Culture Shock and beyondCarol

Abe and Alexis Olympia NP

Washington Beach

Hurricane Ridge Olympia NP

Savannah Sparrow

Stump of large tree on beach La Push

Cape Flattery

Spider web found on hike near La Push

Sunset La Push

Marbled Godwit

Ecola SP looking south toward Cannon Beach

Oregon Beach Ecola SP

B and B in Astoria

Carol,John and Diana in Columbia River Gorge with Bridge Of The gods in background

Culture Shock and beyond

We are bound for the outskirts of Seattle so that we can meet up with Abe and Alexis and see a Mariners Baseball game. Our campground is in Bellevue, Washington. It is about 10 miles from downtown Seattle. Our plan is to arrive the day before the game and get some things done then get a Lyft ride into town for the game. We will spend the night in a Hotel after the game. The next day Alexis and Abe come back to the trailer with us to visit Olympic NP. 

Driving in Bellevue reminds me of driving in Boston. The roads go every which way, one seemingly overlapping the adjacent street. While Diana got laundry done and cleaned the trailer I was designated to run errands. First on the list was to get the oil changed in the truck. I googled oil change places and found a Jiffylube place several miles away. Upon arrival the mechanic said he didn’t have enough oil for the truck and directed me to the downtown location about 6 miles away. Upon arrival there the mechanic wasn’t sure if he had the correct oil filter, fortunately he did. Next stop groceries. The store was mobbed. It was difficult navigating the isles and at one point someone deliberately ran into my cart because it “was in his way” but I survived the ordeal. 

The time in Seattle was terrific. We headed from the hotel down the waterfront and the first stop was the aquarium. Next up to the fish market to watch the venders throw the fish around. Alexis read about the gum wall so we all chewed gum and added ours to it. At the farmers market we found some great cheese and bread for a snack. Also found a couple of breweries. Later had dinner then headed to the ballpark for a great game with super company. The next day we got a Lyft car back to Bellevue and traveled to the north portion of the Olympic Peninsula. This gave us a day and a half to see the park with Abe and Alexis. We hiked through rainforest and viewed waterfalls. In general had a great time. When it was time to say goodbye to our guests we drove them into Port Angles to get a rental car so the could drive to Portland Oregon for the wedding of a good friend of Abe’s. 

 Next stop on the Peninsula is in the tiny town of La Push which is in an Indian reservation area. The camping area looked over the Pacific Ocean. We could open the door and see the waves crashing and watch the surfers. For the next two days we explored the coast, some of which is part of Olympic National Park. We meet a couple in our campground from the area and they highly recommend we drive up to cape Flattery,  the most NW point in the continental US. The drive along the Straights of Juan de Fuchs was beautiful and the hike trough a cedar rain forest to reach Cape Flattery was fantastic. While at the cape we saw Orcas frolicking off shore eagles fishing, puffins flying by and countless other wildlife. 

After leaving the cape we headed back and on the way stopped at a great Indian museum that gave the history of the area. The tribe was able to share there important history because hundreds of years ago a village on the coast was buried in a mud land slide. Everything was preserved in tact because of the mud until an ocean storm uncovered it in the 70’s. Old oral history was finally proven. 

Oregon is our next area of focus. This is my first visit to this beautiful state. We camped at Ft Stevens SP at the mouth of the Columbia River. Besides the natural beauty of the coast this area is the terminus of the Lewis and Clark exposition. They spent the winter of 1805 here at what they called Ft Clatsop. The National Park has a small museum and has recreated the fort based on the drawing in the exposition’s journal. The town of Astoria Is close by and we hit the jackpot here. We found our B and B all in the same building. The bakery had one of the best baguettes we have ever had. The micro brewery provided a excellent lunch with a wonderful selection of IPA beers, the best on the entire trip. Moving down the coast we stop in the town of Tillamook Oregon, the home of Tillamook Dairy. We did a tour of their cheese making operation. They make the best cheddar cheese we have found outside of New England. Tillamook also provided a place to leave the trailer so we could meet Airstream friends in Portland. Carol and John did a great job of sharing their area with us. We capped off the visit with a downtown dinner then going to a performance of the musical “The Color Purple”.

