The Final Days



Typical Crow Creek miner (not quite, but what a character)

 Full circle, litterally.  We are back in Girdwood at the Crow Creek mine to spend our last night in AK.  Our last night, so painful to say, but yet after two weeks away from the families, over 2,300 miles driven, getting used to seeing snow covered mountains, and enjoying waking up to 40 degree mornings and 55 degree highs, its about time to get back to the searing heat of the southeast.

We spent the last leg of this voyage in Valdez (pronounced Val DEEZ, thank you Kevin) for the last day and a half.  We had the option of back tracking through Glennallen or catching the Alaska Marine Highway back to Whittier, through the Whittier Tunnel and then a short one hour drive to Anchorage.  We chose the latter.



The amazing Duo at a waterfall on Thompson pass, Valdez



Locals net over 600 pounds of Copper River Sockeye and one King
Must be great to be a local (over $4,000 worth of fish)



Bald Eagle at Valdez

 Valdez is a neat harbor town located at the terminal of the Alaska pipeline, made famous from the Exxon-Valdez oil spill of the 80's.  It is surrounded by waterfalls and bald eagles.  I never thougth I would get tired of bald eagles, but when they outnumber the sea gulls, you sort of get used to them.  Our campground had three spots closed due to a nesting pair.

We left out Friday morning on the Aurora, a ship of the Marine Highway system.  We calculated that we could load the RV on the ship, enjoy a relaxing 6 hour trip, and arrive in Whittier at a cost of only a few dollars more than the cost of gasoline if we drove.  It was a nice way to wind down from an earlier pace that had us starting days at 4:00 a.m. and ending at midnight.  And guess who was behind us when we loaded?  A car with a Gator tag on the front, and yes they were from Gainesville.  How ironic.  The first meal we had in Alaska we were seated next to a Gator fan, and the last leg of the journey, we travel 6 hours with one.  Me being a diehard FSU Seminole.

Fillet of Copper River Sockeye Salmon

Kevin and I got some much needed sleep on the ship as we watched icebergs, dolphins, seals, and sealions past by.

Kevin at the bow of the Aurora

Last night, big meal.  We ate dinner tonight at the Double Musky Inn in Girdwood.  This place is located out in the sticks but is rated by the Food Network as one of the 10 best restaurants in America.  We agree.  The pepper steak is out of this world at a very reasonable price.  If you are ever even near Girdwood, stop in, eat a steak, and leave completely happy.




Double Musky Inn - Stop by if you are within 1,000 miles of this place


Packing up.  Thanks for the readership.
Summary Facts:
Distance Travelled in RV- 2,528 Miles
Distance Travelled in RV on dirt roads = 224 miles
Gas Purchased - don't ask, just figure 10 mpg at an average price of $4.50 gallon
Cheapest Gas - Anchorage $4.06/gallon
Most Expensive Gas - Denali Park and Eagle  $5.00/gallon
Number of Physical Altercations between two guys couped up in an RV for 2,528 miles = zero!!!!! amazing
Number of minutes looking at news of the Lower 48 = zero
Number of Bears seen = 10
Number of Moose = lost count
Number of Caribou = about 40, including a heard we chased up a mountain pass
Number of snakes  - they don't have snakes or chiggers up here
Number of mosquitos seen - enough to suck the blood out of a wooly mammoth
Total hours slept over 14 days = 70 hours
Total hours sunshine over 14 days = 14x24=336 hours
Total miles hiked = 17 of which 2 were vertical
Total miles flown = 9,400 each
Total meals eaten at a chain restaurant = zero
Total pounds of fish caught =80 pounds halibut, 15 pounds of Cod, 10 pounds ugly fish, and 1.5 pounds each of Grayling and Arctic Char
Total gold found = not enough to pay for entrance to the gold panning area (sorry Shelby)
Number of Alaskan tourist T shirts and hats purchased = alot



 It's been fun.

To the Edge of the World

We woke this morning to the howls of wolves outside the camper.  Where in the heck are we?  I guess that’s part of the adventure when you camp on the side of the road.

