TravelStream™ news feed for member traicee on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/traicee en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Tue, 18 Oct 2005 10:37:05 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/traicee/n._america_2005/1129590540/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/traicee/n._america_2005/1129590540/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/traicee/n._america_2005/1129590540/tpod.html Tue, 18 Oct 2005 10:37:05 -0400 Whooo, hooo! Goodbye city life!

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Stoney Creek, Ontario, Canada

Leaving Yellowknife after such a memorable experience was certainly sad. Not only saying goodbye to friends old and new, but knowing we were on our way home. Our salvation was knowing it would now be warmer and perhaps we may still catch that heat wave back home. Our first stop was to visit Grand Prairie, Alberta where Karin's Oma and Opa first settled when they immigrated to Canada from Holland in 1953. We were surprised to find out a welcome wagon had been called, namely Karin's Great Grand Aunt Tante Veronica, who at age 93 was at the centre hub of information about the Groen & Hoff Clan. We were swept away by the generosity of all, especially cousin Ted & wife Ruth, where we stayed for a few days, and cousin Gary who showed us around town. We were treated to tea with Tante Veronica who was so friendly and teased us for not staying in Grand Prairie for three weeks, as there were many, many, MANY relatives yet to visit. Before we left, Tante Veronica was on the main hub setting up a place for us to stay in Lloyminster en route to visit Karin's Grand Uncle Roy in Unity, Manitoba. Hooray Tante Veroni!A mandatory stopover in West Edmonton Mall was on the agenda, and according to front page news all over the Alberta papers, Brad Pitt & Angelina Jolie were spotted walking through just the day before. Other than a cowboy hat Traicee bought, we pretty much zipped through the mall amongst crowds of teenagers, feeling a little old, and a little too steeped in campfire smoke. Hey, at least we found some clothes without burn holes in them :)Our next stop was in Lloyminster AB/SK, a border town between the two provinces where Tante Veronica had made arrangements to meet with cousin Rena. We had the most delicious persian meal cooked by husband Hamid and spent the evening chatting away with Rena about so many things, family, travel, animals...it felt as if we had known her for years. We stayed at the family's hotel and we were so thankful not to have to sleep in the car and to have a hot shower and a flushing toilet whenever we wanted! We made our way to Unity, Manitoba where Karin's family on her mom's side homesteaded in 1903 and where her Grand Uncle Roy still ran the family farm 100 years later! It's fasicinating to be standing where one's ancestors pioneered, and for Karin, walking in the house where your Grandmother was born and raised, and where her mom played as a child during the summers, was especially sentinmental. We couldn't resist taking home a handful of barley from the familiy farm fields to remember it by. Uncle Roy took us to the heritage museum where we explored the pioneering farm equipment, tools and buildings. We were amazed how people got on so well in the early 1900s without all our modern conveniences. We certainly had a greater respect for the struggles of early rural pioneers. Karin's family heirlooms were now also being housed and shown including a hand-crafted chair her Great Grandfather had made. We stayed with Karin's great uncle Roy and his new wife Barbara - more wonderful family hospitality.After leaving Unity, we were on our way to east of Winnipeg to visit another eco-village where we had arranged to volunteer for a couple of days. The residents were fairly young (if I may say so), about our age, and so was their farm (about 5 years). There were 3 guys and a girl, so we helped balance that out. They had built several structures over the past five years, including bridges over the creek, 4 or 5 cabins and residences, a communal kitchen, underground root cellar for food storage, as well as aquiring a few other buildings and an old school bus. They had a solar oven which they used to cook in the summer, a windtower that ran all year round, several PV panels to run their lights and laptops and a number of woodstoves for heat and winter cooking. With no running water, we were not surprised that the residents had either dredlocks or very short hair. Their source of water was a 2 foot wide creek that ran through the property. They had outhouses for their business.By this point in our travels we were plenty used to roughing it, so it's a little hard to say what put us off about the place. Our immediate discomfort concerned the lack-of-shower situation. When we arrived we were already a few days sans-shower, and when inquiries were made about bathing, we were told that there is a wood heated bath tub they use (how often is not certain), and each one uses it in succession without changing the water. There were six of us all together -- can't imagine the bath water is very appealing by the time the last person gets in. Aside from the bathing problem, perhaps we started to over-anticipate the return home. Perhaps Ontario has a pull to it that we were previously unaware of? Or perhaps we started to get so anxious about the prospect of rebuilding our own lives that it became too unappealing to be volunteering to sort out the lives of others. Whatever it was, we determined we both weren't ready to stay as long as originally planned.We contemplated sneaking out in the middle of the night but decided to be up front and tell them in person. Traicee had to break the news (humph) while Karin hastily loaded up the car.We drove into Kenora, ONTARIO!! by evening and located a campground. Since no one was at the front desk, I asked a couple walking by if the campground had showers, and perhaps judging by our homeless appearance (or stench), they quickly told us the key pad code to the shower house. Great, we snuck in, had a lukewarm shower and decided to locate a discreet place for sleeping in the car rather than incur the pricey campground fees. So we found a nice secluded spot by the pier where we could watch the night stars with the car doors open.The rest of the drive home was beautiful. We had been half-expecting Ontario to be dreary compared to many of our previous routes, but we were delighted to find north of Superior between Thunder Bay and Sault St. Marie absolutely stunning. We spent a couple of days on Manatoulin Island hiking and enjoying the warm weather, and doing a little prospecting for property as well. We took the ferry across Lake Huron to Tobermory and made our way home. We've been home for over a week now. Adjusting to staying put from day to day will take some getting used to, but it is nice to be with family and friends again, and by golly, a bed, toilet and shower are nice amenities too! Though we are at the end of this chapter of travelling, we know we are just at the beginning of a long journey that may one day bring us back to the open spaces of this country, where we may just try our hand at homesteading. Alas, that is another conversation, hopefully we will be able to see you all in person and talk the night away. Sure is great to be home, we have missed you all so dearly!Traicee, Karin & Sam
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/traicee/n._america_2005/1127253480/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/traicee/n._america_2005/1127253480/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/traicee/n._america_2005/1127253480/tpod.html Wed, 21 Sep 2005 12:13:40 -0400 Whooo, hooo! Goodbye city life!

