A Little of This and That

We stayed up in the L'Anse aux Meadows area of the Great Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland for a few days waiting for the clouds to part at the same time that the ice came in. We had one day of reasonable light but found it hard to get close enough to any icebergs to get the shots we wanted. So instead Ron shot what he found.

Low-tide Reflection - Click for larger

If this is your house in Quirpon, NL we need to talk.

My Fantasy place - Click for larger

I want your house! When we first found this house back in 2007 there was an iceberg stuck in the bay in front of it then too. It's a view I could look at all day long.

But we didn't. Instead we drove over to Ship Cove via Raleigh

Clothesline and poppies - Click for larger

in hopes of finding a better vantage point for the icebergs. The view in Ship Cove of icebergs in the Strait of Belle Isle was actually better than it was at L'Anse aux Meadows but still not quite what we were looking for.

Iceberg - Click for larger

See "Don't Be Shy" for Ron's take on our pursuit of icebergs in Iceberg Alley.

My Mom asked why I was wearing a glove in the picture on his blog "Because it was cold!", I answered.

So after Ship Cove we decided to see if we could find some caribou. We did. Two in fact. Two very ragged looking ones hanging out on the parking lot of the St. Anthony airport. They seemed to not appreciate us looking at them and wandered off.

Caribou - Click for larger

With that we gave up and went back to shooting the iceberg in front of my favourite house at last light.

Iceberg - Click for larger

There was actually nice light on it.

The next day we stopped to shoot icebergs one last time from shore on our way back to Gros Morne National Park. And if you read Ron's blog listed above you'll know that we finally found someone with a boat willing to take us out!

Iceberg - Click for larger

The light wasn't great but we were really close to those icebergs.

Back in Gros Morne National Park we once again faced rain and no light - especially at first or last light - the times of the day when it is usually good for taking pictures. Instead we got some sleep, played some cribbage, and even laid on a pebbly beach during full noon sun. So what if we still had on long pants and sweaters. The middle of the day was the only time of the day it seems when we would really see sunshine in Gros Morne National Park. Oh well. But here is a picture of the mountain that gave the park its name:

Gros Morne - Click for larger

Sanctuary

It's a place you feel safe. That is indeed how I feel when I climb into bed in our van when camping. Safe. I close the sliding side door and kind of sigh, shutting out the noisy nearby campers, the smoky campfires, the rain, the bugs, and the bears...
(see our blog postings from last summer re building a bed in the van: Ron's and mine)
Last year when we camped in grizzly country it was nice to get up close to a grizzly during the day yet not worry about them being around while sleeping.

Grizzly - Click for larger

But sleeping in the van is actually more than sanctuary to me. It is cozy. And warm. Somehow that double air mattress advertised as queen-sized actually feels more spacious and comfortable with the two of us in it than most motels’ double beds that are really physically wider. In a motel we are closed off from the outside world. We can't see a moose walk past;

Moose - Click for larger

tell when the light is good; or, if it is our van's alarm going off. But inside the van its tinted windows offer great 360-degree views of our surroundings. And we see lots of beautiful views in our travels.

Tombstone Viewpoint - Click for larger

Sure sleeping in the van has some drawbacks. I still can't get dressed standing up; I still have to go outside to walk to the dining tent or the bathroom; the windows need to be open a little for ventilation; and so we have to attach screens. If it is raining we either need to close the windows or put up a tarp covering them. Yet still we would rather sleep in our van if there is a nice scene or something else we want to photograph nearby.

Piping Plover - Click for larger

Already on our travels this year we've seen some beautiful scenery. In Gros Morne National Park the Long Range Mountains, The Tablelands, the forests, the bays on the Atlantic and inland freshwater fjords and ponds (lakes to us from ‘away’) all make for stunning vistas.

The Tablelands - Click for larger

We camped quite comfortably for a couple of days at Lomond with views of the mountains across Bonne Bay. The weather was sunny and pleasant on the first day. The second day was cloudy and muggy and not great for photographing scenery. About 9:30 in the evening it started to lightly rain - no problem we had a brand new tarp that we hung over the van that was so big we could stand outside the doors and not get wet. The rain became heavier but still we stayed dry and cozy in our van. As dawn approached a little after 4am the wind picked up and the occasional big gust violently whipped the tarp around on its ropes startling us in and out of sleep. At 6:30 another angry gust tore the grommet right off one corner of the tarp and broke a peg holding down another. That's when we knew it was time to get up and take it down before the wind blew the tarp or our dining tent away. The winds can be fierce in Newfoundland! So we moved on. Unfortunately there isn’t always a campground near where we want to be. Or like today not only is it raining but the temperature has dropped so low that would make hanging out in the dining tent during the day quite miserable. So we found a motel and hunkered down for a couple of days. Our bodies never quite appreciate motel beds though – they always are either too soft or too hard. The air mattress in the van? It’s always just right!

