On our last morning in Whitehorse, we looked for the time trials of the Yukon River Bathtub Race. They have a three day, 400+ mile race from Whitehorse to Dawson City in bathtubs. I guess the time trials were postponed due to rain. Instead, we went to Haines Junction and Silver City. Silver City is an abandoned mining town next to a lake. I took the opportunity to splash around in the lake. It was cold.
Luckily, on our hiking day, the weather cleared and we went for a nice walk into the mountains of Kluane National Park. We saw three grizzly bears on the other side of the valley and watched them for a while.
After the twelve hour drive back into Alaska and over to McCarthy in Wrangell-St.Elais National Park, we had a free day for hiking. I started up a mountain with a few passengers. We got to the bottom of the clouds, where the views ended and they turned around to go look at the foot of the glacier. I continued up to the Bonanza Copper Mine. The fog was pretty thick at the top of the mountain, but it did clear long enough for me to see the mine buildings for a few minutes. I read a bit of a book and then came back down the mountain.
On the way to Valdez, we had a pretty clear day and made a lot of photo stops. The next day, in Valdez, we wanted to go hiking up in the mountains, but it was too cloudy to see where the mountains were. Instead we took a small walk above the sound.
It is the middle of salmon season up here. We went down to the edge of the water and saw hundreds of dying salmon. Salmon are born in freshwater, eat the bacteria that live in their dead parents, swim to the ocean, return a few years later to lay eggs and then die. So, salmon season means hundreds of dead and dying fish lying around. The seagulls were able to pick and choose what to eat. They only ate the eyeballs.
We still had a few hours left in the day, so a few of us took a helicopter ride. We flew over the Columbia Glacier, landed next to the Shoup Glacier and saw a bear from the air. I have taken helicopter rides before, at the Grand Canyon, but there they are not allowed to go into the canyon, so it is pretty much the same as an airplane. Here, on the other hand, I got the full pleasure of cruising up mountainsides and back down the other side. Also, the Columbia Glacier is huge and incredibly impressive.
Very early the next morning, we got onto the ferry to go to Whittier. I was just getting into my book, when three very strange people sat down next to me. Ed, who was doing some doctoring in Alaska, his daughter Sally (whom I call 'That Girl', after the Sally in my favorite Gucci Crew II song by the same name), and her friend Kibbles and Bits started video taping me and being generally silly. I think they were not used to people being silly back to them and we spent most of the boat ride having a good time. Sally is a graphic artist and made a very nice drawing of me in the dirt on the side of the van.
From Whittier, I drove the van (fully loaded with passengers) onto the train. We sat in the van for the 40 minute train ride to Portage. It was cloudy and we did not see the glaciers. We spent that night in Kenai looking for Beluga whales, but did not see any.
We passed through Ninilchik and drove to the end of the road - Homer, Alaska. We camped at the end of the Homer Spit. It rained the entire next day and I read a book. After a stop at Portage Glacier, we went back to Anchorage and they did a bit of last minute shopping.
At times this trip was a bit difficult for me because my Spanish is not so good. Eventually, many of them learned which words I knew and spoke slowly enough that we were able to have conversations. I have enjoyed my last two special trips. Travelling with thirteen people from the same country is almost like visiting that country. I probably learned more about the daily life of people in Taiwan and Spain here, as a guide, than I would have as a tourist in their countries.
Between four and six in the morning, I shuttled them to the airport and the trip was over, except for taking down their tents. I spent the better part of last Sunday waiting for them to dry. Every three hours, just before they were dry, it would rain for about five minutes. On Monday, I got the tires changed on the van and ran into my friend Sue. She was having work done on her van at the same place and I hung out with her for a few hours.
The rest of this past week has been spent answering e-mail, reading books, cleaning equipment, planning my next trip and sleeping.
I meet my new group tonight. I also get my first hotel room since the third week of July.
Friday, August 27, 1999
Thursday, August 12, 1999
12 AUG 99
Greetings from the Holodeck in Whitehorse (pop. 23,000), the capital of Canada's Yukon Territory and home to most of the territory's 34,000 people. The Holodeck is a computer place with a Star Trek theme. I like it.
