Tok RV Village, Tok Alaska

I have had several requests for pictures of the park where we are living and working for the summer…….now that summer is almost over….6 weekends to go…..i will post some pictures!

It is really a beautiful park…very well maintained…..with Dick here and in charge of the mowing and trimming…it looks even better! Several guests that stay in the park come into the office and comment what a nice park this is….the bathroom and showers are spotless! Anyone who camps knows that not every campground is up to par on cleanliness! The bathrooms and showers are scrubbed everyday by the owners. In Alaska, a lot of the campgrounds are just open spaces with water and electric hookups. The showers are old and not very clean….after all you are in Alaska and things are different up here!

Every night they have live entertainment….same guy every night…songs and stories about Alaska…they sell ice cream cones before and after the show….he is very entertaining and has a good following…even had a hit record one winter here in Tok!

They get in a lot of caravans touring Alaska….anywhere from 12 to 25 campers are in a caravan….things get hectic from time to time! Also, people come from all over the world….England, Scotland, Ireland, France, South Africa and quite of lot from Germany and Switzerland. We even had two young girls from Spain that were hitchhiking! I often wonder how they get their campers here…ha ha!....they fly into Anchorage, Fairbanks or even Vancouver and rent them! However, one couple was here from Bermuda with their camper…..they store it in Georgia!

Anyhow, we have really enjoyed being here this summer…great people to work for, nice campground! We have leaned a lot about Alaska…but if we come back (and we will) it will be in another park of the state…so much to see and do!

Riverboat Discovery, Chena River, Fairbanks

On Friday, July 10th, Dick and I went up to Fairbanks (4 hours away) to pick up supplies ( they have Sam’s Club, Wal-Mart and several other nationally known stores) and to take a ride on the Riverboat Discovery . The boat is a 156 foot paddle boat …the kind you would see going up & down the Mississippi River.

The Binkley family’s steam boating tradition goes back over 100 years and five generations to the Klondike Gold Rush. The Discovery III, the boat we were on, is the third steam boat they have had.

We had a few stops along the way……the first being a plane taking off from the river just next to the boat….no pictures…it was the opposite side of the boat…too many people to really gat a good pic!

Our next stop was at a champion sled dog kennel….this was the kennel that Susan Butcher ran. She was a four time winner of the 1,100 mile Iditarod Race from Anchorage to Nome. She and her husband David Monson owned Trail Breaker Kennel on the Chena River. Susan died of leukemia in 2006. Her husband and their two daughters have continued to operate the kennel and gave us a little show when we passed by…what a treat!

Our last stop was to an Athabascan Indian fish camp! These native Indians traditionally lived along ther major river ways of interior Alaska, an area that spans as far south as the Kenai Peninsula and as far north as the Brooks mountain range. They were a nomadic people and today many still live a subsistence life that includes summer fish camps. The camp is a little community where fishing with a fish wheel and the drying o the fish for future use was their primary job.

As a side note….I have come to realize how quickly I have become to not having crowds around! The two months that Dick and I have been in Tok we have gotten user to no traffic…no traffic lights…not having everything we need at the market….knowing where everything is from the Baptist Church that has closed, to the medical clinic to knowing what the hour mass is at the Catholic Church! Getting on the boat yesterday, along with five bus loads of cruise ship passengers I thought I was going to scream! I had heard people talk about “culture shock” when going back the the “lower 48”….now I know what they mean…..life in Alaska is tough…but simple!



Does anyone notice anything different about Dick???

Valdez

As part of our "package" workcamping at Tok RV Village, the owners sent us to Valdez to take a cruise of Prince William Sound. The campground promotes this cruse and they want us to be knowledgeable. So off we went! We boarded Buster for a few nights and off we went! Valdez is 254 miles south of Tok...a mere 5 hour trip....or...just down the road! The landscape in Tok is Lodge pole pines and Aspen, not much more...tundra, tundra, tundra! Going south to the ocean, the landscape changes to almost moss covered mountains. The Valdez area is in the northern part of a northern rain forest....just nice to see something other than trees! Not only do you go over a high mountains known as Thompson Pass, you go thru a canyon with several waterfalls. Needless to say, the ride to Valdez is just as beautiful as Valdez! Along the way you pass the Whittemire Glacier. You can actually walk up to this glacier...and they have restrooms...finally!

1. Bridalvail Falls
2. Top of Thompson Pass
3. Mountain top lake

Port of Valdez...lots and lots of fishing and pleasure boats!

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We left at 10am loaded down with cameras, coats, gloves, hats and, most importantly...snacks! The tour is 9 hours long, although they had meals along the way, we needed fortification in case we got stranded! You have to think ahead!

Anyway, they took us first to Columbia Glacier with its huge icebergs. Then we went to Meares Glacier and watch ice calving...sounds like ice cracking on a large lake...really weird but amazing! Along the way we saw lots of wildlife...otters, sea lions, seals, Puffins, porpoise, lots of eagles and whales! Hard to catch whales on film...they stay up that long...camera not that fast!

