Mile 8758 – Ennis, MT

We spent two nights in Ennis at the Ennis RV Village (good park).  Ennis is a very small but neat town.  Ennis is on Hwy 287 that follows the Madison River and has a reputation as great trout fishing area.  However most of the river is really only fishable form a float boat.  Bottom line is I didn’t catch any fish.

Mile 8526 – Missoula, MT

Spent three nights in Missoula at the Jellystone RV Park (don’t stay here).  We have stayed in Missoula twice before at Jim and Mary’s RV Park and thought we just give Jellystone a try.  Should have stayed with J & M RV.  Stocked up on groceries at COSTCO and Walmart, the frig is packed full.

We had an orthopedic doctor check out Doris’s fracture.  It appears the bones have slipped a bit since our visit to the orthopedic doctor in Fairbanks.  Unfortunately there was no clear or obvious course of action at this point.  Doctor estimated that even though there will be some misalignment there is about a 50 percent chance the wrist will be acceptable after the cast is removed.  Alternative is to operate, reset the bones, add screws, plates, etc. in order to force correct alignment.  We decided to wait and see how the wrist works ‘as is’ since there is not likely to be any more slippage and only two weeks to the cast can come off.  If necessary the operation can be done in Houston once we are home.  Doris did get a new cast that is much more comfortable than the temp provided in the emergency room in Fairbanks.

Heading to Ennis, MT tomorrow for a day or two.

Mile 8411 – Columbia Falls, MT

Back in the USA.  No more border crossings or custons checks.  Spending two nights in Columbia Falls, MT located just east of Whitfish and a few miles west of Glacier NP.  .   Also appears to be the end of the cool weather, 90+ in the afternoons.

Mile 8121 – Donald Station, BC

Spent three nights at Donald Station (Campers Haven RV Park)  For the most part we just passing time as we have made an appointment with an orthopedic doc in Missoula, MT for Doris on Thursday, 25 Aug.  Pictures below are at the RV park in Donald Station.

On Friday we drove over to the natural bridge on the Kicking Horse River at Field, BC just a few miles west Lake Louise.

Mile 7864 – Cache Creek, BC

Stopped over here at the Brookside Campsite for two nights.  This is one of those rare RV parks in Canada that permit washing the RV in your site.  Couldn’t pass it up.  We were really dirty and the normal sprayer RV washers just don’t get the job done. 

Mile 7601 – Prince George, BC

Spending the night at the “Bee Lazee RV Park” (You have to stay somewhere).  Still raining but less rain here than further west.  We plan to head towards Whitefish/Missoula, MT via Cache Creek, BC, Golden, BC, etc.

Mile 7161 – Stewart, BC/Hyder, AK

On the drive from Dease Lake to Stewart we saw 5 black bears along the road plus another 2 black bears on the raod from Stewart to Hyder.

Below is a glacier along the road as we approached Stewart.

The following grizzly bear pictures were taken at the Fish Creek viewing area.

Scat Happens, Just Leave It.

Can’t pass up fresh berries.

Mom and cub headed for breakfast

.
Cub catches fish

Fish gets away

Mom catches a fish.

Salmon Glacier (20 miles north of Hyder)

View looking south from glacier towards Hyder

Downtown Hyder, AK

Mile 6919 – Dease Lake, BC

One night stop at Dease Lake.

Mile 6772 – Watson Lake, YT

Spent the night at Baby Nugget RV Park in Watson Lake.  Washed the RV just to take a look at the original color (haven’t seen it for several of weeks).

Mile 6625 – Teslin, YT

Travel day.  We drove the 350 odd miles from Haines to Teslin.  While stopped by a flag lady at one of the construction sites along the Haines Highway we spotted the shaggy fellow below lopping along besides a stream.  He appeared to be having a great day and could care less about the ongoing construction.  Stopped to rub and scratch himself against a bush, took a swim in the stream and then bounced on along the stream like a small puppy.

Mile 6272 – Haines, AK

We spent Sunday, Monday and Tuesday nights in Haines one of the nicest stops we have made. 

City of Haines.

Haines boat Harbor.

Looking up the fjord form Haines towards Skagway.

We drove to Chilkoot Lake where we saw a mother grizzly bear teaching her cubs to fish.

Haines is known for a gathering of eagles beginning in early November.  The stream here is one of the last places in Alaska to freeze in winter.  The salmon know this and continue to come to Haines to spawn after other areas are frozen.  The eagles take advantage of the spawning salmon.  Somewhere between 3000 and 4000 eagles converge on Haines during the winter.  We toured the American Bald Eagle Foundation where they take in wounded birds.  Both of the birds below have a broken radius in the fore arm.

Haines is also home to one of only two hammer museums in the world.  The little museum contains over 1000 hammers.

A couple of the more unusual hammers are the poster hammer and the autopsy hammer.  Long handles on the poster hammers allowed poster to be placed at a high position. 

One of my favorite hammers is the drink hammer.  Apparently during the 20’s and 30’s many night clubs provided hammers with the drinks.  When you were ready for another drink, just tap the glass with the hammer.

More bears along the Chilkoot river.

The following video shows a ‘fish wheel’ used by the native Alaskans for catching fish.  The stream current turns the wheel like a paddle wheel.  As the wheel turns it traps fish in the paddles and as the reaches the top it dumps the fish into a chute that guides the fish into a holding tank.

Mile 6124 – Haines Junction, YT

Spending Saturday night at the Kluane RV Kamp in Haines Junction.  Park is just right for a one night stay.  Pull through with no trees.  Considerable repair work has been done on the section of road between Tok and Destruction Bay since we came through in June.  Much better this time around. 

Mile 5836 – Tok, AK

Spent Friday night at Tok RV Village.  Picked up our mail and topped off the diesel and propane tanks before heading into Canada (land of many taxes).

Mile 5632 – Fairbanks, AK

We had originally planned to spend three nights in Fairbanks but have decided to move on to Tok on Friday morning.  Last week we had our mail forwarded to Tok and were planning to pick it up on Thursday.  However traveling to Tok on Saturday will not work since the post office web site states the the Tok post office is not open on Saturday.  No real problem though as Friday in Fairbanks was an extra day anyway.

We did get Doris to Fairbanks Sports Medicine today.  The doc X-rayed the wrist again and determined all was fine.  He did suggest that she have it X-rayed again in about a week to make sure everything was still aligned as it should be and at that time the temporary cast/splint could be replaced with a permanent cast.  If you are familiar with the route from Fairbanks back to the lower 48 you can appreciate the fact that that ain’t gona happen.  However he did say that the current splint was fine although a little less comfortable than a permanent cast.  Guess she is stuck what she’s got for 6 weeks.  In 6 weeks (about 10 Sept) we should be able to find orthopedic care.  FYI in Alaska you can get orthopedic care in Fairbanks or Anchorage.  Other than that you are out of luck.