Gallatin River, Yellowstone, and Grand Teton

From Belgrade, we took route 191 that follows the Gallatin River up to it's headwaters and then down the other side into West Yellowstone.  It was a beautiful day for a trip up a river and mountain pass.

Up toward the top, we moved through some localized fog.  With the various shades of yellow and browns set against the bright blue of the river and the green of the trees, it was very pretty.  Photos, at least mine, don't do it justice.

We turned east to turn into Yellowstone National Park.  It's just an amazing place.  Here you can see the fumaroles and volcanic activity from a distance.  The only thing better would be a foot of snow!

We took a hike up to a ridge above Yellowstone Lake with the Absaroka Mountain Range off in the distance.  Other than the huffing and puffing from the altitude, it was great fun.

We kept going into Grand Teton National Park and the headwaters of the Snake River. 

Belgrade, MT - Casino time

We stopped in Belgrade, Montana, just outside of Bozeman.  We had a great meal at the "Mint Bar and Cafe."

Just across the street was this casino.

"Lucky Palms"?  In Belgrade, Montana?  Not only that, you can get a fine can of Old Milwaukee for pretty cheap.  Of course, not as cheap as I used to get them (another example of old age remembering) - a whole six pack for 99 cents. 

Lake Louise to "back in the U.S.A."

We had never been through Kootenay National Park in Canada.  Now was as good a chance as any.

This was a really pretty falls along the way.  Note the romantic shadows on the right!!











The road winds through the mountain passes and comes out in Radium Hot Springs, British Columbia on the west side of the Canadian rocky mountain range.  From there, we turned south along the headwaters of the Columbia River and interrupted a boring day at an isolated border crossing and then into Eureka, Montana.

Jasper to Lake Louise, Alberta

Another great drive is Jasper National Park to Banff National Park - or vice versa.  At first you follow the Athabasca River all the way to the Columbia Icefield.  The color of the river is just too pretty for words, backed up by the spruce trees and the granite mountains in the background.

Here's another photo of the same river. 

 Along the way we were lucky enough to see a black wolf and a bear.  I couldn't resist taking a picture of the people animals taking copious photos of the bear.

The bear didn't care about us - he or she grazed around and then took a swim in a little pond and wandered off.

I had remembered that we had hiked "Wilcox Pass" when we drove our Toyota 4 Runner up from Tampa in 1999.  Hannah read Harry Potter books and slept the whole way.  We camped out at Wilcox Campground and I hiked up without the girls and saw a dozen Dall Sheep right next to the trail.  I made them walk up, and they were (fortunately), still there.

Anyway, ML and I walked up again.

This photo looks down on the Columbia Icefields (glaciers) from Wilcox Pass trail.

We're up walking through the pass.  No sheep this time, but it was still worth it.  I always like walking up through the last of the trees and above the treeline.

Now we're past the Icefields driving toward Lake Louise.

We didn't really want to stay in Lake Louise, but ML copped us a nice room with a view of the mountain behind Lake Louise.  And the price could have been worse.

Smithers, BC to Jasper, Alberta

The closer you get to Prince George, British Columbia, the more boring the landscape.  It's always interesting to me what happens as you get older.  Lately, I've been feeling more like my parents generation, who "remembered when."  ML and I were talking about how we "remembered when Prince George was just a sleepy little frontier town" when we came through the first time in ML's chevy pickup truck with 170,000 miles on it (we were told clearly the odometer had not turned over, but I'm sure it had . ..  ), all our stuff in the back and a black lab and us in the front.  Now Prince George is overrun with Safeways, Home Depots, and you can picture it already, I'm sure.

But, the road between Prince George and Jasper is isolated and fun to drive.  We stopped at an "Ancient Forest," which turned out to be a rain forest in a dry area.  There were huge red cedar trees.  This is, of course, ironic, because Sitka is a rain forest.  The vegetation was the same, but it was fun to see the big cedars.

Mount Robson, the second highest mountain in North America, is rarely seen like this!  Not a cloud around it.  

It's really pretty on the other side of Mt. Robson with turquoise lakes nestled in granite mountains.  The fall colors, which this far north are pretty much all yellow, stand out against the green spruce trees. 

Nice.

