First Day of School

Laura started school this week! She has already had meetings and various other reasons to come to campus, but her first class was officially on Thursday! We have developed a routine for how we spend our days. We come to campus together, and she goes to her office and I go to the library. I generally watch videos, browse the internet, edit videos or create stories or puzzles for Evan. Yesterday I wrote 3 stories (5-6 pages each), a puzzle game and a photo challenge game. That wore me out so I'm not being as creative today.

We've hung out with geology people some more. There was a grad student mixer yesterday in the bar on campus, where you are supposed to meet grad students from all across campus. We didn't quite do as we were told, as we only talked to other geology students. We did meet a few new people... but they were also geology students. So far all of the geology students that we've met have been interesting people, so we don't see it as a bad thing to socialize only with them.

Hopefully Laura can talk about how school is once she has been there long enough to have something to say. But just look at how cute she is ready for her first day of school!

Brooks Range trip

As a part of a bonding experience for new graduate students, the department holds a trip to the north side of the Brooks Range in northern Alaska every year.  This year it was from Friday (the 24^th) until Monday (the 27^th), and although I felt sick to my stomach for much of Thursday night, I am incredibly happy that I went.

On Friday morning, we packed up 4 vehicles- three Excursions and one large truck that I neglected to see the make or model of- loading our stuff and ourselves into them all before heading north.  It’s interesting how I manage to find really awesome people to hang out with.  I say this because I chose my vehicle purely based on the fact that I had walked back from a meeting the day before with three people, and since I “knew” them I wanted to be in the car with them.  Luckily a few other awesome folks joined into the same van, and with that we created what I deem to be the best group of people we could have formed.  As soon as we were all settled in, Mary (with such poignant truth) says, “You know, guys, van bond is the strongest bond.” And a great weekend began.

Day 1 was spent driving north to the Dalton Highway, crossing the Arctic Circle, and stopping at a number of locations along the way to see the transitions in rock types as we passed through terrane after terrane.  It was basically show and tell. We got to see shales and chevron folds, amongst other things. At night, a group of us- which consisted largely of the people in our van- set up the large cook tent.  We were the designated constructors, since we had been the ones to learn how to put it up after the meeting on Thursday.  It drizzled a bit, on and off, but it didn’t stop us from drinking a few beers and sitting around the tent.

Our dean helped lead the trip.  Here he is talking about the shale.

Sara(h?) showing us where the fold is.

The colors were amazing.  Just beautiful fall colors.  In the few days between driving north and south, they increased in intensity dramatically.  

Hanging around the campfire on the first night

Day 2 is when the van bond started gaining strength.  More music was played, head-bobbing and arm-dancing started to become more frequent, and we started really laughing and having a good time. This was all as we continued farther north, toward Galbraith Lake.  There were stops at cirques, stops at lakes, and stops at construction. Probably because of the incredibly short summer season, there was plenty of construction along the Dalton Highway.  Whenever the wait was more than a few minutes, we crawled out of the vehicles to stand around, play soccer, or toss a football while we blasted music through the speakers.  We ended the night at the campground at Galbraith Lake, where we yet again set up camp and the community tents.  At that latitude, you are above the tree line, so there were no trees anywhere to be seen.  If the wind picked up, there was nothing to stop it. So we laid all sorts of small boulders on our tie lines and hoped for the best.

Looking at a cirque on a cloudy day.

Playing futbol during one of the construction breaks.

Hanging around the fire again, making smores and JiffyPop

The third day was probably the nicest of the days.  There was a slightly biting breeze, but we spent the majority of the day hiking a few miles towards a beautiful waterfall that cut through a series of thrust faults.  Which definitely warmed me up.  Until I stood still for more than three minutes.  There wasn’t much of a happy medium, and the jackets went on and off repeatedly. But that part really didn’t matter.  I got to mingle with all sorts of people on the trip, learn about their pasts and where they come from, all while hiking along some strikingly beautiful scenery. It took about two hours to walk in, where we had lunch perched on the side of a fairly steep slope with a great view of the waterfall.  After eating, most of us hiked down to stream level and wandered our way up to the fall itself.  Others spent time looking for large pyrite chunks in one of the exposed layers.  And I would like to point out to my parents that they can feel confident in my choice to not climb the loose talus piles like others did.  I walked along some talus on the way up, but nothing that I could leap down 10 feet at a time (because it was so steep).

Along the hike

The view from the waterfall

The waterfall

Heading up the stream to the Fall.

