Alaska Marine Highway, to Juneau

Whittier to Juneau - In the morning I tried to spend some time around Anchorage but decided to wrap it up quickly and head to Whittier. I got just in time for the tunnel crossing. Anton Anderson tunnel connects Portage with Whittier. Whittier used to be solely Naval port, but after cold war ended they closed it down and turned it into new AMHS hub. It is closer to Anchorage than Seward, so they transferred most of the traffic from Seward to Whittier. Whittier is called strangest little town in Alaska. All people that work live in one building. That's it. There are no private homes. There are few shops and restaurants, most smaller that Manhattan size studio apartments. There is also one motel, Anchor Inn. It hosts a weirdest little museum I have seen so far. It is one room filled with memorabilia from colonial voyages, WWII, Cold War era and other significant weird Alaskan history stuff. Later that night I boarded MV Kennicott ferry. I got my cabin and went to sleep. Next day we arrived in Yakutat, about midway point to Juneau. I left the ferry to walk around Yakutat, and found that there is one pub and one general store. I stopped at each for different reasons, of course. Ten minutes later I was back on the ferry. Shortly afterwards we moved on to Juneau. I got to see some Orcas, spot some kind of whale in the far far distance and other than that it rained. I spent good deal of the ferry ride reading book and drinking beer. AMHS runs special on Alaska Brewery beers, $2.50 for bottle or tap (12 glass).

Kenai Peninsula, Day 2

It was still raining when I woke up, so I decided to bundle up and head back north. I decided to stop again in Kenai, thinking I should get past Nikiski and into some state park, but half-way into Nikiski I turned back. It reminded me to much of Elizabeth, NJ or Richmond, CA, same type of deal, oil refineries and too industrial for my trip. As I was leaving Kenai, I spotted a restaurant with funky name and bunch of pickups parked up front. Ah, workers on the lunch break. Place is Little Ski-Mo's Burger-N-Brew. While lunching there on the burger n' beer, a moose-calf ran in the front lawn. It ran over the street and into the near by woods. Workers were rooting it on, "Run Forrest Run". Moose vs. car traffic 1-0. Elsewhere on the Kenai Peninsula result was not so favorable for Mr. & Mrs. Moose with total of 264 deaths since the beginning of the calendar year. After lunch I quickly zoomed through Soldotna, Sterling, Cooper Landing, past Kenai Lake, and I reach Hope, AK; the best preserved gold mining town in Alaska. With the size and all tour was quick and I moved north towards Whittier. I found out the schedule for the tunnel and went to Anchorage for the night. Yes, it is still raining. Interestingly enough I got mistaken for Alaska number of time while I was on Kenai Peninsula. I decided it might have something to do with my unkempt looks. I have not shaved in 10 days and I was looking little Alaskan with that beard (sorry excuse for the beard), baseball hat and glasses. Right then I decided also that at some point I should get rid of the beard. :))

Kenai Peninsula, Day 1

Seward looked little bit depressed to me, so I took off after a short ride around town. I pass through the village of Moose Pass. I hit the Sterling around lunch time. Here is where I applied my proven way to find decent place in town to eat. Drive around until you find the place with most cars parked in front of the place. I have applied this method many times during this trip and ... it did not fail me yet. So, I stopped and Suzie's and got Captain's Seafood Platter. Yummie!!! Remember this will work in places where you can reach all 5 corners of the place within 2 minutes of driving and principality has no more than 5 places to eat :))) I passed over Kenai River, then Russian River and got to Soldotna, then headed north to city of Kenai. I stopped by the visitor center and found out that the second oldest Russian Orthodox church is near by. I went to see it and got to chat with priest there.

After the repast, I moved south towards Homer. City of Homer in itself is nothing special, but Homer Spit is remarkable. It is the 2nd longest Spit in the world I was told by locals. After some friendly talk with a local owner of some art gallery, I was told that one place, one bar that is a must see in Homer, is of course Salty Dawg Saloon. So, I parked the FJ Cruiser and found Salty Dawg near by and went in. Nice bar, good local booze. They brew it and package it in used SoBe iced tea bottles. 20oz bottle for $8, good deal and good brew. I tried their Bitter first, then Wheat. Since the heavy rain started while I was at the Dawg I decided to bunk up at Bidarka Inn (Best Western) to upload photos and blog a little.

