Tag: Alaska

The return to the lower 48 begins

Leaving Denali, most people head to north to Fairbanks or south to Anchorage. But we wanted to see some nature so we decided to head east and take the Old Denali highway. It’s about 130 miles of gravel with a few sections of asphalt. The worst part was for the first 70 miles the road was so rough we could only go 20 mph max. Sometimes we were going so slow the speedometer was at zero. The worst part is because it was so rough Zygi couldn’t nap so we had crying and screaming to go along with bumpy road. We did find an amazing camp area at the old airfield (Yes it REALLY was shutdown there was abandoned equipment in the middle of it and fire rings everywhere, plus a new strip a quarter mile a way). Anyways it had gorgeous views of both the mountains and a glacier. It was one of my favorite campsites of all time. Unfortunately, Victoria disagreed because of the bugs (what bugs;). It was so amazing because not only did it have a great view of the mountains and glacier, but we were all alone, out in the real middle of nowhere, no road noise, no neighbors. It’s nice to camp with just the family.

Luckily the next day the road started to improve (if I was to do it again I would approach and leave from the east). However the next day I noticed someone looking at my trailer wheels odd. I took a look myself and they seemed closer than my other side. I thought it was because we were parked on a hill. Turns out the buckle the holds the leaf-springs on didn’t just break but brought some of the frame with it. We noticed when we were smelled burning and stopped at a rest area, our tires were touching. Time to call shops on a Thursday again, a week out they say. Victoria managed to find not only the AAA rep in the area but that same shop was happy to take the business on Friday. We arrived at about 5 pm behind our trailer. Lucky for us at not extra cost some mechanics agreed to stay after and finish it that night as they were worried they would be too busy to look at it the next day. I was surprised at how young they were, the two of them couldn’t of been older that 18. But they did a great job. Three hours later we were ready to go, a little less than $300 lighter but happy for it. This was back in the town of GlennAllen and the shop was named GlennAlenn Fuel, I highly recommend them.

The next day we were back on the Glenn highway heading for Tok. (You have to go through Tok either way you enter or leave Alaska as the junction is there). We found a nice little rest area near a river to spend the night. When we first pulled in, we were the only RV there. Then I had an interesting thing happen when another RV pulled in. Where did they park? Directly next to us , with their generator running, with the rest area having room for maybe 15 RV’s. I asked him about it nicely, he smiled, an hour later he parked on the other side. That’s like the first rule of camping, unless your camping with friends of course, you park away from others. By the end of the day, it looked like an RV park at that rest area.

Next we passed through Tok and turned onto the Taylor highway. We stopped by the famous town of Chicken. Chicken is a tourist trap that didn’t used to be maybe ten years earlier. Didn’t matter Victoria loved it for the name. There isn’t much to Chicken. The town is all dirt road. There is a saloon, and a handful of gift shops. We camped at the Walter Fork BLM Campground ($5 with America the Beautiful pass discount.) I liked the river at the campground. I skinny dipped (no one around) along with skipping stones, I had at least a 15 hopper in there. Nothing like bathing in a mountain river like God intended. All these roads were gravel but decent gravel, you could run 40 or 50 mph down it no problem unlike The Old Denali Rd. The was a lot more assents and descents than usual for up here but when it takes you to the Top of the World Highway, it’s worth it.

 

Our (not so really) AWESOME time in the Kenai Peninsula

We left on a Saturday heading for Seward on the Seward highway. We ended up getting backed up in traffic for the first half of the day. It always sucks being stuck in traffic but we had an amazing view of the Turnagain Arm, which is the body of water that branches from the Cook Inlet. The Seward Highway follows along the Arm for quite a while.

Turnagain Arm

The closer we got to Seward the thicker the clouds started to line the sky. By the time we reached our destination it was cold and raining. Through many sources we found that you can camp off Exit Glacier Road for free. It is a little outside of the town of Seward but we were camping along the Resurrection River, which was also flooded. The next day we woke up and the weather looked the same, cold, rainy and gray. We decided to pack our gear for a day trip and try to make the best of it by going to check out the Exit Glacier in the Kenai Fjords National Park. It is the only section of the park that you can access by land. And it is the first National Park Tim and I have been to that was free. We took the trail to the Glacier and it was very easy and besides the weather the glacier was awesome. We had a good view of it and got some great pictures.

