7/13 – 7/14
Went on down to Seward, in the rain, and camped at the Municipal Campground, not bad and is right on the water. Went fishing and caught and released a 6″ dolly varden but no salmon. The rain ended overnight and the dawn heralded a bright sunny day. Went fishing again but after a morning without even a nibble I called it quits and Arlyne and I walked into town to view the sights. Seward prides itself on its murals and they are quite pretty, plentiful and varied in theme.
Drove Rt 1- the Seward Hwy, a spectacularly beautiful road that for the 1st third is adjacent to the Turnagain Arm of Cook Inlet ( the Turnagain Arm’s name was given by Capt Cook’s crew because the many bays and inlets which caused the ship to have to turn around again and again). Stopped almost every ½ mile for pictures even though it was cloudy with light rain/mist. Saw Beluga whales, parasurfers and Dall sheep.
Visited theAlaskan Wildlife Conservation Center, in Portage Creek, which houses injured or orphaned young animals. Camped at Williwaw USFS campground on the Portage Glacier Access Rd – a really beautiful campground, at the base of the Middle Glacier, with well separated sites.
7/11 Moved to Centennial Campground, the Anchorage Municipal campground; much nicer, and cheaper than the Klondike. Centennial does have its fair share of local Alaskan characters; polite, interesting to talk to, but definitely marching to different drummers.
Wandered through the Anchorage Market to browse and talk to the vendors, and get some lunch. Then walked through part of downtown.
mountain and an abundance of wild animals popping up. But we did pass a young bull moose further down Parks Hwy.
In trying to plan a trip to Kodiak Island we talked to a ferry agent to get reservations but the agent told us that all spaces were booked for next two weeks which would mess up our timing so we are unfortunately scratching Kodiak.
Camped at Klondike RV Park in Anchorage, a cramped commercial park where we were lined up like sardines. On our first trip we stayed in a really great park but apparently Anchorage’s growth gobbled it up because it no longer exists
7/8 – 7/9 Drove along Chena Hot Springs Rd to the springs. It was somewhat disappointing in that the water was lukewarm and the springs and the surronding area were not very pretty, unlike Liard springs. Oh well, one never knows unless one tries. Stayed overnight at the campground by the springs and drove back down the Springs Rd along which we saw a moose and calf by Slough Lake. Then through Fairbanks, again, and onto Denali in blah weather – overcast with occasional showers.
Stopped in Nenana bought tickets for the 2016 Ice Classic. Had a very nice long conversation with Margie Riley, who runs the Visitor Center, and her husband, Gerald, who is, as he says, a native (mostly Athabaskan with a smattering of Russian, English and Irish). He has won many mushing contests through Canada and placed third in the Iditarod. Gerald is self taught, very articulate and easy to talk to. Like most people who lack formal education he denigrates his own intelligence, he says he can’t learn things the way they are taught but must translate it into his own way and then he owns it (that sounds smart to me) . He said that he naturally knew how to fly since from a baby he was always in small planes – the only way to get around; he ended up as a navy captain in WWII.
Continued down the Parks Hwy which had major construction and extremely muddy, yuck! Will have to wash the rig again. Most Alaskan roads have considerable construction during the summer to repair the continual damage from frost heaves and minor earthquakes, so traveling in Alaska during the summer is always likely to be a dusty, muddy experience. Camped just outside of Denali at Denali RV Park, Cantwell, AK.
Pitzed around Fairbanks; shopping, picking up a fishing license, etc. Fairbanks was extremely smoky and at times quite uncomfortable because of it; at present there are over 300 active fires in Alaska, with several big ones near the city. There has been considerably less precipitation this year than is normal and this has left the forests extremely dry and easily torched by random lightning strikes. If the wind blows in the wrong direction our eyes start burning. Spent an interesting afternoon at the University of Alaska Museum of the North, a museum dedicated to the natural, cultural and art history of Alaska.
In 2003, when we were in Fairbanks, we went to a an old gold mine where the owners allow you to pan for gold, for a fee of course. We managed to recover a wee bit of gold which Arlyne had put into a pendant and wears constantly. We decided to go back to Dredge No 8 to pan for more gold and ended up getting $70 in gold flakes which Arlyne put into a new pendant.
Things were going too smoothly, thus something had to happen, which turned out to be a lost cap for one of my teeth. Fortunately, I found a dentist who could fabricate and install a new cap in one day, so we hung around Fairbanks for another day to get this taken care of.