Trip to Alaska - May, 1997
WOW, Alaska is an amazing place. The air is pure, the scenery is breathtaking. The people are loving, hospitable and generous! During May, 1997, I spent 14 days wandering around the state and I could have used another 14.
This is a map of the area of Alaska I traveled in.
The heavy blue line follows my course.
You can jump to specific journal entries by clicking a location on the map.
Here is my account of what I did:
I left Lansing, MI at 7:00 AM and arrived in Anchorage, AK at 2:00 PM. In the process I gained four hours in time zone changes. At the airport I picked up a Plymouth Breeze rental car. I wandered around Anchorage and saw everything I cared to in the city. I called up the Barrs whose number was given to me by a friend that lived in Anchorage for several years. They invited me to stay with them tomorrow and I accepted. I spent the night in the Anchorage youth hostel for $15.
I got up and around to go to the Sand Lake congregation’s meeting. Here I finally met Rudy and Jessica Barr. They would prove to be a life saver for me. After the meeting I went out in service with Rudy and some other brothers for an hour. Later on I went to a local school yard and played basketball with a group of brothers. I hope I managed to avoid making a total fool of myself. (I am not exactly a star athlete.) After ball I was ready to relax and hit the sack.
Nothing was in Anchorage to keep me any longer so I packed up and headed north to Denali National Park. (I would return to Anchorage May 17th.) It was about a four hour drive and on the way were lots of 
beautiful mountains. An overcast of clouds prevented me from seeing Mt. McKinley in its mighty splendor. When I got to the park the clouds were breaking up and I drove down the park road for 30 miles (it was closed to cars beyond this point). I did some hiking down a river bed and up some tundra covered hills. I was hoping to see some bears but they eluded me, and would continue to do so for the entire trip. I pitched my tent at the Riley Creek campground and went to bed. It is hard to get used to the sun staying up until after 10:30 PM. I awoke throughout the night to find rain, a wet tent, and a cold body. I kept adding more layers of clothes and trying to stay dry.
When I got up in the morning it was still raining and would continue to all day. I again drove down the park road looking for wildlife. When the road reached a little higher elevation the rain turn to snow. After finding nothing of significance I decided to leave Denali and head north to Fairbanks. When I got to Fairbanks I found a public shower and got cleaned up. I then meandered through the campus of the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. There I saw a Cray supercomputer for the first time (they have three). I was impressed with the facilities including a fully equipped engineering building. However, I was unsuccessful in finding a computer lab to use to catch up on my email. I went into town to the Noel Wein Memorial Library and used their computer. This is a very impressive library that has a huge room filled exclusively with books and videos about Alaska. While at the library the time got to be 6:45 PM and I started thinking about trying to get to a meeting. The Barrs had given me the numbers of a couple of their friends in town so I tried calling them to find out about the meeting time and place. I first tried Lynn and Marlena Kriley but they were not home. Then I tried Mak and Jessica King. Mak answered and said that he could come and get me to go to the book study. In addition, he didn’t hesitate to invite me to spend the night at their place. The book study was large, around twenty, and I think I met all but one or two people there. Everyone was super friendly.
I started off by browsing through some of the many gift shops and seeing downtown Fairbanks. Then I headed east down Chena Hot Springs road, which oddly enough dead ends at the Chena Hot Springs resort. It is about 60 miles out there and on the way I stopped at the Angel Rocks trailhead and went on a nice three and half mile hike up to a gorgeous view of the valley area. I saw a huge beaver dam in a river and a freshly 
fallen tree cut by a beaver. The beaver lodge was about 8 feet wide and 3 feet tall. After the hike I was ready to do some soaking at the resort. This is the farthest north I would get on my trip. They have hot tubs and swimming pools fed by the hot springs and thus do not have tons of chemicals added to them. I must admit that after a couple hours here my muscles were relieved of any tension resulting from the hike. When I got back to the King’s, Mak and Jessica made pizza and some people came over to visit. Two of the visitors were Lynn and Marlena (they live downstairs). I had an interesting chess game with Lynn. It was interesting to hear Mak’s story of how he had been to Alaska a couple of times on vacation. He lived in Colorado then. He ended up loving it so much he had to move to Alaska. He and Jessica have now been in Alaska a little over a year. I wonder if that will happen to me. I do love it up here. After everyone left Mak and I went for a little bike ride around the area. We got back at 11:45 PM and it was still light enough to ride about freely.
