To begin today's diary, let me say that I'm glad to be here to write today's diary. I've been on the road now for 24 days and I have tried to drive carefully, especially on the questionable Alaskan roads. Today, I hit a patch of gravel road with very deep chuck holes and the combination of the wet gravel and being bounced around by the chuck holes, the Explorer almost was headed for the ditch.
I don't want to claim exceptional driving skills....but I will. I grew up in Ohio, lived in Michigan twice and once in Illinois. I think I'm familiar with driving in snow and ice conditions and today's slipping and sliding on the wet gravel was a lot like winter snow conditions.
Alaska puts up signs to alert you to gravel, road construction, or rough road, but the actual conditions you will find can vary a great deal. That patch today, was the worst I've seen. Boy, did it wake me up and get my heart pumping!
It really was an uninteresting, cloudy, wet, grey day (or gray, if you prefer that spelling). I stopped at the Visitor's Center in Glennallen, which was about at the halfway point for my drive from Valdez to Tok, and the volunteer tried her best to tell me about points of interest along the highway. She failed to convince me of anything. That's a bit unfair, because Mt. Sanford (16,000 ft) and Mt. Drum (12,000 ft) would have been good sights to see and photograph if it had been a sunny day.
Well, my day began at 6:00AM, with a very good, free continental breakfast at the Keystone Hotel in Valdez. My hotel room wasn't much to talk about, but I'll give them credit for a good breakfast. Lots of juice, fruit, excellent rolls and such, and my morning slug of coffee.
I read the Anchorage newspaper this morning, and one article caught my eye. Some poor guy heard noise outside his home and when he went out to look, here is this bear going after his little girl. His dog jumped at the bear and distracted it, and the guy used his shotgun to kill the bear. Just recently, he had another bear raiding his chickens and he used his 357 magnum to scare the bear off. Rough neighborhood.
Last night after entering my diary, I went out for supper and more sightseeing in Valdez. Valdez, by the way, is pronounced "Val-deez" (as in cheese or please). I was impressed by how neat, clean and modern looking the town is. Now, I know a bit more as to why this is. There was an earthquake in 1964 which apparently wiped out most of the town, so most of what you see today is relative new.
I came to Valdez, mostly out of curiosity because of the Exxon oil spill and the Alaskan Pipeline. Prince William Sound looks in very good shape today, probably due to millions of volunteer and paid manpower to restore the environment. The water is clear, and the birds seem to be eating and living right these days.
As I left Valdez early this morning, I was again impressed by how big everything seems to be around here. Big mountains, really BIG. Wide rivers, and tall waterfalls. You name it and Alaska seems to do everything in a BIG way.
There's only one road into and out of Valdez, so I was headed north this morning on Highway 4. I didn't realize the descent I must have made yesterday, coming into town, but I certainly recognized the up hill drive this morning. The peak, called Thompson's Pass, isn't all that high (elevation 2678 feet), but when your car climbs from sea level, it seems a lot higher.
The road takes you through Keystone Canyon. I tried to stop yesterday and take some pictures, but you just cannot get a good angle to capture what the eye sees. The very sheer cliffs on either side are just about vertical, and the Lowe River rushes along side the highway, leaving no place to walk around and try to get a good photo angle. I checked again today, and gave up on that picture.
I like getting up early and getting on the road early. There is usually light traffic and most RVs and motorhomes don't seem to get their start until 8-9 AM. That's okay with me because I have several hours then where I don't have deal with them on the highway and hills.
I saw a string of bikers pedaling their way up and down the highway this morning. Like other strings of bikes, there obviously is one at the lead and one at the end of the pack. In this morning's case, the gal at the end of the pack didn't seem to be enjoying her climb up the current hill.
And I don't know about bicycles, but my Explorer (and me) didn't care for what permafrost does to the roads around here. It either tears them up so bad that the highway department has to rip up the road and put down some gravel (ugh), or the highway department just leaves the bumps until they get worse. Well, it's like driving on a roller coaster or small hills (or would that be rills?). Not ideally suited for highway speeds, so slow down.
Mentioning gravel, I have concluded that gravel is Alaska's number one product. The big glaciers are creeping downward, causing a very abrasive action against the hillside, which produces gravel and the silt which winds up in most Alaskan rivers. After my two plus weeks in Alaska, I'm going to go home thinking of dust and gravel, gravel and dust.
I used Highway 4 between Valdez and Glennallen, which is the same road I used yesterday, but north of Glennallen, I used Highway 1, headed to Tok. Overall, it is not a good road. There were stretches of gravel and/or road construction. There were the permafrost ripples in the road. And, in spite of the wide open spaces, there were some streches of the road that had no shoulders.
The day was 57 degrees and cloudy as I left my hotel in Valdez. I'm beginning to learn that the temperature will drop once I'm away from the city or town I stayed in and onto the open road. It dropped to 50 degrees out on the highway.
The cloud cover was dense, and the clouds blanketed all the mountains that I would have liked to have seen and photographed. The clouds hung so low that the roads were wet, although it really wasn't raining. It seems that you run into droplets of water, just hanging there in the air.
Tank started complaining about music on the Explorer's CD player. Here for the last few days, I have been listening to show tunes, easy listening, some operettas, and so on. Admittedly, we haven't been listening to any country music, so I promised him I would reload the CD with Willie Nelson for the trip to Haines Junction tomorrow.
I didn't have any hotel/motel reservations for Tok, so I stopped in to inquire at several places. The Westmark wants $127 for a room at their place, but Young's Motel, which is run by the same people that run Fast Eddy's restaurant, only want $68 per night, for a room that's just as good. Guess where I'm staying.
I had lunch, did some shopping, went down to the Tok River for some sightseeing and photos, and now I'm just getting comfortable for the evening. I'll be back to you later.