The Schörle Travel Blog - English

Septembre 2009 - Les châteaux de la Loire

2009-10-13T08:09:00.000-07:00

North to Alaska Video

2009-04-09T03:09:00.000-07:00

North To Alaska

2008-09-02T16:41:00.000-07:00

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From North Saanich on Vancouver Island to Anchorage Alaska including side trips to Kenai and Denali Park we drove 5696 km in a bit more than four weeks. Gerlinde's sister and her husband came to Anchorage and continued with the RV and we took the plane from Anchorage to Juneau and the Alaska State Ferry from Juneau to Prince Rupert and from there back on Vancouver Island with the plane.

June 23 2008
Left North Saanich with the RV to Vernon BC to see Gerlinde's Sister Ruth and her husband Rod

June 25 2008

Left Vernon to Kamloops overnight in Provincial Park La Hache site 63 beautiful view on lake

June 26
Williams Lake-Prince George -Hwy 16 Moose on road -Vanderhoof overnight in Beaumont Provincial Park (nice lake)

June 27
Hazelton -Houston BC-Overnight Seeley Lake Provincial Park site 16 beautiful after reservation of site we went back to Hazelton and old Hazelton over the Skeena Bridge to Kispiox

June 28

Hwy 16 to Hwy 37 (Steward Cassiar Hwy) overnight at Meziadin Lake Provincial Park site 55 direct on the Lake got our inflatable Kayaks out and paddled on the Lake. Met Inge and Wieger
Oord and had fun.

June29

on Hwy 37 to Steward and Hyder (in Alaska) lonely coffee with the Oords.

Saw a wolf and also bear mother with 2 cubs

June 30
On Hwy 37 to Iskut saw a group of Dall sheep (mountain goats) a bear and a moose. Overnight in Private campground Mountain shadow (not to recommend) The Oords joined us and we had a beautiful walk the lake

July 1 and 2
Overnight at Boya Lake direct on the lake at site 4 weather was good so we stayed two days. Went out with the kayaks and walked to beaver dam where we saw beavers.

July 3

Stop at Miles Canyon and a great walk over the bridge and along the Yukon river.

Stop at Alpine Aviation and jumped in the float plane for a flight along the Yukon and Whitehorse. Finished the day with shopping and walking through Whitehorse. Overnight on the Wall Mart parking (not too bad after all)

July 4 and 5

Coffee at Starbucks (open at 7AM) and off for Kluane Lake - Congdon Creek (Public) site 12 best Grizzly viewing spot and beautiful flowers. At breakfast mother Grizzly passed in front of the RV with 2 cubs. On the road again 2 wolves crossed. Over the border into Alaska to Tok River State Park.

July 6
Walk along the river and off we go on Hwy 1 direction Glenallen. Beautiful drive to Grizzly Lake Campground site 2 on the lake, very nice campground, very clean and very nice people. Mother moose swimming with the little one. Otters - Loons - little ducks. Went canoeing around the lake.

Bumpy highway from permafrost

July 7 and 8
Two nights in Valdez on very nice Sate Park Campground. Good restaurants and great harbour and glacier view. Restaurant Mike. (Owner is French) halibut and salmon. Restaurant Edgewater best French fries with scallops.

July 9
RV on Ferry Beautiful trip with Alaska State ferry (through icebergs) from Valdez to Whittier. and with RV to Seward. City Campground busy but not too bad.

July 10
Walk to and on Exit Glacier (State Park) (met Aude and Julien from Paris) overnight on Kenai Lake Resort

July 11
nice drive to Alaska wildlife conservation center near Portage glacier and through Anchorage to Eagle River State Park where we met Alain Segura and Michel and Evelyne Gillet and had a drink together in their RV.

July 12
Wanted to go at a River with our new friend, but as we arrive we found that fishing was closed. So our friends went in another direction for fishing and we continued towards Denali and stayed overnight at Byers lake State Park where we had dessert and fun with the"bible church group" from Wassila"

July 13
Denali RV Park mile 145 8 miles north of main entrance. Just a campground to get into Denali clean but nothing exiting.

July 14
Wilderness tour with Denali Bus. rain and rain and the poor driver had to clean the windows at every stop. Grizzly, Dall sheep,

caribou, ptarmigan. But after all we found (at the end of our trip) that we saw more animals and interesting things elsewhere and Denali was too touristy !
Overnight at Riley campground inside Denali.

July 15
Unbelievable ! The sky is clear, sunshine and off we go with the RV as far as we are allowed in the park and had a beautiful view on Mont Mc Kinley (6194m) which is rare.

Going south towards Anchorage found Angela's Pizza place which is certainly the best Pizzza ion Alaska, but the most surprising is that Angela is from Sigmaringen Germany close to where our origins are.

stayed with the RV in her yard overnight

July 16
Stop at Roadhouse Talkeetna

and continued to Palmer and Glenn Hwy and stayed in very nice State park on Matanuska river King Mountain
(all alone on the beautiful campground)

July 17
Glenn Hwy to mile 102 Matanuska glacier (a must) walk on glacier impressing.

