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7/16/96
I am no longer a camp host. Yesterday started out rainy. I did my rounds in the morning with my replacement but couldn't clean up to much because of the weather. We went to Birch and Salcha and got the counts cleaned up there a bit, got gas and then I took a nap because I knew it would be a long day. We tapped the keg at about 2:00 and the party started. It was quite an evening. After everybody ate the awards were presented. We all got a shirt and a certificate of appreciation. They were really nice. The food just went on and on. We had Moose burgers and steaks, Sausage, Hot dogs, hamburgers, sodas, Salads, Halibut, fruit, corn on the cob, smoked salmon. There was more food then people by quite a bit. The keg went dry at about 8:30 so we took up a collection and went for more beer. I don't know how much was bought but there was still plenty left when I finally went to bed at 4:00 AM. There were only two people who got seriously drunk. One female (Jan) who passed out about 1:00 and one guy (Andrew) who should have but he stayed awake until 3:30 or so and kept trying to fall in the fire. Everyone else was very mellow. It was much harder to leave today then I thought it would be. I have really grown to like Jeff and David and will miss them quite a bit. Before I could leave Jeff made me promise that I would be back to see them before I left town. He also gave me some Moose, Caribou and Deer meat. Hopefully I will be able to bring some of it home. I finally got packed up, we took pictures and I left. Jeff had called earlier in the day and had the host reserve a space for me at Chena in Fairbanks. I arrived in town about 2:00, found my spot and parked. The site he reserved for me is OK but much nearer the road then I would have chosen. It is a very large single site with nice trees. After I was set up Petra came by for a while and we talked. She has the next few days off, perhaps we will go to Alaska Land tomorrow while my car is in the shop. On Thursday morning Ned and Ellie, a couple from Stockton who are hosting near Chena Hot Springs, are going to come by and we will play Golf. Thursday evening I am going out with Dovina, Tim, Norm and Harlin. We are going to the Turtle Club. It is supposed to be a good restaurant for Prime Rib. I am so glad I met them. After Petra left I went to the Base, gassed up then stopped by the sport store and bought a 5 gal water holder and some film. I went to Fred Meyer's and bought a hose. The one I had been using had so many holes and bumps on it that it was getting impractical. I also bought dinner as I didn't feel like cooking tonight. Back to the trailer for some chow and a nap. I was so tired that I could hardly function. I would like to get to bed at a decent hour tonight; perhaps before 10:00. I just looked at the clock and realized it is to late to call G. The hour time difference throws me off. 7/18/96 I drove with Petra to Circle. It is on the Yukon near the Arctic circle. On the way we stopped at Circle Hot Springs. A bit more rustic then Chena Hot Springs but I would rather have stayed there then at Chena. The rooms were nicer and it wasn't so commercialized. The drive was through some very beautiful country and we were above tree line for a while. Snow still hung out in shady spots, especially on North facing cliffs. It was almost 400 miles up and back and we did not see a single animal. Very strange. After we returned I was finally able to call G. I tried two or three times but there was someone on the phone. In fact one lady was on for over an hour. I sure hope she was calling local and not long distance. 7/19/97 Ned came by at about 9:30 on Thursday morning for our golf game. He had already dropped his wife and grandson off at the club. We had a 11:30 Tee Time but were able to move it up and we got off at about 10:30. It is a very interesting course and is in terrible shape. I guess it would be hard to keep it in good shape here though. When we were finished I received a Certificate that stated that I had played at the northern most golf course in the US. Ned and Ellie are both good golfers. They belong to a private club in Stockton and play where ever they go. They are fairly rigorous about their own scoring but said they don't care how other people play. It is a good thing because I don't keep score and if I hit it bad I will move it. It is only a game and I can't take it seriously enough to get worked up about it.. They would be fun to get together with at home. They have our phone number and said they will call when they return. I hope they do. After I returned, and took a nap, Petra came by and we went to the "World Eskimo and Indian Olympics." There was also a craft show there. I bought G some Navajo beads I think she will enjoy. They