Below Zero

Well we hit the negative temperatures today on Halloween. When I took the dogs out this morning at 10:00, it was -5. Made my nose hairs freeze instantly. LOL It was a bit of a shock because it was in the 20's yesterday. I guess we'd better get used to it since it's only going to get colder.


Here are some pictures of our snow covered backyard. Most of the trees you see are on the lot behind the property that our house sits on. We just bought that lot a few weeks ago. We have almost 2.5 acres between the two pieces of land. Now we know our view will remain as beautiful.



This is the front of our house. Looks different from when we first moved in. We won't be seeing the grass for quite some time.

I love having a heated garage to park in. My truck is nice and warm when I leave for work and I don't have to brush snow off or scrape windows. SCORE!!!!








This is our front driveway looking out toward the street.










We have moose that pass through our yard but the only thing we've seen so far is their prints. I am hopeful that I will see one soon.












This is my snow boot in comparison to a moose track. And yes, that is my flannel pj bottoms that you see. LOL
















Here is the trail the moose have been making along our treeline in the back yard. I told Deven I want to put some treats out for them and see if I can get a picture of one that way. The dogs know something is out there in the woods. Some mornings or nights when we go out their hackles go up and they head off toward the trees in search of what they sense. Wonder what they'd do if they actually saw one of those huge creatures? Probably tuck tail and run back to the garage. Our dogs are such wimps. But we love them.





We had to get the dogs some snow booties. Caddis got his first because he was gimping around out in the snow first. He didn't like how the snow packed in between his pads. He loves them. Runs and bounces all over the place. Here is Maggie trying them on. Makes it look like they have duck feet. It cracks me up to watch. They don't really fuss at them. I was surprised.

The Prudhoe Bay Experience

This is my second stint in Prudhoe Bay & I must say that it is better the second time around. Although, I am only spending one week a month up here, it is considered short compared to people working three weeks on and three weeks off. I actually have an employee that works six weeks on three weeks off!

As you can tell by the weather, it has been amazing. I know that soon enough everything will be frozen and white as cotton sheets hanging on a clothes line. The Dalton Highway is half gravel and half rough asphalt! Speed limit is 50 mph. I would not want to go faster, you will be off the road.

This sign is the first thing you see at the end of the Dalton Highway. Basic directions, but it will get you to a hotel or restaurant.

There is plenty of water around for the migrating birds, but be aware that if they decide to walk across the gravel road, you have to give them the right of way. In fact, all animals get the right of way and at any momment Caribou, Musk Ox or birds will cross or stop in the street. That is funny to see all the big rigs waiting for a herd of Caribou to cross.

Most people believe these animals are related to the Buffalo or Ox, but that is not true. They are most closely related to Sheep or goats. Musk Ox grow to a height of 4' and can weigh in excess of 700lbs.

The Musk Ox was almost hunted to extinction and since, have been managed to protect their highly prized fur which is soft, long and a great insulator.

As you can see in this photo, Caribou roam all over the Prudhoe Bay Area. From what people tell me, the only difference between a Reindeer and a Caribou is the Reindeer is domesticated for fur, milk, meat and "Santa Clause". I have tried a Caribou sausage and it was delicious. Both the male and female Caribou have antlers only the male grow them to massive size.

It is not uncommon to see them daily running across the road or deciding to stop and look at you for an hour or so.

This project you see in this photo is of the Liberty Pad oil rig which is the largest land based oil rig in the world. Currently it is being built and should be up and running by June or July 2011. This oil pad actually sits on the Arctic Ocean, but a gravel road was built out to the project because of the amount of material and equipment needed to build it year round. When you travel to the project, you actually drive across the Arctic Ocean which is amazing.

The last photo is our ride back from Liberty Pad to the Dead Horse area.

Soon the weather will change and all of this will be frozen over and trucks will drive across the frozen ocean to some of the island oil rigs. I will keep you posted and show some pictures when this happens.

More to follow!

One morning I convinced Nichole to take a ride with me up the Dalton Highway A.K.A. "The Ice Road". Although, there is no ice yet, it is still a dangerous road as the tractor/trailers fly down this road at 70 mph. The road is half gravel and the other half asphalt. I would rather it be all gravel as the asphalt is worn out and frost heaves can launch your rig into the air at any moment.

