Follow My Feet

Wednesday, we made it to Denali in the evening. We went into the visitor center, and prepared for our backcountry excursion into the wilderness. We bought some topographic maps of the area, received our permit, and were given several "bear aware" talks. That night we had a beer and a dinner of mac 'n' cheese! Yummy! The next morning we headed to the shuttle depot, packed up our gear, and hopped on the 10:10 camper bus that would drop us off near our designated unit. We saw a grizzly sou and her two cubs browsing for berries up the hill from the road. Our first and only grizzly sighting so far!

 About an hour later we were on the trail...if you could call it that! For the next three days we bushwhacked through squishy tundra bogs, dense low lying willow forests, rocky stream beds, and over crumbling mountain passes. All along the way, berry patches were spread throughout the tundra like a carpet. THEY WERE EVERYWHERE! If we hadn't brought food it would have been very easy to live off the land for a few days! Chris stopped so many times to pick and eat these delectable candies of nature that Lauren thought it high time to make a poem about his affinity for blueberries. They are soooo much better than the ones we buy in the store. They are very sweet and a little tart, and even the squishy past ripe ones are delicious! No wonder the bears love them so much!

There once was a man named Chris

a chance he would not miss

to travel to the land that was so merry

and this, my friends, was the Land of Berry

In this land there was no law

so many a berry he snatched from the bear paw

Quick and nimble was he 

as he ran over rocks and down the scree 

Angry were the bears he had robbed

so they started a great bear mob

Bears of all age

Full of red rage

Soon plotted their quest

they vowed no sleep or rest

Until the stolen berries were their own 

and their teeth picked clean with his bone

As their stomachs rumbled

away down the hills they bumbled

Happy and satisfied was Chris

with his belly full of bliss

He sat down to ponder

and his mind began to wander

As the night grew deep

he soon he fell asleep

The bears were delighted

for it was the robber asleep they sighted

As they surrounded 

his heart pounded

He awoke in a cold sweat

face to face with a big bear he had previously met

He fell to his knees 

and began to plead

Please don't eat me 

for I am all bone as you can see

It was pity the bears felt

and soon their hearts began to melt

The big bear said we will keep you intact

but we need to make a pact

In this land, you will abide by this one law

you will never again snatch from the bear paw

This was the deal

that Chris would not steal

Chris was relieved to be alone

as the bears began their trek home

All that day we hiked until the sun began to sink low and disappear behind the mountains. We hiked up a ridge of Polychrome Mountain and continued on down into the valley from its saddle. On the top we took many pictures of the Alaska range, or at least what the clouds were not obscuring from our view. We have rarely seen the sun while we have been in Alaska. The Autumns here are cold, wet, and very foggy. When we had come down from the saddle we traversed laboriously through the spongy tundra and thick willows. Finally we turned down into the valley where the river was flowing and its banks were wide and gravelly. There we camped, made dinner and went to bed. 

Chris slept soundly for most of the night but Lauren was frightened by the night noises. She often thought an animal or several were outside the tent, making mischief. She was certain that the tail of a wolf had brushed against the tent and for several minutes did not dare to breathe. In the morning, still frightened, she would not even open the tent door in fear that something may attack her! Chris got out, looked around, and found the wolf's tail! It was our permit attached to the tent! As the wind blew in the night it made the permit scrape against the tent wall. Silly Lauren! I am actually ashamed of the fear that paralyzes me at those moments. Not that the fear of a wolf or a grizzly is not a rationale thing. It is that the fear consumes me and I give into the anxiety of my thoughts and forget to have faith in God. I know how powerful and big he is, and yet the cracking of a dry twig in the night causes my heart to falter, and doubt the strength of his promise. It is something I am trying to give to God, my Ultimate Protector. The next morning we decided to make better use of the natural path the river bank provided. We continued on down until we came to a wide river plain. According to our topo map it was the East Fork of the Toklat River. We planned to use it to guide us towards a low pass called cabin pass. We saw caribou in the distance, but they never came close enough for any good pictures. That, unfortunately, was all the wildlife we saw. We were very loud and often yelled "Hey Bear" or, "Da Bears" or, "How about a big bear hug", to prevent surprising any bears in front of us. We were advised to do this by the rangers. It was incredibly annoying and frustrating as it took away all the peace and serenity of the place, and scared all the wildlife away. We crossed the pass safely and descended to the main body of the Toklat River through a very steep but pretty valley. It was sheltered enough that the birches and willows grew tall, providing for us an easy passageway under there boughs. The fall colors were all around us and when we came to the main river, the river plain was enormously wide and filled with glacier streams braiding there way downstream. Many times we had to cross these streams. Icy cold was the water, although no more than thigh deep. Our feet and toes were numb and bone white by the time we set up camp and made dinner. We went to bed as it began raining. Whew! 

