Day 85 - Chitina to Valdez via Copper Center

To The Coast, Avoiding The Rain

Oh, joy. It was raining this morning. We stopped at Chitina where there was Internet access to check the weather and it looked like rain on and off for a couple of days. Rather than start up the McCarthy Road, we decided to go a bit further north first to the main Wrangell-St. Elias Visitor Center in Copper Center. The visitor center is a group of buildings instead of the usual big VC. 

There was the main building, with rangers, bookstore and a few exhibits, a separate exhibits building with the history or the park explaine, a theater for the park movie, an Athna cultural center, which was closed on Sunday, and a restroom building. We visited all of them, except the cultural center. By that time the rain had stopped, so we also walked the short trail out to the an overlook where, if it were not for the clouds, we would have seen the Wrangell Mountains.

While in the VC, we talked with another ranger about the McCarthy Road and got a very different story. She said the chipseal part had lots of potholes and we'd have to be very careful as some were of axle breaking size. The gravel part hadn't been graded in quite a while and had lots of washboard and potholes. That put a different light on our plans.

While having lunch, we decided to nix the McCarthy Road and go where there wasn't going to be rain for a couple of days. That turned out to be Valdez.

We were back in touch with Harry and Sally and they had just gotten to Valdez and were planning to do a glacier cruise tomorrow. We said to count us in. They were staying at the Bear Paw Campground right on the harbor. It was right in front of Latte Dah where we'd had breakfast. Harry said that there was an empty small site right next to theirs. We said count us in.

We were off to Valdez. It was still raining at Thompson Pass, but conditions had reversed and theyimproved on the way into town from there. Our site was waiting for us, right on the edge of the campground overlooking the boat basin. It was an unserviced site for $35/night, high for us, but they had showers, laundry and WiFi.

We reconnected with Harry and Sally, right next door, and caught up on each other's travels. We both took advantage of the onsite laundry, which was one of the better ones we've used. While Ellen was doing the laundry, 

I went off to find the charter company and get our tickets on the Lulu Belle for tomorrow. 

It was a bit too damp and chilly to eat outside, so we decided to retire to our respective vans for dinner. Another long but fine day.