Day 9 in Alaska (Tim's Day 7) (Mark's Day 5) June 4th, 1999 Text added to the images to enhance your viewing pleasure.       Wow, time really flies. I can't believe its Friday already. Our time here is running out. Though I think Tim is nearly ready to go home. Travelling around enough for work doesn't leave much time with his dogs. I can understand that, I miss my husky.       Anyway, there were no wolves during the night. The only surprise was that I wasn't the only one to snore :) We awoke about 8 am, and slowly crawled out of the sleeping bag. I could feel my hair was in disarray. A shower would be nice ;) Monty was still sleeping in the car. We didn't wanna wake him up, so we hung outside just chatting for a while. Finally at 9am, we could take no more. Tim and I were hungry and getting a little chilly while it had showered a couple of times. The clouds were dark and laden with rain. I sure hope it clears up for the drive to Gakona. We are driving back to Tok for a coffee.       Ok, we are set for the new days adventure. We called the person we stayed with two years ago, Kari in Gakona. We will drop by and say hi. Now my tummy is full of almond and poppyseed muffin and a large cappuccino. Java java java java. Uhoh.... I think too much caffeine before a long road trip could be interesting. If I start typing weird things you will know why. We are expecting to pass through some scenic areas so we will have cameras at the ready. I just wish the weather would clear up a little. The mountains ahead of us are mostly covered with the low smoky clouds. Some of the road signs leaving Tok are neat. Mushers Road, Sled Dog Way. There is definitely a theme here somewhere :) If you can't tell by now, I am a sled dog person. No, I am not a musher. I would love to be, but it just takes up more time than I have right now. Plus it is like skiing. You have to buy all the equipment. But still, I just love the nordic breeds.       That reminds me of last night. I didn't realize that Alaska's state sport is dog mushing. I guess it shouldn't have been a real surprise but I thought that was neat. I think that would be a nice way to travel. Wherever you go in the winter, your dogs would always go with you so that you don't have to miss them :)       For some reason "Blues Traveller" doesn't quite fit the scenery. I keep expecting to hear Garrison Keillor sing his take of the Beach Boys classic, "Matanuskan Girls". If you are not familiar with Garrison, he hosts a radio show out of St Paul called Prairie Home Companion. Several times they would visit Alaska and do the show from there. They have guests and skits, along with a variety of songs. Usually the songs are just fun to listen to. There was a real cute one called "WHISKY lullaby", sung by Libby Riddles and Garrison. Libby is a dog musher from Alaska, who is one of the few females to have completed the Iditarod. Anyway, the reason this topic came up is that the Matanuskan Girls song has been stuck in my head for much of this trip since I saw a sign for Matanuska. Hmm.. Have to think of another song to reappear over and over again before my companions get annoyed. ahhh, the theme to National Geographic... that will work.       Well, we are currently winding our way at the base of the mountains. It's a beautiful road to be travelling on. We have a smaller mountain on one side, with trees covering its rocky slopes. To our right, we have slightly taller mountains with snow sprinkled on the tops. The weather is not really being good for picture taking however. Perhaps it will lighten up later. Ahead of us is a large valley, so it looks like we will be following along it at the base of the mountains.       A little further down the road we had to make a couple of stops. The view of the road ahead with the mountains behind was too tempting. Then we came across Mineral Lake. Thus another stop was made. There are definitely some gorgeous areas along here. Sometimes though there are areas that would make a great picture, but there are phone lines running right across it. A photographers nightmare. Of course, if you are scanning them in it's not too bad. Such things can be removed with relative ease.       Just to remind us where we were, a large Eagle soared casually on the invisible currents above the valley we were passing through. Here in the Alaska wilderness, nothing signifies the feeling of being free and a part of nature than seeing a large raptor in flight. There are a few moments that really fill my heart with deep satisfaction, and yet a sadness of how distant we have become from our natural environment. The sight of a raptor as I mentioned, the sound of wolves' howls echoing through the wild, the sights and smells of a lush evergreen forest. Nature is such a deep joy, and expresses its Creator's imagination and artistic hand. I remember a song I heard once, "God painted better than Michaelangelo". When I look at the texture of the mountains, the colors and shades across the open tundra or in the forest, the sweet fragrances from blossoming trees, it still amazes me. Even when I am back at the park, and I look into the eyes of the wolves, examine the colors of their coats. Is this all coincidence? Just the results of a great hiccup in space, called the Big Bang? I just could never believe that. It's all too perfect.       