Leg #: 14 (Day 65-72)

Location: Flight back from Arizona and then travel to Anchorage, Girdwood, Eagle River, Lake Louise State Recreation Area and Glennallen, AK

Mileage Driven leg/total:
275 / 7078

Road Conditions: No issues although frost heaves on the roadways have returned as we have headed east from Anchorage along the Glenn Highway. Alaska Department of Transportation crews are out en masse repairing the roads before winter approaches. It’s a big task!

Weather: In the 2 weeks we were back home in AZ, the weather has changed in Alaska. It is definitely fall-like now with lower temperatures and shorter days. The contrast between Arizona with daily temperatures of 100°F 🔥 and Alaska where daytime temperatures are barely reaching 72°F is almost surreal, but we are digging the cooler weather overall.

Tofu Status:
• All systems working except for a pee funnel malfunction which I will spare sharing the details about. 🤢

Highlights:
• Wildlife Sightings: heard chatterings of several Red Squirrels (but haven’t actually seen them yet)
• Tofu was safely parked in long-term parking at the airport when we arrived and it only took us 1 day to get re-supplied, adjusted back to #vanlife and launch part #2 of our summer adventure.
• Alyeska Nordic spa in Girdwood was “magical” (Tony’s word). Favorites were the Finnish sauna, rainforest steam room and barrel hottubs. We left the spa feeling like noodles🍜.
• We hiked to the Byron Glacier near Portage. An easy hike which put us right at the toe of an actual glacier. Views of Chugach National Forest and the glacier which also has a river running through the middle of it.
• We rescued Tony’s favorite blue hiking shirt which he left behind when we were previously at Eagle River Recreation Area. It is a $2 shirt from a thrift store but it is his favorite, so we added 40 miles to our journey to bring this shirt back into our family’s fold.
• Tony was able to get several road bike 🚲 rides in near Girdwood, Eagle River and Lake Louise. Views of mountains, following alongside a path of a raging river, rolling hills and few cars made these rides extra-special.
• The drive along the Glenn Highway from Palmer to Glenallen was gorgeous as we were surrounded by snow-capped mountains with numerous road-side waterfalls and the massive Matunuska glacier in the distance.
• We were able to hike daily with a mixture of nature hikes and community hikes. Our favorite on this leg was the Borreal Forest hike in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve (largest National Park in the US which is the size of Yellowstone, Yosemite and Switzerland combined!). We walked through a canopy of fir, spruce and quaking aspens on a trail of soft needles and leaves. This is peak time for mushroom 🍄 blooms of which we saw many. There were views of the Tolsina River from a viewpoint. There wasn’t another person on the trail so it was very peaceful. We will be returning to this National Park on an upcoming leg and we are super excited after getting a taste of this park and also watching a movie about the park when we visited the Ranger Station.

Lowlights:
• While is was great to be back in Arizona to aid in our recovery from COVID-19, we are > 1 month out from our infection and we still have lingering symptoms fever (Tracey), headache (both), cough (both), fatigue (Tracey) and loss of hearing (both). We are certainly improved, but not 100% recovered yet. We are taking this leg slow and not pushing ourselves physically to allow for additional recovery.

Tiger (Provan) Sightings: Tony = 2, Tracey = 0

Next: Valdez, AK and more Wrangell-St. Elias National Park