We arrived home yesterday, August 9, 2017 at about 1:40 PM. Yes, we are very glad to be home. We had a great time on the trip, but 9 weeks and 2 days is a long time to be living on the road, with only 2 night stay overs here and there along the way. We saw a lot of sights we’d never seen before, and reveled in the beautifully wild scenery. Our appreciation of the environment and history was enhanced by national, state and provincial parks and museums. We saw enough wild country and wildlife to be able to say that those early settlers were freaking crazy! So much was done on foot, and one’s living comfort was limited to what one could carry. Nothing at all like our little jaunt, where the biggest hardship was lack of cell phone coverage.

In any case, we are home, and grateful to be here. I would recommend a trip like ours to anyone with the ability and resources to take it. It helped me remember how wonderful it is to just be alive.

Here’s our trip odometer – 9,999.9 miles, 8 weeks traveling, and still going. 

We’ve only got about 1,346 miles to go. The map shows Google’s preferred route, which is not the one we are taking, but close enough. 

July 30, 2017:

Here we are, back in the States at last! Tomorrow begins our ninth week on the road, but today is our first day “stateside” since July 11 and our first day in the lower 48 since June 21.  Our first night back, we are overnighting at Old Mill State Park, Minnesota. 

Here is a shot of the flour mill for which the park is named. The milk was founded by an immigrant Swede named Lars Larson, Sr. It was originally a water powered mill, but quickly converted to steam power. The park still holds “grinding days” twice a year, to commemorate these early developments of industry in this region. 

There is also a stand of Scotch Pines next to the mill which are descendants of the original Scorch Pines Mr. Larson planted using seeds from “the old country”. Yes, the Scotch Pines came from Sweden. I don’t know the explanation for that. 

The original Scotch Pines planted by Mr. Larson are still alive and well at the site of the original water powered mill. Regrettably none of my tree pictures will upload right now, but hey, they are Scotch Pines! Not an unusual sight in the states, I’m thinking. 

So: we’re back – mostly, sort of. 

This is a little gem of a provincial park – an oasis in the Qu’Appelle Valley. I only have a few pictures of our campsite, but hopefully they will give an idea of the comfort this park offers. The lake itself is very popular with boaters of all sorts, and with our dog, Sophie. If this park was closer to home, we would certainly come back. 

The valley seems to be mostly First Nations reservations, and dry land agriculture, particularly wheat. It is deep and flatish, and comes as a bit of a surprise, situated as it is in the midst of apparently unending prairie. There you are driving along in the middle of a flat landscape as far as the eye can see in all directions, and suddenly there is a steep downward grade that emerges into this long skinny valley. 

Our campsite and fireplace – the towels are for Sophie, who has just returned from a swim in the lake. Out can see what she thinks of their utility!

Above is Larry listening to a book and staring off into the fire – one of his favorite camping activities. 

It’s official: we are coming home now. After touring through the Yukon’s provincial and national forests, we headed to Jasper National Park, and followed the Icefields Parkway as far south as route 11, just past the Banf National Park border. After days of rugged beauty, iffy roads and no cell phone service, we realized we missed our home and the simple comforts: like hot showers any time you want and a really comfortable bed. 

So we headed east and went around Edmonton, then south to Saskatoon. Today we are headed to a provincial park east of Regina. We have decided to add one more tour on the way home: we want to to see Michigan’s upper peninsula. We have to go by there to get home anyway. 

We are also proceeding more slowly than we did while heading toward Juneau. With no other schedules to match, we are taking a couple of nights in some places, just to “rest up” from all of the driving. We have traveled 9,325 miles so far on this trip. That is a lot of driving!

This section of Canada is much more developed than the Yukon Territory and British Columbia. There is cell phone coverage nearly everywhere, and the campsites at provincial parks include electric connections, with flush toilets (no more pits) and access to showers in the bathrooms. The mountains have given way to plains, and agriculture seems to be flourishing. One aspect of the terrain is consistent though: the land is still vast. These plains have gone on for days, with no end in sight. 

There is also one aspect of Canada that seems a lot like upstate New York. Apparently Canada has the same 2 seasons we do: winter and road construction. The road maintenance efforts seem more effective in Saskatchewan than in the western provinces. Most roads are smooth – pot hole and frost heave free. We can actually travel at the posted speed limit!

Today’s photos are courtesy of the rest area at Davidson, SK: the largest coffee pot I’ve ever seen, and some “historical road building equipment.”