After we hiked back and made another group dinner- for that’s what they all were- we headed to Toolik, a research camp that UAF has up where we were staying.  I probably wont ever stay there, but there is a chance that if I had research in the area, I could.  After the brief, but interesting, tour, we headed back to camp for more beers and more fires- for that’s what happened every night.  I stayed up until a whopping 11 o’clock, so I actually got to see the dark sky for once! I figured that the next day we were driving home, so I could stay up late.

The van of rock'n!

The next morning, I awoke around 6.  I peeked my head out of the sleeping bag, and what I saw first puzzled me.  Then I realized that at about an inch above my nose was the side of the tent. Which was collapsing in on me.  So I got myself up a bit to orient myself, and to try to dump some of the snow off of the walls.  And then I scooched in to the center of the tent again and curled up.  And around 15 minutes later I emerged and there was more tent over me. So I repeated. And at about 630 I decided that after waking up with more tent over my head, I had to actually do something.  So I got up, in the process woke up my tentmate, and together we cleared off the tent.  Yes it was snowing.  I got my first Alaska snow.  It was much like the only snow that Seattle gets.  A thin layer of wettish white.  Everyone froze their fingers- especially me- taking down all of our gear and packing it into the trucks again to head 400 miles back to Fairbanks.

A morning surprise

The drive was a bit more subdued than most of our other days.  We had become a pretty rambunctious group.  Head-bobbing and arm-dancing turned into full-on upper body dancing by the second or third day.  Everyone was in on it, even the driver, who will be a professor I have starting tomorrow. It was a blast.  But the last day had many hours of driving, and a good portion of those were spent nodding off.  We would all awake for an upbeat song that we could dance to before drifting off again.

Don’t worry.  We ended it in style.  At the end of every day, when we were pulling into camp, the entire van danced their hearts out to this song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llyiQ4I-mcQ .  I had never heard it before, but now it gets stuck in my head and I cant help but start dancing when I hear it.  Maybe I’m listening to it right now, in the library.  And I might embarrass Amy by how into this song I am.

Oh yeah, and either Sunday or Monday, we saw a grizzly off of the road a long ways.  The truck in front of ours came to a complete stop, and in true "van of rock'n" style, us in the back seat threw off our seatbelts and rushed to see what there was (this happened throughout the trip, since the back windows were so covered in mud).  And there it was! A big old grizzly bear, moseying in the valley 500ft away.  My first wild grizzly was spotted in Alaska.  I think it's appropriate.

The Skies

The skies are getting darker! On our roadtrip we never really saw darkness. At most, we saw twilight. The same was true when we first arrived in Fairbanks. We went to bed pretty early even when we were staying with Mike, Laura's adviser. Every night as we laid in bed we could see sunlight shining through the blinds (even though it was after 10), and we never woke up early enough to see darkness in the morning. However that is officially changing. Just look at the time schedule - it's changed so much since the 18th, when we arrived!

Sunset changed from just after 10 on our first day, to 9:22 tonight!

This weekend, I saw a lot of darkness. The amount of time for it to actually get dark after sunset is changing, too. Even when sunset was at 10 it would stay light til 11. But now that sunset is around 9:30, it is near pitch black by 10. Crazy!

Since I was watching TV I reverted to a later schedule - staying up until midnight or 1 am. (The 'just one more episode' mentality!). Every night I looked out the windows to see what I could see in the sky. It is absolutely amazing how dark it is out there at night! There was mild light polution from Fairbanks, but despite that it was so completely dark that you could not see anything beneath the trees. It was cloudy outside, so there was no light from the moon or stars. Unfortunately, those clouds also meant that there was no aurora to see.

Speaking of clouds, it has been cloudy from that fire that we noticed when we first drove in. There have been occasional days where it is smokey enough that it smells like smoke, and you have low visability.

But yesterday, for the first time, there was no smoke or clouds. And you know what? Apparently there is a mountain range to the south of campus, because as we were driving home we saw a large, snowy range off in the not so distant distance. In fact, we could see far off in many directions, to hills and neighborhoods far away. Very cool.

Last night we went out with some new geology friends, and we didn't get home until after 1am. And you know what we saw? Stars! For the first time! We didn't see any aurora though - probably due to low solar activity. Once we got home we tried to see the stars some more, but based on where the trees and cabin are, we mostly saw the cloudy half of the sky.

So we still have yet to see the aurora, however the skies are still changing! And I have hope to see the aurora one day soon!!

Earthquake!!!