I went to Alaskaland in Fairbanks to see if the air museum was open. It wasn’t and I locked the keys in my car. One call to AAA and 35 minutes later and I was headed south toward Valdez. Part way there I decided that I would take full advantage of the beautiful sunny weather and take a side trip out to the ghost town of Kennicott, an old copper mine town from the 1930’s. To get there I would have to take a small road 80 miles, the last 60 miles are gravel and called McCarthy Road. This 60 mile stretch is about a three hour drive due to the condition of the road. At the end of the road is the Kennicott River. The town of McCarthy is just across the river and Kennicott another 5 miles. The thing is that there is no bridge to get your car across the river. Just a little hand operated cable tram and a newly inaugurated foot bridge. Today I just got to mile 11 of McCarthy road. Here there is a gorgeous campground on 
Silver Lake. I had a marvelous view of the sunset. It was most spectacular to see the colors on the mountain faces on the east horizon. The sky of the west horizon was hidden by mountains. This was another cold night in the tent.
I awoke to find the tent covered with frost on the outside and me feeling like frost on the inside. I wore a hat and two layers of clothes plus a jacket and used a winter rated sleeping bag. I was still unable to keep warm. I drove the last 49 miles to the river and there found a place that would rent me a mountain bike for the day for $15. That seemed reasonable and could make the 5 mile trek from McCarthy to Kennicott a bit easier. Actually it made the trek back from Kennicott easier. I found out that Kennicott is quite a bit higher than McCarthy and therefore I had a 5 mile uphill battle to get there. It was worth the trip. Kennicott has all of these old buildings from the copper mine and the most spectacular one was the ore crushing plant that extended up the mountainside over a quarter-mile. On the lower side of the city is a glacier. I took a guided 
hike out on the 
glacier ice. It was a worthwhile experience. The ice was blue in places that had not been exposed to the sun for long, such as in cracks in the surface and where melting water was cutting channels in the ice. There were many large pools of water on the surface and some had large holes in the bottom where the water would run out. After the one hour bike ride up the hill the ride down was a joy. I made it back to the river in just 15 minutes. Now I get to head back over the 60 miles of gravel and rocks. After around 48 of those miles I bottomed out on a rock. There was a big clunk from the rock hitting the underside of the car. I had experienced that many times on our road at home and didn’t think much of it. That is, until about a mile and a half later when the car stopped going anywhere! I got out and what did I see? A trail of transmission fluid on the ground. Oh great! Now what do I do? I got under the car and could feel a hole about an inch long and a quarter inch wide in the transmission pan. I had passed the Silver Lake campground just a mile or so back and I figured that the people there could help me out. About this time a couple in a big motorhome came along and they gave me a ride to the campground. The owner recognized me from the night before and knew something was up since I wasn’t in my own car. I explained to him the situation and he pondered it for a bit. Then he went into his shop and came out with some epoxy and 5 quarts of transmission fluid. I got a ride back to the car, stuffed some epoxy in the hole and filled it up with fluid. It seemed to be holding just fine so I continued on toward Valdez. I was feeling sick because of the car problem and wondering what the rental agency would do with me. While driving down the highway I saw something cross in front of me. It was moving slowly and the size of a big dog, only with short legs. It had gray stripes on both sides of its stocky body. The only thing I could think of was that it was a wolverine, a rare sight. Tonight I slept in the car at a park along the highway.