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Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada

For those of you who've been waiting to read about some real adventure on this roadtrip of ours, fasten your seatbelts because here it is:We hung out in Yellowknife for a bit over a week in hopes that Chuck would be able to make arrangements for us to charter a Beaver float plane. We were thrilled to find out that a plane would be available for the weekend, and we would go for a Saturday night camp out in the bush. We were joined by Karen (Chuck's fiancee) and Hooman and Andrea (friends of theirs, Hooman also works with Chuck) and we flew out to Karen's boss's hunting cabin. Sammy was pretty afraid when the propeller started, and he quivered for the whole flight. Traicee was pretty scared too and became pretty nauseated as we went along. The scenery from the air was stunning - the landscape dotted with lakes, the aspens turning yellow and the rolling rocky surfaces. When we got to the lake with the cabin, we saw from overhead that people were already there, and Chuck radioed down and found out they hadn't left on their hunting trip yet, so we decided to head out to the East Arm of Great Slave Lake, the second destination that we'd gotten a quote for. The area was just gorgeous, with great cliffs, rugged terrain with countless coves and inlets. We found one beach and circled around to look for nearby wildlife. Andrea saw a bear so we moved farther along to a second beach and made a landing. The beach was idyllic. The water lapped at the shore and the sand was pink. We ate a marvellous campfire kebabs and enjoyed some spirits while the sun set and the moon rose. The sky wasn't perfectly clear, but it cleared enough to show off some amazing northern lights for us. We felt pretty lucky to be on this northern beach with an airplane on shore instead of a canoe, and with lots of friendly company with whom to enjoy the experience. Sunday morning was amazing as well, and we hiked up the cliffs to see the views from the top. The skies cleared a bit in the afternoon and the winds started picking up. I suppose it was around this time when things started turning downhill a bit. It wasn't long before the winds that had picked up also brought along some stronger waves into our beach, and those waves pushed the airplane to the side, yanking out one of the anchor stakes from the sand. Chuck ran to the plane to turn it on to try and align it again, perpendicular to the beach, but by the time he got there, the left float had beached itself and the prop wouldn't pull the plane off the sand. All of us tried to pull the 5000 lb plane to straighten it, but that was a futile effort too. I didn't fully realize the implications of the turned plane at this stage - I learned later that a beaver is a one-engine plane, and it turns on water by means of rear rudders - both of these were up on the beach, meaning the only way off the beach was forward. The plane wasn't completely parallel with the shore, and we helped Chuck do everything possible to keep the plane from twisting any more. When the plane started to move around too much and the right float started bashing into unseen rocks below, Chuck decided to sink that float to anchor the boat and minimize damage. While our situation wasn't great, we weren't really too concerned about hanging out an extra night. Thankfully we over-packed for our overnight trip and had enough food for the whole day. Our bigger concern was really for Chuck and Hooman, because not only was it bad for them work-wise that we were in this predicament (it isn't usual for pilots to charter planes from their company for fun and this would certainly put an end to that practice for others) but it was compounded because we had gone outside normal protocol and didn't let the airline dispatch know that we had changed destinations in a timely fashion. At this point we all realize that their jobs are on the line. We each took 2 hour watch shifts through the night, as the waves worsened to 6 foot swells with large rollers and wicked curls and we needed to check the plane every 15 or 20 minutes. By this point we had moved our camp off the beach to shelter ourselves from the winds, and it was a good thing we did because by the middle of the night, our former tent sites and campfire circle were underwater. The sunken right float started to get pulled outward from the beach a little, which at first we were happy with, hoping it would bring the boat back out to water, but then it became a problem because the sunken float was falling off the sandy shelf and the plane was starting to tip slightly. The boys literally spent hours out in the cold waters, standing on the floats and hand pumping the water from them while waves up to their necks smashed the boat. In the meantime the girls worked to acquire enough firewood to keep a warm fire going so they could warm up and dry their clothes. By early morning Chuck knew that things weren't getting better, and with the food and chain oil depleted, things would get worse for all of us quite quickly. He called in on the Satellite phone to report back to work, the situation both with us, the passengers, and with the plane. He was extremely worried he was going to lose the plane - I don't think extremely is a sufficient word here. He was exceedingly stressed, but despite this he kept it together, kept his head on his shoulders and made good decisions in the wake of that first decision which had clearly turned out badly. With pressure from back in Yellowknife, he got back on the right float and tried to pump the water some more. Within minutes he was knocked off the float entirely by a wave, and the hand pump was pulled from his hand and back out into the lake, never to be seen again. It sounded like they might send a helicopter out to us, to rescue us. However, with it starting to rain and dwindling firewood, we decided to move our camp a third time. Half the battle was keeping warm, and moving camp was a good way to keep active. Besides that, we found a rock face where we could build a fire and reflect heat back into our MEC Mantis shelter. We left our tents where they were and setup a shelter where we could all crunch together and sleep like sardines if needed. We debated this site for 15 or 20 minutes, considering whether it was a safe location to build a fire, since the muskeg layer was very thick, perhaps feet of vegetation below our wet shoes. We might build a fire and unwittingly set fire underground that could spread out without us knowing. We decided to move to the spot and did our best to dig down through the layers, removing the vegetation near the rock face with an axe and our hands. There was another hairy moment when we actually tried to start the fire. Chuck poured a little gasoline on the fire to get it going so to speak, but a little flame shot up the spout of fuel and lit the jerry can on fire that he was holding. Andrea shouted to "Chuck it, Chuck!" and he tossed it several meters away, landing just 2 feet from Hooman. I don't know what possessed Hooman to pick up the burning can and run, but he did it and emptied the can at the shoreline (environmentalism goes out the window when you're on fire). We shudder to think what could have happened had the burning can hit Hooman and doused him with fuel. The ordeal wasn't over yet, because fuel had spilled into the ground vegetation layers and were still burning away and lighting the roots below on fire. As we stamped and tried to clear away the vegetation, flames kicked up and a real heat was building up there. For 15 or so minutes to follow we ran back and forth to the lake with an empty cooler to douse the area with water. We saw that this episode really shook Chuck up. Lack of sleep and high stress was wearing on him, as it was on others, but none were as burdened as he was. We all learned real fast that the situation could go from bad to dire in a few short seconds.The hours from 10am to 2pm, when the helicopter arrived were long hours. The present situation was not pleasant, but we knew that Chuck and perhaps Hooman would have an ongoing ordeal to have to deal with. We wanted the helicopter to arrive, and yet a part of all of us didn't. Chuck and Hooman's boss Larry, an airline mechanic and the helicopter pilot touched down on the beach and were witness to the treacherous waters roaring in at us. They were also witness to the relative security of the plane at this stage - hercules strapped to a large shrub on the beach and not rocking in the waves since the floats were sunk and beached. Chuck and Hooman indicated they would be staying with the plane, since there was nothing anyone could do with it until the lake calmed. The girls were rescued by helicopter, shuttled two at a time, to Plummer's lodge, just a short 10 min hop away on the east arm. It was a tough goodbye to Hooman and my good friend Chuck. I dread for them what lies ahead - not just in enduring more of the wet and cold on the island, but mostly what the future will hold for them at this company. I regret to have been a part of a plan that turned out so badly for those guys - so many shouldda, couldda, woulddas go through our heads it's hard to shake them off. I know this misadventure will eat at them for some time to come, and I just hope and pray they find the fortitude to move on.Leaving the island and arriving at Plummers Lodge was a surreal experience. We were all worn out and frayed on the edges, and then we arrive as surprise guests at this wonderful lodge with the most amazing, gracious, generous hosts there could possibly be. Strangely enough, Karen knew the owners because she had spent a weekend there last September and they welcomed us with open arms. Immediately they offered us hot coffee and dry socks. They started a fire so we could start to dry our shoes. They took up a collection of wet clothes from us and threw them into the dryer. This lodge is a fishing lodge that hosts mostly American tourists for 8 or 9 weeks in the summer, at about $6000 a week per visitor. This is the kind of place where they have big-wig guests but they won't tell you they do (and we asked - knowing already that George Bush Sr has visited). They have their own air strip that lands 737 jets during the season. By this time of the year, there are no guests - or not supposed to be guests, but inevitably people get weathered in for various reasons and knock on their door. We weren't the only ones there - a group of 4 Dene natives had arrived the same day after hunting a moose earlier in the day. The summer pilot and one of the summer staff members was still around doing some fishing, plus their female guests. The pilot offered to fly us to Yellowknife gratis the following day, and the lodge hosts offered us beds for the night. A large steak dinner was served up, and wine bottles were endlessly opened all afternoon and evening. We all enjoyed showers and tried to keep from falling asleep as we ate dinner. We made our own breakfast in the morning with their "leftovers" from the season and by noon another float plane, a single engine Otter plane, was loading up to head back to Yellowknife. We've been able to talk to some others who work at the same company as Chuck and Hooman, and we've gleaned from them that the atmosphere is pretty bad, and things aren't looking good for them right now. A lot will depend on the condition of the airplane when it returns, finally. As well Chuck called Karen here last night and reported that he's okay, that Grant from Plummers Lodge boated out to them later in the day with food for the two of them. (What complete sweethearts Grant and Brenda from Plummers are!)So the story is unfinished - what will be the outcomes, we can only guess. What a way to end our travels. So as it's getting mighty cold up here at night, we'll be heading south soon and make our way home. See you all soon!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/traicee/n._america_2005/1127071800/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/traicee/n._america_2005/1127071800/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/traicee/n._america_2005/1127071800/tpod.html Wed, 21 Sep 2005 10:59:07 -0400 Whooo, hooo! Goodbye city life!

