Fun in snow at Watson Lake

At Watson Lake in the Yukon while the Alaska highway was being constructed a homesick Marine nailed a sign of his hometown onto a post and this was followed by many more over the years, as you can see if you watch the video. (Click on the arrow in the middle of the screen then click on the arrow below the screen and wait for the video to load)

Phil and Tina

Encounters of the Alaskian Kind!!!!!

A few photos of animanls we have seen over the past week.
Beavers are elusive as they are generally avtive it night but this gave quite a display for us as it swam up the river mid morning

This is the first lot of animals we saw on our trip to Alaska. Here are some young Caribou. They are of the elk family, notice the white on the chest of the animals. Some of the information we read says that the Caribou actually migrate and you can see several thousand travelling together. Thats what we will keep our eyes out for.
We were glad we saw these big guys in the day light. There were 40 or so grazing just beside the road. They really paid no attention to the cars going by. There wernt that many cars I suppose either. There are signs to watch for these guys in the night as they are so hard to see.
I think moose must go down as being the ugliest animals I have seen. They are much bigger than I thought. Three of them were grazing by the road, 2 were quite timid but this one stayed for some photos.
This mother was with her baby just as we were coming out of North Pole after visiting Santas house. She was on the main road and running in between the cars but as you can see quite close to the cars. They can be very dangerous but she seemed more anxious to get her young one of the road than agressive.

We have been in Fairbanks for 3 nights now. It has been an interesting town with lots of character in the form of old buildings, old gold mine and interesting places to just look through. We are on our way to Anchorage over the next few days. We fly out next Tuesday. Alaska is an amazing rugged place and it will be sad to have to leave such an amazing country. It does remind me of outback Australia a little as in the rustic accommodation, the "interesting" places to eat and the people with an interesting yarn. (that is Australian for yack, chin wag. (Just interpreting for our Canadian friends.) ha ha) A lot of things are closed including whole towns so that has been a challenge to find something open. What an amazing trip we have had so far.

Till next time See ya Later mate!!

Phil and Tina

Historic Curved Bridge Alaska Hwy (Historic Mile 21)

Just north of Dawson Creek (mile 0) is this classic and unusual Timber Bridge, built in 1942-43 by civil contractors after the US Army engineers had carved the initial Pioneer Road for a supply line to Alaska for military Traffic.

It is constructed of 500,000 board feet (1180 cubic meters) of creosoted (a timber preservative) British Columbia Fir, and is the only original timber bridge still in use.
it is unusual in that it is curved, 9 degree's in its 534 feet (162 meters)
Although it is still in use, a new bridge was constructed in 1978 as load limit was 25 ton, heavier gross loads were increasing, and it was especially inconvenient for the expanding Oil and Gas industries.
in the photo below Tina is looking over the edge as I take the pic.

On the way to Alaska

We past through the town of Grand Prairie, in Alberta (a couple of hours below Dawson Creek) and something seemed wrong with this Gigantic sundial, it took a few minutes as to what it was, it was facing the wrong direction (well it was for me, someone from the southern hemisphere that is)
The BIGGEST is alive and well over here as it is in Australia, just a few K's up the road from the BIG sundial is the town of Beaverlodge with the BIG Beaver.

This sign gave us a chuckle
BIG and I mean BIG piles of trees at Louisiana Pacific pulp and paper mill on the northern side of Dawson Creek
Nearby the pulp mill is this Grain Elevator as the Canadians call them, (Silo for Aussies), I have not been inside any over here but I guess it is of similar construction of the one at Fielders Flour Mill Tamworth (New South Wales Australia) where I worked in the late 70's early 80's. The silo in Tamworth was 4x2's (2x4's for the North Americans) on there flat, nailed on top of each other, and had 6 or 8 internal bins if my memory serves me correctly. This style of construction was replaced with steel or concrete in the 50's and 60's.

