Photo of the Week - Chitina AK, an RV Friendly Community???

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At Chitina, we didn't stay at the local RV park.  We camped for two nights at a pull-off next to a gorgeous lake.  Is it any wonder?

This post is a little tongue-in-cheek.  Neither photo is from a real RV park.  Note price painted on bulldozer blade (it's hard to see: $200/night

Chitina AK

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Chitina AK, located at the confluence of the Copper and Chitina Rivers, has two reasons for being. First, it is a gateway to McCarthy, the Kennecott copper mines and Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. Second, it provides access to the Copper River and the famous "Copper River Red" salmon. Downtown Chitina is very quaint and scenic, with several beautiful historical structures.

We arrived at Chitina after driving about 35 miles down the Edgerton Highway. We stopped at the Golden Spruce Lodge on the way in, where the proprietors were holding a few un-skinned diamond willow sticks for us. Our friend Bob had asked us to bring some un-skinned diamond willow sticks back to NC, and we have had a very difficult time finding any. We then parked for two nights at a paved pull-out on the shore of Three-mile Lake, three miles out the Edgerton Highway from Chitina. It is a wonderful place to park. The fish were jumping and moose visited the lake to check us out. While walking Matilda at camp, I discovered a path that led up the hill to a grove of diamond willows in a small clearing. I managed to poach a few more sticks before we left.

We drove out to the Copper River and watched the fish wheels and watched folks dip netting for Copper River reds. We drove about 6 miles out the McCarthy Road, but dared venture no further. The McCarthy Road lies on the road bed of the former Copper River and North Western (CR&NW) railroad and continues about 60 miles to the town of McCarthy and Kennecott, in the Wrangell-St-Elias National Park. The railroad was built in 1908 to haul copper ore out from the Kennecott mines. Locals were skeptical the railroad would ever be completed and called the CR&NW "Can't Run & Never Will". Today the road is pretty rough, even by Alaskan standards. It is severally wash-boarded and occasionally spikes and nails will rise to the surface of the road and destroy tires. We really wanted to visit the Kennecott Mills, but were reluctant to venture too far down the road. Today the Kennecott Mills are owned by the National Park Service and many of the historical structures can be toured. The Kennecott mine had extremely rich ore, over 70% pure copper. Over $200 million worth of ore was hauled down the CR&NW to Cordova on the coast before the ore ran out and the mines closed in 1938.

Photo of the Week - Moose on the Run

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Obviously, this guy can't read very well, or he would be headed in the opposite direction ... FAST!

Valdez AK

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OK, I am again hopelessly behind in this journal. The combination of too much fun and near continuous daylight continue to confound my efforts to update the blog. Alright, I also do procrastinate a bit too. In any case I will give a thumbnail sketch of our travels during the last month, and then get on with our current adventures. Maybe, just maybe, I can go back and flesh in the details and post some pictures.



By the way. Google maps has made a change such that when I post our location ("Where the Heck Are We???"), the current location is no longer at the top of the list. Now it can be found only at the bottom of the list on the left side of the list of locations. I will continue to place our current location near the center of the maps. All of our locations, current and past, can be found somewhere in the list and are dated.



OK the 60 second update and some photos: We left Talkeetna and drove to Eagle River, a suburb about 10 miles north of Anchorage. A friend from high school in North Carolina has a house on a mountainside outside Eagle River, and we parked in a paved level spot on his driveway. From his house we can see Mt. McKinley, over 170 miles away and volcanoes Mt. Redoubt, Mt. Iliamna and Mt. Spurr. He wined and dined us for the next six nights while we made tourist trips into Anchorage and points nearby. Upon leaving Eagle River we headed down to the Kenai Peninsula and Seward. We hit Seward for the 4th of July weekend, probably not the smartest thing to do. Seward hosts the Mount Marathon race each 4th, and it's the biggest event in Seward all year. Seward has about 800 campsites in about a dozen city-owned campgrounds around town. All were full. We camped for five nights at a paved pullout on the side of the Resurrection River, a wonderful spot. The highlight of our stay in Seward was a wildlife and glacier tour where we saw a ton of wildlife. Actually many specimens were over a ton. We left Seward and drove to Homer. There we camped on the "Spit" for 5 mights. We watched the tide come in and out from our front window while the harbor seals munched on salmon. Homer claims to be the Halibut capitol of the world, and we watched the big fish come off the boats each evening. We then headed to Cooper Landing at the confluence of the Kenai and Russian Rivers. There we camped with Safari TREK friends from back east who are traveling throughout Alaska in a caravan. While there we paddled a 13-mile section of the Kenai River. We then headed back to Eagle River and my friend's house on the mountain, where we stayed for nine more nights of cushy camping and good companionship with an old friend and his family. As we were preparing to leave a moose cow and two calves came through the driveway and ambled over between our coach and our car. Unfortunately, all our cameras were in the coach and momma wouldn't let us anyway near there. Finally we left and headed for Valdez for another rendezvous with our TREK friends. Whew!



