We left Homer Saturday afternoon just as it started to rain. And it didn’t stop for 40 days. We joke, but it feels like that at times. We decided to stop at the Fred Meyer in Soldotna again for free camping because we weren’t going to be able to see anything anyway.
It continued to rain all day Sunday. We were told that Hope was a cool little town but unfortunately Mother Nature had other plans. The remnants of former Typhoon Shanshan swept through the area causing strong winds and rain. Gusts of 50 mph or greater were considered “likely” in the areas expected to see the strongest winds, Turnagain Arm and along the Copper River, right where we were headed. We drove into the small little town of Hope and it was indeed windy, rainy, cold and pretty much looked miserable. We didn’t even get out of the truck. We’ll come back again someday when Mother Nature isn’t on a rampage.
We pointed the truck toward Girdwood, which had a brewery. We used the rain as an excuse but we would’ve stopped there anyway. As we got closer, the truck started doing it’s crazy electrical things and we knew we were going to lose the battery soon. We got to the brewery and searched out the closest campsite. When we tried to start the truck to leave, it was a no go. Dead battery. Craig pulled out the generator and got enough charge on the battery to get us the few miles down the road to Crow Creek Mine where we were going to camp out. Once there, he hooked up the generator again to the batteries to ensure we could make it to Anchorage the next day and have the alternator looked at. We hadn’t planned on staying in Girdwood but because of our truck issues we discovered another cool place.
We toured around the area and ended up driving up to Crow Pass which was pretty. There is a long hike from there 19 miles to the Nature Center. We put that on our list of things to do when we return.
We made it to Anchorage and decided to camp out in the Cabela’s parking lot. Through my Facebook group pages, I found out that they are fine with campers staying for 24 hours. We felt safe here and it worked out well.
We found an alternator specialist shop and were highly impressed with the service and knowledge of the young man helping us. Craig opted to have them rebuild us a new alternator with higher amperage. They had it done by the end of the day and it cost half the price of the ones he was finding on the internet.
We had lunch at Midnight Sun Brewing, because it was still raining of course. The nice waitress agreed to print out paperwork we found out we needed to make a claim on our bad trailer tire. So it was a good stop. We stopped at Resolution Brewery and weren’t all that impressed. Glacier Brewing and 49th State Brewing were downtown and so packed we couldn’t even squeeze ourselves into a spot at the bar so we left. Which is just as well, we drove along the water, looked at the houses, and drove around the airport. We ended up at King Street Brewing which is now one of our favorites. Their building was brand new and the beer was excellent!!
Tuesday morning we got up and took advantage of the fact that it wasn’t raining at the moment and drove out to Kincaid Park which is a 1,516.78-acre municipal park. There were multiple soccer fields, a disc golf course, and nice paths for biking and walking. We took a short walk but didn’t get down to the water. Gus was happily sniffing around and was intent on going into the woods at one point. And that’s when Craig looked up and saw two moose enjoying a morning snack. We now listen to Gus.
We packed up the rig and headed to Costco to restock. I love Costco and I hate Costco. It was busy of course and we were trying to get in and get out. We also had to contemplate if we needed mass quantities of things. Even though it’s a good deal, we just don’t have space for some of it. We found most of what we needed, and some stuff that we probably didn’t and got out of there after spending a small fortune. But we feel good about having things back in the cupboard, knowing we didn’t overpay like we’ve done a few times at the small town stores.
We headed out of Anchorage, not sure exactly where we wanted to go. There was discussion about finding a campground that offered laundry, or do we try to find a free campsite and laundromat later. The laundromats in the Palmer area weren’t getting many stars, so we decided to pop back into Matanuska Brewing in Palmer to fill growlers (remember these are only $7 fills!) and utilize the wi-fi to make a game plan. While there, we met some really nice people, one being the owner of the brewery, and had a really nice time chatting about the area and getting some more info about things we should do.
At this point, we decided to go with what we know, so we headed back to the boondocking spot on the Knik River we had stayed at a few weeks back. Being it was a week night, it wasn’t near as busy and we had a nice quiet night. The rain even stopped long enough for us to have a fire.
The next day, we were able to catch up one last time with our friend, Steve. Steve and Barb are the couple we met on the Dempster Highway over flat tires and we have become fast friends. Barb is visiting family in Colorado and we were bummed to miss seeing her one last time. We met Steve at the Eagle River Alehouse and had a great lunch, talked about the area and what our future plans might be, and really enjoyed his company. We will definitely keep in touch with them and hope to go back country backpacking with them one day.
