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Published: June 18th 2011
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June 10th, 2011 In Seward camping on the waterfront of Resurrection Bay. 50 degrees this morning and is foggy and overcast. Starting mileage is 9572.
Filled up with gas at the Esso Station at $4.59 a galleon. Rosie took 17 gals for a $78.72 price. Stopped briefly at Safeway as they have Friday specials of deli lunch meat for $5. a pound and we wanted to get some more chips that were reasonably priced, but wanted to try them before we got more of that brand. Drove the other side of Resurrection Bay on Nash Road tthat climbed up that side of the bay. At a pull off we looked out and watched several fishing boats lay out nets in a big circle. A small skiff with one man in it towed the end of the net around the larger boat. That side of the bay also had a huge dry dock.
We dropped back down and looked in the wetlands looking for ducks and other birds. We couldn’t spot anything, but did get to see these very bright yellow bog flowers.
Following a more detailed map we got of the area and all the public land camping
places, we continued driving back along the Seward Highway to where it intersects with the Sterling Highway and turned on to it. We drove through a more resort-like area where people can stay at lodges and fish or take rafting trips down the Kenai River. We had a coupon for a buy one get one free trip from Cooper Landing that we had planned to take, but after looking at the river, and the obvious lack of any wildlife on it, we decided against it.
We decided to drive on to a campground off the main road, on a gravel road to Lake Skilak. Driving very slowly, as we bumped and jostled and rattled along, a black bear stepped out of the woods onto the road in front of us, took one look, and turned back into the woods. This area is a wildlife refuge and we hoped to see more than the bear, but only saw two different squirrels. Campground was ok and only cost us $5 to spend the night since we are seniors.
June 11th , Saturday Upper Skilak Lake Campground 46 degrees outside at 10:00 am as we start out. Our mileage is at
9656.
Drove the rest of the 19 miles of gravel road until we were back on the Sterling Highway. As we drove toward Soldotna, that runs into the town of Kenai, we abruptly came into “civilization” with a Walmart, Home Depot, Lowes, Safeway, and all the fast food places including a Carl Jrs. Cheerleaders were having a car wash there and after the gravel road and 8 weeks of travel Rosie II was pretty dirty. So, had the cheerleaders wash her while I ate lunch inside and Valerie went to Carl Jrs for a taco. Gave them a $25 donation as they did a good job getting her clean.
We stopped at the Visitor’s Center where they were having a small crafts fair that we checked out. Lots of Alaskan wild berry jams and then standard home made stuff like jewelry and crocheting. One thing was really different was a stall selling nothing but whole processed animal furs---fox, rabbit, etc. Did see seal and fur moccasins and other native work for sale, but they are very expensive. Went inside the visitor’s center to
check our e-mail. Came out and ran into several Roadtrekkers in the parking lot and chatted awhile before we headed up the road to Captain Cook State Park about 27 miles further north.
The campground was covered by a plant about 3 feet tall called devil’s club. It was really thorny, but had a pretty bloom. We are beginning to now see lots of wildflowers blooming.
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