks and fine for having a place to store things and sleep and otherwise we are on one of the many vantage points …constantly changing ship’s sides fearing we might miss something. This boat is wonderful, the food great and relatively cheap and the facilities clean and like new. The views get more and more spectacular with Orca and Minke whales breaching off the side of the ship and mountains straight up out of the water. Very much looking like the trip through southern Chile in 1979 on that old freighter ...though the Andes were a lot bigger. 

June 25

Today was the first in the last 11 days that I have not had to drive the truck… Doncha wanna take me on sea cruise! u-wee baby. 

June 26

Arrived at Ketchikan for a couple hour stop then on to Juneau. I have to say this boat, services and crew are great…friendly people and super clean and comfortable throughout. 

This is down time… first day felt like I was running around the boat soaking it all in and have since settled in to just relaxing for the first time since I hit the road 11 days ago... no responsibilities… this is a vacation… repeat …. this is a vacation…. it is just sinking in… shouldn’t use that word on a boat though. Luann is ‘shedding’ her school year in fine form… sky’s the limit! Smiling ear to ear.

Onto the ferry in Bellingham Washington. 6/26/17

6/26/17 Watching out the front windows with clouds low and sea flat.... just chugging along where the scenery stays almost frozen at this speed. Bigger water and grey skies.

I shouldn’t do a comparison but memories of my couple years in South America 1979-1981 have been coming back. On the reverse season schedule I traveled in the summers (Dec-Feb) to many places. Twice to Chile as it was a remarkable place. The first trip I crossed northern Argentina from Paraguay and over the Andes to Santiago. From there north and then west back over the Andes through the Atacama Desert on what was the old British built railway from Antofagasta Chile to Bolivia ….I kept going north through Santa Cruz,  La Paz, Bolivia. Puno, Cusco Huancayo, Ayacucho Peru and over the Andes again in the world’s highest railway (over 18,000 ft) and down to Lima: Up to Chan Chan and into Ecuador…. back down to Arequipa, Peru then home to Paraguay.

The second ‘summer’ trip was back to Chile… This time with a letter from the Embassy stating I was a scientist needing passage to Tierra del Fuego for research. This ruse was needed as there was still hostilities between Chile and Argentina and it was not long after the Allende coup. Needless to say military ran everything. Travel was restricted and there was no travel past Puerto Montt (being the last place with a road or rail) south. The only way south for the last third of the country to Puntarenas on the Strait of Magellan was by freighter (the other place I wanted to get to was the Torres de Paine). I presented my letter to the shipping owner in Santiago and was granted a free berth south on a freighter. Nothing like using the South American system at the time to advantage. 

This does get back to the ferry trip but all this out the window has me traveling ‘upstairs’ as well in memories. The Chilean archipelago south is nothing other than magnificent. Andes thousands of feet high going straight into the ocean… the freighter sailing a hundred feet off shore. Waterfalls, glaciers, porpoises, giant king crab…. it is all so similar to what I see out the window now. I am in the lap of luxury now compared to that trip. The storms in the southern Pacific once the boat left the safety of the passage where …. ‘highly unpleasant’.

Having seen the route of this ferry I invested in a box of a few Bonine pills. (I surely wish I had had them back then) and use them once so far when we went across Pacific open water where the swells and my inner ear came in conflict. I will use them again without shame after leaving Juneau. Memories of “driving the porcelain bus”  for three days makes it an immediate command decision. 

Fun Facts 6/27/17

Double click to enlarge

6/29/17 We were skirting a number of islands I did not think this boat could get through. Scale here is different, I keep having to readjust, like crossing the prairie for days seeing mountains ahead that don’t seem to come closer. Out of the kindness of the captain we slipped into an inlet so the evening meal could be had without spillage. This was very wise and kind as we later went out into the Gulf of Alaska for the leg to Yakutat. This is where I would love to spend some time…being the Steel Head (trout) capital of the world… 20 pounds …can you imagine that on your line and you not smiling? I have fished pretty much everywhere I have traveled to. Chile still stands out as best but I think it will get its run for the money. 

I am happy to report that I was not too disappointed in last nights travel prediction. As soon as we entered the gulf we were in swells. Big ones. Luann and I had thought ahead when I saw the GPS map of our route. I learn up pretty good …no need to show me twice. Even with the ‘little helpers’ I was struggling to stop trying to anticipate where the ship was going to be on the next step. It is not too unlike walking where one’s foot finds air on the first step and the second lands with the gravity of Jupiter. At least that is the first part. Lucky to have swells which were perpendicular to our route. After a bit though that had to change as we had to follow the coast. What I refer to is the “cork screw” ….up to the right forward …down to the left aft….is added to the elevator effect. Yee-Haw. Not the best time to try to get dressed…or make a hot cup of coffee or any number of things that would be better done bolted down. 

