Author: Steve

Back to work.

I don’t work full-time, so usually I balance work with whatever else we’re doing, like birding or traveling.  Heading to Canada and realizing how much we would be out of touch, we declared those two weeks to be vacation and put an autoreply on the work email.  Well, fun’s over.  The two weeks are up, we’re back in the states, and back to reality.  Except for the walk in the boreal forest preserve…

It’s a harsh environment.

And versatile.

Sandhill cranes.

While we were driving across Yukon and Alaska along the Alaska Highway we noticed cable laying equipment working alongside the road.  Don’t know what that’s for.  Fiber optics?  Telecommunications?  I thought that was all done by satellites and towers now.  Laying cables seems so low-tech.  What do you suppose it could be for?

Here’s how our Canada map is doing.

We’ve been to a lot of the provinces now.  The right side still needs some work though.

And here’s our Yukon county map.

That’s it.  One county!  The first bird we reported in Yukon Territory filled in the entire thing!

Here is how we’re doing in Alaska so far.

Still got a ways to go there/here.

Good road headed west.  Straight and smooth.

Got to drive 65.  That lasted until Delta Junction (the end of the Alaska Highway).

The road got a little rough and winding from there to Fairbanks, but no problem.  We’re impressed with the number of roadside pullouts that are open to overnight stops.

Just like in Canada.

And here we are, at the end of the day, in Fairbanks!

The Great 2019 Alaska Trip map

No miles to go!

We’re now as far north as Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, and Finland.  If we went as far south from our house as we’ve gone north, we’d be in southern Argentina, south of Australia and South Africa.

Sunset, 12:46am, tomorrow.  (It will be up again before 3am.)

Now, only 4,219 miles to get home to Sandpipers!

On the road again.  Across the border, back to the Yukon.  The drive from Skagway to Whitehorse is ridiculous.

Settled down for a night in the forest.

No update to the trip map.  Not enough internet.

The Great 2019 Alaska Trip map

Sunset tonight 11:36.  Pacific Time again.  Last light 1:10am.  The big change every day in how late the sun sets isn’t really related to the length of the day anymore.  We’re right at the longest day of the year.  Daylight only changes by a minute or so each day now.  The change is due to the curvature of the earth, and how we travel on it.  West in a time zone and north make a big difference at this latitude.

591 miles to Fairbanks.

From Whitehorse to Haines Junction, there was more traffic than we’ve been seeing; meaning sometimes we could see more than one car at a time; sometimes several all at once!  The traffic went away and the road got rougher when we turned north from Haines Junction; frost heaves and patches where the asphalt erupted.  For the first time we ended up driving slower than the speed limit of 90kph.  Spent a fair amount of time riding the road waves at 45mph.

The Alaska Highway takes the smoothest route, so we’re not always in the mountains, and usually they’re just the rolling variety.  The scenery started to get more dramatic as we approached Haines Junction.

We got right up next to the mountains for a while.  Then we got right up next to a grizzly on the roadside.

We stayed inside and shot him through the windshield.

Lots of bears, but our first grizzly of the trip.

Moving on,

We found another night in the forest.

…this one compliments of the Yukon Government (and 12 dollars Canadian.)  I’d take a cool nighttime picture of the campfire and coals, but it never gets dark while we’re still awake!

No update on the trip map. The Great 2019 Alaska Trip map Don’t know what time the sun sets, when last light is, or how many miles to Fairbanks.  Off the grid.

It’s a cruise ship port.  People fill the town and tours all day long.  There are tour buses, shuttles, trains, ferries, tour boats, float planes, helicopters, and pedestrians.

By about six pm all the cruise passengers are back aboard their boats, and by eight, the boats are backing out, turning around, and leaving.  The port and town will be empty until the next ships arrive in the morning.

Everything happens at our doorstep.  We watch the process unfold,

… and admire the scenery.