From Valdez to Tok--July 25

No I am not repeating a blog, but yes we have been in Tok before but on the way into the state. Sometimes there is no good way to somewhere else except to backtrack some, at least in this state. Here there are only so many roads. I read somewhere in the Milepost that one of the govenors years ago was being lobbied for another road in the state and his comment was " we already have 2 roads--how many roads does one state need?" In tomorrow's blog I will expound on the subject of roads in Alaska.

When we left Valdez it was still raining as it had for some time and was only 51*--that is my degree mark. The fog can be beautiful as it covers the lower part of Sugarloaf Mt. and leaves the top showing. The rivers were very high and I wouldn't be surprised that somewhere more roads have been washed out; however, we did not experience any. The only animals we saw were birds: an eagle sitting in a tree and about 4 swans and some with cygnets (babies).

We took the Copper Center Loop road again so we could stop and see the Copper Center Roadhouse is a site of historice importance. It had its beginnings in the gold rush days of 1897-98. It was the first lodging place in the Copper River Valley and the original was replaced by the current one in 1932. Also there housed in historical cabins are two museums of which one is specific to the Trail of '98. This trail went from Valdez over the glaciers and came down from the mountains and joined here with the Eagle Trail to Forty Mile and Dawson. 300 miners, destitute and lonely, spent the winter here. Many suffered with scurvy and died. The men who came west and/or north to find gold were tough, brave, fool hardy and many other things but they followed their dreams. Since the museums were not open yet and we wanted to see the inside of the roadhouse we went inside and Marvin and Dee had tea and toast while we sat and enjoyed the ambiance. It was a lovely old log building. We then toured the museums and I took some pictures of some other old log buildings.

We drove on toward Tok but first stopped at the Mentasta Lodge--we ate in the coach but went in to check it out anyway. The lady running it had beautiful hair that hung down below her rear end and also did some beautiful bead work but expensive. Her husband was outside in another building selling his tables and other things made from the burls that grow on one of the trees up here. He also carves pictures of animals and other things on the antlers of the moose. The moose and caribou shed their antlers every year and people go out and collect them and do this carving. It is extremely expensive but very nice.

If anyone wants to move up here there sure are a lot of old deserted log cabins everywhere. We finally arrived in Tok and after gasing up the boys washed our coaches and cars--not that it was going to stay that way long but it looked nice for a few hours. We had our briefing followed by a staff prepared dinner of salad, garlic bread and lasagna. It was very good. The park every night puts on some music. There were two young girls that played violin and a young boy on banjo and they did a very good job. They also talked a little about the town of Tok and how their parents ended up there and what it was like in the winter time. This was followed by a hot shower and writing the blog and bed.