It continued all night. The following day started well as we followed the river until we had to ford more streams. We must have crossed the streams 20 times until we finally reached the road. Once there we ate our lunch and waited for a bus to take us back to the main entrance. It came an hour later. The views on the way back were breathtaking! 

When we reached the car we did what we could to freshen up and changed into clean clothes. It has been almost a month since our last real shower. Ewwww! We don't smell very good, so we are trying to avoid people more and more. After we finished packing our gear we drove to Anchorage. The views of the Alaska range were so beautiful! The peaks were all shrouded in mists and clouds. Often a peak or range of tall peaks would thrust its way through the cloud covering to reveal its jagged snow capped ridges. Never did Mt. McKinley show itself to us, to our dismay! The highest peak we saw was Mt. Foraker (17,400 ft) which was still very impressive to behold, and it left us to imagine the majesty of McKinley that would have soared to a height of 20,320 feet! All capped with glaciers and freshly fallen snow. Winter is just around the corner up here in Alaska! As we neared Anchorage, two peaks, of which we do not know their names, reared up from the coastal plains and were engulfed by a sea of clouds! Lauren thought she was driving into Never Never Land. She was disappointed that instead of Never Never Land, she drove into the parking lot of Target, where we set up the Jeep for sleep. Not nearly as exciting. Today we have been running errands and hanging out in Anchorage. We will be heading for Kenai Fjords National Park this evening.

Caribbean Breeze

The road to Prudhoe Bay was half paved, half dirt, and all bumps! The freeze thaw cycle affects most roads in Northern Canada and Alaska and the Dalton Highway was no exception. It was a strange road to be on because there were no towns along this 415 mile road! Gas was rare and expensive. Even Deadhorse, our destination, had no permanent residents, but was just a camp for oil and construction workers. The views from the highway were surreal. The landscape was desolate, but extremely beautiful! Sunday, we started the drive in the afternoon and camped on the boundary of the Arctic Circle. We saw amazing fall colors in the boreal forest. Approximately, the first 200 miles were rolling foothills with many lakes. The valleys and the low hills were forested and the larger hills were crowned with tundra vegetation. There were some interesting rock formations, one aptly named Finger Mountain, and many berries!

The next morning we got our first glimpse of Brooks Mountain Range from a hill known as Goblers Knob. They were distant, jagged, and rather intimidating. After getting gas in Coldfoot, the last gas station, we still had a 230 mile trek to Deadhorse! The hills became low mountains, with some dusted in snow, and gradually the trees disappeared. Once on the other side of the pass the land was as flat as Kansas, but very boggy. The day had been sunny until that point, but as we neared Deadhorse dark clouds appeared and the wind began to pick up. We spent a cold night huddled in the Jeep with the wind and rain rocking us to sleep.

You are not allowed to just drive to the Arctic Ocean, you have to pay for a shuttle to take you in to this restricted zone in Prudhoe Bay. Tuesday we boarded the shuttle and after a very boring tour of Conoco-Phillips and Exxon-Mobile oil fields and Prudhoe's National Forest, we finally made it to the Arctic Ocean! Lauren went in first like the brave soul she is, Chris went second. The air was 37 degrees with a windchill that made it feel like 27 and raining. The water was near freezing, but felt like bath water compared to the air! Taking our turns, we would strip off our clothes (with our swimsuits already on) and bolt out of the bus and sprint into the water. The water was very shallow, only shin deep after running 100 feet, so we just had to lay down in the cold mucky shallow water to pose for a picture. Once out of the water, the wind and rain set to work numbing our bodies and making every step feel like we were running on pins and needles. There was also a Polar Bear on another part of the beach foraging for whale guts, but alas it was too far away for us to get a glimpse of it.

