Musk Ox and Catching Grayling

Day 47  July 31, 2016                                 Tolsona, AK         Tolsona Wilderness RV Park, site 87
162 miles           10.6 mpg

We took our time this morning, even though it was a travel day.  Had the usual coffee and fire.  Made Ed’s famous breakfast sandwiches this morning.  They were the best ones I’ve ever made.  Used multigrain bread (12-grain I think), and used two eggs in each one instead of one, in addition to the bacon and the two slices of American cheese. 

Left Nancy Lake SRA at 09:30.  Drove south to Wasilla where we took the Wasilla-Palmer Highway to the Glenn Highway.  That’s a shortcut that bypasses Anchorage.

The campground host at Nancy Lake told us about a reindeer farm in Palmer and a musk ox farm in Palmer.  He recommended we visit both.

I always wanted to see a musk ox, but I thought it had to be on the Arctic tundra, north of the Arctic Circle.  I saw the sign for the Musk Ox Farm and took it.

It was a nice little farm.  The farm was established to study the domestication of musk ox, not for food but for Qiviut, pronounced kiv-ee-oot.  This is the fine under fur that keeps them warm in the Arctic winter.  The native people who live where musk ox live used this fur to make warm garments.  During the 60’s when the Alaska road system was creeping north, the natives who were subsistence hunter gatherers, started liking electricity, snow mobiles, outboard motors, etc.  Well, these things cost money and a guy whose name I forgot, thought they could make money by making things out of this rare fur and sell them to the rest of the world.  So he set up a farm to try to domesticate these animals to harvest this fur, they called Qiviut.  It is one of the rarest fibers in the world, 15 times warmer than wool, and is lighter, and doesn’t shrink.

After a few tries, the farm ended up in Palmer and they have been raising these musk ox for 50 years.  They are very scientific and pay close attention to diet, DNA, disease, and breed for wool production and temperament towards people.  I was very impressed with the whole operation.  We spent about one hour there and went on the ½ hour tour.

Here are some photos taken there.

A mother and her calf.

Isn't she beautiful.

Now you all know what a musk ox looks like.

Continued east on the Glenn Highway past a lot of mountain scenery and camera stops.  The highlight along the highway is the Matanuska Glacier. 

 There was a lot of other scenery along the Glenn, too.

Matanuska River, runoff from the glacier.

Marsha also caught a photograph of a bald eagle in flight from a moving vehicle!.

Arrived at the Tolsona Wilderness RV Park at 14:30.  We had reservations for site 17 where we stayed on our first trip there.  This was our fourth visit and we were entitled to a free night.  We love this campground and decided we would take the free night.  But that meant they had to put us somewhere else because 17 was reserved for tomorrow.  Told him I wanted to fish the creek, so he put us in site 87, further up by ourselves and in the better part of the creek.

The view out our front door.

Hard to believe this is a private campground.

Took a shower in the bath house after we set up and made lunch with a hamburger and Bush’s Grillin’ Beans.

Then it was fishin’ time for Ed.  Worked my way up the creek to some riffles and a nice bend.  Caught my fist Alaskan grayling.  I was quite excited.  Grayling doesn’t exist in the lower 48 except some very remote areas of Montana.  Grayling is very common in Alaska.  Caught four nice ones in the 9”-10” range.  That’s a measured 9“-10” range, not an exaggerated guess.  Caught quite a few small ones about 6”.  It was a lot of fun.  They didn’t care what fly I cast to them, they hit on everything I offered.   I really enjoyed the creek, the wilderness, and the fish.