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Yelowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada

(Karin & Traicee Collaboration)It was quite sad to say goodbye to the mountains, we had spent the entire summer in their midst and what a feeling of emptiness when you look up and they're not there anymore. Mind you, the prairies has its own charm, especially now that's it Autumn, the stunning fall colours of the trees and the endless rows of haystacks made a drastic, yet beautiful change of scenery.Yellowknife and the part of the Northwest Territories that we've seen have a more subtle beauty than Alaska or the Yukon. Much of the land sits on the rocky Canadian Shield, with some smallish aspen, black spruce, jack pine and tamarack. We have been treated to some outstanding hospitality from my friend Chuck (we went to McMaster together) and his fiancee Karen. Being indoors is certainly a treat!! No more cold feet or cold heads while in our sleeping bags. No more pressure numbness from sleeping on a camping mat. No more wet tents! Hooray!Being amongst Chuck & Karen's friends was one of the more memorable aspects of our travels. Everyone was so welcoming, so easygoing, and we realized that even though they are all so far north and away from their own families and friends, it really isn't that bad when you have such loving people around you. It's an understatement, but Yellowknife is a very tight community. It really made us homesick.Aside from all the lovely people we've met, we took the opportunity to see the landscape on foot, by motorboat, by canoe and yes, by air too!! Yellowknife is surrounded by a network of rivers and lakes, so not surprisingly, fishing and hunting is a popular pastime. We did partake in the former, with Traicee catching 2 Pikes, very exciting for us city folk!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/traicee/n._america_2005/1125858780/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/traicee/n._america_2005/1125858780/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/traicee/n._america_2005/1125858780/tpod.html Fri, 09 Sep 2005 12:13:54 -0400 Whooo, hooo! Goodbye city life!

