Hatcher Pass

13 August 2015

Despite the time zone change, we managed to sleep pretty well, despite the guests upstairs from us getting up and going out at 0400. Our plan for the day included a bit of sight-seeing, finding the wedding venue and getting a bit of shopping.

I woke up around 0700 and got up and sat in the guest kitchen until Lynn woke up. Then, after a shower we went to breakfast. There was plenty on offer, although the only bread was bagels! Two of our fellow guests ate with us, he was from Idaho and she was from Ukraine. He was a staunch Republican with some distinctly weird conspiracy theories involving a secret conclave of politians that were bussing immigrants across the border into the USA, giving them $100 each and avoiding immigration proceedures all so there would be more Democrat voters! I said it was weird! She was a lot younger than him and she works for a French company in the Ukraine.

After breakfast, I walked down the garden to the lake. The next door neighbour has his float plane tied by his dock on the lake, all very normal here it seems.

We then headed north up the Parks Highway towards Denali and Fairbanks as far as the township of Willow. Here we turned off on a dirt road to Hatcher Pass. For many miles the road wound around in the forest, crossing several streams and eventually following a river. We kept hoping we might at least see Moose or perhaps Bear. As the road started to climb, we gradually got above the tree-line and into low scrubland. The road surface wasn't bad, it was possible to do 30mph. Well into the mountains, we started passing people foraging in the bushes. We weren't sure if the were picking Bilberries or Cranberries. We also saw several ground squirrels and marmots.

As we got higher, there were signs of the gold mining attempts on the hillsides, spoil heaps and rotting, wooden buildings at abandoned mine entrances. Mining is still going on but in a very small-scale manner.

After a while and several sharp bends and steep climbs, we made it to the summit of the Hatcher Pass at 3886ft. The views were spectacular, especially to the west where we could see the high, snow-capped peaks of the Alaska range, probably 100 miles away. After a wander around and a bit of photography, we started to head down. Just over the summit, we found road works and the road became single-track dirt track. We followed two immense lorries down the hill for several miles.

We eventually came to proper road again near the entrance to Hatcher Pass State Park. We'd been to this park on a previous visit, so didn't stop.

Back in Wasilla, it was time for lunch and having found a lunch spot in an old historically marked building, decided we'd be good and have salad. Two seafood salads appeared at our table outside and were huge, a tottering heap of seafood perched on a mound of salad. We might give lunch a miss tomorrow!

After lunch, we briefly went back to the B&B to check to see where we were to meet Andy and Mitch. Plans had changed as Mitch's best friend had secretly flown in from Australia! What an amazing surprise!

Instead, we headed down to Eagle River to find the church and reception venue. The reception is being held at Arctic Valley Ski Lodge. This, we discovered, is actually on Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson, the huge military base just outside Anchorage. The ski area, open to the public, is on military land. The road up,to the lodge is dirt/stone surfaced and climbs steeply up into the mountains. We were informed by soldiers that we might have to hang around at the top as they were involved in live firing on the range!

Eventually after seven miles of dirt road we found the venue, rather a special place for a wedding reception. We didn't hang around and managed to get down the road without being stopped by the military again. We also found the rather large and very grand church that the wedding will take place in.

Lynn was keen to have a Wallmart fix, so we found a suitable huge store in Eagle a River and had a wander around. We didn't buy very much. We carried on back to Wasilla on the old Glen Highway and avoided the roadworks on the motorway.

Dinner was Mexican! As usual, chips and salsa arrived unbidden and then tortillas with prawns and the inevitable rice and retried beans. To top it off, a large, extremely hot chilli perched on the top. I like hot chillies, but the one I had made my eyes water and when I drank ice-cold water to ease the burning, it instantly evaporated and steam came out of my ears - well it felt like that!

Now, I'm sitting in the garden writing this. It's 2130, broad daylight at 65F. This is Alaska!

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