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Denali Highway again…
Mino arrivée sans encombre comme prévu le 6 août, je pensais que nous irions vers le sud découvrir la péninsule du Kenai. Les prévisions météos très pluvieuses pour cette région nous ont fait changer d’avis. Nous sommes ainsi retournés au Hatcher Pass d’abord, puis le long de la Denali Highway où le soleil devait être plus présent…
1. Jolies fleurs de la toundra alpine…
2. … où cohabitent quantité de plantes basses…
3. … parfois fleuries.
4. Belle vue depuis un sommet au dessus de notre campement au Hatcher Pass.
5. Le soir suivant, à l’extrémité est de la Denali HWY.
6. Petit lac avec une lumière matinale assez grise…
7. Miroir…
8. En marchant vers un sommet alentours, une jolie fleur bleu pétrole.
9. Depuis en haut, la vue vers le nord est splendide.
10. Quantité de petits lacs parsèment la toundra.
11. Le lendemain, nous marchons plus de trente kilomètres pour découvrir le Sevenmile Lake, retiré et sauvage.
12. Coincé entre deux plis montagneux, il s’étire sur une bonne dizaine de kilomètres.
13. Rafraîchissement..! 😉
14. Sur le chemin du retour, petit panoramique du Glacier Lake qui joue le miroir à nuages.
15. Plus loin, quelques autres gouilles sans nom sous un ciel d’averses.
16. VivaLaVida sur la Denali HWY.
17. Une ondée passagère un peu plus loin…
18. En empruntant la Maclaren Road, une piste latérale quasi inutilisée, nous apercevons Monsieur Castor.
19. Intrigué par la présence de VivaLaVida, il s’approche pour voir si cet intrus en veut à son territoire. Il tapera quelques grands coups de queue pour nous faire comprendre qu’ici, c’est chez lui !
20. Nous trouvons un campement avec une vue plongeante sur la Maclaren River…
21. … qui méandre dans la plaine.
Suite à venir bientôt… 😉
Dalton Highway (3) & Hatcher Pass
I let you at the botom of the Brooke Range heading back South.
1. I’m half mesmerized by the scenes that follow one to the other…
2. … sometimes low “heavy” skies…
3. … sometimes cottony openings…
4. … or larger…
5. … but which close again almost immediately…
6. Where slopes are to steep, there are only screes…
7. High plateau of the Brooke Range, just north of Antigun Pass.
8. Going down the Brooke Range to the south, trucks roll again. They were stoped during the rain, too slippery for them. It must be said that here, hills have impressive percentages! Some also have evocative names: Beaver Slide for example, a 22% slope. VLV drove it down with 4WD 4×4 and not faster than 10 mph in the rain, in six inches of mud… Trucks then stop to wait for the road to dry.
9. The trees gradually reappear on the south side of the Brooke Range…
10. … However, not many yet.
11. The pipeline sometimes accompanies me.
12. Marsh in the taiga.
13. A beautiful rainbow welcomes Vivalavida! 😀
14. But the rain starts soon again.
that’s it for my fast south-north-south through Alaska via the Dalton. A barely arrived that I already want to go back..! 😉 I hope I managed to transcribe some scenes of these beautiful northern landscapes that fascinate me…
15. On the road to Anchorage, I made a detour to the beautiful Hatcher Pass.
16. Late afternoon from my bivouac.
Starting next update, Mino will keep me company… Updates will be more spaced again further apat, my delay is now caught! 😀
One more time, thank you for your loyalty to read this little blog. 😉
Dalton Highway (2)
One continued ascent of Vivalavida to “far North” … The Brooke Range crossed, there is only a great plain that slopes gently toward the north to the Beaufort Sea. The more I go North and the more I can feel that winter isn’t gone since long ago…
1. Tundra flowers…
2. … out of sight…
3. Although it doesn’t look on the picture, the road is really rough. Despite its large Wheel traval, VLV didn’t drove a high speed average.
4. I meet from time to time a truck. The windshield ofVLV remembers it with a new large stone impact. It’s gonna be time to replace it once back from Alaska…
5. Colors of the tundra are constantly changing.
6. Water is everywhere, everything is marsh … I imagine how difficult it was for explorers of these regions to progress on such land.
7. This tundra is summer areas for caribous that migrate South during the winter, looking for less snowed areas to find lichens which are their menu.