To Kenai Peninsula

Straight from the Salmon Bake Bar I went back to the campground and packed up the tent. I decided that I would not get much sleep and I had to be out by 11 so, I continued south on Parks Hwy towards Anchorage. I stopped at Trappers Creek to have a breakfast and load up on the coffee I needed badly. After I loaded up on the coffee, I decide that it would be fun to ride another 4x4 high clearance trail. Northwest of Trapper's Creek is road to Petersville, miners town back in the days. Road is about 28 miles long and crosses many creeks, canyons and valleys. However, I did not make it to Petersville. At about mile 22 I hit a mud patch which I did not wish to cross. I have crossed couple of mud patches already, and I had to stop for each one and walk it first to make sure I could traverse it. Since I did not install the winch there would be no way for me to pull the FJ Cruiser out if I did get stuck. And since there was nobody else on this trail, I had to turn around and head back. Oh, I so wished I spent another 2G on the winch :)

Shortly after I passed through Willow, Houston and Wasilla. I got to Anchorage in the early afternoon. I stopped by Toyota dealership but they were overbooked and could not take in next 3 days. Yeah right, like I have time to wait. So I washed the truck at the self wash. I found local Jiffy Lube and 10 minute oil change took 2 hours. Price was a bargain, twice what it costs in NYC. Welcome to Alaska! I did some quick shopping and continued towards Kenai Peninsula. As soon as I got on the highway I noticed that car was rattling at speeds over 50 mph. For some reason my wheels were out of balance. I decided to head back and got consultation from experts at Sears. After another 2 hour wait, I was ashamed by the local repairman. After the test drive he inspected the wheels and found the problem. He pulled me over and under the truck to show me. MUD and ROCKS. Apparently when I washed the FJ Cruiser I did lousy job and wash the outside of the tires only. So, I went back and did another car wash, this time, I did it proper. With wheels clean and no rattle, Kenai here I come. I decided that I could make it to Seward just before midnight. I did, day over, sleep time. Read on...

Denali National Park

DNP Day 1 - From Fairbanks I took (George) Parks Highway south towards Denali National Park. After the bumpy ride of Dalton Highway, Parks Hwy felt like Formula 1 GP track. I could even open the windows down, for there was no dust! As you leave Fairbanks, road heads straight through the mountains. First valley leads straight into Nenana. About 5 miles north of Denali NP entrance I took a Stampede Road. It heads northwest-west over the valley's north of Denali NP for a beautiful view of northern ridges. Of the 23 miles only first five were paved, rest was labeled as 4x4 vehicles with high clearance. It was a nice drive by the lakes across ridges and by the rivers.

I decided to have lunch at Rose's Cafe, small diner just before NP. There I had their infamous Grizzly Burger, 1 lbs. of beef, topped with fried egg, bacon, cheddar and swiss cheese, and large portion of French fries. They take your picture before you start eating. If you finish it all, including fries, they post picture on their web site as well as printed copy on the wall in diner.

I checked into the Riley Creek Campground (inside of Denali NP) and setup my tent for the night. After that I drove 14.8 miles into National Park. That is as far as you can get in your own vehicle. Rest of the road (unpaved) is only accessible by Shuttle and Tour buses, except for workers and rangers.

DNP Day 2 - I started the day two with Shuttle bus tour. Tolkat Shuttle bus takes you to the Tolkat River, 53.4 miles into the park. It is not a tour bus, so the driver does not have a script to narrate. However, I got lucky and got the loud mouth. Mr. Gary Borenstein has been the driver for last 14 years and worked in Park last 30+ years. He lives about 8 miles south of the Park and claims to be a walking encyclopedia on DNP. Regardless to say he talked to much. Shuttle bus stops every time some notices an animal. 6 hours ride turned out to be about 8+ hours. Eventually even Gary stopped talking and drove without stopping. It was getting late. I did not get to see much more than that I have not seen already. Dalton Highway has spoiled DNP for me. I have seen most of the wild animals already. Well except, brown bear - grizzly. And they were really far far away.

I finished of the night at Salmon Bake Bar and Restaurant. They had live music for the most of the night. Band named Denali Cooks, was formed of the former Denali area cooks, hence the name. Music was nice mixture of blues, jazz, bluegrass and classic rock. I closed the bar around 4am.

Haul Road aka Dalton Highway

More than 80% of my trip preparations of the FJ Cruiser and other equipment I brought with me was spent for this part of the trip. I had to be able to survive this 900 mile trek to the Arctic Ocean and back. This is the story I will expand upon as impression settle in.

Day 1 from Fairbanks to Coldfoot. From Fairbanks I took paved portion of Elliot Hwy to the junction with Dalton Hwy. Weather was nice, sunny day with temperature around 60F. As I entered the Dalton Hwy, I stopped to take a picture of the sign and I got approached by the local highway repairman. We talked almost for an hour. He told me his story about how he got to Alaska, why and how much he loves it up here. Then I told him my story and we continued off into classic topics such as family, kids, politics, religion and such. I am sure that it was nice for him to talk to another fellow human being after long winter :) I finally had to break off the conversation and get back to the adventure ahead. Before I took off he parted with few words of wisdom about driving on the Haul Road. Use CB radio, talk to truckers and always stop for them, that is if I wished to keep the windshield intact and dents to a minimum. As you enter Dalton Highway road turns into gravel and dirt.