As if to sum up my last point, we came around the corner to find a beautiful lake. Ok, we had to stop. The mountains just in the background, and a few patches of ice and snow. But the best was yet to come. After having taken a few shots, a Bald Eagle flew over to the other side of lake. I spent the next 20 minutes just watching and waiting for the picture. I shot a couple, and watched as it swooped down and grabbed a fish, then ate it on the shore line. Wow.. I could have stayed there for hours, but the others were getting a little frustrated and wanted to keep going. Ahh well... I will have the memory. There is something about Bald Eagles though, and I don't mean the token animal for the US. Not being from the US, I still find something awesome about this large, graceful and beautiful bird.       About five minutes down the road we came to another overlook, so again we HAD to stop. It was a fairly high up stop with a view of a river valley. With my heart still beating with a sense of wonder once more, I suddenly got mad. Just below the overlook there was trash everywhere. Unbelievable. What the heck is wrong with some people. They come to the viewing area, admire the view and then throw their crap down the embankment. What is the deal??? Some of these people probably travelled hundreds of miles to enjoy the wilderness, but while they are here they don't seem to respect it. Is it lack of respect? Laziness? Maybe both. Despite these viewing areas, the rest of the highway actually looks really clean. They still have adopt a highway signs even out here :) There was one we noticed, that was adopted by the Star Trek club.       Another bend, another surprise. Monty and I spotted something on the left. Just a fleeting glimpse. As we pulled in to stop, we both jumped up and ran over. Tim was like "whats going on". I looked at Monty, he looked at me. I said "what do you think we saw?"       He replied, "well it sure looked like a wolverine".       I had to agree, that was what went through my mind. When we got to where we saw the creature, we couldn't see anything. I looked around for tracks, while Monty searched the brush. Suddenly it moved again. Ahh, it was only a porcupine. Still, it was neat to see that. A truck suddenly stopped, and the window opened on the drivers side. The man behind the wheel asked what we were seeing. We told the story of thinking it was a wolverine, but really being a porcupine. He said, "oh. We were hoping it was a bear. If it had of been, we would have shot it". He went on to explain that the bears were killing lots of the caribou and moose, as they migrated and gave birth to their young. Apparently there is a large population of bears in the area. We chatted for a little while, then before they left (there was a another passenger in the car) they said to stop off at the Midway Grocery store for free coffee. Sounded good, so we did.       Just over the bend, lay Slana, a small little town off to the left of the Highway. The Midway grocery store is on the right side before the turn off to downtown Slana. From the outside the store looked kind of small, but it was quite deceiving. On the inside it was pretty large, and had all sorts of pelts around the place. There were lynx, wolves, wolverines and various other weasels. The folks from the truck were there and told us to help ourselves to the free coffee. This we did and wandered around the store looking at the pelts and other trophies. The passenger came over to chat with us, with a noticeable southern accent. Tim asked him where he was from, and it turned out he lived about 8 miles from Bays Mountain Park in Tennessee. Wolf Park donated some wolves there, so we are familiar with the park. It's a small world. He mentioned having email, so if he gets to read this "Hi from all three of us". The folks there were real friendly, so if you happen to be passing, drop on in and pet Grizz, the chocolate lab. They also have nice Haagan Daz vanilla almond ice cream bars.       