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Skagway, Alaska, United States

(Karin at the helm..)We've noticed that the weather is getting rainier and colder by the day (and especially the nights). We are sure glad we bought extra pairs of long johns and gloves and turtleneck sweaters before we left Prince George!The Alaskan highway from the Canadian border down to Haines Junction was pretty awful. The melting permafrost has caused a lot of damage to the surface, creating waves and waves of pavement, with large sections crumbled away. We had to drop our speed to 60 km/hr or so after our car bottomed out uneasily on one of the harsher waves. We made our way to camp on the shores of Kluane Lake, and noticed at this point that one of our rear tires was completely bald. Not a bit of tread left on it, and the other was hardly better. Well, our best bet would be to get new tires in Whitehorse, and we'd planned to attempt a backcountry excursion in Kluane Park so the tires would have to wait.We hadn't spent more than 3 minutes in advance learning about Kluane Park - all I knew was that they lend out bear canisters for anyone wanting to do backcountry hikes. With such a lack of planning we couldn't be too disappointed when the Park Ranger patiently made us aware that there's really not much chance of seeing Mount Logan. You certainly cannot hike in to see this mountain in a day or so, it involves some serious techincal mountaineering skills and equipment to get anywhere near it. What we could do was hike overnight along the front range, and watch a film on the interior areas. And this is what we did. The weather was sunny, already such a rareity, and we really wanted to take advantage so we set off on our hike that day.We hiked about 8km or so into a rustic campground (we didn't need their bear canisters because they have food cache poles at this site). We had the place to ourselves. The scenery along the way was spruce forest moving into tundra plains in the subalpine area. A lovely glacial stream rushed nearby the camp and there was plenty of wood available in the area for a nice warm fire. (aside: I think it might be possible in the end, to measure some aspect of quality of your life by the number of campfires you've enjoyed). We thought we might be seeing the beginnings of the aurora borealis, since the skies were so clear, but after a few hours it still seemed a little lacklustre and perhaps those were just clouds after all? We went to our tent to find it frosty and we piled on all the clothes we had with us and got into our sleeping bags. It was still a chilly night. With dawn, the sun warmed the place fairly quickly and we could pack up our site in comfort. We decided to explore off-trail on the plateau a bit, before heading back to the car. The views were quite beautiful from here.We hiked back to our car and tried to drive gingerly (if that's possible) along the road back to Whitehorse. We made it with the tires in tact (though sadly, still bald). We were held up in Whitehorse for a couple days getting the car serviced, so we did a bit of hiking locally and we visited the McBride museum in town where we learned to pan gold. Once fully repaired, we headed out for Alaska, one last time - this time south to Skagway, the coastal town where thousands once poured through to reach the Klondike Gold Strike. Today Skagway is a popular cruise ship stopover and is at one end of the historic White Pass Railway, and the Chilkoot Trail. It is a strange little town. There are over 23 high end jewelery shops in town - more jewelery available than anything else. Traicee and I figure that the shops must have close business ties with the cruise ships - they're there to convince the tourists that jewelery is the proper souvenir to purchase from this stopover. Traic and I went to the cemetery instead. We went to find the famous gravesites of Jeff "Soapy" Smith (a famous really-bad-guy from the goldrush days)and his good-guy killer, Frank Reid. The two died in a classic ol' time shootout in 1898. We camped 9 miles out of town in Dyea (pronounced, Die-yee...dunno what happened to the "a"). Dyea was once a rival town, equal in size to Skagway, but when the railway was built, Dyea dwindled off to a ghost town. We did tour the ghost town but there's not a whole lot left of it other than one false-front from an old realty office and some dips in the ground where privies once stood. There were a bunch of sled dogs doing some summer training in the area, pulling ATVs instead of sleds.We left Dyea and Skagway and started our way south with brief stops at Teslin Lake (where we finally saw amazing Northern Lights), and at Liard Hot Springs before finally reaching Mile "0" of the Alaska Highway in Dawson Creek B.C. This isn't quite the end of our Northerly adventures - our next stop is Yellowknife NWT.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/traicee/n._america_2005/1125268500/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/traicee/n._america_2005/1125268500/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/traicee/n._america_2005/1125268500/tpod.html Tue, 06 Sep 2005 16:45:05 -0400 Whooo, hooo! Goodbye city life!

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Anchorage, Seward, Alaska, United States

