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As it has been a while since the last update, this will be a long one!

Our plan for the end of last week was to meet Fairbanks Jerry back at Alyeska to watch Motor Madness – a bunch of snowmobile and snow bike races. We aren’t exactly motorheads, but we have found that it is nice to have some planned events to keep us moving because otherwise we spend a lot of time looking at each other asking, “Where do you want to go today.” “I don’t know. Where do you want to go?” “I don’t know.”

When we left Kenai last Friday for Alyeska Sara was starting to feel the effects of some food poisoning. We made it back to Girdwood without incident about 10:00 p.m. and I found Jerry in the parking lot. As the caring husband I am, I gave Sara all the privacy she needed and went out to the bar. By the time I got back around 3:00 a.m. (I know many of you won’t believe it, but it’s true), Sara was pretty well cleaned out and asleep.

The next morning she felt considerably better so we spent the day watching various races – seeing far less carnage than I hoped for. I had made some friends of other guys in the parking lot and learned all about the oil platform they worked on in Cook Inlet. The sophistication of their rig is quite interesting. We also spent a bunch of time hanging out with KC, a friend of Jerry’s from Anchorage. She gave us a standing offer to park in her driveway and use her shower so we had a place to go for a few days.

Saturday night established that Sara was not completely better (I didn’t abandon her Saturday night), but she felt better again Sunday morning. You are probably wondering why I keep sharing this information, but it is simply to point out that life goes on, good and bad, when you are living the dream in a van. One of us being sick was one of my pre-trip fears and we weathered it fine. Not that it was pleasant or anything, but we managed. If anything we are a bit more confident in our ability to survive long periods in the van. Of course, everyone knows that it would have been a million times worse if I had gotten sick because…men, so it’s a good thing it wasn’t me!

On Sunday we went to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center just down the road from Girdwood. They house a bunch of rescued indigenous mammals and were a primary partner in reintroducing wood bison to Alaska. In addition to the wood bison we saw reindeer (including a cute 5-day old baby), wolves, black bears, moose, red fox, musk ox, elk, and, of course, brown bears. We were lucky to be watching the brown bears at feeding time so we got to see the big guy up close and personal.

Sunday night we stayed in KC’s driveway. Monday we did a couple touristy things in Anchorage and then drove partway back down Turnagain Arm for a hike. We wanted to climb part way up the very steep Bird Ridge trail to watch the famous bore tide come in. Around the full and new moons, the tidal difference is so significant that the incoming tide hits the outgoing water with such force that it generates a large wave at the head of the tide. We were lucky and Monday was only a few days after the full moon so the bore tide should still be apparent.

On Tuesday we decided to hike up Alaska’s most climbed peak. I’m sure it has that distinction because it is right outside Anchorage and is a fairly short hike. It is not, however, a super easy hike in late April. It was cold in Anchorage and we didn’t completely appreciate that when we went up even a thousand feet we were right back in winter. We were sufficiently dressed for the climb, but the summit ridge is steep and was very icy and we neglected to bring our micro-spikes.

We hit the saddle below the summit and the wind picked up and icy snow pellets started pelting us. We kept going without too much trouble, but about 100′ below the summit the wind picked up again and our lack of solid footing was becoming potentially dangerous. I went a little further as I thought I might make it if I could get around the next corner, but as Kenai and I hit one last small gap in the rocks I could barely see because of the blowing snow. Kenai sat in the gap staring at me, unconcernedly sitting right on a cornice dropping sharply down the other side of the ridge, and I called it a day. With micro-spikes and/or a break in the wind I’m sure we would have been fine, but this was not the time to push it. It is still so funny to me that we could be doing a [very] mini-alpine ascent on the outskirts of Anchorage. It made me feel better when one of the guys coming up the trail as we went down had an ice axe for the ascent.

