Tuesday 29 July 2025: I’m awakened around 6 am by the sound of an engine starting. It’s the truck parked next to us. I watch as it pulls out of the parking lot and drives off. A bit past 6:30 I wake O. We get dressed (easy because mostly we just slept in our clothes) straighten up Vincent for driving and head into Haines proper, just a few miles up the road. We stop for breakfast at Chilkat Bakery and Restaurant. They serve fairly typical breakfasts in the morning and Thai food for lunch and dinner. I order a veggie omelet with hash browns and O has huevos rancheros, which he claims are the best he’s ever had. Before we leave O adds a fudge brownie and a pecan bar (a sort of variation on pecan pie) to our order to save for dessert tonight.
Soon we are on on the road out of Haines. After a brief stop at the Canadian border during which we answer “No” to whether we are carrying any guns, marijuana, cigarettes or tobacco products, we are waved through. We admire the spectacular scenery as we drive to Haines Junction. At one of the scenic overlooks we meet a grandmother from Minnesota who has driven solo to Alaska to meet her son and granddaughter. They traveled around Alaska together on a similar route to the one we’ve planned. Now she is on her way home. She “wild camps” as she goes. She especially recommends visiting McCarthy, taking the wildlife cruise from Seward and visiting the Fairbanks University Museum. All of these are on our itinerary.
O and I stop in Haines Junction to top off our fuel tank. Here we meet up with several people from the ferry. Our drive to Congdon Creek Campground just south of Destruction Bay goes smoothly. We are only slowed down twice by road construction. We pull into Congdon Creek campground on the shore of Kluane Lake a little after 2 pm and grab a pull through site that looks like it will stay shady. Kluane Lake is the largest lake in the Yukon. The campground has an area enclosed by an electric fence for tent campers, a good thing since a bear has been frequenting this area. O and I will be OK in Vincent. We walk to the lakeshore to stretch our legs and take in the view of the lake and the surrounding mountains. This would be a great place for a family vacation with its rocky beach and shallow water near the shore. It’s a great spot for kids to splash around! If only it were closer to home. Another welcome feature: there are very few mosquitos!
After an early supper I finally get to play my fiddle. I’m getting rusty! O goes to bed early while I journal. The temperature drops quickly as the evening progresses so I head to bed also. Although it’s 9:15 Alaska time and 10:15 Yukon time it still looks like late afternoon.
Wednesday 30 July 2025: Today we drive from Congdon Creek Campground to Tok, Alaska, a total of 238 miles. It takes us 6 hours, with brief stops along the way to take in the view or to switch drivers, and longer stops waiting for pilot cars to guide us through stretches of construction where frost heaves or melting permafrost have caused extensive road damage. The American Corps of engineers built this road in 1992 through Canada’s Yukon Territory as most of the people driving this route are Americans travelling from Haines up to the main part of Alaska. According to Milepost, the guide book for driving to Alaska, the road “has been under constant repair” since it was built.
Nonetheless, the drive is scenic and enjoyable. We’ve been driving along the eastern edge of Canada’s Kluane National Park since before we arrived at Congdon Creek Campground. Wrangell-St. Elias National Park is west of and contiguous with Kluane. O and I switch off driving frequently to avoid fatigue. We finally arrive at the Sourdough Campground in Tok at 2:30. Poor Vincent! We may never get the dust off. And, unbeknownst to us, all of the gear that we stored on Vincent’s deck worked its way onto the floor due to the constant vibration from the rough road. Even our laundry bag has bounced its way off its hook! As we check in at Sourdough we are encouraged to attend the “famous” Sourdough Campground Pancake Toss at 7:30 this evening.
Sourdough Campground is not in the best of repair, but it’s quiet and quaint. The washing machines and dryers in the laundry room are very clean and appear to be fairly new. We take advantage of those facilities. The cafe is small and has a limited menu. We try the salmon burgers for supper. They are excellent!
After supper I have time to fiddle again, which I do inside Vincent. These sites are fairly close together and I don’t want to disturb anyone.
I glance at my watch and realize it’s 7:28. The campground Pancake Toss is about to commence. O is not thrilled about going, but he agrees to walk over and watch. The campground owner (and cook) is the MC. He explains the rules:
You must stand behind the bench for the toss
No part of your body can cross the bench during your toss
The “tosser” yells “ready” and the crown responds Buckit” (Yes, that’s how it’s spelled)
No folding or rolling of the pancake. They must be tossed flat.
