Down the Alcan: Haines Junction to Watson Lake

Today we traveled 400 miles more on the Alcan from Haines Junction to Watson Lake. The view from our motel room door was gorgeous, although it was a little cool at 15 degrees.

The sun shining on the mountain peaks was spectacular.

All day we traveled through fall colors and past many lakes and rivers and mountains.

We crossed over the Canadian Rockies.

Again, some of these shots were taken out the windshield or from the side window so there may be some glare or spots. The morning hours were sunny and the glare made this not a good option, but as we got near the Continental Divide the day clouded over.

A few minutes after we crossed the Continental Divide we pulled into a turnout. There were two ravens there that I was able to get many photos of. I'll do a post later on the ravens.

As we dropped down on the east side of the Rockies we ran into snow again. There was none on the road, but it looked like there had been a few inches of snowfall this morning.

We ended our day at Watson Lake. This is the signpost forest there. One of the workers on the Alaska Highway in 1942 hung his hometown sign on the Army Corp of Engineers sign and it has grown since then, with signs and license plates from around the world. More on this later.

We ended our journey here because there was some doubt about whether the Liard Hot Springs Resort was still open. Many of the facilities along the Alcan are closed after Labor Day and often a couple hours between places to stay. When the message on their phone was "Leave a message" and our waitress said she had heard that they were closed, we decided to play it safe and stay in Watson Lake. Tomorrow we'll be heading south into British Columbia.

Down the Alcan: Fairbanks to Haines Junction

We headed out of Fairbanks this morning at 9:00 and made it to Haines Junction by 7:00 Alaska time but with an hour's time change it was 8:00. They are about 500 miles apart. When we left Fairbanks it was 31 degrees with a light snow. It stayed that temperature most of the day and got to 38 degrees around Kluane Lake where we started to see more fall colors. I'll fill in some later on when I've had time to sift through my photos more, but below are some of the sights we saw. The first photo was taken north of Delta Junction and is of the Tanana River.

The Alcan officially starts, or ends, depending on which way you are driving, at Delta Junction.

When you live in Fairbanks and want to drive to the Lower 48, the Alcan becomes the means to get there and not a destination. With that in mind, we are trying to make fairly good time. Although Marty did make several stops for me to take photos, they were quick stops and then we were back on the road. Also, there is not always a good spot to pull over, so I took many photos out the windshield and the side window. On a few of the photos you might see some glare from the window, or those out the windshield might show a few dirt specks. It is not easy keeping a clean windshield driving on Alaska and Yukon roads.

Here we were at the border crossing into Canada. One way you see the Yukon sign.

Looking back you see the Alaska sign.

To the left is Canada and to the right is Alaska.

Below is one of the signs they have posted at the border.

The next shots were taken between the border and Haines Junction.

All along there are beautiful mountains and there was very little traffic. Most of the tourists have already hightailed it out of the Far North before the cold weather.

Below is Kluane Lake. It is a large lake that you drive around for quite a while.

The last photo was taken a short ways out of Haines Junction.

We'll be back on the road in the morning and will probably do about the same mileage as today, with our target Liard Hot Springs. Our plan is to relax a little there and soak in the warm water. More photos to come!

On the Road

Tomorrow morning we are heading out on our roadtrip down the Alcan. It used to be travel in Alaska wasn't for the faint of heart, but the roads are a bit better today.It will take four or five days to reach Montana and will be just a tad shy of 2500 miles. We will be crossing the border between Alaska and Canada at Beaver Creek into Yukon Territory, then into British Columbia, and then into Alberta. I may not be able to get on the Internet until we are through Canada, but if I get a chance I'll post some photos. It's a spectacular drive with lots of beautiful scenery and hopefully some wildlife sightings. We will cross the border into Montana and then on to Montanagirl's place for a few days. Leave the lights on, Mona!

Snow

The first photo was taken this morning shortly after 8:00. It snowed in the hills around town earlier in the week and we had some mixed rain and snow here, but this is the first that we've had on the ground at our house. By noon most all the snow was gone, and the photo below was taken around 3:00.

