Becoming Alaskans, it's a long one!

Whitehorse, main drag facing west

Whitehorse, main drag facing east

   JOHNNY   MICHELLE
Boy, a lot has happened since we left Whitehorse!  We left Whitehorse with big hopes of making it across the border and into AK without a hitch.  Then the real Alcan stuff kicked in.  As we moved closer to the border I knew we were going to hit bad road.  "The worst I've ever seen it" according to a southbound driver who gimped a trailer with a broken axle into Whitehorse.   He was right!  It started to get ugly around Destruction Bay with a small brake problem.  The name Destruction Bay should have been a hint.  We stopped and topped off with around $7/gal diesel and as I pulled toward the road I had to stomp on the brake pedal to keep us from going into the road.   The "brake" and "ABS brake" lights on the dash went on.  I circled the lot once or twice stepping on the pedal but the brakes would not properly kick in.  Destruction Bay is the middle of nowhere, and it being a Sunday we were going to get very familiar with the locals if something didn't happen.  I popped the hood and looked around as if I knew something about ABS systems.  Everything looked fine of course.  We discussed just continuing up the road and hoping that the brakes fixed themselves because, heck, we really don't do much braking anyhow.  Fortunately, a few more off and on's with ignition of the truck and stomping on the brake pedal a few more times and the brakes did self correct.  A sketchy 15minutes but tragedy avoided.  We still don't know what happened and really don't care.  We came to learn when we arrived up here in AK that this situation is considered prime opportunity for the locals to "capitalize" on travelers coming through.  I can't blame them, there's not much else there to "capitalize" on.
     We left Destruction Bay with a great sense of relief on a beautiful day looking at the east end of the snow covered Wrangell Mountains.    The mountains have so much snow on them that they look like someone sprayed and covered them with hot marshmallow.  Then the road got bad.  I mean really bad.  For the rest of the way entirely to the AK border the road was full of ruts, gigantic ice heaves, disintegrated or missing blacktop, and huge potholes.  It's very hard to explain an ice heave.  The only way I can think to explain it is to say that your on good road, then suddenly there is a 12" bump like a speed bump followed by dips and convolutions for the next few 100 yards.  When hit with enough speed, they would make the truck dive on the front end sending our heads toward the dashboard, followed by the rear end diving making us look at the sky, then leveling off just in time to look in the rear view and watch the trailer jump into the air like it was a grasshopper.  Michelle would yell "BUMP" for a little while then gave up.  This is fun the first time but 200 miles later it starts to get a little old.  We spent hours of drive time going no more than 20 to 30mph.  I can say from a drivers perspective that it took a lot of concentration to keep it all on the road.  This makes for a tired driver with a sore back. We were listening to a book on tape (thanks Real Fleck) so you might want to turn the volume down when you watch this one.

 We arrived at the AK line in one piece and went past with no problem.  Just one stumpy little guard with a semi-automatic.  I asked because I was told that the bad road continued into AK for another few hundred miles.  He assured us that the bad road was in the past and that it was clean sailing from there.  And he was right for a while.  The road was perfect for the next 100 miles or so.  We ended up in Tok, AK around dinner and decided we needed to treat ourselves to a hot dinner.  We were finally back in the USA after all.  We stopped at Fast Eddies and were overjoyed to see a salad bar, smiling faces, reasonable food prices, American IPA, and diesel under $5/gal.  The place was packed (Alaska packed) with people of all colors.  The local basketball team just got done with practice and were sitting in the parking lot in cars cranking rap music.  It felt like home.  We each had the best halibut burgers we ever had and enjoyed a celebratory Alaskan IPA.  Just a note for the beer drinkers, Canada has lagers, porters, IPA's and the like, they just don't taste any different than Molsen, and they all taste the same.  We did have some good local Yukon IPA in Whitehorse.  We drove  another 100 miles south and slept along the road with the most incredible view of the Wrangell's.  It was awesome.

