Mammoth Weekend 2024

 

July 26-28, 2024

Another super fun Mammoth weekend. Mountain biking, dog play and a quick paddle at Reds Lake, end of day margaritas at Gomez's and of course Village Fest! We always try to time our visit(s) with some activity happening in the village. There is really not much more to say other than we always have a great time at Mammoth.

Road Trip To Alaska. Part 3: Heading home.

 

 

June 27. We crossed back into Canada stopping again at Congdon Campground on beautiful Kluane Lake where we saw the unmistakable grizzly bear after our glacier flight a couple weeks ago. With bear spray in hand we didn’t venture off too far as this is high alert grizzly territory and a well used wildlife corridor. And for those who want to camp in a tent, read those signs!

 

We continued south until just before Watson Lake where we opted to head for new territory on the Cassiar Highway. The far north is certainly not excluded from wildfires. Lots of bears here. We ended the day at Kinaskan Lake campground.

 

 

 

 

June 29

From Kinaskan Lake CG traveling on Cassiar hwy, (which I’ll remember as Bear Poop hwy because there is a lot of poo on that road). Lots of wildlife on this drive. The beaver ponds are impressive. The one pictured has 4 dams with 4 lodges. Stayed the night at Pipers Glen RV Park with a not so bad view.

June 30 -July 3

The last leg of this fantastic journey! From BC Piper’s RV park to Skihist CG back to the lower forty eight. Washington through North Cascades to Lone Fir Campground. Great views of Liberty Bell mountain which I had soloed in 2012.

Liberty Bell on right with Early Winters Spires on left.

On to Oregon camp spot for the night. Another unplanned event. I got a text from my old co-worker and friend Mark. They happened to be in Bend. We made a meet up and met them for coffee at their hotel. It was great to see Mark and Reva. Afterwards we took a nice walk to the dog park river play with Wyatt on the Deschutes River and then off to camp at Winter Rim.

Dog in background is sporting a shark fin. :))

 

July 4. After 8,136 miles and 34 days out we made it home. We're looking a little wild and shaggy, but it’s all part of the adventure. We loved everything about this trip! Wyatt was a trooper and never ran out of enthusiasm! And our 20 year old camper rocked it!
 

 

Final thoughts. 

We didn't plan a single thing on this trip with the exception of seeing Randy and Cathy in Anchorage. This gave us the freedom to move when and where we wanted without having to think about any time constraints to get to/from anywhere. The only thing we had to reserve was the ferry, and we did that on arrival. That said there is absolutely no chance of getting a camp site in Denali NP without advance reservations in high season. Not a problem for us, we just moved on.

 

I did do a lot of pre trip maintenance and preventative maintenance on the truck and camper hoping to avoid problems. We had the roof leak early in the trip but "patched" the problem. We didn't have much rain until near the trip end when we again got a bit of leakage. I have since done a full roof re-seal but haven't had enough rain here in Nevada to say positively it's fixed permanently. We had zero mechanicals, not even a flat tire.

 

The roads and in particular the Alcan highway are much better now than they were in the 70's and have wide open areas next to the road where all the trees and brush have been cut back. This much safer for both travelers and wildlife as there is more view space to see the wildlife before suddenly being on them. Frost heave is still a thing and we had to drive at appropriate speeds to avoid bottoming the suspension and over stressing camper tie downs. 

 

Fuel was never hard to find but in general along the Alcan and Cassiar hwys I would always fuel up before getting much below a half tank. There were some spots where I was glad I did being in a not particularly fuel efficient rig. Prices were quite high along the Alcan and high in Canada in general, but I thought very reasonable in Alaska where I had definitely paid a premium in the 70's-80's.

 

Bugs. Maybe we were lucky, I don't know. We took head nets but I think only used them 3 times. Twice in Alaska and once in Canada. We used repellent often. The worst places were McCarthy (where we did not need head nets, but used them at our campsite) and the Denali hwy, especially in the calm morning hours.

 

This was the trip of a lifetime! (Along with many others. 😄) We saw and did everything we wanted to with one potential exception. On the way back we passed the junction leading north toward Eagle and eventually the Brooks Range. Not.Enough.Time. 

