Reflections Around the Campfire: RV ALASKA

The day after Cliff and Diane left North Bend, an Army Corps of Engineers campground on the Virginia/North Carolina border, Alan and I poked around the rest of the park under mostly cloudy skies. With steady rain in the forecast for the days ahead, we cut our losses and headed for home two days ahead of schedule. The drive north was a wet one. Even though the Cabela’s in Hamburg, Pennsylvania, was a favorite stop (whether we’re overnighting with the travel trailer or not), it was a pretty dreary evening. Dumping our tanks in the rain the following morning didn’t do much to improve our spirits. We are definitely not the material of which full-timers are made. We were feeling a bit road weary, and we were both happy knowing that “Home” was plugged into the GPS as the destination of the day.

Date(s) – September 24th – September 25th

Total Miles Traveled to Date – 20,863

Wildlife Sightings to Date – Over the course of these final two days of the trip, we saw 1 great blue heron and 5 deer, all does – 3 of them were within a mile of our house.

So, our final count of wildlife sightings is: 1 fox; 4 feral horses; 3 loons; 2 ptarmigans; 10 ospreys; 101 ~~dalmatians~~ eagles (including 2 fledglings); 4 seagull chicks; 19 swans (including 2 fuzzy cygnets); 15 turkeys (including 5 half-grown young’uns); 9 sea lions; 33 seals; 17 sea otters; 1 river otter; 4 cow moose; 1 bull moose; 5 grizzly bears (including a sow with 2 cubs and the back end of one grizzly retreating into the brush); 8 black bears; 1 coyote; 1 snowshoe hare; 9 rabbits (including one cute little baby bunny and one very fast bunny that just managed to cross the road safely); several small herds of bison with at least 2 dozen young calves; 31 deer (including 3 fawns and 2 bucks with their racks covered in velvet); 9 mountain goats (including 3 tiny and adorable kids); 23 bighorn sheep; 62 elk (including 7 calves that hadn’t yet lost their spots and a number of bull elk with full racks covered in velvet); several small herds of pronghorn antelope (including 2 mamas with 3 newborn fawns between them); 25 great blue herons; dozens of American white pelicans; countless cormorants; at least a half dozen families of adult geese with goslings; and several dozen ducks (with lots of little ducklings).

Highlight(s) of the Day – Whenever we travel, I’m always excited to hit the road when we start out, and just as excited to get back home at the end of the trip. Apparently, I’m a travel fanatic AND a homebody. Go figure. It was good to be back, and I couldn’t wait to see our kids and daughter-in-law. A few days later, we celebrated our return home (and, belatedly, our 45^th anniversary) with them at dinner at a local restaurant we hadn’t visited in ages. Being together with “the kids” again was wonderful, and it made this mama’s heart incredibly happy.

Fall is an absolutely beautiful season at our family’s favorite lake. Great Sacandaga Lake is set in the foothills of New York’s Adirondack Mountains. Fall is both colorful and quiet there. Our preference is to close out our camping season at Northampton Beach Campground on the lake, but, since we’re often on the road in September and October, we don’t have as many opportunities do that as we’d like. This year, after our Alaska adventure ended, we stayed home just long enough to get some laundry done – then, it was off to the lake!

Lowlight(s) of the Day – It was a little bit of a letdown when we backed up the driveway at home at the end of this months-long expedition. After weeks and weeks of planning, the trip itself just flew by, and it was hard to believe that our grand and glorious adventure was over. That being said, it wasn’t long before we were in camp chairs at the edge of the lake, relaxing and enjoying the last outing of our 2024 camping season. A little more than a week at the lake gave us a lot of time to reflect on the trip – the plusses, the minuses, the many highlights and the few serious lowlights. Plus, of course, there was talk of whether or not we would make a return trip. So, what do you think? Would we do this again?

Would we do this again? – I won’t keep you in suspense. The short answer is no, we won’t be taking another RV trip to Alaska. It was a spectacular, incredible, and extremely memorable adventure, and Alan and I are exceptionally happy that we did it. We were blessed with amazing opportunities to see and do things that have been on our bucket list for years. Plus, we’ve achieved our goal of camping in every state in this grand and glorious country of ours to which we could possibly tow our RV. Forty-nine out of fifty is a considerable achievement, and it was extremely rewarding to bring that quest to a successful close. (Alan says he’s working on a pontoon system for the trip to Hawaii. Since I get seasick on the ocean, he’ll have to go that one alone, and I’ll meet him at the dock.) We explored all the nooks and crannies of Alaska that we wanted to, and we did it at our own pace. Additionally, we found that we loved Canada’s parks – both National and Territorial. We would not rule out a return to that beautiful country and its friendly residents.

