Travel Log to Alaska in 1993 (Coldfoot, Part 5 - Last) & Heading Home

08/17/93

It has and continues to be a cool day in Coldfoot. Little by little more snow accumulates at the higher elevations around Coldfoot. It would be nice to see a general snow before we leave here (as long as it didn't impede our departure).
Marian, Alice and I had the Center today while Rick and Sandy were out hiking. After this evenings presentation we reached 100.1% of our last years total tourist.
Cheryl sent us a FAX today including a cute comic strip. Tomorrow is mail day again and we will be over to see what we may have received as soon as the doors open. Since we leave next week I hope that no mail comes to us after next Monday. It will probably take weeks to get forwarded and reach us in Virginia.
Tom Edgerton, our USF&W boss, will come to Coldfoot on Monday evening next week to help close out things here. I hope that Coldfoot Services gets this trailer dumped and pulled over to the Center early in the day on the 25th so that we can get underway for Fairbanks. It will take close to 8 hours to drive from Coldfoot to Fairbanks where we plan on spending the night of 25 August.
The following is our tentative homeward bound itinerary:

25 August Coldfoot, AK Fairbanks, AK
26 August Fairbanks Somewhere between Fairbanks & Denali
27 August Spending the night at Savage River Campground in Denali
28 August Second night at Savage River Campground in Denali (tour)
29 August Denali, AK Tok, AK
30 August Tok Whitehorse, BC
31 August Whitehorse Skagway, AK
01 Sept Second night in Skagway (take Summit train excursion)
02 Sept Skagway Liard River,BC
03 Sept Liard River Fort St. John, BC
04 Sept Ft. St. John Tete Jaune Cache
05 Sept Tete Jaune Cache Banff, AL
06 Sept Banff St. Mary, MT (lower 48)
07 Sept Glacier Park, MT Buffalo, WY
08 Sept Buffalo Sioux Falls, SF
09 Sept Sioux Falls St. Louis, MO
10 Sept St. Louis Charleston, WV
11 Sept Charleston HOME

There could be a two day delta on our schedule depending on how much sightseeing we do in the various places. If we do in fact get home on the 11th of September then we can celebrate Marian’s birthday in Virginia (11 Sept.).
We are preparing our midnight snack and it will be ready to eat very soon. The pizza will be good and I had now better stop typing so that we can eat.

08/18/93

One week from today at this time we hope to be in Fairbanks. This was a rather slow day at the Center with only 21 drop in guests and a handfull for the presentation. Marian just returned from taking a load of laundry over to the washing area. There is only two machines so sometime it is easier to get things done in the late evening.
This afternoon Marian & Alice went to Wiseman to deliver a message regarding an USF&W matter. They were there for a few hours visiting with some friends and they bought some hand made ear rings.
Today I mostly played around on the computer in between the guests. We had a couple hour meeting with Sandy to talk about what might be done next year to improve the presentation and Center in general. We had our meeting at the Coldfoot cafe over coffee and cake.
This was mail day and we received two letters from Cheryl. Our FAX machine ran out of paper today so we will not be able to receive any more Fax's until we can get some more paper from Fairbanks. The only Fax's of interest to us are the ones that are from our daughters.
We had a beautiful day today with sunshine and cool temperature. The sky is beginning to cloud over now so likely before morning we will have more rain. We are over 12 inches of rain since April.
Coldfoot Services was suppose to be over mid week to dump our trailer so I must assume that mid week means after Wednesday since they haven’t done it yet.
Marian just informed me that I was elected to go over to Coldfoot Services and put the washing in the dryer.




08/19/93

At about 1800 Marian, Alice, Rick & I had dinner together here at the trailer. It was a pot luck type dinner and all very good. We had a nice group in for the presentation this evening. This was a tour bus full of folks from PA.
Our schedule has changed a little in that Tom will be here on Sunday night and we will prep the trailer for winter on Monday then move the trailer over to the Center parking lot on Tuesday morning. Marian & I will probably stay in Arctic Acres Inn Tuesday night. We can’t stay in the trailer parked at the Center since there will be no power, propane, & we could not use the toilet. This doesn’t affect our departure date other than we will probably get off earlier Wednesday than if we had waited for Coldfoot Services to pull it over. I think that there will be a going away party for us and Alice on Tuesday night. I’ll talk more about when we know more details.

