Ramblin' Around The Kenai - Fishing and Friends

I have been a little negligent in my writing.  Life gets busy and in the way. We are speeding our trip up back home. That dang hurricane Beryl. It's just hard to ask others to take care of your property. And the homeowner is the best person to lay eyes on everything. My daughter FaceTimed us so we could see the yard. It took my grandson several trailer loads of picking up limbs and sticks. But I think this is the only picture I was sent, everything else was video. My neighbors had a tree come through their garage and part of their house, so we were extremely lucky!

Just needs a little trimming and tlc.

So here we go.....We went through Anchorage on July 4. Had a great late breakfast at Gwinnie's. Reindeer sausage and eggs.  We found a spot at Bird Creek Campground, about 20 miles from Anchorage on the Turnigan Arm. 

Turnigan Arm

July 5 we weren't sure where we would land for the evening. But I said - let's try for Williwaw Forestry Service Campground and by a stroke of luck, we found a spot.  Chose the spot for 2 nights.  We love this beautiful campground. We have an awesome view of snow capped mountains.  There's a great walking trail, great visitor center. But it's cold and drizzling. The view from our back window is amazing! So now we're starting to watch Hurricane Beryl head toward our neck of the woods. Her path kept changing.  From our house to Sargent Beach is about 15 minutes. From our house to Freeport as the crow flies is about 20 miles. And I'll be danged if that is where she decided to travel.

It's so lush!

Great walking trail

The view from behind our campsite

July 6 we had thought about going to Whittier. But it's cold and raining.  The last time we went to Whittier it was cold and raining and we couldn't see much. So we decided to stay at the campsite and Ron made taco soup. We enjoyed a campfire under the awning. Keeping an eye on Hurricane Beryl. Thank you Starlink!

July 7 we decided to find a full hookup site so we could leave StarLink hooked up to monitor the hurricane better as it seemed it was coming towards our home. So here we are at Princess Lodge RV Park. Nothing to write home about this place. Got laundry done.  It's damp so your towels never dry. Cloudy and in the 50's. Beryl is headed for our house. Wish we were home.

Beautiful view of Turnigan Arm

July 8 we decided we needed another full hook up as Starlink can mess with your batteries and we needed to monitor the damage from the hurricane at home. Found a spot a Ninilchik at Alaskan Angler RV, and we monitored what was happening at home.  (Lots of wind damage, trees down, no electricity, etc.).

July 9 we weren't sure where to go so we just stayed in Ninilchik at Ninilchik View State Park. A very pretty site. 

Two juvenile eagles being taught how to catch fish

July 10 was a great day!  We met up with our blog friends, Jim and Barb Nelson. Now how do we know them? Well I started following Jim's blog JimandBarbsRVAdventures in 2016 when I was planning a trip to Alaska in 2017.  All good trip planners enjoy reading other RV posts especially when they are doing what we will be doing. We almost bought a truck camper from them as well, but there was just a little bit of miles involved. And in 2022 when we were doing our Maritimes Tour, they were as well but we never could connect. Anyway, they offered a great diversion from the issues at home. We met them down on the Homer Spit. We walked around the Homer Spit, the harbor and enjoyed a good drink at the Salty Dog Saloon where we put our dollar on the wall. There are so many dollars posted in the bar that it makes it dark and claustrophobic. (Every year they take the dollar bills off the wall and donate to charity.)  But we put up our dollar bills and enjoyed that cold drink.  Jim and Barb are really great people (they gave us 3 packages of salmon lol). After our visit, we found an awesome, beautiful spot at a Boondocker's Welcome called  Deep Creek. It was beautiful! Overlooks the Deep Creek river. Very peaceful. We're waiting to hear if we get to have our fishing charter in a few days as the weather is supposed to turn bad.

Homer Harbor

The lupines are big and gorgeous

He's taking a good nap with no care in the world!

Ron found a spot for our dollar bill at the Salty Dog!

Jim and Barb and us in front of the Salty Dog

July 11 we decided to stay one more day at this spot. It was that good!  They are trying to move our charter up, due to the weather. Jim and Barb came for mimosas and we enjoyed a great visit. And they brought gifts!  Packages of halibut and cod. I think they were concerned that we drove 11,000 miles and might not get to go on a charter. That's some great people!

Beautiful view from our free campsite

Enjoyed another great visit with these two!

July 12 I ended up sleeping with the phone close by in case we got a call that our charter was moved.  We got a call to see if we could come at noon today. It started raining when we left in the boat.  No problem. That's why we have rain gear and our Xtra Tuff rubber boots!  Our captain was a 22 year old girl, and she was awesome.  The deckhand was her uncle, who happened to own the boat. Lol!. J and J Smart Charters was great! We had time to do laundry before the charter. It's cold and a light rain. The charter was about 3 hours. I loved it because it was about 30 minutes out. They put us on the halibut, we caught our limit of fish quick, and then we were headed back. Ron sealed up 16 bags of halibut. We decided since we were going to start heading home we could just freeze it and save $400 in shipping. 

You get launched with a tractor

July 13 is raining, windy and cold! We got our fish situated and left about 9:30. We landed at Tolsona Wilderness Campground outside of Glenallen. The last time we were here it was a great spot. Not so much on a Saturday though lol. There's a lot going on here. They had a race event. Our check in was delayed because they were going to have a color explosion on the runners. Then all the sites were full of locals who were partying. And then these crazy people were floating in the glacial river until about 9 p.m. Oh my. This is also the day of Trump's assassination attempt. 

July 14 we got up early knowing we would be on the worst road of the trip and it would take time. From Tok, Alaska to Destruction Bay in the Yukon Territory it is full of bumps and frost heaves. We had rain between Glennallen and Tok. We stopped for fuel, water and food at Fast Eddy's in Tok. We kept going until we were tired. Easy border crossing. Found a nice spot at Lake Creek Yukon campground. The drive showed us a beautiful spot of fireweed everywhere.

Road hazard!

Border crossing!

July 15 we finished the rough drive to Destruction Bay. It was a beautiful drive! The fireweed in one spot was amazing! We stopped in Whitehorse for fuel and water. Landed at Teslin Lake Yukon Campground. We could kinda see the lake from our campground. Enjoyed a campfire.

Fields of fireweed!

July 16 was our longest drive ever on this trip. I even got to drive! After 9 hours, we landed at Testa River Regional Campground. We can hear the river, just can't see it. And...it's starting to get warmer. Gonna blacken us some of that halibut tonight!

July 17 we decided to head to Dawson City, better known as mile 0 of the Alaskan Highway. It was 547 km. So a long day! Stopped for fuel and a quick lunch at Ft. Nelson. OMG soo smoky. Hard to breathe. We stayed at Northern Lights RV Park in Dawson City, which was a great choice as there was a Fantasy RV Group there and we met up with friends Bill and Wendy Julien from our Maritimes Tour in 2022. We enjoyed a great visit with them! And,,,,the first time to see the moon and a little sunset in months.

Bill and Wendy Julien

July 18 found us looking forward to going to Edmonton, AB and meeting up with other friends from our Maritimes tour in 2022, Barry and Robin Wilkerson. They suggested a campground for us, came and picked us up and took us for a steak dinner! We came back to camp and enjoyed a night cap and a great visit.

Fields of canola in Alberta

First sunset in months

Robin and Ron

Barry Wilkerson

Meeting up with folks on your RV travels are the best.

Here are some quick stats:  In Alaska we traveled 2,164 miles.  We were only there a month, but it was a great month!  We so enjoyed the journey just getting there.  Now we are heading south as there is no place quite like home!