From Homer we headed up and around the other side of the peninsula to Seward for a couple days. Somewhere along the way (“bear” in mind we usually travel in a truck) we decided to take an unmarked side road we happened to see,  and it ended up to be 17 miles of the worst potholes and washboard dirt road we'd ever driven on. If it had been raining, we'd still be stranded there somewhere. It took us almost 2 hours, although we did stop to look at the scenery a couple times. Anyway, after we got back to the highway, I patted the dashboard and said it was a pretty good little ole car if it made it thru all of that without anything critical falling off or apart. Just as I hit 65, we heard a loud thumping, flapping noise and the overheat light came on. I pulled over, it cooled down and we were able to slowly make it to a garage we found about 5 miles down the road. Two belts had self destructed and it cost us $78 to have them replaced. Could have been worse!

 

We stopped to take the hike up to Exit Glacier (which you can touch) and spent several hours enjoying the view. 

EXIT GLACIER

 

Leaving Exit Glacier, we noticed a place called "IDidARide" (honest I didn't make that up) in which a family called the Seavey's hooks up their dogs to wheeled sleds and takes tourists on wild rides down gravel paths to keep their dogs in training for the Iditarod during the summer.   (Note:  In 2014 a  Seavey son won the Ididirod)

 

It's a real trip to be in the front seat with 11 smallish half husky, half mongrel dogs trying to out run, out bark, and bite each other, pee on the bushes, take a dump, scratch gravel and pull a sled with 8 passengers all at the same time.

 

And who can resist puppies? 

We went to the new $38 million dollar Sea Life Center in Seward (and watched the continually running video with Dansie in it doing Harlequin Duck things) and walked through the gift shops in the harbor (which sell pretty much all the same souvenir things that I saw in the shops in Glacier and Yellowstone last year only with different names on them). We also went on an all day cruise of the Prince William Sound which was beautiful! We saw lots of sea creatures including two Orcas, unique birds (lots of Puffins) and cute sea otter as well as lots of glaciers calving sheets of ice. 

When we got to shore we ran into the people from WI we had gone Halibut fishing with in Homer.

On our way back to Anchorage we stayed in an interesting B&B where the owner was an Athabascan native who answered the door around 8pm and escorted us across the yard to an unattached (as opposed to actually in the main house) room in his pajamas and slippers.  He was playing his accordion and singing Cajun sounding native songs while his wife was making her "World Famous" Sourdough pancakes when we came in for breakfast the next morning.  An interesting couple.

 

Fireweed, the flower of Alaska

 

We made it back to Anchorage in time to pick up Dans and a pickup truck with a camper and headed for a flatbed railcar on the train bound for Whittier. They are building a road to Whittier now so the train may not be around for many more years.

 

 

 Whittier is a strange, foreboding little place.  About 300 people live there year round, all in one big building! 

 

It's a terrible place in the winter, having had 35 feet of snow last year, and according to Dans, the local saying is,  "Wherever you are, you can bet it's always Shittier in Whittier".   After a 2 hour layover, during which it poured rain, we took the car ferry to Valdez.  On the ferry ride we acquired a German fellow, raised in Chile, named Juan Carlos that may have intended to pick up just Dansie but got a whole family in the bargain :-) 

 

Car Ferry from Whittier to Valdez

 

lots of ice in the water	Exxon oil refinery across the bay from Valdez

 Since it was still pouring rain by nightfall when we arrived in Valdez, Carlos opted to sleep in the front of the truck vs. putting up his tent, which may have been a good idea since there was a black bear eating berries across the road in the morning. 

 

In Valdez, I took the afternoon for myself since it was sunny and beautiful out and had a break, while the 3 of them chartered a boat and went fishing for Salmon. 

Carlos, Gary and Dansie

They all agreed that although they caught salmon, they would not do it again, since the Captain (friendly and entertaining as he was) insisted on doing everything for them and they used downriggers, which sort of took the fun out of salmon fishing. 

 

We had fresh cooked salmon over the campfire for supper and added 28 lbs of salmon filets for shipment home. (An expensive proposition this shipping fish home thing).

The nice thing about Alaska is that you can just pull over and camp about anywhere you want. We had several nights camping on mountain creek beds by waterfalls with great roaring bonfires and one night saw a beautiful northern light display as well as some shooting stars . 

Keystone Canyon where we camped on the rock bar	Waterfall just up the road

 

There were a lot of streams loaded with silver salmon and "combat" fishermen packed shoulder to shoulder which were fun to watch slipping around in the mud. We said farewell at a crossroads to Carlos, our fun hitchhiker, who had to make his way back down to Canada for his flight home to Germany.  Not a vehicle in sight either.  

 

 

We headed for Chitina, where the road to the old Kennicott copper mine begins.

Beautiful downtown Chitina	Inside the Chitina Emporium

 

We had noticed in our camper rental contract that there were 3 roads listed that we were specifically NOT allowed to drive on....... # 1 on the list was the McCarthy Road.  We don't let small details bother us much :-)  

 

This is the start of the McCarthy Road, and it's the good part 

 

The McCarthy Road is 59 miles long and is just an old railroad bed donated to the state by the Kennicott Mining Company, which has been expanded enough to be passable in the summer months.  It leads up to the towns of McCarthy and Kennicott and it took us 3  1/2 hours to get there. 

 

Railroad Bridge we drove over	View of the catwalk

 

	I like heights :-)
View of the river running under the bridge	Dansie climbing down

Note that you didn't see Gary up there <GRIN>

 

Kennicott was a copper mining company town accessible only by railroad. It allowed no alcohol or women and so McCarthy sprang up 4 miles away, furnishing both. When the Kennicott mine was closed down the railroad also closed, making them both virtually ghost towns until recent years. The road ends, and you walk over a cement footbridge (there was a cable car system that people used to pull  themselves over the river by hand until a year or two ago when they decided to make it more convenient for tourists) and then hike about a mile into McCarthy or catch one of the Park Service vans for the five mile journey up to the abandoned town of Kennicott. 

 

	Cement Footbridge across the river

Lots of wonderful scenery and hiking trails, and an interesting history. They have also restored a hotel in the mining complex. There's a small landing strip at McCarthy and the "idle rich" can just fly in and stay at the Hotel. We got talking to a guy on the trail who actually grew up between Oregon/Brooklyn WI, the van driver was a student at the UW in Madison working there for the summer and the owner of the end-of-the-road campground was from Ladysmith WI (but he actually charged me $5 to take a hot shower anyway). Amazing what a small world it is............

 

	The store in McCarthy
Two views of the old Kennicott copper mine	It was shut down in the 40's

 

	People think that the gravel seen in the background here is residue from the mining days, but it's really all left by the receding glacier.
Still pretty nimble :-)	A rainbow over the glacier at the end of the trail
Our campsite	No problem finding firewood firewood

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