Denali National Park - 1

While we were in Anchorage I touched bases with my friend Suzy, who had been spending the summer in their RV in Fairbanks. She said they were borrowing a friend's Eurovan and were going to be in Denali NP on Tuesday and Wednesday as part of a trip that also included Homer, Seward, and Valdez. It was fabulous timing as we, too, were going to be in Denali those two nights.

For those of you who don't know me well, I was president of our local teacher's union the last 8 years of my teaching career. For 7 of those years, Suzy was the secretary (and her son Patrick was vice president and is now president.) She retired last year, followed shortly thereafter by her husband Gary. They left the second week in May for Alaska, and we'd hoped to meet up with them sometime while we were in the same state.

We left the Elmendorf FamCamp around 8, and had a lovely drive up the Parks Highway. Here's a bit of interesting trivia (at least I think it's interesting): Up until now I'd thought the Parks Highway was named because it went by two big parks - Denali State Park and Denali National Park. But no, it's named for a man named George Parks, the territorial governor of Alaska from 1924 to 1933.







At the interchange with the Glenn Highway, we saw this interesting Rav from Germany.


We stopped for gas in Trapper Creek, and Denali came into view. (I'm going to call it Denali, and not the unpopular name, Mt. McKinley.)

We then stopped for lunch at a rest area alongside the East Fork of the Chulitna River. We made it to Denali NP around 1:00, and checked into the Riley Creek Campground. I called Suzy, who said they'd be there about 2:30. We saved them the site next to ours.




We sat around for a couple of hours, talking about our trip (it was so nice to not talk about work!) and then we got cold and went inside for dinner. I was so cold that we didn't come back out, and went to bed early.

However, the next day, after our bus trip (next post), we enjoyed a warmer evening, a campfire, and long hours of conversation with Suzy and Gary.

Then yesterday morning (Thursday) we fed them breakfast before they left for their trip south. It was so nice to spend time with friends thousands of miles from home.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

We have LOTS of fish!

Don left this morning at 10, and came back a little after 3. They had quite a successful trip. Don said he caught over a dozen halibut, but you're only allowed to keep 2. He also caught several cod, which he kept as well since cod is good to eat, too!




Don wanted me to discard this picture, but I think it's cute. I was up in the trailer looking down at him, so the angle makes him look shorter and like his pants are pulled up high.







This is Bruce, the owner of Reel Em Inn. He's a very friendly guy, and he and his wife Charlene have made this business a nice one.







The top side of a halibut is dark, as they blend into the ocean floor as they hunt along the bottom.







The other four people on the boat were a family from northern California who were staying in Soldotna and decided to go fishing. They have no idea how they're going to get their fish home. The last I heard they were going to have it frozen and shipped via UPS.







Charlene is busy cleaning OUR fish. That pile there is all ours.







Charlene then vacuum-packed my fish using a commercial vacuum machine that does 4 packages at a time.




These fillets, minus the big cod fillet we ate for dinner, weighed 28 pounds.





Believe it or not, I was able to get it all in the freezer!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Ninilchik and Homer, Alaska

Saturday, July 16


One of the most popular sites on the Kenai Peninsula is the Holy Transfiguration of Our Lord Russian Orthodox Church. It sits on the bluff overlooking Ninilchik's small harbor.








The RVs on the beach are for people who are clamming. There are q couple of folks in our campground who have brought in full loads of clams yesterday and today. They spent hours shucking and cleaning them at the cleaning station at the front of the campground.

After we visited the church we drove down to Homer. The highway went through Anchor Point, so named because Captain Cook lost an anchor here in 1778, when his ships Discovery and Resolution sailed into Cook Inlet looking for the Northwest Passage.










We stopped at a rest area overlooking Kachemak Bay. Though it was a bit hazy, you could see the Homer Spit and across the bay to the Kenai Mountains.







I noticed the different vegetables growing in the planter at the rest area: lettuces, cabbages, chard, zucchini, onions, and more. The sign said "Please look but don't pick. Produce is the Homer Community Food Pantry." As we were walking around Homer, we saw mores planters, big and small, with similar produce growing in them. I guess you take advantage of the short growing season everywhere you can!






Our first stop in Homer was the Pratt Museum. I hace to say that the Pratt Museum is the best museum I have ever, ever visited. It has three floors. The top floor is dedicated to geological, geographical, biological, and historical displays. It was fascinating. I stayed there for almost two hours. The next floor down is a small room with several aquariums full of various small tide pool creatures (anemones, snails, starfish, an octopus, and more) and a couple of displays about the different sea birds. There's also a screen with a live shot of the Gull Island camera. From the Pratt Museum, 8 miles away, you can manipulate the camera to look all over the island and zoom in on the common murres (related to penguins), kittiwakes, puffins, cormorants, and glaucous-winged gulls in their natural habitat.


There are several different quilts hanging in the museum, and as a quilted, I had to take pictures of them!











There are also works of art from local artists on display.