After I said goodbye to my 13 Taiwanese friends, I headed back down to Girdwood to visit Sue and relax. We took a couple of saunas, went for a really steep hike and did not do too much else. I also got ready for my next trip.
On the 2nd of August, at 11:56 p.m., I picked up my new passengers, 13 people from Spain. I took them back to the campground and they fell asleep in the tents that I had spent all afternoon putting up. This group was the reason I got the Alaska trips. They booked through a Spanish agency and I am the Spanish speaking guide that was provided. I think they understand most of what I say, at least I do.
They are older than a normal Trek group, in their 30's, 40's and 50's. I prefer groups of this age. They don't get as bored when they have free time and show some initiative when it comes to helping out around camp.
When we all go up in the morning, I gave the Spanish version of my first day speech and then we headed downtown. We looked around Anchorage for a while and even saw the top of Mt. McKinley in the distance. That night we went back to camp. My friend Fiona arrived in Anchorage that night, but neither of us had phone numbers to contact each other. I knew she was getting a hotel room near the airport, so I did what anyone would do when they wanted to find a friend in a state's biggest city. I went from hotel to hotel asking for her and found her in a little over half an hour. It was nice to see her again, even for such a short time and I look forward to travelling with her in South America this winter. Fiona is doing a different Trek trip and, unfortunately, I won't see her again up here.
The next morning my new group and I headed north, to Denali National Park. We saw the dog sled demonstration. On our free day we took flights over the park and some went rafting. The next day we took the shuttle bus into the park to look for animals and hike. We saw a grizzly bear next to a river and the bus stopped so we could look. The bus refused to start and we spent well over two hours watching the bear until a new bus arrived. We continued on, saw some sheep, caribou and a few more bears. In the afternoon, I took 12 of my passengers on a hike up a hill and fun was had by all.
In Denali National Park, when you are done hiking, you have to stop a shuttle bus and ask for a ride. After our hike we stopped the next bus and it only had 12 seats available. My whole group got on and I found myself alone in the middle of one of America's largest National Parks. I started walking the 40 miles back, but after only about one mile another bus came and I got a ride. We had a good pizza dinner and called it a day.
From Denali, we headed up to Fairbanks and had a good salmon bake. We also looked around the city, the museum and the Large Animal Research Station, where they keep some muskox. We spent a night in Tok before taking the Top of the World Highway over to Dawson City. We went to the Downtown Saloon for Sourtoe Cocktails, but no one wanted one. Captain Bill has a preserved human toe that he puts in your drink. You are only supposed to touch it with your lips, but it does occasionally get swallowed.
The next day, we went to the gold mining dredge and a viewpoint before having a free afternoon to explore the goldrush town. I, of course, took advantage of some free time in a city with cheap Internet and updated my page a bit. After that we stopped at a few sights along the road and ended up here, in Whitehorse. This is a free day for them again and I am at the Holodeck, home of the four Canadian dollars per hour Internet place.
This brings us up to today. More some other day.
Tuesday, August 10, 1999
10 AUG 99
Hello from Dawson City, Yukon Territory, Canada. This has been a very busy summer. I have not had the time to update my page in quite some time. As always, sorry if it gets too long, it is just that I am having so much fun.
After my last update, I went into New York City and picked up three passengers. We went to look at the Statue of Liberty and then headed down to Washington D.C.
After the first night of this trip I over-slept. The light usually wakes me up at sunrise or around 6 a.m. But, this was my first night sleeping in the van in eight months. The van is what I consider my home. It is where I have spent about half of my nights since June, 1996. It is always nice to sleep in your own bed after a long absence. After this I did start waking up at sunrise again.
After a day of checking out camping stoves at R.E.I., I picked up two more passengers and we all went to eat in Georgetown. The six of us took a nice drive through Virginia and went rafting on the Ocoee River in Tennessee. Another long day of driving brought us almost to New Orleans. We did a little tour of the swamps in Mr. Denny's canoes and then headed down to the French Quarter. We toured an old plantation house and I had my drink for the year on Bourbon Street.
Another big day of driving brought us to San Antonio. Dirk, a passenger from Germany, had to leave us. He is in the German army and had to go get some extra training before being sent to Kosovo. I felt sorry for his girlfriend also, she had to stay with us, after being with him for only two weeks, after being apart for a year.
