Day 21 (6-21-12 - Denali National Park - Riley Creek CG)

We are at Riley Creek Campground in Denali National Park.  It has been a gorgeous day for the solstice.  The days are already long.  We haven't seen darkness since we left Montana.

We hiked 8 miles today and climbed an elevation that is equivalent to 62 flights of stairs, (according to my Fitbit pedometer).  We are planning to go deeper in the park tomorrow and do a lot of hiking over the next 3 days.

We went to the sled dog kennels and enjoyed looking at the dogs, the puppies, and watching the demonstration.  Lauren has been keeping up with the sled dogs on Denali’s web site and watching the 3 newest additions to the kennels on the Denali puppy cam.  The 3 puppies are so cute. 

I paid $44 for Alaska Bear Spray.  The manufacturer recommends that you wait until an aggressive bear is within 30 feet to spray.  The can of spray only last for 7.2 seconds.  I hope it is never needed and will be a souvenir from Alaska.

We saw a mom and yearling moose today.  The wildlife count is pitiful so far in Alaska.

Pics for today: https://goo.gl/photos/DdJbkGWZXb1KiSRq9

Day 20 (6-20-12 - Fairbanks to Nenana Canyon)

We traveled 125 miles from Fairbanks to Nenana Canyon.  We are staying here tonight and will drive a mile to Denali National Park tomorrow.  After traveling about 5,100 miles, we finally met up with Judi and Terry, (our friends from Gulfport)  We passed them (as they are headed back to the lower 48 states.)  We turned around and talked on the side of the road.  It was really great to see them. 

Lauren finally washed most of the mud off the truck before we left this morning.  He had a few quarters left from a 20 dollar bill when he finished.  After seeing the truck look so good, we decided to wash the camper. Needless to say, we went about 5 miles and got into rain and have road grime all over both.

The wildlife was scarce again today, we only saw 1 moose that is worth mentioning.

Pics  https://goo.gl/photos/TjNCZN1ged2DoyJDA

Day 19 (6-19-12 - Fairbanks to Artic Circle)

We went as far north as we have ever been today.  After traveling 190 miles one way we made it to the Artic Circle.  I thought it would be cold at the Artic Circle, but it was in the mid 70's.  When I got out of the truck I was told that I was brave to be in short pants.  Thank goodness we had a breeze to slow down the mosquittos.

We traveled the Dalton Highway today.  We stopped at the Artic Circle Gift Shop where we experienced true outhouses, (not the vaults).   We had a great chocolate chip cookie (it was mostly chocolate chips) and a slice of apple walnut cake from the Yukon River Cafe.

The Alaska pipeline was just what I expected it to be. It follows along another dusty, bumpy road. The Dirt Road Anthem kept playing through my head. The GPS, (or as we call her Idis) stayed lost.  She was constantly recalculating and could not follow this rugged road.

We are heading towards Denali National Park tomorrow.  We have reservations from Friday until Sunday night in the Teklanika River Campground.  Hopefully, we will cross paths with our friends from Gulport tomorrow as they head back to the lower 48.

We were really disappointed in the 380 miles of travel as far as wildlife goes.  We saw an eagle and a fox.  Maybe the wildlife viewing will be better tomorrow.

Today's Pics https://goo.gl/photos/gx2S2izwJneiAVh99

Day 18 (6-18-12 - Fairbanks)

Today I checked in at Weight Watchers, Fairbanks, for the month.  Whew!! I made another month.

We bought gas today for $4.08 a gallon and felt like we had a deal.  Everyone in this area is complaining about the price of gas.  This is the cheapest we have seen in a while.  We are glad to pay less than $5.00 a gallon.

We went to the Harley Shop today and met a girl from Bogalusa, La. named Tiffany..  It is a small word.

We are leaving in the morning to go to the Arctic Circle.  We hear that it is 14 hours round trip.  We are packing a picnic lunch and dinner. We are heading out early in the morning.

The only wildlife worth mentioning today was a bunch of Sand hill Cranes at the Creamery.  The Creamery is a dairy that shut down in the 60’s and now is part of the Alaska Game and Fish.

                                 

 We are ready for a good nights sleep.

