July 9 - Glacierview to White River

Woke up this morning to low lying cloud - all our beautiful mountains and valleys of yesterday were all socked in. Boy, it sure does look different around here, depending on the weather. We had a fabulous breakfast at the cafe including the biggest and fluffiest pancake I've ever had - about an inch thick and as big as a dinner plate! 

We set out and almost as soon as you leave Glacierview, the mountains and valleys give way to tundra that reaches out forever. Ten billlion scrubby black spruce fighting for life on sparse stretches of tundra - a small layer of top soil above permafrost left behind from the last ice age. What amazes us are the number of little cabins hidden hither and yon in this vast expanse of nothing much. Many are run down and again, almost everything is for sale. We can only imagine that they must be hunting camps. 

We made it into Glennallen and had coffee once again at the Fireweed Cafe, fueled up, hung a left at the junction and then dodged off onto the cutoff headed for Tok. At this junction is an historic road house at Gakona. All that is left is the old log house from 1904 and some outbuildings people have set up shops etc. in. 

From Glennallen to Tok, the highway runs along the valley below the Wrangle mountain range. For the first 100 kms, the valley sweeps wide with the mountains on both sides far off in the distance. The valley itself is an unbroken carpet of black spruce. 

The land drops down to meet the Tok River and then the Wrangle mountains pull in closer. We stopped at the top of a rise at a nice pullout and had some lunch (some fabulous baking from Girdwood a couple days ago) and looked out on storm clouds pouring rain as they made their way over the vast expanse before us. The scale of things in Alaska is, without question, enormous - so big, in fact, that you often lose perspective of what you're seeing until you get a frame of reference; a pick-up truck or a  cyclist etc... 

After lunch, we were humming along when suddenly, a poor Robin skittered out onto the road in front of my husband. The bird zigged and zagged, not sure what it was doing and then it decided to fly but not soon enough. He had just pulled into the air as my husband ran into it. I was behind and suddenly there a huge puff of feathers exploded into the air like someone had broken a pillow. Poor little Robin... 

As we approached Tok, we could smell forest fire. There had been fires in this area a few weeks ago when we first came through. Once in Tok, we stopped to fuel up and we could see a huge looming black cloud north of us, heading our way. There  was also a lot of smokey haze in the air. We decided to try to stay ahead of it as best we could.

We left Tok and managed to dodge several isolated showers - either they were just ahead of us or to either side. We arrived at the Canadian border and fueled up again in Beaver Creek. Our camping neighbour in Homer, Chris, told us about the campsite at White River so we decided to make a run for it. From  the border, there are 60kms of REALLY rough chip-seal roads interspersed with REALLY crappy, old, frost-heaved pavement. Nasty business... we had heard that the Alaska Highway from Tok to Whitehorse was awful and today we got a taste of it.

At last, we arrived at the RV campsite in Whiteriver - a lovely little oasis after miles of remote tundra. We walked into the office and started chatting with Amanda, the owner, when my husband looked up and said, "Hey - those are my uncle's chaps hanging on the wall. That's his brand!" Turns out the previous owner, Bob, spent a lot of time with Lynn's uncle and came by the chaps. Bob is no longer here but some of his things are still on loan. Amanda phoned Bob on the Sunshine Coast and he and Lynn chatted for about half an hour about all the people they know in common with a promise, at the end of the call, to connect again in the future. SMALL WORLD!!!!! What are the chances that we would meet Chris in Homer who would have told us about this very isolated little campsite in White River only for my husband to find his uncle's chaps from the 1950s hanging on the wall. It's hard not to believe it wasn't meant to be....

We BBQ'd a steak for dinner and, mid-BBQ, a small black bear wandered down the road about 50 yards away from us, sniffing the air. I sure hope he doesn't come back! We packed everything up well but he was pretty close! I'll be sleeping with one eye open tonight! Lynn casually decided to bring the axe into the tent... :)