7/6/05 Denali Highway

Cecelia decided that we couldn’t just sit around over the long 4^th of July weekend, so we planned on taking the camper up to the Denali Highway and then into the Tangle Lakes region for some fishing. Sounded good. Unfortunately, the new truck still isn’t ready to take on the camper, so we’d have to use the tent again. No big deal, says I.

Saturday was gray and overcast as we headed out on the 5 hour trip, and we got rained on as the afternoon progressed. We were treated to some great sights on the trip up, including seeing two glaciers and going past the Alaska pipeline. We drove through the town of Paxson at the east end of the highway (pop. 43), then headed over it towards the west. When we arrived at the Tangle Lakes campsite, we found it more than full, so we did what any Alaskans would do~~moved on down the road until we came to a likely turn-out, pulled in, and pitched our tent. We fished nearby Rock Creek, and caught a few grayling. Just as we were getting ready to cook supper, it started to seriously rain, so I went to put up the tarp to cook under. Note to self: remember to check the terrain before heading out on a camping trip. We were in an area of muskeg and tundra, and there wasn’t a tree in sight to tie the tarp up to or make poles from. As the rain got worse, I tied the tarp off the truck, and we cooked under that. It rained all night, but we managed to stay dry in the tent.

On Sunday, we headed further down the Denali Highway to Clearwater Creek to fish there. We didn’t catch any fish, but found a much nicer campsite near the stream (also in a turn-out). We got a wild hair and decided to move our camp, stay the night, and then continue to drive the Denali Highway to it’s other end over by Denali National Park the next day, 133 miles.

Did I mention that the Denali Highway is actually a dirt road, barely two lanes wide in some places? I managed to pick up two more dings in the windshield, so have a total of three now. Oh, well, you’re not a real Alaskan unless you have a broken windshield on your truck. It kinda goes along with having a beard, a tattoo, and a .44 magnum. No sense in getting it replaced, it’ll just get broken again.

I stayed at our new campsite to get “squatters rights” while Cecelia took the truck and went back for our tent and gear. It got kinda lonely out in the middle of no where without a vehicle or shelter, and it started to rain again a few minutes after she left and didn’t end until just before she got back, a couple of hours later. We set camp up again, and as we were enjoying our campfire that evening, it started to rain yet again, which it continued to do until the next morning.

The next day, on the 4^th, we headed down the dirt road, ah, Highway, and stopped to fish a couple of likely places. At Brushkana Creek, we got into some nice grayling, and got a few in the 14 to 15 inch range, which was very nice, as a trophy grayling is anything over 18 inches. Once again, we were treated to some wonderful sights in the interior of Alaska~~mountains, glaciers, moose, tundra swans, cliff swallows, and other various and assorted fauna.

We finally got to the paved road again, and headed south towards Peter’s Creek and Eagle River, 4 hours away. A fine adventure, and we had a good time despite the almost constant rain. Any day that you catch fish is a good day, by definition. I don’t know how many more adventures we’ll get in together, as Cecelia is heading out on her own adventure, down the Alaska Highway to her new home in Montana come the middle of August. I think the mountains and fishing have gotten into her blood and she’s not ready just now to move back East.

I’ve got another vacation coming the first of September, and hope to get out to a remote stream near Talkeetna to do some fishing in for silver salmon, rainbows and Dolly Vardens. More photos then, if not before.