8. A long time before seeing it, the dust announces the arrival of a vehicle!
9. Far North, a pingo. This hill is created by a “ice bubble” that has developed in the tundra, pushing it upwards.
10. I have the chance to see the biggest herbivore of the tundra: a group of muskoxen.
11. What a big animal! I’m not going to scratch his ear… 😉
12. A caribou mother and is calf of the year.
Quizz : que veut dire faire la cleupette ? Indice : ça vient du Jura neuchâtelois… Et Pum-Tac, t’as pas le droit de jouer !! 😀
13. My bivouac announces the return of the rain. To try to show you the invasion of mosquitoes in this area: I opened this window for less than 15 seconds! Here, there are five species of these bloodsuckers, with the big tiger mosquito…
14. Low clouds in the morning, in the rain.
15. While VLV took the road heading South again, clouds are gorgious and impressive.
16. What an ambiance!
17. I think I’m in love with this tundra! 😀
18. VLV is already quite muddy!
19. Rain starts again…
20. Higher in the Brooke Range, the sun makes short appearances.
21. Difficult to show you how VLV was dirty!
To be continued soon… 😉
Fjords, McKinley & Dalton Highway 1…
Pending favorable weather conditions to head to the far north, I took advantage of a brief lull to explore a fjord South of Anchorage. Large glacier valley, it was filled with sediment by the surrounding glaciers to the sea level or nearly. At low tide only remains a narrow channel of water in the middle. Each tide begins with a tidal wave. Not very spectacular the day I was there because the moon was in first quarter…
1. Turnagain fjord at almost low tide.
2. The channel that remains at low tide.
3. More than 150 miles away, the mountains of Kodiak.
4. After crossing swamps to seek a new composition… 😉
5. A non-edible touch of color in the undergrowth.
6. The lull was short-term…
And finally, after more than three weeks of waiting, thinnings were announced on the far north. Vivalavida hit the road for a 1,800 miles way before the arrival of my friend Mino.
An unexpected opportunity: the beautiful weather allows me to see Mount McKinley, a rare opportunity as it is hidden in the clouds more than 80% of the year. It is the highest peak in North America, more than 20,000 feet elevation. A real giant!
7. I’m unable to transmit how big it is through my pictures but I was there still more than 120 miles away…
8. Here, still more than 50 miles away…
9. End of day on the surrounding mountains…
10. Camp next to a small lake.
11. The next morning, the giant is still visible while I’m more than 70 miles North!
To go to the far north, there is only one path: the Dalton Highway, a 500 miles long road serving Prudhoe Bay and its oil fields. It was built along the Alaskan Pipeline and along almost its entire length. It took only five months and a half in 1976 to 15 teams working in parallel to build it, a performance driven by the short northern summer. It’s a road really committed, thin strip of dirt that goes up and down every hill in impressive percentages, then through the Brooke Range with a top at Antigun Pass, at about 3,400 feet. Only one service at mile 249, about midway. Traveled almost exclusively by large trucks that supply the oil workers, it turns into a quagmire when it rains; Vivalavida will find it out… It stays open all year round since the build of the bridge over the Yukon River.
12. at mile 96, “Finger Mountain” points to the sky in the middle of the tundra.
13. The sky is beautiful but cirrus clouds are already announcing the arrival of the next perturbation.
14. The Alaskan Pipeline, also completed in 1976. This is a strategic corridor for the exploitation of northern Alaska oil resources.
15. Its build shows great ingenuity. Each pillar is “free”, only laying on bidirectional Teflon pads. To overcome the expansion created by the magnitude of extreme temperature between winter (-60°F are common and every winter the temperature drops below that!) and summer, each tube is “sleeved free” to the next. Estimation of total theoretical expansion over the entire length would be more than 8 miles from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez terminal, 800 miles south..!
16. An moose grazing aquatic weeds that grow at the bottom of this small lake. They love it!
17. Small lake besides really aesthetic…
18. Everything passes through the Dalton; here, an about 25 feet wide house on this oversize convoy..!
19. Another moose seen from my camp in the morning.
20. Mirror…
21. VivaLaVida on the northern foothills of the Brooke Range.
22. Antigun Pass.
23. The Brooke Range is superb, with beautiful streams that dig valleys.
24. No more tree since mile 215. It’s to far North, the climate is too harsh. Only the tundra remains.
25. I take the opportunity of this thinning to “strafe” these moorland landscapes that are probably the ones that attract me the most…
26. VLV looks really small in these landscapes…
27. … dotted with small lakes.