Oooooooh! Ahhhhhhhhhhh!

Upon returning to the Jeep, we blasted the heat and blasted out of Deadhorse. It rained almost the whole way to the mountains, so as a result the Jeep became covered in a second skin of mud. The mountains that were lightly dusted were now covered in layers of snow! The drive back was even more beautiful! We camped near Fairbanks, and headed to Denali the next morning.

North, to Alaska

Just as we were leaving Yellowknife, the clouds began to break up and for the second time in a week and a half there was sunshine! We were not able to see the Aurora Borealis just yet due to the clouds, but we have some time yet ahead of us. As we drove south, the clouds returned and it began to drizzle on and off again. Most of the day was uneventful, we passed herds of bison on the road and saw the occasional photo shy black bear as it scampered into the cover of the woods. As we neared Fort Simpson we stopped to see the Coral Falls and Sambaa Deh Falls. The Coral falls were named appropriately. We found many fossils of coral because that area used to be a shallow sea. Both falls were beautiful!

After our little hike we drove towards Fort Liard, where we were planning on spending the night. It was 450 km from Fort Providence to Fort Liard. There was gas in Fort Simpson which was a little over half way between the two forts. It would have been a big time waste to go there because it was 120 km out of the way and you had to take a ferry across the river to reach it. We bypassed it, knowing we could make it with the use of our extra gas canisters. What we did not account for was how difficult it was to use the pour spouts (you would think it really easy to figure out, but it was not for us!) We ran out of gas and it was already dark and quite cold by this time. As Chris fumbled with the canisters, the cold and frustration began to wear him down. He kept spilling gasoline on the ground and himself, which further contributed to the panic he began to work himself into. Lauren nearly laughed at Chris because he was so mad that he had begun to mutter incoherently in his anger (Chris sounded a lot like "the old man Parker" while he was trying to fix the furnace in "A Christmas Story"). It only got worse as Lauren broke one of the canisters spout! Chris was extremely irritated by this and began to work on his spout again. He quickly broke his as well! At this point his anger was at a boiling point but fortunately the only thing he could throw was the gas itself, so he had to find another way to vent and he stormed off into the dark for a few minutes to try and cool off. We resorted to filling the Jeep by poking a hole in a Ziploc bag to create a funnel. We could not pour the gas directly in because the canister was too full, so we grabbed another Ziploc. We filled the Ziploc slowly and poured it into the "funnel". It was a very slow process and our hands were rather numbed from the cold of the gas and air. It would have been quite a sight if any other travelers were stupid enough to be driving along that desolate road in the middle of the night! Finally, we finished and drove into Fort Liard. Being too tired to  set up our beds we slept fitfully in our seats until morning. When morning came we filled the Jeep with gas and refilled our canisters and headed towards Yukon! We saw a few female bighorn sheep on the side of the road, as well as more bears, and Lauren saw a Golden Eagle! We joined up with the Alaska Highway in the late morning, and finally had a reliable source of fuel and food all the way to Alaska. We entered Yukon in the afternoon, and when 8:00 pm rolled around we found a pullout on the side of the road. We set up our Jeep to sleep in and made dinner. We are pretty quick with this process by now and can be in our sleeping bags within 15 minutes of stopping. 

The next morning we awoke and drove to Watson Lake where we explored the wonderful land of the sign post forest! There were road signs, license plates, and many random items with peoples names and where they were from nailed on the posts. There was even a toilet seat and a flip flop! It was fun to see all the different places people had come from, as far as Germany. In fact we met a couple that was there  from Germany! The crazy thing was that they had driven from Germany! They got on a boat in Europe and landed in Halifax, Nova Scotia. From there they drove west across Canada. They did not drive any typical car or RV. They drove what appeared to be a tank! Apparently, he (Michael) built custom made RVs specifically designed to handle extreme terrain! They were on their way to Inuvik in the Northwest Territories, right up against the Arctic Ocean. From there they were going to Fairbanks to visit their daughter in college. In December (they have already been traveling for 12 weeks) they were planning to leave their RV/tank in storage and fly home for the winter. In the spring they will return and head south to a destination unknown. They were quite an inspiration to us! If we ever have to buy an RV we will be looking them up! 