are supposed to keep away negative things. Petra wasn't feeling well and wore them for a while and said she felt better. We stopped by Alaska land on the way back and took a walk through. There were a few museums some of the which were quite interesting. In a sense the whole place is a museum. What they have done is moved a lot of old cabins, some from the bush, and put them all in one place. The cabins are now little stores. There were also some old homes, and a stern wheeler. The stern wheeler was used as a display for miniature villages. They still have a lot of work to do on them. When we returned I called Dovina but she wasn't there. I had tried earlier and she wasn't home then either. I called Norm and he said she was in Denali but hoped she would be back that evening for one of their sons games. With my evening plans canceled we went back to Alaska Land for the Salmon Bake. It is an all you can eat Salmon, Halibut and Beef Rib dinner with salads, beans and dessert. I ate all I could and Petra did the same. The amounts were quite different though. I had earlier said I would help her with a computer problem she was having at the office so, after eating, we went there. No one could get the monitor to work, so I turned it on and it worked fine. They didn't know how to turn it on. She did a flyer and I did a form she needed using Pagemaker and all of a sudden it was almost midnight. Pagmaker is a program that I really don't like. It is difficult to use, not intuitive and I couldn't find some of the features that I had on Page Plus. When we came back I checked on my 5th wheel battery, it was under the hosts rig being charged and the portable battery, it was in Petra's cabin being charged and both were full. I am so happy I don't have to replace the 5th wheel batteries, and now I can write again. 7/20/96 It was nice seeing Jeff again. When I arrived he had just returned from fishing. He said he hoped that I could stay and go out with him that evening but I wanted to try and get together with Dovina and I also didn't want to stay up all night as I planned to leave in the AM. Dave invited me to his place later but I couldn't promise him either. After I returned I took a nap then went to a program put on by a Federal Fish and Game Warden. It was about poachers and other lawbreakers and how they catch them. Quite interesting. Perhaps I should have asked him about the conflict with State Fish and Game, but I didn't. The program was over about 8:30 so I decided that I would go over to Dave's. I arrived and he wanted to go out but I said I would buy some beer and we could stay right there. It was less expensive and not quite as crowded. We had Swiss Steak in a stew made with Moose. It was good except there were a lot of yellow peppers that I pushed aside. Dixie and Elvas (the dogs) loved them and thanked me. As I was leaving Dave gave me some more meat. I have quite a supply of Moose and Caribou now. It will be nice to bring it home to share with G and Doris. I may even try some while I am at Noel's.. 7/21/96 I got a later start then I wanted to today. I didn't even get up until after 10:00. Petra had left a note on the door saying she was sorry she had missed me. She also left her home address. It was nice to get to know her she is a nice person. John Z also took down my home phone number and said he would call when he was in town. After getting my eyes open I decided to go out for breakfast. Someone had told me about a great place to eat not to far from the CG, so off I went. The food was all that and more. I just had a Ham and Cheese Omelette, Potatoes, biscuits and gravy. I think they used three or four eggs and there was quite a bit of cheese and ham. The potatoes were OK and the biscuits and gravy were great. With the coffee it came to 7.00, which isn't bad for here. I didn't see a single tourist license in their parking lot and while I was there Anna, the supervisor for the Northern Area, came through. She didn't see me and looked to be in a hurry so I didn't say anything. It was about noon when I finally pulled out, dumped, filled my water tanks and headed south on Alaska 3. It was a beautiful drive. Along the way I passed a number of Wheelchair racers. Each one had it's own flag car. One that I passed was stopped and the hood was up on the car. I'll bet the racer was frustrated about that. At another point there were about four racers together. I wonder if their cars stay in the same order they do when they are close like that. I also passed a few people cross country sking on roller blades. That also looks like a lot of work. After a nap stop I arrived at Denali at about 3:30, parked in the overflow area and caught a shuttle to the visitors center. I can stay in the park for a three day minimum starting tomorrow. If I didn't want the