Travel Days–Valdez to Tok, Kluane Lake, Haines Jct and Haines

We left Valdez on a rainy cloudy day. I wavered on filling up with propane before leaving and decided I probably should do that. If it is 1/3 inside it is probably less outside. He was only able to fill 5.60. I decided to skip gas as I had 100 miles on the last tank and yes it was going over Thompson Pass again the other way, but the tank was just over 3/4, the computer on it said the range was 300 miles. Wavering cost me – it was 4.239 and 4.189 in Valdez and I passed a station at the Glen Hwy/Richardson Hwy junction it was 4.339. Will be more at Tok, I’ll bet. Coming up here in June, I filled up at Tok and the cost was 4.399 and I ended up with 40 gallons. When I got to Fairbanks it was 4.169. Had I known that, I would have put in 20 gallons and said wait for Fairbanks silly girl !!! Ah, well it is what it is!



I was the lead leaving out this morning. As we were headed thru Horsetail Falls and Bridle Veil Falls, I knew the next fun part was Thompson Pass and with the rain and clouds I was dreading that Pass. On the way into Valdez we had fog and rain. Man, I don’t like heights. So just ask the Lord to get me through this like he does all the other things in my life. Of course, he did that. No rain, no low clouds and no fog. Clear sailing, so to speak, going through that area. It did start raining after the decent and continued that until we stopped at a pull out about 95 miles from Tok. We had planned on staying at a spot near the river at Gakona, but after the turn off, the roads were blocked. I think that the road may have been on the other side of the bridge. So we just trucked on north.


We stopped at Copper Center, a really big spot in it’s day. Not so much today. Unfortunately the roadhouse, the original roadhouse it was, burned down around the 20th of May 2012. Electrical fire in the wash room. It is really too bad as there aren’t too may of those left. I didn’t take any pics of the area, but it makes the depressed areas down south look good.

Found a pull out just about 5 miles south of Chistochina and we will spend the night here and go on into Tok, about 95 from here, in the morning, fill up with gas, get the fudge and head for the Canadian border.


We could not have asked for a more pleasant day to drive. Yesterday we had a lot of rain. So this morning when we woke up and the clouds and sun were trying to get attention, we voted for the sun. Some of the fireweed is turning colors but some are still blooming.

A few miles down the road we found this silly girl moose out in a lake having breakfast. Way, out there in the lake.

 

 



The drive into Tok is nice as the leaves are changing colors.





We stopped in Tok and picked up the fudge from the store in the Tour Saver Booklet! I picked up some more sugar free fudge and a hat. Then we went back and did the internet thing for a bit before going over to fill up with gas at Young’s Chevron – note if you have the ‘magazine’ you can get 10 cents a gallon off the gas, BUT, it is priced about 18 cents a gallon more than the two stations down the road, so you don’t really save any. You have the knowledge that they go through a lot of gas so yours is probably not old and watered down.



After that we headed east but knew we wouldn’t make the border so we decided to stop at Deadman’s Lake at the Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge. The price is right $0. So we pulled in there about 3:30 p.m. and got spots and setup then went for a walk. They have a trail that has a wooden walkway over the tundra or marsh or as they call it Taiga. It was quite pleasant. It ends at the lake. We had 5 or 6 Trumpeter Swans, Common Loons, ducks – mallard I think, and a couple of small grebes that were probably juvie Horned. This was a nice stopping place. Not room for a lot of Class A’s, may 2 or 3 as the sights are not wide enough. But there was lots of space between the sights.