We again spent the night in KC’s driveway Tuesday night. The last week or two we keep thinking about getting in at least one more day of splitboarding so on Wednesday we decided to be the people we want to be. Peak 3 is the local Anchorage ski destination as it is just on the edge of town and the trailhead is right at the base of the peak. The Alaska Factor, the excellent guidebook for backcountry skiing in Alaska by Joe Stock, promised us “Nude skiers, beer, dog fights, crud and sunsets. It’s the all-Anchorage aprés-work ski scene.” Despite striking out on all those enticing benefits, we had an awesome day.

A nice guy in the parking lot suggested we start by riding one of the gullies on Peak 2 because he and his buddies had already gone out the evening before and skied all the lines on Peak 3 with the new snow that had blown us off Flat Top. We took his advice and had some fun tracks on down from a little below the summit of Peak 2.

At the bottom of the run we ended up in the same gully as Peak 3 so we switched back to hiking mode and headed up Peak 3. Another guy coming down from Peak 3 told us there was still plenty of fresh snow on the skier’s right side and that the skin track was better on that side, too. Such nice people in the Anchorage ski scene!

We hoofed it up the recommended side and, sure enough it was easier hiking and awesome riding. I was fairly concerned at one point that our skin track was just cutting across a large wind slab that had likely blown in overnight, but as I dug down a little it seemed to be bonded to the layer below. Ultimately I don’t have a good idea how much risk we were really taking, but we didn’t die so I’ll mark that one in the experience column. The side we climbed didn’t have a line to the top so we stopped just short of the rocky lines on the summit dome.

The ride was great as the first half of the run was a solid foot of heavy powder. It got gradually shallower, but was still a couple inches of windblown snow on soft corn crust. Really fun conditions. So good that we decided to hike up the other side so we could ride the whole thing from the top. Of course, at that point two people who had been watching us came off the top and took the untracked line just above us, but there was still plenty of fresh for the taking.

The second run on Peak 3 was equally awesome.

With as many backcountry skiers hitting Peak 3 at very opportunity we know we got very lucky to have first tracks in fresh snow. In fact, as we came down our last run about 6:00 p.m. there were already at least four other people in the bowl heading up, we passed five people on the trail, and there were five more in the parking lot when we got down. Joe Stock still let us down, though, because they all had clothes on. After not being sure we would get off our bums and snowboard another day this season, we were quite pleased with the ~4500 vertical foot day. Those are the kind of people we want to be!

It was tough spending four nights in KC’s driveway: bathroom, shower, playing with her new puppy, but it’s been great to make new friends. I’m sure we will stay in touch with KC and Roam for along time!

We got an oil change this morning and while waiting for them to finish up we met a Ford Mustang guy named … Michael Valentine, who almost certainly served in the Air Force at the same bases/times as Sara’s dad. That’s just plain weird. I have to assume they did not know each other because I think Steve might have mentioned that when I started dating his daughter. We also made a quick stop today at Odd Man Rush Brewing in Eagle River because we learned that it is co-owned by Brian Swanson, the star of our CC hockey team in the mid-90’s!

Now we are headed north. We are currently camped at Broad Pass between Anchorage and Fairbanks just east of Denali. Unfortunately it is cloudy and we can’t see the mountain. We learned from another connection that his friends at the base of Denali have gotten 10 feet – 10 FEET – of snow in the last week. Regardless, like all the other mountains in Alaska, the smaller mountains surrounding us here are spectacular to see. I just keep thinking about the millions of lines I could snowboard here!

After Alyeska Spring Carnival we stuck around the area Sunday night planning a hike the next morning. Monday morning was a dedicated dog day so explored the Winner Creek Trail, which in the summer has a cool hand tram across a river. Unfortunately the hand tram is not open in the winter so in order to get the longer end of the hike we went back to the Alyeska Hotel and started our hike from there. Sara read somewhere that this area is America’s northernmost rain forest and at times it definitely felt like it. The hike out to the closed hand tram was about 5 miles round trip.