Iceberg Alley - Click for larger

Photo Exhibit is still on!

The photo exhibit "Canada Through Our Eyes" at the gallery at 44 Wide has been held over until July 15th, 2011. So it's not too late to see the polar bear below nearly life size!

Too Close for Comfort - Click for larger

Don't forget to sign the guest book while you are there.
See www.canadathroughoureyes.ca/stories to read the stories behind the images in the show and the book.

Canada Through Our Eyes

It's a Photo Exhibit! The show opening is this Saturday June 4th, 2011 from 2-6pm at the 44 Wide gallery in Liberty Village. Come one, come all!

Ron made this time lapse video of the show being hung:


The Show opening is also the official launch of our self published book with the same title "Canada Through Our Eyes"

For us the book and show represents the highlights of our travels throughout Canada over the last 20 years. Hope to see you at 44 Wide!

Peace on Earth

Season's Greetings 2010

Timing is Everything

Time, or maybe the weather, hasn’t exactly been on our side for much of this trip. Most mornings in the Yukon we set the alarm for 4:30am. When it went off we would look out and try to decide if the clouds would part enough for us to get at least a few moments of sweet morning light on some mountain vista. By 5:30 am our last morning up the Dempster Highway we had a glimmer of hope. So we left the nearly out of gas van sitting at our campsite in Tombstone Territorial Park, grabbed the gear and hiked the 2.5 kms up the mountain road to the Tombstone Viewpoint. Our speed up that hill seemed in direct proportion to the rate that the sun peeked over the mountains to the east and lit up the opposite mountains. We arrived puffing but in time to even see light on Tombstone Mountain off in the distance in the valley between the Tombstone Range and Cloudy Range.

Tombstone Range - Click for larger

Cloudy Range - Click for larger

The light didn’t last long. It was cloudy once again as we walked back down the mountain road to our campsite. The other still-sleeping campers were unaware that there had even been a moment of nice light. Timing is everything.

Tombstone Mountain - Click for larger

On our way back south from the Yukon we stopped again for a night in Muncho Provincial Park - this time in the MacDonald campground. It had been quite cool, cloudy and windy when we passed through on our way north - just as it usually was when we visited in 2006. However on that day it was hot and rather muggy. We both even went in for a swim in the cold 12-kilometre long almost always rippled mountain lake. During dinner the clouds suddenly parted, the water flattened and Ron spent about 45 minutes getting some stunning mountain reflections. Then the light was gone and the wind came back up again. Timing is everything.

Muncho Lake Dock - Click for larger

Muncho Lake - Click for larger

In July when we traveled through Jasper National Park the weather didn’t allow for pictures at all (see Ron’s posting "Stormy Weather" for more info). So we tried again on our way home. It mostly rained or the skies were grey while we were there. On the morning we left dawn brought clear skies and mist hanging over the lakes. Timing is everything indeed!

Patricia Lake - Click for larger

The Palisades in Jasper - Click for larger

How Many Roads?

How many roads must a van drive down before it is ready for the Dempster Highway?

Well for our van and for us maybe we went down too many on the way there. After all since my last post re the Northwest Territories and our waterfalls tour we’ve been on a lot of roads.

Lori at Alexandra Falls, NWT - Click for larger

We’ve driven every day - sometimes very long distances and we’ve rarely stayed more than one night in the same spot. With trying to catch the good morning and/or evening light up here in the Land of the Midnight Sun that makes for very long days.

We’ve been through BC’s northern rockies camping at Stone Mountain,

Summit Lake Campground - Click for larger

Muncho Lake

Stone Sheep - Click for larger

and Liard Hotsprings Provincial Parks.

Entering the Yukon we found the sign we posted in the Signpost Forest in Watson Lake back in 2006. It has faded considerably since then (as have we).

This time we didn’t stay in Teslin but did stop to take some pics of the Nisutlin Bay Bridge.

