Salem, Oregon....to Timmy's house on the farm! Connected up with our great friend, Tim Greer who boards horses and practices law in Salem. He's the one with the bald head!
California was wonderful and warm, but B.C. is grandiose (like Alaska)!
The next night, we stayed at Takini Hot Springs, west of Whitehorse and soaked the night away again. This time we got a good education from a very talkative Swiss woman re: Canadian politics which was pretty enlightening.
Next day, miles and miles of frost heaves on the roadway (like rolling on an angry ocean) from Kluane Lake (where dozens of Dall sheep were grazing on the rocky slopes) to White River, Yukon Territory. Almost to the Alaskan border. We are really “smelling the barn” now. Holy smokes!!! Three lynx crossed in front of us (how exciting…30 years here & I’ve never seen them in the wild). We were thoroughly jazzed by that. Then, a few hours later, a herd of caribou trotted across the road…omg, we turned into a ball of frenzy…get the cameras…*#@*! *@!*! Lens caps flying…hurry up...*#@*! …too late. Darn. So off down the road we go and Kent says, “now maybe we’ll see a wolf” (yeah right…nobody has that kind of luck)…when, about 5 seconds later, the biggest fattest black wolf I’ve ever seen crosses the roadway. Oh gee, maybe he’s after the caribou herd. Again, we were too flustered to get a shot; we just looked at eachother and busted out laughing.
We stopped at our cabin on the Copper River before heading all the way home. The river has a few open leads, but is still a few weeks away from break-up. We'll be staying there most of April finishing the building process and readying for June fishcamp. River break-up is fascinating if you're there when it happens. The power of moving ice is pretty cool.
Click your heels together 3 times Dorothy...and say, "there's no place like home, there's no place like home, there's no place like home." Voila!
The End...for this adventure, anyways.
Portland, Oregon.
What a lush city, with so many bridges snaking over the Columbia River. We explored downtown, specifically seeking Powell Books, one of the most comprehensive bookstores on the west coast, maybe even the country. We never made it to the 4 story main branch because we got side tracked at Powell’s Technical store, only a few blocks away. Spent hours there perusing countless isles of material sciences, mathematics, cosmology, cooking science, geology, engineering, ceramics, glass making…and on and on and on. Incredibly interesting stuff. The next day we got a grand tour of the glass making process at Bullseye Glass where we watched chemists work on tweaking various colors & textures of glass, to the process of pouring and forming hot liquid glass into colorful sheets. Kent will be back for glass classes that are offered in several concentrated weeks of study later this year; I’m tagging along to further explore the city, and Powell’s!
Onward into British Columbia, Canada. Yikes…snow again! After several days of driving, we arrived at Laird Hot Springs where we soaked our weary bodies in the natural springs for a couple of hours under lightly falling snow. Yakked with Canadians about their health care system (we’ve been polling people and so far, no one is unsatisfied).
California was wonderful and warm, but B.C. is grandiose (like Alaska)!
The next night, we stayed at Takini Hot Springs, west of Whitehorse and soaked the night away again. This time we got a good education from a very talkative Swiss woman re: Canadian politics which was pretty enlightening.
Next day, miles and miles of frost heaves on the roadway (like rolling on an angry ocean) from Kluane Lake (where dozens of Dall sheep were grazing on the rocky slopes) to White River, Yukon Territory. Almost to the Alaskan border. We are really “smelling the barn” now. Holy smokes!!! Three lynx crossed in front of us (how exciting…30 years here & I’ve never seen them in the wild). We were thoroughly jazzed by that. Then, a few hours later, a herd of caribou trotted across the road…omg, we turned into a ball of frenzy…get the cameras…*#@*! *@!*! Lens caps flying…hurry up...*#@*! …too late. Darn. So off down the road we go and Kent says, “now maybe we’ll see a wolf” (yeah right…nobody has that kind of luck)…when, about 5 seconds later, the biggest fattest black wolf I’ve ever seen crosses the roadway. Oh gee, maybe he’s after the caribou herd. Again, we were too flustered to get a shot; we just looked at eachother and busted out laughing.
We stopped at our cabin on the Copper River before heading all the way home. The river has a few open leads, but is still a few weeks away from break-up. We'll be staying there most of April finishing the building process and readying for June fishcamp. River break-up is fascinating if you're there when it happens. The power of moving ice is pretty cool.
Click your heels together 3 times Dorothy...and say, "there's no place like home, there's no place like home, there's no place like home." Voila!
The End...for this adventure, anyways.
Drove back to the coast and camped at Wright Beach, one of the most dangerous beaches in California…sleeper waves, strong backwash and rip tides! Great beach for collecting colored stones and jade pebbles. We’re headed for Redwood National Park in northern California. Ultimately, for the short term, bound for Coos Bay, Oregon to meet Arnold & Lucille (Alaskan friends-Athabascan) for a pow wow. Not just a rendezvous, but a real Indian pow wow…dancing, drumming, and music.
At the pow-wow, we won a free night's stay at The Mill Casino, so we stayed another night. Played a few slots, watched movies, then headed back up the coast the next morning. Stopped in Salem, Oregon and visited my old college friend Tim Greer; he lives on a beautiful farm. We had a good dinner and great conversations about long lost friends...to the Big Bang theory...to Oregon politics...to the health benefits of cursing....ha!!! Loved it. Next stop, Portland. 
