Our 2007 Driving Tour Of Alaska - Tok, Days 22-23

May 27, Day 22: Up and out about 8:30 AM. Had breakfast at the Edgewater Grill again, checked out of the hotel and turned our attention to the five or six hour drive to Tok. As you can see from the map, we will retrace our track to Glennallen, then turn off on AK Route 1 to Tok.



It was raining and overcast but a bit brighter than on our trip down to Valdez. We stopped again at the waterfalls so I could take another crack at one of them.


The weather on the trip back through Thompson Pass was just about as bad as it had been on our trip down so we didn't stop for more photos. We stopped in Glennallen for gas, then turned north east toward Tok. Since we had a relatively long drive, we didn't stop to admire much of the scenery but the Wrangle Mountains across the Copper River Valley were pretty spectacular so we did stop for a quick shot of them.



   

We saw some wildlife - a mink ran across the road and into the forest, there were Trumpeter Swans and Ducks on ponds and lakes along the road side but we didn't stop to spend time viewing them. We got into Tok in the late afternoon, checked into the Golden Bear Inn, went by the Visitors' Center and checked out one of the several gift shops in the community. We had dinner at Fast Eddy's Restaurant and turned in.

May 28, Day 23: Up and out about 8:30 AM. Had breakfast at the espresso coffee shop at the Golden Bear and talked to some of the locals about where to see wildlife. We decided to drive West on the Alaska Highway (AK-2 to Delta Junction) for a distance but didn't see much. We went back to Tok and out the Taylor Highway (AK-5) planning to go to Chicken. Chicken is an interesting settlement. It was supposed to be named Ptarmigan but no-one in town could spell Ptarmigan so they named it Chicken instead. However, we got to a stretch of the highway where there were large, grey sand dunes on either side of the road. Interestingly, the local kids use these to make "stone graffiti" where they place stones in the face of the dune in designs that spell out the usual things that kids (including us when we were kids) have carved into trees, written on walls and fences for years. It was interesting though.

We saw some fresh moose tracks going up one of the dunes. We stopped and followed the tracks back into the forest hoping to see the moose up close but he/she was nowhere to be found. We started looking more closely and found other fresh tracks. We follow one set far back into the forest to a small pond but never found the moose. It was clear that he/she had been there just a few minutes or hours earlier but was now gone.

By now, it was getting close to noon so we went back to Tok and had lunch at the Grumpy Griz. We decided we'd go back out the Taylor Highway to look for wildlife during the afternoon. We checked out more tracks on the dunes and drove some off-highway roads into the back country but saw nothing. On one such trek, we noted a sign indicating that this was someone's bear research area. We decided no-one would have a bear research area where there were no bears so we decided to just wait here and see what showed up. We parked on the narrow dirt road and settled back to wait. After a while, I got impatient and walked over where there were some attractive berries. I picked a couple and photographed them on the hood of the car.

After a longer while, it began to get late and we were getting tired of seeing nothing so we drove back out to the highway and back to Tok. We decided to have dinner at Fast Eddy's again. We went in, ordered and while we were waiting for our dinner, we could hardly believe it but in walked Stacie and Jana!!! After excited greetings, we learned that their van had dropped off the road partially into the lake while they were trying to extract it, soaking most of their possessions. Apparently, the van had come to rest on the steering mechanism in front and in pulling it off the edge of the road and out of the lake, the steering mechanism was damaged. They gave the van to the Forest Service Employee who had helped them out of the wash and who, with his wife, allowed them to dry their possessions at his home. They caught a ride to McCarthy and back to Glennallen later. They had tried to hitchhike to Tok but couldn't get a ride for a whole afternoon. Fortunately a lady who had an espresso kiosk on the corner where they were hitchhiking let them stay in a trailer she owned near the kiosk. Still unable to catch a ride the next day, they took a bus to Tok. They were planning to go to Dawson City (in Canada), then to White Horse by bus and to Calgary somehow (they weren't clear about bus routes to Calgary) from there. They were to fly out of Calgary for Edinburgh Scotland for a while then home. After exchanging e-mail addresses, we extracted a promise to let us know when they got to Edinburgh.

After this extremely pleasant turn of events, we went back to the Golden Bear Inn for the night. Tomorrow, we go to Anchorage on the way to Soldotna the day after.