The Mudflats

Here is part two of the trilogy.  We now join the Hope Truck as it arrives in Anchorage, filled almost full with supplies  for those in Eagle who are trying to rebuild after the flooding.

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We skinned into the parking lot at Lowe’s at about 4:17, tied the balloons onto the canoe rack and hoped CG hadn’t left without us. Actually, I’d gotten him by cell phone, and knew he was there somewhere. AKM rolled up, and there were hugs, and I had to BITE back the plea to take her picture. Several times!! If you haven’t met AKM personally, I’ll tell you – it’d be worth coming to Alaska for, and it was more than worth the trip to me! AKM, you are cool!! So there was chat, CG found us, we loaded his truck with power washer and company, and those who hadn’t been able to be there at 4:00 had dropped their things off, so we hoped we’d have enough room for Jaime’s stuff in Wasilla.

~~~Hope and HH in Anchorage

I wanted to crunch up on the pile of food and clothing on our inadequate back seat and invite AKM along – give her the good seat! – and the camera! – so we could get into a real discussion, but we said farewell and headed to Wasilla. We made an awkward attempt to grab something to eat, as it was now 5:15, and we had not eaten since breakfast in all the excitement and miscalculations on time. But there were no entrances to the place we targeted, only exits, and we were in road construction, and we are country folk, and don’t love traffic, so we lead CG astray for awhile and finally drove through, grabbed, gulped, and regretted it. But we DID make it to Jaime’s by 6:15.

I HAD BEEN MISPRONOUNCING Jaime’s name, and he has a fantastic garden, and he had tons of stuff, and a darling dog, and flowers and flowers and flowers! Second only to not getting a picture of AKM I most regret that none of my pictures of Jaime’s garden turned out to do it any justice! But I took pics of each of about 20 flowers, and they’re beautiful!

~~None of my pictures does Jaime or his garden the justice they deserve.

We left Jaime’s at 6:40, wishing we could hang out, but knowing we had miles to go before we slept. So on to Palmer and up the strangely beautiful Glen Highway, following the Matanuska River. Here is a picture of that river valley.

~~Rivers coming immediately out of glaciers often cut many ribbons through rocky beds, and the turquoise color is not yet apparent.  The larger silt has not fallen out yet.

We passed through Glenallen at 9:35, and realized we hadn’t gotten more than a few drops of rain all day, though we had been surrounded by fascinatingly beautiful, menacing-looking clouds since morning. HH kept recalling fishing spots and trips we’d taken along the road in former years, and even recalled with great fondness WHAT he and the kids had caught at many of them. I found it disturbing that I didn’t remember these streams and lakes, and certainly not what we caught. I usually don’t fish, so that may explain that part, but his recall was astounding. I realized that I spend a lot of my time not having a clear picture where I am in space. I just enjoy it without connecting it geographically. He, on the other hand, always knows, and found my vague “oh, uh-huh,” surprising. Every now and then you get an interesting insight into what world you live in – and with whom.

It was light, of course, and I was taking pictures like crazy. Here is a partial list of the animals and birds we saw: coyote, Mt. sheep, snowshoe hares, loons, muskrats, eagle, Harlan’s hawk (at 10:37), porcupine, moose, swans (maybe 20 to 30 – 1-3 in almost every body of water ) ,(11:15 still light enough to identify most things) unidentified ducks, took a picture of a moose, but not enough light to show you.

~~We really didn’t argue about which way to go.  Just thought this was funny.

We passed “Sourdough Campground,” and HH commented on how incongruous the whole place seemed. “Odd they feel they need a satellite dish at a campground,” he chuckled. (He’s of the old school where camping doesn’t involve much more than a wool blanket and a match.) Then he brightened. “Maybe it’s a big gold pan!”

We finally couldn’t stand it! We had to get out and uncramp, even though we knew we were almost there! We pulled off the road in the bright 11:40 light, and were greeted by an extremely joyful robin. When it’s kind of night like that they sound like they’re in a recording studio. I smile still!

Finally reached Tok at 12:10. CG was already at the motel suggested by YBG, and was in bed. HH and I were ready to hit the sack, too, and did so with no further ado.

It’s awkward in the morning when you don’t know your traveling companions’ likes and dislikes, but we all decided to get a hardy breakfast. It was overcast, and looked stormy. We got up long before we were awake, and I refused (on principal) to order the “senior breakfast,” so I ordered something similar to it but bigger and ate half of it. Someday I’ll learn.

I wasn’t sure how I was going to find YBG, so since the truck was pretty dusty, I wrote “HOPE” on the back window with a napkin while the guys got gas.

We finally got on the road at 7:30, driving through road construction in town, but soon getting on the open road that is the AlCan. We turned up the road to Eagle, which goes through the town of Chicken, and suddenly it occurred to me to wonder what it would be like to call this area “home.” The terrain is very different from where we live, and from the maybe four distinct types of terrain we’d come through the day before. Much of the area has been through a huge burn in the last five-six years, and the black spruce were dead for hundreds if not thousands of miles in all directions. The road to Eagle turns off onto what is called “The Top of the World Highway,” which goes to Dawson. And that’s what much of the road could fittingly be called. You can see mountains in all directions in many parts of the road, and you’re above them. You can see your own road stretching and winding for miles ahead. Vast. I don’t often use or think of the word “Vista,” and usually I don’t think of it kindly. But here, it kind of seems like the only word that keeps popping up. And it’s a compliment.