Following of the thinning and return of bad weather in the next update… 😀
Glaciers & McCarthy Road
Better weather announced for two days, I drove the McCarthy Road, which sinks for about hundred miles between large ice areas. But on the road from Valdez to get there, I made a stop to walk to the bottom of the Worthington Glacier, easily accessible.
1. Glacial river near Thompson Pass.
2. The glacier tongue is divided in two by a lock of granite.
3. Hiking along the granite.
4. The ice also recedes every year here… In 1950, she was almost half a mile below.
5. Ice carved by melting…
6. Going up the McCarthy road, near the confluence of two beautiful rivers…
7. The road passes through beautiful landscapes of taiga alternating spruce forests and swamps…
8. … and numerous small lakes.
9. Arrived in McCarthy – on the other side of the river that crosses a footbridge to reach this little city – I slept at the foot of the gigantic Roos Glacier, near the small lake which ended his over 30 miles long tongue.
Enjoying the light of late afternoon, I took my Mountain Bike to for explore the Kennicott Mine, one of Alaska’s largest mines operated at the beginning of the last century.
10. This historical heritage is being renovated.
11. The construction of the mill itself is really huge. Even this panoramic of 6 stiiched images don’t manage to show you how large it is.
12. Several outbuildings surround it…
13. … whose thermal plant that produced the electricity needed in a real coal power plant.
14. The four huge boilers are impressive!
15. This mine is built on the lateral moraine of Roos Glacier which descends more than 5 miles downstream.
The next day will be a hard day: I decided to go up the glacier as far as I could. I made more than 30 miles, mountain biking first, then hiking. I arrive much only as half of the glacier…
16. A panoramic shot of 8 images in an attempt to show you that immensity. By itself, this glacier is larger than Rhode Island!
17. Back by the McCarthy Road and even there, I founnd a swiss cow!! 😀
18. VivaLaVida would almoast fly..! 😉
19. This is actually a high and narrow bridge over a deep gorge. It was built in 1905 for the railway route which allowed to bring coal to Kennicott Mine and transport gold mined.
20. Beaver lodge in a pond near the road.
21. VivaLaVida approaches his camp of the day…
22. … along a beautiful river… The large icy dome in the background is Mount Wrangell, a dome volcano.
23. … where salmon fishing is going well. There were a dozen of these catch-machine driven by the current.
24. I still see the large dome that gives rise to Roos Glacier, more than 60 miles as the crow flies.
25. The Sunset was beautiful, the bad weather coming again and bringing some clouds…
The rain will follow me again during several days. So I headed to Anchorage for some maintenance work on VLV and to prepare the last updates before the arrival of Mino who’ll have landed when you’ll discover these lines. 😉
East Denali HighWay & Valdez (AK)
The Denali Highway is definitely not a highway, it was in poor condition and it took me almost the full day to drive the seventy remaining miles of dirt.
1. Glacial plains make the rivers meander.
2. During my lunch stop, I first saw the mother ptarmigan…
3. … then some of its progeny. Two months after birth, they have grown and are about half their adult size.
4. Wide glacial valleys offer great views.
5. Getaway on a side track.
6. There to, there is nice flowers.
7. Near the East Junction, the view opens on the Alaska Range.
8. A weather opening allows me to see off one of the highest mountains in that range, Mount Hayes, which rises to over 13,800 feet above sea level.
9. Light patch…
10. Clouds arrive…
11. Boondocking on a hill in the tundra.
12. Given the bad weather announced, I continued the road to Valdez. The road ends here!
13. The mouth of Valdez Glacier Stream is a real birdhouse for bald eagles! I observed more than thirty of those, awesome! Here is one that comes…
14. … and lands not too far on a hunting spot. I crawled 300 yards in the mud to get closer… 😀
15. Returning, I see fresh grizzly tracks.
I talked to a local who stopped to see VivaLaVida and he tells me that this place is frequented by many grizzlies, especially late in the day for a good reason. This place is close to a salmon hatchery. And as you probably know, after a 4-year cycle, to reproduce, salmons return to their birthplace. Here, they try to go upstream in a nearby river but are blocked by a waterfall and remains between the bay and the waterfall. While this is only the beginning of the breeding season, there were already thousands of salmons crowded into this little river and bears have understood that it’s easy to catch food up here to make their required reserves for hibernation.