08/20/93

This was a pretty slow day for us including the evening guests. There were 47 tourists on the two busses in this evening however only 21 showed up at the Center. This afternoon I instructed Judy (our next door neighbor) on use of the Mac and the Visitor Center computer programs. Judy will step in to help out at the Center when we leave next week. She is the wife of the man who is the manager of the NPS construction work at the Marion Creek campgrounds.
We received a letter from Cheryl and John Tredwell today and talked with Debbie and Cheryl on the telephone.
This evening we fixed bacon, tomato & cheese sandwiches for our after supper snack. It is just after midnight now so we are giving some thought about going to bed.

08/21/93

We thought that yesterday was a slow day however today was even slower. There were no tour busses in and no one else showed up for the presentation. So we didn’t give one.
It has been a rainy day with mud everywhere around Coldfoot. I hope that it clears up since the mountains would radiate beauty with the fall colors. We can see the change progressing each day (between rain drops).
Tonight we loaded the truck with some more of the cloths and food that we don’t anticipate needing between now and Wednesday morning. Tomorrow Tom Edgerton (USF&W) will arrive from Fairbanks. Monday we will prep the trailer for the long hard winter. We will put a coating on the roof and other things to help it survive the -60F temperature this winter.
We are now going to have the going away party on Monday night. I think that it will be over at the Coldfoot bar if we have rainy weather or at Judy’s trailer if the weather is nice. Tom Edgerton must leave Tuesday afternoon and he wants to attend the party.
Debbie & Cheryl called today and we wished Ryan a happy birthday! They were all at Debbie’s house in Fredericksburg. It was great talking to them all. Kyle told us that he was expecting two large pieces of gold when we return.
We had pizza for our midnight snack and have two more large pizza’s left. So guess what we will have tomorrow night.

08/22/93

Tom E. arrived today and will be over bright and early tomorrow morning to work on the trailer. Bright and early means after ten AM. We will try to get all repairs and enhancements completed tomorrow so that we can move it to it’s final resting place on Tuesday. We now plan on departing Coldfoot on Tuesday after moving the trailer to the Center parking lot. Marian & I will spend Tuesday night in Fairbanks and around town most of the day Wednesday. Later in the day Wednesday we will head down the road towards Denali and stop over for the night before reaching the park at a small hotel near Healy, AK. We made reservations at this little hotel today.
We just about have the truck packed except for those things we need for the next couple of days. I hope that we have things in the right position within the truck else we will have to do a lot of digging to get to anything at the other end of the truck bed.
After the presentation tonight we went over to the Coldfoot bar for a while then back to the trailer where we are fixing a pizza for our midnight snack. We have one more pizza left so we will have Tom E. over for lunch tomorrow to help us eat it.
It has been raining all day and the mud keeps getting deeper. I sure hope that tomorrow is better since we need to do outside work on the trailer. Tomorrow night we will have the little get together for a going away party.

08/23/93

Well guess what! This is our last day in Coldfoot, Alaska. They had a very nice going away party for us and we also celebrated Judy’s birthday. Judy prepared many very nice party snacks (snacks is a bit of an understatement). The party was at one of the Coldfoot Bar. Evan the bartender gave us a drink and others bought rounds. They gave us two bags of goodies for the road which included the Carmellos which is the candy we like so. We also have some nuts and many other things which we will enjoy on our return journey. Needless to say we had a very nice time.
After the party we went back over to Center for our last evening. There was a big crowd in tonight even though it was rainy and mud up to your ankles. We took our showers tonight and did the last few items of laundry. Also we are leaving the trailer better than we found it when we arrived. Tomorrow morning we will get up at 0630, have some corn flakes, then make the final preps for moving it (disconnecting the water, gas, electricity). After we dump it we will then pull it to the Visitor Center parking lot where it will spend the winter months.
Debbie called this evening however we were out when the call came in so she left a message on the answering machine. TODAY IS RYAN’S BIRTHDAY, and they were calling so Ryan could say hello. We sure are sorry that we missed the call but we did hear then on the recording. It was too late (DC time) to return the call when we got back over to the Center.
Tomorrow night we will be in Fairbanks. I’ll have to wait until tomorrow to tell you where we will stay however I am pretty sure that we will be in a motel vs. camping.
By the way it’s still raining in Coldfoot and it’s after midnight now.