Karla came out from Houston and with Dion, one of my four remaining passengers, we went up to New Braunfels and spent a few hours floating in the river on inner tubes. There were even a few rapids to shake us up a bit.
Then we went over to Del Rio, had dinner in Mexico and then went up to Carlsbad Caverns. The bats were out in full force and gave us a good show. We had another night on the town in Santa Fe and then took a beautiful drive through the Navajo Indian Reservation to Canyon de Chelly before spending the night at Slim and Kody's Cowboy Camp in Mexican Hat, Utah. They have a new trampoline, so between ropin' and ridin' I bounced.
A nice tour of Monument Valley with an Indian was followed by a couple of days in the Grand Canyon. I did my favorite hike there and found a new spot I like even better. I walked down into the canyon for four miles, turned left, and walked another two miles. There is a small creek there. I followed the creek down a few small cliffs and found a place where the water had carved a shelf big enough for me to relax on and read my book for a few hours. Then, of course, two miles more, another left turn and up a different path to the top.
It was time to jump off the cliffs into Lake Powell and party at the Pariah Canyon Guest Ranch. I also climbed on a climbing wall for the first time there. Easton, the owner, wanted me to look good so he nearly pulled me up the wall with my safety rope. I got up pretty quickly. The next morning we rode quad-runners for a few hours before stopping at the Coral Pink Sand Dunes on the way to Zion National Park. There we took one of my favorite river hikes. We walked in the river into the canyon for a few hours and I spent a lot of time splashing in the river. I was having so much fun that I was running ahead of everyone and had to wait a lot. This also happened in Nepal, but I learned a trick there to slow me down. When my hiking partners are slower than me, I pick up a big rock and carry it. At times it was difficult to swim in the river with the rock, but I managed and did not get too far ahead of the rest of my group. That night, as on every night, Venus, Mercury and Mars were visible.
The following morning, my passengers impressed me by agreeing to wake up well before sun-rise and hike up Angel's Landing. This hike has some highly exposed sections and I am not sure everyone would have made it up if they could see how far the drop was on both sides of the trail. We got to the top well before sun-rise and could see Jupiter and Saturn in the sky.
From Zion we went over to the Lake Mead Recreational Area, swam in the lake, swam in a spring and went on into Las Vegas. We had our mandatory buffet at the Rio followed by a cruise down the strip in a Limo. On my free day in Vegas I went for a drive and explored the city.
A visit with Micky Mouse in Disneyland, and this trip was finished. It was a shame I only had four passengers, but it worked out pretty well. Each one had his or her own bench in the van. They could keep their things there and lie down for naps. They were very good at napping and, when I looked in my rear view mirror I usually did not see anyone and felt like I was driving alone.
I had only one day in the office and then met my new group that night. I went down to the lobby of the hotel to meet them at 7:30 and all twelve of them were there (one man and eleven women). This set the tone for the whole trip. They were always, with one exception, on time for all of our activities. Often I would tell them that I wanted to leave at 8:00 the next morning and they would say "No, we want to leave at 7:30" and then be ready by 7:15. We had plenty of time for extra activities and sights. I enjoyed it. Some people come on these trips and think they are on vacation and can sleep late. This group realized that they only had two weeks to see as much as they could and could sleep when they got home.
On our first day we headed north from Los Angeles, stopped to pee in the waterfall at the Madonna Inn and spent the first night camped under the giant redwood trees of the middle Californian coast. We even had time to go down to the beach to look for the sunset.
The next day we did a little tour of San Francisco and then took a sunset cruise in the bay, around Alcatraz and under the Golden Gate Bridge. I finished my city tour the next morning and had a chance to eat some great Chinese food while they went to Alcatraz. We had a couple of nights out on the town and then went to Yosemite National Park.
Our first stop in the park was the Toulumne grove of giant sequoia trees. We took the walk down the hill, crawled through the hollow fallen tree and headed back up to the van. Near the end of the trail we saw two bears in the woods, they were busy making a baby bear and did not seem to mind us. The next day, a few of us enjoyed an eight mile hike in the Yosemite Valley before pizza and ice-cream.