After our hike we wanted to go visit Whittier. Whittier is in the Prince William Sound and was previously a very important port for off-loading military supplies and soldiers. They would travel to Anchorage by rail through a 2.5 mile tunnel. About 20 years ago they decided to rebuild the tunnel so that cars could also drive through. It is a one-lane tunnel and the cars drive over the tracks. It is open one way for 15 minutes, then closed for 15 minutes to make sure all the cars exit, then open the other direction for 15 minutes. Sometime they also let trains through. The tunnel has a fascinating history you can read here.

Whittier itself is just a small port but it has an amazing view as it is completely surrounded by mountains or the ocean.

Monday evening we drove out officially onto the Kenai Peninsula and up Turnagain Pass.

Our plan was to just look around at the pass and find a place to camp. Then if we felt like hiking in the morning we would find a place to go.

The next morning was not nearly as warm as the previous days but it was the last day down that way before some more serious weather was forecast to come in so we decided to hike in our snowshoes and carry our snowboards. Turnagain Pass is apparently the single most popular backcountry ski destination in AK due to its huge snowfall and close proximity to Anchorage, but in mid-April there were only a couple other cars at our chosen hiking spot called Tincan Trees.

In the parking lot and then at the top of ridge where we turned around we met a woman skiing with another guy. We ended up coming down pretty much together as we didn’t know any particular route down so we just kind of followed along near where they came down. They had two dogs so Kenai was in heaven having someone else to chase. The conditions were … sub-optimal, but we had fun anyway. I would describe it as edgeable crust. At least it was not so icy that we could not make turns. Still, we ended up in pretty dense, steep trees a couple of times so we had to just slide through the openings until we came to a place sufficiently open to make careful turns.

We continue to find ourselves enjoying the hiking and backcountry touring, which for me at least is a little surprise as I am much more interested in the turns coming down. I don’t know if it is the scenery or getting in slightly better shape but even the climbs have been completely enjoyable. To that end we had decided to take advantage of the local sales and buy our own splitboards. The day we rented them at Hatcher Pass was a lot of fun and, although the hike in Turnagain on snowshoes was completely fine because the crust was so solid, further backcountry touring on snowshoes was not going to cut it.

When we got to the bottom of our run that day (yesterday, whatever day that is) the woman, Jackye, said she and the guy, David, were headed back out in the front range around Anchorage the next day and invited us to come. That was perfect timing if we could get our splitboard setups by then.

We could. After getting everything set up (boards, bindings, and climbing skins) and shoved in the van (technically that makes nine snowboards in the van) we headed out to Eagle River and the Upper South Fork Eagle River Trailhead. Jackye and David and previously scoped out a line they wanted to ski. It was a super fun ride, but a fair hike to get there so I suspect they were taking it easy on us on the hike. I don’t know the names of anything in the area (I’m not sure they even knew the name) so I can’t further describe where it was, but we were on the ridge between the South Fork of the Eagle River and Ship Creek.

I forgot to take any more pictures on the way up the bowl we hiked.

As I said above, the view from the top was amazing.

The ride down was surprisingly good because it was not sunny and not too warm so it was not corned up at all. The slope was a mix of windblown and an edgeable crust with a couple of inches on top. In a few places it was just the crust, but overall it was a decent ride down.

The snow back in the valley is quite melted out so there was some bushwacking and riding over mossy ground to get to the bottom.

So now we are in the parking lot at Fred Meyer to get some groceries and catch up on the blog. I’m pretty tired, Sara is pretty tired, and Kenai is sound asleep. Even Tanzi, who slept on our bed all day because the hike would have been too much for her is asleep. I’m not sure how much more of this #vanlife we can take!

Once again I have fallen behind on the blogging so I’m going to add two posts in short order.

My last post was made from the top of Hatcher Pass as we awaited a second showing of Northern Lights. They did not appear. It seems we may have misread the forecast – actually the web site admitted the data was a bit off – and what we thought was a prediction for good lights was actually a graph of what happened the night before. Anyway, there were no more aurora borealises (auroras borealis?) to be seen.