Just after spotting another moose, we had a pleasant sight. Some young folks were out with black sacks cleaning up the highway. After my frustration earlier at the overlook, it's nice to know someone cares enough to go out and clean up. Then, just as I was typing, something moved to our right. We stopped quickly, and backed up to find another brown critter moving slowly away towards the trees. The porcupine disappeared behind a culvert. Thinking that it may have gone into it, we waited with cameras at the ready. It eventually came out, and headed off as fast as it could into the woods closely followed by Monty with a huge lens. By the time I got there, Monty had already taken about 8 shots, and the poor creature had climbed a tree. We took some more pictures as the thing looked at us from time to time. I have never really seen one before, and was surprised that it didn't have many quills. The few it had seemed mainly around its rear end. I suppose that when faced with danger, it tries to face its back to the danger and escape or roll into a ball. Monty suggests this one was a yearling based on its size and how it looks. Since this is the first time I have seen one up close I couldn't say. Just glad to have been there to see one.       Monty just pointed out something interesting. Down the road, on either side, there is a straight line about three feet of all the trees that have been stripped. It looks man made due to the evenness that they have been stripped. As Monty suggests, its likely to be caused my porcupines. Must be a few of them around judging by the extent of the damage. And I always heard that you don't think straight lines in nature :)       Being a wolf lover often brought about a few thoughts of wondering what it would be like to spend the day as one. Seeing the sights along the way, brought back some of those thoughts. The small, tranquil ponds surrounded by the rich evergreens. I wonder what it would be like to experience the sensations from their point of view. The soft ground beneath padded paws and the myriad of smells titillating the sensitive nostrils. The cool breeze tickling the fur, carrying sounds of creatures scurrying about. Is it just me, or would it be neat to experience that? Of course, it is nice to be able to see all the different colors and shades that our eyes are capable of detecting. But, just for one day... I wonder how things would look then.       As I wrote that last sentence, we got buzzed by a low flying Golden Eagle. It's large wingspan casting a large shadow across the window. That is an impressive sight. Hmm.. maybe being an eagle for one day would also be a learning experience :)       We dropped down into a river valley that looked familiar. Finally I discovered why. We had entered into Gakona, a place we had stayed at 2 years ago. We got in at 2.30 PM, a lot earlier than expected. Kari was pleased to see us, and we had a nice long visit. She has a really fun and bubbly personality, with many stories to share. It turns out she has a new roommate, who just moved up from southern Indiana. As I said before, its a small world. We left about 4.30 to go and get something to eat, and then go exploring. The local restaurant, actually a well known famous site, was closed so we couldn't eat there. We decided to head out to Glennallen to find food. Crossing the Gakona river we drove to Hwy 1, and headed south towards Glennallen and Valdez. The road there was very bumpy, kind of like riding a roller coaster. he frost heaves really make typing as you drive very difficult. It reminded me of Matchams Road, back in England. My brother used to drive his tiny Miny (an English Car) about 80 mph, hitting each bump and banging our heads on the ceiling. That was fun..urm, kind of. Anyway, at least the road we are on now seems to have calmed down. A good thing too, cos I didn't want to add extra color to Tim's laptop.       Finally we got our food. We stopped in Glennallen and had three whopping burgers at a small little cafe called "The Hitching Post". It had a definite southwestern feel, with steers and cowboys decor. The prices were pretty good, and the food not bad. Of course, its been a while since we had "real" food, so anything right about then would have tasted good to us. So with full tummies, we set on to our next adventure. I think Tim is more interested in taking a nap actually :) Road buzz catches up to you pretty quickly having spent the past couple of days in a vehicle. Anyway, we are heading down hwy 4 with the Wrangells to our left. They are some really impressive mountains, with snow covered tops. Alas the clouds are blocking some of them, and with such a dark background it would really be a waste of film to take any shots of them at this time.       Monty just took us for a long detour, which actually looped back onto Hwy 4. The funny thing is, we did exactly the same thing two years ago. Hmm, who was it that said history repeats itself :) We are now trying to get the GPS back up and running. However, it seems to be having problems due to it being overcast. Finally the clouds lightened up somewhat, and the thing started working so hopefully we won't get lost now.       