It's hard to believe we left Ninilchik just a month ago. – What a jam-packed, busy, fun month it has been! We first stopped in Soldotna to recover from our last weekend at Deep Creek Beach. (NO one expected so MANY campers to be there after the 4th of July! - We teased our Ranger, Jacque, about arranging it so we would feel guilty about leaving.) Then we went on up to Anchorage for a couple of days – needed to do laundry and stop at Sam's to replenish “road” food (crackers, mixed nuts – the good stuff!) before we headed on up to Denali National Park.
While on our way up there, we spent a couple of days at Big Lake State Recreation Area just out of Wasilla. There were wild blueberries and wild ground-cranberries in the boggy areas around the Park. Neither of us had ever seen them growing, so that was a treat. The cranberries weren't ready to be picked yet (and wouldn't be until after the first frost, probably sometime in September). But Ruthine did pick a few blueberries and made some sourdough pancakes with them. Pretty good eating! Who says we can't have gourmet food while living in the bed of our pickup.
And actually, the sourdough starter was made from “scratch” by Ruthine, too. So far she's managed to keep it alive for about 3 weeks. In addition to the pancakes, she has baked sourdough cinnamon rolls and sourdough dinner rolls – both in the handy little Coleman oven that Bob bought for her before they left Big Bend. (What a guy! He didn't want to miss out on anything good for lack of a way to prepare it... ;o)
While at Big Lake SRA we also took a tour of a four-time Iditarod champion's Happy Trails Kennels. Martin Buser is an interesting speaker – and his profession is fascinating. But it is not a profession either one of us would want to follow. He is not only a 4-time winner, he has completed 28 Iditarods in a row. The Iditarod is a 1000 mile, cross-country, dog sled race.
After Big Lake we stayed at Denali State Park and then went on up to Denali National Park, where we spent a week. (Email and phone service was “catch as catch can” during all this time – but we survived.) What a beautiful place Denali is. We didn't get to see “The Mountain” (Mt. McKinley/Denali) though. A Ranger there said that there is only a 3% chance of seeing it in July because of heavy overcast conditions. It seems the mountains make their own weather pattern – and they are big enough to do just as they please. But the campground was very nice – and the bus trip that we took out the long park road to the Eielson Visitor Center (60 some miles one way) was worth going on. The road was muddy in spots, and the rain came down that day. At several stops there were buckets of fresh water with squeegees in them so that the bus driver could clean off her lights and front windows. And the passengers were also able to use them to clean off our side windows so we could continue to see the scenery as we passed.
After we left Denali, we traveled East on the “Denali Highway” – a 134 mile long dirt road that links Paxson (population 28) with Cantwell (population somewhat more). This “highway” opened in 1957 and was the only road link to Denali National Park and Preserve (then called Mount McKinley National Park) until the completion of the Parks Highway in 1972. The only way to get to the Park back then was to take a cruise to Seward and then take the railroad up to Mount McKinley (or to fly in).
We arrived in Fairbanks and spent some time with our friends, Steve and Toka, (National Park Volunteers whom we met during our respective stays at Big Bend). They made sure we knew about all the neat exhibits in their city. As a result of their interest, we think we attended all the important visitor sites in Fairbanks. We went to the Robert G. White Large Animal Research Station (where we had close-up views of musk-oxen, raindeer, and caribou), the University of Alaska Museum of the North (where we saw native art and dress), Creamer's Field Migratory Waterfowl Refuge (where we got to see migrating Canadian geese and sandhill cranes eating grain planted just for them), Pioneer Park (where we saw – and went in - log cabins, turn of the century houses, the train car that President Harding rode in when he visited Alaska, and a paddle wheel steam-boat to name just a little bit of that fantastic 44 acre park). AND, not the least thing on the list of things done, Ruthine got to go with Toka to her knitting group one Thursday. She met some more lovely Alaskans there who welcomed her as warmly as those ladies she met at the Senior Center in Ninilchik. Alaskans are just great people!!!
To top off the Fairbanks part of our journey, we spent a week traveling on the Dalton Highway – the “Haul Road” as it used to be called. The Dalton Highway is the 415 mile highway (one way) – 25% of which is paved, 75% gravel – that follows the Trans-Alaska Pipeline to Deadhorse/Prudhoe Bay. It goes “up hills and down, through forested valleys, over the Brooks Range at Atigun Pass [the highest mountain pass in Alaska], and across the treeless North Slope,” according to The Milepost. It is used by truckers who bring supplies to the pipeline workers and to folks who live up in that area – and of course by tourists. There are only 2 gas stations on the entire route leading to Deadhorse – and NO phone/internet service of any kind. But what a trip! This is the road that is featured on the History Channel's “Ice Road Truckers” series. Although we didn't have to face any ice – the mud was bad enough! And it WAS slippery with mud!
So now the Alaska Adventure is nearing an end! Tonight we are in Tok, Alaska. Tomorrow we will drive on to Chicken, where we'll stay for a couple of days to see the sights around there and in Eagle, Alaska. When we cross the US/Canadian border we will be in Sargent Preston and his Mighty Dog King's Yukon Territory. We'll ride a ferry across the Yukon River to get into Dawson City (the only way to get there). Then we will truly begin heading South to Seattle – and FAMILY!!!
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