We are now camped at Bayside RV Park in Valdez. Valdez is an extraordinarily scenic town. We are within walking distance of the downtown and the harbor. Valdez was founded as an "All American" route to the Klondike gold fields. The Valdez Glacier turned out to be a formidable obstacle, and few miners completed the journey. On Good Friday 1964 Alaska suffered a 9.2 earthquake, the largest ever recorded in North America. 30 people were killed in Valdez when a section of the city near the waterfront sloughed off into the harbor. "Old Valdez" had been built on unstable glacial till. The city was relocated to a town site built on bedrock shortly after the disaster. Ironically, another tragedy occurred here on Good Friday when the Exxon Valdez struck Bligh Reef in 1989, causing the largest human-caused environmental disaster of its time.



Valdez is now known principally as the southern terminal of the Alaska oil pipeline. Other main activities are fishing and tourism. We haven't been fishing, but our TREK friends have. Their freezers are full and we have benefited from their lack of cold storage capacity. Fresh grilled wild salmon is pretty good! Each evening we have gone over to the Solomon Gulch hatchery on the far side of the bay to watch the salmon run and the bears come down to feed on them. Big fun.



We have been here for 4 nights and it is time to move again. We might head over on the Edgerton Highway towards Chitina and McCarthy near the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park.

Fly Denali!

We had already taken one flight into a national park on this trip. You'd think that would be enough. But no .... Several folks had suggested that we had to take a flight over Denali National Park. If we did nothing else, fly over Denali. OK. We had 2 for 1 discount coupons for two different flight services out of Talkeetna AK. Talkeetna is off the Parks Highway south of the park and is actually closer to the peaks and provides a better view than at Denali Village at the park entrance. It is also the jumping off point for most flights for climbers to the summit. We had waited before booking a flight because we wanted to pick a clear day with good weather. When you make your reservation, they take your charge card number and you are committed. As

we left Denali NP, it appeared tomorrow would be a good day, so Dorcas made a call. We first called K2 Aviation because they had been recommended by a friend who has used them in the past. They were booked through July 10. Dang. We then called Talkeetna Aero Services . They could book us at 10:00 tomorrow. Cool! That flight cost a little more, but it was a 2 hr flight vs a 1 1/4 hr flight with K2. We later learned that Talkeetna Aero's plane had twin engines and was equipped with oxygen and could take us near the summit at 20,000 ft vs ~12,000 ft with K2. We lucked into a better choice.

After spending the night on a turnoff near the Talkeetna Spur, we pulled the motor home up to the Talkeetna Aero building at the Talkeetna airport. We got signed up and spent some time talking to folks there. It turns out the son of the owner had raced in the Iditarod. They had used the plane we were flying to transport his dogs back from Nome. They had taken out all the seats and placed the dogs in bags with their heads sticking out so they would be still during the flight. Actually they were probably so trashed they didn't care.



Pilot Dave gave us our flight briefing and off we went. It was a great show. Dave flew us around all the major peaks, glaciers and landmarks. We could see the climbers camp at 7200' on a glacier. The Denali summit had some wispy clouds and was not totally clear, but all the other views were fantastic. Dave gave a great narration and was very knowledgeable of the whole area and its history. He made a point to fly around all the landmarks in both directions so folks on both sides of the plane could get a look. He would then lower the wing to get it out of the way and use it as a pointer.
















After our flight Dorcas and I explored beautiful downtown Talkeetna. It was a glorious day. While Dorcas was shopping I found myself at the Denali Brewing Company sampling some wares. I ended up in the courtyard sitting with a fellow from Washington state who was also traveling in an RV. I mentioned we had just taken a flight to the summit, and I asked if he had ever been. It turns out he had climbed McKinley back in the 70's. He was very interested in our flight because he wanted to take his wife up and show her his route up the mountain. A little later his wife came around, but it seemed she had little interest in taking the flight.

