Tok Cutoff/Glennallen

We stayed in Tok for the night. Ralph doesn't like to eat before he begins talking to people, so it's always a late dinner afterward. We left the Tok Lodge and headed over to Fast Eddies for food. I ordered the nacho plate special. It was as big as a spare tire. Good grief. Very yummy, but I couldn't even eat a third of it. By the time we were finished, it was pretty dark. Suzanne had given us a 2010 Milepost before we left Anchorage and we used it a lot during the trip, especially from Tok to Gakona which neither of us was as familiar with, as we are other highways. Sourdough Campground and RV park is open all year along the Tok Cutoff about 2 miles from the junction. We did a couple circles in their parking lot trying to figure out if they really were open or not, and then a guy came out and set us up for the night. $27 for electricity, wi-fi, and bathroom with shower. It was very nice to be able to have heat all night and charge up all the techno devices. I slept really good that night.

We meandered along the Tok Cutoff the next morning, stopping to see a mining informational display and eating breakfast at Mentasta Lodge. I bought my girls some beautiful Athabascan beaded earrings at the lodge. The second half of the Tok Cutoff runs along the Copper River which forms a boundary for Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. Mt. Sanford and Mt. Drum were both visible. What glorious weather we had for our trip. Wowee.

We passed by Porcupine Creek campground which I haven't been to since 1990. In the 1960s our dad used to hunt near Slana and he knew the area well. Our family spent most summer weekends on the road system camping in one place or another and Porcupine Creek was a favorite. It had the running water of the creek, plenty of dead wood for the fire, and it was close to the road. That was in addition to being the most beautiful place on the planet. Back then, we towed a homemade trailer with our tent, 2-burner stove, rubber boots, and food. Mom, who came through young adulthood in the space age, tried every new food or food idea that came along. I remember wrapping blueberry biscuit dough around a stick and cooking it in the fire. It took a little more patience than us kids were up for, so was a short-lived camping creation. My favorite camping food was when Mom would make fried pies on the 2-burner. Nothing tastes so good as food eaten outdoors.

Glennallen is Glennallen. I've probably been there a couple hundred times. We parked the motorhome at the Hub and spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon napping and watching motorhomes towing snowmachines coming into the Hub for gas. I have never seen so many snowmachines being towed anywhere in my life. Ralph says I need to get out more. He says every Friday evening in the spring, it's like this with people on the way to Petersville. Regardless of that, Arctic Man is a huge event. Most of the people headed to Summit for the race are spectators and snowmachine enthusiasts, not necessarily racers.

It wasn't my first time spending hours waiting at the Hub, although never inside a moving billboard. The gas station is called the Hub of Alaska because it sits at the junction of the Richardson and the Glenn Highways. The Richardson runs from Fairbanks in the north, through Delta Jct, through Glennallen, then south to Valdez. The Glenn runs from Glennallen southwest to Palmer and onto Anchorage. A couple women stopped by to talk, mostly about a local project they wanted Ralph to know about. Very interesting.

The Copper River valley newspaper and radio station both interviewed Ralph later in the afternoon. Our last event before heading home was a meet and greet at the Caribou Restaurant. It was fun for me because there was a real diversity of opinions stated during the conversation. Also, one of the people who came is the friend of a friend so I had a connection.

It got dark as we were headed away from Glennallen and the drive home was long. The weather was still wonderful, though, until we reached Anchorage. Upon reaching downtown, it started snowing hard, and the roads turned to ice. Several cars were in the ditches along the Seward Highway. We safely made it out to my house about midnight and unloaded all my stuff. Home again, home again, jiggety-jog.