 

Go Back to Part 1

Go back to Part 2

 

 

Road Trip To Alaska! Part 2: Alaska

 

June 11
We finally crossed into Alaska and fueled up in Tok where diesel was only $3.73, I was shocked. I had fully expected much higher prices though not Canadian prices. Loaded up on fuel, tanks dumped, clothes washed and food restocked, we headed for Valdez, stopping to camp in random pulloff in the trees. The next day heading into Valdez we hatched a plan to utilize the Alaska Marine Highway system to hitch a ride over to Whittier. We were too late for the next ferry so instead got a reservation for the ferry in a couple days. We explored Valdez and got a site at Valdez KOA for the night.

 

We now had a couple days on our hands before our ferry ride. What to do. Well backtrack and head out to McCarthy where I had always wanted to go when living in Alaska but never made it out there! The road out is a little rough but it's a beautiful drive. Camped at Kennicott Basecamp beside the river. This is one of the very few places where the mosquitos were pretty voracious.

The public road does not cross the river but there is a nice foot bridge that replaced the cable trolley system. So in the morning we walked across the bridge but almost immediately were able to catch the shuttle into town. From there we continued on the shuttle up to the old Kennicott Copper mine and spent several hrs exploring the old mine and hiking around various trails. Fascinating!

Eventually we caught the shuttle back into town where we ate lunch, then walked back to the bridge. It was a beautiful walk back.

We had to catch the ferry the following day so we packed up and drove back to Valdez and stayed again at the KOA where I already had made a reservation for the night. Our delayed ferry day proved to be providential as we had great weather in McCarthy and now a promising sunny day for the boat ride. One of the attendants directing us where to park on the ferry was stoked as this was the first sun they had seen in weeks. An incredible over water journey ensued with much marine life spotted such as Orcas and Sea Otters. And of course the now ever present Bald Eagles were abundant.

Sea Otter

Arriving in Whittier we departed the ferry and drove through the Whittier Tunnel and found a campsite at Williwaw Campground. One of my favorite camps of the whole trip.

The days were passing it's now June 16 and we're on to the Kenai Peninsula. We spent a few days exploring around including Kenai, Soldotna, Homer and the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge. This was my home turf in the late 70's. Lots of changes. 

Arc lake. Scene of many stupid but fun shenanigans in 1978

June 18th we camped on the shores of Skilak lake. Day tripping to Seward we returned in time for a nice paddle on the lake. So beautiful, so serene! Of course the eagles kept an eye on us. Skilak is known for it's sudden wind and I had planned the paddle so that if the wind came up it would push us back to camp. So we paddled our outbound leg against a slight wind. Such a newbie. The wind did begin to come up but of course from the opposite direction so we battled our way back against an increasing wind. It wasn't bad or dangerous but 2 upwind legs? Even with that, we agreed Skilak was another trip highlight!

 

 

June 20

We could've stayed at Skilak for days but we had to move on. Next was Anchorage and a visit with a friend from my old climbing days and his wife. 

 

 It was great to see Randy and Cathy and of course Joannie had to tick another in her growing list of climbing gym's she's climbed at. We climbed at the Alaska Rock gym twice.

 

Staying at the RV park in Anchorage was our least favorite experience of the trip. The park was fine but by now us and Wyatt were used to open country.

 

June 23

We were staying in Talkeetna campground. Inquiring at Talkeetna Air Taxi we made another reservation for a scenic flight around Denali and Ruth Gorge. This flight included a glacier landing. Another first for Joannie. We had a day before our flight so we rented bikes and explored Talkeetna and the surrounding area.

 

 

 

The following day was our flight. As usual superlatives are inadequate.

 

Moose's Tooth massif

Incredible Ruth Gorge

Denali

 

Here is a link to my You Tube play list for the video we took during our flight. The videos are very short. Don't be scared.

Denali Flightseeing

 

From Talkeetna we headed to Denali National Park. With the park road still being closed at mile 43, and no camp spots available, we only drove as far as Savage River where the mandatory busses start then opted to leave and head out the Parks Highway, a 135 mile mostly dirt connector road between Cantwell and Paxson. In our opinion this was the best drive we did. I have driven it before but not in a leisurely sightseeing way. Anyway, we camped at a random pullover that night. 

 

 

June 26. It was time to start heading south. We had planned on being back home by July 1st. Wasn't happening. More driving and a random overnight somewhere along the highway short of Beaver Creek.

Continue to Part 3

Go Back to Part 1