As I write Anchorage is well behind us.  Actually so is Talkeetna and Denali NP.  I will try to summarize a nine days of activity.  the connection here is so bad that I cannot get out a notice of the posts I have put up,  “The 4th” and “Leaving Kenai – on to Anchorage”.  I have lots of pictures but that will have to wait until Fairbanks where I hope we will take some time and have adequate connection to post them. 

Anchorage: On our first afternoon walking around the tourist area we came across Cyrano’s  a local theater group which was putting on “Putnam County 25th Annual Spelling Bee”.  I am a snob an generally will not attend “amateur” performances, but this seemed intriguing and we had not attended theater since Ashland OR.  Tickets were $23 each and available for Saturday night, Friday was the opening.  Curtain was at 7 PM so a light snack and off to theater after a day of wandering the shops in Anchorage.  This was some of the finest theater we have attended.  The performances were strong, the voices were well trained and wonderful and the hall was tiny.  The audience was 150 – full house – and it was great.  We left the performance exhilarated and happy.  Finding no place to satisfy both of us at 9:30 at night we went back to Eagle River CG and made a light dinner on board. 

The next day we decided to take the bikes and ride the path from Earthquake Park to downtown, about 11 miles.  At the park I pulled the bikes off the roof and mounted the front tires and asked Carol to fetch the seats from the back of the car . . . long silence . . . where are the seats?  It is hard to miss two bicycle seats in the RAV4.  They were a dozen miles or more back on the coach.  I forgot to put them in the car.  We took a nice walk and looked at the park, it is the remains of a neighborhood that slid into the inlet during the earthquake of ‘64.  Several hundred feet of bluff slid down into the inlet carrying homes and lives to oblivion.  I will post pictures when I can.

We left Anchorage with some regrets, but grateful to leaving relative civilization behind.  We headed out to Talkeetna.  Those of you who know me well have heard me talk endlessly about the wonderful meal of halibut I had in Talkeetna in 1997.  All things must change.  The place we remember is now a chocolate shop, not bad actually, and the town, as we pulled in, was overflowing with tourists.  Driving the motorhome and tow’d through the throng was a challenge, especially since the directions to “free camping” that I had were wrong.  Somehow I got the coach onto Avenue B in front of the Ranger Station  as described, although the directions said Avenue C.  No small difference as the town is divided by an airstrip that predates statehood and is a protected historic site, also still in use.  It runs between C and D the entire length of the town and stops just short of Main Street which is the only way around it, if you don’t count the alley. 

We parked across from the Range Station on B and there we spent the night.  The Alaska Rule is simple, if there is no sign saying you can’t, you can!  There were plenty of no camping signs in other places in town, but this stretch of road had no such sign.  By six PM the place was almost deserted.  All the Princess and Holland America groups had retreated to their lodges and all that was left were some mountain climbers and us, oh yes a couple of hundred locals too.  Dinner was at West Rib and my “Homer Split” (a nice piece of halibut and an equally nice piece of Salmon for those who can’t make up their mind”) was wonderful.  Carol ordered a bread bowl of spinach warmed in a sauce for us to share, she ended up enjoying that as her main course.

Our objective was to take a flight up to land on Ruth Glacier on the flank of Denali.  It was not to be.  Our arrival day was cloudy and reports were that warming had softened the glacier so that landing was not advisable.  The following day was overcast and raining, no point in trying to fly unless you enjoy looking at the inside of clouds.  We left for Denali National Park saddened.  We may have to return.

I will keep this going although we start a new part here.  The Parks Highway which runs through Denali State Park and Denali National Park is named for Mr Parks and has nothing to do with the fact that it runs though the parks.  From Palmer, outside of Anchorage it runs through Wasilla, a town we in the lower 48 were not aware of until 2008, and on to Denali and Fairbanks.  I have left out several lesser towns that make it an interesting drive.  A reminder, Alaska’s population is on a par with Monroe County, NY and Anchorage has about the population of Rochester, without the county.  Fairbanks is about 70,000.  A village of 900 is a population to be noticed in this state.  Most of the places I have mentioned are far smaller than that, for example Talkeetna has a resident population of between 400 and 500. 

We pulled out of Talkeetna and headed for Denali.  We were getting desperate for a luandry facility and after a couple of weeks with no reliable hookups good electric and running water seemed like a great idea.  We stopped in Cantwell, pop 245, at Cantwell RV for two nights so we could clean up a bit and spend time in Denali, only 27 miles further down the road.  I got on line while Carol was doing laundry and booked us on a shuttle bus back into the wilderness as far as Eielson Visitor Center (66 miles in from the the Wilderness Access Center) with a 6 AM departure!  We got up at 4 and staggered around finishing assembling our kit and arrived by 5:30 to get in line for our bus.  I did not have time to get tickets, all I had was an acknowledgement of reservation which I printed out and carried with me.  I guess they are used to this, because the on duty dispatcher took my printout and returned with tickets in a matter of minutes.  Here is where I will insert the pictures of our trip.  We saw two bull Moose, 3 brown bear, a small herd of caribou and other animals I could not get in the camera frame.  At the Toklat rest stop Carol and I left the  bus and began to walk up the road toward Eielson Center, 15 miles away.  We had no intention of walking all that way.  The rule is any walker can flag down a shuttle bus for a ride to the next stop as long as it is not past the point you have bought the ticket to.  Also any out bound bus with space will pick up any hiker for return to the Wilderness Access Center.  Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, we did not see any large mammal wildlife while we were walking along the road. 

