Valdez

June 19th

 

 

Headed to Valdez today, with many glaciated mountains again, and a side walk to the Worthington Glacier. An outfitter was taking a group of young adults up there with crampons. It was a shorter than usual drive today, so we made camp on Dayville Road, which was on the outskirt of town, overlooking the Prince William Sound and the mountains. Valdez could be seen across the water. It was another quiet site for us, and felt great being there earlier, able to clean "M", re-doing a pedicure, Mark cleaning out the trailer and fixing it's door (what a guy, with his fabulous and thorough tool collection), sitting in comfy chairs on warm day, taking in the scene.

We drove into Valdez for marketing, gas, walked along the waterfront, saw a mama grizzly and the tiniest of cubs cross in front of us on the road, and into the woods by a pond. That makes 3 grizzes, so far! Parking by the waterfront later, we had tea-time, donuts and drinks. Relaxing. In town, both of us felt like we've been backpacking on freeze-dried foods for eons, so a roasted chicken (something that looked like a real fowl) was bought at the local Safeway, a box of Stove-Top dressing (Mark's regular), and we feasted with broccoli added, in "M." So good...

I finished my Farley Mowat book, which was hilarious and a joy to read. Maybe Vicky or Lael would enjoy inheriting it. Talked to Lucy, Max and Doug today, which is always a familiar cozy to do.

June 20th

 

 

What a fun day, starting at 8:45 a.m., with a 2.5 hour road bike ride towards town, on Valdez' lovely, smooth bicycle trail, that borders woods, rivers and creeks. Mark spotted a, maybe, merganzer mama duck with at least 16 ducklings, and got a couple of great shots of them. On the way back to camp, we did a self-tour of the salmon hatchery, were amused by a row of about 10-12 seagull nests perched under the bridge overlooking the spawning stream and hatchery fences. When I looked up, there was a light brown coyote on the road, so we sped up, got on our bikes, and Mark tore after him, trying to keep a good, sneaky distance from him/her, so he could get a photo. Coyote stayed on the road for quite awhile, which was surprising, but sensed this red jacketed, fast-moving being was racing him, and finally ducked into the woods. It was like watching a young boy going after this wild thing. Joyful, really and quite fun.

We got to shower, our usual every other day ritual, and we will probably expand the period to 3 days, once we get to Denali, which is very do-able for me now. It's been fun experimenting with few longer hair and "equipment," e.g. different widths of headbands to tuck greasy hair into, and for new looks. A town run for more trail bars, a dump and water site, and lunch was next.

The Valdez folks were all so pleasant and helpful, at the visitor center and at Captain Joe's gas station, where they offered free dump and potable water. I bought a couple of gratis M&M and Kit Kats, as a thank you. Mark and I lunched by the waterfront again (where we had tea-time donuts and drinks yesterday afternoon), on Safeway deli sandwiches, and he took some photos of an outdoor wedding with guitarist, afterwards. The wedding/reception was under a lovely white tent outdoors by the water.

 

 

 

 

Driving back north on the Richardson Hwy., with Denali Hwy. as the destination over the next 7 days, we scored again on a free and beautiful viewed camp, overlooking the Copper River, the Wrangell mountains and glaciers of 16000+ feet, with a carpet of boreal forest in-between. It's been nice having places to take an evening stroll at most of our camps, so this was a flat, easy stroll down the old highway, single lane road. It's quiet now, but earlier a black-curtained storm was starting to move and shade the peaks, with thunder and lightning in the distance. Daylight still at 8, with Mark dozing and snoring on the sofa. I'll start a book I've had on my shelf for a long time, The Color of Water, by James McBride, which I am reminded of occasionally, the latest on NPR.