Day 46: Eagle River

May 30, 2014

We awoke to the sound of rain on the roof this morning with a temp of 47. It still felt cool with the rain. It was cloudy most of the day then later this afternoon the sun was shining brightly. As we said before, we have followed spring north this year and this this morning there were puddles covered with pollen. Things are really starting to bloom here and with the 20-23 hours of daylight they have vibrant color.

We hiked some in the park this morning and then again this afternoon. The Eagle River is so very pretty. It obviously has some glacial silt in it from the color and is running very fast with snow runoff currently. We are having to really keep a tight lead on Scout anytime we are close to the banks because he really wants in the water. Don't know where down stream he would end up if he actually got in that water.

We both got hair cuts today. Not use to letting anyone else cut our hair but.... it was way past time so we just went in to WalMart and told our selves - “it will grow out again”. That too is part of traveling long term. It was fun to talk the the lady who cut our hair about what we should be sure to do and see. She also had a few restaurant suggestions we may try out in Anchorage and Girdwod.

We visited our first Fred Meyer today. We actually ate lunch there. Their deli/hot food bar reminded us of Whole Foods but just not as “wheat germy”. It was good. We would love to have these stores at home. Most of them are very RV friendly and allow RVers to overnight in their parking lot. This store (appeared to be pretty new) was better than a supper Wally or Target with a much better grocery selection and so much wider variety of items. It might be a good thing we don't have them at home. Learned they are part of the Kroger family of businesses. We have heard of Fred Meyer for a long time but just never went in a store. Of course the bread/bakery section instigated some purchases that weren't on the list. We bought a Marionberry coffee cake since we have never tasted marionberry.

Looked that up and found that is is a hybrid blackberry developed and grown in Oregon. It is quite tasty. We are saving some for Donna and Barry to try – well we plan to but they better hope their plane isn't late.

We also went caching again today and drove by an unusual church mentioned in The Milepost, St JohnOrthodox Cathedral. It is a geodesic-dome cathedral with birch ceiling and beautiful icons.

Today we have been on the road for 46 days. We have traveled 4,754 miles in the motor home. Thought we would give you a visual representation of our travels thus far.

click to enlarge pictures

Currently the wind has really picked up and the temp seems to be dropping. Guess that cold front may be coming thru. Tomorrow we will move to an RV park in Anchorage so we can meet Donna and Barry's flight. We will see what else we can get into along the way.

Day 45: Tolsona to Eagle River

May 29, 2014

This morning it was again pretty cool at 35 degrees and mostly cloudy. We saw some sun this morning but not much and had some drizzle intermittently. Not a bad day but not as pretty as yesterday. Isn't that always the way it is – prettiest days are when you are working. Any way, we pulled in the slides and headed what is actually south from Tolsona to Eagle River, AK. Eagle River is actually just a suburb of Anchorage – about 13 miles from Anchorage.

Today we saw 3 different glaciers as we traveled in toward Anchorage. First was Tazlina Glacier which feeds the Tazlina River. We did not get a good picture of that one. Then we saw the Nelchina and lastly Mantanuska Glacier.

Nelchina Glacier

Matanuska Glacier

We plan to visit the Mantanuska again Sunday, doing a little hiking. The Mantanuska Glacier is 4 miles wide at its terminus shown in this picture. Scout seemed impressed by it.

Otherwise we saw some beautiful mountains, went through some windy and high mountain passes and just really enjoyed the scenery.

 

 

Oh, and did a little geocaching when we wanted to stretch our legs. The bent poles on the sides of the highway are for guiding the snowplows in the winter. We think that any where they need poles like that is not a place we want to spend the winter.

Speaking of winter, we received a Special Weather Statement this afternoon stating that “after a stretch of record-setting summer-like heat and dry May days over much of southcentral Alaska a powerful blast of Arctic cold will move inland from the Bering sea Friday and Saturday.” They are calling for more snow in the mountains at 2000 feet (where we will be Sunday/Monday). Anchorage is only about 100 feet above sea level so we shouldn't have any problems but could actually get some snow showers here Saturday. What was that we said about the never ending winter?? Oh well – Donna really wants to see some snow so maybe she will get her wish.