I awoke to find a rainy day. The upcoming stretch of highway leading into Valdez has been said to be the most beautiful drive in all of Alaska. I got to see nothing but fog while crossing Thompson’s Pass. This pass is famous for its tremendous winter snowfalls. As I descended down the hill I got out of the fog and into the rain. The sky was dark overcast. I was still able to see some nice waterfalls along the highway. As I got into Valdez at about 6:45 AM I decided that with the current weather there would not be much point in sticking around. There was a ferry leaving for Whittier at 7:15 AM, so I made arrangements to take a little boat ride in the rain. The three hour trip across Prince William Sound gave me the opportunity to see some porpoises (or were they dolphins?), killer whales, and lots of bald eagles. We tried to get up close to Columbia Glacier, but the bay was still frozen in and we couldn’t get a good view of it. As we got close to Whittier there were many boats out. Several sailboats and a few inflatables. The rain was still falling and the temperature was around 50 F. From Whittier the only way to continue on is to take the train through the mountains to Portage. The train goes in two long tunnels through the center of the mountains. From Portage I had to head back to Anchorage to get my rental car taken care of. The epoxy was still holding, but I didn’t want to continue driving it any more than necessary. Going back to Anchorage is just an hour and a half or so from Portage. At the rental agency they said that I couldn’t get another car until Monday when they could get an estimate on the damages. A phone call to Rudy was all it took to get taken care of in Anchorage. I hated asking him to help me out, but I didn’t really see any other feasible options. He came and picked me up from the agency and let me stay at his place again. (Thank you, Rudy and Jessica.) We had some good tacos for dinner.
I again went to the meeting with the Sand Lake congregation. Afterward a small group went to Subway for lunch and then we went to a house warming party for Brandon and his wife. Brandon is Jessica’s brother. Then some of the brothers went to play basketball. I went along but ended up playing volleyball instead with some of the other friends.
I got to sleep in today. I just had to wait for a phone call from the rental agency. Of course I couldn’t just wait, I had to call them myself. On the third phone call I got the answer I was waiting for. I could come in, pay them $258 for a new pan and then rent another car. This time I got a four door Suzuki Sidekick. Now I could head back south toward Seward. (I would return to Anchorage May 23th for my departure.) I drove through the small city based on the fishing industry and found it interesting to see a big cruise ship docked at the harbor. About eight miles outside of town is the Exit Glacier. I drove out there and did a little nature hike up to the glacier. Then I returned to town and made a phone call to the Bennetts in Kenai, Rex and Caren. I was expecting to be in Kenai tomorrow and wanted to get the low down on the meeting. Their name was given to me by Kim Fitzpatrick, a friend from Patterson, NY, that had stayed with them for a while last year. During my conversation with Caren I was invited to stay with them while I was in the Kenai area, and of course, I accepted. She promised me a caribou steak lunch if I got there in time. Tonight I set up camp at the Ptarmigan Creek campground. I wore as many clothes as possible.
I woke up to a nice day and a warm body. I broke camp and when loading the car found that it was 4:30 AM. That gave me time for a nice hike out to Ptarmigan Lake before I would have to head out to Kenai. The hike was a 7 mile round trip and took me about 3.5 hours. I didn’t see any bears or moose on the hike but did see a beaver in the lake. It was now time to 
head for Kenai and a hearty caribou lunch at the Bennett’s. After lunch Rex decided to go fly around and look for some work. The Bennetts are both pilots and Rex does well-drilling. He goes up in his plane looking for new construction. He writes down where he finds anything that looks promising and then drives to the sites and offers to drill their well. I got to go with him today. We flew his 
Piper PA-14 float plane (they also have a Tri-Pacer). We found 5 sites to check out. When we drove to them, they all had wells already. No new jobs for Rex today. The Kenai congregation has their Theocratic School and Service Meeting on Tuesdays so we did that tonight. The Kingdom Hall is next door to the Bennett’s so we just walked over for the meeting.