Our first stop provided little fishing opportunity, but we did manage to catch a Bald Eagle sitting atop a Spruce tree looking for dinner.

As you can see forest fires are common up here and they burn everything. I will say though that Alaska seems to allow for quick growth of the vegetation and the animals do come back quickly.

We picked a perfect day to explore this highway although, we made it to the Arctic Circle before we had to turn around and head home. It will actually take about twelve hours to drive from Fairbanks to Dead Horse Alaska. We made it sixty miles south of Cold Foot Alaska!

One day we will drive all the way and spend the night in a Dead Horse hotel which are actually not too bad for a small room.

My friend Darrell Carter convinced me that we needed to float the Chena River in his raft. Now as a kid, a raft was one of those Sevlor inflatable rafts that your parents bought for you at Bi-Mart or K-Mart. When I arrived at Darrell's house his raft was one of those white water river runners that you see guides using on the Mckenzie River in Oregon. This is the only way to float if you do not have a drift boat folks!

The Chena River was low and clear so we expected to catch the Grayling and were surprised to see the River full of Salmon too. The Kings were bright red and the Chum Salmon were in their full "Urban Cammo" colors coming up the river.

Darrell found this spectacular fish while chasing down the Arctic Grayling. It was immediately released, back to the river to finish spawning.

We floated about three miles of river and it took all day as the fishing was exceptional and we really did not want to leave the river.

Darrell has lived in Alaska his entire life and knows where the best honey holes for fishing are as well as the best areas to hunt.

After Tim Pritchard arrived up here, I managed to take him down the Alaska Highway to attempt some fly fishing. I would say that for someone who has never done this type of

fishing before he preformed admirably as you will see by the photos I have posted.

The sky was especially blue on this trip and the sun was shining, so at least we had the weather in our favor. There has not been many days that the sky has cooperated on the weekend.

Tim has really taken to fly fishing and these Arctic Grayling fight like wild Rainbows back home. They are amazing creatures and the blue colors on their bodies really shows well. Their dorsal fins stick up high in the water like a sharks fin and these fish sky out of the water when hooked. It is quite common to catch as many as twenty in one deep fishing hole.

Arctic Grayling are not too picky when it comes to the flies they will take. I have caught them on size #10 Royal Trude's all the way down to a size #20 Hare's Ear Nymph. I really think that the movement of the fly and whether or not the fish are feeding on top or on the bottom more than color and size does. The great thing about these fish are that on most of the rivers they are catch and release so they grow to above average sizes of 16" to 20" fish.

This is another Arctic Grayling that Tim caught and as you can see the size of the fish compared to the fly rod.

I will say that we caught our fair share of smaller fish too, but no one ever shows those photos! It is always the bigger fish as it makes a better picture to share.

There are many rivers to fish in Alaska and all one has to do is get off the road and explore. I walked up the Chitna River to explore the Arctic Grayling fishing and found the water to look just like blue Gatorade. Incredible places like this are rarely explored because there is ample fishing along side the road. But to really view Alaska you have to either walk in, fly in, or ride in. So far I have walked, but I have really only been here two months so I have plenty of time for the other! I also wanted a pistol or shotgun with me as it makes Nichole feel better about me fishing Alaska.

More to come!

Denali National Park & Surrounding Area

Saturday we dropped Mitch off at the airport and then headed south towards Denali Park. The weather was the typical July Alaska weather with rain showers and dark clouds holding over us.

The park is about a two hour drive, but I felt it was neccessary to drive a little farther to the town of Cantwell to explore a few of the small mountain run off streams I found on a map.

As we drove through the town of Cantwell, the storm clouds dropped over us and a few showers poured down upon us. I had all of my cold weather gear, but I would have fished anyways. The streams were running high, cold and clear. After a few casts I managed to land one of several Graylings. All of them were fairly larger fish around 15" one or two were exceptional at 18". I fished for about two hours and then we decided to eat lunch in the truck to avoid the rain and watch the river flow by.

After lunch, we drove up the Parks Highway to the enterance to the Denali National Park. This is one of the places I have always wanted to go to, but I always thought it would happen after I retired. The park is clean & busy but the roads were nice and few people driving as you can actually go farther into the park if you ride one of the tour buses. Since this was just a day trip we chose to ride into the park in our truck up to the turn around area at Savage River.