Into The Lower 48

The Caravan is over and we move on to the last and final leg of our 2018 travel adventure. The final banquet for the caravan was a bittersweet experience, good memories and sad goodbyes. We know that the friendships both new and ongoing will continue. Diana did a great job organizing the banquet. In fact one of our leaders said he had been to a bunch and this was the best by a long shot. 

The ride out of Canada brought us along the Frazier River Gorge. The road was winding and around every bend there was a beautiful view of the surrounding landscape. Some of our drive took us over mountain passes that had been blanketed with snow the previous day. We haven’t seen such a sight in 7 years. The snow did not present any difficulty for us but it painted the landscape into a beautiful portrait. The boarder crossing was perhaps our longest. We honestly stated that we had some vegetables on board and were sidelined for an agricultural inspection. Everyone was pleasant and professional. The end result we had to surrender a small bag of veggies along with an hour of our time. 

Our first stop back in the USA is near the town of Anacortes Washington. This area will provide us a place to explore the area around and on Puget sound. We spent our time hiking and bird watching in several parks. Several of our drives took us through some beautiful farm land. Our final day in Anacortes we booked a whale watching tour. As it turns out we were gifted with  perfect weather for this event, abundant sunshine and light and variable winds thus flat seas. The trip was a great success in addition to seeing several humpback whales we ran into a pod of approximately 50 Orca whales. For over an hour they provided a spectacular show. All around you could both hear and see whales. It was breeding season so they were very animated showing multiple breeches along with tail slaps and swimming upside down. We capped off the evening with a delightful dinner in a local restaurant. 

Next stop, North Cascade National Park often refereed to as America’s Switzerland or the lower 48’s Alaska. Among other things the park is home to 300 glaciers, far more than Glacier NP. The area is a vast wilderness with very little infrastructure. Like all places the area comes with a long history but what makes this unique is that in 1920 Seattle Light and Power developed a system of dams to produce electricity. At that time there were no roads into the area. The only access was by foot or horseback. They built a railroad to bring the necessary equipment to make the project happen. The road in here was not completed until 1970. They also built the company town Newhalem  to house the workforce needed to run the facility. Some of the original town still exist along with more recent buildings. The Park is also unique in that it is home to 5 different life zones starting with a rain forest at the bottom and a glacier covered Alpine zone at the mountain peaks. We went on some great hikes along with an adventurous ride up to the back side of the peaks affording gorgeous views of some of the glaciers. The ride was not for the faint of heart. The last 15 miles was a dirt road that became more narrow as we progressed along. The last 5 miles was a one lane pot holed road only wide enough for one vehicle to pass, completely devoid of guard rails or any safety measure usually found on park roads. The reward for this were stunning up close views of the glaciers. In the parking lot at the trail head a car with several woman arrived and the drivers comment was “thank god there are other human beings at the end of this road”.

San Juan Islands. Looks like Maine!

Harlequin Duck

Humpback whale diving

Blue Lake N Cascades NP

Upside down

Orca whale splashes into water after breach

Rain Forrest N Cascade NP

Diablo Lake late afternoon N Cascades NP

Orca dives upside down

Old Growth Trees N Cascades NP

Diablo Lake late morning

Washington Pass N  Cascades NP

N Cascades River

Cascade Pass with glaciers

Cascade Pass with Glacier in background

Orca Breaches

Glacier N Cascade NP

Small Stream Newhalem

Powerhouse Newhalem

Alaska Caravan Finishes Up

We have several exciting stops before us along the march to Prince George where we have a final banquet and the caravan participants disperse. Even though there is a whole bunch of driving it goes by quickly. The scenery is spectacular. We managed to stop at several interesting places and sneaked in some short hikes. 

