Day 81 - Captain Cook SP to Williwaw CG, Portage Valley

We are on our own again.

Once again, it rained overnight, but this time it kept raining through the morning. We decided to be on our way, heading towards Whittier and the ferry to Valdez. When we were still in Homer, we inquired about reservations on the Whittier-Valdez ferry. The next available spot was on August 16th, over a week away. Ellen and I couldn't think of a reason to stay another week on the Kenai, but Harry and Sally decided to make a reservation for the 16th.

I called the ferry service and found that we could be wait-listed for the 11th, so that's what we have done. The ferry leaves at 1:30pm and we have to be there three hours before. Whittier is not that far but there is a one-way tunnel in the way. It is a tunnel from Portage Valley to Whittier that is one lane and shared with the railroad and is open to road traffic for 15 minutes in each direction every hour, except when there is rail traffic.

We decided to make it easy and drive to Portage Valley today, camp at the Forest Service campground and drive though tomorrow, giving us a day in Whittier and early access to the ferry...we hope.We don't know where we are on the wait list and we don't yet have a plan B.

We left the Capt. Cook State Park fairly early and made a stop at the Nikiski Pool. It is the local indoor swimming pool and has showers. Pool and shower access is only two dollars for seniors, but, like Fairbanks, the locker rooms have open showers. It was clean and warm though.

Sqeaky clean, we were off to Portage Valley. It was back over the same roads we came in on our way to the Kenai and we stopped only for coffee in Cooper Landing and at Tern Lake to drink that coffee and watch the ducks, swans and gulls. The rain stopped about halfway through the drive.

We pulled into the US Forest Service Begich-Boggs Visitor Center just in time for lunch. After lunch and a tour of the Visitor Center, we found a nice paved site in the Williwaw Campground just in time for a short walk before the rain started again. It was quiet afternoon and evening.