Priorities

Anna-

"Whatever we do we cannot leave Tok without buying beer."

Me-

"Oh right... that's a MUST!"


At which point we search Tok for an open liquor store, buy the 6-pack and head out of town...


An hour later Anna says:


"How much gas do we have?"

Me:

"mmmmm, oh, look, the yellow light is on"... the one that warns you are low on gas

Anna:

"Uh, that sign just said 60 miles to the next gas"

Me:

"Shit..."

Our Subaru has a function that tells you how much gas you have left before running out... it said 60...


60 miles later... on fumes we barely make it to a gas station and fill up.


Leave it to Anna and I to go out of our way to make sure we've got beer in the cooler, but to totally forget to get gas on the Alcan highway. A highway that is famous for very long distances between gas stations.

Can you believe they let us take Ella home?

m

Haines to Canada to Weight Watchers...

So yesterday we finally left the Inside Passage and headed north into Canada. The most striking aspect of the day was the quick change from the Inside Passage’s small fishing villages to wide open and huge mountain landscapes. When we left Haines, this is what we saw:

An hour later this is where we were…

We both remarked that the farther north we went the more “Alaskan” it felt; the road north into the mountains validated this point. Well the “Alaskan” didn’t last that long as we crossed over the Canadian border about 40 miles out of Haines… but you get the point.

We had been in Haines AK, where we spent a great 3 days relaxing and going for small hikes. “Small,” because if we don’t time our hikes right (around Ella’s nap) we are unable to go for long hikes. Ella, I love her to death, is paying my karmic tab by having tons of energy and a strong distain for being strapped in a stroller (or walking in a straight line, or staying away from edges). Unfortunately this means short hikes, and more time to eat… Weight Watchers here we come!

In Haines I did get a half day of fishing and caught a handful of nice sized salmon. Also, at one point, I looked up on the bank by the cars and there were about 5 sightseers looking out at the river… which wasn’t that odd… but what WAS odd was that all the other fishermen and women were standing there too… and what continued to be odd was that I was the only person IN the river. This was the part where I started to get the point and there about 50 yards in front of me, chasing salmon, was a brown bear. Now I know I can be a knucklehead, but can you believe that not one of the other fisherpeople warned me? I was a bit surprised by that one… maybe they wanted to give the German tourists a REAL look at Alaska… a good ol’ mauling.

Here's the bear...

From Haines we went into BC Canada and then into the Yukon, which has some of the most desolate and beautiful scenery I have EVER seen. The pics cannot do it justice, but here are a couple.

Last night we ended up at a roadside cabin that had $12 camping spots… which after a slew of $150/night rooms, we decided to go against Anna’s “I don’t camp for accommodation anymore,” and camped… we should ALWAYS listen to Anna. The guy who showed us around was a nice Yukonian (I made that up) who showed us the best places to camp. However, he also forgot to tell us (until after all 50 tent stakes were in the ground) that he needed to turn the generator on until “about 10:00 PM.” Now this wasn’t a brand new Honda generator that purrs. It was a massive, straight out of World War II, clunker of a generator. This sucker roared like a sick Harley-Davidson, and was essentially 50 yards from our “best camping spot.” Thankfully he turned the sucker off around 9:00, at which point Ella fell asleep. (But wait… it gets better). The quiet was absolutely unbelievable. We were far away from anything that would make the slightest noise, and there was no wind, which meant it was dead quiet… until


(Here’s how this played out:)
Absolute quiet, asleep in the tent…

door slam, and I'm slightly awoken… quiet…

rumble rumble rumble ROOOOOOOOOOOOAR! SICK HARLEY-DAVIDSON….

“shit” now i'm fully awake… waiting… waiting… “shit, now I need to pee…” sneak out of bed, don’t wake Anna (as if she wasn’t already awake)… do my business…

Return to tent to Anna sneezing, and blowing her nose, which happens like clockwork whenever she wakes up in the AM… (very annoying for all involved)…“WTF!? Why did he put that generator on? What friggan time is it?”

Me “Oh it’s probably close to 6:00 AM… let me check my watch…” find watch… 3:50… “It’s 3:50”….

Anna “WHAT! OH MY WTF!!!!!!!! Okay, at least Ella's asleep DON'T wake her up.”