The next morning we didn’t much feel like hiking with our snowshoes so we went for a XC ski up to an old mine at the top of Hatcher Pass. There is a lodge nearby that grooms a ski trail so Sara had some fun dragging the whole family out on skis. Tanzi was an amazing trooper and ran as fast as she has ever run trying to keep up.

In the afternoon we drove back down past Anchorage to Girdwood and Alyeska Resort. Alyeska was forecast for sunny skies and warm weather so the weekend Spring Carnival was well timed. There is also a laundromat with showers (and a cannabis shop and a hair salon and a Thai restaurant) in Girdwood so we could get all cleaned up.

Friday was nice and sunny and we were on the slopes at the crack of 11:30. That was a mistake. First, we didn’t realize the lifts do not even open until 11:00 as the resort runs from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Moreover, the sun is not directly overhead until about 2:00 p.m. This all means the slopes did not really soften up at all in the morning. We explored a bit, came back to the van for lunch, and when we headed out again about 2:30 everything was nice and slushy – perfect spring skiing.

Alyeska is a very cool mountain, but it is an odd layout. A tram goes up the north side from the hotel and two lifts go up from the west side from a day lodge. The second lift to the top is really the only lift worth riding if the tram terrain is not good, which in this case it was not because it is shaded nearly all day. Alyeska calls their north face the longest double-black run in the world and it might be true – it is a long steep run and if the conditions are not good it is off limits. This leaves only the large bowl served by the top lift. Fortunately the bowl is quite large and has a lot of fun gully and ridges to explore, but it might get old after a while. (This from a guy who grew up on an 800 vertical foot, single-lift ski are with a total of 16 runs. My how times change.)

Friday night was the start of the Spring Carnival so we hit the bar to see who would get entries into the pond skimming event – Slush Cup. Everyone who wants to enter comes in costume and the judges and crowd pick the best. It was pretty serious stuff in the small village of Girdwood.

While the band was playing that night Sara looked over at a guy sitting next to us and noticed he was wearing a Wallowa Avalanche Center sweatshirt and hat so we started chatting with him and his group. His name was Sonny and we had actually run into him in La Grande at a WAC run raiser after the Warren Miller movie in November. He and a friend from Stanley, ID were up in AK ski/snowboard touring and they ran into some more friends with WAC connections of some sort so we spent a long time chatting with them about the Wallowas, central Idaho, their touring, and our experiences in AK so far. Odd and fun how many of these wild coincidences seem to be happening on this trip.

Saturday we did it right and lazed around even longer so we didn’t hit the mountain until after 1:00. We got in a few runs before the heading down to watch Slush Cup. A few years ago I did a pond skimming event at Jay Peak. That was completely tame by comparison. The Alyeska Slush Cup, sponsored by Alaska Airlines and lots of other big names, seems to draw the entire village of Girdwood and a fair bit of Anchorage. The “pond” is actually two ponds. The first is about 30 feet, then there is a sharp jump, and then an 80 foot pond. Last year it was 70 and apparently too many people made it to the end so they lengthened it. I don’t know how anyone made it because the lip on the jump is so sharp that people have learned the only way to have a chance to make the whole thing is to do a back flip off the jump. This preserves enough forward momentum, if you land successfully, to continue skimming. Let’s just say most people can’t do a backflip on skis in the middle of a pond so it was quite entertaining.

This is how it is done! Video of one of the most successful entrants. 

Saturday evening as we explored the bar/music we again ran into Fairbanks Jerry, who had come down for the event, so we hung out with him and some friends. Fairbanks Jerry is clearly our AK connection so at some point on this trip we are going to have to visit him in Fairbanks and get the rest of the AK tour.

Sunday was the dummy downhill – unmanned contraptions sent down a steep hill and over a large jump – and the tug of war, both of which we watched between slushy ski runs. The best dummy downhill entry was the first one, made by kids from one of the local ski clubs. It was a cardboard mockup of a Piper Cub airplane, complete with flares for smoke. It had a spectacular jump and then crashed into the fence right in front of us. The best part was that the flares continued burning and it started to light the whole thing on fire. Fortunately the ski patrol came down and pulled it apart before it completely went up in flames.