Before leaving Dawson City, we'd thought it wise to check in with the Visitor Centre for an update on the fire. We had heard gossip that the fire had hit the highway to Alaska and trees were falling onto the road. Well, indeed the travel advisory notice said "Not Recommended" but, "the hell with it, we're on an adventure!" we thought, as the prospect of driving all the way back to Whitehorse and entering Alaska through the bottom wasn't all that appealing. At worse, we'd see a forest fire up close and have to turn around.So after a sad goodbye to Steve (hey, we miss you a lot!) we hit the road into the smoky haze up into the mountains along Top-of-the-World highway. Once we reached the peak, the smoke was all but gone, and we were treated with fresh air for the first time in many, many days. The landscape had turned to multi-colour tundra and dwarfed trees that were old growth despite their size. Just our luck, we pulled over to find a field of wild blueberries that the bears and other animals had not discovered. They were so delicious, even Sam was grazing them right off the plants. We were as far north as we'd ever be in our lifetimes. Wow, it was damn cold.Arriving at the border crossing, the officer told us that Fairbanks was smoky due to the same forest fire and even Mt. McKinley, the highest mountain in North American could not be seen due to the haze. We decided to head south to Anchorage, a city of 260,000 people believe it or not, and soak up some city life! We were able to ignore the lure of the endless box stores, and found instead the city's farmers' and artists' market and climbed up Flat-top Mountain where we heard it was possible to see Mt. McKinley from the top. We didn't see Mt. McKinley, but the sight was still incredible. We also tried to find a place to get in some dancing, after all, it had been ages since we got our groove on. Well we sure did find a "hip" spot to sample Alaska's local hipsters. It was like a bad prom night with bad hair and all the fixin's and we had a blast none the less people watching. With our fill of city life, we made our quick escape back again to the wilderness towards Seward, a coastal town where we hoped to catch sight of some new animal creatures. The drive to Seward was the most magnificent yet. It started along the inlet, where the tide was low and the glacier snow capped mountains were all around us. Seward was equally magnificant, in it's coastal charming way. Sailing, crusiing, fishing boats off all sizes were everywhere, the smell of the ocean and it's bounty of fish was thick in the air. Sea otters were already floating serenely, napping near the ocean shores and the skies were noisy with the calls of gulls, ravens and other shore birds. Almost every restaurant and store had giant mounted fish on their walls, and of course, huge Alaskan Salmon, Halibut and King Crabs were on the menu. One restaurant had a Halibut mounted that was caught and weighed in at over 300 lbs and about 5 feet long. Sheesh, I would be terrified if I hauled a monster like that out of the water.We decided to hike up Marathon Mountain to kill some time as it was raining and the seas were too rough. We made it up 3/4 way until Karin, the wiser of us two, decided to turn back as the trail looked very muddy and we were already grasping onto trees to keep from slipping. With the peak in sight, me being the more stubborn and foolish, decided to keep going, taking with me my hostage, Sam. Well I got almost to the top, and boy was it sketchy going up. The trees were gone and I was holding onto small shrubs. Then the shrubs ran out and the trail opened up to a wide dirt hillside. You'd think I'd have the brains to turn around, but instead I put on my rain gear, and made a mad dash to the next patch of shrubs. I didn't get more than 5 paces when I slipped and slid right past Sam's bulging eyes down the muddy slope. Sam was on his way down after me and seemed relieved when all the mud between my legs had slowed me enough to grab onto some poor unfortunate shrub. So back down I went, everytime I stood up, and slipped right back down the mountain, sometimes snowplowing Sam in my wake. It was hilarious, I even got mud in my mouth from laughing so hard. Back at the car, stood Karin, clean as a whistle.The next day we decided to splurge and join a 6 hour ocean safari on a unique boat called a Catamaran. We decided to wait a day since a storm rolled in and the seas were reporting 15ft waves. Yikes. The day we did go out, the winds had died down to just 5ft waves, but enough to make us both green and queasy, and for some unfortunate boat mates, up came the delicious smoked salmon lunch they provided on the tour.For the most part, the ocean safari was outstanding. When the boat was at full speed, one had the sensation of being on a roller coaster ride, everyone had a white-knuckled grip on the railing. When it was time to slow down and find animals, we were treated with up close sights of Sea Otters, Sea Lions, Harbour Seals, Mountain Goats, Tufted and Horned Puffins amongst many wonderful sea birds, and of course, some breathtaking views of some glaciers. We stopped for 30mins, and everyone was hushed and silent, in awe of the thunderous booms of the glacier cracking from the inside. A humpback whale was also sighted by only a handful of passengers, and it did not resurface to show itself again as they can dive for more than 30 mins and resurface at very far distances. So alas, our hopes of spotting a whale will have to wait.On our way out of Alaska, we were lucky enough that the Alaskan State Fair was happening in the city of Palmer. I had never seen so many rifle and gun raffles and so many displays of ATVs. They had a livestock showroom, of which I was joyfully elated at petting all the animals, yet a little hungry too...(just kidding). There were contests on the biggest vegetables grown and the best baked goods as well. There was a midway, there were candy apples, there was roasted corn, my goodness, we were in heaven! On our way out of Alaska, we were fortunate to see the Wrangell-St. Elias Mountain ranges on a sunny day. We missed Mt. McKinley, but these mountain ranges have North America's largest assemblage of glaciers and the greatest collection of peaks above 16,000 feet. Mount St. Elias, at 18,008 feet is just a mere 2,312ft shorter than Mt. McKinley, and it was tremendous to see the snow-capped peaks blending in with the clouds. It was very difficult to leave Alaska, it's scenic wilderness of mountains and ocean is truly unforgettable. It's hard to believe that in leaving Alaska, we are now ever driving closer to home. But alas, we still have Yellowknife to conquer! So onwards we must mush! See you all next time!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/traicee/n._america_2005/1124500080/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/traicee/n._america_2005/1124500080/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/traicee/n._america_2005/1124500080/tpod.html Tue, 23 Aug 2005 17:20:29 -0400 Whooo, hooo! Goodbye city life!

