Day 69 – 2015-06-28
We are back on the Al-Can (officially known as the Alaska
Highway). We left Tok with no place in
mind and made it a whopping 11 (8,871) miles before we turned off to Moon
Lake. We stopped in to check it out and
found a nice mountain lake. We picked a
site and set up camp.
As she does, Bettie started scanning the landscape with her
binoculars and soon spotted MOOSE! Our
first of the trip. A momma moose and two
calves munching away in a bog about a half mile away from our campsite. What else to do but drop the kayaks and try
to get a better look? We got within about 300 yards before momma decided it was
time to take the little ones to bed for the night.
We continued around the lake, Bettie ever vigilant in the
event we might see more wildlife.
No luck, so we headed back to camp. We had met a couple of brothers from
Minnesota who were camped close by and offered them the use of our kayaks. Devin and Shane jumped at the chance and were
soon on their way to explore the lake.
The Three Bears Grocery in Tok had New York Strips on sale
today, so dinner tonight was steaks, broccoli, grilled ciabatta bread and a
2012 La Frenz Malbec from the Okanagan Valley (unfortunately, we are almost out
of these great wines. Maybe another road
trip is in order?)
Day 70 - 2015-06-29
We left Moon Lake headed for Delta Junction, the official
end of the Alaska Highway. YEA, WE MADE
IT!!! We commemorated with a photo.
We did some shopping in town then left for someplace up the
road. We stopped to dump and water and
ran into some folks who had stayed the night before at Clearwater River Campground. They recommended it, so we backtracked a bit
and set up for the night. I secured a
fishing license today, so I rigged up my pole, put on my chest waders and
ventured into the river. After losing
one lure to the logs, I re-rigged and walked upstream. No luck there either, so everything went back
in the truck. I feel at least a little
better that everyone I talked to had bad luck today – I’ll use “finicky fish”
as my excuse, too.
After dinner, we started to take a walk around the
campground as we do most nights. We ran
into a young gal who I had a few passing words with on the river. She was in a chatty mood, so we stopped for a
while. Turns out Larissa and her
boyfriend Trey are native Alaskans. They
were both full of great advice and information for us to use on the
remainder of our trip. Larissa even gave
us a Ball jar of her home-canned smoked salmon.
Wow, what generosity. We really
look forward to enjoying this up the road. 130 (9,001)
Day 71 - 2015-06-30
Christmas in June!
Today found us on our way up the Richardson Highway (AK 2) to
Fairbanks. 166 (9,167). It rained all night and the weather this
morning was not so good, so we have little to show in the way of pictures. Too bad, it looked like the mountain views
would have been pretty special.
After an oil change (which the truck REPEATEDLY INSISTED I do)
we took a spot at the Riverview RV Park on the outskirts of Fairbanks. Once we were set up we drove the few miles to
The North Pole, Alaska. Yes, this is a
real town that is pretty much dedicated to the proposition that Christmas
should be a year-round event. We looked
at the caged up reindeer and did a little shopping in the Christmas Store –
definitely in tourist mode today. Pretty
cheesy deal all around, but at least the cops have a sense of humor.
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