The tug of war was unexpectedly fun as they had a huge kids division. I don’t care how warm it is, I don’t want to get pulled into a pool of water in the snow, but these kids didn’t seem to mind getting pulled in. Half of them jumped or dove in once their team lost. I found it rather amusing watching little kids get dragged into the icy water! The adult competition was much stiffer as apparently every rugby team in the Anchorage area entered a team.

After all the festivities we headed back up the hill for some last slushy runs. We stopped at the 7 Glaciers bar at the top of the tram for the much-touted but off-menu Fizz, made by only one of the bartenders. It was delicious and a great way to wrap up the trip. We started chatting with a couple guys next to us and found that one of them was good friends with the star of our CC hockey team while we were there. Now we get to visit the guy’s bar in Eagle River, AK. I wonder if he has any CC jerseys on the wall! Again, such a small world that we could be thousands of miles and 20 years removed from CC, but  in a bar at the top of a ski resort we run into the guy’s buddy.

We spent Sunday night again in the parking lot at Alyeska, but in the interest of blog economy, that’s it for now. I’ll add what we have been up to for the last couple days to the next post.

(As I neglected my blogging responsibilities for too long I broke this post into two segments. If you are only catching up on the latest blog don’t miss out on the previous one. This is still going to be a long one!)

So Fairbanks Jerry, the guy we met at Liard Hot Springs, told us Tailgate Alaska was the place to be for aspiring backcountry enthusiasts so we headed for Thompson Pass near Valdez, AK. We arrived on Thursday late afternoon and found our camping spot in the parking lot. Then it was just a matter of wandering around and chatting with people to understand what was going on.

Tailgate describes themselves as “a community of backcountry enthusiasts who gather for a 10 day event to ride the world’s most famous mountains” and I’d say that’s about right. I’m quite sure most of my friends, many of the loyal readers of this blog, might see the rv-filled parking lot as a bunch of dirtbag snowboarders, but you would be wrong. Among the many people there we met business owners, IT professionals, teachers, nurses, professional snowmobilers, and a pharmaceutical engineer. Allegedly there was also a former prosecutor and teacher who quit on embraced life there. Earlier in the week there was at least one pro snowboarder as well. There was a couple from Australia, three guys from Austria, and a couple of guys from France. There were people from at least AK, BC, QC, VT, MA, NJ, PA, CA, AB, OR, WY, MI and MN.

And while the participants are cool, the mountains are epic. Thompson Pass lies at 2800′ in the Chugach Mountains and is surrounded by glaciers and peaks rising to over 6000′ so it is “easy” to get runs of 3000 vertical feet if you want to hike for it. The terrain is essentially all alpine and you can climb/ski nearly anything in sight. For us that was somewhat of a problem because although I had hoped to have splitboards for touring this winter, our late start made us abandon that plan and focus solely on resort riding. We have snowshoes, but hiking much in snowshoes is miserable. And all of this is wrapped up by the fact that I’m not in any reasonable shape to hike thousands of vertical feet in the snow.

This brings me to the next aspect of Tailgate, which I was not completely anticipating. Snowmobiles a/k/a snow machines a/k/a sleds are a staple of backcountry riding here. Whether it is for access deeper/higher in the mountains from which to tour or to use as a much faster and more fun chairlift, snowmobiles are a huge part of the backcountry experience here. I suppose I have mixed feelings about this as there is a purity to human-powered touring, but the reason I am interested in touring is to get to epic lines or deep snow. My current goal is not to get out in the wilderness without any trace of another human – I still want to make as many awesome turns as possible. Snowmobiles are fast, effective, and fun as hell.