After about an hour and half I arrived to Yukon Crossing. Yukon River Camp was built to support building of the Yukon river bridge in 1975. It was closed as well as the visitor center across the highway, so I kept driving. Around the crossing I overheard truckers talk about an Asian on yellow bicycle. Since I have heard truckers refer to autos as 4-wheelers, I thought they are joking and making fun of my truck. Yellow, Toyota made in Japan. Oh boy! But as I passed an Asian on mountain bicycle about 2 miles north I started laughing. I was too slow on getting the camera, so that one got away from me, like many other wonders of the north. I hit Finger Mountain after another hour of driving. Winds were very gusty at the mountain, which was bare of vegetation.

Little while later I came upon Arctic Circle. This is the point where most people turn around and head back. Here I met two guys from Kentucky on BWM crosser bikes. They had RV parked in Fairbanks and this was a day trip for them. However, they underestimated the mileages and were short on gas. Since I had 15 gallons extra I spared 2.5 gallons to each one. They wanted to pay me, but I refused, so they gave me a t-shirt. One guy was professor at Morehead State University, so the t-shirt is a classic "I (heart) Morehead". Another 60 miles of the paved road and I hit Coldfoot. I got my room, had nice dinner and then I watched some Sci-Fi Twilight Zone episodes in the lobby.

Day 2 from Coldfoot to Deadhorse (Prudhoe Bay). After a good hearty breakfast I got on the road. First stop, Wiseman. Oh well that was scary. I wish I was a wise man, and skipped Wiseman. Town was pretty much like most things this time of year, closed. Second stop, Atigun Pass. I almost ran over some Dall sheep, and some trucks almost ran over me. Anyway, after few snapshots I continued further north. Around Franklin Bluffs I noticed first batch of birds. There was probably about 300-400 of them gacking. I got out and took few shots. After about a mile I got to another batch. Another stop, few shots and moving on. After a while I stopped stopping to take pictures of birds. It was so many of them.

It was the same case with caribou. There were many herds that I lost interest in taking pictures unless they were in my way. Just before Deadhorse I ran into red fox. Little before sunset I strolled into Prudhoe Bay!!! Ha ha, got yah! Sun does not set here you silly folks. Temperature was 18F as I checked into the motel. Dinner was on the house. I also found out that because of the weather they had to cancel my tour. Well, that and I was the only tourist in town at this time. They were surprised I drove up. I also found out that workers here come for their 3-week-12-hour-a-day shifts from many different parts of Alaska. They are either flown in, or they drive up with truck drivers. They work 3 weeks, then they have 3 weeks off.

Day 3 from Deadhorse to Arctic Circle. Since there was nothing to do up here and Arctic ocean was closed to me, I started back down. Driving south was going a lot faster. You know how it is. First time you drive up certain road you drive more carefully. Second time you, especially if it is the day after and road is fresh in your mind, you relax more and drive faster. Plus I did not stop as much to take pictures. So I zoomed by fairly quickly, relatively speaking. I decided to pass up Coldfoot on the way back and camp at the Arctic Circle. I setup the camp, read the book till my eyes were so heavy that I could fall asleep even with lights on (read sun is up!). I was the only person at this undeveloped campground.

Day 4 from Arctic Circle to Fairbanks. I woke up to the noise in the bushes around my tent. I crawled out the tent with my 12" Yakima pipe in hand. I looked around and what did I see? Almost 10 snowshoe hares running around in all directions. I ran to the truck to grab the camera but they were faster. I still got to capture couple of good shots. I packed up the tent with bunnies hopping around, then hit the road further south. Rest of the ride back to Fairbanks was fairly uneventful. I did got stuck couple of times behind 18-wheeler which were kicking up so much dust I had to pull over and let them get ahead of me. When I got to Fairbanks I washed the truck again. It took me almost a full hour to get all the dirt off.

Fairbanks Days

This was my mini vacation from vacation. I have been driving most of the time since I left and I needed to take a break. I spent 3 days around Fairbanks, mostly doing same things people usually do on weekends: laundry, washed the rig, sleep in late, read the book, watch some TV and take short excursion trips around town. I have to explain the RIG word. Everyone here north refers to the SUV trucks, pickups and other large vehicles as rigs. I always thought that was reserved for the 18-wheelers, monster trucks and road equipment like bulldozers. I felt like FJ Cruiser might be a mini-rig, but I never corrected them :) Anyone else has better explanation for the definition of the rig?