08/24/93 (From Coldfoot, Alaska to Fairbanks)

Well today is the day. We departed Coldfoot this morning at 0900 after getting up at 0600. All went well in the final trailer preps and moving the trailer over to the Center. The Dalton was bumpy and wet most of the way to Fairbanks however we made very good time. We stopped at the Yukon River Crossing for a cup of coffee and a bite to eat otherwise we were “Straight Ahead Charlie” on the trip to Fairbanks. We arrived in Fairbanks at about 1400 and went straight to a car wash to clean the multiple layers of mud off our truck. It took two times through the wash to get it semi clean. Next we started hunting for a place to spend the night. We had previously made reservations at a hotel but since it was sunny in Fairbanks we decided to look for a camping spot. When we were in Fairbanks a couple of months back we had noticed a nice campground on the Chena River so we decided to look for it again and see if we could get camping accommodations. Well we found it again and it is a very beautiful spot. Our site is within 20 feet of the Chena river bank and we have some very nice next door camping neighbors. The name of our campground is “River’s Edge”. An appropriate name for the campground. After we got our tent set up we had a snack then headed into town to look around. Since we have been in Coldfoot for the past three months any town larger than 30 persons really impress us. We went by and picked up a few gifts and a few food items.
We are back at the campgrounds now and have had a nice supper. The neighbors are over at our site now and Marian is entertaining them. It has been a beautiful day here in Fairbanks and now that the sun is setting it is getting a little cool. I think that I’ll stop typing now and warm my fingers up over the stove. Our plans are to leave the campgrounds sometime mid morning and look around Fairbanks a little more then head towards Denali. Our current plans are to stay at the Totem Lodge in Healy tomorrow night however if we find a nice campground we may change our plans
It is nice to be in civilization again!.

08/25/93

It was pretty chilly after the sun went down however we kept as warm as a bug in a rug in the tent in our sleeping bags. We got underway this morning at about 10 AM and headed south on the George Parks Highway towards Denali. Our first stop was in the little town of Nenana where we bought some tourist trinkets.
We went through the little town of Healy where we had reservations at the Totem directly to the Denali Park Visitor Center. We changed our Denali tour reservations for tomorrow morning (0600, early, but all that was available). We also were able to switch one night of our camping reservations. It was not possible to get camping reservations for tonight however we do have confirmed camping in Denali tomorrow night. Before leaving Coldfoot we made the reservations at the Totem in Healy as a backstop in case it was raining here. Well it is not raining but we are glad that we have a place to stay tonight.
After getting all of the accommodations settled we went to the slide presentation at the Visitor Center and drove around the Denali National Park. You are only permitted to drive your POV just past the Savage River Campgrounds. Tomorrow on our 11 hour bus tour of Denali we will go all the way to Wonder Lake which is near the end of the road in Denali. We are looking forward to the tour. The bus is a regular school bus so our rear ends will probably be bumped out by the time we return tomorrow evening. Even a bumpy campground will probably feel soft to us for a nights rest.
Denali is beautiful. The Alaska mountain range is completely snow capped and we could see Mt. McKinley poking up through the clouds. I hope that tomorrow's weather is as nice as it has been today.
Marian & I are all settled in at our ATCO accommodations here in Healy, AK which is about 10 miles from Denali. Tomorrow morning we will have to get up at about 0500 in order to get a bite to eat and drive up to Denali to meet our bus.