This cycle will probably be repeated several times over the next week or so, but as soon as the high temps for the day drop below freezing the snow will be on the ground until sometime in April.

More memories of the Summer Garden

This morning we woke up to a heavy frost covering the grass. I still had the flower bed and the containers in the front to cut back. We finished up almost all of the outdoor chores that need doing in preparation for winter. I took lots of photos of my garden this summer, and that too is preparation for winter. On a cold winter day they will brighten my spirits.

Debbie asked what the last photo in yesterday's post was. It's a Black-eyed Susan vine which is a Thunbergia alata, a totally different plant than Rudbeckia that many people know as the Black-eyed Susan. As you can see from the photo, it is a climbing plant that does well in hanging baskets or climbing up a trellis. The flowers are fairly small, most less than an inch.

I had six baskets of these this year hanging on my bird feeder hangers. The redpolls and chickadees also brighten my spirits on a cold winter day. Click here and here to see the redpolls enjoying the feeders in March.

A very different scene in the winter than in the summer!

Memories of the Summer Garden

The first tastes of winter are upon us. The temperatures are dropping down to the low 40s and below freezing at night. We have been having a bit of mixed rain and snow, and in some of the higher elevations a light snowfall. Of course this early the snow generally melts within a few hours. There's a few weeks before the termination dust hits and the snow is here until April. With only a few more days before we head out on our roadtrip, I prefer to dwell on the blooms of summer.

Old Rusty Waits Patiently

One of the vehicles waiting to go in the new shop is a 1951 Ford pickup. I wrote about old Rusty in a couple of earlier posts and you can check those out by clicking on Heavy Load and Emerging From the Snow. You can see another photo of Rusty by going to the bottom of my posts and you can enlarge these photos by clicking on them. Rusty has been watching the shop construction in anticipation, sure that his day was about to come. At an auction earlier this summer, Marty bought some pieces and parts to use in the restoration and some of those got put in the woods behind the shop.

Some of the parts were put in the bed of Rusty. You could almost hear him humming to himself.

Sitting next to him is another of the old cars waiting on a little TLC. Vicky is a 1956 Crown Victoria with a glass top. She needs some engine work and some new pieces of chrome and a few other repairs.

The cars are all set to be put in the shop for the winter. It looks like Vicky is going to get the pride of place as the project car for the winter. This means another winter sitting out in the snow for Rusty.

Vicky has a big toothy grin. When I took this shot I thought I heard giggles from Vicky and a heavy sigh from Rusty.

Where We Lived Before

Kelly asked where we lived before. I have lived in Fairbanks for 36 years and Marty more than that. When we were younger and more agile we built a lovely house in the hills overlooking Fairbanks. Here are some photos taken in the middle of September in 2006. The house has gorgeous views.

It is at the end of the road so it was a lovely spot to live.

It is on the side of a hill, which is actually more steep than it appears in the photo below. We had built the living area of the house over the top of a tall garage which really took advantage of the view.

Those two factors are what made us decide that we needed to find a different house. I have been having big problems with my knees so the stairs were becoming very difficult for me. When Marty retired he wanted to have a big shop to play in, but because of the hillside it was not practical to build it where we were. The house we found was a ranch style house and had space to build a shop plus most of the things that we felt we needed to have. It was hard to leave a house that we liked so much, but knowing that as we got older the stairs and the hillside would prove to be more and more challenging, we decided to make the move. There are still many things we miss about the old house, but there are many things about the new house that we like a lot better. We are slowly making changes to the new house to make it work better for us and reflect who we are. As circumstances change in your life you need to be flexible and adapt to the changes.

This last photo is one of my favorite fall shots that I have taken. It was taken at the old house on September 18, 2006.