We stayed at Chilkoot Lake just outside Haines for two nights, giving Larry time to try fishing in the Chilkoot River. This river is a salmon run and Canada’s fish and game department maintains a weir there to try to encourage the Chinook salmon over the other varieties. Larry got 2 fish, and a fairly close look at a bear, just across the river from him. That’s plenty close enough in my book. (No photos in this post – they will come later, after I get them off the camera.)

July 11, 2017: We traveled to Lake Kathleen, where we learned about a species of fresh water salmon. These fish are believed to have evolved from the more typical sea living salmon which became trapped in the lake when a glacier blocked the path to the sea. Unfortunately, these fish are failing now, and no one knows why yet. 

July 12, 2017: Wednesday’s camp was the Takini River Campground, just 8 km north of the Kusuwa Lake campground. Getting there required driving over 15 km of very hilly, very washboarded dirt and gravel road. It was a really nice campground, with plenty of room and well kept pit toilets, but no showers. Ah well…

July 13, 2017: Thursday we traveled to the Takini Hots Springs just outside of Whitehorse. We had traveled just over 6000 miles by this point, and it was high time to change the oil in the truck! We also took advantage of the wifi st the Whitehorse public library to catch up on email and the like. We finished up the day with dinner at the Hot Springs Cafe, which specializes in crepes. The savory crepes we had were very good, but they were overshadowed by the appetizer of Pommes Dauphine – little puffs of fluffy seasoned mashed potatoes, tempura fried and served with a light honey sauce. They were great!

We went to the hot springs pool on Friday, and took advantage of their showers, and of course had a long soak in the hot water. It was wonderful. 

July 15, 2017: Saturday we are driving to Boya Lake on route 37. Another really beautiful site, full of woods and water. We decided to stay over Sunday, in the hope of getting in some hiking and fishing. Regrettably, it rained all day, so we stayed in and read books instead. 

The weather has been pretty consistently rainy since we hit Skagway on the way to Juneau. We did have a couple of days of sun in Juneau, and a couple of nice days since passing Haines Junction, but not more than a handful in the past 17 days. 

July 17, 2017: We are on our way to Kinaskan Lake, down route 37. This area of British Columbia has almost no development whatsoever. Even Jade City, reputed to be the largest single jade producer in the world, is limited to a handful of houses, a tourist shop and a gas station. 

There is no way to adequately capture and convey the experience of driving through this land. The mountains are just enormous and seem to go on forever. They are rugged, jagged, steep and tall – so tall that the tops of many of them are obscured by the clouds overhead. Their sides are either covered by woods or the deitritis of landslides – fortunately, not too many landslides; mostly the green of fir trees and some variety of aspen. The experience of being surrounded by this vast, towering landscape just can’t be described on a flat page, with either words or pictures. 

There is reputed to be abundant wildlife in this wilderness as well. Certainly we have been able to observe some fish in the lakes and streams, and today we have seen a moose and a bear ambling along the side of the road. They each turned away and disappeared into the woods as soon as they realized there  was a vehicle on the road, so no pictures. 

There aren’t many vehicles on the road either, so the wildlife can browse on the roadside for quite a while without being disturbed. Nor is there any cell phone service. One really does not want to breakdown along this stretch of road. 

July 18, 2017: We spent last night at the Bell 2 Lodge, well south of Kinaskan Lake, on the Bell River. We had reached Kinaskan Lake early in the afternoon, and just decided to keep driving – no schedule, no constraints, total freedom of choice – gotta love it!
We stopped at Bell 2 for the access to showers, and they did have lovely shower facilities, for which they did not charge an extra fee. This is a bit unusual in our experience so far. They did, however, charge an extra fee for access to wifi – $22.50 CAD per hour! Needless to say, we didn’t opt for that extra. We were still out of cell phone range, and so I continue this log offline, to post later. 

I also had my first experience of a “meat pie” – essentially meat loaf shaped like a large sausage and wrapped in pastry. It is an experience I hope never to repeat. Mind you, I am not a fan of meat loaf on the first place. It always gives me indigestion. True to form, I was still tasting this “pie” 3 hours and two antacids later. The pastry was light and flaky, though. 

Today we are headed for “the Hazeltons” – South Hazelton, New Hazelton and Old Town Hazelton. We are also looking for some warm, dry, sunny weather.