July 6, 2012
Headed out this morning to Delta Junction. On the way we stopped at Rika’s
Roadhouse. Rika operated a roadhouse (a
giveaway from the name…) for many years in that area and Alaska has made her
property a State Park. The houses and
buildings have been restored, and are filled with many of the items they would
have used in those days. I recognized
many of them because my parents had collected similar items while I was growing
up, so I felt right at home. Many of the
out buildings, like sheds, etc... in Alaska have sod on the roods – and there is grass or plants, or
sometimes small trees or bushes growing out of the sod. I am sure the sod is a way of insulating the
buildings, but it always catches our eye when we see one.
The other thing we have noticed here, and finally received
an explanation for is small cabin looking buildings placed on stilts, usually
located in front of houses or buildings – no ladder, just a small cabin sitting
in the air. We asked the lady at the
visitor station in Delta Junction what they were, and she said they were food
caches. That folks store their meat in them so the animals cannot get to it,
and in the winter they serve as freezers.
Pretty clever I thought.
Delta Junction in the official end of the Alaskan Highway,
so we took our picture in front of the sign, along with some pictures of some
pretty big mosquitoes, and a sign that said how cold it gets there, ummm, -72
in recent past – I cannot even imagine.
The IGA there was having a produce sale today, so we bought 2 peaches,
2 tomatoes, 2 ears of corn, and an apple – all for less than 5 buckaroos! It
was awesome seeing so much fresh produce.
All along this highway – Richardson Hwy. – you can see the
pipeline. It runs above ground wherever its
heat would mess with the soil causing it to melt and shift. But where it is mainly gravel and rock – it
goes underground. It goes on for miles
and miles, and about thousands and thousands of barrels of oil run thru it. Amazing.
Next stop was at a salmon viewing platform. It overlooked the Gulkan River, and salmon
were spawning there. There were at least
100 in the area under the platform, they were just hanging out, occasionally
one would rush to the surface, but mostly just sitting there. They had just come up the mountain, through
some pretty rough rapids and I think they were resting. I would put them at 6 - 10 pounds. The water
was crystal clear, so you could see that some of them had started turning red
and others not yet.
We passed Paxton Lake and Summit lakes, BEAUTIFUL. Huge masses of water, I could see the bottom
all along the edge, and parts of it were so smooth the mountain ranges were
reflected in them. The Alaskan ranges
had been all round us for most of our drive, and it was just stunning to see them reflected in the water.
Charlie spotted a moose in one of the kettle lakes, ( lakes left and filled by glaciers) it’s
head was under water, and then up came his head, along with whatever green
thing he had been eating. Charlie is a
good spotter, when his head was down, it just looked like a rock to me.
Then the most exciting part of our day – we stopped at the
Sourdough Campground! Now this may not
sound exciting to most people, but my parents stopped at this same place on
their first trip up, and had a bowl of hot soup. I remember my mom telling me how good it was
and how cold it was outside – so we had to stop there too. We had already had lunch, so we had rhubarb
surprise, ala-mode and coffee. It was
very good so I may have to plant some rhubarb when I get home. I know Connie has made some great deserts
with it and they were always delicious, but I didn’t know Charlie liked it so
much, so I will have to give it a try. I took some pictures to show mom and
dad, the original one burned down in 92, so I am sure it is a bit different,
but it was very cool to be at the same place they stopped.
We drove about 50 yards down the highway and decided to stay
at the Sourdough Campground for the night.
It was a very nice campground, hardly anyone in it, and we found a great
pull thru to stay in. They only problem
with the campground was it was filled, as in totally covered up in mosquitoes! Both Charlie and I resorted to wearing our
mosquito hats they were so bad. We also
pulled out the “Off” lantern and the thermo-cell if that gives you any clue to
how many there were…
They didn’t keep Charlie from fishing though, and he caught
a nice graying, which he released, but he was still pleased. It started
raining, so we just had leftovers for dinner and later made a great fire that helped keep some of the bugs away. : )
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