North to Alaska

We are on our back to Oz, via Dawson Creek (B) Watson Lake (C) Whitehorse (D) where we are at the moment, and we are planning to go to Fairbanks (E) and then onto Anchorage (F) a few deviations along the way are anticipated if road conditions allow. The traveling conditions have been great so far with beautiful weather and good roads, though we were pleased we were in Whitehorse as the weather changed from cool overcast to heavy snow in about 15 minutes last night as we were looking for accommodation. This morning it is a lovely clear sky and about -11 with a wind chill to about -17,and we hope the roads are clear to continue to Alaska (our $750 Chev Corsica is going great so far)

After travelling about 600km to Dawson Creek we finally start on the Alaska Highway. It is signposted every 1 mile and we have a travel book that gives us a mile by mile description. e.g. dumpster on the northbound side at milepost 127.

Actually it is very informative and we would have missed a lot of history if we wernt reading the book. Phils description of heavy snow to me (and the locals) was classed as a blizzard.

As you can see this photo is the rocky mountains again. I suggest you lay on your bed, or the floor to get the best vantage point. Note the car down the bottom. Phil climbed up this mountains to get some overall views of the mountains. I had to sit and mind the car!!!! We travelled most of the last two days through the Rockies. Just unbelievable scenery.

We are going through towns of only a few to a couple of hundred people. Who knows where we will be tonight so am unsure of an Internet connection. Hopefully we will put a daily or two daily update for you. Note: It is spring -11 with a wind chill of -17.

See ya Phil and Tina

Some More Ice Road Photos

Hi from Canada again,

After all the enquires about the ice roads I thought I would post some more Photos. We were amazed at the response Macca had on the radio show after Phil had spoken to him. Folk have been interested in our adventures in Canada and it has been fun doing the blogs.
The first photo is of the ice roads. Phil could give you thickness of the ice and tell you facts etc but I just think "You must be crazy to drive on that slippery ice." He did enjoy the driving and the opportunity to do something he has never done before. Anything with an element of risk is what he enjoys, ( thats why he married me. ha ha)

I can tell you some facts about the above photo. This guys is digging a hole to see how deep the ice is. If the ice is too thin they put a large hose into the hole and pump up the water to flood the ice. As you have gathered by the photo it is somewhat cold, so the water freezes and creates a thinker layer. Hope that is right if not Phil could help you out with the details.
I just thought this was an awesome photo of a sunset. Phil saw the Northern Lights also while he was up there on the ice. He couldn't get any photos though as you cant stop on the ice and also still sorting out the new camera to get the best effects.
What a great photo of an inukshuk. These are usually found beside rivers or in rocky places made by kids or tourists etc. The inuit folk used to bury fresh meat etc under these for the next folk who came along. One arm is always longer to point the direction in which the first folk set out. It is one of the symbols of the 2010 Olympic games in Vancouver. It is a great symbol of friendship and community spirit I feel. I wonder who built this one on the ice roads or was it a rock one made at another time and has just been covered in snow now.???
This last photo shows a lump of ice that has come up through the ice road. The water underneath is still moving and the ice does move as well. Also a good photo of Phils glasses and Toque.
On the 14th April Phil and I are going on a road trip to Alaska. Which will be interesting in our old car. After our 2 weeks holiday we then will be flying home arriving in Perth on the 1st May.
So sorry Cedar we don't get to see you this trip. We did try to get down to you guys, would have been fun. Maybe you might have a reason to be in Oz later on in the year????

We are spending some time with Kylie and Selwyn (poor Selwyn is being introduced to all the McIntosh boys next week all in one go!!! Then the week after he will meet us for the first time.)

We are then going to the central coast to await the arrival of our 2nd Grandson who is due the end of May. Phil and I will be looking for work and somewhere to live. It will be nice to be "home" but that comes with a sadness to leave our friends here. I have already had a few tears at leaving them. Maybe there lives will go back to being "Normal" when we aren't around to entertain, help, answer questions, teach a whole new language to and just love us.
Well next time we write we will be in Alaska. We are busy packing and spending time with our friends between now and then
Love to you all
Phil and Tina

Oh yet another trip to the Rockies

Hi To all our friends in Blog land!!! Well as indicated another trip to the Rockies last week. Gai and I had a lovely time and there was lots of snow and quite warm, well at least it got to 5 degrees.
I have cheated a bit in the pictures as the above photo was taken when we visited the Fairmont Hotel in Banff in January. I just love the mirror image of the mountains in Josh's Canadian beer. It was quite flat I imagine by the time he got to drink it. There are some better ones but they are all on there sides and I am still working out how to turn them.

