Update

Good Morning!!! Patte and Ken are finally at a spot where we have wifi--and cell phone--service. We are currently in Tok--again. Anyway, here's what the crew has been up to the past several days.

Tuesday was "break camp" day for Ken. After having been in Kasilof for 2+ weeks it was time to load up and begin the next leg of the journey. Needless to say, he had lots of stuff all over the place...Patte on the other hand hadn't had a chance to get that settled in. The plan was to get on the road by noon and fish on the way to Anchorage, where the fish had to be shipped from, then head towards Denali. Things didn't quite go according to plan--it took longer to get loaded and ready to go; we got to Anchorage around 5:30. Got the fish shipped and we were off again. And we didn't stop to fish along the way and our licenses expired at 3:30--oh well, lots go shipped to Seattle.

It was a beautiful drive north--mountains everywhere! And we got a real treat, we could see Mount McKinley, clearly, in the distance. We felt very fortunate, since it's only visible about 30 % of the time, depending which report you read. We had to stop for road construction and Ken got to talking to the road guy (we were the first vehicle to be stopped) and --surprise--he was a gold miner too! They chatted for a while and he told Ken about a good spot, that was almost on our way. We went as far as Trapper Creek that evening and "camped" there; more like pulling in and throwing stuff around so we could sleep in the camper. But we did get showers the next morning!

Wednesday morning--beautiful and sunny--we decided to check out "the spot", since it was only 19 miles from where we were--just a little side trip. It took 2 hours to get there--Petersville road is rough and graveled, and goes up and down and around and around. But we had a view of Mount McKinley again! The gods were smiling!!! We got lots of pictures, but will deal with those later. We got back in there and Ken wanted to go to a different spot, so we got the gear together and headed towards the river. The gear included 2 loaded shot guns--now Patte hasn't shot a gun in years and Ken gave her a quick review. Quite a site--Patte hiking with a loaded gun!!!! And a camera. (It is recommended to carry a gun d/t bears) We panned for awhile and got some fine stuff. Ken then went to the "the spot" and someone else was there, so he went a little further downstream. Still just some fine stuff. Since it was getting a little late, we headed back to Trapper Creek campground again, taking more pictures along the way. We kept looking for critters, but didn't see any. The second night on camping went a little smoother, since Ken did some re-arranging while it was still day light. For those of you just beginning to follow this blog, the stuff Ken is re-arranging is all the prospecting equipment he shipped up there --including a high banker, sluice, plus other assorted items. At this point he is sleeping with the equipment on his bunk.

Thursday morning we head towards Denali and Fairbanks; it's little overcast, but sunny off and on. We are both amazed at the scenery and taking lots of pictures. We spent a little time at Denali and went to the visitors center,where they have an incredible 3-D panoramic display of the wildlife and lifecycle of the animals--it was incredible and we learned more about the eco-system. We opted not to do the 92 mile loop inside the park, since we had taken our little side trip the day before. Denali is a place where you could spend lots of time--which Patte plans to do in the future. So many trails, so little time........

From Denali, we continued north into and through Fairbanks. Both Patte and Ken were surprised by the Fairbanks area--it was much prettier than either of them expected. We continued on to the North Pole and did stop and look around and take some pictures. At this point, Patte is beginning to realize that her and Ken have a different idea about the word "roadtrip". Patte's idea is to travel a little, stop a little and enjoy the surroundings; Ken wants to get to where he's going----we've both had to do a little compromising--and demanding. After the North Pole, we're off again--heading towards Tok. We had decided we would stop earlier, i.e. before dark, that night, maybe around Delta Junction. We went through there around 8 and Ken thought it was too early to stop, because we still had lots of day light--so we kept going, thinking we'd pull over some where "soon". Well........we drove a little longer than we expected and had a near encounter with a moose. Ken spotted it running towards the road from the woods and slowed down, but wasn't sure he could stop in time, so he honked the horn--it spooked the moose enough that it veered away from the road--whew! He also honked at a crow and spooked it too--just for fun. It's going to be a long trip......And he hasn't let Patte drive yet.
We ended up "camping" at Moon Lake about 12 miles from Tok--very beautiful. It had lots of loons talking to each other and several sea planes parked along the shore. Did I mention that among all this stuff, Ken is trying to dry fish eggs??? Or that we forgot to put some frozen salmon in the cooler and we found it a few days later--we smell like a mobil bear magnet.

Friday morning--off to Tok to play tourist. Both Patte and Ken really like Tok and had fun poking around the shops and stuff. Then we headed off to Chicken, to check out the gold panning. Chicken is about 77 miles from Tok and it takes roughly 2 hours to get there--again up and down and around and around. We kept looking for Caribou, but didn't spot any. However, we did see a lot of caribou hunters, since opening day is Sunday. Our original plan was to travel the Top of the World Hiway to Dawson City, but the road was washed out a while back and they have been having to go through by convoys twice a day, except it was going to be closed the 27 and 28--we were going to get there before that. We were debating whether to wait until Sunday to go through with a convoy or to try to sneak through with the hunters they were supposedly going to let through Friday night. Ken panned a little, found a little and as all the hunters were pulling in, we decided to head back to Tok, instead. Hunters everywhere--all with quadra tracks. We opted to head back to Tok and we actually pulled in before dark last night!!!

We had showers this moring, Patte caught up on the blog and Ken is replacing the burnt out headlight. Today, after getting some souvenirs, we are headed across the border towards Whitehorse. From there we are planning to take the Cassier Highway through BC, but we may have some side trips. Off we go............