I don't know how I forgot to tell you the most exciting thing that happened this weekend!! I felt my first Alaska earthquake! I was laying on my bed watching TV Friday afternoon when I felt what could have been a mild earthquake. It was the type of mild quake that also could have been a car driving by, construction next door, a gust of wind, etc. However, I didn't hear any cars go by (they don't go by too often but if they do I hear them) and it wasn't windy, basically there wasn't any other reason for shaking.

So, I went to the USGS website to see if there had been an earthquake. There was nothing. I was very disappointed, and figured that maybe it had been in my head. But then I refreshed and a 3.7 earthquake appeared! Being small and about 60 miles south, it would make sense that it caused just the mild shaking. Plus it had happened less than 5 minutes before it appeared online, and though I didn't look at the clock right when it happened I'm sure that was the same time.

It looks like Fairbanks gets its fair share of earthquakes, so I hope this won't be the last. In fact, there was a larger earthquake this morning, but it was another 20 miles further away and I didn't notice it. But I look forward to my next!!!

The Solo Weekend!

This last weekend was my 'solo weekend'. The weekend that drove us to find a place to stay as quickly as possible. Laura went on a 3 night camping trip, and I stayed at our cabin. Hopefully Laura will fill you in on her trip, because it seemed really fun!

My weekend was pretty much spent watching TV. I don't like to drive, so beyond dropping Laura off and picking her up, I didn't use the truck. Going to the outhouse was my version of getting out of the house. Not that there is really anywhere that I would want to drive besides campus for internet. That didn't seem worth it to me, because I had the TV!

Laura and Diana have a fancy TV and a USB box thing with lots of movies and TV shows. So, I watched 3 seasons of Arrested Development and a season and a half of Queer as Folk. I didn't really feel bored, nor did I feel the need for Laura to come home... then I wouldn't have an excuse to watch TV all day long...

I think that I will probably opt to stay home every so often so that I can watch TV some days and use the internet some days. A productive life, I know.

I have officially gotten used to using a water jug for water and I have even accepted the stench of our outhouse (it smells, trust me - I've used many an outhouse). I haven't showered in 6 days and that doesn't seem weird to me. Obviously we will probably shower more often than that normally - every few days I would guess. We are going to shower after Laura's orientation today, but it's not like I feel like I have to immediately. As for showers, we weren't quite sure where I would shower since the showers on campus are only supposed to be for students. However we were told that Laura's building doesn't really monitor it, so we are going to try that as our shower location!

Ok... I think that is all that I have to say! The only other fun thing is that it was pretty windy yesterday and a tree fell over! This happened to be the tree that our bikes were attached to, so the lock snapped! We were very fortunate that the tree fell away from the truck, cabin and bikes!

A tour of our cabin!

From the outside, we are the Moose Cabin.

Our kitchen before we bought anything!

Our kitchen after we stocked it up! (And after I shrunk.)

The bed and Laura's back.

We have the TV set up with the magic box of TV shows and movies.

No internet....

The cabin has no internet - well, technically the group of cabins does but since we are on the periphery it doesn't reach us whatsoever. So this weekend I will be able to text, call and watch TV and movies. When Laura is in town we'll probably spend most of our days on campus!

We found a place!

We did it! We found a place! Our application was accepted so Laura is currently signing the lease, paying the deposit and first month and getting the keys!

The cabin is small - it is only one room (probably 10 x 12). It has a kitchenette - a mini fridge, microwave, stove top and sink. It is a dry cabin (no running water whatsoever), and the outhouse is actually shared with other cabins. Luckily, we are one of the closest cabins to the bathroom - but still far enough away not to smell it. It is also the most secluded cabin in the group. We plan on being here short term - moving into something new between the 1st and the 21st of September. I think the most important thing is that I will have a place to stay when Laura goes away for the weekend.

Cabins are normally set up for more modern technologies than silly little things like showers, toilets and water. So we will have electricity and WiFi - we just won't know how good it is until we go check the place out. Since it comes with WiFi, I assume it is an open, shared network between the community of cabins, meaning it could be a very weak connection. So, depending on how the internet is, I'll spend my weekend alone either watching TV and browsing the internet, or reading and doing crosswords. Either way I only plan to leave the cabin to use the toilet. The toilet seems a bit scary....

Today we will unload the car so that it doesn't sink to the ground. We will also go grocery shopping and get loads of water. Then we very well may continue our search for a better cabin to move into.

