Hello Blog,
We left Denali Saturday the 15th and headed south on the Parks highway #3 toward Anchorage. The weather was a bit wet with a drizzle type rain, therefore there was no chance of viewing Mt Mckinley from the south side. We decided to travel the extra 30 miles to Talkeetna, a old pioneer historic railroad town 130 miles south of Denali and in the Talkeetna Mountains. The town is a big tourist stop because of charter services making connections to the railroad. The Alaska Railroad serves passenger and freight from Seward in the south to Anchorage, Talkeetna, Denali, and then to Fairbanks to the north. It carries many passengers as one leg of tour packages. We did a walking tour of Talkeetna, population of ~300, so that didn't take more a few hours. The town serve as the base camp for all the climbing and charter air operations for the Mt McKindley charter services. We visited the museum and did some shopping in the old log cabin type stores on the square. Jay had made an overnight stop there on the Alaska Railroad last year and recommended the Roadhouse as a good place to eat. We enjoyed our meal there. It started business in 1944 and still very popular in the area. After that we continued on to south into the vegetable growing Mat-Su Valley area of Willow, Palmer, and Wasilla. Both Wasilla and Willow are modern bustling cities with all the big name, big box stores found anywhere else. Starting around Willow, I got the sensation of these towns serving as bedroom towns for Anchorage. We drove into Anchorage about 1900 hrs.
Saturday night was spent at the WM accommodations in Anchorage. We shopped at Sams Whse and Wallmart to restock the shelves. We drove downtown and found that they are celebrating the 50 years of statehood. We did a walking tour of the downtown area. This is a clean and neat area with some of it rebuilt after the 1964 earthquake. We visited the visitors centers and the exhibits in the Federal building. We did some shopping in various stores before leaving town.
We are now heading south toward our target of Seward. The drive is beautiful. We are driving along the railroad that is between the highway and the Turnagain Arm bay of the Cook inlet to the Gulf of Alaska. On our left side is the Chugach Mountains with some blue sky and a few clouds hanging in the air around the sharp peaks of the mountains. This is in the Chugach national forest area.
As we drove, we encountered some rain showers and when I tried to turn off the windshield wipers, they would not turn off. After messing with all the controls, I pulled the fuse. Of course it started to rain again, so I had to install the fuse. To my delight, everything went back to normal for the rest of the evening. I know I will have to deal with this again as, things don't fix themselves. I suspect the intermittent wiper control as the problem.
As I have said in the past, this is an a continuing adventure and this is really a scenic route with the mountains, the clouds, and many lakes and streams. We drove by the Johnson river and found fishermen standing shoulder to shoulder along the bank just as far as I could see, fly fishing for salmon sponning.
We stopped at a pull out along the highway with a information sign reading that this was a trail to the river for viewing fish. I took the short trail and sure enough, the river was clear and several salmon chug were swimming by. I could have netted them easily. We decided this was a great place to stop for the night. By this time it was getting toward dark and starting to rain. We got into the Bigfoot and turned on the heater. The heater would not do anything. I used a test light and found the thermostat to be working, therefore I would have to inspect the outside compartment. We just covered up and went to bed. In the morning, I removed the electronic control board and discovered a small green spot of corrosion caused by moisture and DC voltage. I cleaned that up and sprayed it with WD-40. I believe that it is fixed. This was important because we use the heater every evening and morning.
Monday morning the 17th we drove the 30 miles to Seward and made camp in one of the town owned campground located 1 mile from town. Nice campsite with all the different plants around it. We went on a walking tour of the harbor area and gathered information about the points of interest. We drove to Lowell Point and saw a few sea lions and a pair of adult bald eagles in a tree. Their nest had to be 6 feet in diameter and was about 50' up the tree. On Tuesday we are going to a glacier called "Exit Glacier" , a glacier in Harding Icefields located in the Kenai Fjord National Park. They offer Ranger talks and walking trails to see the Exit Glacier close up. Monday evening we had a campfire and grilled hamburgers.
Tuesday we have the Exit Glacier visit and a visit to the tour boat companies on the Seward docks. We may take a cruise out in Resurrection Bay and a glacier visit to the "calving" (glaciers shedding huge blocks of ice into the ocean) of the Holgate glacier viewed from the water. Also we will see the big whales, puffins, sharks, Dall porpoise, steller sea lions, and a few bald eagles. This time of the year, we can get good price discounts on the packages as the attendance is falling off. Barbara made a crockpot with chicken, vegetables, and biscuits. We will start the generator as we leave camp and when we get back, we will have a chicken and dumplings dinner. While we where at the Exit Glacier we saw some friends that we had met at the Teklanika a few days, so we visited with them in the late evening and had a enjoyable time. The crockpot worked perfect, it's nice to come back to the campsite and have the hot meal waiting for us.
Wednesday is clear and no rain is forecast, so we are going cruising. I better get ready. I'll report on our cruise in a few days, stay tuned.
John
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