We returned to Gee 2 late and had dinner and fell into bed.  the next day we packed up everything and returned to Denali with the whole rig which we were able to park in the RV parking lot and we road the free bus in to Savage River.  This is the furthest point we could have driven our own vehicle with no special permit had we chosen to do so.  We left the whole rig in the parking lot and took to the shuttles for transportation.  While were sitting eating lunch in the parking lot, there was a knock on the door and Roger and Susan who we met in Homer were standing there.  They had recognized us as we passed them on the road.  We are hard to miss, as there are not a whole lot of NY plates up here and we have Orange and Silver bikes on the roof of the RAV4.  What fun!

By 5 we were on the road on the Parks Highway to bring us to MP 269, The June Creek Rest Area.  We do recommend it to passing RVers who want a neat place to send a lunch, dinner or night.  Tomorrow we plan to be in Fairbanks at the Elks Lodge #1551.

What do you call a person who lives in Anchorage, and Anchorite?  I don’t think so.  Apropos of nothing at all!  It just popped into my head.

Leaving Kenai, we drove up the the highway to the Seward and turned off onto Portage Glacier Road where we pulled into the free spot we had found the week before.  It was populated with mostly day users and by nightfall there were only a couple of tenters and a van.  WE drove into Girdwood and fulfilled our promise to ourselves and dined at Double Musky.  This is  a highly regarded apres ski place and a dining venue that people from Anchorage (see the opening sentence) take an hour drive to for dinner on special occasions.  The meal lived up to the reviews and later that night we returned to the coach sated and content.  During dinner a staff member announced that if we wanted to look out in the parking lot there was a bear passing through.  We chose to stay seated and enjoy the meal.

Wednesday we drove back onto the Kenai Peninsula and took the Hope cutoff for a 16 mile drive to this small, historic near ghost town.  It is another remnant of gold fever and yet 151 people live there, some still prospecting in the area.  It is not a place you will read much about as the gold fever was very short lived and it was not a huge draw.  The Klondike boom dragged most of the prospectors away.  Hope is actually very close to Anchorage by air or boat, right across Turnagain Arm, but the road trip is a couple of hours.  Sort of like the distance between Rochester and Toronto.  Once the railroad was built Hope no longer served as an entry to the Kenai and it dwindled.

Back to the coach for dinner.  We prepared for departure in the morning and midmorning we  left the Kenai area for the last time, this trip.  As we drove to Anchorage we stopped along the Seward Highway at Windy Corner to view the Dall Sheep on the cliffs above us.  And we made a stop at Bird Point to look for Beluga Whales and birds.  Birds yes (green violet swallow), whales no.  Our last stop along the way was Potter Marsh just outside of, or maybe just inside of Anchorage.  there are two long boardwalks and we saw birds and salmon in the stream waiting for the the next rising tide to help them up the next step.

We continued on through Anchorage to Eagle River and the Eagle River Campground.  It is glorious here, but our gaining a campsite was pure luck.  After our first circle looking for a suitable site it appeared we were out of luck.  I stopped just past site 1 and flagged down the campground host to ask his suggestions.  He told me the people on site 1 were just preparing to leave.  This seemed strange to me at 3 in the afternoon, but I did not question the luck and prepared to take possession.  After we separated the car from the coach, I decided to back clear.  Today our insurance replaced the back window on the car.  Later, as I was buying firewood from the host’s wife, I learned why they had left.  They had seen a bear in the campground and that was too much for them.  My question, where can you go camping in Alaska without the chance of seeing a bear close up?  Only someplace where there are no campers stupid enough to put food in their tents and there are no moose with calves.  In other words, no place.

We decided to stay in Kenai at the Elks Lodge #2425 after two nights at Kenai RV Park ($40 for full hookups and Wifi v $15 for electric and wifi sort of) no comparison once we got the laundry done and the coach washed and vacuumed.  As usual nice folk at the lodge, if only they would ban smoking so we could spend some time with them. 

We were a half a block walk from the parade route.  We went out about 30 minutes ahead not knowing what to expect.  The parade marshal passed us about 10 minutes after the announced start and the street was thronged with people (always wanted to use “thronged”) and kids with plastic bags(?).  Every other float or group was throwing candy into the crowd.  Two hours later the last participant, a police car came by and the road reopened.  The participants ranged from high school bands to a seniors group called the Golden Girls who danced the length of the route.  There were 30 Harley Davidsons in a group and it seems every race car from the local track was towed through the town as well.  The big oil companies, Tesoro and Conoco-Phillips had large floats and a half a dozen candidates for Kenai Borough Mayor participated.  There were fire companies from Kenai, Nikiski and the municipal airport, oh and Soldotna too.  I will post a bunch of pictures for you to browse, but not here, not now. 

