Tangle Lakes BLM Campground and Lots of Grayling

Day 51  Thursday August 4, 2016          Denali Highway, mile 21, Tangle Lakes BLM CG, site 35

35 miles towing                             11.4 mpg                                                                                     day 1

Was 43^o this morning when we got up and we needed a fire with our coffee.  Sat back and watched our friend in his nest peek out, practice wing flapping, and calling for his mom.  We never saw her before we left at 10:00.

Wasn’t very far to drive up to Paxson which is the eastern terminus of the Denali Highway, which crosses the state for 135 miles to Cantwell, just south of Denali National Park.  The first 20 miles out of Paxson is paved.  Then it’s 112 miles of unpaved, scenic road, to the other end.  The last 3 miles at Cantwell is paved.

The Tangle Lakes BLM area is a series of kettle lakes joined by the Tangle River in between them.  The lower lake becomes the headwaters of the Delta Wild & Scenic River which is popular with canoers and rafters.  The lakes and rivers are full of grayling and the lakes also have lake trout.  The campground and most of the Denali Highway is above tree line and has scrubby bushes and alpine tundra.  Lots of wild blueberries, too.  The low bushes means that you can see the whole campground and all the RVs from your own campsite.  It’s a very different experience.  The campground is on the Denali Highway a half mile beyond the end of the pavement.  Here is some photos taken from the Denali Highway as we made our way to the campground.

Alaska Range north of Paxson.  Gulkana Glacier visible.

The Denali Highway

A closer shot of the Gulkana Glacier.

The Denali Highway.

One of the lower Tangle Lakes the campground was on.

We are in a pull through with the Tangle River flowing by down a ravine in front of our campsite.

Tangle Lakes BLM Campground, site 35

A side channel of the Tangle River as seen from our campsite.

 We met a young couple in their thirties from just outside Wasilla.  They were in a 1981 13’ Scamp.  I had the 1983 version of the same thing.  They are born and raised here Alaskans.  They are here for a week of camping.  The guy, Brandon, says he’s been coming here since he was a little boy.  Both were very nice people and love the outdoors.  We talked about the salmon fishing fiasco when the salmon were running and he said he was so fed up that he quit salmon fishing.  That’s why I avoided Homer this trip. 

These were very nice people and were happy to meet us.  They have never really met other people while camping.  We noticed it too.  Most Alaskans keep to themselves.  We’re used to people taking walks around the campground and talking to the other campers.  We don’t see that in Alaska.  We talked to them because of the Scamp like we used to have.

Took a ride to the Delta Wild & Scenic River Wayside across the highway.  It is basically a boat launch, picnic area, and river access.  Was scoping out a place to fish the Tangle River.  We then ventured 10 miles down the Denali Highway to check out the road condition because we heard bad stories about how bad it is.  The first 5 miles beyond the campground was as good as a paved road, but then we hit the washboard and potholed section from there.  I wouldn’t pull the Oliver down there.  Max speed would be about 15 mph and it would still bounce around.  We did see some motorhomes and pickup campers come from that direction and they were quite dirty.  There were quite a few boon-dockers along the way too at anything that resembles a turnoff.  Here’s a few pictures from that little foray onto the unpaved.

Here's your occasional Ptagmigan.

Went back to the campground and put on my fishing outfit.  Parked at the wayside.  Went down to the river and it looked like good nymph water.  Fast current, lots of big submerged rocks.  Set up with a double nymph rig with a Copper John as the top fly and a bead head Pheasant Tail as the lower fly.  I cast and caught one right away.  Then cast again and caught two fish at once!  I was rigged with a double fly, but this had never happened to me before.  Third cast I got another.  Then it wasn’t until three casts until I got another.  Bummer.  It was a fantastic day of fishing.  I fished for about two hours and lost track.  The fish were nice size, too.  Fish were 10”-13” with a few smaller ones here and there.  Both flies were successful.  Sometimes they hit the Copper John, sometimes they took the Pheasant Tail.  Didn’t get any pictures.  Was by myself so you have to take my word for it.

Day 52  Friday August 5, 2016    Denali Highway, mile 21, Tangle Lakes BLM Campground, site 35, day 2

It rained during the night.  I took the awning in before going to bed because it was getting windy.  So when we got up, our chairs were wet.  We sat in them with old pieces of picnic table cloths.  Was Marsha’s idea.  It kept us dry while we watched the morning fire.  But it started raining again and we had to deploy the awning and sit out of the rain beneath it.

Sat inside and finished my drafts of the two days at Paxson Lake BLM campground.  Spent some time sorting through all those eagle pictures.  But had to get fishing, so I held off getting them posted.

Took showers in the Oliver and had a sandwich before heading out.  Kept delaying, hoping the light rain would let up. 

