Alaska, the final installment

 Saturday, 7/6/2024

My trip was winding down and after a nice morning with Michelle and her dad, I headed north back to Anchorage to visit and spend the night with my friends Mike and Terry.  I had a great visit, we went to dinner, then they gave me a walking and driving tour of Anchorage. 

The 49th state Brew Pub

Sunday morning I left Mike and Terry’s house and headed north with no real plan other than to find a nice spot to spend my last night and maybe flip a few flies.

After checking out a few spots, I settled on Rocky Lake Campground in Houston, AK. It was a tiny 10 campsite non-electric campground and I grabbed a $20 site right on the lake. After unsuccessfully flipping a few flies, I started organizing and packing. It was a great spot to finish my trip. I did some reflecting on my Alaska adventures, watched the locals take off and land, in their little float planes, on the lake, and completely understand why people come back multiple times, hopefully, I’ll be back. 

Locals on Rocky Lake, enjoying their floating porch for happy hour

Three pics of my Rocky Lake Campsite, not bad for $20.

Monday, 7/7/2024

I drove a few miles to one of the many Alaska drive thru coffee kiosks, for a couple of cups of coffee and a muffin before my final trip to Anchorage to clean “Mac”, the rental unit, and return it to Michelle at Alaska Overland Adventures. My flight was 11:00 pm Monday night, so I did my final packing of my suitcases in her driveway, hung out with Michelle for a couple of hours, went to dinner with her, before she dropped me at the Airport.

  

Tuesday, 7/8/2024

One of my CORA neighbors and friend, Max, picked me up at the Denver airport. We arrived back at CORA shortly after noon.

Wrap-up

Over my 23 days in Alaska, I drove 2,325 miles, at a cost of approximately 26 cents a mile, gas prices ranged from $3.59 to $4.99 a gallon. I only paid for 8 nights of camping at a total cost of $215. I dined out more than expected, mostly because of the number of great rustic lodges I found along the way. I am so grateful that I had great weather, and was able to see Mt Denali as well as all the spectacular scenery Alaska has to offer. I would have liked to catch more fish, especially, a Grayling and or Arctic Char, two species, I have never caught, but I did fish in some very pretty spots. Total fish count was 3 Rainbows with guide on Willow Creek and 5 Rainbows on 48 pond, my own.

Thursday, 7/10/24, at 6:30 am, I headed south in Enzo. My plan was to spend the night in Socorro, NM and arrive in Benson on Friday. That changed when I reached Socorro at 1:30pm. It was too early to stop for the night so I continued south, made it through my first dust storm on I-10 west of Deming, and arrived in Benson at 5:15pm.

This ends my Alaska adventure. Please excuse the mixed tenses in my blogs, at times I was writing these in the present tense as it was happening and other times after the fact.

I have no definite future plans as of this moment in time. I’ll spend a few weeks or more in Benson before heading back to CORA for a few weeks.

Tight Lines and Safe Travels