Afterwards we returned to the coach for lunch to avoid the good stuff with long lines at the fair.  We toured the fair and along the way saw another section of Kenai we had missed in our previous wanderings.  We determined to return to the wildlife viewing areas we had stopped at before because so many people reported seeing Sandhill Cranes and Caribou that we wanted to try one more time.  We had better luck this time and saw 6 Sandhill Cranes way in the distance and a group of 5 Caribou, one was a calf, also pretty far off.  But we saw them!

To return to Sunday.  We drove out the Kenai Spur to its end at Captain Cook State Recreation Area and drifted back towards Kenai.  As Carol drove I was reading The Milepost as usual and came across this quote “SY 26.8 . . .  Drive to road end (0.8 mile) for a good view of Nikishka Bay and oil platforms in cook Inlet; Arness Dock, built on a base of WWII Liberty Ships (still visible);”  The first thing a noted  town is Nikihiki, they can’t spell anything the same twice in this state.  Next we turned down the road to explore and got some pictures of the old hulls.  I have lost the entire day’s shooting on my camera through stupidity (thought I had transferred them and reformatted the card – oops – 3 different recovery programs have said “nothing found” and there is nothing worth $70)

Saturday after some domestic work cleaning up the rig at Kenai RV Park we went to the Visitor Center where we learned we had already walked most of the sites of the Kenai Old Town.  We shopped at the Farmers Market, mostly crafts, very little in the way of food or produce, not surprising given that the growing season is very late here. 

We drove out a bit to see Kenai Landing, an attempt to convert an old cannery into a resort and shopping area, and a couple of over looks where we hoped to see some wildlife. 

The primary wildlife viewing of the afternoon turned out to be a moose cow and her calf feeding along side the road in an area of commercial structures and not far from a residential area. 

We had heard that a performer named Hobo Jim would be performing at Kenai Landing that afternoon at 3 so after lunch and some other wandering we returned and paid our $5 each cover to join a crowd of 8 or 10 participants to hear Hobo Jim.  We really enjoyed his performance.  He is listed as the Official Balladeer of Alaska and has been writing and performing for many years.  He writes for many of the names recording out of Nashville and he records for Nashville label.  The small audience was a bit surprising although by the time we left there were maybe 20 or so. 

We left because we had stopped by Veronica’s Cafe the evening before and heard that there would be music and food beginning at 6:30.  We had very nice food and the music was pleasing and in the modern folk tradition, guitar and voice and interesting lyrics. 

We entered as strangers and realized that we were maybe the only people in the three small rooms who were not local and well known to each other.  By the time we left we had been included in the local vibe and felt part of the crowd, it was hard not to be since we were crowded in with everyone.  As we left at 9 or so we were hugged by Veronica and warmly thanked by the musicians. 

Off to Hooligans Bar in Soldotna for more Hobo Jim.  This was a whole lot different.  It was a noisy, smoky bar and Jim clearly was drinking and playing to a very different audience. He got louder and more raucous and in a couple of numbers managed to offend just about everyone who might choose to take umbrage with his lyrics.  We were hysterical.  As we walked in he greeted us form the stage commenting that he had seen us earlier.  Afterwards he gave us hugs in farewell.  At 11 he wrapped up and made way for a rock band.  We had had enough smoke and still had a 20 minute drive through territory with moose and bears roaming the roads so we left.  Two songs stay with us “Iditarod Trail” the anthem of the race and his best known song (chorus “I did, I did, I did, the Iditarod Trail”), he played it in grade schools across the state for years, and “I am Alaska.”  Also we did buy a cd of his with these two and many other songs.  He now is available on iTunes.

We moved to the Kenai Elks Lodge the next day and will stay through the 4th for the Kenai parade.  There are no fireworks scheduled as the only dark is after midnight.  Sunset tonight is 11:35.  Our current thought is to drive back to Portage Glacier Road on Tuesday and then take the car to Hope and then dinner at Double Musky in Girdwood.  The reviews and recommendations are all excellent and the vegetarian menu they sent when I asked for Carol is just fantastic.  Then Anchorage and pick up mail in Palmer again.

I think you are all getting the point that we are not real good at making plans and sticking to them.  Our Monday plan was to pick up the mail in Seward and do some last minute shopping, you never know what stores were in our near future, then on to Soldatna for a free overnight at Fred Meyers or in an out of the way gravel lot with room for 100 RVs just outside of town. 

We didn’t make it quite that far.  As we approached Coopers Landing, on the Upper Kenai River we noticed that we had a coupon for buy-one-get-one-free at Alaska Rivers Adventures for a 3 hour float trip down the river.  I called and learned they had room on the 2 PM trip and room for us to park the coach for the time of the trip. The float was pleasant with only one class 2 rapids to moisten us about the ankles. The wild life was exciting with multiple eagles circling to pick up salmon and lots of fishermen one the banks and in the stream, especially where the Russian River joins the Kenai.  Our guide told us that they were nicely spaced out with little crowding, a light day. 