Mile 113.5 Sheep mountain lodge great halibut diner. Could stay overnight with our RV

July 18
Nice walk up the mountain (bears in area) beautiful alpine flowers (and coffee with pie in the lodge) back to Eagle river State Park where a moose cow waited for us at the washroom.

July 19
Visit and shopping in Anchorage and back to Eagle river

July 20
visiting Anchorage and night on RV Park in Anchorage

July 21
Picking up the Drennans at the airport - rainy - driving south around turnagain arm to Hope staying at Datcha RV

July 22
Hope (formerly Hope and Sunrise) had once a population of 5000 during the gold rush and now only a tiny village is left.Visited the museum. Great place for salmon fishing. Went to porcupine forest campground and hiked for 4 1/2 hours singing German songs because bears in area. (bears are afraid of German songs) grat dinner in restaurant on the hwy.

lots of Salmon

in the river

and the RV right here

with view on the sea

July 23
Back to Anchorage and again on Eagle river State Park

July 24
hiking around Eagle river and then Anchorage Motel close to airport

July 25
Flight Anchorage-Juneau and the Drennans drive the RV for a trip back to BC
Leaving Juneau with MV Taku through the inside passage to Prince Rupert with stops in Angoon-Sitka-Kake-Petersburg-Wrangell-Ketchikan (surprise met Aude and Julien again on the ferry !)

July 27
Arriving in Prince Rupert. Nice walk in the city. Diner in a pleasant restaurant and night in Highliner Plaza hotel.

July 28

Peter's birthday and flight back to Vancouver –Victoria

and now we are just passing over our house, unfortunately it is on our left !

Good to be home again, quite a difference compared to our four wheel home !

Mc Arthur Burney Falls to Mount Shasta

2007-12-02T15:18:00.000-08:00

Nov. 3
Stop at Burney for gas and saw the far west Lions club

Overnight with RV and next day a longwalk in the Falls State Park
A Volcanic area and therefore the water comes not only over the top, but also at different heights out of the Rock. From time to time the rocks above collapse and the whole fall is moving backwards through the centuries.

Volcanic rocks

Nov. 4 On the road towards Mt. Shasta, a Volcanic mountain 4322 m

And here on a downhill the bad FORD engineering struck us.
the engine suddenly quit and an emergency braking got me just on the side of the road. 911 call and a nice policeman pushed my RV on the other side (left) of the road where it was safer.
Towing to Mount Shasta city and night in Hotel.
To make the whole story short, I suspected it was the fuel pump and was right. But towing to two repair shops that couldn't or wouldn't help, made us a bit desperate. Eventually we decided to find a competent Ford dealer. Same story, in order to take the fuel tank out from underneath, they had either no equipment or were too busy. So we had the RV towed 150 km to Medford Oregon and found a very good light truck and RV repair shop who did it in half a day.
After this adventure we hurried home .
Nov. 7
From Medford to North of Portland . Very nice RV "Park Columbia River Front RV Park"
Nov. 8 Vancouver - Ferry at 15:00 and home in North Saanich by 17:30
Distance traveled 4060 km

In the Gold country

2007-12-02T12:28:00.000-08:00

On October 30 we wanted to drive eastwards to over the Tioga Pass to Mono Lake and then to Death Valley. Tough luck the Pass was closed as it snowed the day before, so we decided to go northwestwards and found :

From Sonora to Eldorado and North of Sacramento. A nice 3 day drive in the sun and temperatures around 25 C

Hello Europe ---- They found Gold !

All started here, when Sutter and Marshall found Gold, building a sawmill on the American River in 1848

Once the news spread, it started a huge
flow of up to 300.000 people from all over the world and San Francisco went from a tiny settlement to a city with 25000 in 1850. Those interested read in the Internet on Wikipedia : California Gold Rush

Place where Sutters sawmill
was built in Coloma

Todays school classes come and try to find some gold, where there is now a State park along the American River

We found beautiful places for our RV

at the American River

and on the banks of the Sacramento River

but : No gold !

Yosemite State Park

2007-12-01T21:35:00.000-08:00

Arriving Oct. 28.

Yosemite is wonderful, particularly in fall with the beautiful colors. Unbelievable that the mountain El Capitan is just one block of granite. One of the largest in the world and one of the world's favorite challenges for rock climbers.

Oct. 29 Hiking to Vernal and Nevada Falls in Yosemite Park (7 hours) from 1220 to 1830 m with thunderstorm on top of Nevada falls. Hiding under a big rock, waiting that the hail and rain stopped and made it back to the RV just about sunset.

Met the Imberts from Toulouse, very nice people and hope to see them in France.