The bottom floor has an exhibition about the Exxon Valdez oil spill, focusing on the cleanup and the effects of the spill on the wildlife and Flora of Prince William Sound. There are also a number of pieces of art related to the oil spill.

Just before we left the museum, I met and talked with George Harbeson, Jr. He wrote Homesteaders in the Headlights, a book about his "family's journey from a Depression-era New Jersey farm to a new life in Wasilla, Alaska." He's a retired English teacher, like me, and his father was also an English teacher. I bought a copy of his book and had him autograph it for me.




This little piece is about 12 inches tall, and is called "Reading Room." the artist is Margo Klass.




Our next stop was the Homer Spit. I was amazed at the number of tenters camped on the westward (ocean) side of the spit. They must risk getting blown away al the time. It's extremely windy there. We saw several dozen little shops caterers to the tourists who disembark from the cruise ships, but we didn't visit any of them.

Lunch was pizza at a very nice restaurant called Fat Olives. Our pizza was called a Capricciosa, and it had pepperoni, ham, mushrooms, artichoke hearts, and capers. It was quite delicious!

We returned to Ninilchik around 3, and I convinced Don to go fish Deep Creek. He had been told that the fishing wasn't that good so he hadn't tried it yet--but I reminded him that even fishing without catching was better than sitting at the trailer. He came back at 8:30, and said he'd caught several Dolly Varden and some pink salmon. Finally! Some successful river fishing.

Tomorrow: Don goes halibut fishing.


Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

South on AK 1 to Ninilchik, Alaska

We sure did see some lovely scenery today! First, though, we had to get out of Anchorage. It wasn't that hard--through the gate out of Elmendorf, right on Highway 1, left after a couple of miles, and then stay on the 1 all the way here.









First, the highway runs along the north shore of Turnagain Arm, then goes around the end and turns back west for a few miles. Then it heads south towards Seward, and after about 30 miles it splits. One road goes down to Seward, and the other goes west to Soldotna, then ends at Homer. We took the western road. About 20 miles south of Soldotna, we stopped for lunch at a pullout with these views:




Mt. Redoubt, which came to life most recently in 2009. It didn't completely erupt, but caused ash problems for the Kenai Peninsula.










We are now camped at a place called Reel 'Em Inn, a salmon and halibut fishing charter. Bruce has 2 boats, some cabins, and a few RV spaces. The RV sites are fine--we have full hookups and free WiFi. There are new toilets and showers, and if we want to use the laundry facilities, it'll be $3 a load (washer and dryer combined). Don will be going out on one of the boats on Sunday, fishing for halibut. The boats are small, so only 6 go out at a time on each one. We watched them come in this afternoon, and they'd had a very successful day. It looks like there's a 2-per person halibut limit, since they had 12 fish. Two of them were nearly 100 pounds each. I really hope Don catches some--I will definitely eat halibut!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Elmendorf Air Force Base FamCamp

Wednesday, July 13 and Thursday, July 14

We were up early again yesterday morning, but refreshed after a good night's sleep. Breakfast was corned beef hash and eggs, one of our favorites.

Our drive was a long one, but through beautiful scenery.



We turned right at Gakona Junction onto the Glenn Highway. The road gradually rose and we passed over the Tanana River/Yukon River drainage into the Matanuska River drainage,and stopped for gas at Mentasta Lodge.




This guy pulled onto the highway in front of us at Mentastay Lodge, and we followed him all the way to Palmer.






We then started heading west, and to the south we could see the Wrangell Mountains. Several large glaciers were in view--but the clouds were low and photography chances were slim. When we stopped for lunch we were in view of the Matanuska Glacier. This one is HUGE. It comes out of the mountains, and runs for miles and miles before it reaches its terminus, shown above.


As we neared Sutton and Palmer, it began raining, and by the time we reached the turnoff for Elmendorf Air Force Base it was pouring. We made it easily to their FamCamp, but at first we thought it was full. When I got out to ask an attendant, we learned there were two more loops and plenty of sites. He led us to a section of four empty sites, and we chose #28.

The sites here are roomy, and ours is set far apart from our neighbors. For $18 a night we get water and electric, free hot showers, and a dump station. Another plus is that I have not seen a single mosquito. We can get 5 channels of TV using the antenna.

We enjoyed a dinner of roast beef and gravy over rice, with a green salad, and were in bed pretty early.

This morning I thought my iPad died. It went black, and I couldn't get it to come on. Panic-stricken, since we have to have internet for some monetary matters (as well as my email, Facebook, and blogging)' we went over to the base exchange in case I'd have to buy a new mini-computer. I took the iPad with me. I found the electronics section, where the young man showed me how to reboot the iPad: hold both the power button and the round "home" button down simultaneously until the apple logo came up and everything was good. Whew! I told him he'd saved my day.

I then told Don I was going to the commissary. He said he'd thought we were going to wait until we got to Eielson (near Fairbanks). I asked, "can you guarantee that we will go to Eielson? We've changed our plans so many times, I want to take advantage of this commissary just in case we don't go to Fairbanks."