Me “okay,” at which point I shift Ella's sleeping bag and promptly wake her up... and she starts coughing and coughing and coughing… and pauses, looks at Anna and I with a very confused look on her face and promptly throws up smack dab in the middle of our sleeping area.”

Anna- “Let’s get out of here.”

So at 4:15 on a freezing (37 degrees) morning I break down our tent and pack the car while Anna tries to change Ella and entertain her in the front seat of the car. It was a miserable AM.

Currently we are in Tok (pronounced “Toke”… like on a pipe) where we’ve spent a leisurely day after a 300+ mile trip. The good news about leaving at 5:00 in the AM is that you get to your destination early… unless your destination is Tok, at which point you spend the day wishing you had drove on. Also, Anna and I managed to find the health food store (probably the only health food store within a 500 mile radius) and promptly ordered a death by chocolate milk shake. Remember the Weight Watchers comment?

Tomorrow we head to Lake Louise (thanks Darren for the suggestion… we better like it!). The next day (Saturday) we’ll roll into Anchorage and start looking for a house to rent. We have an appointment to see a great place on Monday, so hopefully we’ll have secured a house by early next week. We then plan on heading down the Kenai Peninsula for another week of antics and then back to Anchorage the last week of August. Anna starts August 31st.

Hope all is well with you...

Matt and Anna and Ella

New friends, change in weather and a glacier

Since we last wrote we took the ferry up to Juneau on what turned out to be a spectacular 12 hour journey up the inside passage. The weather was stunningly beautiful, the water was glass, and the views were absolutely mind blowing. It felt like we’d truly entered Alaska as there were huge peaks all around us, glaciers, and quant fishing villages tucked in the most out of way places. We also saw about 30 Humpback whales both breaching and bubble feeding.

The trip was also fantastic in that we met Bob and Becky. Now, I tend to strike up conversation with most anyone, which usually drives Anna crazy due to the fact that I have the tendency to find really annoying people who want to tell us all about their medical problems (one woman I started a conversation with and abruptly left, shared her entire gynecological history with Anna… she used the words “vaginal area” about 10 times). However, with Bob and Becky, I struck gold. I’m not sure who started the conversation, but within about 10 minutes we were all fast friends. They are from Jackson Hole WY, and completely solidified my goal to do a family trip there next summer… Taylors/Andrees or Dowlings… who ever gives the green light first. They also love to hike, fish, travel, and have spent a great deal of time in our most favorite places in the Southwest (Fish and Owl canyon, the Paria, Buckskin Gulch, Zion, the Mokie Dugway to name a few). {Note to John Radloff: what’s the name of that canyon you love to hike near Green River? Quandary?} By the end of the ferry ride Anna and I were a bit concerned that Bob and Becky thought we were stalking them as we really enjoyed their company and kept “running into” them and striking up conversation. However, our fears were allayed when they invited us over for dinner after we landed in Juneau… they’re travelling in an RV so this was our official first RV dinner party. They don’t have one of those huge honking suckers, and they might have won me over on the merits of RV’ing.

The other thing Juneau brought us was a change in weather. Throughout this whole trip we have had the most perfect weather… like I said in a previous blog, people keep remarking how SE AK “never gets this much sun.” However, the weather finally turned, and did so on the day we started camping. Our tent wasn’t up for more than 2 seconds when the first drops started falling, and it kept raining until we drove away from our camp 3 days later… at which point the weather started improving. Travelling with a 19-month old is challenging enough, but try travelling with a 19-month old, in bear country where you can’t have even a scent of food in the tent (ever seen a 19-month old eat anything… they wear most of it), all while it’s raining. Trust me… there wasn’t enough beer in AK to drown out our sorrow that first night. However, after we figured out our system and moved our camp from a mosquito bog to a rather nice riverside site, we managed quite well. This was the camping trip where Anna stated “I officially don’t camp for accommodation to save money anymore. If we’re not camping someplace beautiful, we’re in a hotel!” Yes dear!

The sign that greets you on your picnic table at your AK campsite:

We also spent a day hiking near the Mendenhall Glacier, which is a beautiful and huge glacier. In 1990 the glacier receded at a rate of 60 feet per year… today it recedes at 200 feet per year. In 2004, which was the hottest summer on record in Juneau, the glacier receded 600 feet. 2009 is turning out to be as hot as 2004. The forest service is now acknowledging that human impact (global warming) is speeding up the retreat of all glaciers in AK.