Headed through Tok with Chicken and Eagle as our final destination for the night (google it).  The road to Tok was great except for the frost heave bumps, aka window busters.  Once again snow covered mountains all around.  A few miles out of Tok you turn north to the quaint mining stop of Chicken.  We met a guy in Tok named Spike who gave us info on road conditions.  Turns out Spike’s son owns the Gold Panner in Chicken and gave us some good advice on where to fish and pan along the way.  Chicken is an old time, semi commercialized gold mining town located at the point where paved road turns to gravel.  It is remote, so remote that any normal tourist would not drive 90 miles off of the beaten path to see this outpost of civilization.   It is seriously  intimidating when you first pull in.  It feels like you have just crashed a strangers family reunion where everybody knows everybody, but you don’t know anybody.

Frost Heave in Road/Big Mountain in Back

It had recently rained, and the parking area was muddy, people were walking around with gold pans and Panacea Nikees.  According to legend, the original 1886 miners wanted to name the town Ptarmigan (silent P), after the local bird that helped them survive through the long winters.  However since they could not spell Ptarmigan, they just named it Chicken.

Our final destination today was to travel an additional 65 miles to Eagle on winding twisting dirt roads.  Well, we thought 65 miles, but it turned out that it was in fact 85.  We had been using “The Idiot’s Guide to Alaska” (no comments please) as a guide book for our trip.  It seemed appropriate, and the author had been hitting 100% on his recommendations of places to see, do, and eat.  We had misread his directions so ended up on a long ride.  We traveled on this dirt road with 1000 feet vertical drops, single lane traffic, rock slides, cracks in the freaking road, with no car or human being in sight, but the most awesome picturesque vistas of mountains, tundra, and streams.  This town was 85 miles further out in the boonies than the second  most desolate place in Alaska that we have been yet, which is Chicken.

Chicken, AK

Gold Panner, Chicken, AK

About 45 miles into this adventure we crossed 40 mile creek bridge and the road turned to mud.  As we were trying to decide whether or not to go mud bogging, we met a local homesteader couple named David and Leslie, who had lived here for 32 years (one of about 4 homesteads we saw along this whole road).  David looked like miner 49er and worked a placer mine on 40 mile.  They were a super nice couple and told us that they went into “town” about twice a year, which was a 750 mile round trip to Fairbanks to pick up supplies.  They thought we would have no problem getting to Eagle, so we trudged on. 

Our new best friends

Kevin was driving, so as he would squeeze around a curve, I would lean out the window and look for cracks in the road that indicated a potential landslide.  Kevin was literally white knuckled and bone tired when we finally arrived.

Nice road

Whoever left the track was about 2 feet from death

Tight Squeeze

You never know what to expect when you enter one of these remote towns.  Where Chicken was semi commercialized with food and lodging, Eagle was more like an old west town that time forgot.  Population 130, it was located on the Yukon river about one mile from the Canadian Border.  We got into town about 9:30 p.m. and thought we had entered the twilight zone, or at least a Stephen King novel.  There were no visible people.   NONE.  There were buildings, houses, a museum, but no signs of any living creature (human or animal).  As we made sure our doors were locked and hung crucifixes and  garlic all around the Moho, we settled in at a very lonely campground.  If you have ever seen the Twightlight movies, this place would have been an optimum place to spot either Edward hunting or the Wolvies on patrol. 

Welcome to Eagle



Typical Eagle Home



Our friend the porcupine

We survived the night and the trip back out and are now on to Wrangell-St. Elias National Park on our last leg of this excellent adventure.

Glacier Landing

Glacier Landing

If you want a dramatic end to an incredible Denali experience, you have to go back down to Talkeetna and do a flyover with glacier landing.  Due to constantly changing weather conditions on the mountain, pilots stay on standby waiting for a break to take folks on this adventure.  We contacted Talkeetna Air Taxi on the way out of Denali to check.  Although skies were good over Denali at this time of the morning, skies between Denali and Talkeetna were bad.  They thought weather may be clearing so we were placed on a standby list for 12:30.  When we checked back in about 11:30 they said it would be a go, so we beelined it to the airport.

