June 27 - to Chitina (& Copper River)

David spied an eagle’s nest last night.  He took a couple pictures, but you can see much more than a couple small white dots (heads).  Yes, a better telephoto would have been nice, but it would have been limited to when we were close to the mh.  Way too much for us to be bothered carrying.

We hadn’t gone far after leaving Valdez when I took advantage of a turn-out to let a couple of cars go by.  David thought I was stopping for a historical marker.  That wasn’t the original plan, but what the heck.  We stopped.  The history was a remnant of an old railroad tunnel.  We have dug enough ditches/footings to know hand tools don’t go very far in rock.  I can’t imagine digging a tunnel in this rock with hand tools.

We noticed a couple working under the hood of a mini-van when we pulled up.  When they were still there after we took our pictures and read the sign, David asked if they needed some help.  The man asked if we had a crescent wrench.   While Dave helped the guy, I checked in with the young woman.  I was concerned they had kids in the car & I couldn’t see in the tinted windows. They were celebrating their anniversary and no kids.

 

 

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It was an interesting stop.  David ended up pulling out more tools to get the van’s serpentine belt back on.  When it immediately popped off again, David figured out some pulley to keep tension on the belt was froze up.  They were going to head back to Valdez, not far and mostly downhill.  Home for them was in Tok (over 200 miles away).  Hopefully they can get the parts.  We offered to follow them back to Valdez, to make sure it made it, but they declined.  It would be much more satisfying to “help” and be successful getting them back on the road.  Hopefully by the time we get to Tok, they will be there already.  Turns out, their family owns the campground we were planning to stay in there.

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We took the Chitina turn-off and drove 30+ miles on a very wavy road surface.  Kind of like a roller coaster for kids.  It was paved, and it is considered the “good” road.  We talked to the on duty ranger, who wasn’t really a ranger but was running the shop while the ranger was in training.  She is a long time resident of Chitina.  She said people have told her the McCarthy Road was the best condition they had ever seen it; and no one would stop us if we wanted to drive it; but, they don’t recommend it for RV’s over 24’ .   It was tempting, but considering the good road wasn’t so good….

We did drive in a couple of miles to the bridge and to a campground the pseudo ranger told us about.  We wanted to see people fishing with a net or fish wheel.   The first section of the road was really narrow.  But the rest was a typical two way street.  The wind was blowing when we started, but it continued to pick up velocity.  I had to hold on to my hat as we walked to watch the fish wheel operations from closer range.   We didn’t see any people using nets from a close enough range to really see what they were doing.

This felt very narrow...we are fairly wide at the mirrors.

This was a great space until someone came in on the left in the picture and parked right in front of us.  I thought I'd have an easy drive forward out, but fortunately it was an easy back out spot too.

This starts the road they didn't think we should try.  Narrow and high risk for tire damage due to it being built on a former railroad track (with nails still working their way to the surface.

more on McCarthy Road.  I walked up a bit of it.

Fishwheels on the Copper River

Cleaning fish

 

There were a couple of men cleaning fish, but we missed when they took the fish from the wheel.  The Copper River area on the north side was a bit of a mess.  Remnants of old fish wheels littered the area, as well as the wind blowing trash out from a dumpster.

Cars were driving through this, but I wouldn't.

Welcome to the Copper River.  The wind and dust was fierce.

Can you see us back there?

We didn't have any "services" back in this campground, not even cell service.  The dust got everywhere.  We had to close up all the windows and vents.  Even with our nice cover on the bathroom vent, the dust was so bad I had to wash the counter, toilet & floor.

But it was a fairly quiet night, and with no tv or wifi, I went to bed early.