8.Dick spots a whale
9. ice at Mears Glacier
10. Approaching Mears Glacier
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13. Mears Glacier

14. Sea Lions coming to greet us...
15.Pt. Bull Head sea lion pullout...very noisie!
16. Columbia Glacier
17. Columbia Glacier

Chicken, Alaska

What can I say about Chicken, Alaska? Anyone who comes to Alaska needs to go to Chicken, What’s in Chicken? Nothing…absolutely nothing! But you need to go! Chicken is 82 miles from To. It’s 82 miles of tundra, trees, hills, valleys…..nothing else...no gas stations, no coffee stops…no electricity and no cell phone service…few cars,…and lot’s of gravel!

Once there, there is a post office, two campgrounds, a general store, bar and a café….that’s it! It once was a mining camp. People still go there to pan for gold and quite a few people have mining claims along the Chicken River, Oh yes, did I forget to mention that there is an airport? Every town in Alaska has an airport…including Chicken.

However, the day we decided to adventure to Chicken, there was a Bluegrass Festival going on as well as a tour of old Bentleys cars going through…it was really quite wonderful! Took a lot of pictures and found a couple w4e had become friendly with while they were staying in Tok, They are working at one of the campgrounds there and working a claim they have along the river. They are also full time RVers that winter in Florida. Do you can seem it is as very unique community with a population of 6! Hope you enjoy the pictures!

From Chicken you can follow a dirt road to Dawson City, Yukon or continue on to Eagle, Alaska. This spring, Eagle was completely destroyed by the ice along the Yukon River. There is nothing lsft to that community,

Tanacross, AK

Not far from Tok (12 miles northwest toward Fairbanks) on the banks of the Tanana River is the small Indian village of Tanacross. It is the home of the Tinneh or Tanan, Athabascan Indian.

In the mid 1930’s an airfield was built across the river from the village. In 1942 the village gave permission to use the airfield for emergency deployment during WWII. The airfield was repaved, upgraded to two runways, a temporary camp established and thousands of troops were stationed there. This became an important US military post during the war and became part of the Alaskan-Siberia (ALSIB) route.

With Canadian cooperation, newly manufactured planes from Gore Field and Great Falls, Montana made their way to Alaska via the Northwest staging route. Part of this staging route was Tanacross. The planes final destination was Ladd Field where Russian pilots took command of the planes and flew them to Siberia and onto the Western Front. This was all part of the Lend-Lease Project. There were 7,926 planes that were transferred to Russia between 1942 & 1945.

Very interesting…right? The most interesting part is that most of these planes were flown by women! In my research on this airfield, there is a footnote in The WWII Heritage of Ladd Field stating that women (WASP) pilots only flew them from the manufacture to Gore Field, Montana. But, several of those women pilots have come through Tok asking about the airfield and have said that they had flown the bombers into that airfield!

Although the airfield is only used by the US Forestry, you can drive around …and take pictures!

British Columbia & the Yukon

Sorry that it's been awhile since I have updated....but we did not have internet service though most of Canada. We went almost five days without cell phones " or internet...just like the "good old days". Also no TV or campgrounds. We camped by the side of the road....this was really nice...extremely quiet! We kept hearing what quiet really is like! WONDERFUL!

Yale, British Columbia - the first of so many breath taking views...



That night we camped by the side of the road in a large turn off just south of Quesnel. There we so little traffic along that road and the view was spectacular! We were in a valley, a long stretch of road that wound around the mountain, and the Fraser River below. You could see snow covered mountains up high…and a snow storm at the top of the mountain. Two trains ran along the river down below. On one side of the river the trains ran north, the other side of the river the trains ran south. Other than the trains, which you could barely hear anything…, there was not a sound! It was SPECTACULAR!!









From Dawson Creek and mile “0” on the Alaskan Highway, we headed north to Fort Nelson, BC. Once again we camped by the side of the road along a stream that was still half frozen. That night we were reading ..no phone or TV…waiting for it to get dark so we could go to bed…boy, we were getting tired! Looked at the clock and it was 10:30 and the sun was still out…talk about a reality check…finally got dark about 11:30! We were hoping to see some wildlife…but nothing! I guess it’s still too cold. Off we went the next morning through the northern end of the Rocky Mountains…absolutely beautiful! Nothing but mountains, lakes and streams for the next 60 miles….to Todd River! It was great to see some civilization…even though it was only a gas station and diner…great coffee!







Off again to Watson Lake, Yukon….nice place to visit…actually had a few things to do, but everything was closed and would not open until the end of May…still winter up here! We did get to stop at the Sign Post Forest. It started while they were building the highway….some lonesome GI’s started posting mileage signs to home…now everyone does it….amazing how many signs have been posted from all over the world…couldn’t walk through….SNOW!!!







The next day our destination was Haines Junction, Yukon. We actually found a campground that was open…electric only…no water (still frozen)..they had just opened the day before and it was almost full! Haines Junction is on the edge of Kluane National Park and Reserve of Canada…what a hidden treasure in the Yukon…breathtaking!