The same day after going to the glacier we went to Seward to see if maybe we should camp there instead but nothing really jumped out at us. They have lots of camping options in city run campgrounds but only a few of the sites had hookups, which we were needing because the solar panels were not getting a good charge. The campgrounds were all packed and the weather was just bumming us out really bad. We decided against going on a cruise since it was storming and I am already prone to sea sickness. We couldn’t go fishing either. Even if the weather was better we were told the fish aren’t running good right now because the water is too high and fast.

Meh….Seward

That night Zygi got his first fever and so we decided to head up the peninsula closer to a doctor in case he needed medicine. We weren’t ready to give up on the Kenai yet though. We found a campground with hookups that also serves as a hostel called Jana House in Sterling. We wanted to stay in Cooper Landing but not only were the campgrounds super expensive ($50/night!) but they were fully booked. So Sterling it was, and I’m sorry to stay that when we pulled in I almost laughed. There was no one camping there besides a couple of seemingly abandoned vans. The campground was a sh*thole. I mean, the sites had huge rocks scattered about and were severely unlevel. It felt like we somehow were back in Mexico or something. But even there the campgrounds were never like this. The first site we pulled into and got set up but then the electric hookup was not working so we had to move to another site. It was a huge pain. The people running were very friendly however and the showers were great, though a little irony…like the metal. Yes the water was yellow because of the excessive iron content. It ended up staining the side of our RV orange.

Although the weather improved a little after leaving Seward we couldn’t do anything outdoors since Zygi was recovering from whatever bug he had. Luckily we didn’t need to go to the doctor since his fever stayed low grade. So to sum it up, our experience in the Kenai peninsula SUCKED! I know that the weather and Zygi getting sick had a big part of it so I’m not trying to discourage anyone from visiting there. But if we did go back I would choose to stay in Cooper Landing along the beautiful Kenai River. The river is one of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen. It is a spectacular turquoise blue like I’ve never seen. I would avoid going to Seward. It felt so touristy and meh. We decided against checking out Whittier after we read that all the locals say, “Everything is shittier in Whittier.” We had our fill of shittiness.

Stopping for a rest along the Seward highway. (Turnagain Arm in background).

 

Boondocking by the river in Palmer, AK

On a gorgeous sunny day we left Valdez. We wanted to stay longer, but the campground was fully booked for the holiday (July 4th.) Instead we had other plans. It was July 3rd and our plan for the holiday was to attend the parade in Glennallen. On the way back on the Richardson highway we were able to see all the gorgeous snow capped mountains that were obstructed by clouds on the way in. We stopped by Horsetail falls, which like Bridal Veil falls you literally drive right past it, and the Valdez glacier. After seeing the glacier we were back on the road when Tim noticed the passenger side door to the RV was flapping in the wind.  Well it just so happened that our generator fell out somewhere between the Valdez glacier and mile 72.  We drove back the 35 miles or so looking for a bright yellow generator but it was gone.  Either someone scooped it up or it fell too deep in the brush for us to see it.  Another “Dope!” moment for us.

We boondocked at a rest stop off the Richardson highway right before the junction with the Glenn highway (which we will be taking towards Anchorage and the Kenai peninsula). The morning of the 4th after Zygi’s morning nap we drove to Glennallen for the parade. We simply parked the RV right off the Glenn highway. Our timing was impeccable as we arrived right as the parade was starting. It was a small parade and only lasted about 30 minutes. All the cars and floats threw candy as us (I guess for Zygi?…But we ate it of course). After the parade they had a free salmon bake. We decided to skip it since the line for food was so long.