This photo Gai took looking out over the Fairmont's balcony. It was really cold that day so this is the only outside photo that she managed to take of the mountains. It is the actually mountain in the drink above. What a beautiful season Winter is in the mountains.
This is a photo of the house we are staying in. Most of the snow has melted but there is a bit still hanging on. Last Friday when we were coming home we had a bit of a snow storm, which wasnt much fun to drive in. While Gai took photos and thought it was great fun I expressed my fear of driving in a blizzard. She called me a "woos" and told me to get over it, mind you she was a lot quieter when cars started spinning of the road and sliding when we got near the traffic lights. Oh the joys of winter. We got about 6 inches of snow over night I think and the path was covered once more with snow.
The last two photos are of Lake Louise. Gai took the top one last week. The other one was taken in September last year. What a difference from Autum to winter. People were skating on the lake and cross country skiing. There had been ten or more ice sculptures at lake louise when Clayton and I were there 3 weeks ago but because it was soooooo hot they had melted.
What an amazing country Canada is. Lots of new experiences each day. A whole new language to learn, ha ha. We havent picked up a Canadian accent yet but our friends have learnt a great deal of Australian. Chook seems to be one of the favourites which they still pronounce as "chalk". I will miss the amazing friends we have made here but hopefully we will be able to give them a tour of our own beautiful country some day.

Phil is on his last trip to the ice roads. He has enjoyed the experience a lot and has had the opportunity to see the Northern lights most times. How amazing is that. I will just have to look at pictures I guess. I am not allowed to go with him on the ice roads so have missed this adventure.

Well my friend, hopefully some of you are still popping in now and again. Sorry for taking so long but Tour guides dont have much time.

Hooroo

Tina

North on the Ice roads

Well I have done 2 trips on the ice so far, and it is interesting to say the least, before I start on the ice roads info I think I need to give you an understanding of how far north it is to Diavic Diamond mine.

To give all in Oz a point of reference I will use Hobart Tasmania.

Hobart is on the 42 latitude south, The equivalent latitude north passes through Pocetello in Idaho (due south of here) and Chicago on the Great Lakes.

If you were to travel 840klm (road distance) south of Hobart you would be on the 49th latitude, this is the same latitude as the Canada US border.

Another 620 klm south and you are on the 53rd latitude, the same latitude as Edmonton. (Macquarie Island is on the 54th latitude)

Another 1500klm south and you are on the 62nd latitude, the same latitude as Yellowknife.

Another 450 klm south and you are on the 64th latitude this is the same latitude as Diavic Diamond Mine. Approx 250 klm from the Arctic Circle.(Casey research station in the Antarctic is on the 66th latitude)

Or in land drive distances, If you were to drive the distance from Hobart to Townsville, south of Hobart, you will be as far south as Diavic is North.

The distance from Edmonton to Diavic is the same as from Peak Hill (south of Dubbo) to Townsville.

These trucks are actually parked on a small lake, it is only shallow and solid ice so is safe to park on till spring thaw.

A crack in the ice, there are a lot of these but they are not a safety issue

Moon over Lockhart lake as seen from the Lockhart Lake Camp

This is what it looks like from the cab, quite repetitive after a few hours as the loaded travel speed at 25klm/hour on most lakes, but does increase to 30Klm/hour on the more northern lakes. Travel speeds when empty are increased by 10 k /hour, and on designated express lanes for empty trucks 60klm/hour is allowed.

The weather was quite kind for the first trip according to the locals, only down to -37 but not much wind. I spun out (lost traction) on a portage, and had to put the chains on, it is surprising how adrenaline can make you oblivious to the cold, I had 8-12 trucks waiting for me to get mobile so we could all continue, ( no one could pass me where i spun out) in the rush to fit them i removed my gloves to do up the links, and I can tell you chains at -37 degrees and warm hands do not mix, Fortunately the was no moisture and my hands did not freeze to the chain links, and am I appreciative of that.