Welcome to Alaska...not! Apparently Alaska does not consider it necessary to welcome people to the state with a sign. Maybe the U.S. Customs is all the welcome you get? Either way, we passed customs without a hitch and are now back in the U.S.A. If you were not aware our phones did not work while we were here. We only discovered that as soon as we had crossed from Montana to Canada several weeks ago. Now we can offer a forewarning, that the next time we are in Canada we will not have phones again for a week or so! While we journeyed farther into Alaska, we saw a family of moose grazing near the road. The male was a puny thing to look at and ran away as soon as we pulled over. The mother and the foal stood watching us warily but allowed us to take some pictures. Afterwards we continued on our way towards Fairbanks. The scenery was spectacular! We drove around Glacial lakes lying at the foot of tall snow capped mountains, through autumn colored Boreal Forests, and across massive swift flowing rivers. Before we stopped for the night we found that we had driven so far north and so fast (Lauren) that we had reached the North Pole!

False alarm! It was only North Pole, Alaska. Still it was quite an oddity to find a few miles south of Fairbanks. It had a grocery store and a flat gravel spot on the side of the road for us to sleep, so we stayed the night. We are now in Fairbanks and will soon be headed to Prudhoe Bay, hopefully! 

On My Way

By now we are veritably sick of seeing free roaming bison on the road. They are hard to see in poor lighting, they block the road, and they startle fairly easy. Plus, the bulls weigh almost a ton! So hitting one or being charged by one in rut would be catastrophic. When we arrived in Fort Smith, we went to visit the Rapids of the Drowned and several other large rapids on the Slave River. There were class six rapids and the river at its widest is almost two miles! Along with the amazing rapids, it is home to a large amount of pelicans which can be seen nesting and eating from the shore. That night we camped at Pelican Rapids. The views from that campsite were absolutely astounding! We camped out on a small, sandy beach that was surrounded by rocks that would have otherwise been covered if the water was higher. We were surrounded on three sides by rapids and channels of water. To get there we had to backpack our camping gear in. To save time, or so we thought, we drove the Jeep down an ATV trail for about 20 minutes. In doing so we ended up in some tight spots, one of which cost us the passenger side mirror! When we came to an impassible part of the trail we parked it and walked the rest of the way. In actuality, we only drove half of a mile, which could of been hiked much faster! It was fun though, until we got out of the car and were immediately SWARMED by a host of no-see-um flies and mosquitos. Now in case you do not know, Lauren is the clumsy one in this relationship. She is always tripping over something, falling down stairs, hitting a body part against an immobile object (but to her these objects seem to be lunging at her all the time), and has a great deal of scars and bruises to prove it. This day however she was not able to claim this title. As Chris was getting our backpacks out of the Yakima he missed the tire to step down on and fell backwards onto the ground. He had turned his ankle and had nearly taken a stump to the back. Luckily, his ankle was not seriously injured and after walking for a couple of minutes he felt fine. Once we had reached the river, Chris spotted the area he wanted to set up camp. This required us to walk down a steeply sloped rock. Now if you're Lauren you would scoot down the rock or walk slowly to ensure you wouldn't fall. Chris, not typically being the clumsy one, has not learned these lessons. Without caution he walked across a log that was precariously propped up against the top the rock. After taking a few steps the log rolled and Chris quickly fell stomach first onto the log and face first into a puddle of water. Ouch! Fortunately, he was not injured again. Although it isn't fun to see Chris get hurt, it is a nice change of pace to not be the one face planting on any and all surfaces!  That night we had a fire on the beach and the beauty of the place soon erased any thoughts of the broken mirror, the new mosquito bites we had acquired, and any soreness Chris felt. It was a kind of place that makes you want to stay there for a week.