We found a boondocking spot off the I Overlander app in Palmer off the old Glenn highway. We pulled in and found it was a nice spot right along the Mantanuska River. It was interesting because the river was flooded and it was washing away the dirt along the riverbank. There was a tree and each day we watched it slope deeper and deeper into the strong, merciless current. We saw many locals come out and check out the river. We talked to a couple of them and found out that a tragic accident had occurred only a week prior to our arrival. A mother and her children were playing by the water. Somehow one of her little ones fell into the rushing river. The mother instinctively went in after her baby and both of them drowned.

It was so hot while we were here, a little too hot for boondocking with a baby. We ended up leaving after a couple days and headed for the Kenai peninsula. We knew bad weather was coming but we decided to go for it anyways. Staying in 80 degree weather with no AC and the inability to swim was getting old. Little did we know that we were trading feeling like sweaty, hot pigs for cold, wet dogs.

Palmer, AK hiking trail off the Old Glenn Highway

Our journey continues…

We made it to ALASKA! First stop: Valdez

After a little over a week we were finally back on the road heading towards the Alcan border. We camped one night in another Yukon government campground in Snag Junction. We arrived late and left early the next day. On the way to the border we stopped at the “Welcome to Alaska” sign and took a picture. We don’t normally take those pictures but hey, we freaking DROVE all the way to Alaska.

Welcome to Alaska!

The border crossing went smoothly. The officer was very friendly, only asked a few typical questions and sent us on our way without inspection. The road has gotten very rough before and after the crossing. There are lots of frost heaves and potholes. We have to drive slowly to avoid more problems. But that’s fine because even though the road isn’t great the scenery is gorgeous!  After leaving Whitehorse we have seen 3 trucks pulled over changing tires.

Driving along the Tok Cutoff we camped at our first pullout. The highway noise wasn’t too bad as in the evening a car will pass here and there. The scenery was great looking out the window at the mountains. It was here that I randomly decided we would take a side trip to Valdez. Some of you may have heard of Valdez from the infamous Exxon oil spill in 1989. I decided to take the trip because the Milepost said the Richardson highway was beautiful and with the Fourth of July around the corner I figured we would try and avoid the crowd and go to Valdez instead of heading towards the popular Kenai peninsula.

Boondocking at a pullout along the Glenn Highway (in between Tok and Glennallen). El Oso is pretty dirty from all the hard driving.

On the day we were heading for Valdez the weather was awful. It was cloudy so we couldn’t even see the gorgeous mountains I read about. We did get to see the Alaskan pipeline in the distance which was cool. When we got to the top of the highway a cloud came through and totally occluded the visibility of the road. We could only see about 15 feet ahead of us. We pulled over to wait for it to pass. After about 10 minutes and watching cars haul butt past us we decided that we should keep going. After like 3 minutes we descended and were out of the cloud and everything was all good. We pass by a couple of waterfalls along the road.

We camped at Bear Paw RV park as we needed to do our weekly laundry and showers (haha we are gross hippies). It was $45 a night! But the showers were great and the laundry machines were the best I’ve ever used in my 3 years of traveling. The machines use coins which are $3 a piece and each machine takes one coin. The guy working said one dryer holds 2 loads. I though he was full of crap. The dryers were huge and looked like they came off the Enterprise. But man he was right, they worked awesome.

Enough about laundry, our campsite was great. Yet it was $45 a night but you get what you pay for. The day we arrived was so cloudy and gloomy but the next day the sun burned the clouds away and we could see that we were literally surrounded by snow capped mountains. We could walk to the harbor, walk to get food (which we didn’t do a lot of because the prices were exorbitant,$15 for a hamburger, $30 for pizza). The color of the water was a very pretty cool blue.

Tim’s wound is still healing so we couldn’t do any long hiking but we did walk around the city quite a bit. There is a nice park we walked to and walking the docks is always nice. They have some serious fishing boats here! We had to leave on July 3rd but we have plans for the fourth. See how we celebrated the nation’s birthday on the next article.

Belated Father’s Day meal of corned beef hash.

Goodbye Cassiar, Helloooo Alcan!

