The Sun Won’t Stop Shining

It’s another day of no clouds and perfect conditions. Cally and I want a cloudy day so we can go to Valdez and run some errands but if the sun’s shining we won’t go down there so we are forced to ski again.

Base camp for now

A few other people are here

The views are spectacular

Meesha staying warm

Getting ready to drop in but we had time for a photo op

This is a line Cally and I skied

Cally hiking up to the headwall

This is about a 20 minute hike straight up. You can see other people above her.

Getting buzzed by the heli-ski operation.

We Have Arrived In Gnar Town

We drove up to Thompson Pass two nights ago and woke up to blue skies and 30 degrees. This is the best skiing Cally or I have ever had. It was beyond either of our expectations and this is a place we will be coming back to for years. The mountains are incredibly beautiful and huge. The people are extremely nice and the weather is amazing. We just got hooked up with internet tonight so we can post some more photos and videos in the next day.

 

Alyeska

Cally and I went to Alyeska ski resort yesterday and had a great time. The snow was not amazing but the drive was beautiful. It’s about 30 miles east of Anchorage along the Turnagain Arm. It was low tide and there were house sized chunks of ice on the sand/mud. We are headed for Thompson Pass this afternoon which is going to be about a 6 hour drive. Once there we will set up camp for the next 2 weeks.

This is where we skied yesterday

This is where we are headed today

And this is where we are

The sign

Tyson forgets to smile his beautiful smile

The beautiful view from Alyeska

Kick Cancer In The Balls

So as I expected Tailgate BC introduced Cally and I to many people and we quickly made friends. One of these friends is a guy by the name of Chris Robinson. He lives in Bend, Oregon and is not much different than me. Last year his girlfriend and him packed a storage unit full of their stuff, loaded a camper on the truck, and pulled a trailer with them as they headed for Tailgate Alaska. The trip was great until they got back home to Oregon. He was having back pain and thought it was from all the driving. He went to the doctor to find out it was actually testicular cancer.

Chris went on chemo shortly after and all was good until this past September when he found the cancer had come back. He was able to make it to Tailgate BC but is unable to come to Tailgate Alaska because he is currently in the hospital receiving chemo. We were only able to hang out with Chris for 5 days but we feel like we made a friend for a lifetime.

Chris is in need of a bone marrow transplant but is in the process of getting insurance. It’s hard for him to get insurance because he has a pre-existing medical condition. He has started a blog at http://www.kickcancerintheballs.blogspot.com. You can go there and read his story. He is also trying to collect donations as his medical bills are quickly mounting. It would be great if everyone could go to his blog and pass on his message. Today he told me he would like to start an organization for people in his shoes and turn the blog into a website when all this blows over. If you can pass along any nice notes to him I’m sure he would appreciate it.

Featured on ESPN!

Check out this article, once again leaving us feeling quite famous.  Well, it’s nothing really… but kind of cool!

I’m in the photo with the blue hat on, checking out some snow close up.

http://espn.go.com/action/snowboarding/blog/_/post/7720493/tailgate-bc-wraps-revelstoke

For Your Viewing Pleasure

This is the first video Tyson quickly made so it’s not great but it’s something. We’re going to ski Alyeska today here in Anchorage but now that we have more time we’ll get more videos and photos.

Time to Stop for awhile

We’ve made it to Anchorage where we’ll stay for a day and then head to Thompson Pass. We’ll be on the pass for a couple weeks and the skiing looks amazing. It’s been an incredibly long journey and we still have to make it back. Most of the roads were in horrible shape for this big of a rig and we never saw much above 50 mph. We also saw some of the most desolate areas we’ve ever seen where we wouldn’t see another person for an hour or two. We should have internet on the pass and we’ll add more photos and descriptions.

4,422 miles later

We made it to Alaska! We are in Tok right now just grabbing some dinner before trying to drive another 100 miles. We will update with lots of pics and descriptions tomorrow.

