Another long 81-mile day as we travelled from our campsite along 6-Mile Creek to Seward and then back to the Exit Glacier where we found another turnout beside Resurrection Creek.
It rained all night and all day today. I have never experienced such a consistent rainfall over such a long time… 2 days and counting. It reminds BA of the Netherlands… her words not mine!
As we drove to Seward, we ran into a lot of construction. It was weird the way they controlled the traffic with signs that stated there was a flagman, and then there was no one and yet the traffic stopped. There was a pilot truck but it didn't show up until the traffic from the opposite direction came started coming through… go figure.
It was also interesting to drive at 1000' above sea level in the clouds, see it rain, snow on the mountains, Fire Weed growing beside the snow, and above 2500, no trees. The tree line in most of Alaska is very low due to the permafrost.
We got to Seward and decided to go to the end of the road - Lowell Road that is. In the book, we have (The Milepost) it stated that this was a gravel road with a few potholes. It should have read many potholes with a few pieces of road. One of the pictures shows some of the less nasty potholes. It took us 45 minutes to drive the 3 miles but we did it! To top it all off, it would have been a very pretty drive if it weren't for the rain and fog. One other consequence of all the potholes, Arda got seasick (at least an upset stomach) from all the rockin' and rollin'.
Once we got back on smooth roads (meaning paved) we stopped and made lunch but the trailer was too cold to sit in so we sat in the truck and watched the half-day fishing charters return to port.
Next stop was the Exit Glacier in the Kenai Fjord. We followed a trail for about 1.5 miles to the side of the glacier. This glacier is fed by the Harding Ice fields, which covers about 300,000 acres and receives 70' of snow each year. It is hard to fathom how much this as receded in the past 10 years. While looking at the glacier we also spotted a black bear and it was exactly where it should be – on the other side of the glacier.
Tonight we are staying alongside Resurrection Creek and we are so close that when Arda looks out the window, she feels she is on a ship and wants her seasickness patches… wimp!
Today, the 23rd we are heading to Soldotna to see if we can get our propane system fixed. We filled up in Seward and had the smell of gas from one of the tanks so I shut it off with the intent of looking at it when we stopped for the night. The twist connector (plastic) on the tank that was leaking was broken… the seal had cracked. There was another problem because gas was leaking to the other tank even with the valve off. So we called Dan's Mobile RV Repair and he met us late in the day (obviously we are not the only folks in town with a problem). He arrived at Fred Meyers parking lot where were spending the night and had it fixed in about 15 minutes. We picked up a spare hose today in case we have the same problem on the other side. It sure was good to have the propane working again so we had heat and hot water for showers! Overall, it "killed" a whole day to get this fixed but when you don't have to be anywhere, who cares?
On the morning of the 24th we headed to Kenai, the largest city in the Kenai Peninsula with about 7000 people over 57 square miles. Compare that to a city like Toronto with over 2 million people within 40 square miles. Needless to say we didn't spend a lot of time here although we did drive up to Nikiski, which was a beautiful drive.
Next, we headed for Homer where we decided to go fishing… well WD anyway. We booked a combo-charter (salmon and halibut) charter for Monday. As an added bonus, they are allowing us to stay on their grounds N/C until we leave next Tuesday.
Did you know? The Yukon River is 2200 miles long and is the 4th largest in N.A.
Pictures can be found at Seward-Homer 2009
Take care and keep the loops open.
It rained all night and all day today. I have never experienced such a consistent rainfall over such a long time… 2 days and counting. It reminds BA of the Netherlands… her words not mine!
As we drove to Seward, we ran into a lot of construction. It was weird the way they controlled the traffic with signs that stated there was a flagman, and then there was no one and yet the traffic stopped. There was a pilot truck but it didn't show up until the traffic from the opposite direction came started coming through… go figure.
It was also interesting to drive at 1000' above sea level in the clouds, see it rain, snow on the mountains, Fire Weed growing beside the snow, and above 2500, no trees. The tree line in most of Alaska is very low due to the permafrost.
We got to Seward and decided to go to the end of the road - Lowell Road that is. In the book, we have (The Milepost) it stated that this was a gravel road with a few potholes. It should have read many potholes with a few pieces of road. One of the pictures shows some of the less nasty potholes. It took us 45 minutes to drive the 3 miles but we did it! To top it all off, it would have been a very pretty drive if it weren't for the rain and fog. One other consequence of all the potholes, Arda got seasick (at least an upset stomach) from all the rockin' and rollin'.
Once we got back on smooth roads (meaning paved) we stopped and made lunch but the trailer was too cold to sit in so we sat in the truck and watched the half-day fishing charters return to port.
Next stop was the Exit Glacier in the Kenai Fjord. We followed a trail for about 1.5 miles to the side of the glacier. This glacier is fed by the Harding Ice fields, which covers about 300,000 acres and receives 70' of snow each year. It is hard to fathom how much this as receded in the past 10 years. While looking at the glacier we also spotted a black bear and it was exactly where it should be – on the other side of the glacier.
Tonight we are staying alongside Resurrection Creek and we are so close that when Arda looks out the window, she feels she is on a ship and wants her seasickness patches… wimp!
Today, the 23rd we are heading to Soldotna to see if we can get our propane system fixed. We filled up in Seward and had the smell of gas from one of the tanks so I shut it off with the intent of looking at it when we stopped for the night. The twist connector (plastic) on the tank that was leaking was broken… the seal had cracked. There was another problem because gas was leaking to the other tank even with the valve off. So we called Dan's Mobile RV Repair and he met us late in the day (obviously we are not the only folks in town with a problem). He arrived at Fred Meyers parking lot where were spending the night and had it fixed in about 15 minutes. We picked up a spare hose today in case we have the same problem on the other side. It sure was good to have the propane working again so we had heat and hot water for showers! Overall, it "killed" a whole day to get this fixed but when you don't have to be anywhere, who cares?
On the morning of the 24th we headed to Kenai, the largest city in the Kenai Peninsula with about 7000 people over 57 square miles. Compare that to a city like Toronto with over 2 million people within 40 square miles. Needless to say we didn't spend a lot of time here although we did drive up to Nikiski, which was a beautiful drive.
Next, we headed for Homer where we decided to go fishing… well WD anyway. We booked a combo-charter (salmon and halibut) charter for Monday. As an added bonus, they are allowing us to stay on their grounds N/C until we leave next Tuesday.
Did you know? The Yukon River is 2200 miles long and is the 4th largest in N.A.
Pictures can be found at Seward-Homer 2009
Take care and keep the loops open.
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