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Dawson City, Yukon, Canada

(I guess I'm the only one writing these days...Karin)We drove the Klondike highway, approximately 500km north to Dawson City. We stopped to view the infamous Five Finger Rapids on the Yukon River that old-time steamwheeler boats had to carefully negotiate. It looks like a bit of safe fun if you've got an inner tube...but we didn't. We also stopped at a native centre where they have what they claim to be the world's only Mammoth Snare (lifesize). Apparently when Mammoths were becoming extinct, they became dangerous to humans, so they were hunted. But they weren't eaten because the natives didn't eat anything that eats humans. Let me begin by saying that Dawson City is the most interesting, impressive, and entertaining stop we've reached on all our travels so far. The streets are still of dust/dirt, the sidewalks are still boarded, and many of the buildings that were established in the years following the biggest Gold Strike in the Klondike are still there. Many of them have been refurbished by Parks Canada, some by private owners. There are proabaly six or seven city blocks of unique old-style buildings from the British North American bank, to the brothels, there is plenty to see and enjoy. But Dawson City isn't just a tourist attraction - it is a real live thriving town (thanks both to tourism and an ongoing mining industry) and you get a sense that you're still there to experience a part of living history. It's not a museum. We made sure to go to the rustic looking drinking hole that the locals frequent, called "the Pit". The place was packed with locals at 8pm...we heard a story that on a winter night at the Pit, one colorful local character went out and killed a moose, chopped off his head and brought the bloody dripping head into the Pit and propped it up on the speakers....but no one in the place batted an eye. Pretty much anything goes here. We also went to the restored Palace Grand theatre to watch a silent film, and we gambled a few bucks away at Diamond Tooth Gertie's (all proceeds go to tourism development in town). Although we enjoyed the town tremendously, we did have to cope the whole time with choking smoke from a forest fire several miles away. It says a lot about the appeal of Dawson City that the smoke didn't dissuade us from sticking around. You may be wondering about Steve. Yeah, he's still with us but not for much longer. Dawson City is his last stop on the Ford-Focus Wagon. Steve actually was dragged up on stage at Diamond Tooth Gertie's to participate in a dance number, and his performance was so good the audience voted him as the winner..you can see a photo or two of the event in the album.Before we left Dawson City, we were treated to one last experience: we got to see and touch the Stanley Cup! It turns out that in 1905, when Dawson City was known as the "Paris of the North", it played for the Stanley Cup against the (then) Ottawa Silver Seven (if i recall correctly the team name). It's been 100 years, and now the Cup is visiting the town in commemmoration. There's a photo of the cup for all to enjoy :)We left Dawson City to travel the Top of the World highway (I think there should be highway trading cards with names like these...Top of the World, Going to the Sun Road, Sea to Sky, etc.) and enter Alaska USA along a dirt road ridgeline. Alaska here we come.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/traicee/n._america_2005/1123608540/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/traicee/n._america_2005/1123608540/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/traicee/n._america_2005/1123608540/tpod.html Tue, 23 Aug 2005 17:07:45 -0400 Whooo, hooo! Goodbye city life!

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Banff / Jasper, Alberta, Canada

(this entry from Karin)We left the Hyatt farm in Winlaw and started heading north through the Slocan Valley. This part of the province is really quite beautiful. One of our fellow WWOOFers, Steve, had told us about some undeveloped hot springs down a logging road near Nakusp, so we decided to try and find them. It was a little bit of poke-and-hope, but we tried one route, asked some passersby for directions, and so on until we found it, approx 10 km down another logging road at halfway river (of course we picked the wrong one). The hike down was a little hairy, and I wiped out and twisted my knee, but it truly was worth it. Although it started to rain, Traic and I soaked in these natural hotsprings for about an hour, which were about the temperature of a nice hot bath - a little hotter where the water was bubbling up through the rocks. There's a couple pictures to give you an idea of the spot.We left Nakusp the same day, crossed at the Galena Bay Ferry and made our way to the big town of Revelstoke. It's a railway intersection and a hotbed of heli-skiing and other treacherous sporting activities along the boundary of Mount Revelstoke National Park and Glacier National Park (not the one in Montana, the Canadian one). Some administration chores kept us in Revelstoke for a few days, getting the car serviced, our photos uploaded, groceries, etc. I think this area is the most dense for national and provincial parks in all of Canada. After Mount Revelstoke and Glacier parks comes Yoho and Kootenay parks, and then of course there's Banff and Jasper. We stopped in Yoho for a night, and visited Emerald lake...a good decision. The colour of the lake was just stunning. We also visited Takakaw Falls (say it...it's fun), one of the highest waterfalls in Canada (the highest is also in BC, Della Falls, but we haven't seen it...yet). After Yoho we moved on to Lake Louise in Banff Park. The campground here has an electric fence installed around it - apparently bear visits used to be common, so they had to add this extra security(?) measure. If you visit Banff, I definitely reccomend Lake Louise. It's not as developed as the Banff Townsite (58 km south), but there's still plenty of amenities. Lake Louise is most like Yellowstone Park in terms of its setup. Banff is more like Whistler...or, combine Huntsville and Mont Tremblant (if you haven't been to Whistler). Of course we took advantage of the very recognizable photo spot of Lake Louise from the Fairmont Hotel (I'm sure you'll pick it out from the photo lineup). We also hiked up to Lake Agnes, a 3 km hike with a 385m elevation gain. The views from here were quite amazing. As an added treat there's a teahouse when you get to the top where you can buy tea, of course, or water for $4 per little bottle. We were so thirsty by then, we gave in and paid the price. We did visit Canmore, briefly, and Banff the following day. We hiked by the Cave and Basin area along Sundance Canyon. We started to drive through the downtown area, but we got stuck in traffic and decided to get back on the highway to Lake Louise. The following day we headed out to drive the Icefields Parkway through to Jasper. We were thrilled to unexpectedly run into our former WWOOF partner Steve, hitchhiking along the same highway, so we picked him up and figured out how to squish his stuff in our car too. Now what are the chances, I wonder...He's been with us ever since, and will probably come up to the Yukon with us! It is really nice having him along, although Sam may not be as happy, sharing the space in the backseat :)After setting foot on the Athabasca Glacier and spotting a few other wonders of nature along the Icefields highway, we spent the night in Jasper. We caught a glimpse of Mount Robson the following day, a clear view of the highest peak in the Canadian Rockies. Our refuelling destination, and the place where we would have our wheels aligned was Prince George. I wouldn't recommend the place to anyone...it smells like a pulpmill (sorta like an outhouse) all day long. However, if you are looking for a large Value Village or Salvation Army, or perhaps a Wallmart or Canadian Tire, then this is your place. We spent two nights prepping for the drive northward. Finally, we made our way west from Prince George, to take the scenic highway 37 north to the Yukon.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/traicee/n._america_2005/1124386800/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/traicee/n._america_2005/1124386800/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/traicee/n._america_2005/1124386800/tpod.html Sun, 21 Aug 2005 17:49:49 -0400 Whooo, hooo! Goodbye city life!