So I decided to wait a moment and I was lucky… 😉
16. A male probably 4-5 years old arrived on the scene and catched a first salmon without waiting!
17. He repeated the operation 6-7 times, not leaving much to the seagulls quickly ready to steal the remains. It was funny to see the bear trying to scare thoses when they came to close. 😀
18. I’m only about 12 yards away and enjoy the spectacle!
19.
The grizzly is not the only one to take advantage of the opportunity; This sea lion is also hunting. He catched about 12 salmons in about half an hour!
20. Eyes still dazzled by this show, I went to sleep at the bottom of the glacier.
21. The rain fell again, moisture was probably at 100%, giving an atmosphere of rainforest…
22. To complete this update, a small iceberg rather aesthetic in layers of mist…
Way back from Valdez and McCarthy Road to come in a few days.
Thank you again to follow us with as much fidelity! 😉
Clearwater Mountains (Alaska)
As in Yukon, there are very few roads in Alaska. Planing to visit Denali National Park after the arrival of Mino who will travel with me some weeka since August 6th, I drove the Denali Highway that connects Cantwell to Paxson. From there, I could access the Clearwater Range, accessible through two long and bumpy old mining roads.
1. The tree limit is still at about 2,200 feet elevation here, over it’s the tundra with many lakes and ponds…
2. But there is life despite the hard climate…
3. Denali Highway.
4. Taïga…
5. VLV plunges in the mountains on an old mining track.
6. Caribou in full moult, to far unfortunately.
7. Yes, it is there I’m going! 😀
8. Mosses and lichens sometimes have bright colors.
9. The sky is quite heavy by time…
10. … but sometimes some rays pierce.
11. Rivers are beautiful…
12. … but sometimes overflow!
13. VLV will travel more than 500 yards without seeing where he puts the wheels ..! 😀 And will wet the bumper as some places were quite deep…
14. Meanders in the plain…
15. Above, the river forms splendid marsh.
16. And I’m Lucky to get some light…
17. Late afternoon atmosphere near de small pass where I slept.
18. Lupines in early morning light…
19. This valley end is really gorgeous.
Vivalavida then left the Clearwater Range and went further on Denali Highway to the east. Coming Soon…
From Yukon to Alaska!
First, let me take this update to wish a good 1st August (Swiss National Day) to my Swiss readers. 😉
After three days in Inuvick trying to find a small boat that would take me bird watching in the Mackenzie River delta, I was frustrated: not even a “local” wanted to take me there. “To much bugs actually” they have all said. I must say that it’s true: this place was particularly infested, widening and slowing Mackenzie River forming hundreds marshes perfect for the mosquitos larvae. Without repellent, between 10PM and 9AM, it’s just impossible to stay outside. In three seconds, there are 100 who attack, almost inconceivable for who havn’t lived it..!
So I hit the “Dempster” South again since it’s the only road linking Inuvick the rest of the world … With some company also since I offered a “ride” to two hitchhikers.
Sebastien, a French guy who travels between Mexico in winter and California or Yukon in summer to earn some money for example by picking the mushrooms that grow the first year after forest fires. I must say that it pays not bad: $300 to $500 per day on average, sometimes with great harvests more than $1,000 for the lucky day!
And Pierre, a Canadian guy from Calgary, perfectly bilingual as having studied in Aix-en-Provence, who paddled down the Mackenzie River in kayak solo from Yellow Knife area; more than 1,500 miles in 18 days for a first solo trip, not bad!
1. About 22:30 on the Dempster…
2. VivaLaVida’s color changed a little, isn’t it? 😉
3. Last night in Yukon, for now at least, up a small pass not far away from “Top of the World Highway”.
4. Sunset was gorgious et midnight…
5. The next day, just after crossing the border into Alaska, I stopped maybe a mile after and was welcomed by him: a beautiful red fox, not fearful sinc he past 5 yards away only..!