In the midst of the fishermen were three bears also fishing. Most of the fishermen ignored them and they also seemed indifferent to the competition. A couple of the fishermen, on hearing our warning about the bears stopped fishing and walked over to see them! Further down river we saw an apparently solo bear checking out the river for dinner, or maybe mid afternoon snack.

We rounded out the day by retracing the down river route to the take out and then following the Skilak Loop (19 mile dirt side road that returns to Sterling Highway eventually) to seek out free camping in the woods.  None of the sites we passed were suitable to we pulled into Upper Skilak (pronounce the “i” as a long “e”) Campground, a National Fish and Wildlife property which meant that the $10 fee was only $5 for us “old” folks.  Nice spot in the woods with plenty of room for coaches up to 40’ of course no hookups at all. 

Tuesday we did make it to Soldatna, but by now we had decided to continue on to Homer directly and stop in Kenai and Soldatna on the return.  The highways in Kenai are all down and back, there are no alternate routes.  Actually much of Alaska is like this so if you miss a turn going one way you can pick it up on the return.  We drove through Homer out on to Homer Spit which extends four miles in the Kachemak Bay.  Homer is actually divided between the main land and the far end of the spit.  We are camped at Fishing Hole about 100 yards from an active fish cleaning station and about 30 yards from Pier One Theater.  No hookups but the dump is just beyond the fish cleaning station.  We do have plenty of gulls and a few Bald Eagles observing the action and helping themselves to anything not put into a cooler.  The gulls seem to have targeted our solar panels and the front of the coach, oh and Carol’s shoulder as well.

The whole Alaska Album can be seen by clicking here.

We passed through Anchorage with a couple of stops for traffic lights and out onto the Seward Highway headed along Turnagain Arm towards Seward.  We made many stops along the way to see the scenery and to view Dall Sheep on the cliffs above the highway.  We stopped at the Girdwood Tesoro Station to top off fuel since there is no fuel for the next 87 miles and it will be much more expensive in Seward than in Girdwood (90 miles from the nearest gas station).  We also topped off propane and emptied our holding tanks in preparation for dry camping in the Portage Glacier NFS campgrounds.  The short of it is we spent two nights in the NFS campground at $9 a night and then moved across the road to a NFS dispersed camping area, free.  I like that better since the services are the same and we shared the space with one other Escapee couple.  The Tesoro station was a zoo.  there were cars, RVs, and boats on trailers in every conceivable place and some places that weren’t.  Oh yes it was Father’s Day and they were almost all Alaskans returning from the weekend camping, fishing, biking and any other outdoor activity you can think of. 

Monday we set out to see Whittier which meant driving through the only tunnel that shares space with trains.  The tunnel was built as a train tunnel and in 2000 they remodeled it and added pavement so one lane of car traffic can use the tunnel when there is no train in it.  On the hour, for 15 minutes you can drive to Whittier and on the half hour, for 15 minutes, you can drive back.  In the car it cost $12 to go to Whittier, no charge for the return.   The history is fascinating.  It was created in World War II as a secret harbor.  In order to use it they had to cut the tunnel though the mountain.  For more than I choose to write follow this link.  We spent two hours in the museum and wandered the waterfront.  We chose not to take a 26 glacier and animal watch cruise at this time.  Instead we returned to the coach for lunch and then drove up the road to Girdwood.

We had a coupon for a free ride up the Alyeska Ariel Tram for one.  Then we learned that if you climbed the mountain you could ride down compliments of the resort.  We set out to climb the 2,000 feet to the tram house.  Yes 2,000 feet in 2 or 3 miles depending on the route.  The trail maps were not wonderful, especially since there were no sign posts at trail intersections for hikers, there were plenty of signs for descending skiers and even some for descending downhill bikers (suicidal maniacs).  We climbed and  climbed and everyone we met climbing down said just keep going up, you can’t miss it, all roads lead to the tram house.  After a couple of false starts at the foot of the chairlift to the very top from an upper bowl we found ourselves on a narrow trail that does not look skiable along side a chair lift with no indication other than a windsock that we might be anywhere near the top.  I pulled out the map one more time and found the phone number for the lodge and was rapidly routed to Brian who knows the mountain.  I described what I could see and and told me exactly where we were and that we were only five minutes from the top.  Maybe for him five minutes.  By then I was on my last energy, Carol was ready to hop and skip to the top.  Fifteen minutes later we emerged at the tram house and headed for 7 Glaciers Inn.  Yup you can easily see 7 glaciers from there. 

To make a long story longer, as we entered the bar of this very swanky resort in our climbing togs with backpack and trekking sticks, we saw another couple who seemed to be alone looking for an appropriate place to sit.  I said “join us” and they did.  Ann and Bill are younger than us and they had flown to Alaska to celebrate Ann’s round number birthday.  As we ordered we revealed that we were celebrating our 47th wedding anniversary a day early.  We decided to drink to celebrations and had a delightful time.  They left to make a phone call and we decided to dine right there since it was already 7 and the only other place we had a recommendation for was closed on Monday.  It was the right choice.  Highly recommended if you don’t mind prices that are high by Alaskan standards. 