Finally it was time again to continue our journey southward and towards Anchorage.

Denali National Park AK

June 18, 2011 - We broke camp to leave Fairbanks before 10:00 a.m. and entertained a couple attending the Harley Davidson rally at the fairgrounds while we hooked up the car to the motor home. (They thought it looked interesting.) On our way out of town we stopped by the recycling center on campus at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. We disposed of all our recycles except for our steel cans. Oh well, at least they took paper and glass.


Our drive south on the George Parks Highway was beautiful. The drive from Fairbanks to Denali was only 150 miles so we could take our time and enjoy the sights. Our first stop was in Nenana where we learned about the Nenana Ice Classic. The ice classic is a guessing game to predict the exact day hour and minute the ice will break on the Tanana River. The folks were adamant it was NOT a lottery. In February they drill holes and insert a four-legged tripod in the ice on the frozen river. A cable is stretched from the top of the tripod to a tower on shore, where it is connected to a clock. When the ice breaks, the cable pulls a pin and stops the clock. That determines the time of the break. Last year's payout was over $300,000. It's a pretty big deal in Alaska We bought tickets and entered our guesses for the ice break.



We arrived at Denali National Park, where we had reservations for 4 nights at Teklanika Campground. Teklanika is 29 miles down the road into the park and 15 miles beyond the point where motorists can normally drive. When you camp at Teklanika you get a pass to drive your vehicle to the campground on the day you check in and out from the campground on the day you check out. You can't drive your vehicle on the road except these times. The check-in process was fairly painless and efficient. We also made a reservation at Riley Creek campground for the night we check out of Teklanika. This would allow us to spend a little time visiting the visitor's centers and the area at the entrance to the park. We also purchased a shuttle bus pass called the Tek Pass that would reserve a seat for us on a bus going to Wonder Lake for the next day. The Tek pass also entitled us to unlimited shuttle bus passage from Teklanika CG into the park, and then we could use the pass anytime after that on a space available basis while we were camped in the park. We unloaded the things we thought we might need from the Element and parked it near the main visitor's center near the park entrance. Our stay at Teklanika River Campground entitled us to drive our camping unit (RV only) into the park Since we were in no hurry we took our time and enjoyed the scenery and looked hard for wildlife. After the first 15 miles the park road became dirt and narrowed. Shuttle and tour buses; other campers either arriving or departing and park maintenance folks were the only traffic on the road and since the speed limit was 20 and 25 we savored the drive.



June 19, 2011 - Happy Father's Day! Our first morning in Denali was a busy one. First, we had tried to go to bed early (10:30-11:00 ish) so we could get up early to meet our shuttle bus through the park to Wonder Lake. Since we were about 29 miles into the park we could catch the 6:15 a.m. bus at the campground at 7:25 a.m. That still meant we had to set an alarm (heaven forbid!!) so we could get up in plenty of time to pack our lunch and snacks, have breakfast, walk and play with Matilda (since she would be in the motor home for at least 8 hours) and walk to the bus stop. The day started partly cloudy/sunny...maybe we will get to see "the mountain". On Myron's previous trip to Denali NP Mt McKinley (Denali) stayed shrouded in clouds during his entire visit. Since our trip began good weather seems to be following us where ever we land, so we had "high" hopes. All went as planned, and we boarded Sheryl's bus about 7:30 a.m. The buses have a schedule but the times can vary depending upon the weather and wildlife sightings. These are not "coaches" they are like retired school buses. Narrow slippery bench seats meant for three children but barely long enough for two average sized adults. Also, remember how noisy your school bus was? You were barely able to hear yourself think not to mention a bus driver describing the sights. Fortunately, Sheryl had a headset microphone which was audible unless we were on a bumpy section of road. Remember, we are in Alaska where the roads are never completed...they just continually require maintenance...



The scenery was beautiful and with about 40 people looking for wildlife we did see wildlife. Caribou were the most plentiful. A couple of times we saw a male and female pair just hanging out enjoying the day. We saw a small herd on a large patch of snow relaxing and avoiding the mosquitoes. We saw a grizzly sow with a cub; a couple of moose, one bull and one cow; a couple of ptarmigan; a distant view of a small herd of Dall sheep; a couple of golden eagles and several water fowl.



We took regular breaks stopping at overlooks and visitor centers which made the 10 hour trip not seem so long. Our driver, Sheryl, entertained us with stories about the park and her experiences during the 11 summers she has driven for the park. One of her encounters was of two bear cubs she videoed at play in front of her bus and is posted on YouTube.