The only downside is the long drives. Most of the things I want to see are a few hundred miles away. If we are doing day drives you only spend a few hours where you want to be. But let's face it, the drive is usually faster going there than comming back. I know when we get the house I will not be able to do these things so it is better I get to do them now.

My First Trip to the Kenai River

As you can imagine, I cannot wait for the weekends to explore the great state of Alaska. I was invited down to a fishing tournament that the Anchorage, Wasilla & Soldotna branches of United Rentals puts on every year. I jumped on a plane and flew down with my boss and try my luck for some Big kenai River Kings.

The tournament is set up so each sales rep or branch manager has three of his clients on the boat with a guide. Our guide has been fishing the Kenai area for 25 years. I felt pretty good about our luck but as we started to line up to get on our assigned boats we got hit by heavy rain storms and high winds. Not a good start to the day but were wearing rain gear and had a thermos of hot coffee.

After traveling a few miles down river we started to fish and the water was high and off color. There were Bald Eagles everywhere and that was worth the trip alone. But as you well know I want to fish! As luck would have it, I spent eight hours in a boat and never touched a fish. I enjoyed the day, but wished we would have found some fish.

After the tournament, we went back to the lodge and ate steak and shrimp. I managed to talk to the only people who caught fish and it was strange that five people on the boat all caught fish. There were twenty five boats and one boat caught fish! I headed home instead of staying one more night to go Halibut fishing. I would have stayed, but I had things that needed done so I drove the nine hours back to Fairbanks. I will not be doing that again anytime soon! I left the Kenai River at 5:00 p.m. and arrived to our RV park at 2:00 a.m. I had been up for twenty two hours that day and it was too much.

As I was going to say I really wasn't going to miss much, I was wrong.......

My boss sent me the photos of his fish this afternoon he caught on the Kenai River today & I feel obligated to include them on this post as these are truly the fish we have dreams about on a nightly basis.

Tim did release this fish and as you can tell what an animal!

Our First Fourth of July Weekend

On Saturday we all woke up early, loaded up the cooler and headed out at 6am for our day trip adventure. We headed south so the boys could fish the Gulkana River.

We saw 7 moose in the first hour and a half. They are so strange looking. They have these super long skinny legs and these big 'ole bodies and heads. We saw most of them in the area of Eilson Air Force Base so we couldn't take pictures. The zone around the base is a no stopping or picture taking area for security reasons. A little further up the road we saw 2 bull moose fighting over a territory. Deven was able to snap this picture before they ran off into the hills......

You Lookin at Me????

Between Summit Lake and Paxson Lake, we stopped at a rest area. They had a viewing platform that hung over the little stream that ran by. When we went over there to check it out, there were hundreds of salmon in the stream. They were getting ready to spawn and just hanging out. It was amazing to see that in real life. The were turning the beautiful red color. (It's hard to see in this pic but they are there....)

As we headed further south, we ran into rain showers. By the time we got to the fishing spot of choice it was about 11:00. And the bummer was that the rain had blown the river out. It was not fit to fish that day :o( The boys were good sports and just happy to be out of the RV for a bit. We decided we'd try to find an area to fish on our way back home. We found a little gravel road that led to a great fishing stream. The water was clear so out came the fishing gear. They all fly fished and were catching Arctic Graylings.






A little after 2:00, we loaded back into the truck for the 4 hour trip back. We had to get home to the doggies who can go about 12 hours without needing a potty break. The scenery was totally different on the way home. We got to see a glacier......

The middle section is the frozen glacier.


It was a fun day. All together we saw 11 moose, about 30 rabbits and a bald eagle. Along with some great scenery and good fishing. Who could ask for more???

Home Sweet Home

After driving all over the place (some roads not really fit to be driving on - had to put it in 4 wheel drive in the summer), we found a house we really loved and made an offer on Wednesday. This afternoon the realtor texted me with the good news.....the seller accepted our offer. WooHoo!!!! Here are a couple pics:

It's 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, 1852 square feet, almost a full acre of land and was built in 2007. There are trees around our whole acre so we don't see neighbors all around us. Just the one right across the street. Our house is one of 2 houses on a cull-da-sac. We'll have plenty of room to park all our stuff (Deven gets mad when I call it crap). The town we'll live in is North Pole :o) We are really between Fairbanks and North Pole so we won't have to see Christmas decorations every day! LOL We need to build a fence for the doggies right away. Deven says he'll finally give me my white picket fence!!!! Later down the road, we'll build a shop so all the toys stay nice and warm and dry. I asked the realtor what the building codes were. His answer....."What building codes?" He was not teasing!!! Gotta love Alaska.