The Mendenhall Glacier

Anna and I in our desperation to do a good hike, stuffed Ella into her Bob (stroller on roids) and took her on a beautiful hike near the Mendenhall… see pics below. We ended up carrying the Bob about a ¼ of the hike, and Ella slept for the entire 2 hours we were on the trail.

Our hike... why we had to carry the Bob

Ella slept through most of this hike... Mendenhall in background

Like I said before, we’re currently in Haines AK where we’ll spend a few days exploring, hiking, fishing, and hopefully bear watching. Then we head north to Anchorage and should land there around the 15th.

I couldn't resist a few cute pics of Ella

Curly head

Anan Bear Observatory

(So before I start this next edition of Ella goes to AK, I must take a moment to give credit where credit is due. Like my dad once said "good writing is good editing," and I am travelling with a great editor. This is for sure a co-created blog with Anna and I writing and Ella running around trying to find something to fall off, jump into, or poke metal things into...)



As I write this I am currently at the Stikine Inn on Wrangell Island in Southeast AK. In the lower 48 the rooms at the Stikine could be rented by the hour, but on Wrangell Island one pays $150/night… welcome to Alaska. I was lulled into a sense of excitement when the website said “Wrangell’s only waterfront hotel,” but they failed to mention that it’s the ONLY hotel in Wrangell… waterfront or otherwise. Our room has shag carpet, which I think went out of style in the 70’s, and unfortunately I think this carpet was bought in the early 70’s.




However, one doesn’t come to Wrangell for the accommodations but instead comes to Wrangell for the natural beauty, the Stikine River (fastest free flowing undammed river in North America) and for Anan Bear Observatory. Since we figured Ella would not enjoy a 5 hour boat tour, we chose the Anan Bear Observatory. And we’re really glad we did! Anan Bear Observatory is essentially a deck with a blind where one can see both Black and Brown (Grizzly) bears feeding on wild salmon. Usually Black and Brown bears avoid each other (rather Blacks avoid Browns since Browns are on the top of the food chain and will kill Black bears), but since the fish are so plentiful in this area the bears tacitly agree not to try to kill each other during fishing season.




To get to Anan we left the dock at 7:00 AM (sans coffee) and took a 1 hour jet boat trip southeast of Wrangell where we were met by a Forest Service ranger who explained to us that we shouldn’t bring food, get separated, or surprise a bear. However, in case a bear got a hankering for a plump tourist, our guide had a huge shot gun and a large canister of bear spray. To get to the observatory we walked through the woods for about a mile… below you'll the first bear we saw… on the trail: a 3-year old Grizzly female.




After this grizzly decided to go back to the stream we walked up to the observatory where I took about 200 pictures… of which about 190 were blurry. Below are some of the better pics:
Needless to say… being able to see wild bears feeding in their natural habitat was quite exhilarating, and a highlight of our trip thus far. Even Ella really enjoyed watching the bears, and has taken on dada’s tendency to yell “hey bear” whenever we walk in the woods. It’s very cute, and I will try to capture this on video, but we’ll be walking along and you’ll hear “hi bear… hi bear” out of little Ella… it’s quite cute.




Tomorrow we get back on the ferry for Juneau… more to follow when we get there.


Our guide and his gun

The first bear we saw on the trail... a 3 year old Grizzly female

My mama bear and cub

Cub bear... very blurry

Grizzly feeding

2 Black bears vying for feeding space... right after this pic they started fighting... very cool

Black bear on log

An example why you want to eat at reputable sushi restaurants... this is a female black bear with about 4 tape worms coming out of her tail end. They get them from feeeding on the salmon. YUK!

SE Heckman Cabin

Southeast Heckman Cabin-


I am writing this blog for those of you planning on going to Heckman Lake near Ketchikan AK. When planning for my recent trip there I found there to be a dirge of information on this area and kept wishing there was more information. I kept thinking, “I wish someone who’s been there had written a blog on this area…” so now that I’ve been there I figure I should be that person.


I’ve only been there once, and this is the first time I’ve even been to AK, so please do not consider this to be an exhaustive write up. Rather this is my chance to share with you what I learned about the Heckman Lake area so that you can add it to your own research.


