109 Days and 11500 Miles

(2018 Anchorage Ep 37)

We’re just past the halfway point of our Alaska journey.  Thanks for following this blog and for all of your encouraging comments. We’ve been greatly blessed and wanted to share some our favorites thus far.

Favorite Place Visited

(Pat) Muncho Lake (RabbiTRAILS Alaska Map, map pt #31) – we collected firewood from the lake’s edge and had a campfire each pleasant evening during our two day stay.  We visited Liard Hot Springs, and saw stone sheep and bears along the way.

Muncho Lake

(Ed) Alaska Highway (map pts #29-35) –  my parents and sister drove the Alaska Highway in the ’80s.  I’ve dreamed of doing the same for years.  Now I understand the allure of more than 1000 miles of awesome mountains, glacial rivers, boreal forests, wild animals and peaceful solitude!

Favorite Hike

(Pat and Ed) Bear Creek (near Seward, map pt #44) – after a short hike to Bear Creek earlier this week, we saw several sockeye salmon swimming up the shallow stream, presumably to where they would spawn.  We then followed a side trail to where the creek runs into Bear Lake.

Sockeye salmon cam

Ahead we saw movement.  It was a mother grizzly bear and her two cubs.  We stopped, watched a short while and then backed away very cautiously.

Momma griz in the trees

Favorite Bike Ride

(Pat) Rio Grande Bike Trail near Carbondale, CO (map pt #15) – bikes safely mounted on front of a transit bus, we were shuttled several miles towards Aspen.  After exiting the bus we couldn’t find the trail.  After searching for a few minutes, we were rewarded with a paved bike trail through flowered fields surrounded by beautiful mountains. The best part of the 12 mile ride was it was downhill.

Rio Grande Bike Trail near Carbondale, CO

(Ed) Lone Star Geyser Trail, Yellowstone NP (map pt #20) – the winter snows weren’t quite melted as we rode this trail to Lone Star Geyser.  We rode and carried our bikes.  As we arrived the geyser started to erupt!

Lone Star Geyser

Rabbit Trail

(Ed) World’s largest weathervane – a full-sized DC3 near Whitehorse, Yukon (map pt #33) that rotates to the direction of the wind!

(Pat) Yukon Wildlife Preserve, also near Whitehorse, Yukon (map pt #33) – we rode our bikes through the preserve and saw a variety of animals in a natural setting.

Biggest Surprise

(Pat) The beautiful spring flowers as we traveled north and summer flowers now that we are in Alaska.  We’ll share photos in a future blog post.

(Ed) Internet and Video Calls – we learned that usable Internet is not available at most campgrounds.  When we did find a good connection, we had video calls with our daughter, son-in-law and grandson in Georgia, and Pat’s family in Florida.  It was almost like being home!

Headed Home

We leave for Anchorage tomorrow to spend a week with our son Phil.  We’ll then start the two-and-a-half month journey home.  Watch for upcoming RabbiTRAILS posts along the way!