Monday August 31..Tok, Alaska

As I wake up this morning laying comfortably in my bed I can't help but remember the last time we woke in Tok, Alaska. It was 20 days ago...4am up and a mad rush to get the Anchorage and home for papa's heart surgery.

A lot has happened in those 20 days. We have a lot to be thankful for. We are thankful utmost to God for seeing papa safely through the surgery. We are thankful to Nancy Nurse for taking such good care of him. We are thankful for all our wonderful friends that have helped us in so many ways & prayed us through these times. AND I'm thankful for the opportunity to travel and enjoy this wonderful northern vacation.

We leave Tok this morning just HAPPY to be here. We will be backtracking for several miles as we head back into the Yukon Territory. It must have been cloudy or foggy or something 2 years ago as we drove this stretch of highway, because neither of us remember it being so beautiful. The Wrangle St. Elia Mountain Range is on our right and the sunshine is bouncing of their glaciated peaks. The river beds are huge. It's easy to see that when the summer thaw happens these rivers become be monsters.

The Boreal Forest has been with us right after we crossed over to Canada in early August.

The forest stretching from Alaska across Canada all the way to the Atlantic Ocean, North America’s Boreal Forest is one of the world’s largest remaining intact forest and wetland ecosystems. Though not familiar to many Americans, North America’s Boreal Forest accounts for one quarter of the earth’s remaining original forests. It covers 1.3 billion acres and is larger than the Brazilian Amazon.

The forest changes a lot in this section between the Alaska & Canada border. The permafrost here is very bad. The road conditions are the worst for the entire 1500 miles of the Alaska Highway. The forest here suffers as bad as the roads. All the trees are dwarf. This is because the permafrost will not allow for normal growth. So no matter how old the trees get, they'll still be small. Mikey loves the northern evergreen trees because they look so much like the trees to his Christmas village. I tell him the permafrost trees are almost small enough to be in his village.
We arrive at Kluane Lake, Cottonwood RV park early afternoon. This is the same place we saw bear warning signs just 3 weeks ago. The owners confirm, they have had a lot a bear activity & the state camp ground was closed for a few days. Apparently a bear figured out how to get into the bear proof trash containers and became a problem. We are told in person & by sign...NO Garbage is allowed here. We take out everything we bring in. They have no garbage cans and the only bears they have seen were just passing through or stopping for a few berries. She also tells us that her husband has destroyed most of the berries the bears look for on their property. It still deserves a heads up when I walk to the bath house!

Our campsite is just were we wanted it...right by the lake. The views from our windows and our front door are amazing, the glacier is sparkling in the afternoon sun. The pictures do not do the lake justice today. The glacier fed waters are the most dramatic clear turquoise you have ever seen. Mikey & I fell in love with this lake 2 years ago and have been wanting to stay here in this spot ever since. Mikey says he has seen a lot of lakes, but never one so lovely as this...Kluane Lake, Yukon.

We set up the grill and as the coals heat up Mikey makes a few cast into the lake not really expecting to catch a lake trout. He just has to do it.

The grill tonight is steaks from the market before we left Tok and thanks to Adam Bouldin we are toasting bread on the grill for some wonderful bruchetta.

An after dinner walk around the property to enjoy the beautiful flowers and the fabulous mountains. We both agree....THIS IS THE VACATION OF OUR DREAMS!