On the down side, Alan and I agreed that putting 20,000 miles on a vehicle for one trip was a LOT. With the cost of trucks these days, we’d like this brand new one to last us for a good number of years. We also agreed that, although we had a WONDERFUL summer in Alaska, we felt that we lost a summer, too, as weird as that sounds. We both missed our two summer weeks at the lake with Ryan and Anya camping with us and Kyra possibly coming to visit. Although we had our boat with us when we went to the lake in May, Alan and Ryan brought it home toward the end of our stay and immediately winterized it, knowing that we wouldn’t be able to use it for the rest of the year. Boating is one of Alan’s favorite summer activities; it was disappointing that we didn’t get to do more of it. For me, another “lowlight” was that I started to really miss the kids two or three months in, despite the fact that we were in regular contact with them. There’s just something about laying my eyes on my “peeps” that assures me that all’s right with the world, and I missed that. As for Alan, he noted that it bothered him to have to pay almost double for insurance for the truck for half of last year. (Because our regular insurance carrier didn’t cover driving in Canada, we had to temporarily switch to a company that did, and that really annoyed him.) He also thought that we got off easy on this trip in reference to damage to the truck and trailer. Our only “souvenir” was a tiny chip in the truck’s windshield; we had no flat tires or mechanical failures on either the truck or the trailer while traveling in Alaska and Canada. (The trailer brake problem that occurred in Oregon at the start of the trip had nothing to do with our journey north of the border.) If you saw the number of vehicles traveling the roads in Alaska and western Canada that had “spider web windshields,” you’d easily understand his concern. Plus, although both of us saw the wildlife we really wanted to see (grizzlies for him, moose for me), he was a bit disappointed that we didn’t see more – especially along the Cassiar Highway in Canada, which is billed as a major wildlife corridor. And, lastly, although we were mesmerized by stunning scenery in a good number of places, he expected to be driving through exceptionally scenic areas on a more regular basis. That’s not to say that we didn’t enjoy what we saw – we did! As I said, it was an amazing adventure, and one we’ll remember for the rest of our lives.

Now, let’s rephrase the question: Would we go back to Alaska again? Yes! Yes! Yes! Absolutely, positively! (Did I make that clear enough?) In the distant past (1998 and 2004), we had taken combination land tour and cruise trips through Princess. Although I would forego the land tour on any future trips, I would love to take another cruise through the Inside Passage. The cruises – with their exceptional scenery, fun-filled excursions and excellent food – proved to be extraordinary experiences for me. Although Alan enjoyed them, he became even more leery of cruise travel following the COVID pandemic. So, while he might consider another cruise in the future, he’s not ready for one just yet. We did both agree that if/when we visit Alaska again, we would fly into Anchorage, rent a car and re-visit the places that held special memories for us on this trip - mainly the port towns of Seward and Valdez and, to a lesser extent, Homer. Although we’re big fans of our National Parks, Denali simply doesn’t appeal as a “return to” destination; we’ve visited three times now and had a clear view of the mountain on one of our Princess trips. Wrangell-St. Elias is the largest National Park in the United States, but much of it is inaccessible unless you’re into backcountry trips – which we are not. We enjoyed our visit to Exit Glacier at Kenai Fjords National Park; on our next visit, we’d most likely take a boat tour out of Seward to visit more of that Park. Having had the opportunity to check off so many of our bucket list items this past summer, we agreed that, on any future trips to Alaska, we’d spend our time in the places we enjoyed the most.

As for Canada, our experience with the country’s National, Territorial and Government Parks in Alberta, British Columbia and Yukon was excellent, and I wouldn’t rule out a return trip in the future to explore more of that beautiful country. (As long as Alan’s willing to pay extra again for a switch in auto insurance!) Our hearts still hurt for the residents of Jasper who endured a devastating wildfire shortly after we visited and fell in love with this delightful small town at the northern end of the Icefields Parkway. A return visit to Jasper to see and support the town's recovery is not beyond the realm of possibility.

So, there you have it. It looks like our Outdoors RV Creek Side travel trailer won’t be making another trip to the 49^th state. But we have plenty of other adventures planned including a return trip to the Oregon coast, an extended exploration of Michigan and a loop through the eastern half of the country to visit all of our favorite waterfront campgrounds. (What can I say? We’re boat nerds.) First on the agenda, though, will be a camping trip to the Mystic, Connecticut, area to enjoy a reunion with a great group of high school friends. Can’t wait for spring!

Special Message – A heartfelt thank you to each and every one of you who traveled along on this Alaska expedition with us! It was heartwarming to know that – even when we were in the most remote sections of Canada and Alaska – we had friends and family riding along with us on the journey. Our Alaska trip has ended, but our adventures continue, and we hope you’ll join us!

Pics(s) of the Day

A final photo from the Alaska expedition . . .