Greetings from the Land of the midnight sun (for one last day),
We spent the night in Fairbanks last night. What a change! It looks a
lot like civilization. They even have telephones here, so here's another
update.
Our other traveling companions have all departed us, one way or the
other. Dick's accident left us without the #3 MG-BGT. Then Bob took the
#2 Morgan +4 back to Dallas. Then the McNaughtons put the #4 Morgan 4/4
on a ferry heading south and haven't been heard from since, presumably
somewhere on their way in the general direction of Maine for the balance
of their trip. A few day ago we received a voice message from the
Murdocks with the #5 MGA. After their trip on a ferry from Skagway to
Prince Rupert they ran through Jasper and Banmf (hope I got that right)
before heading south. Their last report had them near Great Falls,
Montana, intending to pass through Yellowstone Park on their way back to
Florida.
Since June 28th we have been browsing and carousing around most of the
Alaskan roads that we hadn't tried previously. We couldn't get on the
ferry from Whittier to Valdez for lack of advanced reservations, so we
drove a bit north out of Anchorage, then east to Glennallen, and south to
Valdez, checking out glaciers as we went. Arriving in Valdez near
midnight, we decided to stake out the ferry terminal there in hopes of
catching a stand-by pass to Whittier. The terminal office opened at 2:30
am in preparation for the 3:00 am arrival of the ferry. Thought we would
be #1 on the standby list, but three others had checked in the day
before, and we got #4. When the ferry was finally loaded at 7:00 am,
only one stand-by got on, so scratch the seven hour ferry ride from the
itinerary.
We shuffled along northward and ran the length of the Denalli highway
from east to west. Dust, dust, and more dust for 130 miles! Nice drive
through the hills otherwise. This used to be the only way to get into
Denalli park (previously Mt McKinley Park) prior to construction of the
Parks highway from Fairbanks to Anchorage. We registered for the canned
bus tour through Denalli Park for the next day and check into a
campground about 15 miles south of the park. Travel advice: If you pass
this way, don't bother looking for a camp sight anywhere within 10 miles
of Denalli Park -- tents are severely shunned in favor of those road
slugs some people call motor homes.
Denalli Park was supposed to be one of the highlights of the trip. Sorry
to report that it didn't quite come out that way. First, the place is
generally very busy with tourists. Then, motor vehicles are not allowed
into the heart and depth of the park, except for the tour busses. The
road runs more than 60 miles deep into the park, and the mountains are
nice, but being restricted to the road you will see far less than 1% of
the park. Then there was a lot of smog from many forest fires currently
burning in Alaska, so we never got to see Mt McKinley. While riding the
bus, occasionally someone would see a moose a mile away and yell "Stop",
and we would sit in the road for several minutes while people stretched
the telephoto lenses to the limits trying to snap the little dot in the
valley. We couldn't quite get enthused about this ritual. Having
recently run the haul road up to Prudhoe Bay, we had seen loads of
wildlife up close and personal. One moose a half mile away in Denalli
just wasn't that personal. We do however have to give Denalli credit for
the bears. There were quite a few grizzly's wandering around, even a few
fairly close to the road. There were also some back pack hikers in the
park, a few fairly close to the bears, an interesting situation on
occasion.
Tuesday evening (6/2) we staked out a cross on the roadside on the Parks
Highway south of Fairbanks for our departed friend Dick Criswell, may he
rest in peace. Late night, finding the campgrounds full in Fairbanks, we
tried out a camp sight in the city park. What it was lacking in
amenities made up for in price. It was free, but not much else.
Wednesday we killed some time shopping, picking up a package (car parts)
at UPS, and getting the car's third oil change of the trip after 12,000
miles. The evening found us turning up another 175 miles or so of gravel
and dust as we made our way up to Circle. We just wanted to check out
the midnight sun for one last time, this time from 50 miles shy of the
arctic circle. Circle is an interesting little town for as small as it
is. One general store with a bar and several homes, about half with
small airplanes parked in the side yards. The planes taxi through the
gravel streets from the homes to the bar to the filling station and about
a quarter mile down the road to the air strip. Here is the northern most
point on the Yukon river that is accessible by road. After midnight we
ran 37 miles back down the road to Central where we made camp for the
night. As there is very little in the way of "Law" to enforce the 2:00
am closing of the bars, they close whenever the last patron leaves. I
got tired of waiting around 4:30 am and turned in. Being the 4th of
July, I suspect the bar never did close.
Thursday the 4th: There was a big parade in Central, consisting of a
kazoo marching band and about six vehicles, nearly half the town
participating while the other half stood and watched. I drove the very
dusty MGA with the trailer in the parade just to help with festivities.
In honor of the 50% tradition, Carol stood by as a spectator. Lots of
cameras pointed this way, the MG being quite a novelty nearly anywhere
beyond the end of any paved road.
Being a nice day and a quiet place, I took some time in Central to do a
little work on the rolling stock. For the MGA I replaced the tie rod
ends, put more oil in the one leaky front shock absorber (yes, #7 is
leaking), and replaced the driver side door latch so the door opens again
for the first time in nearly a week. The trailer got the wheel bearings
repacked, as 11,000 miles is a lot of travel for those 8" wheels. It
will soon be needing another set of new tires, having run the second set
for this trip nearly bald by now.
We are leaving Fairbanks today in quest of the Top Of The World Highway
en-route to Dawson City where we will be camping for the night. As we
will then be out of Alaska and back in the Yukon Territory of Canada, our
Juno e-mail service provider will be generally out of order again (no
local phone numbers in Canada). So you all will likely not be hearing
from us again for at least a few days until we get back to the lower 48.
We intend to run down the Cassier Highway on the way back, probably go
through Vancouver, parts of Washington and maybe Oregon. The next
certain fixed destination is Pikes Peak, scheduled for a run up on July
13th. On July 12th we may get into the Oil Spot Rally at Fort Collins,
time allowing. Otherwise, we're still on the trail to Grapevine for July
16th.
For now the car is doing a fine job of continuing to collect dust from
every gravel road possible, as well as flying nicely over every
whoop-de-do and frost heave on the "paved" roads here in Alaska. Still
having a blast chasing the midnight sun, wishing you all could bee here
with us.
See you on the by ways,
Barney and Carol
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