Author: Sean Dullum

We got up from an awesome night sleep in Seward and packed up. The campground next to the water was really nice and had a pavilion and bathrooms with showers. We were heading out to hike and bike so we skipped the shower and will wait until Homer. A quick stop at a local coffee shop for a muffin and coffee and we headed out.

Carl was hiking up to Exit Glacier in the Kenai Fjords National Park and I found a trail called Lost Lake that was a 5 star rated bike ride. I dropped Carl off at the visitors center and I headed up the road for my trailhead. There were a couple of other cars in the parking lot but it was basically deserted. I got the biking clothes on and got the trusty steed put together and headed up the trail.

The trail climbs 2300 feet over about 7 miles, which was a lot less of a grade than I had experienced the day before in Alyeska at the ski slope, which was 2000 feet in about 2 miles. The trail started in some lush pine and fern forest and after about 3 miles, changed into the low brush and thick undergrowth of the lower mountain slopes. I was cognizant of bears and moose, but not real worried since we have not seen bears in Alaska. The trail peaked into a meadow and met up with another hiker trail that supposedly went back to a cabin. I rode the cabin trail a little over a mile to see if I could get there, but I could not find it, so I turned around and continued up.

The trail peaks above Lost Lake and has 360 degree views of the surroundings. I could see glaciers, waterfalls, alpine tundra, and just amazing beauty. I took 15 minutes or so to enjoy the scenery and then saddled up for the ride home. The trail up took me about 2 hours and 10 minutes and the ride down about 45 minutes. The trail was flowey, rocky, root filled, and just an all around fun time. Definitely worth the ride up if you are in the Seward area.

I met back up with Carl, who had gotten to hike up to a viewpoint and then hike down the canyon to the glacier. He described it as surreal and hard to describe. Check out www.SevierConditions.com for this day’s video.

Carl and I headed back up the Seward Highway and stopped at a hatchery where we were able to get a short tour and saw multiple tanks filled with 65,000 (each tank) silver salmon and 6-8 tanks filled with sockeye salmon (125K per tank). We learned some interesting facts about the hatchery and the survival rates. Hatchery salmon have a 90% mortality rate when then get to the wild compared to 50% of wild hatched. However, wild hatched have a much less rate of survival when young, so like the manager said, its a numbers game.

We continued on to the Sterling Highway and made our way through some pretty dense smoke from a forest fire that has been burning for several weeks. We stopped at the confluence of the Russian and Kenai rivers and watched the salmon fishing follies. The salmon are running in the Russian and it is battle fishing along the shore. Still no bears.

The smoke cleared and the waters of Cook inlet came into view. We saw moose and a bunch of beautiful boreal forest. We made it into Hope about 6:30 and stopped by Safeway for some supplies, Chevron for gas, and then on to a Thai food restaurant for dinner. We looked around the spit at Hope (mini peninsula) and found a nice place to camp for the night on the beach. The wind was a bit cool and the water is nothing to swim in, but it was beautiful with all the mountains and glaciers framing the background.

Happy Birthday to my brother Rick Dullum.

I left the tent rain fly open to get some nice mountain air. I got the air, and a nice coating of dew in the morning. So far the iKamper roof top tent has been almost flawless. We had an issue with one of the latches coming undone and then it bent slightly. We were able to fix the latch and have been careful to make sure its buttoned up tight when we pack it for travel. I also accidentally broke one of the strut mounts when I left a flashlight up on the edge. I was able to pound the bracket and rivets back into the floor and so far it has held. I think that happened on the 3rd or 4th night and so far it has held up without problems (on night 24 today).

We continued the 10 more miles down into Hope, AK, since it was recommended to check it out. The town has about 110-200 residents but apparently is a hot spot for campers, hikers, fisherman, and bikers. The whole town was filled up with cars, tents, camper vans, RV’s and people were camping along the streets, in between houses, and in parking lots. Maybe the night life is not to be missed?

About 60 miles from Hope is Seward. I had learned from Lifestyle Overland that this was a great stopping place, so I had it on my list. The town is a combination of fishing and tourism. We picked up a guy whose truck broke down (yes, Carl climbed in the back on top of the gear to help this guy out). The guy, Dan, had retired here about 5 years before and had built a home. He had lots of suggestions for things to do. We asked about a good local establishment and he gave us many, but one hot dog stand who was run by his grand daughter (we thought) was suggested. So we stopped and had reindeer sausages. They were pretty good and the conversation with the lady who owned the thing helped us learn more about Seward.

We drove and walked the cruise ship tourism section and then headed into old town Seward. We found lots of cool shops and things to see. We decided to camp at the local campsite so we could walk and bike around. We are both tiring of travel and needed an afternoon to chill. Tonight there is supposed to be a band at the Yukon Bar, so we will be checking it out.