On the way out of the park we stopped for a snowball fight at the high altitudes. Our next stop was at a lake. There was a pile of snow next to the lake, but once I got into the water it really was not that bad. We continued on to Mono Lake. Mono Lake is very salty and you can not sink in it. I pushed through the clouds of flies and joined the brine shrimp for a dip. That night in Bishop, we drove out to the end of town and sat in the free hot-springs. As far as swimming goes, this was an excellent day for me; ice water, mineral water and hot water.
The drive to Las Vegas took us through some beautiful desert. Our first stop was the bungee jumping place. They strapped on the cord and then I dove. I got half of myself into the pool below the crane before the bungee pulled me back up. This was the first time I have ever been dipped while bungee jumping, it was fun.
This time I decided to try the MGM Grand Hotel buffet and was not disappointed. They had shrimp already peeled. The buffet was followed by the night tour of the Strip with stops at all of the free shows along the way. The new Bellagio Hotel has a show of music, lights and giant fountains of water. It is now my favorite show on the strip.
I had the next day all to myself and went for a drive. I went for a walk in the 100+ heat of The Valley of Fire State Park and then took a dip in a natural spring on the way back to Vegas. This nights buffet was eaten at the Stratosphere, before heading up the tower to ride the roller coaster and the thing that shoots you up the tower with bungee cords, high above the city.
On the way to the Grand Canyon, we stopped in Seligman, Arizona for some ice-cream along the historic Route 66. We got up for sunrise and left at 4:50. We were supposed to leave five minutes earlier, but no group is perfect. I was not up to a hike for my free day at the Grand Canyon. I decided to drive off into the Kaibab National Forest and read a book. However, as normally happens when I head off with no particular destination, I was unable to stop. I ended up spending six hours bouncing down dirt roads and jeep trails before coming out the other end of the forest and going back up to the canyon to catch sun-set.
From the Grand Canyon, we headed south and stopped at White Castle National Monument. We looked at the old Indian dwellings and then went on down to Betty and Rusty's cowboy camp. As always, they made me feel like part of the family. We took a horse ride off into the hills and had a good dinner before the roping, bucking-barrel rides and line dancing.
At 9:30 the next morning (it is impossible to get an early start from a cowboy camp) we headed off to San Diego. We got five miles down the road, to the McDonald's and the van nearly died. I made a few calls and we headed back to the cowboy camp. We almost got back there before the van really did die. The transmission broke. We went and woke Betty and Rusty up from their naps and they cooked us an early dinner of enchiladas. We hung out for the day and played in the sprinklers.
At seven in the evening, Trevor arrived with our rescue van from Los Angeles. By 8:00 we were loaded and on the way. We had 440 miles to go, our longest drive of the trip, and we were starting at sunset. After several years of driving a lot, I have learned the secret to staying awake all night. For me, it works best to feel sick. So, with my Mountain Dew, Oreos and Jolly Rancher's candy, I stuffed myself, felt sick and never got tired on the drive to San Diego. Our gasoline stops were very short because most people did not wake up, and the rest did not feel like moving. We got to camp by 3 a.m. and were asleep by 4.
At nine the next morning we were off to see the sights. A few of us went down to Tijuana and tried to get stamps for the passports. The border guard was not in the mood to give out stamps that day so we just went for some lunch and shopping instead. For our last night's dinner we went downtown. Nobody felt like staying out late, so we went back to camp.
The last day we cleaned the equipment and went to Disneyland. After dinner at the Thai restaurant, the trip was over. It was a quick two weeks.
AmeriCan Adventures (AA), one of Trek America's competitors, went broke and was purchased by Trek's parent company. AA had some special group trips in Alaska that needed leaders and Trek decided to send me. Trek did not send me up here as one of their regular tour leaders, and several other people declined the trips I was offered, but never-the-less, here I am.
I spent the morning in the Trek office and the early afternoon in the AAA office. Then I started north. Two days later I got to Seattle and spent the afternoon getting some more equipment and organizing my next trip. On the 4th of July I met Dion, from my first trip this year, in Vancouver. Then I drove for a few more days through Canada and got to Anchorage, Alaska on the 9th of July. I had a good seven day / 3700 mile drive. I saw a bunch of bears and a few moose. This drive was the same as most of the 24 day trip I did last year from Seattle to Alaska.