I also don’t have one or know how to ride one in the mountains. The sleds here were nothing like their trail-oriented relatives I’ve ridden before. The folks here aren’t doing trail rides from the gas stations to the diners to the ice fishing shack on a groomed trail. They are climbing super steep faces, gullies, and chutes along cliffs and glaciers. It is amazing to watch. (Occasionally they are also getting a bit carried away.)

Fortunately, for the right price (sometimes beer, but usually just some money), a kindly snowmobile owner will give you a “bump.” It can be more than a little terrifying to hold on tight to the steering column while the driver stands over you gunning it up some steep face. The skis are not on the ground half the time on the steep pitches and I was convinced we were going to wheelie over backwards at any moment. You can also get a bump from local bush pilot with his Super Cub on skis. As long as the light is right he can land on most of the tiny snow fields or glaciers in the bowls and you can hike to the ridge tops or just ride down.

So enough background. On Friday I signed up with the Skidoo demo guys, who brought their 2019 sleds for show/demo, for an intro to mountain riding course. I never went more than about 50 feet up the mountain, but we practiced various riding positions, how to control the sled on a sidehill, and how to ride on one ski. It was a rather humbling experience and made me appreciate why they call this type of snowmobiling a sport.

In the afternoon, Sara and I took our snowshoes and hiked up the face next to the parking lot and on up the ridge above. It was the first time I really appreciated the size of the mountains. We picked a spot we thought would be a reasonable hike, but there were about three unexpected ridges before we even got close. Finally we ended up at the base of an icy face we didn’t want to climb so we rode down from there.

Friday evening was more of the dance club and “man games,” which this day consisted of jumping a snow skate over a flaming log. The only guy to really send it was the guy who helps build the snow skates!

On Saturday the sun came out and I decided to get a bump up Gully 2 across the road with Martin, the pharmaceutical engineer/snowboard instructor there with his son Oliver. Fairbanks Jerry had showed up to the party and he gave us the exciting/terrifying ride up Gully 2. When we got to the top there were the three Austrian guys looking up at the Berlin Wall – the chutes at the top of the bowl where they had just come down the most prominent chute.

[In a German accent.] “It’s not as steep as it looks.” Good, because it looks vertical.

“The snow is good for steep riding. The top was very icy so we down-climbed the top third before we started riding.” Hell, if they can do it I can do it, right?

Well, sort of. Their ascent was greatly facilitated by crampons and an ice axe, of which I had neither. I did have my touring poles with me so I shortened them down to use as leverage on the steep face. I had hoped to follow their steps, but they weren’t very deep and the wind had already filled them back in with snow in most places. As I went up I was really kicking hard with my soft snowboard boots to get steps in the crust under the one to six inches of soft snow on top. The climb was easily the most terrifying part, but I figured it was relatively low consequence as I would likely have just slid embarrassingly down the chute and out the bottom if I slipped badly. When I got to the point where I planned to stop, I realized I had no good way to get my board off my back and onto my feet. I thought there would be a slightly more level area along the rocks, but they were as steep as the chute. Fortunately down below me slightly there was a small windlip at the base of one rock so I down-climbed about 10 feet (more terrifying that climbing up) and kicked out a small shelf. I very carefully moved my pack around, got my board off, had a drink, and got my pack back on without dropping anything. The view was gorgeous.

After the adrenaline of the climb, the run itself was almost anti-climactic as I’m sure I’ve ridden technically more difficult lines, but nothing compares to the overall feeling of being in Alaska, getting the bump to the glacier, hiking a steep chute, and laying down some awesome turns. I rode out to Martin below and said, “That’s why I quit my job!”

The ride back down Gully 2 to the base was almost as good. The scale out there is crazy so what looks from the other side like a normal ski run becomes 3000′ of a wide open, go-anywhere run. The reports from prior days were that the snow had really iced up in the gully, but with the later afternoon sun the crust had softened and it was really fun conditions bombing down.

On Sunday morning Sara took the same intro to mountain snowmobiling class while I slept in.