When we got up this morning, Carl started the hike to the top about 9 am.  The bike lift didn’t start until 10 AM and after an hour I couldn’t wait for the lifts, so I got dressed and headed up the hill.  It was STEEP and I rode for a while, pushed the bike for a while, and at several points, hiked with the bike on my shoulder. I made a wrong turn and ended up on a goat path where I had to carry my bike, I made it to the top in about 1 hour and 45 minutes, which is not bad. Carl was already up at the top (1 hour and 5 minutes) and he was making friends. Jim and April from Washington State come up to Alaska every year and at one point Jim was building a eco-friendly hotel and tour company, but couldn’t get approval from the environmental guy up here. We talked for a good while as I re-carbed up with a good IPA and then I padded up for the trail ride down.  To be honest, the trail down sucked.  The trails were not really set for downhill, much as would be expected from a downhill bike park, and the trails were not even close to being groomed.  At his point, I am really pleased I hiked up the hill and didn’t spend the $45 for a lift ticket.  The trails were short, too steep and had ZERO fun aspects that I experienced in Park City.

At the bottom I packed up the truck and waited for Carl to get down. The guy we spoke to the day before said if you hike up you can ride down the tram for free. Turns out, that was not the case, so Carl had to hike all the way down. We finished packing and headed down the road.

We turned at the Whittier/Portal Glacier exit and took in the views of this amazing valley. We stopped at the Portal Glacier visitor’s center and stuck our feet into the FREEZING glacial lake. Apparently about one hundred years ago the glacier was actually at the site of the visitor’s center.

Now you take a boat tour to the end of the lake and hike to the glacier. We decided to check out Whittier, which is on the other side of a several mile long tunnel shared with trains. It cost $13 for the toll, and we got in line. The tunnel was pretty cool, but nothing compared to the views of Whittier and its bay. Waterfalls everywhere and the snow close down on the mountain. Truly breathtaking.

We drove around the old army town and took in the few sites before stopping at Varly’s Swiftwater Seafood Cafe. The fish and chips were incredible, and the ravens are amazingly acrobatic as you toss them scraps. We decided to stop into the Whittier Harbor Master hotel for a quick drink since one fellow tourist said they have an IPA brewed and sold only to Whittier. It was OK for an IPA, but we got to meet some locals and learn a bit more about living in the town. Its busy and nice in the summer and cold, windy, and rainy in the winter.

We continued on and back to the tunnel to head on toward Hope and Seward. We found a great campsite through iOverlander (app) and met some Army soldiers who camped there as well. The river was raging below the campsite and the glaciers were close up on the mountainside. The soldiers had taken their jeep down to the river and we assisted them with spotting as they worked it back up the steep and narrow trail. I turned in around 11 again and slept well.

After the bike ride and refilling our water in Talkeetna, we headed south, intending to stop in Anchorage for the night. As we ventured south, I noticed that the air conditioning was not working on the FJ so we made a lunch stop in Wasilla and hit up an Autozone. After discussing options with the guy, I purchased a R143A filler system and refrigerant and attempted to charge the system. A few minutes into it we smelled the leak and then determined the location. Where the ARB bumper is bolted to the frame, the high pressure side had bounced against the steel and finally wore a hole in the line. I checked the part and it’s about $140 and I may decide to have it shipped to Washington to a friend’s place so I can make the repair before we head back into the desert of Utah, Arizona, and Nevada. We grabbed lunch at a supermarket, picked up some CHEAP crab meat ($4/lb) and watched the construction crews as we ate. (lots of construction in Wasilla).

We got back on the road and detoured through Palmer, AK, and then on down towards Anchorage. As we approached Anchorage, the road had turned into a busy highway and traffic was a bit heavy. We had intended to check out Anchorage, but upon driving into it, it was apparent we did not really feel it was a destination. There was lots of graffiti and a real big city look, so we fueled up and continued onto the Turnagain Arm. The views of the mountains and the coastal tide plains were breathtaking. We leisurely drove up the road and stopped several times to take in the views. We stopped for the evening in a cool little community called Alyeska.  There was a ski slope and a downhill bike park, so we camped at the ski slope parking lot that doubled as a camping spot for $10 per night. The only thing they were missing was a porta-john.   (Hey guys, you need a porta-john at a campground.)

We found some oat sodas about a half mile down the canyon at a Safeway, and then began to investigate the town. There was not a lot going on from our vantage point from the parking lot since the main hotel and activities were up the road a bit more at the main resort. We turned in about 11 PM after determining that Carl would hike and I would mountain bike the Aleyska slopes in the morning.  