Though I did have a Dumb and Dumber moment the other day, it was in the -35 to -40 range and I unlocked the truck door with the key, i had a cup of coffee in the other hand, and instinctively put the key into my mouth so I could open the door with my free hand, the key at -35 immediately froze to my tongue and lip, luckily a key is small and the heat of my mouth warmed the key in a few seconds and i was able to free it without loosing any skin.

About the Ice Roads

This is a map of the location if the Ice Roads in the North west Territory, Canada. from Yellowknife to the Diavic mine is about 450 Klm and takes approx 15 hours to travel over the frozen lakes and portages (land outcrops), the longest lake is about 100klm 0f ice to drive over at a speed not exceeding 30 klm/hour, 3 hours non stop.
To leave Yellowknife we travel in groups of 2 to 4 trucks for safety, and we must travel as a convey, to the next checkpoint. Convoy dispatch times are 20 minutes apart. the first 70 Klm is along the Ingram trail, a narrow windy section of formed road, (speed limit 70klm/hour), the leader of the convoy has to call the direction of the convoy (on 2 way VHF radio) the number of trucks and the Klm marker he is passing, this allows others traveling on the road who is on the road, (you hear comments like 4 north at the 25k marker 1st 2 12 wide) if you are traveling


















south and are at the 27k marker you know you are about to pass 4 trucks and the first 2 are 12 foot (3.6 meters) wide. Overtaking is not allowed and each unit must space themselves 1 klm apart.
At the end of the Ingram trail the Ice Roads begin, there is a check in point called the Meadows, where the leader of the convoy calls security and reports the number of trucks, our direction(north or south) and the individual road user number of each truck, When all units have arrived and done a series of load and safety checks, clearance to proceed is requested and given if the previous convoy is far enough ahead. The Next check point is Lockhart camp about 150 klm over the lakes, expected time if travel goes well is about 8 hours. The speed limit and distance is decreased the max speed 25 klm at a minimum distance of 500 meters, no overtaking allowed. If someone has to stop for any reason you must call you have stopped and why, all traffic traveling the direction the stopped unit is traveling must stop when you are 500 meters behind the unit ahead. Security is monitoring the radio and come as soon as they here a call to oversee the situation, and get the traffic flowing as soon as possible.
There is no stopping on the ice except in emergencies, non emergency stops if required are allowed on portages with sufficient space to park safely.
Speed onto and off the ice is lowered to 10 klm/hour as the ice can be damaged if hit too fast.

There is a formula to determine the load capacity of the ice is 4 times the thickness squared, so if the ice is 5cm thick (5 X 5 = 25, 4 X 25 = 100) therefore the load carrying capacity is 100 kg, you can see on the chart above the load capacity for the thickness. The load capacity at the moment is 63000kg so the ice must be 125cm thick.























The cold is interesting, it is not as cold as I thought it would be, the locals tell me this is because the humidity is so low, the humidity affects the cold in a similar way like humidity increases the stress of heat, the higher the humidity the colder it feels.
When there is no wind , it is not too hard to keep warm if you wear enough layers, though, the wind is the hard element to take, it just increases the heat loss so much quicker, the charts beside and below allow you to see the difference in how the wind changes how cold it feels.
























For more info try this sight A field guide to ice construction safety

http://www.dot.gov.nt.ca/_live/documents/documentManagerUpload/Ice%20Construction%20Field%20Guide%20web.pdf

Just some more amazing photos!!

Wanted to show you some more photos of our week away but Clay has over 700 photo so these were just a few in the first 100 or so. The top photo is taken at Meligne Canyon at the beginning or ice walk. The bottom photo is also on the ice walk. We walked on a frozen river at the botton of the canyon. It was just amazing!
This is just a beautiful photo of somekind of bird. It is warming up here so the animals are coming out. This was taken at the top of the gondular in Banff.
Just to show you how big some pf the rockies are. Can you spot the 2 sets of ice climbers?? This is on the road between Banff and Jasper. The side of the mountain is called the weeping wall and it just weeps in summer but as you can see its not weeping now. We were amazed to see these guys climb so far up. Not for me Im afraid.
This is about as brave as I get walking on the ice. you could feel it moving under your feet in some places. Clay went through the ice in a few spots. The scenery was just beyond explaining. No photos can do it justice.