I got to Alaska one day early and went down to Girdwood. My friend Sue is helping to run the hostel there. She fired up the sauna and by the time I left there I was nice and relaxed and ready to meet my new group.
My first group up here in the Northland was a group of 13 people from Taiwan. One of them, Jamie, is a travel agent and organized the group and was their translator. She has been on 15 AA trips before and most of her group had been on at least one. They new exactly what to expect and that made my job much easier. They had already divided themselves into groups. The older women cooked, the younger women cleaned and the men washed the van. They brought a lot of their own food, vegetable peelers, rags and brushes to clean the van, metal thermoses to keep their rice warm until lunch, chopsticks, wooden rice serving paddle and who knows what else.
They were mostly in their 50's and 60's with one 74 year old and a few in their 30's. They were about the nicest bunch of people ever and always made sure I had enough to eat. And the food, oh my. I had more than two weeks of authentic homemade Chinese food. I really hated to see them go, even though I gained a few pounds. Also, this was an all hostel and hotel tour. It was nice for a change to sleep in beds for a while and watch tv.
We headed straight down do the Kenai Peninsuala. Our first stop was at the supermarket to buy a wok and all the food in the Asian foods section. They also bought a bunch of vegetables and a little bit of meat. We went to Homer, at the end of the road and looked at the view. From there we checked out the Russian Orthodox Church in Ninilchik on the way to look at the most visited tourist site in the state, Portage Glacier.
They all took a 30 minute train ride and then a very long ferry ride to Valdez. There was no room for the van on the ferry, so I had to drive around. I picked up Sue in Girdwood and we drove from about 2 p.m. until 9 p.m. We got to Valdez about five minutes after the ferry.
The next day we took a walk up a valley and looked around the town. We went over the beautiful Thompson Pass on our way to McCarthy in the heart of the Wrangell-St.Elias National Park and Preserve (a park the size of West Virginia). We took nearly three hours to drive the 60 miles of really bad road to McCarthy.
From McCarthy, we went flightseeing and looked at the very large glaciers. Then we went up to Tok for the night before heading over the Top of the World Highway. We stopped in Chicken, Alaska and in a down town with only three buildings they displayed their incredible talent of turning every little stop into a really long shopping spree.
We continued on to Dawson City and spent the night. For the next two days we drove the un-paved Dempster Highway through Eagle Plains, Fort McPherson and up to Inuvik, Northwest Territories, Canada. We then flew to Tuktoyuktuk. From Tuk we went up to the Arctic Ocean (the Beaufort Sea here) and I went in upto my knees. It was a bit chilly. We toured the very small hamlet of Tuk and went down into the community ice house. They dug a 35 foot deep hole into the permafrost and carved out a bunch of store rooms. The walls, ceiling and floor were all ice and it was here that my wet and sandaled feet finally got cold. I had to go back upto the tour bus and put my socks on for ten minutes.
After a little more time in Inuvik, we took the two days to head back below the Arctic Circle to Dawson City. We toured the gold dredge and gambled at Diamond Tooth Gertie's for two days before heading back over the Top of the World Highway to Fairbanks, Alaska. They were having a parade in the rain and we watched that. We also went to a salmon bake and pigged out.
Next, it was south to Denali National Park. We took the shuttle bus off into the wilderness, saw a few grizzlies and went for a hike.
After this, it was time to head back to Anchorage. I dropped most of them off at the airport at two in the morning and the rest at eight in the morning. It was an excellent trip.
This brings us to the 27th of July, but I am out of time right now. More when I get a chance.
After my last update, I went into New York City and picked up three passengers. We went to look at the Statue of Liberty and then headed down to Washington D.C.
After the first night of this trip I over-slept. The light usually wakes me up at sunrise or around 6 a.m. But, this was my first night sleeping in the van in eight months. The van is what I consider my home. It is where I have spent about half of my nights since June, 1996. It is always nice to sleep in your own bed after a long absence. After this I did start waking up at sunrise again.