minimum I would have to wait until Monday and then pay for a pass to ride the shuttle every day. This way I can ride it for free. For the three nights it was $65.00. That includes entrance fees, camping fees, etc. The entrance fee is good for 15 days at any National Park. I paid my money and walked back to the parking lot as it wasn't very far. I went West about 5 miles and found the park where I am now staying. I paid the extra for Water and Power so I will be fully charged and full tomorrow. I will probably dump in the AM and go in with an empty Grey Water tank. I called and got to talk to G again today. She said she misses me, which is nice to know. I will check on E-mail as soon as I can get to a phone that I can plug into. It isn't even 8:30 yet and I am so sleepy that I can hardly stay awake. I don't want to go to bed until later because I would like to sleep the whole night and if I went now I would probably be up in a couple hours. I put some gas in the truck after I arrived. At 1.65 a gal I didn't fill up, but close to it. I just don't want to be in the park and not have gas to get out. I also bought some bread so I can make sandwiches to take on the shuttle. 7/21/96 I had planned to get up early so I could vacuum, dust, and clean before I went into the park. I will be dry camping there so I need to get these things done before I leave. I over slept as usual. I think my days and nights are getting turned around. I keep waking up during the night and falling asleep during the day. I still have to do all that stuff but now I will be getting into the park later than I wanted to. I was so tired yesterday during the day but last night I woke up and didn't go to sleep until after midnight. I hope things change when it starts getting dark again. The day looks kind of dreary and the weather report says it is supposed to rain today, which from what I gather, is nothing new in this part of Alaska. It was a very interesting day. After passing through a checkpoint I proceeded to Teklineka Campground. After I set up I went to the bus stop to see when the next shuttle would be coming through. It was in about 10 minutes so I didn't have time to pack anything to eat or drink. A few minutes after I got on we made a rest stop. The rest of the people had been on for about an hour and I guess they needed to. Shortly after the rest area the road changed to essentially one lane. One of the busses has to pull way over when another is coming toward it. There are rules as to who pulls over and where and who has to back up if necessary. Parts of the road are very narrow and you almost look straight down for a few hundred feet. It was not an area where G would want to be on the outside. We would stop when ever someone saw an animal. We saw Dahl Sheep, Grizzlies and Caribou. One of the grizzlies was a sow with three little ones. They were last years cubs so they were a bit bigger and lighter in color than the new ones. Most of the sheep we saw were so far away that you couldn't tell if they had legs, but I assume they did as they didn't roll down the mountain. The caribou had their full antlers and were just awesome looking. You really have to wonder how they can hold their heads up with all that weight. It started to rain harder as we approached Eielson Visitors Center and the Mountain was not visible. I thought I could see it through a break in the clouds but the ranger said it wasn't. Our driver was great. She was a fountain of information and quite pleasant. We learned, from her, quite a bit about the geology of the area. She also had a special interest in wild flowers so we got all of them pointed out whether we wanted to see them or not. The visitor's center was OK but the rangers there didn't seem to be as knowledgeable as the bus driver or anywhere near as congenial. I may go again tomorrow. When we returned I ate and then found the camp host. He just does National Parks and this is his sixth year. He really seems to enjoy it. He will be here until the middle of September. The talk tonight was on fire. Some of it was material that I had already heard but was presented differently and other inf. was quite new. Overall it was an interesting day. 7/22/96 I didn't sleep real well last night. I tossed and turned. When I awoke about 7:00 it was raining so I turned over and went back to sleep. I finally pushed my body out of bed at 11:30, had some breakfast, made some sandwiches and went to catch the bus. When I got on I knew that I wouldn't be there long. There were about 20 or 30 teen's, spread out all over. I got off at the first rest stop and told the driver so she wouldn't wonder why I didn't get back on. While I was waiting for the return bus a young lady came up and started talking to me. She was from Israel and her name was Ronit. She told me that she was traveling with some people and it was getting kind of sticky and she was getting uncomfortable. She asked if she could go back to the campground with me. After we got back and I told her that she could sleep on the couch for a while I found out that her traveling companions were from Israel also. I had thought they were Americans. She offerred to hitch hike and leave but I just didn't feel comfortable putting a 19 year old out on the road to do that. I finally convinced her to call her parents after we left the park and if they said OK then I would do it.. I went for a walk down by the river. Nothing exciting there. 