2008 - August Highlights

Our plans changed when I had the surgery to reconnect the quads in my left leg to my knee because I couldn't bend the knee for a month and needed to be near my doctor at the Mat-Su Regional Medical Center in Palmer, Alaska.  BTW, the Emergency room doctor invited Pat to his house and she came back with some wonderful smoked salmon.  Anyway, we ended up staying at the Big Bear RV Park in Palmer and cancelled our plans to go to Fairbanks.

Pat tried to get a discount by doing some baby sitting.  It didn't work.

Pat drove us to Denali and we took the National Park Service 30 miles tour.  We'd have taken a longer tour, but they were sold out.  As it was it had snowed the day before and the day of our tour was one of the few clear days during the year that Mt. McKinley was visable, and the tour driver took us in another 20 miles or so as a bonus to get a better look.  Dnali National Park has a variation of the "Brown Bear" of what we might call a "Grizzly Bear," a blond bear.  Its coat is a lighter cover because of its diet in the park.  We saw the bears, a fox and a young wolf.

Our guides with Pat

Time to head back and our first stop was Destruction Bay north of Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory.  The campground is on a lake like many lakes in Northern Canada, with no sign humans. 

We drove to Skagway, Alaska and took The Juneau Express to Juneau.

We rode by Haines, Alaska and a fisherman displayed his halibut.

In Juneau

an avid McDonalds fan

Mendenhall Glacier

When we got back on the boat the Captain told us he'd been watching a pod of whales offshore and we went out to watch for awhile.

Then something amazing happened.  Our Captain had been born and brought up in Haines, Alaska and had piloted a freighter from Dutch Harbor to Seattle and back and never seen the show put on for us.  I'll confess that most of these pictures are not mind.  I didn't have the presence of mind to stop looking and take pictures.

We drove down the White Pass into Skagway and took the White Pass Train back up for a better look.  When we arrived in Skagway there were several cruise ships in port and the town was bustling.  The next day the ships left and the town was a ghost town. 

Our campground had a dual function.

The Red Onion Saloon.

The White Pass

2008 - July- Wasilla, Hatcher Pass and Willow, Alaska

We took a horse ride off the beaten path near Wasilla and probably enjoyed the guide and animals at least as much as the ride. 

Scenery is always fantastic.

Pat's horse had a constant companion.

She thought she was a horse.

It's a dog's world.

Pat found a foot stool.

In the next couple of days we took an ATV ride out a rugged trail to a hill overlooking a wet area below with hopes of spotting a moose or bear, and a glacier across the flat.  We climbed a good way up the hill on the ATVs and then the guide told us we'd have to walk up the last part because it was too steep and too slippery for the ATVs.  I should have examined that statement a bit harder as I slipped and fell, and tour the quads out of my left knee.  I don't have pictures, but know you know why I'm wearing a brace in some future pictures. 

Hatcher's Pass is a mountain pass through the southwest part of the Talkeetna Mountains about twelve miles north of Wasilla, Alaska.  I was disabled, so Pat took the Jeep on the track through the mountain pass while it was raining lightly and spitting some snow.

Holding on tight.

Notice the winding track.

It's faint in the distance, but this is Mt. McKinley from Willow,  Alaska, about one hundred miles away.

2008-July- Big Lake, Alaska

Martin Buser has run the Iditarod every year since 1986 and has won four times and been in the top ten sixteen times.  In 2002 he and his team finished in the second best time in history.  We visited his home and kennels, Happy Trails Kennels on July 15, 2008. 

Pippin was a bit shy.

They use wheels to exercise the dogs.

 Future winners

Mrs. Buser was a gracious host while Martin was out of town.

Spot, the pet dog

The end of Happy Trails Kennels