June 20, 2011 - Today we had planned to take the shuttle bus to Eielson Visitor Center and join the ranger-led hike at noon. We would be able to jump on any bus going that way if space was available. We again set the alarm (ugh) to repeat our activities from yesterday. Before we got out of bed we heard the pitter patter of rain. Of course, rain an hour before we boarded the bus was no indication of the weather we would have the rest of the day. We found the weather here can change from hour to hour and from place to place along the road into the park. We had a two minute debate over the pros and cons of getting up and heading for the bus...the cons won and I turned off the alarm and snuggled down for an extra hour of sleep. We enjoyed a nice leisurely breakfast and a nice walk around the campground with Matilda. This turned out to be our "layover" day. By the afternoon the clouds rolled away bringing a very pleasant afternoon. We took Matilda out for a walk and run down by the river. Matilda really enjoyed running in circles and up a cliff which made me nervous.

June 21, 2011 - Tuesday morning turned out to be partly cloudy so we decided to catch the shuttle bus to Eielson Visitor Center and join the ranger-led hike at noon. We didn't have to wait long before we were able to board a bus. This bus was a bit more comfortable with bucket like seats (unlike the previous bench seats). We assumed our back of the bus seats and set off in search of wildlife. Our bus driver Nancy was very informative. She told us she was driving a tour bus in a couple of days so I think she was practicing on us. At Eielson we signed up for the noon hike filling slots 9 and 10 of the 11 max for the group. We had about an hour to kill before meeting for the hike so we ate our lunch and had a nice conversation with a couple from Anchorage. She was retired from National Park Service and was a former Superintendent at Katmai NP. The hike was about 1 mile one way with a 900 ft elevation gain. Being a bit out of shape we did a lot of huffing and puffing but the views were fantastic and we learned how fire and ice work together to create the beautiful landscape in Denali NP.




Catching a shuttle back to the campground took a while. We were part of a large group of folks who were going the same way. After three buses our name came up on the list and we boarded a bus (the back row again). I was ready to relax and enjoy the ride and not worry about seeing wildlife. Our bus mates were a group of Europeans that seemed to not understand the concept of whispering (or saying nothing at all) when an animal was spotted. And wouldn't you know it...we saw a brown bear sow with two cubs very near the road. After much squealing and hanging out the windows order was restored by a ranger that happened to be riding our bus. I think everyone got great photos...then the trio moved into the road effectively stopping traffic both ways. At one point there were three buses in the bear jam. The blessing was there were no private automobiles to add to the pile-up. We finally continued our journey back to camp and saw more snowshoe hares, caribou, and ground squirrels. When we reached our camp, Matilda was happy to be our favorite "wildlife" sighting of the day!

June 22, 2011 - This was our last morning in Teklanika so we took our time packing up. The drive out was uneventful. We drove slowly and scanned both sides of the road for wildlife. When we arrived at Riley Campground we found a nice site and set up. We saw the folks from Minnesota we had met in Fairbanks. We hiked back to the visitor center and boarded the bus to the dog sledding demonstration. The ranger told the group we would be able to get our "dog fix" for anyone missing their own dogs, so we were allowed to pet and visit all the dogs. These Alaskan Huskies are used to patrol the park during the winter. Since these dogs were not racers they were built to pull loads and were stockier and a bit heavier than the racing Alaskan Huskies we had seen in Fairbanks.




After the program we opted to hike the 2 miles back to the visitor center instead of riding the bus. It was a nice walk through forest where we saw lots of wild flowers and animal scat. One scat looked like wolf so I took a picture and showed it to a ranger walking the opposite direction. We saw the ranger again back at the visitor center, and she confirmed the scat was canine, probably wolf. Cool.

We spent the rest of the day enjoying fine warm and clear weather.

Each evening we attended the Ranger led programs in the campground amphitheater. One Ranger in particular gave an entertaining talk on raptors. Check out "The Raptor Rap" to see a report of his presentation and also view the video which includes the dog sled demonstration.

Tomorrow we leave Denali after five nights and continue southward.

Fairbanks AK

As we approach the northernmost point in our journey, we are also approaching the summer solstice. The days are becoming incredibly long and nighttime seems nonexistent.

