Return to the Lower 48

Cherri and I made a very special friend while in Alaska, Vanessa.   Vanessa worked for the kayak vendor at Eklutna Lake who often visited us after getting off work at our campsite.  Saying goodbye to friends like this is hard.

Our trip south only included one flat tire just north of Whitehorse, Yukon Territories.   Our first planned stop was not until Liard Hot Springs and I was surprised that it was still open and collecting day use fees once in the day use area they were also renovating the decking around the springs.  It will be nice once finished but now the men's changing area is a small make shift enclosure off the compost toilets.  The construction did not stop us from having a nice relaxing soak.

Last year I took the Cassiar highway south, this year I will turn south at Edmonton  and through Jasper National Park.  This was an awesome  route with a couple days spent around Jasper and a couple more exploring around the Top of The World Canadian National Park.

Our drive through Idaho was interesting with the smoke so thick from all the forest fires in Washington.

Next stop was Mt. Rushmore.

Continuing east we went through upper Michigan visiting Fayette State Park which was a former iron smelting company a interesting historic sight.

Tahquamenon Falls State Park had some awesome color.

Our last stop on the trip was just outside Traverse City to visit a friend that I have not seen since high school.

The next entry will give an overview of our preparations for our next trip

 

Eklutna Lake, Chugach State Park 2012

Arriving on May 14th which is about the same as I arrived last year but they had a bit more winter and it was still a bit cool and some snow on the ground in some areas so the water was not turned on yet in the campground which I was really counting on getting some more water here, so Plan "B".  I had enough water for a couple days but decided to drive into the maintenance area and get some water in my water bag.  My water bag is just what is sounds like it is a bladder that can be rolled up to about less than half the size of a folding chair, you know the kind you can pick up almost everywhere for a few bucks.  Actually I use one of those chair holders to keep my water bag in.  Once I fold out that bag on the bed of my truck it will hold 60 gallons of water.  I picked mine up from BayTec Containers.   http://www.bayteccontainers.com/waterbags.html  Once I filled up in Eagle River transferring the water to the trailer fresh water tank is accomplished with a small 12 volt water pump.

Over the next few days we met the new assistant rangers which the term implies much more than the title implies, intern rangers would be a more suitable title in my opinion.   The two assistants will remain nameless for reasons I will try to articulate later.  This year we will also have another campground host, I met her last year before I left the park she remained on as the winter host at Potter House which is the park headquarters for Chugach State Park.

The next week or so is training time which includes policy and procedures for driving state vehicles and ATV's which I previously had and then the full day where all the VIP's (Volunteers in Parks) attend where several subjects are taught during the day.  Lunch is put on by the park and then after lunch we have bear training and mace training.

The remainder of the summer consisted of taking care of the campground and backcountry campsites and cabins.  I had to start with the host site, the fire pit was full and trash laying around.   Other tasks may be assigned but this being my second year I had a good idea of not only what was expected but what just needed to be done.  My routine was simple, every morning I would record the vehicles that entered the park in the past 24 hours, check and clean the latrines.  This of course was the worst part of the job but honestly not the worst job I have ever done in my life.  The remainder of the day was mostly just being around and available to answer questions or to help find the occasional overdue hiker and then there was the part where you had to remind an Alaskan resident that there are bears in these woods and if they do not take care of their food those bears will be in the campground.

Not really included in my job description but other accomplishments would be to repair and/or paint several picnic tables, repaired a section of the lake trail, repaired park benches along the Lake Trail and Twin Peaks Trail.  So my summer consisted of a few projects around the park, travels around Alaska to do a bit of fishing, little bit of hiking and sightseeing.

Wow last blog entry was last May!  So much has happened between then and now, my last entry ended with a burnt wheel bearing and we needed to replace the entire axel.  I'm happy to say that we didn't have any more problems on the way up to Anchorage but some issues on the way home but nothing too serious. 

I followed the same route as last year north on the Alaskan Highway to Dawson Creek which is mile zero of the Alaskan Highway.  As with the previous year the weather was cool and most stores are still closed so after a brief stop at the visitors center we continued north.

We saw quite a bit of wildlife along the highway but once we arrived at Liard Hot Springs we started to see herds of buffalo.  We stopped at the hot springs for the night but this year I elected not to pay for the camping and just used the day use area to visit the springs then use the parking area across the street as our camping site for the night.  Liard Springs campground is a little expensive considering they have no hookups at all.

We were joined that evening with one other couple in a motorhome which we met during the morning dog walk.  Len and Barbara were on their first trip to Alaska, traveling north from Georgia.  We ended up traveling with this couple the remainder of the way north, not so much during the day but staying at the same campground that evening.

Our "spare" time was kind of used up when we were having our axel repaired so we were driving more than we really planned on.  We met again at the Walmart parking lot in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory and I sear some of those campers were there last year.  Later that day we crossed the border into Alaska and stayed just outside Tok, Alaska.  A long drive the next day but we made it to Chena Hot Springs north of Fairbanks with a quick stop off at the North Pole, city not the actual North Pole.

Chena HOT springs is true to its name, it might feel really nice in the dead of winter but even on a cool day the water is too hot for me to stay in for more than 10-15 minutes.

The next day we camped along the road in a rest area with designated camping area which is south of Denali National Park only a few miles north of the south viewing area.  Even being right along the road it was a very quiet night.  The next morning we woke up to a beautiful day and after driving a few miles we stopped at the south viewing are of Denali and was rewarded with a fantastic view of Denali!  This was about my fifth visit here and every time the weather prevented even a so-so view of Denali.

 

Later that day we pulled into Eklutna State Park just north of Anchorage which would be our home until fall.  I will break this up a bit until I catch up on my blog so next entry will cover the entire summer of adventure at Eklutna!