We stopped off at a view point for the Alyeska pipeline. The long silver pipe snakes its way across the landscape mile after mile, from the Arctic regions of Alaska to Valdez. Thats 800 miles of pipe. Apparently many critters like to lay beneath the pipe during the winter time, to keep warm. It's a strange site because it's pretty ugly; this long shiny object against the green trees and mountains. Yet, at the same time, it's intriguing. Of course, it's probably better for the environment than continuous trucks delivering the oil at Valdez. According to Monty, they are expecting to have a major oil leak real soon. It is pretty old, and there hasn't been much maintenance on it really. I wouldn't wanna be the critter that sleeps under the pipe when it breaks.       We have been descending into a valley for some time now, heading towards Chitina, and McCarthy. The mountains looming towards us, until we ended up climbing them. We stopped at an overlook and wow, what an impressive view. The copper river valley is very wide, with steep sides. Beyond that you could see for miles and miles. In the distance, the mountains shrouded with clouds stand out impressively.       Eventually we came to our first stop, Liberty Falls. The falls themselves were not huge, but waterfalls are always neat to see and hear. The water was rushing quite fast, leaving white foam as it hits against the immovable rocks. Fine mist spraying out of the bottom of the falls, could be felt against your face. We took a few shots, slowing down the shutter speed to try and get some interesting effects. It would have been cool to stay in the camp site, but it was pretty busy so we voted against it.       Further down the road we went through a narrow valley between two hills of solid rock. There were some beautiful lakes pressed neatly against the base of the hills, 3 mile lake and 2 mile lake. They would have been worthy of a picture, though it was getting dark enough where by they would have not been done justice. A little further down the road there is One mile lake. Since the lakes were not that long, I am guessing they are called that because they are that distance out of Chitina. My guess was proved right just around the next bend as we came into the city limits. I don't know how exact the mileage really was, but it seems about right.       Chitina is a small rustic town, with a lot of atmosphere. In one little pond there is a partially submerged pick up truck, that looks like it has been there since the 40's. There are two cool stores, the Chitina Emporium and Spirit Mountain artworks. The Emporium looks very old, as if it came from a movie about the gold rush days. The whole town is basically surrounded by mountains. One one end, there is O'Brien Creek. The creek is a reasonable size, that juts up against a large rocky hill that has lots of trees growing on and around it. The road through town continues on to McCarthy, which is a further 60 miles down the road. To get there, there is a narrow, one lane gap in the rocky hill. When you look through the gap you can see the Wrangells in the distance, and a large valley caused by a braided stream.       Whilst walking down town, two girls on bikes came by, closely followed by two young goats that were running to keep up. The two goats must have taken a liking to Tim, and started to follow him. I got the feeling the girls were not too happy with this and came back to get their attention. A young border collie came to aid them :) It all just seemed to add to the character of the place. I couldn't help but think this would be a great setting for a movie. A Stephen King movie would have worked, though we are not in Maine. We drove on a little way towards McCarthy, and watched as the wind picked up dust along the braided stream, whipping away and making a tiny dust storm. The wind blows down the valley pretty hard and picks up the dust.       The road to McCarthy gets real rough and narrow, as it follows along the hillside, overlooking the river valley. Rocks from small landslides litter the road, making it an obstacle course. Am I glad this is a rental car. Thankfully the road turns right, and away from the valley and the fallen rocks. It's still pretty rough however as we climb higher and higher up a mountain. We go a little further before turning around. It's getting kind of late, Tim and I are pretty tired and we have a long drive back to Gakona. Eventually Tim could not drive anymore, so I took the wheel and got us back to Gakona.

Web page & images © 1999 Monty Sloan Text by Mark Woodcock Page last revised Thursday, June 10, 1999