After a day of checking out camping stoves at R.E.I., I picked up two more passengers and we all went to eat in Georgetown. The six of us took a nice drive through Virginia and went rafting on the Ocoee River in Tennessee. Another long day of driving brought us almost to New Orleans. We did a little tour of the swamps in Mr. Denny's canoes and then headed down to the French Quarter. We toured an old plantation house and I had my drink for the year on Bourbon Street.
Another big day of driving brought us to San Antonio. Dirk, a passenger from Germany, had to leave us. He is in the German army and had to go get some extra training before being sent to Kosovo. I felt sorry for his girlfriend also, she had to stay with us, after being with him for only two weeks, after being apart for a year.
Karla came out from Houston and with Dion, one of my four remaining passengers, we went up to New Braunfels and spent a few hours floating in the river on inner tubes. There were even a few rapids to shake us up a bit.
Then we went over to Del Rio, had dinner in Mexico and then went up to Carlsbad Caverns. The bats were out in full force and gave us a good show. We had another night on the town in Santa Fe and then took a beautiful drive through the Navajo Indian Reservation to Canyon de Chelly before spending the night at Slim and Kody's Cowboy Camp in Mexican Hat, Utah. They have a new trampoline, so between ropin' and ridin' I bounced.
A nice tour of Monument Valley with an Indian was followed by a couple of days in the Grand Canyon. I did my favorite hike there and found a new spot I like even better. I walked down into the canyon for four miles, turned left, and walked another two miles. There is a small creek there. I followed the creek down a few small cliffs and found a place where the water had carved a shelf big enough for me to relax on and read my book for a few hours. Then, of course, two miles more, another left turn and up a different path to the top.
It was time to jump off the cliffs into Lake Powell and party at the Pariah Canyon Guest Ranch. I also climbed on a climbing wall for the first time there. Easton, the owner, wanted me to look good so he nearly pulled me up the wall with my safety rope. I got up pretty quickly. The next morning we rode quad-runners for a few hours before stopping at the Coral Pink Sand Dunes on the way to Zion National Park. There we took one of my favorite river hikes. We walked in the river into the canyon for a few hours and I spent a lot of time splashing in the river. I was having so much fun that I was running ahead of everyone and had to wait a lot. This also happened in Nepal, but I learned a trick there to slow me down. When my hiking partners are slower than me, I pick up a big rock and carry it. At times it was difficult to swim in the river with the rock, but I managed and did not get too far ahead of the rest of my group. That night, as on every night, Venus, Mercury and Mars were visible.
The following morning, my passengers impressed me by agreeing to wake up well before sun-rise and hike up Angel's Landing. This hike has some highly exposed sections and I am not sure everyone would have made it up if they could see how far the drop was on both sides of the trail. We got to the top well before sun-rise and could see Jupiter and Saturn in the sky.
From Zion we went over to the Lake Mead Recreational Area, swam in the lake, swam in a spring and went on into Las Vegas. We had our mandatory buffet at the Rio followed by a cruise down the strip in a Limo. On my free day in Vegas I went for a drive and explored the city.
A visit with Micky Mouse in Disneyland, and this trip was finished. It was a shame I only had four passengers, but it worked out pretty well. Each one had his or her own bench in the van. They could keep their things there and lie down for naps. They were very good at napping and, when I looked in my rear view mirror I usually did not see anyone and felt like I was driving alone.
I had only one day in the office and then met my new group that night. I went down to the lobby of the hotel to meet them at 7:30 and all twelve of them were there (one man and eleven women). This set the tone for the whole trip. They were always, with one exception, on time for all of our activities. Often I would tell them that I wanted to leave at 8:00 the next morning and they would say "No, we want to leave at 7:30" and then be ready by 7:15. We had plenty of time for extra activities and sights. I enjoyed it. Some people come on these trips and think they are on vacation and can sleep late. This group realized that they only had two weeks to see as much as they could and could sleep when they got home.
On our first day we headed north from Los Angeles, stopped to pee in the waterfall at the Madonna Inn and spent the first night camped under the giant redwood trees of the middle Californian coast. We even had time to go down to the beach to look for the sunset.