The next morning we hiked and drove back out with no other accidents. When we arrived at the start of the trail, Chris insisted we fix the mirror real quick. After an hour of trying to reattach the mirror he was more upset than he has been in a long time. Tools were flying and a lot of grumbling sounds were being made whenever he didn't have a mouthful of insects. Finally, Lauren Turpaud, formerly known as Lauren Hendrickson, suggested we use zip ties. In a few minutes the mirror was reattached as best as we could manage. Those Hendricksons' know a thing or two about zip ties! From there we headed into Wood Buffalo National Park. The park was not awe inspiring, nothing like the parks we have visited, but it was beautiful in its own way. We hiked to a salt lake. This lake has 10x the amount of salt an ocean has. The rocks in and around the lake were deposited from retreating glaciers, making the landscape look somewhat like a moonscape. The saltiness of the water was so strong that it was literally eating away the rock and changing the once round boulders into bizarrely misshapen sculptures. Lauren was curious for a closer look at some of the plants growing in the water. As we were picking a path through the rocks, Chris stopped to examine a questionable stretch of ground in front of us, his suspicions proved correct. It was a nasty bog of thick deep mud. How do we know, because Lauren obliviously took three big steps into the bog and sank above her ankles instantly. We told you she was clumsy! She tried to back peddle out and nearly lost her shoes, all the while she was laughing! She smelled really gross though! Undeterred she set out once again to capture those small red plants growing in the salt marsh! This time she used some rocks to aid her crossing and made it safely to the other side. On the return she lost her balance and would have face planted in the bog, if her life had not been saved by a small rock she was able to grasp! Whew! After finishing the hike and taking many pictures of small mushrooms in the wet forest we drove to a lake for Lauren to wash up. No more smell, thank goodness! 

This does not do it justice, the trees on either side were less than a foot away from the vehicle. 

The little red plants that Lauren worked so hard to get a picture of! 

We made dinner in the town park as it drizzled, and then drove towards Fort Providence in the dark. That was a very scary experience, since we would come upon the buffalo in the dark with absolutely no warning. Chris drove well under the speed limit. There is no such thing as 24 hour convenience gas stations in this area of the country so we drove to a small town and slept in our seats until the morning. We found out that the gas station did not even open until 10! So we went on a hike to see the Lady Evelyn Falls. The falls were beautiful! We drove back, got gas, and headed to Yellowknife. We made it to Yellowknife around 3:00. After we stopped in the visitor center, we drove to Cameron Falls. We hiked in to view those falls and slept in the parking lot. The next day we hiked to Prelude Lake and then went into town. We spent several hours reading in a coffee shop and went to find a place to park and sleep. It happened to be next the gold mine. We only realized this at 3 am when an employee of the mine informed us that the air around us was acoustic (we are not really sure what that means, we just know its bad to breathe). He kindly escorted us to a parking lot where we could sleep the rest of the night. Chris parked right next to a row of old mining equipment, which he had assumed we were in a junk yard. The next morning we were awakened by groups of people walking next to our car talking about the mining equipment and the history of the town. As we laid quietly waiting for a chance to hop out of our car without being noticed we found out all kinds of things! For instance, Peter Robinson's fancy would be tickled by seeing the mining equipment and about a beer barge barbecue they have annually in Yellowknife. Apparently, every spring after the ice on the Great Slave Lake breaks up large shipments of goods come into town. When they unload the beer off the barges it signals the beginning of a big party! Everyone is drinking beer and barbecuing meat to welcome back the warm(er) weather! Although interesting, we felt extremely awkward having groups of people surrounding the Jeep and flew out at the first chance! It turns out that we were parked right in the middle of a mining museum! We immediately packed up and left the area. We did laundry, rotated the tires, changed the oil, and headed out of town. 

A brand new bridge crossing the Mackenzie River near Fort Providence, NWT

People in Old Town Yellowknife are pretty creative about where they put there houses!
Space is limited in this part of town, but you wouldn't know by this picture that Yellowknife
has 20,000 people and a skyscraper skyline!