Across Canada

I think it's the first time we visited Prince Rupert that it didn't rain.  Nice.

Route 16 across northern British Columbia makes for great travel.  Not too crowded, nice scenery. 

The Skeena River comes through a mountain gorge and the road follows the river most of the way.   The Skeena is a big powerful river with lots of life and salmon running up it.  This is a picture from an earlier trip from a rest stop on the road - I just took it because it's so impressive. 





For some reason, I didn't take any pictures across the Bulkley River valley.  There are isolated farms, but for the most part, it's an isolated area.  We stayed in Smithers, one of the many self-proclaimed "mountain bike capitals of the world."  Maybe we'll rent a bike and find out another day.

When I drive the road, I often think of Bob and Glenda bicycling it from Jasper to Prince Rupert towing the dog.  Impressive.

The Ferry! Or, The "Alaska Marine Highway"

Does this picture make you want to take the Alaska ferry, otherwise known as the Alaska Marine Highway?

Luckily, it was taken while we were at a port - which means cell phone service and entertainment.  The cup, if you were to see inside it, would contain wine.

Actually, it's not that bad and I paint an inaccurate picture of what ML really thinks (maybe).

I really like it - what can be better than enforced relaxation?    Plus, there are things to look forward to!  Like eating!   And looking out the window!  And sleeping!  And no-one will be knocking at the door when you are reading the best passages. 

We had great weather this time - unusual for late September.  Usually it's raining and blowing 30 knots.

We're going through the Wrangell Narrows south of Petersburg in this photo.  Note the moon in the center of the picture.  What a beautiful evening.

 

Petersburg, not our most favorite town, is pictured behind the tents.  If we were more on the side of "roughing it," you would see our tent.  Alas, we did our time on the solarium for many years.  Now we get a stateroom and are happy to have it (see photo on the top for the comfy bed - but you do get your own tiny bathroom!)

ML may differ, but I can't wait for the cafeteria specials of the meal.  Most of them are quite good and as close to a home cooked meal as you're going to get.  Like everything else, prices have risen - but I think it's a great deal.  I just love to anticipate for hours what the choices might be!!!  What fun!  What entertainment!

You can pretend!  Make your choice.

P.S.  We both chose the halibut and we're glad we did.  One halibut meal cost $16.  Enjoy.

Construction Work

My construction work can often be followed by looking at my hands.

Note the right index - yep, you're right - a hammer blow.  Two, in fact, and the second one hurt a lot more than the first.

The white is caulk.  The green is paint.

You probably can't see from this picture, but both hands and all digits are swollen.  Plus, they hurt.

There are a few nicks and cuts that you can't see.  That's just as well.  Typically, it because I've done something stupid.

Lastly, there is a puncture wound on the other side of my left middle finger.  I'm very conscious of where I put my fingers when using the nail gun (a gun that drives nails with compressed air), but somehow I always make a minor error.  I'm usually just happy that it's minor.  There are lots of emergency room visits as a result of nail guns. 

Matt's Garage - Dried In, or Almost

 "Dried In" is a term in construction lingo that means the roof is on and water or snow can't get in.  Matt's garage is almost dried in.  As you can see, there aren't any garage doors.  The two doors in the first floor weren't in stock either.

 However, the windows are in and the upstairs "deck door" is in.  Tyvek is stapled with expensive stainless steel staples since it's going to hang out all winter. Thanks for funding stainless steel, Matt. 

There are lots of windows on the "back" side which looks out toward the ocean.  Not much of the ocean can be seen, but there is a sliver due west and then a view of the cruise ship anchorage in front of Sitka.

The bathroom is back right, bedroom is immediate right, and kitchen is on the left. 

The bedroom . . .

Not a great picture, but you can see the staircase coming up on the right, the expansive windows, and the vaulted ceiling.

Although Matt did a lot of work before he started his teaching year, he wasn't available for the "dried in" picture.  Many thanks to Joshua on the right and Sam in the middle, who put up with me for the duration!  Both men are young smart talented individuals who were great to work with.

Book Review: The Voyage of the Schooner Polar Bear

 Kettleson Memorial Library, our local library, has a great Alaskan section which is great fun to browse.  I found a book of which the full title is "The Voyage of the Schooner Polar Bear: Whaling and Trading in the North Pacific and Arctic, 1913-1914" by Bernhard Kilian.

