Canada 2011-- 8-30-

We are in Great Falls, MT tonight, Calgary last night.  Will be in Billings tomorrow night and home on Thursday.  We are tired of driving, but a good trip.  We visited the Lewis and Clark Center and the falls on the Missouri this afternoon. Tomorrow we are going to the Russell Museum.  Having dinner with a cousin in Billings tomorrow night.  We saw a wolf along the road an hour or so after we left Prince George on the 28th.  Thought for a while that it might have been a coyote, but it was way to big, wrong head shape and colors.  We have seen a lot of critters.

Canada 2011 8/27

In Prince George, stopped at historic Fort St. James an early Hudson Bay fur trading post that has been restored.  Staffed with period actors. They were having a BC Metis gathering.  Metis are mixed white and "first nation".  Free buffalo burger, dancing and fiddle playing band.  They played a Bob Wells tune while I had a coffee and a bannock.  Watched the chicken race and I visited with and old guy who had a friend coming from Sweden to hunt bear and moose. Wanted to know "Seen any, a?" We had seen a sow and 2 cubs on the way in and I told him that.  We have only seen 3 moose and one of them had a collar and a limp.  I am convinced they have eaten all of their moose's!  I took a couple more pictures of the "first easy chair", might try to make one. Worlds largest fly rod is in Houston.  Have not had to be towed, but have the windshield crack to verify travel on the Alaska Highway.

Canada 2011 8/25/26

In Smithers tonight.  Visited the K'san Village today with their long houses.  We saw a sow and cub feeding on salmon at Fish Creek on the 25th.  We were very lucky because of the rain they had not been seen in while.  Then drove to Pr. Rupert and went out to see the whales.  It was a long day.  The B&B was really nice, good conversation and breakfast this morning.  One lady who lived with her husband on a island with 20 other people 1 hour boat ride away, a couple from Mississippi, a man from Georgia, and mother and daughter from BC.  Prince Rupert is a nice spot.  The whales were working together in a group of about 8.  They would  dive and one would blow bubbles below the fish to scare and confuse them and then they would surround and all pop up together.  Tough to get the shot with our little cameras.  We were added to a boat with folks from a cruise ship.   Tomorrow night we are in Prince George, will stop at histeric Ft. St. James on the way.  We are getting road weary. 

Canada 8/23-24

Hello-we are in Stewart BC/Hyder AK.  It quit raining this PM and is nice out tonight.  We plan to go to the Fish Creek bear viewing area early in the morning to see if we can see some Griz.  We drove up to the Salmon Glacier this afternoon, better than the parks!  We've seen a lot of bears the last couple of days.  One grizzly that did not stick around for a picture and 12, by Kay's count, black bears today.  Also one weasle/mink/martin high tailing it across the road.  Kay got the black bear to pose by making a clucking sound with her tongue.  She said "Just like getting a kid to look" Prince Rupert tomorrow night. 

Canada 2011 8/20-22

We are at Atlin, BC tonight in the Moore House B&B.  This is the end of the road! We're in Dease Lake tomorrow and Stewart/Hyder the next day.  We spent the last couple of days in Skagway poking around.  It is totally deserted when the cruise ships leave, but 8 to 10 thousand invade mid-week days.  As I type this I am looking at the mountain in the background of the picture with Kay.  It is from our balcony.  Also today's bear.  We also saw a baby moose, sow and two cubs, and a porcupine.  I don't know if you can read it (click on the picutre), but there is an interesting description of one of an unknown on the cemetry sign.  Turns our Soapy was kicked out of Creede Colorado for swindling before he came to Skagway.

Canada 2011 - 8-18/19

We made it to Whitehorse today, this is as far north as we are going, we head back along the west side tomorrow and will be in Skagway for two nights.  We will be driving down the same road Boone and I rode bikes down along the Chilkoot trail.

We were in Muncho Lake last night and no internet connection.  We may not have a connection after today for several days.  Pictures of Sas and Chicken between Ft. St John and Muncho Lake.  Woodland Caribou licking salt from the road by Stone Mtn Provincial Park.  Ceiling covered with hats at Toad River Lodge.  Wood Buffalo near Liard River.  Famous sign posts at Watson Lake, Yukon Territory near the 60th parallel.

Canada 2011 8-15/16/17

8-15 Jasper NP -- overlooking Jasper from Mt. Whistler Tram, Mount Edith Cavell with glacier, and ice in lake.  I occured to me that the ice in the lake had fallen from the glacier when I was at the ice cave.  Athabaska Falls.

8-16 Grande Cache -- not much here (ate twice at Subway!), logging and coal mining with a coal fired power plant - on to Fort St. John tomorrow.  Lots of light at 9:45 pm.  Caught several artic grayling in Sheep Creek this afternoon.  No bears today and only one yesterday on the way to Mount Robson.  

8-17 Dawson Creek and Fort St. John.  Only deer today.  Looks like Wisconsin or Minnesota here.  Grande Prairie is wooded!  Pictures; Giant Beaver at Beaverlodge, kind of scary.  Lunch stop Kay had saucisse viennois and craquelin.
Mile 0 on Alaska Hwy finished in 1943 on fear of Japanese invasion of AK.

Canada 2011

8-14 In Jasper NP -- Today's critters.  Banff and Jasper are like Disneyland.   Very few English speakers and very crowed unless you take to the sideroads and trails.

Canada 2011

8-13-11 Pictures from todays adventure.  We went on a 7 mile (round trip) hike in Banff up Johnston Canyon past 2 waterfalls to the InkPots (5 spring pools) it was challenging.  Also pictures of today's wildlife, saw a big bull elk too, but could not get him to pose.

Canada 2011

8-8 -- FOCO to Pinedale (Square-Top Mtn above Green River Lakes) Fished the Green, huge Caddis hatch.

8-9 -- Pinedale to Salmon (Lunch Break at Leadore, ID City Park past Lemhi Pass on Lewis and Clark Trail and Sacajawea Statue in Salmon, ID her birthplace was near there)

8-10/11 Salmon to Glacier (Big Hole Battle Field - Nez Perce massacre), (Glacier NP on Going to the Sun Road), (Glacier NP Many Glacier), (Glacier NP Many Glacier Lodge), (Glacier NP Lake Josephine), (Glacier NP Grizzley)

This Grizzly was across the river from us in Glacier, he started to swim across the river towards us (in the car watching from the road), turned back and relieved himself mightly, stood up and sniffed the air and then swam across, but disappeared up or down the river before reaching us. Maybe 200 yards from us when Kay took this picture. We also saw a sow and 2 cubs and 2 big ones for a toal of 6 griz, a moose and 6 or 8 mountain goats.

8-12 -- We are in Canmore, BC (Just outside Banff) tonight and tomorrow night.
(Herding Mtn. Sheep on the road in Kananaskis), (Lunch in Spray Valley Near Canmore, BC)