Day 21--Denali to Fairbanks

Has it been three weeks already?  We took a little extra time getting off today because we knew it was going to be a short drive, only about 125 miles.  We called the RV park to make sure that the flooding we had heard about was not affecting them, and it wasn't.  We arrived shortly after lunchtime, and located the RV park on our way into town.  It came highly recommended as one of the top five RV parks in the nation, and I'm sure it's much prettier when it's not raining!  We found our assigned site, and it turned out to be right next to the folks from San Antonio we had met last week in Dawson Creek, and again in Ft. Nelson, and again in Watson Lake.  We checked on some tours that are available tomorrow, and detached the trailer.  We'll be driving around town to get our bearings, and won't be leaving for a couple of days, so we'll need the pickup. Not much to take pictures of, yet.

We did notice some experimental fields of crops on the way into town.  The University of Alaska's main campus is here, and they are the land-grant school for the state of Alaska.  So they have an extension mission, like A&M in Texas or OSU in Oklahoma.  Except that U of A is a lot smaller than either of those other schools.  

Day 20--Denali National Park

There's Mt. McKinley.  See it?

Okay, this is what?  the sixth national park on this trip so far?  We made the 6:15 bus departure and spent the next 11 hours riding out to Wonder Lake and back.  When we got on the bus, the driver informed us that HER job was to get us safely out to Wonder Lake and safely back.  OUR job was to look for wildlife.  She would be glad to stop so we could snap pictures or simply observe the animals, but she would be watching the road and wouldn't be able to help us look for wildlife.  But as a matter of fact, all but two of the wildlife sightings for the rest of the day were hers.  She could look at a hillside and tell "something isn't just right."  And it would be a bear taking a nap halfway up.  Turns out she had been driving that bus for seventeen summers.  So not only was she familiar with the road, she knew all the terrain like it was her home neighborhood.  The bus trip covers 92 miles out to the lake and every one of them back in again.

We didn't see much in the way of wildlife:  a moose, early in the morning, munching on shrubby growth in a lake; a couple of grizzlies taking naps; a few elk;  and, on the way back, a herd of caribou, which we had not seen prior to today.  We did spot a golden eagle resting on a rocky ridge, and there were arctic ground squirrels scurrying across the road from time to time. Oh, yeah, the pavement runs out about 15 miles from the visitors' center, so most of the trip was on a gravel road, the only road in the park.  The mountain--Denali, or Mt. McKinley--was visible not long after we left the visitors' center, but the clouds soon overtook the summit, and we lost sight of it.  Other mountains in the area were spectacular, and we saw much that was impressive.  The point of going to Wonder Lake was that we would be able, theoretically, to get the best views of the mountain.  You can find pictures posted on the web of Mt. McKinley reflected in the water of Wonder Lake.  Alas, not only was the summit of Denali covered in clouds, most of the rest of the mountain was, as well.  And to obscure our views further, clouds rolled in where we were and it began to rain intermittently.  Wonder Lake being the halfway point of the trip, we ate the lunch we brought with us (no food concessions anywhere except the visitors' center) and tried to keep it from the pesky gray jays that wanted us to share with them.  (We had been warned about them, and told not to feed them.)  After a few minutes' rest, we climbed back on the bus and started back for the visitors' center.  We were disappointed that we hadn't been able to see the mountain for very long, but as the bus driver said, we saw it as almost everyone does:  not at all or in our case barely at all.  We were also disappointed that we had not seen more wildlife, but then, it's a big park with millions of acres, and the animals don't have to show themselves to tourists.  They have plenty of square miles of wilderness to live in.  The rangers indicate that they really don't want the animals to become accustomed to tourists, because they are living in a natural state now, and humans would introduce changes to their state and that would probably be dangerous for the animals (and sometimes for humans, too).  The jays at Wonder Lake are a good example of the effects of humans on the birds' behavior.

We returned to the RV park, with the rain settling in steadily, and it kept up a steady pattering on the roof all night long.  