By early afternoon, I went to the same stretch of river I was at yesterday.  Had the same results with my nymphing rig.  After I had fished down that section, I got out and went down a little further closer to the bridge to try there.  The current was slower and the river a little wider and it had a high bank and bend across from me.  The fish were taking something off the surface because I could see their splashes (called a rise).  I took off the nymph rig which is an underwater set up and put on an Adams dry fly which floats on the surface.  I had immediate results and I started catching a lot of nice fish.  The largest was 14”, but there were also a couple of 13”, and 12”.  These fish ran a little bigger than the ones upstream.  They were all grayling.  Another great, great fishing day.  Would like to bring Marsha tomorrow to take pictures.

Posted the Paxson Lake blog when I got back.

Took a campground walk and met up with the Alaskan Scamp people.  They asked us to give them a tour of the Oliver, which we did.  They said it would be their dream trailer when they retire.  They have about 20 years to save up.

We continued our walk through the two loops.  The campground is completely full.  Many are blueberry pickers and a lot are fly fisherman.

I was able to get some of these blog posts done because we have 3G here.  That is really a big surprise because we are in the middle of nowhere.

Day 54 Saturday August 6, 2016     Denali Highway, mile 21, Tangle Lakes BLM CG, site 35, day 3

Burned my last firewood bundle this morning.  It was my last $4.49 Fred Meyer bundle.  It will be a while before I see $4.49 firewood again.  Maybe British Columbia.   It’s $5.00 here at the campground. It completely sold out Friday night when the campground filled up.

We made Jose Stacked for breakfast.  It was unbelievably good.  I duplicated the recipe from the breakfast I had at the Roughwood Café in Nenana.  I nailed it.  Marsha helped prepare it too.  Hash browns, ham, cheddar cheese, fried eggs, salsa, sour cream.  We didn’t have sour cream.

A copy of Jose Stacked from the menu of the Roughwoods Café in Nanena, AK

It was rainy most of the morning and I wrote the drafts for the first two days at Tangled Lakes.  The weather improved somewhat later in the morning.  

Went fishing on the Tangle River at the Wayside across the way.  That was at 11:00.  Used my double nymph rig a little further upstream from yesterday and worked my way down.  Same good luck as yesterday.  I saw two guys “fly fishing” in that good hole down from me.  I only saw one fish caught.  They left and I moved in. 

This is where I dry fly fished yesterday with an Adams.  I nymphed for a while with some success.  A couple came down to the water to see how I was doing.  They were scoping the water out for a fishing spot.  Both were home grown Alaskans.  They weren’t too knowledgeable about fly fishing and were amazed at all the gadgets and “equipment” I had.  Like a vest, nippers, fly boxes with flies, a net, a tape measure on the net handle to measure the fish.  Stuff like that.  This is all normal fly fishing stuff in Michigan and Montana, where I do almost all my fishing.  Alaskans, don’t bother with all that stuff.  Most don’t even have waders.  Just hip boots.  The couple was very interested in all my paraphernalia and asked a lot of questions.  I switched to an Adams and caught a couple of fish while they watched.  I was kind of showing off.  They thanked me for all the advice and left to go back to their car and gear up.

Another guy then showed up and was disappointed to find me in his favorite spot.  But I told him I was ready to leave and he could take it.  We discussed what a good spot this section of the river was.  He had been fishing there for years. 

While I was gone, Brandon, the Scamp owner stopped by to talk to us.  They were leaving and he wanted to keep in touch with us.  Marsha friended him on Facebook.  He really enjoyed meeting us. 

Here’s a picture Marsha took of him hauling his Scamp down the highway with his white Dodge Ram.

After I got back to the campground, Marsha and I took a walk up a trail that overlooks the campground and the surrounding lakes.  It follows a ridge.  When we were about ¾ mile along, someone from the campground shouted up to us that there is a brown bear over the other side of the ridge and it was big.  We immediately turned around and went back.  We did not take bear spray on this trail, being so close to the campground, we didn’t think we needed it.  Here’s some photos from our walk.

Wild blueberries everywhere.

Blueberries and mushrooms everywhere. 

Our campground loop from the trail (zoomed). 

The white camper in the upper right is ours.

The other campground loop.

Did I tell you that there are a lot of blueberries in Alaska.

Back at the campground, made pork chops and baked potatoes.  Put Sweet Baby James on them, as I always do.

After dinner, took Marsha down to the river so she could photograph a grayling and me in action.  Caught a 13” grayling and Marsha has it on film, I mean digitally captured on a light sensitive semiconductor data processor.

Fish On!

Got 'm

Nice grayling, huh?

13 incher

He gets to swim some more.

While I was fishing, several sea gulls were flying up and down the river.  Marsha caught a nice picture of one.

They are a species different than Michigan sea gulls.

She also found a unique way to keep her bear spray handy.

Then we went back to the campground to start organizing for our next road adventure.

We will head back to Glennallen tomorrow for groceries, ice, and gasoline.  It’s about a 100 mile drive but is the closest place to get that stuff.  We will then get on the part of the highway called the Tok cutoff that goes to . . . . . . Tok.  On the way, we will go up a road called Nabesna Road that goes 42 miles up an unpaved road to Nebesna, an old mining camp.  It is in the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park.  Along that road are some campsites and even a small campground run by the park service that are all free to stay at.  We will check that out.