We were very lucky that Laura's adviser let us stay with him for three nights. We were even able to shower, which won't be so easy from now on. I personally think showering is overrated and don't plan on doing it that often... ;) But luckily we were able to get by without having to camp! And now we have our own place. Yay!

I will post pictures today if our internet connection is good. If it isn't I'll have to wait until we're back on campus for meetings tomorrow. Bye bye!

PS. It is odd that we have only been here for 4 nights, because it feels like we've been here forever - not necessarily in a bad way. The road trip already seems like it was ages ago, especially when I see old things in the car from the road trip and think - oh yea, that just happened, didn't it?

Waiting game.

We are still searching, still waiting. We have an application in to one cabin and we hope to hear back today. We are searching for our plans b, c, d, e and f. We think we have back up plans, however we manage to go through them pretty quickly. I'm trying to convince Laura to go to a meeting this afternoon. She says she'll have plenty of meetings to go to in due time. I'm not sure what else we will do if she doesn't go. All we're doing is waiting for a call, or waiting for a new option to pop up online. If this part of our adventure had a name, it would certainly be called the waiting game.

Also, my keyboard is sticking (as it does periodically, and then fixes itself) so if I try to write any more than this I will surely get too frustrated! So, this is our update for now! Talk to you later, all!

Our first day in Fairbanks

Spoiler alert - our first day in Fairbanks was pretty much spent researching for places to live. Luckily check out at our motel wasn't until noon, so we had hours of wifi to research in the morning. Laura probably made around 10 calls and sent out a few emails. Most of our favorite places didn't work for some reason or other - the most common problem being that Laura and Diana will have a cat up here in the winter.

After we checked out of our hotel, we weren't quite sure where to go. We tried to go to a few parks in town and do some more research and relax, however the first few parks we tried to go to didn't really have good places for us to sit.

We decided to head up to campus. Parking is free on weekends (or we misread the signs and were lucky not to get a ticket) so we parked our car and took our laptops to a grassy field in the middle of campus. There was free wifi there, so we continued to research places to live and make calls. However we eventually reached a point where there was just no one new to contact. We were waiting to hear back from a handful of people, but we had reached a stopping point. By then we were starting to get hungry so we headed off to Taco Bell to get good healthy nourishment (right?) and kill some time.

After lunch we decided to go back up to campus just to relax this time. We sat in the car in the shade and read about the town of Fairbanks. We were both pretty sleepy so we just sort of lazed. We had been in contact with Laura's new adviser - and he offered us a place to stay. We decided to take him up on this offer because we figured it would be good to have a home base that we could do our research from. He also said that there was a neighborhood block party at 6, and that we were invited to come along. There were even other students and professors there that we could network with.

So at 4:30 we headed over to his house. This was the first time that Laura had met him, so we were both a bit nervous however he is very friendly so it went well. The party was also fun, it seems like a nice neighborhood and now we want to live there. Mere minutes from town, you feel like you're in the middle of the wilderness. The neighbors mentioned cabins being open in the area, so we even got come phone numbers and our information was passed to a local landlord. Laura met a fellow grad student in her program and another professor that will be next door to her.

We definitely felt much better that evening than we had the night before. We were networking and hearing of new possible places to stay, we were meeting locals and feeling like we were part of the community instead of wandering around it aimlessly.

We got a good nights sleep in a cozy house. Even though sunset is at 10pm, it stays light long after. So we haven't really seen darkness in awhile. They say if you wake up in the middle of the night you can see the Aurora though, because it is getting dark enough now. We will have to do that soon!

We woke up nice and early and went to a local coffee shop.  Laura went to a weekly Monday morning meeting, signed papers and got a tour. I hunkered down in the library with my laptop to write these posts and research places to live. That brings us to now... which I suppose is past 'our first day in Fairbanks'.

Laura is back now so we are going to call a few more places. Wish us luck! We have one really good place, but it isn't available September 1st so we would have to figure out where we would stay until then. There are a couple of other places that we need to call as well. There was one cabin - our favorite location, month to month, cheap, etc - and it was booked before we could even call them. Mere hours after the ad was posted. Very unfortunate. Anyway, I shall go now so I can get back to researching. Bye bye!

Day 6

 Written August 20th, 2012 on UAF Campus (A bit delayed writing this one...)

We drove 670 km, which corresponds to 416 miles.

We woke up from the lakeside motel on Kluane and headed off on the road. We weren’t sure if we would reach Fairbanks that day or not – we figured we would drive and stop as many times as we liked, and in the afternoon we’d see where we were and where that meant we’d end up!

