I also got to visit my cousin Don. I also forgot to take a picture there as well. I grabbed this one from the last time I was here four years ago. Unfortunately, it doesn't include his daughter Robin or granddaughter Bella. We had a short, but very nice visit. On top of that, he grilled some steaks, corn on the cob, four bean and chicken salad, and peach pie for desert. I guess that is why I'm so skinny!

For the rest of this trip I will be visiting friends and family. This is Melody Church. We went to the same church when we were children. She and my younger sister Carol were best of friends. It was fun visiting her and her husband Jody. She made me a fantastic breakfast too!

While I was up here, Jerry, one of my VROC friends noticed I was in the area and invited me over to visit and generously offered me a room to stay the night. I forgot to take a picture of he and Linda, so I was able to steal this one from his fb page. :) We really had a nice visit on their deck. It was about as perfect a day in the northwest as you can get and it was a pleasure to share it with them.

MacGyver and his assistant getting it done.

Maybe not

Whoa! Did that just happen? Just kidding, This is another of my VROC friends and he invited me to come see his new house.

He and Jeannie just bought it and are having and doing a lot of work on it before they move in. It is very close now. Close enough that I stayed here last night. When he gets off work, we will haul the last of his things from his temporary shop and bring them to his shop here. I'm envious of the man cave portion of this house. Giant garage, lift, work benches and cabinets, lots of lighting, office with wifi, weight room, and other things too much to list. That is just downstairs.

A nice fenced backyard with neighborhood goats and chickens, complete with a stump to practice his karate kid poses on. Not kidding!

My route for 6-26. I rode 767 miles today and was running out of Canadian currency. I had enough for one last tank of gas, and a small box of Timbits took care of the rest. After I crossed the border I found all of the motels were full so no choice but to continue on. Finally I found a room in Burlington, WA and took it. It was their last room. Darn parents and their kids soccer tournaments anyway! :)

I know at least two people that will like this sign. Probably a lot more!

This is the coolest train set I have ever seen.

Amazing how they got the river flowing with rapids and everything!

This is the second fire that I have been close to the start on this trip.

Honest, I had nothing to do with either of them.

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It is amazing how fast the floating embers will start little branch fires, and fast.

Think the wind blows from fight to left here? Not often. :)

The sign said 10 min. wait................they  meant 1 hr. 10 min.

Mt. Baker hiding behind the shed.

I just pushed the bike forward each time we advanced. It was 10:30 PM and I had been riding her since 7:300 AM

There wasn't a lot of exciting scenery today so I only posted a couple of pictures. I probably won't be putting too much more into this blog unless I just come across something I think is really interesting. For the next month or so I will be visiting my friends and family. If anything cool comes up I will post it and give a heads up on fb. Thanks for following along. If you happen to be curious about such things, there have so far been about 7000 hits for this trip.

Riding the Cassiar Hwy in BC heading towards home. It seems there is a small lake like this around every curve.

There are also hundreds of thousands of acres of wildfire burned forest.

I stopped at this cafe for breakfast 

Walking in I noticed this sign, but I was too late.

Part of the Discovery Channels Jade Fever show

Seems like everything here is made of jade including the table tops.

Must be a lot of it it them thar hills.

Or it could just be laying in this guys driveway

It's nice to be free of the fire haze again.

This guy was a big black bear. Really big!

This rapid was almost trying to whirlpool

The little hill behind my motel in Hazelton, BC

Nice, clean, friendly and .............

.......they told me to park here.

This is our route for 6-24-15. We continue to  fight the haze from the fires, but fortunately we covered this area on our way in while it was still clear. Tomorrow Tim and I will be heading in different directions as I want to visit many family and friends along the way home, while he wants to see an area he hasn't been to, but I have already seen on past rides.

We crossed back into Canada this morning and as you can see the sky is still full of haze from the fires.

A fellow we talked to said that most of this haze will be gone when we cross into BC

Our route for 6-23-15. It was overcast and foggy when we left Valdez. As soon as we made it past Thompson Pass, we hit the forest fire haze and that has stayed with us until we stopped for the night at the Alcan border. I only took two pictures today and that is probably a good thing as our internet is very slow here and cell service is non existent. Hopefully we can clear the smokey area tomorrow and get a few nice pictures again.

We stopped by here to view the salmon run, but they weren't.

We stopped for the evening three miles short of the Canadian border after driving all day in either fog, or the smoke haze from the forest fires. It seems Tim has picked up a new friend. I always thought he tended toward the dark side. <G>

This is our route for 6-22-15. We started at Chitina, rode to the Kennecott Mines and McCarthy, then back down to Valdez. There is quite a bit of haze in the air from the fires so most of our pictures have been compromised. Not only that, but my allergy resistance as well. Beginning today, we will start our journey back to the Canada and the lower 48. We still may cross back into AK near Haines and Hyder.