[For my readers who are unfamiliar with military commissaries, the prices are 30-35% cheaper than civilian grocery stores, and a good 50%+ cheaper than the grocery stores we've seen so far in Canada. For example, a can of corned beef hash, a breakfast staple for us, is $1.69 at the commissary. I saw cans for anywhere from $2.99 to $3.50 at stores in Whitehorse, Dease Lake, and Dawson City.]

So, I took my list and headed over to the commissary while Don enjoyed a cup of coffee at the Starbuck's next to the BX. On the second isle, a mumble to myself, "this should last me all the way home," exulted in a conversation with a retiree and his wife from Redlands (near my home in California). They were adamant that we did not need to go through Fairbanks when we left Denali. They said that, contrary to what we'd heard, the Denali Highway will be fine for us to take our trailer on. It's graded regularly, and they said it was in much, much better condition than the Top of the World and the Taylor Highways we drove on Monday. they said they take it 2-3 times a year, and that it's fine for RVs and trailers. Knowing that, and knowing that we really won't be going to Fairbanks and Eielson, I added a couple of things to my shopping cart. I now have enough food to get us back home, with the exception of things like eggs, bread, and produce.

I broke the news to Don, who was glad to hear it, and our plans are set for the next week or so:
Friday-Kenai Peninsula
Sunday-Don's going halibut fishing out of Ninilchik.

Next week-Denali National Park

Then, head towards home.
--------------

Last night this young moose made his way through the campground.













- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

The Top of the World Highway and Taylor Highway to Alaska

Monday, July 11

We were up pretty early this morning--5:30 am. We ate some Apple-ham-cheddar muffins I'd made the night before, and were hooked up and ready to go by 7:00. We drove down to the ferry ramp and were happy to see we were first in line.




The ferry has just pushed off from the ramp on the other side of the river.




It's on the way across, carrying two trucks.




We got on the ferry, and were joined by a truck/5th wheel for the ride across.




We're getting ready to get to the ramp on the other side.







This is what the Top of the World Highway looks like on the Canadian side. For the most part it is well-maintained and relatively smooth. There were a couple of sections of pavement, but it was mostly gravel.




The road continues across the tops of the mountains, often above timberline, for 67 miles.



This outcropping of rocks is called the Castle Formation.




66 miles from Dawson City, we came around a corner and finally saw the border.




The border is manned by two people (one Canadian and one American) who live in the two buildings here. The sign says "Poker Creek, Alaska, Elevation 4127, Population 2, Most northerly land border port in the USA."

At this point the road turned to crap. It was a red, rutted, rocky, bouncy mess, which bounced us around for the next 43 miles (all the way to Chicken). It was the worst near the "town" of Boundary. This is also where we came across a small herd of caribou.













We startled them and they fled into the woods.




After 43 miles of that rotten road, we came to Chicken. This is one part, which consists of a RV park, store, and gas station. We paid $4.75 a gallon here, compared to the over $6 we'd paid in Dawson City.








Another mile down the road is "Beautiful Downtown Chicken." it's owned and run by Susan Wiren, and consists of a store, a bar, a cafe, and some cabins. We had heard that we needed to try her cinnamon rolls, so of course, we did. Don had the one with a white icing, and mine had a brown sugar icing. Both were excellent.







The bar is famous for the hundreds, perhaps thousands, of baseball caps affixed to the ceiling and walls.




Chicken was (and still is) a gold mining town, and this is the Chicken Dredge.

At Chicken the Taylor Highway was paved. However, that did NOT mean it was a good road. It had numerous sections of gravel, and many, many miles of bouncy frost heaves. When we stopped for lunch at a gravel pullout about 50 miles from Chicken, we discovered the inside of our trailer was a disaster area.

Here are just a few of the problems:

- the pantry cabinet had come open and almost all of the canned items had fallen out onto the floor
- when the slide opened, a can of pineapple was stuck under the pedestal, and the force of the opening actually tore the can open. I had to clean up the pineapple juice and extract the mangled can from under the pedestal.
- the bottom of the pedestal broke--Don had to nail it back together today.
- the decorative moldings on the sides and top of the big side window broke off and were lying across the table. We took it apart and stored it under the bed. We'll have to get that repaired when we get home.
- the curtain rod fell in the bathroom
- the broom and mop came off the hooks in the bathroom

We finally hit the Alaska Highway at Tetlin Junction, 12 miles east of Tok. The road immediately improved, and we drove into Tok at 55-60 miles per hour. It was quite refreshing. At Tok we stopped for a 12-pack of beer for Don (almost half what we'd paid in Canada), and took the Tok Cutoff south towards Anchorage. 15 miles south of Tok we stopped at our first campground in Alaska, Eagle Trail State Recreation Site.




It's a nice campground--no hookups, but water is available as is free firewood. We had our loop to ourselves for a while, but even when we were joined by several different campers, it was peaceful and quiet. There's a creek nearby--Clearwater Creek--but Don said it didn't look like much of a fishery. There were minimal bugs, almost no mosquitos, so we sat outside and enjoyed a cool evening.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad