On Saturday, we went about 7 miles on the other side of Haines to Chilkoot State Park to paddle of the mountain lake there by the same name. The scenary very beautiful. The campground there was excellent. There were a few sites on the water. They did seem to have a lot of bugs there. It was rustic camping similar to were we stayed in Chilkat.
After our paddle we attended Sacred Heart Church for Saturday evening Mass. The OMI Priest there remembered Fr Ron. He said he liked him a lot.
Here are the pictures we took on this paddle and on the drive there:
Best Kayaking of the year!
On Sunday morning, we put our kayaks into Chilkat Inlet from the boat ramp right at the campground. We went into the bay and around the island. We spent about two hours on this wonderful paddle. It was unbelievable. We passed two Glaciers. We saw several porpoises and a seal, who really checked us out. We got a picture of one of the porpoises but not the seal.
We left Haines on June 28 and drove up the scenic Haines Highway past the famous Chilkat Eagle Preserve, through Canadian Customs into British Columbia and into Yukon. We stopped at Million Dollar Falls and campground but decided to move on to Kathleen Lake Campground as recommended to us.
Kathleen Lake is a mountain Lake with pretty glacier water and beautiful mountains rising right up out of the lake on most points. We paddled down most of the lake the next morning when the clouds covered the tops of the mountains. We were going into the wind with moderately rough waves. We turned around after we had had enough tough paddling.
We broke camp and headed to Haines Junction where we bought food and filled the gas tank. It was a smaller village than we anticipated. One store for food. There were a few restaurants, gas stations and gift shops. Haines Junctions is where Alaskan Highway meets the Haines highway.
We headed up the Alaskan Highway to Tok. We finally found a road that wasn’t quite 1st class.
There were many parts that were being constructed. Everywhere you had to be on the lookout for bumps in the road and poor road surfaces.
We stopped at Cottonwood RV Park near Destruction Bay on Kulane Lake, which is the largest lake in Yukon Province. This was an outstanding campground. The owners were real friendly and caring people. The facilities were immaculate. This was a one night stand place in that there is no reason to stop there except as a place to stay while passing through. They asked you to take your garbage with you when you leave. There were rest areas along the way where you could deposit your garbage. The campground was right on the lake. The views of the mountains were majestic. Overnight, it rained while the mountains could some fresh snow. The owner told us they clear out of there the 1st week in September.
In the morning, we headed for Tok, Alaska – a drive of about 200 miles. On the way we stopped for a 2 mile hike to Hidden Lake in a wildlife refuge and a hike down to a trapper’s cabin at the ranger station. There was a brown bear in the area so the park ranger gave us pepper spray to use in case we ran across the bear!
We got the Tok Sourdough RV Campground late in the afternoon. This is a relatively fameous full service campground. They serve an all you can eat pancake and reindeer sauage breakfast for $12. When you check in, you can do a pancake toss. If you can get one of the two pancakes in the bucket, breakfast is on them!
We finally met the bugs in droves at Kathleen Lake. After set up, we hunted down the flies inside for a while until we got them all.
The Wifi is monitored up here to disallow uploading/downloading large files such as Photo’s. You can Skype either.
We postponed the posting of the above pictures pic’s until we got to Valdez. We went to primitive campground in Wrangell-St Elias National Park for 3 days without any Internet at all.
Our car and trailer are now brown with dirt. We are headed for an Alaskan Car Wash to get all the junk off.
We left Tok and drove to the northern entrance to Wrangell-St Elias Park.
Along the way, we stopped for a couple of short hikes. A park ranger suggested we take one trail and handed us a bear spray can just in case we ran into a brown bear that had been spotted in area.
When we got there, we parked our rig at a campsite in Porcupine Campground and went to the Slana Ranger station. The people there were very helpful and offered us coffee. We found out that the 1st 26 miles of Nabesna road had a fairly good road surface. We were advised not to go the rest of the way since our car was too low to the ground. Two days later, we ignored this advice and paid the consequences. The lead ranger mentioned there was a good primitive campsite at the six mile mark. We decided to take a drive down to that campsite to check it out.
As we started into the park, we saw a confederate flag flying over a wooded section. We later met the true Alaskan who owned the property. He had cut his thigh with a chain saw. He let us know how independent and self dependent he was! He started the Slana Alaskans Unite Movement.
MILEPOST PHOTO SHOOT
We loved the campsite at 6.1 miles into park on Nebesna Road. It had a picnic table and fire ring. The site was set back into the woods with Rufus Creek running just behind it.
There was no water source other than the creek and no outhouse. There was also no cost for staying here.
We set up camp. We collected wood which was readily available, started a campfire and sat around fire with our wine and cheese before our evening meal.
After a few minutes, a trucker camper came up the road and stopped next to the entrance to our campsite. We walked over to let the people know that we could move our car to make room for them to stay. They said they came to take our pictures for Milepost Travel Guide!
The woman was a photographer for the Milepost. She wanted to take pictures of peopel camping at this site since it was one of the best camping spots in the Alaskian interior. She proceeded to take photo’s of our camper, the creek and us having our wine around the camp fire.
Milly and I looked at each other and laughed. We are in the middle of no where.
The Milepost is the Alaskan Travel Guide that everyone buys who drives to British Columbia, Yukon and Alaska. It gives you information about camp sites, fuel stops, attractions along each highway. It is indespensible. Now, Milly and Fred maybe in next years issue or the corresponding newsletter!
HIKE
The next morning, we hiked the Caribou Trail – 7 mile round trip located about 20 miles into the park.
TO END OF NABESNA ROAD!
The following day we planned on paddling twin lakes at the 26 mile mark. When we got there, the access road was far too rutted for us to get though. We decided to drive to the first creek fording location to see if we could get across and perhaps drive to the end of the Nabesna Road. When we got there, we checked the depth of the water. We decided to give it a try. The first crossing was really two separate crossings.
We had to cross two other locations before we got to the end of the road. The views were great and different as the valley narrowed. What we found at the end of the road was a small airport and B&B rustic style. We turned around and went back. The 46 miles back dragged.
We knew the rear end of car had hit the rocked creek bottom a couple of times during out creek crossings. We discovered that the hitch electrical connection was now parallel to the ground instead of perpendicular. When we got back to camper, we tried to make the connection. It wouldn’t fully engage. Fred adjusted some connection points and we were ok. We now have an improved connection configuration.
Milly has stated there will be no more adventureous driving!
We decided to go to Valdez on the 4th of July. After Valdez, we will go to McCarthy at end of the southern entrance road into the park. We are going to stay at a lodge there for 2 days. We plan on leaving our camper at a primitive campsite
When we left Wrangell-St Elias to head for Valdez, our gas was down to a quarter tank. We had burned at lot of gas going back and forth into the park the last 3 days. We did have an extra 5 gallon tank just in case. We arrived at gas station with low gas light on.
When we got to Glennallen, we were told about their noontime July 4th community salmon bake behind the library. We went. It was very interesting to see a small Alaskan community celebrate the 4th in a picnic atmosphere. We had plenty of salmon, hot dogs, corn on the cob, baked potatoes, etc., sitting on the playing field watching the youth play Ultimate Frisbee. There was no charge! We made a donation to local Lions Club who put on the feast.
When we got to the RV park in Valdez about 4 pm, we were told of the Salmon Bake potluck that they were having at 6 PM. Since we got there late, we were exempted from bringing something. The owner used to be a commercial salmon fisherman. He often swaps cases of beer with his friends for garbage cans full of salmon for his RV Salmon Bakes.
The noontime salmon was cooked is smokers. The evening salmon was grilled with blacken spices. The food at the potluck was fabulous. Milly appreciated not having to prepare food for the day.
The evening fireworks seemed to last forever. People had their own and started blasting about 8 pm. The noise didn’t stop until well past midnight. We heard the town fireworks go off but had already settled into bed.
We took a 7 hour Stan Stevens wildlife/glacier tour to Columbia Glacier on July 5th.
Throught out the Valdez area there was a haze caused by smoke from several fires. It got worse each day we were in Valdez. This tended to hurt the ability to fully capture scenary.
We saw humpback whales, sea lions, sea outers and eagles on our way to the Columbia Glacier.
The boat could only get about 10 miles from the Glacier. Ice bergs and solid ice choked the area in front of the Glacier. We also watched the Salmon fishing boats pull in their catch and a tender boat vacuum the catch from the nets.
We took a day off from all activity on July 6th. Tomorrow we are going to Blueberry Lake State Park about 20 miles away. We will visit Worthington Glacier. Then we plan to go to McCarthy in Wrangell-St Elias Park for 2 days.
We left Valdez on the morning of July 7th travelling on Edgerdown Highway with McCarthy in Wrangell-St Elias National Park as our ultimate destination. We thought we were going to stay at Blueberry Lake State Park for a night while we visited Worthington Glacier.
We passed through Keystone Canyon and Bridal Falls. We drove through Blueberry Lake area. The lake was small and uninteresting. We decided to visit the glacier and head to a primitive campground at Chitina at the beginning of McCarthy Road. We parked our camper at Chitina campsite for 5 days. We stayed there the nights of the 7th and 8th. We also stayed there on 11th when we came back from staying the 10th and 11that Ma Johnson’s, a historic lodge in McCarthy. This posting concerns itself with the trip to Chitina and our initial day there with the salmon fishermen.
The trip continued to be plagued by smoke haze from fires burning in Alaska. This impacted our ability to get quality scenic pictures of the mountain views.
When we arrived in Chitina, we found a very small town on the Cooper River. There was a gas station with small grocery section, a liquor store, a couple of gift shops, post office, a visitors center and a ranger station. Chitina is the starting point of the McCarthy Road, which is a 60 mile Alaskan gravel road that leads to the historic towns of McCarthy and Kennicott.
The Cooper River is full of glacier silt and is very fast flowing. The river delta area around Chitina was full of silt blown by the strong winds that often occur there. Our primitive campground has inches of silt on the ground. Walking around there was like walking on moons surface. You were always kicking up dust.
Our campsite was setup by the state. There were picnic tables, fire rings and vault toilets. There was no water. You had to bring your own water or get refills in Chitina about a mile away. It was on one side of the road. On the other side were the salmon fish wheels, dip net fishing areas and a campground area maintained by the native tribes.
It was fasinating to see the different homemade fish wheels in operation. Each was unique but operated with strong current pulling the scoop nets around and around. We could see where the “caught” salmon would fall to the side into container as the net turned around. The fisherman all had the campers parked in random locations around the delta. There with ATVs all over the place. Alaskans call them over land vehicles.
Comments on talking to Alaskans: Sarah is a true Alaskan and she is loved by most of these people. Don’t mention Obama. They are true conservatives up here!
