Hope,AK
Porcupine Creek (corps) Campground
13 Aug 2017
We did not want to leave Seward. We are dragging our heals. We like it there, a nice small, quite town. We had an awesome home sitting just 50 feet from Resurrection Bay. But more importantly, we know once we leave the Kenai, we will begin to leave Alaska.
There have been a few subtle hints that we should be moving that direction:
- One, some folks we were talking to down by the creek, said, “Yep, it is almost hunting season, I can’t wait”.
- Two, the salmon are spawning like crazy. I have never seen so many fish in my entire life.
- Three, the Fireweed plant, There is a local saying that once the fireweed blossoms reach the top of the stem, there are six weeks left till winter.
We are watching the fireweed carefully! Some fireweed plants we have seen still have some time, but others are blooming at the top…. So, as much as we like it here, our home is not Alaskan winterized!
This morning we left Seward en route to Hope, AK. Short drive of about 72 miles north. Hope, an old gold rush town, has a population of about 190 people, a bar, small store, a couple of gift shops, a social hall, and right now, a lot of people catching silver salmon!
We arrived at the campground, unhitched the house, and went exploring. First thing was to visit downtown. A dirt road that ends in the towns busy rv park at the shore of the Turnagain Arm. Busy? Yep, its salmon time.
We walked to the creek where many were fishing, and watched fish after fish being reeled in. Lots of small children, learning to fish and catching their first salmon. We witnessed a few “proud” parental moments be preserved for posterity by a digital picture. The future fishing generation was among us!
We stopped and had lunch and visited the local museum. They had original buildings and artifacts set up to school you on the towns history. Little bit of trivia, Hope was established even before Anchorage. It was also interesting while we walked through the town to see the after effects of the earthquake of 1964. Buildings half submerged and the trees standing in the salt marsh that wasn’t a marsh before the earthquake. Very humbling.
At a store we visited and at the local museum both of the local ladies there said that if we take a road out of town it would take us to an overlook to see everything. We got the map and took off. They both said is was just seven miles on a dirt road off the main road.
Yep, nope. We started driving and it was a decent road maintained by the state so the traveling was slow but sure. Up and up we traveled so we thought we were headed in the right direction and our end result would be a fantastic view. We thought the end of the road was right around the bend…
Then the road started going back down hill and it just wasn’t looking right but at this point we were in for a dollar so on we went. We are going all the way… We got to the end of the maintained road and found all of these signs about the un-maintained road. Un-maintained as in very large pot holes, we had to put the BFT in 4×4 as the was road narrowing so only one vehicle could be on it, and lots of very small pull offs to let others get by.
We drove very slowly, as in 5 mph, on this un-maintained road and as we went further and further down down this very narrow valley, we noticed there was no wildlife to be seen or heard. The trail followed a meandering stream and the mountains were suddenly towering on both sides of us. No overlook here, but lets keep going all the way to the end.
We saw one on-coming vehicle, so we found a spot and pull over, and flashed our lights for them to proceed. It was an Alaska State Trooper! I rolled down my window and asked him where the hell we were, and he said, this was the first time he had been down this “trail”! He asked were we were from, and in turn he was from Watertown, NY (not far from Rome,NY) and the good news was the END of the trail was just 1/2 mile away and we could turn around and head back, because there was nothing here….
But we persevered and made it to the end of the road. No overlook, no fantastic views of the Turnagain Arm, just down in a valley with huge beautiful mountain ranges on both sides. Oh well, it seems like the local ladies got us on this one! So with a hoop and a hollar we started back and made it slowly home before dark. Yep, the sun is finally setting at a reasonable time now!