08/26/93

After an 11 hour bus ride we are now at our campsite here in Denali National Park. Denali was beautiful and we had a clear view of Mt.McKinley. We went on the bus to Wonder Lake which is about 85 miles within the park. The scenery was just great. Our rumps were a bit sore of riding in the rough “school bus” all day however. We were glad when the trip ended even though we enjoyed it very much. The road was gravel and one way most of the way through the park. When we met another bus we would have to pull off in a wide spot to let the other pass. As I think I had mentioned earlier, no private vehicles are allowed past Savage River where the pavement ends.
It is pretty cool now here in the campground. We may go to bed early and let the sleeping bags keep us warm. We did buy a propane heater yesterday so it will feel good warming up the tent before we go to bed. For dinner we had bean soup then some rice-a-rony and for desert hickory smoked beef jerkeys.
Since we are still in bear country we have to be pretty clean campers else we may have an uninvited guests during the night. It is a $150 fine to leave any food stuff out at the end of a day. It is only seven now and we will probably hit the bags by nice. I must fire up the heater now and warm up my fingers.

08/27/93

At the moment I am sitting in our tent in TOK, AK. It is beginning to get dark so I may not expound too much on todays activities. We got underway this morning at about ten AM after having some breakfast and letting the dew dry from our tent and ground cloth. Our journey today took us over the gravel Denali Highway (a little better than the Dalton), the Richardson, Glenn Allen and ALCAN highways. It was about 1700 when we arrived in TOK so we decided to stay for the night since the next place would be Beaver Creek in the Yukon which is about 120 miles further. Our original plans were to stay in TOK anyway. On our trip up we remembered the Northstar where with a fill-up of gas they would let you wash your car free with their pressure washer. Well that's where we went and did just that. In addition they said that we could tent in the woods behind the station free and they gave us a cup of coffee. Well we thought we had something going so we went in and had their Salmon dinner which was also very good. Then Marian won the evening drawing which entitled her to pick out the “T” shirt of her choice in the gift shop. She found a nice $19.00 shirt.
Oh yes we did take showers tonight. We had to pay $5.00 for two showers which included towels. We should be in pretty good shape for tomorrow with a full tank of gas, a clean truck and “we are clean too”. Our destination tomorrow is Whitehorse which is almost 500 miles from here. That means a full day’s drive under ALCAN road conditions which can vary. They can vary from a nice smooth surface for a short distance to up’s & down’s over the frost heaves, then over gravel and worse surfaces. Five hundred miles isn’t too much distance on an Interstate but on this section of the ALCAN it’s quite a journey.
Well I will close for tonight. Marian is almost asleep and I am having to look hard at the screen to type. At last we are getting nighttime!

08/28/93

It is 2100 and we are at the Takhina Hot Springs campgrounds which is 17 miles from Whitehorse, YK on the Klondike Highway toward Dawson. We looked around Whitehorse for a couple of hours and after checking our a couple of campgrounds decided to head down the Klondike to the Takhina Hot Springs campgrounds. It is a nice woodsy place. We have a campfire going and our tent is up so all is set up for the evening.
The trip down the ALCAN was rough for the first 100 miles after leaving TOK. The road got better as we got further south. The last 100 miles was very good and we made good time. The ALCAN road conditions can vary from very poor to very good.
Tomorrow we will head down to Skagway for the night and take our tour on the narrow gauge rail on Monday. Since we are ahead of schedule we will have to change the reservations we have. I hope that we can change them for the 30th. After arriving in Skagway tomorrow we will just look around town and wait until the next day for the train ride.
The weather today has been just great with temperatures in the mid to high 60’s. It is getting a little cool now that the sun has set. We bought a little propane heater which we use to heat up the tent before going to bed and in the morning when we get up.
Well good night from Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory!

