Valdez / Chicken

Valdez really is a special place, another port city, important fishing village, and beautiful.  But….. almost always socked in weather wise, and yet this somehow doesn’t seem to detract, in fact almost becomes an integral part of the ambiance.  Once again the drive in was wonderful, but quickly prepares one for the on coming weather.

 

Above is our CG, right on the entrance to the harbor, with a lovely view.

And we watched the boats come and go.

The above boat was special for us, “Miss Roxanne”!  And below a nice night shot.

We were fortunate that the “pinks” or “humpies”, salmon, were running. We fished across the inlet and once we got the hang of it, new learning curve again, we did very well.

 

Mike givin’ ‘er a try.  Only big challenge was maneuvering around these rocks and landing our fish.  But great fun and very productive.

 

 

Jeff doing the same.

 

 

 

View back towards the harbor and camp.

 

After our first day we discovered a cleaning station at the town pier, a much nicer set up than the rocks.  When we showed up with our catch we became instant celebrities, you know that old 15 minutes of fame thing.

 

Now the real fisher people, these guys do it big time.  Fascinating to watch the entire process of putting out the net, seining it, pulling it in and doing it again.

Then the other side of this is witnessing the life cycle and miracle of these fish.  They always return to the exact spot they were born, like an unbelievable, unexplainable part of life.  And they fight with all their might and their literal dying breathe to return and lay their eggs and fertilize same.  We saw this over and over, simply amazing.  A stream or river towards its mouth will have so many salmon a small dog could walk across the river and never get wet. Very difficult to capture in still pictures, but some idea follows.

Here is a “humpy”, you can see why it is so called, “swimming”  up stream in water that can barely support him.

 

Not much of a picture above, but there are hundreds of fish swimming, splashing up stream, you can see some of their fins.

And of course, these squawking gulls fighting for their fair share.  Of course the eagles get into the act (see below) and (no good pic on this one) the bears.

We did our normal cemetery poking/visiting and found this interesting head stone.

I have no idea what “pioneer No 134” means nor what “Igloo No 7” means but makes me wonder.

One of the things that captured my interest at this sight were the mushrooms.  You know you are in wet land when you see this variety.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is just some sort of aura that captures folks at Valdez, would definitely go back again.

Next Gakona.  Short stop. but pleasant place.  My bumper sticker from “Trapper’s Den Tavern” say Gakona is “a small drinking village with a big fishing problem”! Here is the tavern.

And a nice dinner at the lodge.

And after dinner I tried on several hats, this one by far the best.

I wanted this hat so bad, but not for over $600 bad!

From Gakona back to Tok and then on to Chicken.  Chicken has to be one of the most funky and uique places on earth. Chicken was so named because the minors wanted to call it “Ptarmigan” after Alaska’s state bird (well maybe not then since it wasn’t a state yet!) but couldn’t spell ptarmigan so called it Chicken.  Chicken is really on the way to nowhere except Dawson City, which is really on the way to nowhere.  Chicken was a mining town and now is basically just a stop (they do have a Blue Grass festival each year). And a it is a stop on the “Top of the World Highway”.  The “highway” is sort of paved from Tok to Chicken and then nothing but dirt to Dawson – pretty much an “E” ride. In Chicken there are two RV parks, two general stores and “Downtown Chicken”.  Here are a couple of road shots on the way to Chicken from Tok.

This part of the trip was eerie since there had been a recent forest fire (actually a very common occurrence in Alaska).  For the most part we were the only vehicles on the road and we saw  no wildlife, not even squirrels nor birds. (BTW – the road does get worse.) Eventually we arrived in Chicken, below is beautiful Downtown Chicken.

    This is it, you have your mercantile store, your liquor store, saloon, and cafe – and they all adjoin. I looked in the liquor store and was greeted by Alex (nephew of town owner, working for the summer), then we went into the mercantile store and there was Alex to assist us.  Next we stopped in the saloon for a beer, you guessed it, Alex was there!

 

Here is Alex in the saloon, you can see into the liquor store, very small, and the mercantile store.

 

 

 

 Here is lunch being served in the saloon from the attached cafe.  Darn good food by the way.

 

 

We found this police patch someone had left – from the Huntington Beach police!

And here is the cafe (note Alex!)

Next it’s off to Dawson City over the “Top of the World Highway”, the bad part!  How bad?  Depends on who you ask, how long since they did it or if they are in transit (some squawk, some just shiver, others grind it out). It is a long haul over pretty dirty,  crumby, sometimes narrow roads, no walk in the park, but quite doable. Pictures from the cockpit follow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And finally the border (Alaska/Yukon) (but not the end of the road).

Note that the border town, Poker Creek – population 2 –, is the “most northerly border port in the USA”.   Below just a little bit of the dirt accumulated on the rig!

Continued in Leg 11 b.