A river we drove by - I think it might be the Kluane River? It is the one on the end of the lake... I think.

Another beautiful lake. There are a lot of those.

Our car changed color on us!!

So did half of our bikes....

A rest area along the way. Those mountains look so much smaller in the photo than they did in real life!

We drove across the border pretty early on in our day. You get to cross the border before going thru customs, so we stopped off and read what the information panels said and took some photos. There was a big old plaque talking about how we have a peaceful border, free to cross, etc… and then of course you have to go through customs….

There is a clearing that goes all along the border, about 20 ft wide. It was first created in the early 1900s!

 Then we continued on through Alaska. It looked so much different than Canada... ;)

Like a completely different land! Or not...

 We continued to make a few small stops whenever there was a beautiful pull off. This is a river that we drove along in Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge.

 Luckily we saw a moose!!! Otherwise we would have been completely animal deprived again. This was a scraggly little moose, he seemed like a teenager. However I am no moose expert, so he could have been any age, really!

Animals crossing the road really just gives us a legitimate excuse to stop and take pictures of them. Thanks, animals!

We were definitely on route to reach Fairbanks that day. Especially since the time zone had changed. Even though we would arrive around 7 or 8 pacific time, it would only be 6 or 7 Alaska time – plenty of time to find a place. 

As we approached town we saw a large fire ahead of us. Based on the direction we were heading, it looked like we were driving right into it. We tried to look up fires near Fairbanks but we couldn’t find much… The sky was smokey, we could see large plumes of billowing smoke, and it even glowed orange. Though that may have been early sunset. It seems like the smoke makes sunset last for hours on end.

It looked like it was right in front of us!

Eventually it we drove north of it though. :)

But the whole area was still smokey, even as we got close to town!

 

Then before we knew it, we were entering civilization. First we went through North Pole, which seems like it embraces its name with candy cane and Santa themed decorations. At some point we will probably head back that way and see all of the cheesy stuff it has to offer! 

And then finally we made it! We arrived in Fairbanks … but with no idea where to go. Suddenly we were in the middle of a city. With exits. And lots of cars. We were a bit overwhelmed. We had no idea where to go. It reminded me a bit of Hawaii – when we spent a full week in the middle of nowhere, enjoying nature – and then arrived in Honolulu. I mean, I’m used to cities at home. However when I spend a lot of time in the middle of nowhere and then show up in a new city… its just so different! Laura and I were both thinking that we should have stayed just out of town and then drove in the next morning, so that we’d have a full day to do… something. 

Since we weren’t sure where to go, we just looked for a large park (Pioneer Park) figuring that they would have a place for us to park and then.. you know, figure out where to go. So we sat in the parking lot for a while, figuring out where to stay. The problem was that there were too many options, and they were all more expensive than we were used to. It makes sense because we’re in a city, however it made it hard because we were trying to find the best deal. That is tricky when there are a lot of options. There are also a lot of places with really bad reviews. Eventually we decided on a few places that had good prices and reviews, but the first two were booked. It was a Saturday night after all! So eventually we decided on a Super 8, not the cheapest, not the nicest, but they had space and that way we could bunker down somewhere and not feel so stranded. 

 

One thing that is fun is that there really are car plug-ins everywhere! It makes sense, but it is just cool to see. Every one also has little cords sticking out of their cars. Its fun to see something so different from what we’re used to, but obviously so normal here. 

So, we spent our first night doing research. Looking through craigslist and any other house listing sites we could find. There are places available – but most of them don’t work for one reason or other. Since we weren’t settled in the motel until after 8, we decided to wait to make calls until the next morning. So we researched and researched some more. I even created page long application like things for each place – with space to answer all of the questions we’d need. That way we could fill them out and compare and have all of the information in one easy place. 

We were both sad to end our road trip. We both love road trips and the wilderness, and Fairbanks means finding a place to stay, school work, meeting people and filling out paperwork. Basically Fairbanks means real life. And the road trip was a vacation for both of us, so it was sad having it come to an end. But now we are ready for our next adventure!

Where to stay....

I still haven't had time to write our Day 6 post because we've been spending all of our time on searching for a place to stay... it is quite a difficult search! We stayed in a hotel last night and tonight we will be staying with Laura's adviser. We do not want to impose so we are trying to find a quick, cheap, month-to-month apartment that we can stay in. That way we will have a whole month to find a good deal for a cabin. So, I shall go now and get back to researching. I'll try and write the post as soon as I can!

Fairbanks!

