Day 33 to Tok, AK

Well, that ferry ended up across the Prince William Sound at the south terminus of the Alaska Pipeline (guess I already gave that away). The really great and surprising thing getting off the ferry at 9 pm last night was that it had just stopped raining in Valdez so the one mile ride to the B&B I'd reserved was dry.

I highly recommend the L&L B&B. It is beautiful, convenient, and the price is right at $65, which includes the breakfast and tax. It also possessed a variety of other great features:

The first was the ability to create DARKNESS in the room, provided  by blackout blinds thoughtfully installed (why ALL rooms in the north don't have them I cannot understand!), and so I had a good sleep. The blinds were aided by Valdez being further south and by the date being now more than a month past summer solstice. The days are rapidly getting shorter, enough so that there is a short period of near-darkness.

The second great thing is this mechanical room I discovered behind an unmarked door. Proprietress Laura does not know the use I made of it...

It was WARM, what with the big commercial boiler and water heater in there, so here are my gloves (the ones I was wringing out in the Portage Visitor Center yesterday) on a hot water pipe, getting all dry and toasty, along with...

...all the rest of my spaceman suit.

Here's the view from the B&B breakfast table, hard to beat!

View from the deck

The L&L B&B, a very nice looking house.

With the humidity from the rain of the past days and a clear sky overnight, the heat radiated away, leaving ground fog, making for delightful scenery. I got caught up taking photos and several hours late was not more than a few miles from Valdez, despite my early departure and intent to get over the high terrain ahead before the storms built up...nonetheless, here are some shots:

the harbour

the bay

the flowers

the reflecting pools

the fog on a glacial stream

the Miss Piggy's, er, Peggy's, "Scoopmobile"

Pink Espress-o-mobile was parked at the Solomon Gulch Creek where there is a fish hatchery and the salmon that had been raised there were returning:

the salmon fishing

a kind of warning that was unusual to me

the salmon flopping in the weir...the weir was there to prevent them from going up the creek and instead funnel them back into the hatchery

the creek they were trying to swim up.. what self-respecting fish wouldn't pick this over a hatchery?

 Finally out of the Valdez area, the real driving for the day began, but still so scenic I made many stops:

the road thru Keystone Canyon

one of many roadside waterfalls

Blueberry Lake at Thompson Pass

the terminus of Worthington Glacier

Coming into Glennallen, my halfway point for today, I see ahead this. These are the Wrangell Mountains around which I will pass on the next half.

 had Thai food  in Glennallen from this truck. Many "restaurants" in Alaska are housed in trucks, shipping containers, shacks, etc.

 I have no photos from the rest of the day but amazingly, despite the Wrangell's being encased in cloud and rain, I encountered only intermittent light rain on the way to Tok. There I secured the very same campsite I stayed in on my way up and had a dry night with no rain at all.