We stayed at SE Heckman Cabin, which is one of 2 Forest Service cabins on this Heckman Lake. There is a private cabin at the southern end of the lake, which is at the inlet to Heckman. SE Heckman cabin is tucked up about 40 feet above the lake and has its own dock and skiff. The cabin has a ramp and appears accessible for someone in a wheel chair. The cabin itself is well cared for and is an easy place to hang out for a few days to a week. There are no established trails from this cabin, and the brush is very thick, so I think bushwhacking would be a frustrating experience. Therefore you will rely heavily on the Forest Service boat to get anywhere on the lake. I HIGHLY recommend renting an outboard motor from Ketchikan, as trying to row up and down that lake would be a very arduous task… especially with the head wind that blows from the north throughout the day. If you want to get to the good fishing, at the inlet and outlet and along the river to Jordan Lake and Naha Bay, I personally think you’d regret not having a motor.


As far as fishing goes, I had the worst luck ever! I fished everything on my vest twice, and didn’t even get a nibble. I think this is very rare for this lake, and according to the locals in Ketchikan the weather was too warm for good fishing and wildlife viewing. It was 90 degrees in Ketchikan during our stay, which is very unusual for SE Alaska. So, instead of thinking I suck at fishing (which is probably closer to the truth) I’ll blame it on the warm weather. Don’t get me wrong, the weather was awesome and made hanging out at the cabin that much better.


We took the boat up to the northern end of the lake to the other Forest Service cabin to take the trail to Jordan Lake. The other forest service cabin is much smaller, lacks a good view from the deck, and when it’s sunny it gets blasted with heat. However, it’s closer to the good fishing, and you aren’t necessarily dependent on the boat (and motor)… unless you want to go to the other end of the lake to the inlet. The trail to Jordan Lake is 90% boardwalk. Whoever built this trail deserves a metal! It’s a beautiful trail that meanders alongside and above the river to Jordan Lake. We didn’t see any wildlife (other than a frog), but saw very fresh bear scat in multiple spots. I didn’t get the chance to fish this section, but according to others who have, it’s apparently “world class.” If we weren’t travelling with our 18-month old daughter we would have walked the 6 miles to Naha Bay. If you are inclined to do a 12 mile round trip hike, this sounds like a beautiful hike down to the ocean.


Speaking of our daughter, this was a great trip for a kid. She loved puttering around in the boat, swimming near the dock and at the inlet, and playing on the cabin’s large deck. She also loved the float plane trip. As we were leaving the cabin another family was just landing to take over the cabin. It was a family of 5 with 3 boys all under the age of 11. They’d been to the cabin before and also said it was a great place for kids.


Logistics:The easiest way to get to Heckman Lake is by float plane, and I highly recommend going with Southeast Aviation (http://southeastaviation.com/flight.html). The guy who runs Southeast Aviation, Jim Kosmos, is probably the nicest guy in Ketchikan, and he bent over backwards to help us out with our trip planning. He knows who to contact to get gear, the motor for the boat, a satellite phone, etc. His website has a link to all the Forest Service Cabins. He can also help you decide which cabin is best for your needs. There are a ton of aviation companies in Ketchikan, but I find it hard to believe you’ll find a better one than Southeast Aviation.


The Forest Service also makes booking a cabin a very easy process… it’s all on -line, and easy to do. You can’t book a cabin more than 6 months in advance, and in my experience you should book sooner than later. I booked the cabin 6 months to the day we wanted the cabin.


Food… bring whatever you want. We had a double burner Coleman stove, a large cooler, and a large box with non-perishables. We also brought 3 bottles of wine, and regret we didn’t pick up any beer. If you can pack it and cook it, bring it… you won’t regret it.


The Forest Service at The Discovery Center in Ketchikan can provide some information about the cabin and area.


Bears… we didn’t see any bears or signs of bears near our cabin, but as I said before we did see plenty of signs of bears along the trail to Jordan Lake. We travelled with bear spray and made lots of noise along the hike.


I hope this was helpful to you, and if you would like to contact me to ask any other questions please feel free to email me at mattdowl@gmail.com


Good luck and have fun
Matt









Kitchen Area

Forest Service Boat

View of SE Heckman from dock