We woke up in some gold mining fields in the back country near Petersville. No bears visited us overnight, and we made some breakfast and packed the truck. We did a couple more hours of off-roading and had a good look at the area. On one of the roads that we tried, a beaver had built a dam over half of it in one spot and completely blocked it in another. I guess the guys at the mines up the road haven’t been there yet this year.

We drove down the Parks highway a bit more and turned up to visit the town of Talkeetna. Its summer and tourist season is in full force and we got to enjoy some beers are the Denali Brewing Company and then some salmon, cream cheese and jalapeno spread. Very delicious. We heard that they had a reggae band playing in the park so I took a quick nap in the tent and then attended the festivities.

Carl met this cool guy named Travis, who it turns out owned one of the mines back were we were driving around the previous day. We looked at the map and our tracks and determined that it was the creek at the base of his property where we turned around because the water was a bit hight. He proceeded to show me some pictures of the creek when it is actually high and a full size ford truck up to the hood in water. This is how he described that crossing: “We had a dead bear, 30 ounces of gold, some equipment and a computer with us and only the computer suffered some damage.”

So Travis owns a bed and breakfast and tour company next to the VFW here in Talkeetna and he called the VFW to see if we could park in their lot for the night. Turns out they have a free campground. Bonus. I woke up on Day 21 and rode town to a trail around one of the lakes for a morning ride. The loop is basic and only 3.5 miles, so I rode it twice. It has a gentle uphill that I didn’t even feel and then on the backside it has some good fast sections through the trees. What a cool little town.

Today we left a really cool hostel where we met some nice French ladies traveling Alaska, a couple of guys from California touring on a trip without their wives, a guy from Washington up here looking for work for the summer, and a teacher and her husband and daughter from Washington DC.  Pretty cool time and we stayed in an old time canvas tent on cots.  It was nice to have a shower and a warm place to hang out that had AWESOME INTERNET!!!  Notice the website is updated and all the galleries are complete.  Kudos to the hostel for a great environment, and thanks Carl for the find.

We left with nothing in mind other than exploring.  We found a pull off where the “Igloo” was for sale.  We had a look around.  What a fun place that would be to complete and have as a hotel.  Later we ended up in Denali State park and found a great place to view Mt. McKinley, albeit the clouds were not at all playing along.  We decided to wait it out and in the end, the clouds parted and we got to see the top of the highest peak in North America… really cool.

Further on the road, I found a road to Petersville, AK, an old mining area that allows for open mining.   It was 18 miles to the end of the road and then 18 miles further to other claims.  We actually found multiple roads and crossed some streams.  We found a cool road up to the glacier valley a couple of miles from where Denali NP boundary was and could have made it if the snow had not covered a section of the road.  (Thanks Ben for the training, and I decided not to forge it).  Maybe next time.

We settled in on a campsite on an old Gold mine claim next to a stream and fixed dinner of Chicken Alfredo.  We talked to a mining lady who owns 7 claims up here and makes enough to keep doing it every summer and she said there was a rogue Grizzly that was wounded and pissed off two streams down the road.  We had traveled that road earlier and decided to explore some more rather than camping there…it’s a good thing.  Oh, and we saw two moose today with one running in front of us on the road.

Today was epic and the country back here is so beautiful.  Loving life and thankful for this opportunity. 

Today we headed into Denali. Thanks to Erik at the visitor’s center in Fairbanks, he suggested that we head to Savage River, which is the farthest you can drive up the road without a bus or a backcountry pass. Carl decided to do a hike and I wanted to ride my bike into the “restricted” road. It is allowed. I rode about 18 miles back into the park before turning around. I met a NPS road worker at the other side of the bridge at the 18 mile mark and I asked him where the animals were. He said they are on the other side of the pass. The pass being 5 miles farther than the spot I was currently. Carl and I had discussed 4 hours and I was already at 2.5 so I had to head back. Overall the ride was easy for technical and mediocre for difficulty.

The scenery in Denali is amazing, even with the rain and clouds. The land is so lush and green. I made it back to the truck in a total of 4.5 hours. A quick cleanup and we headed to the visitor’s center and bookstore. I found a cool “biking in Denali” postcard.

We stopped for some burgers in The Creekside Cafe in McKinley and then to a hostel across the street so we could get a warm shower and laundry completed.

We stayed overnight in a Walmart parking lot. The advantage is that there are bathrooms and good WiFi AND we can do some shopping before we leave. Since the visitors center did not open until 10AM, we decided to head over to the Large Animal Research farm for the University of Alaska, Fairbanks because they have Muskox and Reindeer that they study. We tried to get a look at them and found they did not open until 9:30 so we waited 15 minutes. They have tours so we decided to join one so we could get some good information and get to see some of the animals.