Sunday afternoon we took cross-country skis and skied over to Worthington Glacier, which is only about a mile up the way. It was amazing to see the thick, solid ice up close. I have to admit that despite knowing what a glacier was, I didn’t actually appreciate that it was solid, clear ice. I always think of the snowy side of a glacier that you see, but up close and looking into the cracks and crevasses it really makes you appreciate overwhelming mass of the frozen river of ice.

So there it is. Tailgate Alaska was a party, a learning experience, and a chance for me to climb and ride the kind of amazing line I’ve dreamed about. Now we just need to find a way to get our hands on a couple snowmobiles so we can head deeper into the mountains with the rest of the crew.

Monday we drove into Valdez for a look around and a shower. Then we turned right back around and drove all the way to Anchorage and beyond along Turnagain Arm toward Alyeska. It was raining when we woke up and we are both tired from the last few days so we are taking a down day to relax and catch up.

(As I have neglected my blogging responsibilities for a while I am breaking this update into two posts so don’t forget to check both!)

After leaving Whitehorse, YT the terrain starts to become even more of what we expected on the Alaska Highway. As you approach Haines Junction the St. Elias mountains begin to appear. They are the first range of truly massive mountains with obvious glaciers and high peaks.

In Haines Junction you turn north and follow the St. Elias Mountains for about 100 miles. Along the way you hit Kluane Lake, which is a huge, presumably beautiful lake when it is not frozen over. On the side of Kluane Lake is an area Dall Sheep winter. Sara and her brother stopped here in 2010 but did not see any sheep. We looked up high on the hill and immediately spotted about 50 sheep in a few groups, but they were so far away we could not get any pictures even with a telephoto. We kept going just around the corner and immediately saw three rams on the hill just above the road. As I grabbed the camera and started taking pictures, Sara realized they were essentially hanging out on Soldier Summit, a  memorial to the soldiers who helped build the Alaska Highway and the location of the ribbon cutting to open the highway in 1942.

We drove down the road and hiked up to the memorial. As we got on top we didn’t see the rams so I assumed they heard us coming and ran off, but in fact they were just over the edge of the hill below us! When they saw us they looked a little startled, but only moved very slowly away. I suspect they are pretty well habituated to humans if they hang out at the memorial.

After getting side tracked with sheep pictures, it was dusk as we approached the border. We couldn’t decide where we were likely to find the best roadside camping spots, but just as we approached the border we found a nice pullout on the Canada side. We are probably on some Homeland Security video somewhere as we were within a few hundred yards of the actual border.

That night Sara set her alarm so we could look out and check for the Northern Lights. We originally thought it would be unlikely we could see them on this trip because of the time of year, but Sara had done some more research and realized we had a good chance. Sure enough when her alarm sounded there was some light streaking in the northern sky. At first we just looked through the back windows of the van, but after the first round faded and we took a little nap, we saw them a second time so we went out to stand in the icy cold air. It was about 2:45 a.m. and hovering somewhere south of -7 deg. so my memory is a little fuzzy, but we definitely saw the Northern Lights. They were not a super green or colorful show (Sara thought she saw more green than I did), but we could definitely see the streaks slowly bending and shifting across the horizon. It was incredibly exciting to see, tempered slightly by having to wake up in the middle of the night and stand outside trying not to freeze to death.

During the night we were wondering if our heater was having problems because it was not as warm as usual. It was still completely comfortable, but not quite toasty. When we woke up (at the crack of 9:00 a..m. or so) it was still -7 deg. Well, that might explain it. Fortunately our water was still functional so perhaps our water system improvements did actually help.

We took the dogs for a short walk out a snowmobile trail and it was the quietest, most profoundly still feeling I have ever experienced. The sun was still low on the horizon, there was not a breath of wind, and it was very cold. I could very clearly hear sound, the cold snow crunching, the dogs running, the one or two cars driving along the road, but in between the sound was such a pure silence that my ears were ringing as if struggling to accept that there was no sound to register. It is definitely a unique sensation I will remember from that morning.