We put on our “glacier shoes”, which were waterproof overboots,  to keep our shoes dry and hoped that the weather would be clear enough for a landing on the snow.  The planes have flat metal sleds that surrounds the wheel and allows the plane to slide in for the landing without digging in and flipping.  The plane we flew in was a bright red turboprop plane with a full load of 11, including the pilot.  They make you weigh in on a scale when you register so they can adjust the load (with a small sign that read “only the person behind the counter can see your weight”) and then you have to give them a phone number of your next of kin.  After this confidence building event, we headed for the plane, got seated, and put on earmuffs that allowed us to hear the pilots talking to the control towers and to each other.  One other cool feature was that each seat had a window with no one having to look over another to see the scenery below.

On the flight out we followed Ruth Glacier up toward Denali, with the pilot educating us on glacial features like crevasses and moraines.  These crevasses are basically cracks in the ice that can extend down hundreds of feet into the glacier, many hidden under just a thin layer of snow and identifiable from a slight linear depression over them (I’ll come back to this later).  We were flying in and out of clouds and you could hear the pilots checking with each other on positions.  It was a little unnerving when you flew into a cloudbank and wondered how close you were to either another plane of a rock face.  At the head of the glacier is a large bowl of rock and the plane has to do a 180 to get out to head back down the mountain (trust me that will make you pucker).

Our first potential landing site was partially fogged in.  The pilot said that we could probably land, but with the moving fog bank we may not be able to take off.  The plane carries survival gear just for this possibility, but our pilot said he had places to go that night and didn’t want to take a chance.  We flew to a second location which had not had a landing on it this year and was able to land. 





Stepping out of the plane you entered the brightest, quietest place I had ever encountered.  Kevin and I were the last ones on, so the first ones off.  I backed up away from the plane to get a picture when Tyler (our pilot) said that I might should step closer to the plane since I was standing right over a crevasse.  I swear I was looking, and from my angle could not tell that I was on one.  I think I heard Tyler say something under his breath like “dang tourist”.  I’m just kidding about that, Tyler was one of the nicest persons I have met on this trip.  He was an excellent pilot and on the glacier took all the time we needed to get photos and he was constantly shooting pictures of us, and did not give me a hard time about nearly plummeting to my death during his watch.

After this flight, we headed into Talkeetna for wash day and eating supper.  I think I mentioned the Roadhouse in a previous blog, but if you go here, you need to stop by this place.  It is old Alaska.  We ate reindeer chili and salmon pastie with blackberry pie.  Oh mercy.

Glacial Water/Crevasses

From here it was a road trip of 200 miles through the blight that is Wasilla, Palmer, and then onto the Glenn Highway toward Tok.  Moose were everywhere.  Saw them on the side of the road, along streams, and in lakes.  We stopped to take a picture of the one by the road and it got ticked off.  Moose are angry critters, like one thousand pounds of meat on a hoof with a testosterone problem.  This rascal started bowing up and shaking his head at us like he wanted to charge.  I think our saving grace was that our camper was bigger than he was.  Anyway, we ended up pulling over on the side of the road about 10:30 for some sleep. 

Four Days in Denali

We are back to civilization.  At least in an area with internet connection.  We spent the last four days in Denali National Park, so this blog is a summary of those days (when you are there, they tend to blend from day to day).

June 1 rst was spent as a day of mostly travel from Portage Glacier to Anchorage to Talkeetna on a cloudy, rainy day.  The day started out with an initial trip to Portage Glacier.  This is a Federal park which consists of a 650 feet deep lake with a glacier on one end that calves icebergs.  The park is set up with a large boat which can hold up to 200 people which takes you out onto the lake to see the glacier at the other end.  The ice in the glacier is  light blue in color, about the shade of blue seen in the sky on a cloud free day, late evening, with the sun setting after a rain storm (wasn’t that poetic).  This is due to the pressure that the ice was subjected to during formation of the glacier.  We rode around on the boat and did get to see a small iceberg calve and a tiny amount of snow fall during the trip.

Calving iceberg at Portage Glacier

Then through Anchorage to Wacilla (hello Sarah) and finally made the night stop in Talkeetna.  Talkeetna is a strange little town with a rustic, hippie feel.  It is both a tourist trap for the trains that come through on the way to Denali, but also a destination for people planning to make a flyover trips and glacier landings on Denali.  We attempted to make one of these flyover trips and stayed overnight in the parking lot of the small airport.  We awoke on the 3^rd with cloudy skies, threat of rain, and a cancelled flight.  So, we decided to head on up to Denali and possibly try the flight on the way out. 