Tuesday morning, our anniversary, we moved the coach across the highway to dispersed camping area where there is no charge, my favorite price.  As noted the only other coach there was Mark and his wife, Escapees who have spent the year in Alaska.  We won’t do that, although the place does lead one to consider it, the cold and snow make Rochester look mild.  After setting up, we set out for a hike to Byron Glacier.  At the trail head there was a sign that there would be a hike with a Ranger and a licensed ice worm hunt.  We changed plans, picked up lunch at the coach and went to take a ride on the MV Ptarmigan to actually see Portage Glacier.   We returned to the trailhead and met up with the Range and a “Jr Ranger” 9 year old and off  on to the trail and on to the snow pack below the foot of the glacier.  I will include copies of our Ice Worm “Hunting License” when the connection is better.  I could not get a picture of the one ice worm the Jr Ranger found because it is really hard to photograph an item one inch long and the diameter of a course human hair being held on snow in the palm of someone’s hand.

Next day we moved on to Seward.  Tried to stop on the road to Exit Glacier, but most of the free spots were taken and even those do not appear to be suitable for us.  So much for free.  We are staying in Resurrection CG – Seward City Park.  Not hooked up but we are directly on Resurrection Bay, 50 feet give or take from the water, depending on the tide.  So far we have taken another glacier, wildlife tour with Major Tours, done a Behind the Scenes tour of the Alaska Sea Life Aquarium, wandered all through Seward on foot, ridden our bikes out to the end of road at Lowell Point to book a kayak trip with Millers Landing.  We took the kayak trip yesterday, the paddle was seven miles on the bay, planned paddling  time was  2 1/2 hours.  We grounded short of two hours and the hike to the WW II fortification took less than an hour.  All in all we had about 30 minutes to explore beyond the time scheduled. 

Although we have pictures of all these activities, my current Verizon connection is not good enough to upload the images.  I will post a bunch of them to my web album as soon as I have a decent connection.

Our travels have always been about people and places.  We certainly have the good fortune to sit next to interesting people in restaurants, in campgrounds, standing in line for almost anything.  The places are there for the driving and looking the people sometimes require some effort on our part.  Read on.

We reluctantly pulled out of Chena RV in Valdez leaving the most wonderful owner/operators we have run into.  Judy was there to greet us in the morning with suggestions to make our day better and to welcome us back in the evening with questions about how we enjoyed our activities of the day.  She and her husband are very solicitous and go out of their way to make RVers feel welcome.  Wash the coach? by all means use as much water as you need.  TV? here is the included cable and a decoder box.  Wifi, included and a good strong signal with a fast connection to the internet (backhaul – as the techs say). 

We drove back up the Richardson Highway, the only road in and out of Valdez, over the Thompson Pass, stopping at Worthington Glacier to walk out and take a look at it.  We pulled into Copper Center, which is on a loop road off of a loop of Old Richardson Highway off the highway, got that?  We did not eat at the roadhouse, mostly because we had just had lunch and weren’t planning to spend the night there.  After an hour or so of poking around, we headed up the road a few miles to the Wrangell-St Elias National Park and Preserve Visitor Center (I will not spell that out a gain).  As promised in our Days End subscription, an Escapee Only source, there is a double ended pull out with signs on the side road to the Visitor Center, just outside its gates.  There are no signs forbidding over night parking, which in Alaska, we are told, means it is permitted.  We went into the center and talked with the rangers, one of whom seems a bit rigid and questioned the propriety of such use of the pull out but agreed that so long as it isn’t signed there was nothing she could do about it.  After watching the film about the park we bought two copies for distribution to our children and beyond, just to make them envious!  Then we drove out to the pull out and set ourselves up for dinner and the night.

It seemed that Palmer was to be our next stop as I had our mail sent there for pickup at General Delivery.  We did not know when it would arrive and really did not want to pay for a campground.  I got out the Days End section for Alaska which I have printed out, and checked on Palmer.  The only Escapees in Alaska who offer overnight stopping are the Mathews in Palmer.  We called and were welcomed warmly.  On arrival Dave was out in the yard to show us where to set up.  He courteously let me ground guide Carol into backing into a fairly tight spot.  After a brief tour of Palmer during which we found our mail waiting for us we returned and brought a bottle of wine and some dip into the house for Happy Hour.  It is great to make new friends. They are very attentive and when we started talking about what to see in Palmer Dave reopened his memories of being a volunteer in the visitor center and gave way too much to do in a day.  The next morning he greeted me with a list of all the must see and do things from Palmer down through Anchorage and the Kenai Peninsula. 

Short history course.  There was a depression in the 30’s.   One attempt to alleviate the troubles was a program of colonization of empty areas.  200 families from Upper Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin and one family from Oklahoma were transported to Palmer Alaska in 1935.  Some 60% did not take advantage of the return ticket that was available.  All of the construction was done by imported workers to plans drawn in Washington.  Some of the designs fell a bit short, the barns are too small for their intended use as dairy barns.  This is a surprisingly rich agricultural area and there are dairies, hay farms and vegetable farms thriving in Palmer. 

