Ahtna Alaska Native Regional Corporation

We left Tok with a plan. A plan that failed.

Our idea was to drive halfway down the Tok Cut-Off and then take the Nabesna Road to one of the primitive camping sites for our overnight stop. Preferably at one of the three sites that are described as having views worth the drive.

Nabesna Road, 42 miles in total, is one of only two roads that goes into the Wrangell-St Elias National Park and Preserve. It’s all wilderness. The drive — as expected was slow ... the dirt/gravel/chipseal road — heavily potholed ... requiring quite a bit of fancy maneuvering. Luckily for us, we only had to drive to Mile 21.8 for the furthest of the three campsites.

It wasn’t that we were disappointed by today’s overcast — sometimes drizzly conditions. It wasn’t that we were disappointed with the Wrangell Mountains cloaked by low-lying clouds. It wasn’t that we were disappointed that most of the views at the campsites were visible only by standing on the picnic table. No, it was the swarm of flying insects we found at each site that eventually had us deciding against camping along this road. Sure, we’ve got ways to keep the mosquitoes at bay, but nothing seems to work when it comes to black flies.

So, we took the time to have lunch, and then drove the 21.8 miles back to the Tok Cut-Off ... managing to do the distance in 45 minutes instead of 1.5 hours as the case was on the way in.

At the bottom off the Cut-Off, where the road junctions with the Richardson Highway, we turned north. We had not driven this section of the highway to Paxson before. In fact, it was going to be a daytrip from Glennallen later in the trip. So, we just moved it up a bit.

OMG!!!! We’ve been told about frost heaves and potholes on Alaska Roads. And we have encountered some on practically every road. This section of the Richardson, however, was by far the worst we’ve encountered since we began our road trip on 19 May. Even some of the dirt/gravel roads we’ve driven were in better condition. Luckily, it being Sunday, at least we didn’t have to deal with construction delays ... just a light rain that pretty much accompanied us all the way.

With the best turnouts taken over by road construction equipment, we ended up dry camping at the Paxson Lake BLM Campground, about 10 miles south of Paxson. Alas, no lakeshore sites for RVs, so we ended up in one of the woodland sites. The mosquitoes were swarming so bad that we lit the mosquito coils and placed them outside the door to clear a space before we attempted to go inside.

As it was raining, no outside time for us. I even forgot to take a photo of our site ... perhaps somewhere deep in my psyche I didn’t want to remember this place.

The day wasn’t all bad, though. We found a lovely lake on the Tok Cut-Off ... with mountain reflections on the still water. On the Richardson Highway, we came across a mama moose and her calf grazing in the wetlands. Ándate the Meier’s Lake Roadhouse, we had delicious hamburgers, which we washed down with Alaskan Brewing Company’s White beer.

Every trip has a day or two like the one we had today. Fingers crossed it will be the only one. Now, I need to jiggle our plans to rearrange our upcoming days.Read more