We both survived our first week of work at our new jobs. Everyone has been very nice and very helpful. They all can't wait to see our reaction in winter!!!! Think they know something we don't???? He He He He

North Pole, Alaska....Christmas All Year Round!

We went to North Pole on Saturday. It's about 10 or 15 minutes from Fairbanks. Our RV site is between the two cities. We had to go to the laundry mat and figured we'd look at houses in the area too. After a week of traveling, we had a ton of dirty clothes. I'm not used to having laundry for 4 people. Sheesh.......that's a lot of dirty clothes!!!!! We had 9 loads and all of those were double or triple loads. The price has sure gone up since the last time I had to used a laundry mat. It was almost $10 per load. Holy Cow!!!! We had lunch at Wendy's. The thing about North Pole is that it's a Christmas themed town.......all year round. This was the inside of Wendy's:

What a crack up!!!!

After our busy day of laundry and house hunting, 3 of the boys needed a nap.....


Aren't they cute???? :o)

The Journey Continues......

Day 3

On day 3 of our journey, we traveled from Lacey, Washington to Prince George, British Columbia which is about 629 miles. When we left Washington at 7:00am, the weather was about 50 degrees and misty. As we traveled north, the temperature got up to 85 degrees and sunny. We crossed the Canadian border without any trouble. We had heard that the wait at the border was running several hours but we made it through in about 10 minutes.

The roads in Canada have been really well maintained. They do love billboard signs though. They have tons of those. We also noticed that there are no dead critters along the road. Gunner said they probably clean them off to keep the bears out of the road. What a smart kid! We saw quite a few waterfalls cascading down the mountain sides. The mountains seemed to shoot straight up vertical and then to see the waterfalls coming down those sheer cliffs was really cool. We did our first grocery shopping at a little market in BC. It’s funny to see the packaging of all the foods. All the labels are in English and French. The prices didn’t seem too bad. It was a little store so they were a bit higher than a large chain store. We pulled off for the night around 10:00pm and the sun had just gone down. We are curious to see how much later sundown is every night as we get further north.

Day 4

On day 4, we left Prince George, B.C. about 7:00am. There was a lot of smoke in the air from a forest fire that was burning in the next town. Thankfully it was not close enough to town to cause any worries or concerns for us. After driving for about an hour and a half, the smoke cleared and it was a beautiful day. Again the weather got to about 85 degrees. We kept seeing moose warning signs along the road but we have yet to see one. What’s that all aboot, eh?

The scenery is gorgeous. The mountains still have snow at the tops and look almost fake because they are so amazing.

We stopped for groceries at a larger chain store this time. If you want a shopping cart, you have to insert a dollar and then when you return the cart, you get it back. You also have to pay extra if you don’t bring your own bags. It was 5 cents per bag. They also charge a 5 cent bottle/can deposit along with a 4 cent recycling charge. We stopped for the night around 5:00 and pulled into a campground called Meziadin Lake Park. The guys had researched ahead of time and decided this would be a good place to get some fishing in. The lake has Dolly Varden, Rainbow Trout, Arctic Char, Pink Salmon, Red Salmon and King Salmon. It’s one of only 3 lakes in Canada that the salmon come and spawn in.

The mosquitoes reminded me of Paisley, Oregon……hungry!!! Thank goodness for 100% deet. The campground had seen recent bear sightings so there were areas that were off limits.

All the rest areas and campgrounds have these neat garbage cans that are bear proof. You have to slide your hand in under a flap to activate the latch that keeps the can closed.

The guys went out fishing before dinner and then again after. When they were down at the lake fishing, they met a couple from Sweet Home, OR. What a small world!!!! How crazy is that :o) We won’t head out as early in the morning so they can get some more fishing in. Today we went around 400 miles. We have gone just over 1200 miles total in our journey north……almost half way to Fairbanks.