For RVer's: If you are planning to come to Eagle River Campground, as of today there is still no potable water for filling your fresh water tanks here. The road from Tolsona to here is in fairly good shape except for a few frost heaves. The Milepost is pretty accurate in identifying the rough spots, but some will still slip up on you. Very few are marked by flags or signs.

Day 44: Tolsona

May 28, 2014

It was 42 and partly cloudy when we got up this morning – the warmest morning since we left home. Later in the day it became sunny with bright blue skies! Nice. The increased moisture has decreased the haziness and the fire risk. We had a pretty boring day. We cleaned the motor home inside, the truck inside, did a little laundry and bathed the dog. All normal things that have to be done when you travel long term.

We would have done more laundry but were disappointed to find that the water here is not clear and has a little taste. It looks like it has may iron in it. The washing machines here are also stained so we elected to wait until Anchorage to wash clothes. We just did rags and rugs. Anyone looking for a campground in this area, the people here are very nice, the sites large enough and right by the creek. Very restful environment. It has a lower 48 state park feel.

However, on the downside, it is very dusty and you can tell by the looks of Scout there are spruce needles and sap everywhere.

Scout helping get all the spruce needles and dust up from the site

It made our plans for cleaning a little more challenging. Also, I would say anyone who is particular about their coffee or tea would want to bring their water.

We enjoyed listening to and watching the birds here. There are some we haven't yet identified and also couldn't get to pose for the camera but the gray jay loves to pose.

By the way, the huge Alaska mosquitoes are now out in full force. If you look closely you make can see them on Scout. They were bothering him so much we just brought him back inside.

Done with our chores, we plan to have an early dinner and watch a movie. We recorded a lot of movies before leaving home since we are too far north for our satellite TV to work, and haven't watched a single one.

Tomorrow we move on the Eagle River Campground right outside of Anchorage. We need to resupply the pantry and finish the laundry before Barry and Donna arrive on Saturday. We will see what else we can get into.

Day 43: Tok to Tolsona

May 27, 2014

It was 37 and sunny this morning. We had a quiet night at our little trail head camping area last night. We were joined by 2 other passenger vehicles and and 18 wheeler. As we left this morning the snow capped mountains were pretty but difficult to see due to the haze and even more difficult to photograph.

Alaska needs rain. It was also quite windy making driving a little more challenging. The first part of the Tok Cut Off was very good road with no construction or frost heaves.

However, after about 20 miles it became a patchwork of gravel repaired areas with a quarter or half mile of decent then more gravel, rub board areas.

We did see a moose this morning on one of the rub board areas. He was far enough off the road in a pond that we were able to stop and go back and get his picture.

We also saw lots of trumpeter swans at a pond not far from Mentasta Lodge.

We arrived at Wrangell-St. Elias National Park about lunch time.

We talked with the ranger, Tiffany, for a good while. She was very nice and very helpful. Wrangell-St Elias is the largest national park at 13.2 million acres and also one of the newest national parks. The park contains the greatest collection of mountains over 16,000 feet on the continent and also the largest concentration of glaciers on the continent. To be so huge is has amazingly few visitors probably because it is not easy to visit. There are only 2 roads to access the park. The northern section is accessed by way of Nebesna Road in the community of Slana which is where we were today. The West side of the park is accessed by way of McCarthy Road which we plan to do next week when Barry and Donna are here. Otherwise one can hike in or have a guide fly you in to a remote area of the Park.

Nebesna Road is only 42 miles long, with only the first 16 miles being paved.

There are also 3 stream crossings, which can sometimes require 4-wheel drive, but today were dry. There are several trail heads on Nebesna Road and we did one relatively short hike today.

Most hikes are 2 day, or more, hikes. We saw only one other car the entire time we were there today. Wrangell is a beautiful area of remote wilderness. They do have some primitive cabins you can hike to and spend the night, or week if you like. We might consider doing this, for one night only, later in the summer. We also saw 2 more moose on our drive into the Park but they were too shy for us to get a picture.

After leaving the Park, we drove to Glennallen to our campground for the next 2 days, Tolsona Wilderness Campground. After being at Wrangell today it seems funny to call this place wilderness. There are 80 camp sites with hookups plus a laundry. It is very nice though. All the sites are on the creek and are nicely shaded with trees between the sites. For anyone headed this way, they also are a Good Sam and Passport America Park. We will be getting laundry done and some additional cleanup work done from the Top of the World trip, so that we will be ready to move on to Anchorage to await Barry and Donna's arrival on Saturday. There are also some trails here for us to explore tomorrow after the work is done.

