Tolsona to Portage Glacier

Day 33   Sunday July 17, 2016                                 Chugach National Forest, Williwaw C.G., site 51

220 miles towing            11.2 mpg

We almost didn’t leave Tolsona Wilderness Campground because in the morning, I felt rotton and was in no shape to travel, let alone drive.  Marsha checked with the office to sign up for another day but the owners weren’t there and we left a message with the front desk.  In the mean time I took a neproxin and within a very short time I felt much better.  My headache and fever went away.  I decided we should leave and move on towards Seward.  Just then, the owners stopped by to tell us we could stay at our site if we wish and we let them know we were moving on.  We praised them on the quality of their campground and friendly service.  Would definitely come back.

Left at 10:15.  We took the Glenn Highway to Anchorage, where we come across the Chugach Mountains along the way. 

There’s more, but you readers must be getting tired of mountain pictures.  No! OK.  Here’s a few more.

And then we turned onto the Seward Highway in downtown Anchorage.

Anchorage is located at the head of Cook Inlet.  There is an arm of water that goes east from the Cook Inlet called the Turnagain Arm.  Captain Cook was looking for the Northwest Passage and when he found out the Turnagain Arm was another dead end, he named it the Turnagain Arm . . . “Oh no, we gotta turn again”.

The Seward Highway follows along the northern shore.  Right out of Anchorage it enters the Chugach State Park, the largest state park in the US, I think.  Numerous campgrounds, SRAs, river accesses, lakes, etc.  The ride along the Turnagain Arm is extremely beautiful, combining mountain views, with tidewater views.  Across the arm is another mountain range.  We were on the Chugach Mountains side.

Eventually, we enter the Chugach National Forest.  Nine miles past the turnoff for the town of Girdwood, we arrive at the turnoff for Whittier and the Portage Valley.  Our campground, Williwaw National Forest Campground, is right across from the Portage Glacier.  We set up in site 51.  Signed up for three nights @ $9.00 per night because of my geezer pass.  The site was a large site with lots of privacy.  Cell phone service is non-existent here.

We delayed coming here on Saturday because it is close to Anchorage which is about 300,000 people.  The largest city in AK.  The whole state is 750,000 people.  The 2^nd largest city is Fairbanks at 32,000 and Juneau which also has about 32,000.  Wasilla and Palmer are somewhere in there and are suburbs of Anchorage.  So we were worried that we would have trouble over the weekend finding a place to stay.  We would have been right.  The Seward highway, a two lane road, was one long line of cars going west for miles and miles.  All RVs, boats, and other assorted toys.  All coming from where we were going.  They had to be back to work on Monday.  We had no trouble finding a campsite on a Sunday night.

There was a fire that started that day at McHugh Creek right next to the highway.  We could see the smoke up ahead and a helicopter dunking a bucket hung from a cable into Turnagain Arm to get water and we even got close enough to see it drop the water on the fire.  People were pulled over taking pictures.  It was a mess.  We didn’t stop.

We barbequed chicken on the grill, made noodles, and green beans for a real meal.

Set up the solar panel for the first time of the trip.  We were dry camping (no hook-ups) for 3 days.  The batteries will last 3 days, but if it is nice and sunny, it’s good to keep them topped off.  Set up the campfire for our morning coffee and fire tradition.  No travel tomorrow.