The text is a journal kept by the author, Bernhard Kilian.  Bernhard (Ben) and his brother were trained machinists and saw a job advertisement to be the engineers for the Polar Bear.  They were instructed to be at the boat at 6 a.m. on the day of the hiring.  They were, and despite the fact that no-one else was there except the watchman who clocked them in - including the owner/captain, they got the job on the merit of having been there at 6.   Let that be a lesson to all of us!

Ben Kilian also learned to take and develop pictures.  Neither the pictures and the text aren't fancy or WOW(!)  or anything, but both of them are an honest depiction of what went on during the trip.  I found it fascinating.

On the left is a picture of the schooner after a bit of snow.  I often think about what is not in the picture.  Ben Kilian behind a large format camera, loading film and taking the picture in the cold.  Then developing it later in the cold with no running water.  Hmmm.  He's a lot tougher than I am.

The voyage took the better part of two years.  The boat was frozen into the ice on the northeast coast of Alaska.  The men moved off the boat and built a shelter with sailcloth and driftwood.  I love this picture of the men building the winter shelter and the camera (which might be a "movie" camera) in the picture over on the right.

This looks like it might be hard to see, but it is a map of the voyage.  The boat started out from Seattle, then all the way out the Aleutian Chain (which ends up being closer to Japan than the continental USA), goofed around the Kamchatka Pensinsula and visited Russia a number of times, then through the Bering Strait, the Arctic Ocean, and on into the Beaufort Sea.  The voyage was a mixture of trading, whaling, and a "charter" for east coast hunters.

The excitement of northern experience doesn't stop there!  The Captain of the boat and a few others decided that they needed to take care of some business in Seattle over the winter.  So they took off on some dog sleds in early November, up the Kongucut River, across the pass to the Yukon River, and made their way south to Cordova where they got a boat.  This is approximately 1000 miles during the dark of winter with no freeze dried food, goretex, down jackets, or toilet paper.  In fact, the notes in the book said they lost their compass after a week and dead reckoned most of the way across the Brooks Range until they discovered some Alaska Natives to give them some directions!

My guess is that this book will not be in your local library.  But, if you like this kind of stuff, request it from interlibrary load.  You'll be glad you did.

P.S. All pictures are digital representations from the actual book.  I hope I haven't transgressed copyright law.

Garage - 2nd level & concept of Square

So far, so good.  The concept of "square" is not really that difficult - you would think.  Four right triangles equal distance apart - right?  But, to me it never seems that easy in practice.  Fortunately, Matt's garage is based on a perfect square square with walls 30 feet apart.  Not that hard, you would think.

Well, to be honest, it always seems difficult for me.  But, that's why building is a challenge and fun to do - or at least it's fun most of the time.  BUT, we got the plywood on the first floor and we squared it up within an eighth of an inch on the diagonal measurement.  Voila!  Easy!

So away we went building the gable walls.

Here's Matt nailing the northwest wall that looks out over Sitka with a view of Mt. Edgecumbe.  Note the big windows!


These walls are about 14 feet high at the highest point.

See how easy it is to lift the wall up?  Four guys with one finger!

See Matt with his Search and Rescue helmet on to protect that huge brain.

I mentioned earlier that they let people that don't know anything rent dangerous equipment.  We drew straws  to see who got the nod and Sam won. 

Just a little tip for your next construction project, don't fix the beam to the forklift - get a strap and let it hang.  With the system you see in the picture to the left, there's no flexibility to be able to move the beam.  Live and learn.

This beam is big: 24 inches high, 6 3/4 inches wide, and 29 feet, 11 inches long.

It's there, but not quite right.  But it's late on a Friday night and time to go home.

This is the streetside view.

It would have been nice to have some side walls for strength, but the design is based on 4 feet of steep pitched roof with a 22 foot dormer roof.  Matt decided to take out the 4 feet of roof on the back right side - which is why you see two different roof angles in the picture.  Maybe we should have at least built that wall first, but we wanted to see what the gable windows would look like.

This is the "back" of the building.

Whew, a major step forward - roof beam up, Matt had no need for his helmet, and the forklift was ready for returning with no problems.