Living in Alaska - Life in the Last Frontier

It’s so nice to be getting comments to my new journal. Thank you to all of you who have taken the time to comment here, or email me privately, with lovely thoughts and encouragement!

It is truly summer in Alaska now. Yesterday, the temperature rose to above 70F, and the sun was high and bright in the sky. My friend Laura and I made plans to walk at Chena Lakes. Laura used to live in Fairbanks, when she was attending, and then working at, UAF (University of Alaska Fairbanks). She met her husband here; his parents still live here. Laura and her husband - and her brand new baby Ada - now live in the Boston area. They’re in town visiting family, and Laura had some free time. I was looking forward to meeting little Ada, as well as getting out and stretching my legs.

Ada slept the entire time we walked, snuggled next to her mama’s chest in an infant carrier. Laura and I enjoyed chatting and spotting wildflowers which seem to have appeared overnight! We saw lupine, and asters, bluebells and prickly rose, high-bush cranberries, and sweet pea. It was too bright a day for me to get good photos, but I’m sure I’ll have plenty of wildflower photos to share over the next few months.

After our walk, we stopped for a while so I could take a few photos of mother and daughter.

After our walk, I took Sedona for a short wander through the woods near our house. I had my camera with me and found some high bush cranberry plants to photograph, as well as a few blooming prickly rose. One of the rose blossoms had a bumblebee rolling around against the pollen-laden stamens. If I didn’t know better, the bee looked absolutely drunk with pleasure.

I noticed as I looked through my lens, that the bee had some sort of yellow growth on its rear leg. At first I thought it was a piece of the rose stamen which had gotten stuck there, but it wasn’t exactly the same shape. I did some online research and discovered that I was looking at a female bee’s pollen basket (scientific name: corbicula). This pollen is collected to feed the young. I’ve never heard of a pollen basket before, so I learned something new today.

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Steve and I are preparing for our first trip of the summer, and we’re excited. We’ve also got a lot of work and preparation to tend to, before we actually get on the road. Our first trip and our second trip are broken up by only a few days - enough time to clean up the camper, restock the cabinets, take care of laundry, and do a grocery run.

The camper is already plugged in and all systems are go. The “to-do” list is on the kitchen counter, with a pen next to it, and it gets longer every day. The to-do list is an integral part of our trip planning. By the time we’re ready to do a final check, the page will have scribbles all over it, in both our handwriting, with some things crossed out, some things amended, and some things assigned to one of us. The day before we get on the road, I painstakingly re-write the list in an orderly fashion, and we check off each item together.

The grocery list hasn’t been made yet, as we need to sit down and plan meals first. With the extreme high cost of fuel this year, we’ll be eating almost all of our meals in the camper. We just can’t afford to add “dining out” to our activity list - at least not as frequently as we have in the past. Twenty five dollars spent in a restaurant will get us 60 miles down the road in the truck, or 175 miles down the road in my car. And this first leg of our trip will have both of us driving, as I will be picking up my friend Michele and her daughter, in Anchorage, on June 24th.

Our first trip will take us from Fairbanks to Palmer on the first day, where we will be trying out a campground we’ve never stayed at before. The Homestead RV Park looks like a nice place from its website. The sites are wooded, which will be great for ambiance, but will be bad for mosquitoes. Good thing we’ve stocked up on our bug dope. We’re merely stopping for the night, to break up the long drive to the Kenai Peninsula.

We’ll leave Palmer and make our way to Soldotna next. Steve’s got us booked for several days there. During our stay, he’ll be going out on two guided king salmon trips on the Kenai River. I’ll spend those days exploring the Kenai and Soldotna area.

From Soldotna, we’ll move back up the highway to Cooper Landing. Steve’s got another guided king salmon fishing trip there, but will also be fishing for red salmon on the Russian River while we’re in town. Cooper Landing is located in a beautiful area, with towering mountains and the turquoise water of Kenai Lake, and the fish-laden Russian River -where it’s not unusual to see bears doing their own fishing.

I’ll leave Steve on the 24th, and drive to Anchorage. He’ll take the camper, and the furkids, back to Fairbanks, and I’ll continue my vacation an additional 6 days. I promised Michele and Maddie a whirlwind tour of AK - with the most bang for the buck - and they’re going to get it! We’ll cover more than 600 miles, and be on the go from sun-up to sun-down… which means all day long in Alaska! This is the part of our first trip that I’m looking forward to.

A few days after I say goodbye to Michele and Maddie, Steve and I drive back to the Kenai Peninsula - and this time go all the way to Homer. (Fortunately in only one vehicle, although it’s the gas-guzzling, camper-towing truck.)

On July 5th - if all goes well (fingers are crossed tightly) - we’ll fly with Chris and Ken Day to Katmai to walk with the bears. I am beyond excited! I can’t wait to see the familiar bears (Peaches and her cubs - who are now all grown up, Lonely Bear, and Popeye, to name a few) and I really can’t wait to meet the new additions.

Our travels will take us back to Palmer for a rest, and then across the Glenn Highway to Kenny Lake - our jumping off point for Chitina, McCarthy and Kennicott. I’m really looking forward to going back to Kennecott Mine this year. It’s been 4 years, and I’ve read that the road is in much better condition now. Last time, we ended up with two flat tires, and had to buy brand new tires to continue our trip around the state. We don’t travel with less than two spares now.

We’ll be covering new territory this summer: exploring the Nabesna Road (out of Slana) into Wrangell-St Elias National Preserve. From there, we’ll continue on the Glenn Highway/Tok Cutoff to Tok and then home to North Pole. We haven’t been to Tok, since we drove through 5 years ago. (Our 5-year anniversary as Alaska residents is on June 15th)

Although many of the campgrounds we’re staying at advertise that they have Wi-Fi service, I don’t know how often I’ll be able to update my journal while we’re traveling. I know I won’t be able to update while Michele is in town, as there will be no time in our schedule for computer time!

I’ve got a very busy week ahead of me, in preparation for traveling, but it’s so worth it! I love summer in Alaska!