7/23/96 What a day! Actually it started last night. I was watching the Olympics outside the MH of a couple who had a dish when someone said look at the fox. It had come out from under the MH and was almost at my feet. Before I could get the lens cap off my camera it was gone. It was exciting though. A few minutes later a guy came by and said that there was a grizzly across the river. Then a couple came by and said that he was in their camp. Or should I say former camp, they moved. That was all the excitement last night. This morning dawned bright and beautiful. I was at the bus station at 8:00 but there were too many people waiting so it took three busses before I finally got on. There were lots of grizzly sightings. We also saw a couple of Hoary Marmots (not hairy or whorey varmints) some Golden Eagles, a Moose, two wolves and some falcons. But, the best of all was the Mountain was out. There were some clouds around the base and halfway up most of it was visible. I missed the bus back at Wonder Lake (I was in the bathroom) but fortunately I was able to catch the next one. I even had a better seat. I had left my jacket on the seat of first bus so she (the driver) radioed ahead and was able to get them to leave it at the Eielson Visitors Center. When we got there, my jacket was waiting and so was a Caribou, happily munching away in the yard. Needless to say everyone got pictures. On the way back another Caribou was in the road so we had to wait for a few minutes. An interesting side note, the reason the grizzlies are blond here is that they don't get a lot of protein in their diet. When they do, their fur gets darker. That is why the babies are dark, the get a lot of protein from the sows milk. One of the sows had three cubs. I don't know whether they were all hers or she had acquired someone else's but they were probably hers as the sometimes have three. I walked back from the Tek rest stop. It was probably a bit over a mile and it did me good after sitting for so many hours. This evening there was a lecture on Geology. It covered primarily this area but plate tectonics covers the whole world. 7/24/96 I woke at about 8:00 and was up at 8:30. I really slept well last night. I think I was asleep by midnight and pretty much slept straight through. I was beautiful again this morning and I stopped a few times on the way out to take some pictures of Denali. Most of it was visible again this morning. I only went about 65 miles today. I wanted to stop at a place with hookups where I could do laundry also. I cleaned the place, and took the blinds down and washed them also. The laundry was $10.00 but now I have clean clothes and the place doesn't smell so bad. I also used their shower. It was $2.00 for all the hot water I wanted and now I feel clean. I didn't see any animals on the way out of the park. Ronit called her parents also. It turns out they have a friend of a friend in Anchorage, so that is where I will take her. In a way I will hate to see her go. She is no trouble, she won't even eat my food, and pleasent company. 7/25/96 I woke to the sound of rain during the night but this morning is bright and clear. I got a map of all the National Parks when I left Denali yesterday. I think I will write to the NPS and see about their Camp Host program. I was told by another host that they will pay the Ferry fees for a trailer if I decide to come back to AK. They also have some parks where I would like to travel. The drive into Anchorage was beautiful. There are snowcapped mountains on both sides of the road. I dropped Ronit off and continued on my way. The Glenn Highway is a nice drive also and the campground, King Mountain State Recreation Site is very picturesque. It sits right along side a braided river bed at the foot of King mountain. I took a walk through the CG and it is even nicer than I thought. It has about 25 sites, most of them a bit small for me, but there were enough so that I had a pretty good choice. It is well treed and fairly well maintained. I think there is a central pump for water. Today has been a very interesting day and I am tired so I will go to bed a bit early. |
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