After leaving Tok we continued north and west and came to Delta Junction. Delta Junction is technically the northern terminus of the Alaska Highway. We visited the Sullivan Roadhouse, an historical roadhouse that operated before highways. These roadhouses were usually located about fifteen miles apart, generally a day's travel, along the historical trails, and served trappers, traders and gold stampeders and provided meals and lodging. Later we visited Rika's Roadhouse, which is now an Alaskan state historical park. Rika's is a more modern roadhouse and operated after travelers began passing in automobiles. John Hajdukovich established a trading post at this site on the Tanana River in 1913. In 1917 Hajdukovich hired a Swedish immigrant named Rika Wallen to operate the roadhouse which prospered under her management. In 1923 she bought it from Hajdukovich for "$10.00 and other considerations". Today it is preserved to illustrate life during the roadhouse era.

We continued and arrived at Fairbanks late in the evening. After buying fuel and groceries at Sam's Club, we parked (with permission) in the back lot there. Later we learned that Walmart was really the happening place, with over 50 RVs parked there every night. The next morning we moved to Tanana Valley Campground for three nights. I think this campground is part of the state fair facilities. While in Fairbanks we learned of the Alaska TourSaver coupon book. We bought the book for $100 and it contains coupons for 2 for 1 deals all over Alaska. We broke even on the book before leaving Fairbanks and will save hundreds on tours and cruises as we travel south to Denali, Anchorage and the Kenai Peninsula. If you go to Alaska check it out!



We did all the touristy things in Fairbanks. First we visited the University of Alaska Museum of the North (2 for 1 coupon!) This museum was a highlight of my visit to Alaska 18 years ago. Since then they have built a modern building to house the exhibits. The museum contains exhibits on the cultural and natural history of Alaska as well as a collection of fine arts. We also visited Pioneer Park, a Fairbanks city park located on the Chena River. Pioneer Park has an aviation museum, a narrow gauge train, playgrounds and many historical buildings and cabins relocated from other parts of downtown Fairbanks. Many of these buildings were saved from demolition and now house shops and restaurants.




Dorcas wanted to visit the El Dorado Gold Mine. I wasn't thrilled about it, but we had a coupon, and Dorcas twisted my arm. I was very pleasantly surprised. The attraction featured a train ride through a recreated mining camp, a mine tunnel and a permafrost tunnel. The ride was hosted by our singing conductor and miner/actors demonstrating different mining techniques along the way. The train ended at a real mining operation where we watched some folks really mine for gold. They dumped a load of "pay dirt" that had been extracted nearby into a hopper with water flowing beneath it. The water and dirt raced down a long sluice, perhaps 100 feet long, that had angle irons on the bottom perpendicular to the flow. These irons increased turbulence in the water and caused the gold particles to fall out. Then they scooped up some dirt from the upper end of the sluice and began panning. And they had GOLD!!! It was cool. Finally they gave everyone in our group a small poke with some pay dirt, so we could pan for gold ourselves. Everyone was guaranteed to find gold. And we found GOLD!!! When we were finished, they weighed our gold and told us its worth at the current market value. It turns out that Dorcas and I together had 7.9 grains of 21 karat gold, with a market value of $39. Not bad for $35 admission and all the free homemade cookies and hot chocolate we could eat. We would have come out ahead if Dorcas hadn't paid $20 for a locket to put her (our) booty into. Much of this attraction was a little hokey, but the gold panning was great. I can understand why folks get the fever. Where can I stake my claim?



We also rode the Riverboat Discovery on the Chena River. Again, I didn't expect much, but we had a 2 for 1 coupon and Dorcas wanted to go. Again I was pleasantly surprised. The Discovery is piloted by the fourth generation of a family of riverboat pilots on the Chena and Tanana Rivers. In 1950 when the highway and the railroad made the riverboat obsolete for hauling goods into the interior, Captain Jim began taking tourists on the Chena River on the Discovery I. Today the cruise is like a floating theme park. As the boat sails from its dock to the Chena's confluence with the Tanawa, the boat stops at different stations along the river for demonstrations of Alaskan life. First, a float plane lands and takes off next to the boat as the importance of the bush pilot to interior Alaska is explained. Then it stops at the kennels of the late Susan Butcher, a champion dog-sled racer and there is a demonstration on dog sledding. The boat then stops at an Athabascan fish camp, where the traditional ways are illustrated by a native. Finally the boat stops at the Chena Indian Village, where everyone is able to get off and see more of the traditional Athabascan ways. There are also sled dogs kenneled there that you can pet and talk to the handlers. As we sailed back to port they fed us smoked salmon dip. Again, it was all pretty cool and much better than expected.