The next morning we continued to head south toward Glen Allan and the Matanuska Glacier.  As soon as we started driving, the road got really bad again and we were down to a crawl.  This was a little deflating as we were getting so close to Anchorage we could feel it.  The road sneaks right beside the glacier.  I almost drove us over the cliff and onto the glacier trying to rubber neck and see the incredible scenery.  Poor Michelle!  The bad road continued the whole way into Palmer where it finally let up.
We were happy to see Palmer again and pass some of the roads we recognized from the last time we were in Palmer visiting our buddy Mike Good.
  We got into Anchorage around 2 or 3 in the afternoon and met our dear friend Laura at the Costco.  It was a great feeling to know that the drive was pretty much over and that we were going to be staying somewhere permanent for a while.   We loaded up on supplies and immediately went over to the Moose's Tooth,  a famous gourmet pizza and micro brew place for awesome pizza and maybe a beer.  We then drove down the Turnagain Arm and into the Chugach Mountains to our new home in Moose Pass.  

Laura in Nighthawk on our way to Moose Pass

Before I get into Alaska too far, I must comment on how nice absolutely everyone in Alaska is!  This is the way people should treat one another!  From the grocery clerk to the bank teller, everyone is very kind and happy to help you.  Everyone gives you a smile and treats you like a person.  The favorite saying I hear when I'm going around town is "hows your day going so far?"  It's said with true sincerity and everyone stops and gives an honest reply as to how the day is really going for them up to that point.  It's really cool.  But of all the cool people in AK we have to be living with some of the coolest.  Jason and Laura have been beyond hospitable since our arrival.  We cook in their home, use their facilities, suck their electric and internet, use their tools, watch movies with them, and generally hang out a lot.  They have helped us with drivers license and truck registration stuff, helped Michelle find a job, help with basic logistics of where local stuff is, and shown us a million cool things and people here.  For them, we are most fortunate and thankful!  I try to pay them back in every way I can.  Every day I think of ways that I can pay them back,  I don't know if they will even let me.  They are great friends, and I can't say enough good things about them!

Our biggest fear coming up here was that Joey, being a Blue Healer, and having the abrasive nature that he has with other dogs, was going to be a problem.  This could make our home life difficult.  Jason and Laura have 2 dogs, Gus and Noah.  Gus looks like a big loping golden retriever but is really some kind of other mix and Noah is a blue healer/husky mix that looks nothing like  a healer but has the great husky eyes.  They are both nice guys who like to run in the woods behind our house for hours off leash and chase rabbits and eat old dead fish.  They come home when they want to.
The first thing we did was introduce the dogs off leash and take them for a walk down the road behind the house.  There were some minor scraps but by the end of the walk we were all friends.  The three dogs can now lay around the house together for hours and there is never a problem.  Joey loves Gus and Noah.  I think Gus and Noah tolerate Joey.  This has made life here much easier.

Gus and Joey relaxin'

The house is about a block off the Seward Highway which is the only road to Seward from Anchorage.   It is on Trail River Road.  As we look out of our windows in every direction their are many mountains ranging from 2,000 to 4,500 feet.  They are still covered in snow but are starting to melt.  The mountains practically come right down to our front door.  There are a few neighbors around but everyone pretty much keeps to themselves.  We can walk down the road from our house and around a gate which takes you about a mile and a half back to Kenai Lake and the Trail River Campground.  This road is closed for the season (the reason for the gate)  and is only open for XX skiing.

looking right from the bridge

Johnny and Laura ahead of me on our first attempt at cross country skiing

We spent evenings skiing or walking back the road with the dogs and looking at the ice covered lake.  This was great exercise for Joey and us.  It turns out Michelle is a natural to skiing (I wouldn't say natural, I can't get that slip/glide thing going fast - for me the skate skiing was MUCH easier) and has mastered the art of skate skiing.  There are a million other local trails we plan on hitting but this is convenient being right out our front door.  On Saturday, I walked Joey down to the bridge that goes over a clear river about 50 yards wide and watched a big bald eagle sit in a tree about 20 yards away, clean himself off, and watch Joey and me. He seemed unfazed. We have both begun to establish ourselves up here.  I am now an official licensed AK driver and the truck has been registered in AK.  This makes me no longer eligible to vote in PA, but now can in AK as an absentee if I am not here.  Michelle does not have an SS card that she needs to get her AK license switched over - I'm going to Anchorage tomorrow to get that taken care of.  She has taken a course and done all the necessary steps to get her TAP card which allows her to serve and bartend in the state of AK.   She was supposed to get her SS card on 4/21 when the SS administration makes its monthly one day stop in Seward.  However, due to budget cut backs the SS people did not come down from Anchorage this month and we will have to go up there this week to do the paperwork.  The DMV here is a trip.  There is one woman in a small office in the municipal building down in Seward.  This woman handles all titling, registration, and driver licensing issues.  In one day I took my drivers test, got the picture ID handed to me right there, registered my truck, got new plates and left in about an hour.  There may have been one or 2 people come in while I was there.  Word leaked out that I was living up here and had some carpentry experience.  I got a call one day out of the blue from a guy down the road, whose daughter I met at a bonfire, who thought I might be able to help him with his kitchen remodel.  This was going  to be my intro to Alaskan Carpentry 101.  There has to be a reality show in here somewhere.  I explained that I had a job starting soon and could not help for long.  He countered that he only needed to get some things demolished and get the sink put back in in a temporary fashion for his wife when she got home from work.   I went down with definite hesitation.  I started to realize what I was into when I saw some sawhorses, a few scraps of used 2x4 and 2x6, pieces of old 1/4" paneling with a snow scene painted on them, and and electric chain saw plugged in at the wall.  Mike explained that he needed a stand for the sink made to the same height.  I went to work on that while he kept the demo going inside.  I stood out in the snow while the dog chained to his box was laying beside me on his spread out bale of hay, and tried to figure out how to make 4 legs from 2 2x4's and a chunk of 2x6.  Finally I went inside and asked  Mike what he had in mind with regard to the legs.  He thought we could rip the 2x6 in half.  I asked, "With a chain saw?".  He said, " Do you need something else?".  I expressed a desire for a circular saw especially considering cutting 1/4" paneling accurately with a chain saw might be out of my capabilities.  I did get the circular saw.  I  got questioned when I was going to cut up "perfectly good" pieces of paneling for sides when there were plenty of scraps that I could piece together.  The icing on the cake was when I asked if he had any screws to screw the thing together, he said he didn't but he did have plenty of nails.  He proudly produced a small plastic container of old, rusty, bent, and used (maybe twice) nails.  In the end, everything worked out fine and the stand made him happy.  It was a pleasure to meet Mike who has a good story or 2 to tell.  After explaining what happened to the locals, they all smiled really big and explained that this is more the norm up here, but Mike might be a little to the extreme.  You never throw away a good nail or screw in Alaska!!  Lesson learned.           

  Since we have been here there has been ice on the ground.  It actually had snowed pretty much every day the first week we were here.  I kept hearing from all that its the most its snowed in succession all Winter. This has started to break up and is turning to water and creating a lot of puddles.  Over the last week or 2 the puddles have been going steadily  down.  Moose Pass is in a little micro climate that does not get nearly as much precipitation as the surrounding area.  If it is drizzling here, it is probably pouring in Seward!  They had less than average snowfall this winter, especially early winter, which helps to keep the ground warmer and keep the freeze from going so deep.  Another week or 2 and almost all the snow at lower elevations will be gone.  I know all you guys down there will think I'm crazy, but it is really not that cold up here!  At night is will go down to mid 20's and go up to mid 40's during the day.  But when the sun is shining up here it is super warm since you are so close, add that to the low humidity and it's really not so bad.  We're not wearing flip flops but we sure ain't sweating either.  Their 45 feels like our 55.  We even met a guy who was out surfing this weekend.  Long johns under regular clothes with a layer over that and a hat and your good to go from morning till night.  Some days it is mid 50's and just awesome.  Great sleeping weather.  The sun has been going down around 10:30 lately by the way.   
  We spend much of our time at home cooking and working around the house before work season starts.  We have been to  Bar-B-Que's on the beach behind our house.
Last week we went and saw a slide show of a 15 year old local girl who climbed Denali with her father last June.  Unbelievable young lady!  We got to meet her, she is very soft spoken and humble.  A lesson for us all.  We've been  to  to a few bonfires.  Our favorite fire was when our friends Clare and Dave cleared out some trees around their house and they lit the whole thing on fire at once.  The flames were easily 50' tall in the middle of other trees and a forest.  It was pretty safe since everything was so wet and half the guys there work for the Forest Service fire crew.

Johnny and Jeff, clam guns in hand

  By far, one of our coolest days was going clamming on the other side of the peninsula at a town called Cohoe.

Laura and Jason with Noah & Gus (on leash so they don't go on their own adventure)

Counting clams

This was about an hour and a half drive over to a beach below Soldatna.  We dug for razor clams which have super soft shells.  We made "calm guns" out of 4" PVC pipe which help extract the clams without breaking the shells.  I did better with a shovel, Michelle tore it up with the gun.  They can dig into the sand incredibly fast, about an inch a second!  The tide has to be super low to get to the clams.   We got up at 6am and drove over there last Sunday which was an extremely low tide day.  There were 5 of us and you can keep 60 clams each.  You must keep them even if you break the shells.  We came home with 300 clams after only 2 hours of clamming.  We spent the rest of the day shucking them and Jason made some clam cakes for dinner.  They were great.  I think we still have some in the fridge.  There was a lot of fun and joking on the beach with calm puns, jokes, or song lyrics.  Things such as "this is clamtastic!" and "Clamin' we're clamin' we're clamin' we're clamin' and I hope you like clamin' too", hey there are a bunch over here, its like "Hotel Clamifornia" and the such for 2 hours straight!  Good time, but the most amazing part as is usually the case up here was the scenery.  We were on an almost vacant beach looking across a perfectly flat bay with small icebergs floating by.  The snow covered, rugged, uninhabited, Chigmit Mountains and Kalgin Island as a backdrop was just incredible!  The part about having so many square miles of roadless unspoiled wilderness around the state is hard to wrap your head around but it sure is fun to try.

This weekend we took down the yurt that Jason and Laura had lived in for the last 10 years prior to building their home.  They built their home over the last 2 or 3 years and finally moved in last fall.  I think it was a little bitter sweet for them to tear it down, hard work for everyone involved.  Unfortunately for them they will now have to look at our white trash trailer that will eventually sit where the yurt was.  They sold the yurt to another couple who loaded it onto trailers in pieces and hauled it way.  The new owners brought a crew of their own which gave us the opportunity to meet some new people.  These guys were into boating and rafts which may open some doors to that world up here.  They also farmed some of their own animals and the stewed cornish hens they brought were delicious.
  Other than that, we have had dinner with my new employers which was nice.  They seem really fun and I hope to have a great summer with them.  We watched as one of their dogs, Jax, barked and chased a moose off of their side lawn.  We have helped out being "victims" for a Wilderness First Responder training that is going on and involves some of my new co-workers.  This was fun.  During the first scenario I got to be a drunk driver and walked around being an obnoxious, foul mouthed idiot to all the people trying to help.  Not a far stretch from reality I guess!!  Michelle played and excellent role as "dislocated shoulder girl" in scenario #2 and may have been nominated for a WFR Emmey!
  I turn 43 tomorrow and maybe we'll do nothing but a hike and I'll let it slide by like nothing happened. Work starts on Friday and I will be training for 12 hours a day, 18 days straight.  Hopefully after that life will go back to a somewhat normal work schedule.  I will miss spending this great time and adventure with Michelle for a bit.

We hope all is well back home!  We miss you all!!     

JH & ML
I'll throw some more pictures up tomorrow.