It was tough to leave Stewart as the scenery was amazing and our campsite was awesome. We spent a lot of days driving so I’ll sum it up briefly where we stayed. After Stewart we continued on the Cassiar highway to Morchuea Lake Recreation Site. This part of the highway is very remote with limited services. We only stayed one night because the mosquitoes were too bad to go outside. I was working on the batteries and I usually don’t have much problem with flies, they just don’t bite me much. I got eaten alive, my legs had scabs from them even though I didn’t scratch them because those suckers are so big. There was however a nice view of Mt. Edziza across the lake.

The next day we continued on the Cassiar highway passing through Jade City. It’s not really a city but a store that sells a bunch of jade and other precious stones. We thought we would buy a bunch of it for wholesale price but it turns out it was more expensive than buying it from Chinatown in San Francisco. We ended up getting a couple pieces but I later threw it away in the Yukon River in Whitehorse because I thought it cursed us from all the bad luck we started having as soon as we bought it. I figured I would give the Indian ancestors back their jade and it would help us get over the bad luck.

After Jade city we finished up the Cassiar highway at Watson Lake, crossing into the Yukon territory for the first time. We stayed at a Government campground which cost $12($9 American). British Columbia has free recreation sites that you can camp at. The Yukon territory has government campgrounds that aren’t free but $12 a night isn’t bad. For that you get well groomed sites, some of them with lake views, free firewood, and water (not hookups just where you can fill up). Again we didn’t stay in Watson Lake long. We checked out the signpost forest and the visitor center. The fridge was on the fritz and we needed to get to Whitehorse for parts.

Black Bear eating the yummy grass off the highway

After Watson Lake we were back on the Alcan highway and headed on to Whitehorse. Many of you might wonder, “How does Zygi handle all this driving?”  Well on the days we have long drives we leave right before his morning nap.  The hum of the 7.3 diesel engine lulls him to sleep and after about 2 hours he wakes up and we find a place to stop and let him out to explore.  We try to find a visitor center so he is indoors and I don’t have to worry about him getting bitten by mosquitos.  After his snack, I let him crawl around the visitor center or museum and he has a ball.  Everyone else likes to interact with him too so it is a good way to socialize him a little. Then after about an hour and a half we hit the road again in time for his next nap. By the time he wakes up from that nap we are usually done or close to done driving for the day.

Tim wrote about all the bad luck we had in Whitehorse in the previous article, so check it out if you haven’t already.  It was one thing after the other and the worst was Tim sustaining second degree deep burns over 30% of his left thigh. Long distance travel isn’t all singing and dancing. It’s just life, not a vacation in the Caribbean.

 

Driving along the most scenic highway in North America

We made it to Alaska! Well not really, only for a few hours…read on. Stewart, BC is off 37A, a little 65 km detour off the Cassier Highway described as one of the most scenic highway in North America. From Stewart you can get to Hyder which is part of Alaksa the good ol’ US of A! It is interesting that there is no border crossing to go back into the US here but you have to go through customs to cross back into Canada. Luckily it was really simple, we were only asked a few routine questions and they scanned our passports. They don’t stamp US passports when you enter Canada unfortunately as I’d like to keep my collection going and get Zygi’s started.

Entering Hyder, Alaska

We took our time driving down 37A, it was breathtakingly gorgeous. The snow capped mountains rise on all sides and there are literally hundreds of water falls. We passed by Bear Glacier and took some pictures. We arrived at Clements Lake Recreation Site which was described as having spots for 5 RV’s. This time I took the bike down the dirt road to see if there was a spot for our huge rig. Success! We found one of the most scenic spots we had ever seen. It was facing a small lake with a huge, steep mountain in the backdrop. We could see several waterfalls coming down the mountain and we could even hear the largest one from 1000’s of ft away! There were only three real camping spots, only one of them big enough for anything more than a truck camper or something similar.