There is also a Musk Ox  (they have no musk and are not oxen being most closely related to goats) farm that sells the combed out under hair of the musk oxen which is shed in the spring to a native coop that weaves the most gorgeous pieces from the spun yarn.  It is very warm and very strong and oh yes VERY expensive.  The participating natives are able to stay in their villages up near the arctic circle and continue their culture and life style thanks to the cash they earn from weaving these scarves and other articles of clothing.

Oh yes the other thing they are trying to do is to domesticate the musk oxen.  The first new animal to be domesticated in 1,000 years.  They expect the project to take a total of 250 years.  193 to go.  The first place these animals were raised on a farm was in Vermont.

Have I run on enough?  Nope.  From the Musk Ox farm we drove up Hatch Pass to Independence Gold Mine state Park at the top of the pass.  They started serious hard rock mining there in 1937.  Production peaked in 1941 and 1942 brought orders to shut down as gold was not military necessity and the resources they were using needed to be redeployed.  They struggled to keep the mine open claiming they could produce a precursor to tungsten, but the ore was of such poor grade that they never shipped an ounce.  By  1943 the site had been abandoned.  The mill works have collapsed and only the living quarters remain intact.  The tour was great fun and the area is wide open for exploration.  the weather was superb and it being Saturday Alaskans were out in force hiking and sunning where ever we looked.  We finally returned to the coach to a quiet dinner and a chance to record this.

To see all the pictures from this trip Click Here The pictures from this blog are near the end.

Onward to the Kenai Peninsula tomorrow.

We took our time driving from Chitna to Valdez.  After looking at all the possibilities we decided to stay ion town at a very small RV park called Chena.  It appealed to us because it had only ten sites and the Churches did say the owners were very helpful.  On our way in we drove by half the other places and our choice was confirmed.  Instead of 160 sites on a sea of gravel Chena has just eh ten sites on a pond of gravel.  Gravel makes sense here as it does not become mud or snad to track into the coach and water drains right through it, no standing puddles to breed mosquitoes, there are enough of them as it is.

The drive took us over Thompson Pass at 2,800 feet.  It does not seem very high, but it is clear the weather in the pass can be fearsome.  We have been told by locals that the plow crews use GPS to guide them through the pass in storms!  We came over it in clear weather.  We passed the turn off for the old town site which was devastated in the earthquake of 1964 and continued into the town that was rebuilt and has grown with the routing of the Alyeska Pipeline to the port.  It is a great fishery and we have seen halibut over five feet long hanging from the catch racks of the charter companies.  I bought some an grilled it.  I am reminded of Talkeetna, 1997, my most memorable halibut meal, eaten at a picnic table on the curb there. 

We took a cruise with Stan Stephens to Meade Glacier which included poking in as close as we could get to Columbia and Shoup glaciers and some whale watching and sea otter watching and Dall Porpoise watching and bald eagles and puffin, both horned and tufted and bear watching.  We saw one bear swim across from the mainland to an island as we were traversing the passage.  Stan said he had not seen a bear take that long a swim in his time here – he is in his 70’s and has been guiding in Alaska 50 years.  Here are some pictures from the day trip:

Plans to go sea kayaking have been placed on hold, not enough people want to take the trip we want to take for it to go. We decided to take a “domestic day.”  Many chores great and small have piled up.  Carol did laundry while I washed the coach down to remove the sand and road dirt from our drive over TOW and down to Chitna.  Our neighbor works at the local NAPA store and he located a replacement for the oil filler cap I left back in the Yukon someplace.  We still have piles of dust and grit in our storage bins, but that will just have to accumulate until we get on paved roads in the lower 48.  We did wander around the harbor area and walked into Anadyr Sea kayaking.  We had not walked in there before.  they offer a kayak trip to Valdez Glacier which involves a four or five mile drive rather than a two our boat ride to the kayaking site.  WE sgned up for the next day.

We met Heather, the guide, and David and Joanie whose son works on a fishing boat in Valdez for the summer.  The five of us set out for Valdez Glacier with full coverage rain gear over long johns and fleece for warmth along with PFDs (Personal Flotation Device) for safety.  We put into the water with the hope of entering an ice cave or two, walking on the glacier and maybe seeing some other interesting feature.  As with wild life viewing there can be no promises since the features of the glacier change from  day to day as the weather and glacial movements shift things around.  Rather than give you a blow by blow here are a selection of pictures from the day:

And there you have two days in Valdez with more to come.

Not that we ever stick to a plan, but today, Thursday June 9, was particularly fragmented.  For starters we had decided to head for Valdez instead of Fairbanks.  A couple of days ago I decided it was time to have a steak so I had pulled one out of the freezer to keep in the refrigerator.  We are traveling alone because other than some dear friends we find it best to keep to ourselves.

As we rolled down the Tok Cutoff toward the intersection with the Richardson Highway which would take us to Valdez I was reading in The Milepost about some other places to see along the way.  I saw that Copper Village looked like and interesting stop and a mere 35 miles out of our way was Chitina at the end of a 35 mile in and out road.  It seemed reasonable to take that side road, especially after checking my other resources and finding that there is Federal land that is available for “informal” camping.  That means pick yourself a piece of land, set up camp and enjoy.  No rules, no fees oh and no supervision.  As it happens this piece of land is located at the junction of the Chitina and Copper Rivers and is the only place in Alaska where dip netting and fish wheels are permitted. 