Tina

Yes Believe it or not Im back!!!

Hi all, Well finally I have done another entry into the blog. I have been so busy being a tourist guide and entertaining our family that I havent had much time. I have so many photos to show you all but find it hard to pick. Clayton allown took 700 photos while we were in the rockies this week and they havent been uploaded yet.
I hear Oz is green, wet and rather cold for summer, it will be lovely to see all the paddocks green and the grass for the cattle coming into winter.
I decided to put a few "texture" photos in, sort of. the first photo is of the snow on the outside of the window. Even my snowmen and bear were cold. The photo below is of ice crystal on the window. Windows have a double pane to keep the cold out. I thought this looks like winter wonderland.

Snowflakes are hard to picture and are so beautiful so below is an attempt to show different shapes. I would love to do a photo study of snowlakes. Perhaps draw my own snowflake quilt. I thought each flake was a different shape but Clay "burst my snowflake" by telling me this isnt true, so I will have to do my own investigations.
This is a photo Kylie took of a frozen waterfall whilst she was travelling with Phil in the truck. It is hard to imagine that waterfalls freeze but they do. Many of the lakes and waterfalls are frozen at the moment. Clay and I went on a ice walk into a canyon which is just a frozen river. It was just magical but you will have to wait for photos of that when we get them down loaded.

Most of you know that Phil is travelling the ice roads at the moment. He drives up to Yellowknife and then travels on the frozen lakes, several hundred Kilometres north. He will be doing this for about 6 more weeks. Some of you may have heard him speaking on Macca last Sunday morning. It will be interesting to see his photo if the camera hasnt frozen. it is about -30 ish up where he goes which is good as it keeps the lakes frozen.

All but Clay have returned to Oz. He will be leaving on Monday just a couple of hours after Gai arrives. What a fun month we are going to have. I will have to do the tourist guide thing and also convince her that -4 really isnt that cold. So looking forward to that.

Tim, Kate and Elijah have settled back to normal????!!!! Elijah gets excited when he sees the photos as if he remembers being here. I miss them so much, Elijah was so much fun to have and so good. Tim is still teaching and Kate is being a fantastic Mum, not long now till number 2 arrives.

Josh started uni this week and has move to a new house. He is having centrlink hassels but hopefully we can resove that this week. Jane started uni today and is enjoying the warm back home. It was so much fun to have them around, I miss them so much, I just got used to them being here and hoped they would stay longer. So many things we didnt do in the three months they were here.

Kylie has moved to Perth and is still looking for accommadation and a job, but I'm sure she will settle soon. Selwyn is back to work and both of them will attend a wedding in April in New Zealand. Little did I know that when Kylie went to Spain nearly 10 years ago that she will never stop travelling.

Clays contract finished mid January so he has moved from Tassy and planning to go back to Brisbane. He is looking for a animation job and will actually go anywhere for the right Job. Watch out for "Pixel Pinky" later in the year.

I have been finding the "cabin fever" quite difficult, which has made me annoyed because I feel that getting down is a waste of time. The week in the mountains was helpful and hopefully having Gai around will help me "thaw" (sorry that was so bad) out of it. Well until next time, which will be much sooner, Enjoy the warmth and dont forget to smell the roses.

Love Tina

Touring in the Rocky Mountains again.