We're in Fairbanks!! We're going to do some research and googling, so I'm going to wait to post for a bit. But I figured I'd do a quick update! We're here!

Day 5

Written on August 17th, 2012 on Kluane Lake (in Burwash Landing)

Can you believe that it is already the end of day 5? That is crazy! This trip has gone very quickly. It is possible we will end up in Fairbanks tomorrow. It is a little sad to think just because this road trip has been fun and I really do enjoy just sitting in cars for long periods of time. Since it isn't a very green thing to do, there isn't much other chance than a road trip like this. However I'm also eager to see where we end up living, see what Fairbanks looks like and I'm really excited for snow and the Aurora Borealis. So at least the end of this trip isn't the end of the entire trip!

Back to our regular scheduled programming. I'm going to start with some really, really sad news. We saw no animals today. Not one. Well, if you don't count chipmunks, squirrels and cravens (not sure if they're crows or ravens... or what the difference between those two is). Compare this to yesterday where we saw 2 bears, two herds of bison (plus one solitary), a dozen goats and a moose... it is a little disappointing. No matter how hard you look for animals, you will only see them if they are there. Deep, I know.

Anywho, Rancheria River (right near to where we stayed) has a falls, so we decided to start our day off by doing a short walk over to that.

In my mind the boardwalk helped protect us from all the scary animals!

See water falling? Water + falling = waterfall. Whoddathunk?

 Then we continued on our drive over to Teslin Lake. They have some nice information on local history and legends.There was a legend about a woman who saw into the future and knew bad things would come based on three omens, but another woman ignored her. Then there was a battle. That was why it was named its name. The story didn't completely explain why it was named this - Fox River, I believe. There was a fox in the story, so I assume that is the reason. Most of the history given matched other history we have learned about - about what brought people to the area - trapping, and the construction of the road (in 1942 and 1943) and the people who lived here and the towns they created, etc.

 We continued on the road again until we came across yet another lake. First, we did the most important thing:

 Then we continued on to look at the water. See? Beautiful water:

I can't remember the name of this lake...

 This lake was so large that it reminded us both of the Puget Sound. The distance to far off islands, the waves, the sand and the color of the water (grey because of the clouds). The terrain is still similar, as well.

Anyways, once again we continued on our drive, this time stopping off just before Whitehorse to see Miles Canyon. It is a beautiful little canyon with extremely fast gushing water. Before a local dam was built, it created two whirlpools I believe. I'm not surprised because even with the dam in place there are still near whirlpools created in the flurry of water.

This bridge shook when we walked across it... it was a tad scary.

There was a completely circular area with narrow channels on either side. I could imagine this is where a large whirlpool used to be. The water would swirl and bubble all around.

 We continued on our drive some more. We didn't stop in Whitehorse even though it is a pretty large city... well, that is really why we didn't stop. We're not really city people. Every time we choose a city to stay in, we end up driving past it and staying in the middle of no where. Even when I really need to use the rest room, we skip past the grocery stores and gas stations in favor of a rest area in the middle of no where with a pit toilet. We both just prefer the nature!

Every time that I say we continued on our drive, this is what we see:

Obviously the terrain changes just a bit, and the road is sometimes unmarked, however that is a very average picture of what we see in front of us. Just in case you were curious!

This is Old Man Mountain. Can you guess why?

We  planned on staying in Haines Junction, however it was only 5 pm and we were only an hour away from Kluane Lake. We have heard good things about Kluane Lake, so we decided to continue on and try to find somewhere along the lake. The lake is the largest in the Yukon, I believe, so it is quite difficult to get photos of it all. Here are some....

We found a small old little lodge to stay in. It was started in 1944 and still looks like it could be from that era. Obviously they have fitted some things up, but the layout and door handle, locks, etc all look old.

Once again we have a view of the water from where we are staying. Have we had a water view every night? I think so...
 

The sun just recently set (it is well after 10) and it was so beautiful. Laura tried to take a picture of it but it just couldn't capture it. Red, orange and then the rest of the sky was yellow. It refelcted off of the water (which our room faces). Before sunset, there was a double rainbow over the water that didn't just look like it landed on the ground - it curved in under and started to come back towards us again.

So I would say that this place is small, old and very homey - and absolutely gorgeous! Also, the internet may just be the fastest yet! However that said, it is time to get off the internet because Laura is already asleep and I am very tired as well. Goodnight!

PS. I just tried to post this and the internet is gone! This isn't the first time that they've seemed to unconnect the wifi at night! So this shall go up in the morning, I suppose.