We learned that the Muskox were extinct in Alaska from disease and hunting (I think) in the late 1800’s. Someone decided to get 30 babies from Greenland and transport them to a location in the Aleutian Islands. They returned many years later and found the herd had grown to the thousands. So they were reintroduced to Alaska. Their winter hair is incredibly fine and can be made into extremely warm clothing.

Caribou and Reindeer are of the same family but from different classes. Reindeer are much shorter than caribou. Reindeer and Caribou can interbreed to make Reinbou or Carideer. I’m not making that up. Caribou number around 2 million in Alaska. All in all it was a fun tour… and there were Muskoxen babies and reindeer babies.

We then went to the main visitor’s center and got some information. FYI, the visitor’s center in Fairbanks is very good and has a lot of great exhibits form early settlers, to indigenous people, to mining, and dog sledding. Very informative. We left and had lunch and then I went to the local community pool to use their showers; it has been some days. Then we fueled up and headed to Denali.

We stopped at the 49th State brewery to look at the bus that Christopher McCandles lived and died in, as told in the book and movie “Into the Wild” . Apparently they moved it from the site across the river because too many folks were going back there to take a look and one lady died trying to cross the river. Its a simple but informative display and there is beer afterwards.

Carl and I headed up the road to find a spot outlined in iOverlander and found two folks already camped there. We crossed the road and stumbled onto a much better site. Carl cooked steak, onions, and potatoes over coals (delicious). I took a hike back up the road and saw two moose run into the forest. I found a lake back in the woods and a float plane parked on its shore. Free Camp in a great spot.

Tomorrow I’m riding the bike in Denali and Carl is doing a hike.

Today was a 300 miler. We got up a bit late from the Chickenstock and Carl did some post-carding for his peeps and I did some as well. We left Chicken and drove through to the North Pole and then on to Fairbanks with only a lunch and gas stop. We decided to camp in the Walmart parking lot and then tour the area tomorrow. We had a nice dinner at a local place and then worked to get all of this updated.

Carl and I were so fortunate to have heard about Chickenstock that was held this very weekend. We have been traveling and camping and meeting folks along the way and having such a great time; AND not to be able to attend a music festival, we were excited to say the least. As we finished the last mile down the Top of the World Highway into the valley where Chicken Alaska resides, we could see the tents, the RVs, the music venue, and all the people and our excitement was evident.

We found a place to park and then proceeded to the gate to find out how to become one of the few that get to attend this event. Apparently they had been sold our for a while, but they noted that the front desk might have some tickets. It might have been our charm or maybe just our purely desperate faces, but we scored two tickets and a camping pass. We were told to meet with Simon who would help us find a place.

Simon and his wife met us at the front and after several spots, we decided to take the first one and quickly parked the FJ on some rocks to get it leveled. The tent went up, the bags were organized, Carl set up his tent at the foot of Chicken’s Chicken, and we were off to partake in the music, food and of course beer. We met the trombone player of a band called “The Skidmarks”, as well as many other people who were asking about the FJ, the tent, and where we were from and where we were going. We met some French Canadians traversing the continent from East to West; some Americans that are retired and traveling between Alaska and Arizona; some locals (from Fairbanks) who traveled up for the weekend’s event.

We arrived around 2 pm and watched several bands. We had a few beers and some pulled pork sandwiches and met a lot of cool people. At one point we headed up to the town center of Chicken, AK, which consists of a gas station/mercantile, a liquor store, a bar, and a restaurant, to take a look around. While sitting at the tables and learning about all of the shredded cloth in the parking lot (the Panty Cannon) we met Rick Sward from a band called KingSwardfish who has a great series of touring stories. His band was the closing act for the event.

We headed back to the event and watched several other amazing bands. Then the main event occurred; the Peep Drop. A Cesna plane flies over the crowd and drops a bunch of Marshmallow Peeps in bags over the crowd. Apparently the crowd can put $$ into a pot and if the peep lands in a kiddie pool and their number is in there, they win the $$. With the wind as it was, on the 3rd pass he managed to get most of the peeps into the crowd, but I don’t think any made it into the pool. A set dropped at my feet so I picked it up as a souvenir.

I was a bit tired from the long day so I decided to go back to the tent to nap a bit. I missed one of the bands, but Carl was back at the truck and woke me for KingSwardfish’s event. They are a riot on stage and pretty good musicians and plated until 3AM. Such a blast. And by the way, we caught the SUNSET over Chicken at a little after 3AM.

Chicken Alaska and their Chickenstock festival is a total blast. Hoping I get to do that again.