After breakfast we drove down the road the short distance to the border and took our celebration photo. We made it!

Beyond the border the mountains continued getting larger as the St. Elias mountains gave way to the Wrangells.

The Alaska Highway was beautiful and an amazing drive, but seeing the massive mountains rising out of the huge spruce forests really made us feel like we had made it to Alaska.

After learning about Tailgate Alaska from Jerry, the guy in Liard Hot Springs, Thompson Pass was our goal for the day. We had to go see the party and jump right in to the Alaska backcountry snowboarding scene. Stay tuned for Part 2!

After our questionable start on the AK Highway, our trip to Whitehorse, YK (and more A&W WiFi) has been thankfully uneventful. We hoped to make it to Liard River Hot Springs Monday night after the heater repair but we didn’t quite make it as the travel was, well, what one would expect driving north of the 60th parallel in early April.

We made it to Muncho Lake before deciding to call it a night. We found a turnout with a very nice expended plowed area where we could duck back in the trees. The heater fired up fine and kept as warm at roughly 10 deg.

Before we hit Liard River Hot Springs we stopped at a pullout where you can take a short walk to an overlook where the Trout River has carved through the glacial dust to form hoodoo banks where the animals come to lick the salt. Unfortunately, we seem to be a little early as there were not even any tracks to suggest the animals have come up here yet.

We were less than 30 minutes from Liard River Hot Springs so that was our first stop. On a Tuesday morning in early April with an air temp. of 10 deg. we had the place to ourselves for a little while.

The water feeding the springs is quite hot, but it is moderated by snow melting in all around. It was fascinating to feel the difference as the hot water rose to the top and you could feel a major temperature difference between the top and bottom. I would be the water is far more uniform when a bunch of people are splashing around, but then the water is likely not so crystal clear.

There is a second pool below that is slightly cooler and it winds way back up a creek bed, but it is still warm enough to explore.

We spent a couple hours hanging out, not wanting to get out in the cold air. A guy from Fairbanks came along and we chatted about his 6 week ski trip through the lower 48 and about the happenings in Alaska we needed to see. Hopefully we will make it in time for Tailgate, a huge backcountry party on Thompson Pass, and/or Arctic Man, the self-proclaimed opposite of Burning Man, which appears to be a serious motorhead event. One of the events include a ski race where a skier is towed (at speeds up to 86 mph) behind a snowmobile. It looks like we are getting to AK just in time!

Our one disappointment for the drive has been the dearth of animals. Signs everywhere warn of stone sheep, bison, caribou, and moose, but we had seen nothing. Finally, after miles of bison poop along the side of the road, we came on a bison herd.

The guy from Fairbanks suggested we stop in Watson Lake to check out the Sign Forest and it was worth it. The forest had its origin when the road was being built and workers and soldiers posted a sign with the distance to their hometown. Apparently the signpost in Watson Lake is the only original one left and people started adding on with their own signs. The info kiosk says that as of 2004 there were 55,000 signs! We were not prepared to add our own, but if we come back through we will be ready.

Late yesterday evening we finally got lucky and saw two caribou crossing the road, but they went into the trees quickly.

Last night we pulled off to spend the night at the Squanga Lake airstrip – one of the many airstrips used in the early 1940’s by the military to supply Alaska and then to build the AK Highway. Again the heater worked fine, which continues to be important because the highest temperature we have seen for the last two days was 18 deg.

Just before Whitehorse this morning we stopped at Swan Haven Interpretative Center on Marsh Lake – essentially the start of the Yukon River – to see migrating Trumpeter and/or Tundra Swans. For some reason there are only three places with open water and the right conditions this time of year for migrating swans. With the extended cold right now there was only a thin strip of open water far from shore, but with binoculars and a big lens we could see some swans.

Whitehorse looks like a cool place to explore, but other than the inside of this A&W it will have to wait for the next trip as we are back on the road so we can get to Alaska. Only 708 miles to go to Anchorage.