Caren convinced me that we should have a line dancing gathering tonight so that I could learn how to dance. That means that I will be in Kenai another night. We started off the day by going out in service for the morning. Wednesday is the big weekday for service in this congregation. In the afternoon I went to the beach and did some browsing in the gift shops. I went to the library and sent some email. Now the fun begins! A few brothers and sisters came over and we did some line dancing. Well, I attempted to at least. First they taught me the electric slide (known as the hustle by some). This was a good beginner’s step and I picked it up pretty well after about 8 or 9 tries. Then we did some boot scootin’ boogy and the barnyard mixer. I even tried a little two stepping with Caren. After dancing I was ready for a good night’s sleep. Unfortunately I would only be able to get about three hours because I have to get up at 3:30 AM to drive down to Homer for a fishing charter trip.
Up early, and hit the road. I have to be in Homer by 6:15 AM for a halibut fishing trip. 
On the way I picked up a fishing license and some film. In the first 9 miles I saw 7 moose. In the next 73 miles to Homer I saw an additional 11 moose. There was six customers on the boat including myself. Three were from the Detroit, MI area and were celebrating their 50th anniversary. The third of this threesome was the wife’s older sister, Mable. She is a sprightly 82 years old. The other two were a young couple from Florida in Alaska for their honeymoon. We traveled three hours out of Homer to the Gulf of Alaska. The trip out was pretty rough with 6-8 foot waves. We found a somewhat sheltered area behind some islands and anchored for some halibut fishing. The first fish was caught by the honeymooner wife. It turned out to be over 60 pounds and the biggest catch of the day. The 50th wife then reeled in a 
40 pound octopus! It was interesting to see this big thing with the tentacles and all. We decided to move on to another spot and use one of the tentacles for bait because we didn’t seem to be catching anything more here. At the new spot everyone got their limit of two fish apiece. I caught 
a 36 pounder and a 16 pounder. Now it was time to head back. Now the waves were often exceeding 10 feet and the boat was getting thrown all over the place. It was a really wild ride. The built in couch came loose from the boat and slid halfway across the cabin. I am glad that no one onboard got seasick. The whole trip lasted about 13 hours and we had to hang out a while at the charter office while they cleaned the fish. I had hoped to make it to the meeting, but it was getting awfully late. I decided to go ahead and get a shower and cleaned up for the meeting. When I got there it was 9:15 PM and some were already leaving. I met the Zastrows and they informed me that I would be spending the night at their house. Caren had called yesterday to warn them of my arrival. This is the first “family” I stayed with. They are Jim (dad), Donna (mom), Tony (24), Melanie (~13), and Dustin (~8).
In the morning I went out in service and I actually placed a magazine! Only one though. The householder wanted the Awake! on entertainment because her husband was watching way too much television. After service I had lunch at a great restaurant in town called Smith’s Family Restaurant. Then I bought some jellies at Alaska Wild Berry Products. Now it is time to head north to Anchorage. I have a 6:20 AM flight home. It is a 5+ hour drive back to the big city. I will be staying with the Barrs again tonight. About an hour south of Anchorage I had to hit the brakes. There was a huge backup of traffic. It was because of a head-on collision about a mile and a half up the road. After a 45 minute wait we started moving again. Once I got past the accident site it was another 9 miles that the cars were backed up going in the opposite direction. It is the Friday of Memorial Day weekend and it seems that everyone in Anchorage is going south to do some fishing. I am glad I am going north and I finally get to the Barr’s at around 8:00 PM. It worked out fine because they were just getting some food onto the grill! The Krileys I met in Fairbanks were visiting and another couple from Anchorage, Brad and Dana were there also. We had a nice time and I finally got a picture of 
people instead of mountains!
Up at 5:00 AM, I have to try to get everything in my vehicle packed and ready to put on the plane. By the time I do that, drive to the airport, turn in my car and get to the airline counter it is 6:10 and there is no way to make my 6:20 flight. The friendly Alaska Airlines counter person proceeded to totally reschedule a new series of flights that left at 7:00 AM and would arrive in Lansing, MI only 15 minutes later than my original flight. That worked out pretty well. After another long day in the air I arrive in Lansing at 9:30 PM. (Remember, I lost 4 hours.) My parents welcomed me home and that was the end of my Alaskan adventure.
February 2nd, 2008 at 3:12 am
pre teen pageant gown