The next day we took a drive to see Salmon Glacier, the only glacier in the WORLD that you can drive to see the summit. We drove across the border to Hyder, Alaska which is described as “The friendliest little ghost town you’ve seen.” We first stopped at the bear viewing platform. A nicely build elevated platform about a river where bears come to feed on salmon. Unfortunately we didn’t get to see any bears because the salmon had not made it down to the river yet (we were 3 weeks early). The man that was working there smelled like dirty old laundry but he gave us the automobile tour brochure that gave a little history about the area along the way to the glacier. There was a lot of mining done here and still is going on. The road to the glacier was a long, rough, gravel road full of large potholes. We were warned that the graters had not been on the road yet but we decided to go anyways. We had to see the fifth largest glacier in North America. The drive up itself was shockingly beautiful with beautiful steep mountains everywhere, tons of waterfalls, and clear blue lakes and a milky white river (glacier feed rivers are white from the rock being ground down). The road was about 20 miles but somehow Zygi managed to sleep on the way up despite the rocking and shaking of the tight truck suspension.

The next day we hung around the lake and enjoyed the view. It was another warm perfect day. I swam to the platform in the middle of the freezing lake. We also broke out the kayak for the first time on the trip and took Zygi for his first ride. He liked climbing around on it until he barrel rolled off it. He was upset for a bit after that but Victoria calmed him down. Unfortunately after we put his life jacket on he started balling and didn’t stop crying for the entire ride (which was a short one). We let him play with the jacket afterwards so hopefully after a few more times he’ll be used to it. Any suggestions on this will be appreciated.

After a couple days we decided to move on even though we could have stayed there all summer. It helps to know that the next place we’re going is going to be just as spectacular. Hasta luego mis amigos

We’re headed to Alaska (+1 This Time)

I’m sure many of you probably thought we were done traveling, in fact we’re just getting started. In fact the entire time Victoria was pregnant people said “Oh you’ll be settling down now” and I thought, “You don’t know us obviously.” Victoria finished her nursing assignment a few days ago.  I was the stay at home dad/business owner.  Now I’m excited to say we are finally going to take that road trip to Alaska we’ve been talking about. I’m so glad to be on the road again, we haven’t been traveling since we went to Ecuador when Victoria was just pregnant. We’re eager to get back on the road and Victoria is happy she will be able to spend more time with Zygi while he is still a baby.

If you want to know what routes we are taking, so do we. We’ll be traveling the same way we always do. Just a general idea of where were headed, Anchorage and Fairbanks, and the next place or two that we’ll be stopping. We already bought the Milepost and will be reading it along the way. We usually drive a couple hours, 3 to 5 hours and then spend 3 to four days there. We plan to spend four months on the trip two there, two back. We’re not sure where we’ll be going when we get back but we’ve been thinking about Reno. The first place we’ll be stopping is Lake Shasta where we’ll be boondocking right on the lake for $10 a night.

Other than that any of you that aren’t friends with us on Facebook I’m going to post some pictures of Zygi and the places we’ve been Pacifica and some places around Modesto(uh…). We’ll be posting every couple days during the trip just like we always have while traveling. If you have any suggestions on where we should go or what we should see, please comment.

Our Next Adventure

Well, Victoria has just finished another contract and you all know what that means, time for our next adventure. This time our adventure is going to be just a tad different, we’re having our first child! A boy due on September 9th we’ll be calling him Timothy Zygmunt Czarkowski. The Timothy of course comes from my father and me. Zygmunt was the name of my polish grandfather who I unfortunately never had the opportunity to meet. Plus Timothy Zygmunt Czarkowski is as Polish as it gets, it rolls right off the tongue, lol.

So, as so many have asked, is this the end of TotalTravelers.com? Are you selling your RV, moving back into your home, and settling down? Absolutely not. As I write this I’m on the flight back to Savannah so we can be with family when Victoria gives birth. We’ll then spend another month or two in Savannah before heading back out to California to pick up the truck and fifth wheel.

From there we won’t know exactly where we’ll be headed but somewhere warm in the southwest is the plan, maybe Palm Springs or even better Tucson where my grandparents live.

We are also planning on going to Alaska next summer with baby in tow. We will take two months to drive there, work a two or three month assignment, and then take another two months to get back south before winter hits again. That’s the plan anyways… we’ll see what happens, lol.

So you probably won’t hear too much from us till we begin our Alaskan adventure. However I do plan to write a few posts about living full-time in a RV with an infant. It’s going to be a challenge for sure! Please wish us the best of luck.