We were booking our trip to Denali online and found out that there is a campground 29 miles into Denali, which is the last campground that an RV can stay in on the 89 mile park road.  In most cases this would mean, “so what”.  But you gotta understand that in Denali, you do not drive your vehicle into the park, because it is so wild and they want to keep it that way, people must park cars at the entrance and ride a park shuttle bus along its one gravel road.  Buses run on a regular schedule, so you can get off a bus nearly anywhere and hike around, then get back on the bus to ride back out or to a new destination.  People on the bus are always on the lookout for animals, so if you see one stopped, it usually means someone saw something.  Strange concept, but here it works.  Anyway we were able to get a campsite in the park.   This campground is called Teklanika.  You can only camp here if you have a hard sided camper due to wolf problems. 

On the way into the park we see a stopped bus.  Sure enough, just to the right are three male caribou grazing in the field.  A hundred pictures later we move forward.  About 10 more miles down the road we see another one stopped.  This time it is a mother grizzly and cub grubbing up worms and such under the Tundra about 75 yards from the road.  All in all it was a great day.  When we got to camp we took a three mile hike up a river bed to get warmed up for the upcoming day.

I have an idea, let's hike up there.

Our Second Hike

First full day in Denali.  Up early to catch the first bus to Eielson Center, the last stop on the road and a great place to view Mt. McKinley.  On the way out we see dall sheep, caribou, and grizly, all from a pretty good distance away.  At the end of the line Kevin and I decide to bust loose from the group and head up a nearby mountain.  We climb about 1,000 feet straight up with a view to kill for.  Mt. McKinley is so big it creates its own weather pattern.   Early in the morning we could see it clearly coming up with beautiful blue sky surrounding the peak.  By the time we got to the end of the line, clouds were starting to form around the mountain, but we were still able to get a good view.  One of the park rangers said that only about one in seven people who come to the park actually get to see the mountain, so I guess we were pretty lucky.

Mt. McKinley

We caught the bus and road about 10 miles to an area called Muir’s plain.  This was named after a gentleman who was instrumental in creating the park and was an area he studied.  Getting off the bus, someone said “we saw three bears here yesterday” while the bus driver said “ this is prime bear and moose territory”.  Since moose appear to be more dangerous than bear (they weigh over a 1,000 pounds and are very territorial) this advice really set off our radar.  We step off the road and through brush material that is full of moose tracks, bear tracks, and tons of scat.  Yesterday when we checked into the park, as a souvenir and kind of as a joke, I bought a bear bell.  This is a bell you attach to your clothing that goes ding, ding, ding as you walk.  Of course your saying that if we got off a perfectly good bus in bear country that we may be ding a ling aling, but that’s another story.  Anyway, I had packed this bell in my bag, but it came out of my bag and ended up on my belt loop.

Bear Scat (look it up)

Friendly grizzlies

They say that the mosquito is Alaska’s state bird.  Well, we stopped in this arctic tundra to chill and eat a snack when the wind died down and the mosquitos raised up. It sounded like the hum of jet engines as these mosquitos rose out of the tundra to suck on the blood of a human, something they had probably never seen before.  A little DEET and we were all good.

Moose

Dall Sheep

This place is vast.  Words cannot describe the feeling you get as the bus drives away and you are standing in an area where you can literally see for hundreds of square miles.  You feel like a very small entity in a giant natural world.  Valleys so wide and long that your eyes relax when looking over them like they do when you look out over an ocean.  See what I mean, it is indescribable.

We walked for about 7 hours through bear country today.  Did not see any bear while walking, but should have.  We did find a moose antler that had been shed sometime this past winter.  Weighed about 30 pounds and would have been the coolest souvenir ever if we could have figured out  a way to get it out of the park.  We ended up leaving it where we found it, for the squirrels and other rodents to chew on for calcium supplement. 