Sitting in the galley with the boat firmly tied up at the pier, coffee in hand and glad to be in Yakutat. Just a couple hour stop and off for the last leg to Whittier where we will once again get in the truck camper. Whittier is a port where the only way out is by sea or rail. A tunnel passes through the mountain and trains and vehicles alternate passing through. Our first step out into the wide open wonderland that we have been dreaming of and planning for for a long time. Even though it feels like I have been moving and covering a lot of ground for a long time it is really just beginning. As a member of the site Wander the West (WTW) who has helped me immensely in the planning stages said “ you ain’t seen nothing yet”. 

I will report a small (I hope) glitch which I hope to correct in Seward. I suspect that the sway bar attachment is loose or perhaps the rear leaf spring. We are carrying a heavy load that the truck is handing fine….except a growing ‘clunk’ when moving slowly and a sudden turn is done. This is why I think it in either the front or rear sway bar. Going over significant bumps makes no sound nor a high speed cornering.  We will see… I would love to have that corrected before heading to the  Arctic Circle or “Top of the World Highway”. 

In this town of Yakutat, there is a geological anomaly (as we are on a vey active volcanic ring) that magnetically interferes with cell and electronic time pieces… funny to watch folks checking their now dumb smart phones…. mechanical time pieces work fine. It is a wet town… either mist, rain ice or snow… again so similar in clime to Chile. There are two sides of the coin when one sees the the license plate state logo: “The Last Frontier”. What have we done to all the others? Having crossed the continent and seen the natural beauty that remains I can only imagine how beautiful this land was before we organized it to suit our survival and in truth mostly greed. The coin has a side that is the struggle to eek out a living in a hard place to be. Doing so is not for the weak of spirit. It can cause real poverty and all it’s ugly offshoots. The other side is that of excess. Those that see it as all theirs to exploit and of the mind that it is their right to do so if they have the means. It is the false definition of ‘freedom’ they use… the one without the thought of their responsibility to the whole. 

It is a place I want to see and know others do too… as the saying goes “This was a great place until people like me came here”. We like to think we are the exception and no matter how hard we try we will eventually alter even a place as big and as rugged as this last frontier.  

It was truly different traveling to far off places before the communication revolution. Remote was remote in all senses of the word. Even though we are in the wild we are now tied with an invisible string. It is good to know I will go to places left still off the electronic map but sad to think it will not be long until there will not be places left like these. I know I know, I made it all maudlin but sometimes I think this world too good for humans. 

Back to the “sunny side of life”!…. we have just left the last port bound for Whittier and have entered a fog bank; looking out the window like staring at a white sheet. That also means (oh joy), it is back to the Bay of Alaska with the pitch and yaw to play with. I was talking to a stewart on the boat who says he has to readjust after a long shore leave to the tiredness caused by how muscles need to be always working on a moving ship. A real isometric workout. 

Our plan when we disembark is to repack/organize the truck/camper just enough for comfort for a day’s travel and one night camp on the Glacial Road which runs from Whittier tunnel northeast; a 3 mile tunnel under the mountain and glacier. We will have time to ‘gear up’ after R&R in Seward! We are looking forward to the reunion with my nephew Mike who calls Alaska home. He lives in both Homer (a log homestead up on the plate) as well in Seward where he and his honey have a coffee shop called the Resurrection Cafe. A mixture of coffee, food, art gallery and community hangout. I can’t wait to see the massive soapstone fireplace/stove he has installed in the once church now cafe to warm the place and the hearts of those by it. We heat our home with a Woodstock soapstone wood-stove and the heat from it is special. The mass of the soapstone delivers the heat in a gentle curve. It radiates long after the coals have died; it just looks good standing there too. 

Dang, very time I look up I see something else. Like saying the word “squirrel” to my dog! Slam up to the window to see an Orca arc up from the water….my their dorsal is huge. Then… there are the tug towed barges…. insanely packed eight or 10 shipping containers high… twenty long and to top the impossibility of what you are seeing is the fact that there are two mobil homes 3 vans and a bulldozer on the top (!) of the stack of containers. Did I mention the swells? How does this work? A cable is maybe 300 feet long attached to the barge and away we go. Somehow physics is ignored here. That not only should not float, it should not do so without tipping over or just plain falling apart losing bits and pieces along the way. I can only imagine a newcomer’s face as their Mercedes Benz perched on top sails away to the assumed depths of oblivion. To my regret I have not photographed one yet as I am too dumbstruck every time I see it (“squirrel!”) I will try if I see another before landing. 

Nope 'only' a pod of Orca.