As I began to learn this we pulled into an overlook and met Stan and, and oh well both of us forgot her name.  We shared the thoughts and they thought they might join us.  We passed each other several times along the road but somehow we are in  Chitina and they are not nearby.  I already described the Top of the World Highway.  This route was not quite as bad, we averaged well over 30 mph while moving.  This does not include a 20 minute halt on the road for construction vehicles to move and many stops to ooh and ahh.  Finally we made it to the Wrangle Elias National Park Visitor Center, which is not in the park because the only access to the park is over really interesting roads, by plane or boat.  We heard a presentation on Wolves by a summer Ranger, nicely done, nothing particularly new, and we drove on.

We drove on slowly as the road continued to alternate potholes (Rochester you ain’t seen nothin’) with frost heaves – think of a giant economy sized speed bump with sharp sides – with whoop-de-dos, sort of like the road falls out from under you and just as you are dropping it rises to boost you into the air.  They are more exciting when they are at an angle across the road so you twist as you bound.  Opening a cupboard after a day of this can be life threatening. 

Anyhow we descended into Chitina and passed through the town and out the other side, onto the McCarthy Road and over the Bridge to the “informal” camping area. 

We decided to camp well away from the area of active dip netters as we did not want to be seen as interfering, especially as they are expected to here in force tomorrow.  Many of them have set up fish wheels.  

These scoop the salmon out of the water and shunt them in live catch wells where they wait to be filleted.  Carol and I got talking to a couple of men working together filleting fish after fish.  they had already filleted 28 fish that day – apparently there is no limit here.  As we asked questions and responded to theirs, the man doing the filleting motioned to his buddy to get a small fish out of the well and then he stunned me by asking if I wanted it whole or filleted.  After asking twice to be sure I had understood the questioned he filleted the fish before our eyes and bagged it and gave it to me with instructions not to overcook it.  Color me flabbergasted. 

The steak stayed in the refrigerator for another day while I grilled one fillet to eat half

and save the cooked part for another day.  The other fillet went into the freezer.  the net weight of fresh Copper Red King Salmon minutes out of the water was over 2 pounds.  Retail price is incalculable (well I saw it for $7.50 a pound today) and I must say taking a fish and putting it on the grill within minutes of its coming out of the water is beyond compare.

Yet another unplanned day!

Friday we decided to try the drive to McCarthy on the McCarthy road, a 55 mile drive on a dirt and gravel road reported to be a very difficult road with old railroad spikes just waiting to eat a tire, the road is laid out over an old rail bed.   The drive to McCarthy was fairly straight forward, it took 2 hours running at speeds up to 40 and a lot of 20 and 30 mph stretches. After Top of the World it was a piece of cake.  We had the bikes on the roof and I had brought along the seats and other paraphernalia necessary for bike riding.  When we got to the end of the McCarthy Road we were confronted with a foot bridge and a half a mile walk beyond that to get to McCarthy, or hiring a shuttle from the other side of the footbridge.  We got the bikes down and with much trepidation, put them together.  We had not ridden them in several months (we actually can’t remember the last time we rode them), the chains are rusty and everything was a bit stiff.  The tires were soft as well and I had not thought to bring my pump.  That was good actually as the road was dirt and lent itself to underinflated tires. 

We reached McCarthy and discovered there is not anything to do there before 5 PM, and it was not yet noon, except go on to Kennicott to tour the Kennecott Mine Mill and the Kennicott glacier.  Those are not my misspellings.  They meant to name the company after the glacier and misspelled it. 

We chained up the bikes and took the shuttle to Kennicott where booked the tour and went to Kennicott Glacier Lodge for a lovely lunch while waiting for the tour.  Here is the mill: Looking up at the 14 story structure from below knowing that it was built in 1908 we did not expect the tour to us take all the way through the remaining interior portions.  We indeed climbed to the very top where copper ore was received from the mines by tramway and followed the processing all the way to the very bottom where the finest poorest grade ore was sent to the leach plant for further extraction. 

The road we had driven was on the rail bed of the line built to haul the coal to Valdez where it was transshipped to Tacoma for smelting.  This is where Kennecott Corp got its start.  It is said they mined enough silver as a byproduct to pay for the railroad, mine equipment and the town, some $30 million and netted a profit of $100 million on the copper.  This is 1930 dollars!

Before we drove up the road to Chitna I had only the vaguest notion of what was here.  The activities we did not partake in included ice climbing, mountain hiking, white water rafting/kayaking, choose up sides softball in McCarthy, or getting drunk in any of the saloons in each of these towns.

Well there was an overnight along the way at Pelly Crossing.  You could look it up someplace I guess, but there isn’t much there, there.  The Pelly is a river that is tributary to the Yukon  and the crossing is a bridge and a small community consisting of a roadhouse and a Heritage Museum to record the local First Nation tribe’s lifestyle and culture.  There is/was a campground across the way.  The reason for the lack of positive description is that this appears to have been a government campground recently, but is currently listed in the guide books as free.  The campsites are “indistinct” and there are no services offered.  This is a better deal than some similar campgrounds that collect $12 C for the privilege.

