May 22, 2013 - Suss becomes a spotter

It's a tough job, but someone has to do it. Yesterday a female griz bear was darted and collared for research purposes. To be sure she was functioning after the 'work-up', Colin (pilot and aviation mgr) asked Jeffrey to fly with him, helping him to spot the bear. Suss crammed into the 2nd seat of the plane, and off they went. The telemetry tracking system is mounted to each side of the plane, their eyes were focused, and up and down the drainages they fly. From the Denali Park airstrip, they flew westward, sighting lots of bear tracks. The...

May 20, 2013 - The lights are on, but no one's home

Actually, "the lights aren't on." We don't need lights right now, and probably won't until late Aug. The Visitor Center is a LEED certified building wh/ uses it's own solar power to completely run the beautiful structure. You'll see a picture of my desk with a large window (and gorgeous view, tho it was snowing to beat the band that day) and no desk lamp. It's located on the 2nd floor of the VC. As one goes up the stairs, motion detectors will turn on lights as needed. There is a light in the interior hall that goes off when it detects...

May 16, 2013 - We've adopted!

Finally it happened...Jeffrey and I adopted a 6 y/o male, handsome and strong, dark haired, furball named "Skeeter." Guess you may know already from the pix that he is a sled dog. Denali National Park is the only NP that has Canine Rangers! These rangers work very hard all winter mushing into the park to provide various services to researchers, resource monitoring and assorted projects. Then the summer arrives, and they get some vacation...tho they do provide fun and interesting sled dog demonstrations for the up to 500 visitors per day at...

May 10, 2013 - "Well it 'IS' Alaska..."

May 12th Happy Mother's Day! Week one for work is complete for Mary Ann, and Jeffrey starts his first week tomorrow. Are we in the groove yet, no way. This is the shoulder season and that mean 'dry camping' for most of the employees and locals. Translation - there is NO running water except in select locations only. All of us are carrying water to our digs and showering in central locations. For us that means walking to a building adjacent to our trailer area to fill us pitchers, water bottles, Powerade bottle and the like. Some of my...

May 4, 2013 - Turn off the lights

May 4, 2013 Denali Park 28* clouds and some sun. They dont' call this area the 'land of the midnight sun' only b/c in June there is approx 22 hrs of daylight... it's already lite now at 10:30pm. Hello? I'm supposed to be tired and in bed sleeping like a baby... but, noooo, my clock has battery problems. I'm ready to go to the disco! Can someone pls send me some black curtains? There are moose in our housing area, sometimes pairs, sometimes singles. These moose are huge-mon-gous, and while we've tried to snap a few pix, we're not being...

May 3, 2013 - Covered Wagons

Tok, AK to Fairbanks, AK. As we've travelled across Canada, it seems that frequently we end up in campgds w/ fellow travellers w/ whom we created bonds. A couple from Atlanta and Missouri were huge helps to us by keeping us updated on road conditions and campgd openings as they ventured forward. Here's the deal...this yr has experienced a late spring, there's lots of snow still around - and thus, many RV spots are not open. If they are open, they can't offer water or dump facilities b/c everything is still frozen. But, electricity ='s heat,...

May 3, 2013 - Denali NP

Fairbanks to Denali NP May 2, 2013 125 miles - that was all we needed to go to complete the 4,450 miles of travel from Ellijay, GA to Denali NP. Up to this point, we had smooth sailing w/ no issues for the truck or vehicle. But wait, Jeffrey spots an ooops! The 'grease buddy cap' from the trailer axle is missing. On mon dieu! (OMG) Really, it was no biggie considering the miles of travel we had completed. No effect on travel, into NAPA for a $4.00 pair, and off we went to Denali NP. We arrived at Headquarters in the afternoon of a 38* day....

Apr 30, 2013 - On the Road Again...

April 29, 2013 Whitehorse, YK Departed Watson Lake with snowpacked roads and a 25-30 mph speed. White-knuckle driving by the Jeffieboy for 1 hr. Finally the roads began to break up w/ bare spots showing. Sometimes they were on our side of the road, sometimes on the otherside. Yellow line, fog line - forget it. We mostly drove right down the middle of the Alcan. The scenery began to give us little gifts around Teslin, YK, w/ lg frozen rivers and the road curving around the bends. Whitehorse, YK is a lg town and we set up to camp there....

Apr 27, 2013 - Sunshine from Otter Falls to Tok surrounded by snow-covered mountains

Date: April 27, 2013 Tonight’s Location: Tok, AK Mileage: End - 17650 Start - 17327 Total Miles for the day: 323 Weather: sunshine with a few brief snow showers Temperature: start 13º High 28º Wildlife count: Year List: 195; Life list: 342 Birds: Bald Eagle, Northern Harrier, Snow Buntings, Raven, Magpie, Merlin, Harlan’s Red-tailed Hawk, White-tailed Ptarmigan, Spruce Grouse We awoke to a beautiful blue sky and dry roads – a traveler’s paradise, especially traveling northwest! We traveled alongside of the St. Elias Mountains, and then...

Sep 4, 2012 - Day 67

Today we start our southerly journey, leaving Fairbanks for Tok. You cannot enter or leave Alaska by auto without going through Tok, AK. On the way down the Richardson Highway, we passed North Pole again and then stopped in Salcha, AK at the Knotty Shop. They make a lot of wood items out of burled wood. Leaving there, we continued towards Delta Junction, stopping for lunch at Rika's Roadhouse, about 8 miles north of Delta Junction. Rika's Roadhouse is located in a State Park and is a State Historical Location. During WWII the roadhouse and...

Aug 15, 2012 - Day 46/47

We spent two days in Tok doing housekeeping chores again; laundry, wash the car and RV, etc. During the RV wash, I noticed that the windshield had developed a 42 inch long crack on the passenger side. I contacted the insurance company to file a claim. No windshield in Alaska, so will try to get it replaced when I get back home. We did get confirmation that the jack would be shipped to Anchorage, so we can get it fixed there in a few days.

Aug 13, 2012 - Day 45

Leaving Cottonwood, we continued on the Alcan through Destruction Bay and then encountered the worst road conditions of our trip. At one construction site, it took over 30 minutes to travel about 2 miles. We had to wait about 10 minutes for the pilot car which then stopped in the middle of the construction for another 10-20 minutes. The frost heaves and road conditions from there to the Alaska border were not the greatest. In some places, the road was like a washboard, limiting speed to about 25-30 mph. The bad part is that we have to...