One of our one night stands was at Destruction Bay. Back when the CanAm Highway was being constructed our campground was the site of the camp for both military and civilian workers and one night a hundred mile per hour wind completely destroyed the camp thus the name Destruction Bay. This “town” is located in the Yukon Territory where winter temperatures routinely plunge to minus 60. The nearest town with the most rudimentary services is 100 miles away. In this rudimentary town we managed to find a great bakery that made a fabulous soup. Unfortunately there was no brewery to be found! The ride from Destruction Bay to Haines Alaska passed through Kluane National Park.The best way for me to describe this Park is that it is Parks Canada’s version of our Denali NP but without the crowds. The scenery was spectacular and around every curve there was a more spectacular view. 

Haines was a nice small town located in the costal temperate rainforest region of Alaska. We boarded a ferry to the Alaska capital Juneau. Juneau is a typical cruise ship port of call with loads of tee shirt and jewelry stores and restaurants. The best part of the trip was the sighting of humpback whales. The next day we hiked out of town through the rain forest to a point of land looking back up the Fjord.

Whitehorse the capital of the Yukon Territory is one of our stopping places on the march back towards the lower 48. We received the treat of a lifetime, a view of the Northern Lights.  Before bed at 11PM I stuck my head out the trailer door and saw a green glow to the north. From there it was a scramble to get my camera set up. This was my first attempt at photographing the night sky. I got a picture but not the best. 

Stewart BC and the closely associated town of Hyder Alaska were also located in the rainforest. The drive in included steep mountains on each side of the road and multiple glaciers and waterfalls. The population today is only about 500 people but at the beginning of the 20th century it was home to 10,000 people who lived in houses supported by pilings over the wetlands adjacent to the head of the Fjord. At that time the community was known as Portland. Gold mining is making a comeback. The multiple helicopters ferrying supplies was ongoing throughout our visit. The highlight of this stop was our drive up (30 miles up a pothole ridden narrow dirt road with sheer drop offs deep into the canyon below not to mention the lack of guardrails) to Columbia Glacier, said to be the worlds 5th largest glacier. It was enormous. 

After several more one night stands we arrived in Smithers BC. Smithers is a small town of 5000 people surrounded by mountains glaciers and loads of wildlife that offers many of the amenities found only in larger cities. What made Smithers special for us was meeting up with sailing friend from our time in the Caribbean. We had lost contact with these folks about 10 years ago. We remembered their first names but not last name because in the boating world you are know by your first name and your boat name. Before entering town we agonized over how we could look up our friends. The first night we went to the Smithers Brewing Company to try their brew. While there we asked the people there if the knew a John and Jennifer that had two daughters and sailed in the Caribbean about 20 years ago. As it turns out they did know them and John was the one who designed and built the beautiful new brewery. Armed with a phone number we tracked them down. As it turns out they split up some time ago. We ended up having lunch at Jennifer’s place and dinner at John’s. It was so great to meet back up with our dear friends. 

Prince George BC, our final stop, is where we all disperse but not before a final banquet. Along with several other people Diana and I have been organizing this event for many weeks. The highlight will be a slide show and the special gifts we have for the caravan leaders. 

Tomorrow morning we head off to the lower 48 for the next leg of this adventure. 

By the way I believe we have identified almost 100 birds with at least 15 of them new for us! 

Destruction Bay

Destruction Bay

Sheep Mountain in Kluane NP with over 100 Dall Sheep grazing

Kluane NP

Kluane NP

stellar sea lions

Humpback whale

Spouting Humpback

Humpback before deep dive

Sunlight trying to pierce the clouds Glacier Bay NP

Lighthouse Glacier Bay NP

Grizzly Bringing dinner to cubs

raft of white winged scoters looking back to Haines

Hike in Haines

Rain forest  Haines

3 cubs at Chilcoot River Fish weir

Grizzly - Haines

Northern Lights

Glacier Bay NP

Columbia Glacier