After walking for about 3 miles along the road we were picked up by a return bound bus.  On this bus we saw some wildlife up close including more Dall Sheep and 4 grizzly’s.  We ended this day with cooking up a delicious rib eye steak on the grill, baked potatoe, and pork and beans.  Just what we need, more flatulence fodder.  I had forgotten how prolific Kevins methane generator operated.  Figure if we could connect him directly to the Moho fuel tank, that we would never need to fill up again.

Next day we ride the bus for about 15 miles before we get off.  About 95% of the bus riders just ride the bus and never get off.  They have no clue what they are missing.  Just walking down the road is a great experience, when you get off the road it is an order of magnitude greater experience.  We chased a heard of caribou into a canyon and over a small pass to the next canyon and back to the highway. About 10 miles later we are back on the bus. 

There is a 5 mile stretch of road where you can only walk along the road due to the concentration of bears.  They have signs up with warnings and the signs have nails all around the edges because the bears chew on the signs.  Being the mighty mountain men that we are, we decide to get out and walk this stretch.  We yell to the bus driver that we want to get out and the rest of the bus patrons look at us like we are superheroes.  As we exit, the bus driver says “Did you notice the fresh pile of bear scat about 20 feet back?”  I’m thinking, it’s too late to turn around now, all these people think we are superheroes, so we get off the bus and start walking.  Ended up not seeing any bears on that loop but it was a great hike.

We ended up seeing all of the major mammals except for a wolverine.  We say grizzly, moose, caribou, dall sheep, wolves, and minor critters like artic squirrels (which look like prairie dogs), ptarmigan (state bird), and lots of mosquitos. 

Topping off the trip to Denali, we see four moose close up as we are heading out of the park on our last day.  What an adventure.  Advice for your travels, go during the shoulder season, camp inside the park, get off the bus, and pray for a clear view of The Mountain.

Heading back to Talkeetna, hopefully for a flight around McKinley and a glacier landing, if so you will get photos, if not, traveling to the Glenn Highway and Wrangell St. Elias.  But first, we have got to find a Laundromat.  No more clean clothes and have already recycled a few things.  Luckily, the weather is a cool 40 to 55 degrees and sweating is not a big concern up here.



On thin ice




One bad moose



Caribou

Halibut Fishing in Homer

Day 5

Halibut Fishing in Homer, AK.  We joined Captain Greg at 6:45 for a day of fishing.  Joining us was a tough fishing lady from Orange County California by the name of Veronica.  Veronica was there for 3 days of halibut fishing.  She warned us on the way out that she was a hurler and that she would be sick.  The lady don’t lie.  Just after her first hurl, she caught the first halibut ( a nice 15 pounder).  I had not even had a nibble and I told her that if she caught another one before Kevin and I landed one that I was gonna make myself hurl just for the good luck factor.  

Luckily, Kevin and I hooked fish at the same time shortly after that.  Unlucky for me, Kevin had halibut, I had cod.  “Fish On” is my new favorite phrase.  My second fish on was the ugliest looking fish I had ever caught.  Looked like a rock fish, but they had another name for it.  e were soon hooking fish while poor Veronica was curled up in the cabin looking green. At the end of the trip she did get her second wind and limited out for the day.   I felt really bad eating sandwiches, trail mix, and bark in front of her, but not bad enough to stop.  I will tell you about bark later.  We anchored off of Seldovia, in Cook’s Inlet to catch fish and never had to move.  The night before, Kevin and I were wondering around Homer Spit for food and trinkets, looking at other people’s catches for the day.  Except for one really large fish (which I was originally going to claim as mine, but I cannot lie) the catch seamed to be all small fish, less than 10 pounds.  But Captain Greg put us on some good fish.  Assuming that you can harvest about 50% of your fish in filets, Kevin and my total fish averaged about 20 pounds apiece, with the big one going at about 30 pounds by yours truly (no comments Veronica).  So, big fish fry when we get home with plenty of slaw, hushpuppies, and cheese grits. 

Back at the dock early, so we drove back towards Anchorage to spend the night at Portage Glacier.  If you ever make this trip, stop by Suzie’s Café in Sterling for some good country cooking, heaping platters of hot food served by the nicest people in the world.  Oh, and try the strawberry rhubarb pie with ice cream (my diet is going to heck).

Mother moose and calves

Captain Greg holding my ugly fish

Halibut catch on the Tomahawk II

Best to Veronica on her next two days of fishing and hurling.