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Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada

(this entry by Karin)We drove Hwy 37 into the Yukon. This was a more backroadsy kind of highway with several gravel sections, and we took three days of driving to get North of 60. We followed our guidebook's hint and took the must-see sidetrip along 37A to StewartBC/Hyder Alaska. The route didn't dissapoint, as it rivals the icefields parkway in Banff/Jasper. In some places it is especially cool because the mountains close in around you as you curve around a windy road and have to press your head against the window glass to see sky at all. We passed Bear Glacier which has that beautiful haunting blue tone to the ice. Unlike the Athabasca Glacier on the icefields parkway, you are not able to climb onto this one. There's a big lake separating the road from the glacier. Stewart BC is the little border town at the end of highway 37A, and is ok for restocking supplies, but is otherwise fairly forgettable. Except that it joins with Hyder Alaska. We almost didn't bother to cross the border, but I'm glad we did. Now, this is hardly a border. Hyder doesn't have established transportation networks other than through Stewart, so there was no border patrol to get into the US. And Hyder remains on Pacific time, not Alaska time, and they accept Canadian money as the common currency. That said, there were many Americans who had made their way here. The big big attraction is Fish Creek. About 5 miles (they do use miles) down the gravel road (none are paved here) you pull off to walk onto a constructed boardwalk of sorts, along the creekside to watch Grizzly Bears catch fish. Almost like clockwork, they arrive at 7pm and you get to have a good, fairly safe look at Grizzlies in their wild habitat. We saw three of them, and two of them had a good little chase so we could see their amazing speed and agility. You're toast if one of these wants to have you for dinner, let me promise you that. Wow. We spent about two hours watching the bears before heading back toward the border. The town of Hyder is extremely funky. There's a chinese food vendor in a roadside stall (chip wagon style) alongside some BBQ vendor. There's a modern coffee house and some kitchy shops. Most of the establishments were closed by the time we got there, but the Sealaska Inn had a bar that was open, so we stopped by, hooked up some tunes on the jukebox, played some pinball and drank a cold beer.The next night we stumbled upon a free campsite near Dease Lake and the following day we reached Watson Lake on the Alaska Highway, in the Yukon Territory! I didn't really expect to be excited to reach the Yukon, but I was. Each day the daylight hours get longer and you start to get this buzz of excitement (which does disturb sleeping patterns). Watson Lake was the biggest little town we'd seen in 3 or 4 days, and with 1500 or so people, it isn't very big at all. This is the home of the sort-of famous Sign Post Forest (and for those of you who've read about Brad's travels to the Northland, you may recall this). I did expect a bunch of signs, but this was an even more impressive attraction than I'd thought. It was fun to check out the different signs that folks had left over the years, since 1942 when the first ones were setup. We found one quaint little note written on paper with ink, and stashed in an Altoids box that was nailed to one of the dozens of posts. The note said something like "so and so family was here, on this date". I don't remember the names or the date, but it was certainly a fun artifact to locate. We found a copy of the Motorcyle Diaries for sale at the local Video Store. This film was relatively important inspiration for us in planning this trip this year, and at $9.95, the price was worth it so we bought the DVD and watched it again that night. Although we had seen it before, it was Steve's first viewing and he seemed to enjoy it an awful lot as well. For those who haven't seen it, I highly recommend it. Perhaps the book is better, but since I haven't read it, I don't know.We left Watson Lake the next day, driving the Alaska highway bound for the thriving metropolis of Whitehorse. Whitehorse is the largest city in the Yukon, with 2/3 of the population - just 25000 or so. The city seems bigger than would be needed to service just 25,000 people, and this must be because of the huge volume of summer transients that come along. The highways aren't exactly packed, but RV's outnumber all other vehicles by far, at least at this time of the year. I wish I could say that Whitehorse was thrilling. It was fun to have more daylight again, but except for the lack of stench, it isn't a whole lot more enticing than Prince George. We washed the car for the first time since "Part II" of our trip, that was the most excitement we had in Whitehorse. Oh...one honorable mention is the scarily strange dude at a ranch/campsite that we almost visited. Right out of Deliverance, this guy approached our car with a dazed and confused expression, a pair of overalls, an off-kilter strawhat and an unlikely-to-be-real-but-what-else-would-it-be frazzle of hair, cut in a bob style, poking out from under the hat. I think his teeth were bucked as well, but we didn't stick around for a closer look.We were convinced that the real fun was to be had in Dawson City, so this is where we headed next.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/traicee/n._america_2005/1121812500/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/traicee/n._america_2005/1121812500/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/traicee/n._america_2005/1121812500/tpod.html Wed, 03 Aug 2005 18:59:34 -0400 Whooo, hooo! Goodbye city life!