To Monterey and Carmel (part 2)

2007-12-01T19:30:00.000-08:00

Oct. 26 to Oct. 27 We visited Monterey where John Steinbeck lived and wrote his books like the cannery row, the street where the sardine canneries where and which was named after him in 1958.We saw the aquarium and the story about the city. Between 1930 and 1940 Monterey became the worlds sardine capital processing as much as 250 000 tons of sardines in the peak season. Then suddenly the sardines vanished in the mid 1950 and in 1964 the last cannery closed.

" Economic devastation settled in on Monterey's fishing and canning industries, ending it forever as Montereys major economic engine. Years of decline, disintegration, fire and collapse set in on a street that had no other immediate usefulness to a fish canning industry without fish. But the curious came. To see Cannery Row and experience its funky, ghostlike revival as a tourist attraction--due largely to the magic of the fame Steinbeck's fiction bestowed upon it. Today Cannery Row enjoys a commercial, historical and literary Renaissance as the major tourism destination in Monterey."

Unfortunately Linda lost her camera and there are no pictures from the nice city and beaches of Carmel. But we were lucky as we remembered having been in a Café in Monterey.
So we drove back and the camera was there as we left it hanging on a chair !

to Monterey and Carmel (part 1)

2007-12-01T18:42:00.000-08:00

Oct. 25. On the way south we stopped at Woodside, about 40km from SF. Eric and Debbie lived here when we met them 30 years ago. We went into a very curious Café, full with all kinds of pictures and funny objects.

San Francisco

2007-11-27T19:37:00.000-08:00

Oct. 23 visited Sausalito and went then over the Golden Gate bridge to SF.

In SF until Oct. 24 with Eric and Deborah Stratmann which we haven't seen for 30 years !
They live in a house on top of Buena Vista Park with a beautiful view over SF

new and old buildings together

University of SF

the town Hall

Linda and the monster pumpkin of 1200 lbs (600kg)

and the cable cars of course !

From the Coast eastwards to the wine county of Sonoma

2007-11-26T22:16:00.001-08:00

Oct. 21 From Mendocino on Hwy 128 to Windsor CA

after a beautiful scenery through the wine country ----

We met our friends Nancy and Charles Richard in their beautiful house in Windsor, California.
Charles used to manage and work in his vineyard and still regrets that he had to sell it. He knows a lot about Californian (and other wines) and so we bought an impressing collection. And --wonder-- we got it through Canadian customs without a problem --

We also visited Healdsburg which is a very nice town and had a wonderful dinner in Santa Rosa.
Thank you Charles and Nancy !

The Avenue of the Giants to Fort Bragg

2007-11-26T21:22:00.000-08:00

Oct 20. We continue on Hwy 101 to Weott, California through the Avenue of the Giants

After Leggett a very tiring driving with beautiful views through the forest with endless very tight curbs and ups and down in the mountains on California Hwy #1 we arrive at the coast.
Stay in Fort Bragg with an evening shopping adventure, bringing a lot of bottles with Californian wine in our backpack in a late night walk.
Tired but happy !

beautiful coast

The Giants

2007-11-25T20:17:00.000-08:00

Oct 18 Overnight in Mystic Forest RV Park. Nice Park, friendly people and met Bob McCray, a fishing guide, who offered us right away fresh and smoked salmon and Peter fixed his Internet connection.

This is the stump of a tree or what's left.

Apparently this tree has been cut with the chainsaw hanging over my head. It is huge !

and here is the tree phone

A long walk (4 hours)through the Redwood forest and
the giant trees (we got almost lost !)

The highest tree is 112 m !

And there are more trees to come

from Umpqua State Park to Cape Blanco to the Avenue of the Giants

2007-11-20T21:24:00.000-08:00

Oct. 17 ( on Hwy 101) Stop and hike on the Dunes at Horsfall. the Dunes are huge, see our small RV down right.

The night a storm with up to 70 miles (110 km) was shaking our RV and the next morning we went to see the huge waves on the coast. The the wind and the road warnings about fallen trees did not allow us to leave before the afternoon.

Another lighthouse on Cape Blanco and a beautiful State park (space for the RV) nice walk down the cliffs to the beach.

Port Angeles to Umpqua lighthouse, Oregon

2007-11-01T13:09:00.000-07:00

To the Umpqua lighthouse where we stay in the State Park overnight with our RV

Continuing winding Hyway 101 along the rugged Oregon coast

Augustin Fresnel the French Physicist invented in 1822 the Fresnel lens for the lighthouses giving a straight beam for a maximum visibility of the beam and the Heceta beam is visible 21 miles off the coast

The Heceta Lighthouse

Oct. 15 to Corvallis, Oregon and on Oct. 16 to Heceta lighthouse, one of the nicest on the Oregon coast and night in Umpqua Lighthouse Statepark in the Oregon Dunes, beautiful place.

Leaving Victoria BC for California

2007-11-01T12:00:00.000-07:00

Left Victoria with the MV COHO to Port Angeles on Oct.14 with the RV