Alaska RV Camping Journal- Day 19

Alaska Recreational Vehicle Camping Journal

The Campers

Mileposts

You will notice that we often refer to the Mileposts book throughout the journal entries. We feel that if you drive to Alaska, you MUST have this book! Alaska, and Canada's British Columbia and Yukon are rich in History. Jack London wrote popular novels such as White Fang, and Call of the Wild, and the contemporary poet Robert Service helped make knowledge of life in the north country wilderness well known. The Mileposts book will help you learn about the history as you go, with descriptions of what happened in the past, as well as what to expect on the road ahead.

We recommend that you only use the most current issue of Mileposts as it contains the most up-to-date road and service availability information.

Bear Bait!

Wake up to clouds and rain this morning, and forecast is for more of the same. We head to the post office to mail a few post cards and find a place that has Internet access to check our e-mail. I think we’ve spent more on Internet access than we spend all year for AOL-okay, that may be a slight exaggeration. Also stopped at the Safeway on the way out of Seward for a few supplies as we are going to the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge. This parking lot isn’t very conducive to large vehicles and we had road construction on the main road as well. We are stop for an early lunch at a place called Gwin’s, near Cooper Landing. It was recommended to us by the bartender in Seward, and it is excellent! The place was packed so we shared our table with a couple from Michigan-nice folks. This is by far the best deal price wise we’ve had in Alaska and the quality and service was wonderful. Brian and I have the breakfast burritos with home fries, and Mom orders the French toast.

A few more miles up the road is the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge Visitor center, and these people really knew lots about the area. They suggested a few different campgrounds, and also said there was one with no one in it! They were very friendly and informative, just like the folks in the Visitor Center in Seward.
We head up the 19 mile loop road from the Sterling Highway. This good gravel road was only muddy in one spot and we have no trouble getting to the campground at Lower Ohlman Lake, where we are the only campers! We also see an absolutely HUGE black bear on the road, probably the biggest any of us have seen. We can hear moose not far off in the woods also, and we are right near the water. The campsite has a fire ring , picnic table, and there is a pit toilet available--best of all--the price is free!!!

One other bit of wildlife that we haven’t had any of up until now--mosquitoes! And they are thick in this area! Guess we’ll be pulling out the bug repellent for the first time on our trip if it quits drizzling long enough to be outdoors!

Total miles on Gozer 77023 - 68 miles today.

Road Notes: Just a bit of road construction at Seward. Sterling Highway has several tight turns and heavy traffic from it's intersection with Hwy 9 that heads down to Seward. The 19 mile loop through the NWR has lots of potholes but easy to avoid at a slow speed. We did meet a couple of RV’s going at a high rate of speed, but we were going quite slow so not a problem for us. Numerous hiking trails take off from this road.

Tomorrow - Road To Kenai & Old Friends

Yesterday - Sailing, Sailing, Over The Ocean Blue