08/29/93

We got up this morning at about 8AM, had breakfast and broke camp. Our next stop was at the Klondike paddle wheeler in downtown Whitehorse. The tour of the boat was very interesting. One of the persons on the tour was a man who worked as a Steward on this boat in the 40’s so it was particularly interesting to hear first hand from him about his adventures on this riverboat.
I am sitting here at our campsite in Skagway by the light of a Coleman lantern and campfire. The trip to Skagway on the Klondike highway was enjoyable with several stops along the way including the small town of Carcross, YK. The road conditions were good all the way and the scenery was beautiful and different from what we had previously seen. We checked into the campgrounds here at about 1700, had a bite to eat then went to downtown Skagway for some sightseeing. Even though today was Sunday most all of the stores were open. There is a wolf dog next door to us here at the campgrounds that is howling continusouly and I sure hope that he stops before we go to bed.
Marian & I visited the Red Onion Saloon downtown Skagway and of course many gift shops and other points of interest. Tomorrow morning at 0830 we will board the narrow gauge White Pass rail car. This journey will take us to the summit where many gold miners at the turn of the century crossed in search of gold here in the Yukon.
I must stop now since it is completely dark and I still have to take a shower. We didn’t have a shower facility at our campground last night so I want to take advantage of it tonight. It is very windy here and it is getting cool. We will sleep with our cloths on tonight and hopefully keep warm. Till tomorrow....

08/30/93

We woke up very early this morning so we got up. We had our breakfast and the truck loaded by 0730. Since there wasn’t anything else to do we drove into town (about 4 blocks from our campsite) and filled up with gas and looked around until the little ole steam engine blew its whistle for us to board. The trip up to the White Pass Summit was very nice. When we reached the summit there was a pretty heavy fog but the trip up was fairly clear. It was a four hour round trip to the summit and return to the Skagway Depot.
After our return to Skagway we again looked around town and had a bite to eat. It was about 1300 when we departed back down the Klondike Highway. Just past Carcross we took the Tagish Road which is a shortcut to get back on the ALCAN at Jake’s Corner. The ALCAN was very rough for a distance then improved, then rough, then good, etc. Our journey took us through Teslin then on to Watson Lake, YK which was about a 300 mile drive from Skagway. Prior to getting into Watson Lake we stopped and gave Debbie a call to see how things were going on the home front.
We had planned on camping here at Watson Lake tonight however it is raining and we decided that a motel would work out better. We feel like kings sitting here on a real bed and watching television. What is this modern world coming to? At this point we are running three days ahead of our original plans. Our original schedule would have had us in Whitehorse today. We left Coldfoot earlier than originally planned and trimmed a night in Denali and Skagway. At this point I am not going to project where we will be tomorrow night. We have no definite schedule to meet to we will just get to where we get. By the way, we will have covered the entire ALCAN (except for a 50 mile shortcut) by the time we reach Dawson Creek, BC This is between our trip up in May and this return trip.

08/31/93

Well we didn’t get underway today until about ten AM. After checking out of the Gateway Motor Inn we went down the street to look at the wall of States/Countries. This is said to be one of the largest collection of stolen signs anywhere. The tradition of putting up a sign with your State, City, or whatever started in about 1942. You can imagine how many are there now!
As we drove down the ALCAN we passed a trailer from Minnesota and gave them a shout on the CB. It turned out that Bill & Jan Michael (drivers of the Minnesota car/trailer) were friends with a person who we knew in Coldfoot. Actually this person, Jon Peterson, was an NPS ranger who worked out of Anaktuvuk Pass and frequently came to the Coldfoot Center. Bill & Jan taught school there in Anaktuvuk.
We saw Stone Sheep (looked like Mountain Goats), Moose and other wildlife as we proceeded down the ALCAN. As the day before the ALCAN conditions varied from very poor to very good.
There was rain and drizzle all day long except for a brief period of sun. Our hopes were to stop at a campground and tent for the night but with the rain we decided to check into a hotel. With that in mind we drove longer than we would have had we camped. Our travel distance today was over 500 miles and we ended up in St. John, BC. Tomorrow we will drive to Dawson Creek and look around some before heading further south.
It is very nice to have a real bed again and a TV. We might just get use to this easy way of life. Also we can take a shower as long as we like without plugging in quarters like in the campgrounds. That is if the campground had a shower.