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Winlaw, British Columbia, Canada

(this entry courtesy of Karin)It has been so long since we've been able to update our progress! Rest assured, we haven't fallen off the face of the earth. We've just been enjoying ourselves in some areas where it is more difficult to hook up to the 'net.After leaving Nelson, we decided to take a weekend to ourselves and to camp in the Slocan Valley, in Valhalla Provincial Park. We rented a canoe and paddled up the lake to a gorgeous spot (boat access only) at Indian Creek Campground. The site was amazingly picturesque, and the weather was perfect. I don't know what it is about canoe trips that really make you feel like you're on vacation, but this one did it...and we've been on vacation for months already! Take a glance at the photos and you may see why. Sandy beach, clear blue water, solitude, green valley and mountain views. The canoeing took us about 3 hours each way, just long enough to tire us out.Sunday night we met our newest WWOOF hosts in Winlaw. When we arrived we realized we weren't the only helpers at the farm...there were already 3 other guys there. Our first impression was that we wouldn't be comfortable here and Traic was already regretting that I had verbally commited to a 2 week stay. I can't say I was comfortable at first either, but I was willing to suspend judgement for a day or two until we got into the swing of things. Funny how things change. The other WWOOFers turned out to be great folks, and our hosts were wonderful people too. We got to feeling quite at home after just a few days. Sam too started to think that this was "his farm". He hung out with the other three farm dogs and just had the time of his life (especially when one of them went into heat).Our daily chores included feeding the pigs slop three times a day, gathering hen eggs a couple times a day, feeding the hens once a day, and picking rasperries (every 2 days). Traic and I decided early that pigs aren't our thing. They are pretty agressive and they smell rancid, although we became slightly more accustomed to the smell after a couple weeks. Chickens on the other hand seem to be more useful. We've been told that the "money" in chickens is in their excrement...fantastic fertilizer. To boot, they lay eggs, and fresh organic eggs don't taste much like the eggs we usually buy at the grocery store. They are fabulous. Aside from the daily chores, we watered and boxed some baby trees for a local tree planting company, built a stone pathway, drywalled and painted their new guesthouse, baked bread and Traic and I looked after the place for a few days when the owners went to Vancouver. This meant cooking and cleaning. The side benefits of WWOOFing are plenty, and we didn't expect them. The social aspect was very welcome after so many weeks of travelling together and talking mostly to one another. We learned a bit about Qi gong, we celebrated our host Julie's 50th Birthday with her in town (small town, small restuarant, everyone showed up). We enjoyed a turkey roasted on a spit over an open fire, we learned how to play Texas Hold em Poker, and we read some of Bryce's books by Bert Hellinger...it turns out we don't totally dig Hellinger after reading them, but they were interesting nonetheless. I won't say more here. If you're interested you can Google him. We visited a local hippie comune where 11 co-inhabitants do yoga together every day and eat only raw food. They looked healthy, but that wasn't our scene either. We were there mostly to see the architecture/art. They built their village using strawbales. There's a bunch of photos to give you a feel for the place. Definitely artsy. The forty something proprietor/owner calls himself "Raw"...that is his name...and his head is shaved with a detailed swirl of tatoos.After two weeks at the farm, we decided to take our leave and head out once again, as tourists. This time we're on our way to Alaska. We'll update you as frequently as we possibly can!! Please drop us a line - we'd love to hear from you.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/traicee/n._america_2005/1121132340/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/traicee/n._america_2005/1121132340/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/traicee/n._america_2005/1121132340/tpod.html Wed, 03 Aug 2005 18:37:55 -0400 Whooo, hooo! Goodbye city life!

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Nelson, British Columbia, Canada

We spent another fantastic week in Vancouver hiking and exploring the many parks close to the city. We finally spotted a rare sighting of 2 Greater Sandhill Cranes while hiking in Burns Bog (thanks Don! you da' bird man!) in Delta, BC. We also managed to hike the Grouse Grind twice, and the second time around, we discovered when we returned to the car, that we had left the keys to the steering wheel lock at Kev's apartment, a 3hr bus ride there and back from the mountain. Dumb. Oh yeah, we also forgot to mention our other car woes, Sam ripped out the stuffing of the driver and passenger seats during a thunderstorm and our car window was smashed in downtown Vancouver, Karin's wallet being the casualty. The thief had used Karin's credit cards to get a taxi to McDonald's and then to the liquor store to round out his wild night out on Big Macs and Beer. Well, all signs were telling us to get out of Vancouver, so off we went (with delicious baked goods from Leah *yum*) for our first volunteer experience with "Willing Workers On Organic Farms (WWOOF)" to Nelson, BC. We were pleasantly surprised to find that Nelson is home to a lot of young backpacking transients. Everyone was hitch hiking and the air of the town was very earthy, hippie and open, and yes very "weedy" too ;). It was gorgeous and hot to boot, which is why we haven't written in so long, we've just been too damn happy and busy to find an internet cafe. Our WWOOF hosts were a young family that just finished building their 2 level straw bale home. We spent about 9 days helping with landscaping and got to meet such wonderful people. It's one thing we've been so pleased about the WWOOFing experience, is being able to get settled down for a few days and really get to know the local people, explore the local area that we would have otherwise driven past trying to get somewhere else. We met a lot of Quebec'ers and French people at this particular place, and it was unusual that the language around the place was predominantly French. It was great, we got to practice our listening skills, rocked out to some cool Quebec tunes and met some awesome Quebec'ers (that's you Natacha!). Another highlight was being able to play with our hosts' kids, 2 year old Yael and 6 month old Seth, adorable little boys. It sure did make us teary for you baby Tori! We also toured the local Waldorf school that was also specifically designed and built with straw bales and again, we were so impressed with the style and soundness of the building. It just so happened that Nelson and the surrounding areas nearby was a hot spot for straw bale building projects. Lucky us! After a tearful goodbye to our hosts, we left to go to our next WWOOF hosts up in the Slocan Valley. There we would learn about farming and gardening, yippee!
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