Saturday July 9, 2011

Saturday morning Stanley and I filled the R.V. and the car with gas and washed the R.V. while Marie and Mary Jane did some shopping before leaving the area of Alaska that has gift shops. We met up with each and made a visit to Cleft of the Rock B & B here in Tok for a brief visit with Bob and Betty Lou Burkholder. Betty Lou is a friend of Stanley’s sister. About 1pm we headed out the Taylor Highway toward Chicken another very scenic route. While traveling we pulled off the road by a stopped car and sure enough a moose was grazing but too far away for pictures. We arrived in Chicken about 4:30pm and looked around a while. Soon we were in conversation with Spike Jorgerson formerly for a large school district including this area. He gave some very helpful travel advice and talked about gold mining in Alaska. After talking with him we decided to try our hand at panning for gold while in Chicken. We were not successful prospectors. The general store provides free “dry camping” with a fuel fill-up so we took advantage of that offer even though we had filled up in Tok. We wanted to attend church in Eagle so we decided to travel on rather then spent the night in Chicken.  As we approached the road leading to Eagle we spotted a nice pull off next to the river so we stopped for the night. Soon after we stopped a ranger came by and told us that overnight parking was not allowed along this road because this is a “mining corridor” and he is hired to patrol the area to protect the mining area along the Taylor Highway; he was kind enough to tell us that overnight parking was allowed on the Road leading to Eagle. Stanley and Mary Jane had already bunked in for the night but we drove on about 8 more miles and found an overnight parking spot that was acceptable along the road leading to Eagle. After three possibilities we were finally settled in about midnight.

 Chicken, Alaska

 Marie, Mary Jane and Stanley panning

Our campsite Sat. & Sun night