6. Short day trip to discover Eagle City, housed in a cove of the Yukon River. It’ss from here that Roald Amundsen sent a telegram to inform that he had managed to cross the famous Northwest Passage, December 6th, 1905 after more than 500 miles with sled dog. It was the closest place from the place where is boat Gjøa was wintering caught in the ice since November!
7. The city appears out of the past too, really a world away…
8. Thunderstorm on the trail to Eagle City.
9. Rivers must have real floods seeing the width of some river beds…
10. Boondocking on a river bank…
11. A Barrow goldeneye, quite rare…
12. Here in central Alaska, there is an incredible amount of large blue dragonflies, even in places that seem rather dry and without lakes…
VivaLaVida’s vent control haven’t withstood thousands of miles on more or less rhough trails, I explored the area of Fairbanks waiting to get the ordered part…
13. Tundra : a mixture of lichens and some other colorful plants. They remain only a few inches tall even if most hare more than one hundred years old!
14. At the boundary between taiga and tundra, other flowers adorn the path.
15. It is 10:30 PM but the sun still shines on the taiga and its gentle hills…
16. In the distance, a colorful shower colored by the sun low on the horizon…
17. Thunderstorm lighted by last sunrays.
When the part finally arrived five days later, I took the road again but not toward North as planed. The weather forecast were bad for at least the two coming weeks. So I headed South.
I will present it here soon… 😉
Dempster (2) : Yukon & Northwest Territories
1. VivaLaVida hit the Demster toward North again, still further north…
2. Chapmann Lake
3. While Tumbstone Mountains are granite, the rest of the road passes through limestone hills.
4. Entry in Eagle Plains, an immense plateau of boreal forest and tundra depending on altitude.
5. I stop at a viewpoint and I have a neighbor! 😉
6. The weather turns bad…
7. The next day, its in the rain that I take the road again.
8. Here’s boreal forest. Here she wears the nickname “Drunken forest” because growing on the permafrost, the roots can not go more than two feet deep and winds make lean / fall these small conifers.
9. Mandatory photo stop at the passage of the Arctic Circle!
10. Showers again…
11. … making nice ambiances.
12.Difficult to show the vastness of the tundra…
13. “Riding the Dempster”! 😀
14. The snow has disappeared only two weeks earlier and flowers are blooming the tundra.
15. Clouds pursuing VivaLaVida !
16. New photo stop entering the province of the Northwest Territories.
17. Going down in the “low lands”, there are two ferries to cross the Peel River first here, then the Mackenzie River, the second longest river in North America after the Missouri/Mississippi.
18. Small village of Tsiigehtchic on the bank of the Mackenzie River.
19. Arrival at Inuvick, the terminus of the road, in the Mackenzie River Delta.
20. Inuvick icon, the “Igloo Church”.
21. Construction all made of wood by a French Compagnon carpenter without drawings and without freezing underground system to keep the permafrost frozen ..! The design is pretty awesome with a natural ventilation system to replace it.
22. The plates of the Northwest Territories are cool, isn’t it? 😉
To be followed soon by my arrival in Alaska!
North Yukon : Dempster Highway
VivaLaVida then took the way of the Dempster Highway. For less than hundred miles first since I stopped to hike in the gorgeous Tumbstone Provincial Park. A place where granite peaks come out of the tundra, the only place where there is granite in Northern Yukon.
1. Ascent to Goldenside Peak. In the background, the “Dempster” like the locals say…
2. Nice bird.
3. Some colors of the tundra reminds Iceland…
4. View of the North Klondike Valley where the Klondike River has its source. In the background, more than feeften miles away, the Tumbstone Mountain and left the Monolythe Peak.
5. Erosion
6. North Klondike Valley in late afternoon
7. A small lake created by the inhabitants of the two huts down left… 😉
8. Dempster Highway…
The next day, I made a very long hike to see altitude glacial lakes. Starting at 7am and return at 21h after more than 19 miles and about 7,000 feet positive elevation, I was quite tired!
9. I saw several marmots endemic to this region, here probably a mam.
10. Here, a young rather curious!
11. After three hours of walking appears Grizzly Lake, still 4 miles away…
12. Noon just next to this beautiful lake.
13. Continuing to climb, the first snowpatches make nice graphics in the screes.
14. At almost 7,000 feet elevation, viewpoint over Monolythe Peak and Upper Twin Lake.
15. The granite cliffs are amazing.
Still to come on Dempster soon… 😀
D5 Creation