Day 19--Wasilla to Denali National Park

Today was to be a short driving day, because we have the opportunity to attend church services in Wasilla.   We attended the worship service of First Baptist Church, which Catherine did not recommend.  It is not her church, but it was close to Robert's house, and we figured that since we had attended services Friday night at her church, it was okay to attend a different one today.  It was a much smaller church than we are accustomed to attending, but it reminded me a lot of our old church in Bishop.  Despite the fact that Wasilla is much larger than Bishop, the church had a distinctive "country" feel to it.  Perhaps it was the informality and the many testimonies from church members who had been in mission projects last week.  Or maybe it was the fact that several of the hymns were sung from a hymnal instead of an overhead screen.

After church we grabbed some fast food and headed north.  We have reservations at an RV park about eight miles north of Denali National Park.  It's the closest one that's not actually in the park.  The one in the park is smaller and doesn't have full hookups.  The park is a little less than 200 miles north of Wasilla, and will take us about 4 hours to get there, with no stops.

We did stop, however, at several pullouts along the way.  Usually they had signs indicating the possibility of seeing Mt. McKinley, the highest point in North America, a factoid that has been taught to every kid in school for all of my life, anyway.  The problem is, you can't really see it.  It's there in plain sight, all right, but usually it's obscured with clouds, which result from the extremely cold temperatures on the mountain coming in contact with warmer air moving up from the more temperate zones around Anchorage.  We did, however,  see the spots where it was supposed to be!  The main attraction at Denali, aside from Mt. McKinley, is the abundant wildlife in what is a pristine wilderness.  With millions of acres in the park, only one road travels across it, and it's not even paved.  We're planning a shuttle bus ride across the park tomorrow, so we'll see about those wildlife.

We arrived at the RV park without incident (no flats!), and found it to be very full of folks who had similar plans as ours.  We have to be at the bus stop at 5:45 tomorrow morning for a 6:15 departure.  Of course, the sun will be well up by then.

Day 18--Wasilla, Alaska

Today we spent resting, then went for the two tires for the pickup.  When I got to the tire shop, they took my pickup into the bay and started to put the new tires on, but the attendant couldn't figure out which tires I was wanting to replace, because they were all barely legal.  So--I bit the bullet and had all of them replaced.  Hey, I've got years and years to pay them off.

Later, that afternoon, we drove down to Anchorage to have dinner with my cousin Tasa and her husband Artie, and when we got there, my sister Melanie and her husband Ken were there, too.  They've been here all week, enjoying their first trip to Alaska, and are here for Catherine's wedding, too. It was a fun evening and we really enjoyed our time with them.  About 9:30, we needed to return to Wasilla to prepare for the trip to Denali tomorrow.  It's really weird that the sun is still way up in the sky at 10:00 at night.  It's been hard to get to sleep at night because the sun is still up.  Sunset is around midnight and the sun comes back up before 4:00 a.m.  Short "nights."  The folks here love it, because they've endured a winter with the opposite characteristics, but it's disturbing my sleep.   

Day 17--Wasilla, Alaska

Today, we intended to buy four new tires.  We had to go find the best deal, but before we left Roberts' house, we discovered one of the remaining tires was flat!  So there it was, the fourth flat.  It wasn't a blowout, though; evidently, the tire had developed a slow leak, and lost it overnight.  So, at least, the rim was not ruined.  We looked for tires in four different stores, and got what we believed was the best possible deal we could, given the quality of the tires we were seeking: radials, 6-ply, good enough to get back home on.    We explored Wasilla, discovering that it has almost anything you might want in the way of shopping, except a Sam's Club or Costco, but the word is that they're coming.  Oh, there wasn't a high end mall, but there was almost anything else you might be interested in.  After traveling for thousands of miles through forests and tundra, Wasilla was a real city.  Although the posted population is around 8,000, there are about 50,000 people who live in the Matanuska-Susitna (Mat-Su) valley, most of whom do not live in an organized city, but they certainly contribute to the economic vitality of the cities that are there.

After getting the tires mounted and the two spares built, I inquired about the need to replace two of the tires on the pickup.  We made an appointment to come back tomorrow to replace two of those.  They're a lot bigger, wider, and thicker, and will be a lot more expensive.