Day 17 (6-17-12 - Chicken to Fairbanks)

We traveled 286 miles from Chicken to Fairbanks today.  We woke up to rain. We wished for this rain yesterday to settle all the dust.  The first 3 miles of Taylor Highway was unpaved and muddy, then we alternated paved and muddy roads until we got back to the Alaska Highway.   We followed the Alaska Highway to Delta Junction (Alaska Highway ends here,) then followed the Richardson Highway to Fairbanks..

We got off early this morning and went shopping in Downtown Chicken. We got up with the chickens and had to wait for Downtown Chicken to open at 8 a.m.

We saw a moose about a mile after we left Chicken this morning.  We saw a total of 2 moose and 1 Snowshoe Hare today.

We are camping at Tanana Valley Campground tonight.  We are planning on staying here a few days. 

Pics today https://goo.gl/photos/vXrkTL4tuN7q3ybU7

Day 16 (6-16-12 - Moose Creek CG to Chicken Ak)

After traveling 4,333 miles over the last 16 days, we have made it to Alaska.  We left Moose Creek Campground this morning and went to Dawson City, YT.  We crossed the Yukon River on the George Black Ferry to the Top of the World Highway.  We traveled 65 miles on the Top of the World Highway in Canada, 14 miles on the Boundary Spur Road in the U.S.A., and 30 miles on the Taylor Highway in the U.S.A.  The road was extremely rough.  About 40 miles of it was paved and the rest of it was gravel.  The paved road was rough with frost heaves and pot holes.  The gravel road had loose gravel and washboards.   Most of the time the road had soft shoulders or no shoulders with DEEP drop offs.  The camper had not been opened and was full of dust when we stopped for the day.

We went through customs at Poker Creek, Alaska, (most northerly land border port in the USA.)  The population is 2, (one U.S. customs officer and one Canadian customs officer.)  The border is well isolated and has limited hours of service during the day.

We went 200 miles today and traveled 7 hours.  The only stop we had was in Dawson City for about 30 minutes.  It was a long, hard, traveling day for Lauren.

We are staying at Chicken Creek Campground in Chicken, Alaska.  There are so many chicken things here I think that we may start crowing and laying eggs before we leave.  The clerk in the store at the campground was wearing a chicken hat, flapping her arms, and clucking. It is a cute little place. 

We saw a cinnamon colored young black bear and a porcupine today.

It has been another great day. 

Pics. are here: https://goo.gl/photos/rxv2Thf8vUALsz449

Day 15 (6-15-12 - Whitehorse to Moose Creek CG)

We had business to take care of this morning.  We needed a new battery for our camper, an oil change, and a few groceries. After our chores were done, we traveled 236 miles to Moose Creek CG, YT.  We got off the ALCAN after leaving Whitehorse and traveled the Klondike Highway.  The Klondike is a lot rougher than the ALCAN. 

It has been a gorgeous day.  We almost had to turn on the a/c.  It got up to 62 degrees.

We have been impressed by the Canadians that we have met on this trip.  Everyone has been unbelievably friendly and helpful; the customs officer when we crossed the border, the auto department clerk at Walmart, the guy working at the Harley Shop, and the attendants at the campgrounds.   We asked a guy in a parking lot for directions to the Harley Shop, he stopped what he was doing and walked out and looked down the street to make sure that he gave us the directions that we needed.   I think that this has rubbed off on Lauren.  He did not complain about waiting for me to try on almost every shirt in the Harley shop.

We are camped at a Yukon Government Campground called Moose Creek.  It is a very nice, wooded, campground.  It cost $12 to camp here and the firewood is free. We cooked Fortenberry’s sausage over the fire pit grill and had dill pickle chips.  It was a great supper.

On the way into the campground, we saw 2 other campers.  One was an old 1953 Ford truck with a Mercedes diesel engine towing a tear drop camper. It caught our eye the minute we saw it.

The guy with the unique truck and camper came to our camp. He was from our neck of the woods and currently lives in El Dorado, Arkansas.   He and his wife had planned to travel to Alaska.  She has passed, and he kept his promise to her that he would go on the trip that they had planned.  He is on his way home.

We are about 150 miles to the U.S. border in Alaska.  We might make it to Alaska tomorrow.

Today the wildlife count is 0.  We could not believe in a couple hundred miles that all we saw was a few birds and squirrels.

 Today's Pictures: https://goo.gl/photos/14Y4m4rpwB9JQQCw7