Nisutlin Bay Bridge - Click for larger

Kluane National Park and Reserve in the Yukon was as beautiful as before

Quill Creek, Kluane - Click for larger

although what was the interesting Slim's River Bridge has been replaced with something nondescript.

In Haines, Alaska we found a couple of grizzlies and some bald eagles at Chilkoot Lake State Recreation Site without our having to become one of the paparazzi that will descend in October to photograph those subjects when the salmon are really running. Even out of season there was still a mob looking for the grizzlies.

Grizzly Bear - Click for larger

Bald Eagle - Click for larger

After Haines we went back north to Kluane and spent our 28th wedding anniversary camped at Kluane Lake in the rain, passing the time by playing cards in our dining tent, having a French Picnic (replacing the French bread with crackers and nacho chips) and napping in our van hoping to get caught up on some sleep so we could get up the next morning to shoot the Lake and Sheep Mountain if there was light.

Kluane Lake - Click for larger

From Kluane we intended to go north on the Alaska highway to Anchorage, take the Top of the World Highway to Dawson City, Yukon and then go up the Dempster Highway to the Arctic circle in the Northwest Territories. But we were told at Kluane that there were washouts and road closures in Alaska as well in the Yukon/NWT on the Dempster Highway north of Eagle Plains. Imagine washouts & floods while there are so many wildfires in BC! So we regrouped and went back to Whitehorse and stayed at the same hotel as we did before Kluane and even did our laundry for just the 2nd time this trip (sorry to anyone within smelling range of us prior).

From Whitehorse we took the Klondike Highway north – heading to Dawson city and stopped to tour the Yukon Wildlife Preserve

Muskox - Click for larger

Arctic Fox - Click for larger

and camp for a couple of nights at Lake Laberge. It was hard to get a good landscape shot there – we kept hoping but the hills were always hazy – probably from those BC wildfires and some in the Yukon too (and not still from the cremation of Sam McGee).

Lake Laberge, Yukon - Click for larger

In Dawson City we visited both the Yukon and the Northwest Territories Info Centres and were told the Dempster Highway was open and that there were even a couple of hundred barren land caribou (the Porcupine herd) crossing the highway at the territories’ border/Arctic Circle. We wanted to see those caribou.

The Dempster Highway is gravel and dirt and somewhat rough but not too bad to Tombstone Territorial Park. It’s well worth the trip that far as the scenery is spectacular. You seem to always be surrounded by mountains. But what is not to love about all the scenery in the Yukon? It is a fabulous place. And north of Tombstone is no exception.

Tombstone Park Wetlands - Click for larger

Indeed we had driven a long way just to “do the Dempster Highway”. 13,185 kms to be exact, when we filled up in Dawson City. So could we be blamed then for turning around after a truck driver told us we should somewhere around Kilometre 300? We had already white-knuckled it up the Seven Mile Hill past the Ogilvie-Peel viewpoint. Of course it had started to rain again just as we got near the hill. These dirt roads can turn into something like lard it seems. But that wasn’t the only reason the hill was scary – going up sometimes you feel like you could drop straight off the side. The greasy mud seems to want to drag the car there. It didn’t help that the road was in the process of being graded and the grader had left a wall of greasy, gravelly mud in the middle - meaning we had to stick to our side. Just before the lookout and at the very top of the hill, we met the grader coming back down in the middle of the road. So Ron veered the car through the wall and took our chances on the left side hoping for no oncoming traffic and luckily – there was none.

Tombstone Territorial Park - Click for larger

Turning around at that point wasn’t an easy decision either. We wanted to see those caribou. And we were about 100kms short of the Eagle Plains Hotel and its gas station. We were counting on the roads to there being passable - counting on refueling. But we shouldn’t have. We turned around and hoped that the van’s computer was correct with its forecast that we could travel 100kms further than what we needed to get back to the Klondike Highway junction. At about 7pm we pulled back into the Tombstone campground (km 71.5) with the low-fuel alarm sounding and a warning to check the front left tire. The computer was wrong on all counts. The back right tire was slack (which Ron changed) and this morning proved we could have gone another 30 kms past the junction (but not 100).

How many roads? Well that is enough for now. We are now back in Dawson City and tomorrow we will point the car towards home. But next time (and there will be a next time) that we try to do the Dempster we’ll have to somehow figure out how to store 20 litres of extra gas along with the two spare tires we are already toting under the bed.

Do the Dempster - Click for larger