Hi all in the land down under. I believe you are having a very mild summer, we also are having a fairly mild winter, not to much snow, yet! We are in the Rockies with Tim, Kate Elijah, Josh and Jane. As you can see in the above photo there is plenty of snow here. This is actually a photo of Simpson Lake near the town of Banff. Every turn is a photo opportunity and a quite hard to describe. Photos don't do the magnificent scenery justice. The guys and Jane have got a fair bit of skiing in over the past week. The skied at the Famous Lake Louis ski resort and I think that was a high light for them. No injuries and lots of new skills learnt. Josh has been snowboarding and has mastered it quite well. Jim, Crystal, Erin and Carly joined us for the weekend which was lovely. Pity they had to go home and back to work and school.
This photo is taken in the Fairmont Hotel in Banff. I think this hotel is on every tourist brochure advertising Canada. How cute is Elijah. He has been so good it is really unbelievable. He is happy all the time and happy to go to anyone. He didn't like the snow at first but today he had a little play on his own in the snow. Maybe he did this because Phil and I wanted him to keep walking.
Yes you read this right. This was on the way to drop the guys of skiing in Lake Louise. Cold isn't a word to describe -30. It was a clear, sunny day and the skiing was fantastic, though.
While skiing was happening Kate, Elijah and Myself went shopping in Banff and had lunch at the spaghetti factory. Elijah was just a delight as the photo shows. I am going to miss them so much. We have had a great holiday and will never forget the beautiful mountains, frozen lakes and amazing picture opportunities we have enjoyed.

The girls also managed a trip to the Patchwork shop in Canmore. Didn't we have fun and I think they will have to restock the shop after we had been there. The shop is call the Sugar Pine Company in Canmore, take a look as it has some beautiful fabrics. We even got Jane interested and she brought some beautiful things.

Tim, Kate and Elijah go home on Monday and Clayton arrives on Thursday, I suppose I have to take him to the mountains as well. Its such a hard job!!!!
Well till next time, enjoy the warmth in Oz.

Lots of love Tina

Winter is so much fun

Elijah and Grandad (Phil) checking out the truck. What a great photo, not real clear but the moment was certainly grasped in the photo. This photo was ment to be last but Im still trying to sort out this blogging. So forgive me. The blog actually starts after the ice fishing photo. Ha ha

Hi to all in the land down under! I hear it is hot and that there has been a bit of rain in varies places. Fantastic!!!!

Tim, Kate and Elijah arrived the day that Kylie left. There were lots of tears at the airport that day. I am so loving having the kids visit, Clayton is coming on the 1st of February, how fantastic is that. I am already wondering how I am going to say goodbye to Elijah. He is so gorgous and so happy. Kate and Tim are having their 2nd baby in June. How exciting.

We went ice fishing last weekend. It was a perfectly beautiful day. Around -8. The above photo is of Tim drilling a hole in the ice and the black tent thingys is what you sit on top of the hole to see the fish swimming below, you sit in them to fish. Egg shells are put in the hole and as they sink you can see how deep the water is. The photo below is of the actual hole, as you can see the ice is around 12 inches thick. We were walking on a huge lake where we also went snowmobiling. Tim was so excited he got to drive a pick up truck on the lake.

What a beautiful photo of Jane with a fish she had caught. How exciting!!! No she didnt keeep it not quite big enough!! Jim also caught one, and has a "one that got away" story.

The boys and Jim's toy. Tim, Josh, Phil and Jim, next to the pick up Tim drove on the ice. What an adventure for everyone. The girls went home early to put Elijah to bed. He doesnt like the snow too much. It is like one big white beach to him and he doesnt like having to put on the snow gear.
Josh and Tim went skiing and snowboarding yesterday to keep there hand, or legs in for the ski trip to the rockies. Yes once again I have to sacrifice a week of my time in the Rockies, sigh. We are going to Banff for a week. Crystal, Jim, Erin and Carly are coming with us for the weekend. Which will be a lot of fun. Then we will stay on till the end of the week. We are all excited to have a week together in such a beautiful place. Phil has taken a week off as well. I am certainly taking time to smell the roses and am thankful for the days we can have together in such a magnificent place. God is so Good.

Well till next time. Enjoy the warmth and remember to smell the roses!!!

Im sorry to most of you that I have sent you Christmas cards and to some gifts, but it appears nothing has arrived in Australia yet. I sent some in early October but they havent even arrived. So hopefully you will get them before next Christmas. ha ha

Lots of love Tina