We took the rest of the day to get some housekeeping things done. We popped into a dog groomer and after my firm warnings about our old ornery dog who hated his paws being touched and growled whenever we got his nails clipped, he didn’t say a peep. He was the best behaved dog ever and he earned his doggy treats for sure. We stopped and did laundry and tidied up the camper and trailer and were on our way headed to Valdez.
Steve had warned us that Valdez was much like Whittier, in that if the weather is crappy, it’s really crappy in a coastal town. We were hoping the weather would clear up but he also said “It’s August. It rains all the time.” We didn’t know this!!
In any case, the sky cleared and we had a nice sunny drive on the Glenn Highway for most of the way. As we got closer to the junction to head south, it started raining again and my hopes for awesome photos of the mountains were not going to happen. We found a rest area/camp site at mile 47.8 on the Richardson Highway in the Milepost so we drove until we got there. It was a little busy but we found a spot and it worked for a quick over nighter.
In the morning we continued toward Valdez, disappointed because it was still overcast and we were most certainly missing some awesome sights. We did get to see the Worthington Glacier. We decided we needed to give Valdez it’s due and wait out the weather. We found a spot at Blueberry State Recreation area shortly after noon knowing we could stay parked there until 6 pm the next day.
We decided to take the Jeep into town and see what it was all about and go back the next day when the weather was supposed to clear up. We drove through town, up and down almost all the roads, went into the Visitor Center, and drove around the marina, but it was just dreary. I didn’t feel like taking pictures even because it just wasn’t nice. We drove down Dayville Road which is just a little north of town. We had read that this is a good road to see bears, sea lions and eagles. We didn’t see any bears or eagles, but we saw some sea lions. We drove by Solomon Gulch fish hatchery on this road and were amazed at all the salmon trying to go upstream.
Because it continued to rain, we went to the Fat Mermaid and sat at the bar. Happy hour on a Thursday afternoon did us well again because we met two guys from Seattle who were there to fish with their brother. We have friends visiting us in Seattle early September and we got a ton of great information on hikes, lakes and floating cabins to stay in. Then a local who was sitting next to us at the bar, started talking with us and he told us to drive Mineral Creek Road. He had lived in Valdez since he was 8 so it was fun to talk to him and getting his perspective on living in a small coastal Alaskan town.
We headed back to our campsite and we were totally fogged in. You couldn’t see anything around us at all. We hunkered down in the trailer with the heat on then moved to the camper with the heat on. We realize we’ve used the heater in the trailer and camper more now in August than we have on the entire trip so far. Alaska summer is pretty much over, it feels like our late fall.
Friday we got up early and we were happy to see that it was somewhat clear and we could see our beautiful surroundings at our campsite. We were hopeful for a good day and went back to Dayville Road. It was worth it because we got to see a black bear enjoying his breakfast. He even parked himself in front of a pretty waterfall.
We went back to the fish hatchery and it looked completely different from the day before. The tide was out, there were thousands of sea gulls chowing on the thousands upon thousands of salmon. We did the walking tour and learned a little bit about how it all works.
After that we drove to Mineral Creek Road. We had to drive through a subdivision to get to it but then it got rockier and it felt like driving through a rain forest. We followed a river for a while and were amazed at all the waterfalls visible high on the mountains. We drove as far back as we could until we hit a rock slide that took out the road. We hiked the rest of the way to see the remains of an old Stamp Mill. We saw tons of bear scat so Gus and I stayed close to Craig who carries our one can of bear spray.
This drive again reiterates why we go to the local watering holes and talk to the locals. Yes, we really enjoy a good craft beer. But when you sit at the bar, the people who live there like to talk about their town. Whether they spin it good or bad, they still live there and when it’s a small town like Valdez, they know the cool places to see.
We headed back to our site, packed up camp and drove back to the rest stop/camp site at mile 47.8. We needed to charge up our camper batteries and we had an annoying squeak under the hood. We were hoping it wasn’t a problem with the new alternator. Thankfully it wasn’t. Craig was able to determine it was just the belt. He put the spare on and all is well.
Even though this week was full of rain, we enjoyed the places we went because of it. You never know how decisions change your path, but we try to make the most of it and think it turned out okay.
Off to McCarthy…