Either they bloom from the bottom up, or die from the top down. Still, they were pretty and lined much of the road to McCarthy, AK

This road is part of the old railroad grade from Kennecott mine to Cordorva.

I think they said that 17% of the railroad consisted of Trestles.

This one still exist as a bridge for the road.

This one still exist but has been replaced by this little one for the road.

The mirror image is almost better than the original.

Ptmargian, the Alaska state bird. I know I spelled it wrong. I also pronounce it wrong, I just call them Parmesan birds.

This was a mother and her chicks.

They sure do camouflage well.

It is hard to spot them unless they move.

This is from McCarthy, AK if you happen to watch "Edge of Alaska".

I think this was the old railroad station, but it now housed their museum.

I think this is Wrangell Mt. At about 18,000'

It seem like this is the right place to park and walk. However, we rode our bikes on through town.

Kennecott Mill, the mines are another 5 miles up the road.

Most of the buildings have decayed since they were abandoned in 1938 when the mines ran out.

Working here in the summer was nice, but since the mine was running 363 days per year, winter work at thirty below was tough unless you happen to be assigned to the power house.

When they left in November of 1938 they just left everything except the most valuable stuff.

A little oil and it would be good to go.

This is the bottom of the big building. BTW, it is the largest wooden structure in the world.

After being concentrated, the ore was loaded into rail cars via these chutes and shipped to Tacoma, WA for processing in the smelters.

Pictures just don't capture just how massive it is.

It is located within the largest National Park in America.

The parks service is working hard to restore and stabilize the buildings.

A modified truck for the crazy conditions.

These are wood fired boilers in the power house.

The building construction was very impressive.

A lot of interesting info in these pictures if you care to read them.

Inside one of the restored living quarters, They had flush toilets and running water.

A view of the Powerhouse from the north end.

A lot of good material was left. I once took a ten foot by 4" tie bar home from my factory thinking I would never use it all. It's has been gone for a long time..........I actually used it all.

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There were several of these storage rack buildings.

I would love to take the tour when it is finished being restored.

Un-restored                                          Restored

In the early 1800, knob and tube electrical was still the order of the day. These were the overhead electrical supply equipment on several of the buildings.

What a backdrop

It used to be the post office and general store as well as supply house. Now it is a visitor center.

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Interesting read.

There have been a lot of fires in AK recently most still burning or smoldering. The smoke has only been a bother to us yesterday and today. This morning I am really suffering from related allergies. Uggh! The really bad part is trying to make the pictures look good. Actually the really bad part is the burning eyes. lol

So, if you have been watching the Edge of Alaska show....

........you may recognize some of these buildings.

I have only seen a portion of one episode..........

.............but I will catch up this season........

.......since I have now been here and met some of the residents.

This place is owned by the bad guy....lol

This place needs work.

I think Sherm would like this yard art.

I did see that some are for sale. I don't think these nice ones were.

5 mph per hour dust control limit.

Only residents/permit holders are allowed to use the bridge. All others use this route........I found another bridge.

Not part of the highway system

Inside the museum

I enjoyed a great visit with the lady at the museum. The little red cabin is hers and is off the grid. The bad guy wants her to pay extra for his services. <G>

A little closer view

This is her. I'm sending her a link to the blog so she can read everything I said about her. Of course I do hope she figures out that most of this stuff is tongue in cheek....lol

These glacial fed lakes are pretty but cold unless........

.....you're an alaskan.

Then it is just a hot summer day to work on your tan.........

...........and feed the mosquitoes.............

...........or take a romantic dip!

I found my own bridge......beats riding through that fast flowing river.

If I could do it, so could Tim.

This little puppy was just walking down the road...........I finally worked up enough courage to ride past him, or her, I wasn't inclined to find out. 

View to the river from the trestle

These are fish wheels......

.....that are basically automatic fishing machines.

We drove by a Yak farm/ranch

They raise them for both their hide and meat.

Cool burled wood flag poles.

Dropping down from Thompson Pass into the Valdez area.

Beautiful scenery on the highway down.

View over the inlet from Valdez.

Shock absorbing bumper for the large ships and barges.

The whole town came out to say hello

I'm not sure, but it looks like it is kept here in case of an oil spill.

Back of a large barge

These next few are for Sherm

A couple shots of the small boat harbor.

The halibut here seem to be much larger than those being caught on the Homer Charters. That big one is about 75#.

Waiting for a morsel

Doing the dirty work!

These are very large wheel barrows.

Tim shot this on our ride to McCarthy

He shot this as we were escaping.