Day 5

Captain’s Log, Star Date June 22, 2010………He He….Just teasing…
On day 5, the guys decided not to fish Meziadin Lake again but to head on down the road and hit some of the rivers along our route. The fishing licenses they got were good for British Columbia only so they had to hit some spots before we came to the Yukon Territory. We stopped for lunch in Dease Lake, B.C. and then they fished for a few hours a little ways outside of town. Deven was the only one who had any luck. He caught an Arctic Grayling on his fly rod.

A good time was still had by all. Those guys love to fish. I took the time to read my new Sookie Stackhouse book :o) We finally saw our first bear!!! It was a young grizzly bear walking down the road.

We saw 3 all together today. The last bear we saw was a large black bear. Probably 400 or 500 pounds. He was a big boy. It’s strange to see them wild and strolling free along the road. I’ve only seen them in the zoo. Luckily we were in our RV all 3 times (so nothing to worry about Donna…Gunner is still safe and sound). Still no moose though, darn it!!! In Jade City, we stopped at the Cassiar Mountain Jade Store. The Cassiar Mountain Range supplies 92% of the world jade market. The store sells items made from the jade mined from the mountains. Me, Deven and Gunner bought some souvenirs. The roads today were a little less than ideal. At least there were little signs that said “slow” right where the bumps were. Even if they were a little late…better late than never. We hit one road that was basically graded dirt clots. That was not so fun. Tomorrow we will be hitting the AlCan highway. We stopped for the night at Junction 37 RV Park. It was still light at 11:30….FREAKY!!! We traveled 353 miles today so our grand total is about 1553 miles which leaves us about 1000 miles to go.

Day 6

Today we hit the road around 8:00am. The weather was cooler and we had some rain showers. It was nice to wash the dust off the RV. We spent most of the day driving. We did stop to check out a small waterfall. It was nice to get out and stretch our legs.

Me and Mitch got a few naps in during the day. Gunner was Deven’s co-pilot all day. He did a good job making sure our route was plugged into the Tom Tom navigation system. We stopped at another Canadian grocery store. Mitch is on a quest to find bagged milk. It’s a bet he has going with his friends. No luck so far. We will be hitting the Alaskan border in the morning (about another 135 miles) so he’s running out of time. Once we hit the border, we will be on Alaskan Standard time which is one hour earlier than Oregon time. Animal sightings today were a bald eagle and elk. Lots of mosquitoes too. Those things are vicious!!!! Me, Mitch & Gunner are all taking Benadryl to help with the swelling. We pulled in for the night at a nice RV park called Cottonwood RV Park which is on the shores of Kluane Lake. They had a grizzly bear in camp yesterday evening so we are hoping for a repeat visit. I’m typing this at 11:00pm and it’s still light outside (like it was 8:00 in Oregon during the summer time). We traveled 410 miles today. Our grand total is up to 1980 miles. We should hit Fairbanks tomorrow evening. That is another 442 miles. Deven has driven the entire way. I don’t think he trusts my driving :o)



Day 7

Today was a full on drive day. We were pushing to make Fairbanks by evening. We hit the road around 8:00am. We had a few hours of nice roads and then we hit the worst road conditions we’ve ever seen. The pot holes were giant craters and there were frost heaves that made big whoopties. Deven did an awesome job driving. We haven’t had any flat tires (knock on wood) or mechanical problems. We can say we’ve survived the AlCan Highway :o) We crossed the border into Alaska around 2pm.

Now we are in the new time zone so we are an hour behind Oregon time. The poor doggies are so confused….it’s light during bed time and their feeding times seem strange. After the road from Hell, we stopped for the night about 90 miles south of Fairbanks. We’ll head in the rest of the way in the morning. We didn’t see any more critters today. Dang moose are hiding!!!! Miles traveled today = 350. Grand total for our trip = 2328

Day 8 – Arrival Day

This morning we hit the road around 7am and pulled into our RV site & temporary home for the next 2 months around 10:00. It’s good to finally be here. The ride was a long one but worth doing at least once. The fury kids did really good. They slept most of the time. Maggie got comfortable on top of the sleeping bag pile.....

Caddis loves Gunner........

I think we are all glad to be done driving. Now we can try to settle in and explore Fairbanks. We finally saw a moose…...It was just standing beside the highway watching traffic go by. Must have been there to greet us :o)