Travel Log 8/4/19

We have been enjoying exploring central Alaska. We have been noting that a lot of our camp spots have really required high ground clearance lately. It’s pretty impressive what kind of road conditions the Mog can handle. Some of the roads we have been on are more like rocky streams than roads.

With several fires burning in Alaska, we decided to slow down a bit and relax near the Susitna River where there was almost no smoke in the area. It was nice to just sit for almost a week and relax. With the weather so nice, we were able to roll out the awning and spend some time reading with the sound of the river. We also got in some pretty sweet rock skipping practice as the river bank had some great flat skipping stones.

It is interesting on the trip how we see lots of wildlife for a few days and then go a few weeks without seeing much. We did have a bit of a treat while camped along the Montana Creek. After we had been there for a few hours, we realized that the creek was completely full of giant red salmon. Some of them were easily in excess of 2 feet long. It’s easy to miss them, but once you see them, the water was just full of them. Thankfully, there were no bears feeding on them, so we spent the better part of a day trying to photograph and watch them. Our attempts at underwater salmon photography were somewhat uninspiring.

We had gone a long stretch without needing to do any truck maintenance, so we took the slow time to check on a bunch of things and make little fixes. It all went pretty well and was nice to do in a leisurely manner.