~~What would it be like to call this place home?~~

Once we were on the road to Eagle there was no service on the cell phone. The sun kept following us, even though we were surrounded by ever-changing clouds.
We got to Chicken at 9:30, and had to stop and check it out.

~~Gold dredge in Chicken~~

We took YBG’s advice and checked out the Gold Camp Cafe, thinking to get a sandwich to take along for later, but they didn’t serve food until later in the day. We conferred with YBG’s friend about contacting Eagle, but her system doesn’t always work, and we were unable to make contact. HH mentioned where we were going, and she said,”Yeah. I haven’t seen many of the Eagle folks since the flood. Many of them lost their vehicles in the flood, so they haven’t been by.” HUH?! Well, of course they did. But I hadn’t thought of that. It was immediate learning curve.

While we were in the store, a young guy brought his in-laws in to rent a full day of gold panning. He pans all the time, and the lady told him he was now on the “season” plan, so he wouldn’t have to pull up his stakes this summer even though he only comes up on the weekends. If you leave your staked area for two days, they pull them. But seasonal panners are allowed to leave theirs if they come up regularly. This guy does. There was a serious discussion on gold prices, and what it means. Apparently people make this a rather serious endeavor. Interesting.

We left Chicken at 9:50. The pavement had ended a little before we’d come into town, and we were going rather slowly. Since HH was driving, I was just enjoying the scenery, taking pictures for you, and thinking what it must be like to live in Eagle. Wondering what it would be like when we got there.
About this time HH started in on “Remember this place? Isn’t this where…”
“Honey,” I said, this is the first time I’ve ever been on this road. I KNOW I don’t remember ANYthing from here. It’s all new to me!”
“Oh. I guess you weren’t with us. This stream is where I panned the gold for your wedding ring,” he said.
HUH?

Before we got married, he had taken me to his grandfather’s house, and he and his Grandfather had made my wedding ring from gold he’d panned when he was a teenager. Here’s where he got most of it. His family had visited Alaska, had come up through Dawson and over the Top of the World Highway, and they had stopped here at this creek and panned. And I’ve been wearing that ring for a number of decades. So I took about 20 pictures out the window without stopping .

~~This is the stream where HH panned some of the gold that went to make my wedding ring!

When we came to where the road turns one way to Dawson and the other to Eagle, we felt we were almost there. But we weren’t. We got into a hail storm at the top of the world, but drove out of it in about five minutes. The road was glittered with all kinds of wild flowers, and snowshoe hares, and I think we’d probably seen three cars all day, and one was CG! The road was often washboarded, and when it was wet, it was slick. HH is a very careful driver, so I could identify most of the flowers, but got no good pix until on the way back.

~~See the road way up ahead?  Top of the world highway for miles!

~~The narrow road narrows further for rock slides between Chicken and Eagle.

~~Between Chicken and Eagle.

All of a sudden, HH pulled over as close as he dared to the side of the road. He’d seen a huge truck heading toward us. It zoomed past! Second vehicle we’d seen going that direction! It appeared to be a tank truck. Right behind it was a truck with a mangled piece of heavy equipment chained on the back. Then it was quiet again.

The streams were a dark red-brown and roiling. For much of the time now we had run-off streaming down both sides of the dirt road, one with an angry stream, the other just running down the ditch waiting for a chance to cross over and join the stream. We wondered if they are usually the dark red that comes from tannins seeping out of the mosses, and were now mixed with mud.

~~The rivers were an odd red-brown muddy color as we neared Eagle because of high run-off

The road was muddy, and the sky was dark, and getting darker. It felt like we were descending – driving down into a deep valley. I guess we were, compared to driving for hours on top of the world! And then we saw the Yukon River. We had arrived in Eagle – just before 2:00. I suddenly realized that I was not ready — after two weeks of preparing, and some 18 hours of driving — I wasn’t sure what to do now that I was here.

How can I tell you what it was like to drive down into Eagle? It reminded me of when HH and I were first married and moved to Superior, Montana, and saw it first in the rain. Tiny town, with every inch exuding a straightforward profusion of genuine personality. We saw the Yukon River at the end of the street we drove in on, a continuation of the road. Wooden street signs, no two houses remotely similar, hand-painted signs – real stuff! For the first time all day I didn’t have to wonder what it would be like to call this place home. I loved it! We crept down the street. Then suddenly I felt like an intruder. Everything was absolutely quiet – as if our heads were under water. We saw five young guys loading or unloading a truck. I didn’t want to look. I felt like I’d stumbled into a place of mourning. I felt out of place and conspicuous. It is a beautiful little town! And old, and funky, kind of.

And all of a sudden, there was danger tape, and the road we were on disappeared into the River. There was a temporary “Road Ends” sign, and a white clapboard house, broken in the middle and slumped to the side, hanging out over the scraped-off place where the rest of the town used to be. Stunning!

~~There’s the Yukon River and the “Road Ends” sign.

~~As we turned left on First Street, I got a glimpse of the destruction.

[Part III of the Hope Trilogy will post tomorrow]