Before the competition begins we all introduce ourselves and say where we are from. He asks the young kids up front if anything interesting or funny happened on the journey to Alaska. For example, he asks one 7 year old, “did your dad get lost?” “No,” the 7 year old replies. “If he got lost he wouldn’t be here!”
The toss begins. O and I are halfway around the group of spectators. It’s my turn. I actually hit the edge of the “buckit” with my first try, but my second toss misses completely. It’s O’s turn next. His first toss misses, but the second is a clean swoosh right into the middle of the “buckit!” No one else gets the pancake in until the final competitor, father of the aforementioned 7 year old. O and the dad are invited up on stage for photos with their wooden “Winner” tokens. The rest of us get “Loser” tokens.
Thursday 31 July 2025:
In the morning O and I wander over to the cafe for breakfast. O has his wooden winner token in hand. We’re the first to arrive. Our waitress is an art student attending a boarding school on an island somewhere in this state. She’s very talkative in a pleasant sort of way and tells us of all the places she’s been in Alaska. She especially likes driving along the shore of the Kenai (pronounced Keen Eye) Peninsula on the way to Homer. She’s seen all sorts of marine wildlife on that drive. O and I enjoy our sourdough pancakes. (Happily they are not cold and rubbery like the ones used in the pancake toss.) O redeems his reward, $10.00 off breakfast, and we are soon on the road.
We have a shorter drive today, only about 3 hours, and the roads are in better shape than those between Congdon Creek Campground and Tok. We head out of Tok and turn south at Delta Junction, picking up Alaska Route 4 also known as the Richardson Highway. We do hit one unexpected frost heave on Route 4. I believe Vincent almost caught some air on that one! After that we slow down significantly whenever we see the telltale dark patches of filled potholes or wavy lane markers where frost heaves create ramps for van jumps.
We’re in no hurry today so we stop to read a poetic panel about the Slana River, a tributary of the Copper River, and another panel about the gold rush. We are now driving south on the western side of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. Just before we arrive in Copper Center we stop at the Wrangell-St. Elias Visitor Center. It’s definitely worth visiting. We watch the 22 minute park film and learn that Wrangell-St. Elias is as big as 6 Yellowstones and has 6 of the 9 tallest peaks in North America. We explore exhibits about the natural history and human history of this area. We also visit the Native Cultural Heritage exhibits and learn about the Ahtna people.
Our day’s destination, Uncle Nicolai’s Inn, is only about 6 miles from the Visitor Center. It’s a scattered collection of red buildings including single small rooms with shared bathroom facilities, a hostel, a bar, and two rooms that appear to have been more recently renovated and which have private bathrooms. One of these will be ours for the night.
We reserved this room after making last minute reservations for the Kennicott shuttle to McCarthy the day before we left home. I had been reviewing road conditions on the McCarthy Road and found that flat tires are not unusual. Considering that we have had flats twice while traveling, and that changing a tire on Vincent can be challenging, we decided that we’d rather risk someone else’s car. The Kennicott Shuttle service was very accommodating considering the timing of my call. They were actually booked up for the trip to McCarthy on August 1st, although they did have room for us on the return trip, August 3rd. Normally they carry 10 people on 15 passenger shuttles to allow room for luggage. I assured them we would each have only 1 day pack. They squeezed us in.
On arrival at Uncle Nicolai’s in Copper Center, we are unsure how to check in or pay for parking for Vincent while we are in McCarthy. We finally find Ron, the owner. He explains that the bar is getting carpets cleaned today so he’s not sure if or when the bar will open. There is a new free-standing kitchen next to the bar that has just opened. It currently has a limited menu of burgers and nachos with cheese. No alcohol is served at its take-out window. We’re pretty hungry so we order a burger, but they don’t have fries. I suggest they could give us nachos instead. They do this and also provide a very generous serving of cheese sauce. O grabs one of the two beers we have in our small fridge in Vincent and we share. All in all it’s a pretty good supper.
Our room is comfortable and the shower is welcome. We pack our day packs for our two night stay in McCarthy. Our pick-up time in the morning is 7:30 and we are unsure if there are any restaurants open nearby for breakfast, so we’ll prepare our own. We still have bran muffins from home and we’ll make some instant camp coffee using the microwave in our room to heat the water. I check in with the shuttle service. The woman who answers says we will be the second pick up, but there may be a slight delay as there’s road construction right before the turn off to Copper Center. We will sleep well tonight knowing that someone else will be doing the driving tomorrow.