The next day we did a little tour of San Francisco and then took a sunset cruise in the bay, around Alcatraz and under the Golden Gate Bridge. I finished my city tour the next morning and had a chance to eat some great Chinese food while they went to Alcatraz. We had a couple of nights out on the town and then went to Yosemite National Park.
Our first stop in the park was the Toulumne grove of giant sequoia trees. We took the walk down the hill, crawled through the hollow fallen tree and headed back up to the van. Near the end of the trail we saw two bears in the woods, they were busy making a baby bear and did not seem to mind us. The next day, a few of us enjoyed an eight mile hike in the Yosemite Valley before pizza and ice-cream.
On the way out of the park we stopped for a snowball fight at the high altitudes. Our next stop was at a lake. There was a pile of snow next to the lake, but once I got into the water it really was not that bad. We continued on to Mono Lake. Mono Lake is very salty and you can not sink in it. I pushed through the clouds of flies and joined the brine shrimp for a dip. That night in Bishop, we drove out to the end of town and sat in the free hot-springs. As far as swimming goes, this was an excellent day for me; ice water, mineral water and hot water.
The drive to Las Vegas took us through some beautiful desert. Our first stop was the bungee jumping place. They strapped on the cord and then I dove. I got half of myself into the pool below the crane before the bungee pulled me back up. This was the first time I have ever been dipped while bungee jumping, it was fun.
This time I decided to try the MGM Grand Hotel buffet and was not disappointed. They had shrimp already peeled. The buffet was followed by the night tour of the Strip with stops at all of the free shows along the way. The new Bellagio Hotel has a show of music, lights and giant fountains of water. It is now my favorite show on the strip.
I had the next day all to myself and went for a drive. I went for a walk in the 100+ heat of The Valley of Fire State Park and then took a dip in a natural spring on the way back to Vegas. This nights buffet was eaten at the Stratosphere, before heading up the tower to ride the roller coaster and the thing that shoots you up the tower with bungee cords, high above the city.
On the way to the Grand Canyon, we stopped in Seligman, Arizona for some ice-cream along the historic Route 66. We got up for sunrise and left at 4:50. We were supposed to leave five minutes earlier, but no group is perfect. I was not up to a hike for my free day at the Grand Canyon. I decided to drive off into the Kaibab National Forest and read a book. However, as normally happens when I head off with no particular destination, I was unable to stop. I ended up spending six hours bouncing down dirt roads and jeep trails before coming out the other end of the forest and going back up to the canyon to catch sun-set.
From the Grand Canyon, we headed south and stopped at White Castle National Monument. We looked at the old Indian dwellings and then went on down to Betty and Rusty's cowboy camp. As always, they made me feel like part of the family. We took a horse ride off into the hills and had a good dinner before the roping, bucking-barrel rides and line dancing.
At 9:30 the next morning (it is impossible to get an early start from a cowboy camp) we headed off to San Diego. We got five miles down the road, to the McDonald's and the van nearly died. I made a few calls and we headed back to the cowboy camp. We almost got back there before the van really did die. The transmission broke. We went and woke Betty and Rusty up from their naps and they cooked us an early dinner of enchiladas. We hung out for the day and played in the sprinklers.
At seven in the evening, Trevor arrived with our rescue van from Los Angeles. By 8:00 we were loaded and on the way. We had 440 miles to go, our longest drive of the trip, and we were starting at sunset. After several years of driving a lot, I have learned the secret to staying awake all night. For me, it works best to feel sick. So, with my Mountain Dew, Oreos and Jolly Rancher's candy, I stuffed myself, felt sick and never got tired on the drive to San Diego. Our gasoline stops were very short because most people did not wake up, and the rest did not feel like moving. We got to camp by 3 a.m. and were asleep by 4.
At nine the next morning we were off to see the sights. A few of us went down to Tijuana and tried to get stamps for the passports. The border guard was not in the mood to give out stamps that day so we just went for some lunch and shopping instead. For our last night's dinner we went downtown. Nobody felt like staying out late, so we went back to camp.
The last day we cleaned the equipment and went to Disneyland. After dinner at the Thai restaurant, the trip was over. It was a quick two weeks.