Fire and Ice

Day 4

From volcanoes to glaciers, Alaska has it all.  After waking up early, again (4:00 a.m.) we headed south to Exit Glacier.  Once again there was a cloudless sky and although the morning was near 40 degrees, the day warmed up quickly.  This glacier is located near Seward AK on the Kenai Peninsula, south of Anchorage.  Exit Glacier is a large retreating glacier which has been around a long time.  Due to our early start, we began hiking toward  this destination before even the park rangers were on duty.  We decided quickly that today was a day for seeing wildlife.  A couple from Missouri who   were   just behind us said that they startled a black bear as they were coming up the trail.  Lots of moose scat (which looks like giant rabbit scat) littered the ground.  The signs were good. 

From here we headed back up a ways, then turned south on the Sterling Highway  toward Homer for halibut fishing (tomorrow).  We saw a wolf, a moose, sea lions, a beluga whale, and about 10 bald eagles on the way to Homer (plus two volcanoes, which tweaked my buttons).  As we approached Homer we stopped at an overlook to see the town and noticed that there were bald eagles everywhere.  Turns out there is a large nesting area there.  Got some great pictures of the eagles, but since Kevin was in the navigation chair and did not have his camera ready (Like he was supposed  to) I am sorry to say at this point of the trip we have no pictures of grey wolves or moose.

Tonight we are spending the night on the Spit at Homer.  If you saw Sarah Palins show, this is where they camped when they went halibut fishing.  I did not realize that it is in a Tsunami warning area.  Once again I will sleep very good tonight (did you catch the sarcasm?).   We saw the Time Bandit, from Deadliest Catch.  Kevin got caught in one of its traps, but got thrown back (see the photo).  Shutting down early tonight so we can get up early and hopefully catch some halibut tomorrow with Captain Greg on the “Tomahawk II” .

Redoubt Volcanoe

Bald Eagle

Bald Eagle on the Hunt

Deadliest Catch - Time Bandit





Bill and Kevin at Exit Glacier

The Real Trip Begins

Day 3

Today’s agenda was to finish up panning, pick up Kevin back in Acnchorage, and head south.  Panning went smoothly today with no repeat of Alaska life lesson number 1.  I finally met up with an old timer who showed me how to pan properly and found a few small specks of gold.  I was glad to have a day job to return to, cause if I had to rely on panning to eat I would be one thin mountain man.

Said goodbye to some really cool folks at the mine prior to leaving.  The last night we were standing around the fire talking about the odds of a lady coming to Alaska and finding a man.  One miner said the odds were good, but the goods were odd.  That about summed up my new friends.  Thanks to Andy for being a great host, and to Bill and Ken for teaching me to pan up my two flakes of Alaska Gold.

Kevin arrived, but his luggage didn’t.  However Alaska Airlines was right on the stick and had it in hand within two hours.  This gave us time for Kevin to get the Moho driving orientation, me to learn how to dump black water (a nice term for poop), and to eat supper.  We ate the best pizza I have ever had at the Moose Tooth Pizza.  If you ever go to Anchorage, go there and get a Santa’s Helper.  Side note.  Me, a Seminole fan, 4,000 miles away from Tallahassee, and they sit us next to a Gator Fan with full gator apparel.  God has a sense of humor.

Heading out of town we passed one unusual sight at the Portage Glacier turnoff.  I thought it was a traffic jam, but there were over two hundred native Eskimos with 10 feet long dip nets lined up in the river dipping fish.  It was a mullet looking fish by the name of “hulligan”.  The fishermen would dip out up to 20 or more fish with one swipe and dump them into 5 gallon buckets or coolers.  It was like a big party, with campfires on the shore and families grilling out.  Ended the day pulling into a rest area inside a huge bowl of a valley with snow capped mountains all around us.  What a beaut.  No internet here in the boonies, so this post will be delayed.

Still trying to get used to the daylight.  We were stuffing cardboard in windows,  blankets across doors, anything to make it dark so we could sleep.  Still up at 4:00 every morning for the sunrise.  

Bill and Kevin's Self Portrait

Hauling in the Hulligans

Long Net/Cold Water

Lining up for fish

One Scoop