09/01/93
(From this point forward the log entries are made by Marian)

At about 0900 we departed Ft. St. John on our way to Dawson Creek which was our lest leg on the ALCAN. In Dawson Creek we decided to get sheared so we located a barber and beauty shop. I don’t know if we look any better but we feel better having our hair cut.
At Dawson Creek we got on the Yellowhead Highway. Then about 6:30 we stopped in McBride (pop 582) for the night at Beaverview campground, which came with hot showers and a laundry, which was needed

09/02/93

Today started with a cup of coffee and granola bars, then going the laundry before taking off down the Yellowhead Hwy toward Jasper, Alberta. We arrived in Jasper about noon, then after filling the gas tank we headed south on 93 thru the Canadian Rocky Mountains, which included Jasper Nat’l Park and Banff Nat’l Park.
What a beautiful drive thru the Glacier fields of Athabasca and Columbia Ice fields driving at elevations of over 6,000 ft. Then turning east on 1A toward Calgary and as usual driving thru town during rush hour looking for Rt. 2.
Rush hour through Calgary isn’t like DC. Then after a few more hours of driving we arrived in St Mary, MT to stay the night at St Mary Lodge and Resort. The Resort is located at the entrance of Glacier Nat’l Park.
To date we have traveled 3328 miles, since leaving Coldfoot, AK.

09/03/93

On the road again after eating a nice cowboy breakfast here at the Lodge. Our breakfast consisted of biscuits, eggs and buffalo sausage (which is very good and low in fat). The Lodge and other shops are in a nice location at the East Entrance of the Going To The Sun Hwy.
As we start the drive through the park we notice there are few RV Campers. Since the highway was built in the 30s, it isn’t wide enough for RVs wider than 8 ft (including side mirrors) by 24 ft long. If we should ever return to Glacier Nat’l Park in a RV (longer than 24 ft), we’ll have to park and tour in their local bus.
Glacier Nat’l Park has only one glacier with a path leading to it where a Ranger is stationed. There may be more glaciers in the park, but are not as noticeable as in Jasper and Banff Nat’l Parks.
We stopped to have a nice picnic lunch in a camp ground at the West Entrance of the park. While having lunch we met a couple from Arkansas, whom were traveling through the western states.
Back on the road again after traveling a circle around the park, leaving on Rt. 2 and stopping for the night in Helena, MT (at Super 8).

09/04-05/93

Nothing much has happened over these last few day, since we’re trying to drive at least 400 to 500 miles a day. At the end of each day we check into a motel along the way, which on Sep 4th proved to offer only one shower. In Murdo, SD about 8:30 PM found most motels full, so we checked in with the Anderson's who had cabins. The cabin had two bedrooms (double beds in each) with a bath between. Jim taking his shower first proved that the shower drain wasn’t draining fast, with this problem I just washed like the people do in the wilderness of AK.
The morning of Sep 5th found the drain empty, but asking for a little rebate, proved frugal with Mrs Anderson. She said we got it cheap enough $27,50 for the night. We do believe she knew the drain wasn’t working, but the bed was great.
Super 8 motels are great since they offer a VIP membership discount or if you don't have that a Senior Discount will be the same. So on Sept. 05 found us in Boonville, MO for the night.
As we drive across the mid states we could see where the Missouri River did its damage this summer. While eating lunch along I29 we met a couple who lost their farm. The wife said they had no flood insurance, but at least saved most items. What spirit these people have! Even now the creeks and rivers are still high.

09/06/93

Tonight is our last night on the road and sleeping in motels. As we’ve traveled this last week the weather was not for camping. So after calling our daughters and checking into Super 8 in Moorehead, KY we’re looking forward to HOME TOMORROW. This ends the travel log for our Volunteer work in Alaska in 1993.

03-01-2010

We did return to Alaska after a couple of years and this time as a tourist in South Alaska and Kodiak Island.