I have not recorded the long drive we took to get to this halfway point on the road to Dawson City.  It is “miles and miles of miles and miles” to quote an unknown source.  Every turn brings another vista and another ooh and ah and the hope of seeing some wildlife, mostly forlorn.   Rising in the morning to the sound of construction on the bridge we prepared breakfast and rolled on down the road leaving Marty and Nancy, Alaskans who got to the park shortly before us on their trek south, as we continued north.  Sunday was another day of miles and miles bringing us into Dawson City early afternoon.  We decided to stay at Bonanza Gold RV Park just out of town and across the street from Bonanza Gold Service area.  Is there a theme there?  We had rolled up 5400 miles since leaving El Paso, TX !! and it was time for an oil change and other routine maintenance as we prepare for the worst roads of the trip.   Already in the last stretch the road was deteriorating the closer we got to Dawson.

Some highlights of the visit to Dawson include a visit to Diamond Tooth Gerties Casino with three shows a night.  I broke even at the black jack table and got to take a garter off a dancer (you will have to ask Carol to tell you the story).  After the 10:30 show we drove up to Dome which is a five mile drive to a high point above Dawson where the sun barely sets on the solstice.  We did not stay long enough to see it set on June 6.  As I write it is 10:10 PM and the sun streaming in the windshield is almost blinding me.  Our second day, we started out at Dredge #4, the largest surviving dredge from the gold era here.   It last produced gold in 1959.  It is amazing to see the size of this machine.  Each bucket picked up 16 cubic yards of rock to process through the screens.  The most amazing part of the story is that the entire operation was  electric.  They ran hydro power from the Klondike river over more than thirty miles of wilderness to run the dredge.  Since the dredge moved itself up the creek bed they had to continually extend the lines.  It only moved 10 feet every few days so they could keep up with it.  Following the dredge we toured several homes (Jack London’s and Robert Service’s) and then came back for lunch so we could move Gee2 to the service station while we went to town for a walking tour with weird stories about people and places. 

We have had a quiet dinner on the coach and got to talk with Ron and Aiko and Brian and Ruth who we met back in Whitehorse.  Not so early to bed and up sort of early tomorrow to take the ferry to the beginning of the Top Of the World Highway which leads to Chicken and on to Tok.  I hope to post this soon, but even if I get connected in Dawson I will not be able to post pictures.  The band width reminds me of the 300 baud days.  There is only one circuit for the population and it is not fiber.  Anyone uploading video will take down the entire town.

Wednesday Night – it is hard to call it night when you never see dark.

We set out early, for us, at 8:30 AM to board the Black Ferry for a 15 minute ride across the Yukon to drive the road that causes more talk among RVers in Alaska then any other.  It is paved part of the way, it is chip sealed and that has washed away in parts, it is dirt or it is gravel and there is 180 miles of it climbing and descending to live up to its name, Top Of the World Highway affectionately known as TOW.  Carol was at the wheel for the first two hours bringing us to the most northerly land entry into the US at Poker Creek, AK.  By then we had stone chips in the windshield of the RAV4 which was new in LA and there were stones all over the car.  The coach was filled with dust and we still had 120 miles to go.  We covered the windshield with a tarp in an attempt to prevent further damage and I took the wheel just 5 miles before the border.  According to reports we were entering on the worst of the worst road.  Fortunately it had not rained for a couple of days and the road was dry and merely dirt.  An aside to those who know the road to Dan and Malena’s house back in the woods of Virginia, just like that for 60 miles!  And just as narrow with trucks and tour buses (well only one tour bus and no big trucks while we were out there) going both ways.  The one tour bus we encountered had a pilot vehicle out ahead and he radioed back to the bus to wait at a wide spot while we proceeded through the well packed dual track road. 

Naturally we stopped at Chicken.  Think of a bad chicken joke, any bad chicken joke, you will find it there on a T shirt, mug etc.  Susan Wiren, who has been in National Geographic and is featured in the Church book Camping in Alaska, is a true Alaska character.  I will get pictures up on the website when I have some time.  Carol has a new T shirt as do I and I finally got to add a hat to my collection. 

About 30 miles out of Chicken the road improved enough for us to pick up the speed to 40 and even 50 for a mile or two.  180 miles is a really long day when the overall moving average is 30.9 MPH. 

Shortly before Chicken we noted that the sky was misty, then we noticed the smell of fire.  For long stretches our view of the  mountains was obscured by smoke from fires burning a couple of hundred miles to our north outside of Fairbanks.  When we got to the Tok visitor center, they confirmed the presence of many fires between Tok and Fairbanks.  Although no roads are closed, we are thinking that we will head south first before going to Fairbanks.  So as of this writing we are going to head down to Valdez and then over to Anchorage.  It does not change our mileage at all.  If you look at an Alaska road map, you will see that to get from Fairbanks to Anchorage and to get in and out of Alaska by road you WILL pass through Tok.  Tok is Alaska Main Street.  We are comfortably camped behind the Chevron Station which provides free dry camping on their lot for the price of a fill up which we needed anyhow.