Said goodbye to our beautiful view of Muncho Lake this morning. Just before we left, the plane that Jim has on his wish list took off on the lake . I tried to take a picture. Guess you will have to just use your imagination. I also took a picture of the lake to show the green color. In the foreground of the picture, it looks like rocks, but actually there is water covering the rocks. The water is that clear. At that RV park, they generate their own electricity. We had 15 amps. You couldn't run very many things on that. We had a lot of road construction today and some of it was going through the mountains. Road construction is bad enough without it being in the mountains. I also took a picture of ... read more

Yesterday we left Glenallen and drove to Bever Creek, Yukon Territory. I want to thank all the people in Alaska, especially Michael, Jessica, Scotty and Chrissie for your wonderful hospitality. It was a great adventure but we have many more to come. Last night we stayed in Bever Creek at an an RV park. There was a guy there that worked in the park named Bob. Real character but very nice. Said that he was old and that he was going to be 69 in Sept. Hmmm - I know a guy who is going to be 69 in Sept. - wonder if he is old? Bob gave us a ride in his 1942 Dodge. This looks like a jeep but has 6 wheels and 6 wheel drive. This was used in the construction of the ... read more

Another beautiful day in Alaska - sunny and in the 60's. In my blog last night I mentioned that Michael, Barbara and Carroll's son had come down and was smoking some of the salmon that the guys had caught. He smoked part of the salmon and the other part they sealed up and put in the freezer. Today Carroll sealed up the smoked salmon so they could freeze it. Barbara gave Jim and Charlie a haircut at her "outdoor beauty shop". Tonight we had another wonderful dinner outside. Barbara deep-fried some of the halibut that Larry and Carroll caught here in Valdez. Not only is she a good beautician, but a great cook. It seems like our dinners just keep getting better and better. As I said before, we have some very good cooks in our ... read more

We went to the Solomon Gulch Hatchery here in Valdez. This was the first major project for the Vadez Fisheries Development Association which was organized by residents of Valdez after the bitter cold winter of 1971-72 all but devastated the commercial and sport salmon fisheries in Prince William Sound. Their goals are to produce an annual return of 10 million pink, 300,000 chum, 100,00 silver and 10,000 king salmon. The hatchery is licensed to incubate and rear to release size 230 million pink, 18 million chum, 2 million silver and 300,000 king salmon eggs. Pinks and silvers reached full production in 1987. The fish in the attached pictures are adult pink and coho salmon returning to the hatchery to complete their life cycle by spawning and dying. These fish were spawned, hatched and released from the ... read more

Whittier is the western gateway to Prince William Sound and is located on the northern edge of the Gulf of Alaska. It is a very small town of a few hundred. Whittier was established by the U.S. Army during Word War II as "the secret port". Following the war, the Army built the two large buildings that still remain as landmarks in Whittier. The 14-story Begich Towers is now a condominium that houses most of Whittier's population along with its post office, city hall and medical clinic. Whittier has a mild maritime climate with a maximum of 84F and a minimun of -29F. Average snowfall is 260 inches annually. There is not much there except for small restaurants, shops, train station, day cruise dock, and ferry dock. When we arrived in Whittier, we lined up in ... read more