Boondocking

We wake up to a thin fog that is promising to let the sun through.  By the time we leave the fog is gone and we are having a nice sunny day.

First stop is the IGA to stock up. Then we head to the Valdez Museum, before we leave town. After leaving downtown, we drive to Valdez Glacier Lake. Unfortunately we can not get a view of the glacier without doing a short hike.  There are a number of groups here that are kayaking to the glacier and the lake is full of mini-icebergs.

My main goal is to drive around to the other side of the bay to the Salmon hatchery.  I am told at high tide there are a lot of seals pigging out on Salmon.  Occasionally there will be a bear there. There is a grate across the stream here running into the bay to prevent the salmon from trying to go further upstream to the 100 foot waterfall that they will not be going up.  There is a series of fish ladders for salmon to enter the Hatchery facility where they will extract the eggs and sperm. After one year the little salmon will be released. The fish ladder does not have water in it, so they aren’t collecting today. The seagulls are having a field day dining on all the salmon dying on the rocks as the tide goes out.  There a a bunch of Sea Lions also enjoying their easy meals.

Oh Boy free fish!

We finally leave the Valdez area late afternoon heading north to Tok. But first for tomorrow we head to Kennecott-McCarthy in the Wrangells- St; Elias National Park.  This will involve some 60 miles of very slow driving over a pot marked gravel road, which is notorious for giving vehicles flat tires. I do have a spare tire, but I prefer driving slow and not using it.

We Boondock on the Richardson Highway just south of the turn off road to Chitina and McCarthy.  There is supposed to be Northern Lights tonight, but we are probably too far north to get dark enough.  Just in case I set the alarm for 2:00 AM.  At 2:00 AM it is too cloudy, and I can see a couple stars poking through. Oh, well back to bed.