This is a heli-ski operation in Bell II along the Cassiar highway. It’s 150 miles from anything in any direction.

This is one of the coolest towns I’ve seen. It’s Stewart, BC which is on the ocean and right next to Hyder, Alaska. It has maybe 400 people in it and is on the end of a dead end road. For sure in the middle of nowhere. Hyder, AK has maybe 200 people in it.

This is in Iskut, BC along the Cassiar highway. This is when I decided it was time to repack my wheel bearings.

Cassiar highway

Cassiar highway

Burnt forest along the Cassiar highway

The Yukon welcomes us

Lots of one lane bridges to deal with

Destruction Bay, Yukon

After Destruction Bay we encountered the worst frost heaves we’ve seen. The road is all built on the tundra out here so it’s not very stable unde the asphalt. As it thaws and freezes the road starts to fall apart. It develops pot holes and divots. It’s easy to lose control with the truck and trailer bouncing all around. For a 200 mile stretch I averaged 37.5 mph. Not much worse than the 45 mph I’ve been averaging for over 4,000 miles.

Cally’s in Canada and I’m in Alaska

Alaska border

These are the most stunning mountains we’ve ever seen. Everyone should come to Alaska at least once (dad).

Meesha is too smart for her own good. It only took one occasion for Meesha to learn what the camera clicks meant. We saw some reindeer and slowed down so Cally could get some photos. From then on Meesha automatically thought because the camera was taking photos there must be reindeer out there. This is her on high alert for wildlife.

Frost heaves

Alaska!

We’ve Made It To The Yukon!

It took a few days but we arrived in Whitehorse this morning. The drive was extremely slow at times only going about 30 mph because of frost heaves. The rest of the time was about 45 mph. We slept about 100 miles into the Yukon yesterday and stayed the night at a rest area. The battery in the camper has been giving us some troubles and last night was the worst. After we had driven for the last 12 hours I expected the battery to be fully charged without question. Well it was nearly dead when we got into the camper, which meant no heat. Not to mention it was 3 degrees where we pulled off. When we woke up it was -16 outside and 4 degrees in the camper. Everything was frozen including the bread and toothpaste. Meesha slept under the covers with us and we attribute that to our survival.

I took a wheel off the trailer in Iskut, BC to check a few things out and found that I needed to maybe consider re-packing the wheel bearings. So I decided once we got to Whitehorse I’d take a couple hours and do some maintenance. For those that don’t know me I sometimes read into things a bit more than I should. That being said, when I was looking into the bearings in Iskut I saw another guy with a flat bed trailer and thought it kinda looked like it was in rough shape. About 150 miles north I saw his trailer again but this time it was missing a wheel. I took that as a sign and told myself I would definitely do wheel bearings in Whitehorse.

Tomorrow we leave for the AK border. I’ve heard the frost heaves in Destructing Bay are gnarly so if I can average 3o mph tomorrow I think I’ll be happy. Hopefully we can get a couple hundred miles in before dark.

 

Mt. Shames

We arrived in Terrace this morning at about 1:30 am. I parked at the ski resort and woke up to about 7 inches of fresh. They had highs in the upper 40’s the last couple days so there was a death crust under the fresh snow. We were going to leave tonight and begin the drive north but it’s dumping right now so we’re going to see if they get over 12 inches. If that happens we’ll ski here again tomorrow. This resort is the smallest Cally and I have ever skied. They have one chair lift and a T-bar. They are all from about 1970. That being said the back country terrain off the top is suppose to be incredible. Hopefully we’ll get a taste of it tomorrow.

It looks like I’m peeing but I’m just hanging out enjoying the scenery.

Once we leave Terrace and begin the trek north on the Alaska Highway we’re not sure what the internet service will be like. It may be a couple days until we post again. I feel like we’ve driven over half way there (which I think we have) but we still have another 1,500 miles to go (which is about the distance from Denver to the Atlantic Ocean).