Summer Projects

We had a few projects that we finished this summer. The biggest one was the new shop. I last posted on the shop construction in May. In that post, the walls went up and the roof was put on. You can click here to go to that post. For previous posts about the shop, look under my Label section in the sidebar and go to Shop Construction. Lots has happened since that post. The siding has went on, insulation, sheetrock, painting, doors and windows, power, heat, and plumbing are all done. The shop is divided into several sections. My husband is a carpenter and he also has a passion for classic cars. This shop addresses both of those interests. As you look at the shop photo below, the overhead door on the lefthand side opens into the carpentry shop. The next overhead door opens into the mechanics shop. The man door enters into a small entry area off of the mechanics shop. Back from that door, you see a window. That is my part of the shop! I have a small "potting shed" with a sink and countertops. We're still working on the shelving, and there will be room for my stand for starting seedlings. Finally a place where all my gardening supplies can be kept all in one place! Right behind that is the mechanical room with bathroom facilities. The next overhead door is the entry into the storage area for the old cars. It runs the full length of the shop and all the old vehicles can be in out of the snow.
Now the fun part has begun. Marty has begun setting the shop up. He's got his tool boxes moved over from the garage and has a workbench and some of the shelving in for the mechanics shop. He has one workbench done in the carpentry shop and some of the shelves in place. He is still working on getting the dust collection system in, and he has more shelves to put up and another workbench on the back wall. Right now he is working on getting all his tools and various carpentry supplies in place and organized. You're asking, "Where does the fridge go?" That will be in the mechanics shop. He'll have one of his cars in the mechanics shop to work on over the winter. I think he's going to put his '56 Crown Victoria in. It needs a bit of engine work and odds and ends on the body. I expect that most mornings this winter he will head over to the shop and I won't see him again until it's time for dinner. He definitely will be enjoying his retirement.

The next project we got done was putting in a walkway from the driveway to the front door. Between the walkway and the garage we put down rock and then put planters on top of that. The edge of the lawn needs a bit of reseeding, but we'll get that done next spring.

Last summer we put a flower bed along the front of the house. It is mostly ferns, wood violets, dwarf delphiniums, columbines, and violas. Although I only got a small portion of the shop for playing, I do have my own play area in the house. Behind the two windows you see in the photo below are my sewing room and my office.

We moved into this house two years ago. We felt the front entryway was not well defined, and people got a bit confused trying to figure out which way to come into the house. To the right of the front door is the garage, and on the other side of the garage is a parking area with an entry door. That was the door most people were coming to, and that meant they had to come through the garage, the mudroom, and then into the hallway leading to the kitchen and dining room, and then finally into the living room. The photo below is the front of the house as it looked when we moved in.

The last project we did was putting a good surface on the driveway and parking area. It was pit run rock and sand, and sand was always being tracked into the house. We put down rap, which is crushed pavement that is packed hard. It's a much nicer surface and looks a lot better. You can see a bit of it in front of the walkway and in front of the shop. Next summer we'll do more work on flower beds and landscaping.

Backyard Photos

With the fall colors all around today and the temperatures cooling off to highs in the upper 40s and lows in the lower 30s this week, I decided to get the outside of the windows washed before it got any colder. I did get the windows washed, but I got a little distracted and had to get my camera out and take a few shots. Across the road the trees are very colorful. In the wildflower beds, there are still flowers blooming, although I didn't notice any of the bees that have been buzzing around there all summer.

There are quite a few leaves on the ground making a nice background to the flowers.

A few sunflowers are still blooming, but most are busily developing seeds. I think their time is about to run out.

More and more leaves are coming down and some of the trees are bare. Tomorrow it looks like I will have to get busy and get the yard cleaned up for winter. The leaves need picked up off the lawn and a final mowing done for the year. I need to cut back the flower beds and cover them with landscape fabric. The landscape fabric needs to be wrapped around the small trees that we've planted. The moose did a thorough job of pruning them last winter, so I am hopeful that wrapping the trees will discourage the moose this year.

It's very hard to empty my flower containers and cut the flower beds back when there is still something blooming, but it's even harder to be out doing it after the temperatures have really dropped and there is a bit of snow on the ground. It needs to be done before next weekend, because that's when we are leaving on our roadtrip down the Alcan and beyond. The way things are going right now I'm not sure we'll make it before most of the trees are bare here, but before our first day of driving is done we will have traveled far enough south to be back into beautiful fall colors again.