Here we are on the Richardson Highway, boondocking alongside side a small lake called Pippin Lake. We chose this spot because it is alongside the road and very visible for our friends Al and Audrey. We missed a call, but the message told us they were headed this way on their way to Valdez. It is another 80 miles to Valdez from here, but they have to come by here unless they come by ferry.
While we are here we have gotten out the canoe and both couples paddled around the lake. It has been a simply delightful day of just vegging.
This is a fairly small pullout but we were able to get well off the pavement, and we have been told that if you can safely get off the road in Alaska, it is legal to boondock. This afternoon we have watched a parade of locals as they come down to dip in the lake. The temperature at five p.m. is 81 degrees. We have been sticking pretty close to the shade and I have played through pretty much my entire repertoire on the guitar.
About mid afternoon a Truck-trailer rig pulled into the pullout and a cluster of local cars showed up immediately. The driver and his crew started setting up shop. They pulled out hand carts, tables, and price-list boards and within ten minutes they were open for business. People from the local area started queuing up with copies of their e-mail shopping list orders in hand, and the boys started wheeling stacks of boxes of fruit to their waiting cars. For three hours the cars came and the fruit went. We even queued up and bought a half a crate of nectarines and a cantaloupe straight from Washington State.
To say fresh fruit is rare around here is an understatement. About six the whole thing folded up and we were once again left alone in the quiet serenity by the lake. Only the occasional whiz of a car or RV to punctuate the beauty surrounding us.
We are at the edge of the Wrangle-St. Elias Park and National Preserve. We can see three mountains that are all over 12,000 feet from here; Mt. Drum at 12,010, Mt. Wrangle at 14, 163 and Mt. Blackburn at 16,390 feet. The hills around the lake are covered with stubby little Black Spruce trees that are about as big around as a good sized banister rail and over fifty years old. The Alaska Pipeline goes by across the lake on its ammonia refrigerated, stilt legs to protect the permafrost that underlies this whole area.
This is what it is all about, full-timing. Watch a different sunrise from your bedroom window every morning. Unbelievable landscapes are visible from your front yard. Oh yes there are days when you are stuck in a campground with freeway on one side and railroad on the other side; but look on the bright side. You can open your window and ask the neighbor if they have a bottle of “Grey Poupon.” By the same time tomorrow you can be miles down the road and looking at another beautiful vista.
Once again we say goodbye from the land of the midnight sun. (Actually we are getting almost four hours of mostly dark these days.)
From the shores of Pippin Lake in the shadow of the Wrangle Mountains, Gary, Judy, Jack and Sonja.