By the way, we understand that the Kenai, where the largest fires were located, did get rain today and the smoke/haze is already improving.

Day 42: Tok

May 26, 2014

It was another cool start for the day at 35 when we got up. A little furnace time warmed Fred right up and then the sun did the rest. The high was about 65 so it was a great day to be out and about. First things first – it's always a walk for Scout. This morning's walk took one of us by a particularly interesting street sign.

When we were at Three Bears Grocery yesterday they told us they would have fresh doughnuts this morning. So.....we just had to go check them out.

No we did not eat them all! They will serve as tomorrow's breakfast as well. They are quite good.

As planned, after breakfast we went to the RV wash and spent the next 3 hours washing Fred and the truck. They still are not as clean as we would like but they are so much better. Neither vehicle had ever been as dirty. There were rocks “cemented” to the undercarriage with the glacial silt type dust. We are still working on getting all the dust out of the truck's interior but it is much, much better.

Before

After

After that we did a little research on some upcoming plans and then it was time for a late lunch. While we were at the RV wash a nice man from Tok came up to wash a school bus. He said they were getting them ready to carry firefighters to various fire scenes, since fire season has started. There actually is a working forest fire close enough to Tok that we could smell the smoke last night. Anyway, we got to talking to him and he recommended a new restaurant in town – Sal and Scott's Four Amigos.

It is a Mexican restaurant which is unusual this far north and we haven't had any good Mexican food for quite a while now. We decided to give it a try and it was very good! For those RVers headed this way the restaurant is next door Golden Bear Motel and RV park on the Tok Cutoff. They are open 10am-10pm and even deliver up to 5 miles so that covers most of the RV parks in Tok. There aren't many choices of restaurants here so if you like Mexican you should give this one a try.

After working all morning and then eating a big meal we deserved and needed some play time so we did a little caching and took a nice hike. Alaska is a beautiful state!

We are staying about 8 miles outside of Tok tonight at the trail head of a hike we did today. We will be heading on out of town in the morning going to Wrangell-St Elias National Park and then on to Glennallen. This is suppose to be a very scenic drive so we hope to have some really good pictures for tomorrow.

Donna and Barry will be here in 5 days and we all just can't wait for that portion of the journey to begin.

Day 41: Taylor "Highway", Chicken and Tok

May 25, 2014

This morning it was a cool 41 degrees and partly cloudy.  It stayed overcast for most of the day.  We walked Scout, had breakfast and then pulled in the slides, pulled up the jacks and were on our way again.  We continued on the dirt/gravel Taylor "Highway" towards Chicken, AK.   We seemed to meet more oncoming traffic when we were on the "drop off" side of the road.

 

While crossing the south fork of the Fortymile River we saw 2 hovercraft.   

They looked to be preparing to launch but not soon enough for us to wait and watch.  Later we saw several more of these boats.  Looked like folks were going to be out on the water enjoying the Memorial Day Weekend.  Hope no one falls in because the water in these rivers is cold!  Yes, we know this to be true but we won't say which one of us knows for certain or how she found out.  

The community of Chicken (supposed to be named Ptarmigan but no one knew how to spell Ptarmigan and the Ptarmigan is known as the Alaska chicken) has a population of 30-50 in the summer and 15 in the winter.  

All there is to know about Chicken, AK

It has developed sort of a cult following with people coming to Alaska.  There are three businesses and of course since the local people could not support the 3 businesses they survive/thrive on the Alaska travelers.  There are places to camp in your RV, 3 places to eat, one saloon, a gold dredge, and gold panning.  Of course they sell all things chicken themed in the three gift shops.  There is now also Chickenstock “Top of the World” Music Festival – the 8^th annual June 13-14, 2014.  Too bad we will miss it.  Anyway – we found our first Alaska geocache in Chicken, AK.   

We thought the “chicken poop” outhouses were pretty funny.  

Also the big chicken sculpture was made from recycled high school lockers in Homer, AK and transported to Chicken by truck (averaging 20mph.)  