AmeriCan Adventures (AA), one of Trek America's competitors, went broke and was purchased by Trek's parent company. AA had some special group trips in Alaska that needed leaders and Trek decided to send me. Trek did not send me up here as one of their regular tour leaders, and several other people declined the trips I was offered, but never-the-less, here I am.
I spent the morning in the Trek office and the early afternoon in the AAA office. Then I started north. Two days later I got to Seattle and spent the afternoon getting some more equipment and organizing my next trip. On the 4th of July I met Dion, from my first trip this year, in Vancouver. Then I drove for a few more days through Canada and got to Anchorage, Alaska on the 9th of July. I had a good seven day / 3700 mile drive. I saw a bunch of bears and a few moose. This drive was the same as most of the 24 day trip I did last year from Seattle to Alaska.
I got to Alaska one day early and went down to Girdwood. My friend Sue is helping to run the hostel there. She fired up the sauna and by the time I left there I was nice and relaxed and ready to meet my new group.
My first group up here in the Northland was a group of 13 people from Taiwan. One of them, Jamie, is a travel agent and organized the group and was their translator. She has been on 15 AA trips before and most of her group had been on at least one. They new exactly what to expect and that made my job much easier. They had already divided themselves into groups. The older women cooked, the younger women cleaned and the men washed the van. They brought a lot of their own food, vegetable peelers, rags and brushes to clean the van, metal thermoses to keep their rice warm until lunch, chopsticks, wooden rice serving paddle and who knows what else.
They were mostly in their 50's and 60's with one 74 year old and a few in their 30's. They were about the nicest bunch of people ever and always made sure I had enough to eat. And the food, oh my. I had more than two weeks of authentic homemade Chinese food. I really hated to see them go, even though I gained a few pounds. Also, this was an all hostel and hotel tour. It was nice for a change to sleep in beds for a while and watch tv.
We headed straight down do the Kenai Peninsuala. Our first stop was at the supermarket to buy a wok and all the food in the Asian foods section. They also bought a bunch of vegetables and a little bit of meat. We went to Homer, at the end of the road and looked at the view. From there we checked out the Russian Orthodox Church in Ninilchik on the way to look at the most visited tourist site in the state, Portage Glacier.
They all took a 30 minute train ride and then a very long ferry ride to Valdez. There was no room for the van on the ferry, so I had to drive around. I picked up Sue in Girdwood and we drove from about 2 p.m. until 9 p.m. We got to Valdez about five minutes after the ferry.
The next day we took a walk up a valley and looked around the town. We went over the beautiful Thompson Pass on our way to McCarthy in the heart of the Wrangell-St.Elias National Park and Preserve (a park the size of West Virginia). We took nearly three hours to drive the 60 miles of really bad road to McCarthy.
From McCarthy, we went flightseeing and looked at the very large glaciers. Then we went up to Tok for the night before heading over the Top of the World Highway. We stopped in Chicken, Alaska and in a down town with only three buildings they displayed their incredible talent of turning every little stop into a really long shopping spree.
We continued on to Dawson City and spent the night. For the next two days we drove the un-paved Dempster Highway through Eagle Plains, Fort McPherson and up to Inuvik, Northwest Territories, Canada. We then flew to Tuktoyuktuk. From Tuk we went up to the Arctic Ocean (the Beaufort Sea here) and I went in upto my knees. It was a bit chilly. We toured the very small hamlet of Tuk and went down into the community ice house. They dug a 35 foot deep hole into the permafrost and carved out a bunch of store rooms. The walls, ceiling and floor were all ice and it was here that my wet and sandaled feet finally got cold. I had to go back upto the tour bus and put my socks on for ten minutes.
After a little more time in Inuvik, we took the two days to head back below the Arctic Circle to Dawson City. We toured the gold dredge and gambled at Diamond Tooth Gertie's for two days before heading back over the Top of the World Highway to Fairbanks, Alaska. They were having a parade in the rain and we watched that. We also went to a salmon bake and pigged out.
Next, it was south to Denali National Park. We took the shuttle bus off into the wilderness, saw a few grizzlies and went for a hike.
After this, it was time to head back to Anchorage. I dropped most of them off at the airport at two in the morning and the rest at eight in the morning. It was an excellent trip.
This brings us to the 27th of July, but I am out of time right now. More when I get a chance.
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