Destination Circle: Day 22

June 4, 2016

It was drizzling in the morning and I drove around this little town thinking there might be an oil change place but didn't find one and then went in search of a coffee shop and didn't find one of those either. I almost headed out of town, but decided to eat breakfast first at what appeared to be the only open restaurant. Even the harbor was quiet except for a few guys doing boat maintenance.

Thompson Pass just north of Valdez (yesterday)

If the weather had been cloudy yesterday, I would have completely missed the show as today I could see almost nothing except clouds and fog for a couple of hours. But I will never forget the absolutely incredible scenery of this route in the brilliant late afternoon sun.

I took a small detour through Copper Center, a historic gold-mining area, seeing many old log cabins, slowly slumping back to earth, tilted and askew, with windows and doors open to the critters. The few families scattered through this area live in haphazard dwellings, their yards filling up with old vehicles, wood piles, outbuildings, barrels, boxes, bicycles, trash heaps, discarded furniture, kids' toys, dogs....How do intact kids emerge from these situations?

Boreal Forest Trail - Wrangell-St. Elias NP

Stopping back at the Wrangell-St. Elias VC, I got a cup of coffee offered free to travelers, bought more books, went to the parking lot, put a Skeeter Beater on my car window and worked on the computer an hour. I then walked a sweet little "Boreal Forest" trail before continuing north to Tok where I spent the night under spruce and aspen trees in a perfect campground, also run efficiently, with the rules explained up front (although the "No Washing Pets in the Showers" rule was conveyed by several bold signs in the bathrooms). A common history with people is that someone came to Alaska to work on the pipeline and then stayed, which was the case here with the owners of this campground. Slowly, over the years, commuting seasonally between Anchorage and Tok, they developed the property into a haven for campers, getting the highest marks by the accreditation people. Everyone retires early, although I guess this only SEEMS so as it doesn't get dark.

Before settling in for the night, I went to a 7000 square foot, quite new, very nice, very spacious Visitor Center where a gentleman gave me information about going up to Chicken, Alaska, and then east over to Dawson City on the Top of the World Highway. Yes, it was a lot of gravel, and in the mountains, but "just stop when a big rig comes towards you and wait 'til it passes; don't move to the shoulders as they can be soft..." So that's my plan for tomorrow. Dawson City is on the Yukon River...in Yukon Territory in Canada. It's not Circle (farther downriver) but I won't have to retrace my driving, and the gravel portion is less (I am guessing about 75-80 miles. Each reference varies on this.)

The lady in the laundry room in Denali told me that the Tok VC is so impressive because it's the first one people driving to Alaska come upon.

Dinner was a BLT with avocado at Fast Eddy's, very busy and full of travelers. I got seated at a small table against a wall with a reading light. Nice, as I always read while eating.

aspen leaf miner infestation

Back at the campground in the tent area, my neighbors were a bicyclist in a tent to the right and a car camper guy to the left, with RVs across the road in front of me and woods behind. Everything about this place was meticulously cared for....like new wood shavings at all the tent sites, a nice gas grill for tent campers to use, clean, warm and well-lit bathrooms and showers, free WiFi (although limited to two hours with restrictions: "You can check your email and do your banking and surf the Internet...but not upload and download, watch movies, Skype...")

As I was driving around yesterday, I remembered a nonfiction book I had read several years ago titled Pilgrim's Wilderness: A True Story of Faith and Madness on the Alaska Frontier by Tom Kizzia. It takes place in what is now Wrangell-St. Elias and is a captivating story. Amazon says:

Into the Wild meets Helter Skelter in this riveting true story of a modern-day homesteading family in the deepest reaches of the Alaskan wilderness—and of the chilling secrets of its maniacal, spellbinding patriarch.