Shortly after saying goodbye to Chicken, low and behold we were driving on real pavement!  And pretty good pavement at that.  The dirt portion we were driving about 20mph due to the rub boards but on the pavement it wasn't too long before we were actually in 5^th gear again.  Before we reached Tetlin Junction we were actually driving 55mph in 6^th gear.  It seems like we haven't done that in weeks.  Ok, we know it's only been about 6 days but it sure seemed longer when it took 1 hour to go 13 miles 3 days ago.   There was a lot of haze today so the views while good were not spectacular.  Also many miles of the drive was through the area of the 2004 Taylor Complex Fires that burned 1.3 million acres so not the prettiest drive.  That fire was 10 years ago but this far north and at that elevation regrowth is very slow.  There are some small willows and a few small birch slowly making a comeback but no spruce yet.  We are told that the area is lovely when the fireweed is blooming but that won't occur until sometime next month.

(rant) While stopped at a roadside pullout we again observed just how sorry some people can be.  In the box with the trail maps and highway information was a piece of toast with strawberry jelly!  

Notice sign at top right

Some people!  Do they want the bear to tear up the kiosk and do they want the bear to die when he comes back looking for food when people are there?  We did clean up the mess and throw it away. (end rant)

We rejoined the Alaska Highway at Tetlin Junction and were soon in Tok, AK.  Tok is the first community after the Canadian border on the Alaska Highway and everyone coming to Alaska by ground has to go and come thru Tok.  It is a small community, population 1,435 but has multiple fuel stations, RV parks, a few motels and cafes and at least one grocery store – The Tree Bears – that we checked out. 

When we approached Tok with our phones charged and ready – we started receiving email again and very soon had phone service.  We stopped and called our Mom's and checked in on everyone.  Sure was good to talk to them and find that all the family is doing well.  We are staying the night in Tok – actually behind the Young's Chevron because he welcomes RVers to dry camp overnight in his parking lot if they fill up with fuel.  While we could have saved a little/gallon down the street, we did the math and figured it was less than the RV park would be so we took on some fuel and stayed the night.  There are currently 6 others here with us.  For those coming this way, there is also free dump station use with fill up. 

We will spend a good part of tomorrow cleaning and washing Fred and the truck.  The dust from the past 6 days has them looking pretty bad and while we know we will be on more dirt roads while in Alaska it is time to do some cleaning.  After that we will head down the Richardson and Glen Highways toward Wrangell-St Elias National Park.  Don't know if that will be Monday or Tuesday.    Hope everyone is having a great Memorial Day Weekend!  Stay safe. 

Day 40: Walker Fork BLM Campground

May 24 2014

We decided to stay another day at this nice LM campground in Northeast Alaska – Walker Fork.  Since we didn't go to Banff and Jasper due to weather problems it gave us the week we had planned for that to do this Top of the World Highway excursion without being pressed for time.  The day started with 38 degrees and cloudy.  It was off/on sun all day with a high in the 50's.  Needed a jacket and a cap due to the wind.  We have a great view out our front window and we are watching 3 ducks swim around as we write this blog entry.  We are going to have to look those guys up.  We don't have any of these kind at home. 

Last night we had four other campsites occupied.  It was very quiet.  Tonight we have four other groups of campers but it remains quiet peaceful.  We really expected more people here for the holiday weekend but this campground is a long way away from everywhere. Our kind of place.

Our laugh of the day came when shortly after breakfast we took Scout on a walk by the creek.  We let him off leash to play in the water.  He decided to go check out the other bank and just as we were calling him back we saw this motor home backing back down the road to get a better look.  We can just imagine the conversation.  Probably someone on the passenger side spotted a black bear in the river as they crossed the bridge and then as they backed back down the hill to get a better look, he was charging across to attack two unsuspecting people walking on the opposite bank of the creek.  Imagine their surprise when we petted him, gave him a treat and put him back on leash. 

Otherwise we did some gold panning (still no nugget), got the metal detector out a mess around with it a while, and did some hiking.  We also decided to eat outside and then experimented with a dessert cooked on our butane camp stove.  We modified our peach cobbler recipe slightly and cooked it in the skillet.  It turned out really well.  Guess we better go hike a little more.   

Tomorrow we are moving toward Tok and supposedly phone service and internet.