Day 16--Tok, Alaska, to Wasilla, AK

At last we're nearly to our objective.  By this afternoon, we should be in Wasilla, and be able to see Catherine and Robert (when they get off work).  We set off fairly early and headed down the Tok Cutoff toward Glennallen and the Glenn Highway to Palmer and Anchorage.  The highway was very good for the first few miles, then some rough spots began to appear.  After about 40 miles, we heard a "pop" that didn't sound like anything that belonged on normal road noise, and we decided to pull over and check out the tires. Within a few hundred yards, there was a turnout on the left (east) side of the road, and we turned in there.  Sure enough, a tire on the left side of the trailer had blown out.  Okay, that's number three.  Maybe these were all scheduled to wear out at about 4000 miles.  I changed the tire (using my bottle jack and the new lug wrench) and now we were without a spare--again.  According to the Milepost book, there was a gas station/restaurant/lodge a couple of miles ahead, so we decided to stop there and inquire about tires.  We were still about 90 miles from Glennallen and, frankly, I was reluctant to test the strength of the fourth tire, or the spares that were now on the ground.

The folks at the Mentasta Lodge were wonderful.  They didn't have a tire or wheel, but they knew people who did.  They suggested that we go back to Tok and get the tire and wheel and bring it back.  We dropped the trailer there and left it with them, and drove the 45 miles back to Tok to Willard's Towing to get the tire and wheel.  And it was another $170 or so.  By the time we got back to Tok and picked up the tire, it was lunchtime, so we grabbed lunch at a Mexican restaurant in Tok.  Who knew?  With only a thousand people or so in Tok, I was surprised to get such good food, but it was nice.  It almost made the delay and ordeal worthwhile.  But I'm not going to wait for that fourth tire to blow out.  As soon as we get settled in Wasilla, I'm going to go find four good radial tires to put on the trailer.  And I'll keep two spares, just in case.

Back to Mentasta, we loaded the wheel and hooked up the trailer and rolled on.  We arrived at Robert Gordon's house, my future son-in-law, without further incident, and backed the trailer into his side yard and hooked up the water and electricity.  Because we were so late getting there, both Robert and Catherine were already home from work.  It was great to see them at last and to meet Robert's sons, Regan and Wyatt.  We're here.

Day 15--Whitehorse, YT, to Tok, Alaska

Leaving Whitehorse, we are scheduled to go through exactly one "town" before reaching Tok.  Haines Junction is located at the intersection of the Alaska Highway with the highway to Haines, Alaska.  Haines is one of those towns in southeastern Alaska, which, like Juneau and Ketchikan and others, is on the inland waterway and is otherwise accessible only by air or by water.  But there is one highway from Haines Junction which goes about 125 miles to Haines.  We won't be going to Haines, however, but will turn with the Alaska Highway toward the border and Tok.  You can see downtown Haines Junction in the photo above.

The highway--it's the worst road we've seen on this trip.  We were warned yesterday that the road from Whitehorse to the border is undergoing much construction and repaving.  It seems that it suffers from the winter frost heaves and such more than other stretches of the road.  Every summer it has to be patched and repaved in large sections.  Until it is finished, it's really rough.  We did encounter a grizzly who was willing to pose for a few pictures.  The red flags on the side of the road warn motorists of a rough section.  There should have been a lot more of them!

We had just entered one section under construction when one of the state pickups pulled up alongside and waved me down.  He yelled that I had a flat!  We pulled over and it was the tire I had just changed two days ago.  Once again, a blowout had gone unnoticed and I had to stop and change the tire.  Again, the rim was ruined and I would have to replace it.  There was one little settlement up ahead, Beaver Creek, but I had little hope of finding a replacement tire and wheel there.  But, I've found that almost every little place that has a gas station also has a tire repair shop (with these highways it would be steady business, for sure).  And sure enough, there's a towing service/auto repair/tire shop in Beaver Creek, and the proprietor sells me a used wheel and tire that I can use as a spare.  It's actually in pretty good shape and I get both of them for just $70.   And on we go to Tok.  We cross the border about 4:00 and the highway improves drastically! We're back in the U.S.A. and the signs shift back to miles versus kilometers.  We'll be in Tok in a couple of hours.  Maybe we can get there without blowing out another tire.