But I did other cool stuff.

I have been to Alaska. Again — I was there two years ago at exactly the same time of year. That trip we stayed in the Kenai peninsula [posted here, here, here and sorta here]. This time we went to Denali and the Mat-Su valley. It was a ten-day odyssey that started on 12 June. Has it been a month already?

Day one was all travel. From central Florida to Anchorage is a looong hop.

Day two we got the RV, stocked up at the grocery store, and headed north. Although we had a basic framework for our time there, we left some flexibility. So we stopped at the Mat-Su Visitor Center. It often helps to chat up the locals. There is a war memorial and this sculpture next to the visitor center:

sculpture

We had tentatively planned some canoing or kayaking for that afternoon so we continued on our way. We ended up renting a canoe from Tippecanoe in the Nancy Lake State Recreation Area. We chose a trek that required portaging between small lakes, and they had these nifty handles that make carrying the canoe pretty easy.

portage

It was a windy afternoon — close to white caps on one of the lakes. I kept hearing this

in my head. [I checked with my buddies, and it was just in my head....] But it was a good activity after spending a couple hours on the road and most of the previous day on airplanes.

That night we stayed at the Mat-Su RV Park. It’s clean and comfortable and had good showers — something we knew we would not have for the next couple nights.

Hitting the road the next morning we made a brief stop at a nearby fish camp. We had not made a reservation with a fishing guide — I’ll spare you the details why — and wanted to get some more information. Turns out, on the closest rivers where we could have fished without a guide were going to be closed for a few days for “escapement” — giving the salmon a chance to make to their spawning areas.

Oh well. We had other fun activities scheduled…

Posted by Tim