NORTH TO ALASKA 2025 - DAYS 43 & 44 - BYERS LAKE CAMPGROUND

We topped off our tanks, including our propane, and stocked up a few more things that we needed. Now we were set for a few days back in the woods again.

We left Trapper Creek Inn RV Park and headed north back up the Parks Highway. There was a state rec area that we wanted to go check out just north of the state park that we couldn't get into.

It was called Byers Lake State Recreation Area. Here is the link:

https://dnr.alaska.gov/parks/aspunits/matsu/byerslkcamp.htm

We were really surprised when we drove in to only see a few campers in the 73 total sites. It was rustic camping, with outhouses and a pitcher pump for water. There wasn't any dump station or other facilities. Many of the campsites were easy pull through type, each with picnic tables and fire rings.

Located so close to the busy Denali park and the state park, this area seemed to be almost unknown and not very well used. 

The gravel roads within the park are very rough with many deep potholes. You got to go slow. But it was worth it because we were in an absolutely quiet rustic site with nobody else around.

We chatted with the maintenance guy who drove thru later, and he said he is the only employee around for many miles to handle everything. The road may someday get paved with asphalt. That would make it even nicer.

We got set up on our site, and Steve paid the $20 fee at the credit card kiosk near the entrance of the campground. It takes MasterCard or Visa, but not American Express.

The sun was shining, there were no mosquitoes, and only a few little tiny black flies buzzing around that look like they had just hatched.

Steve set out the lawn chairs while I got things ready to make lunch. He found some stragglers of downed wood nearby and got out his little swedish hand saw.

There's my 

 Mr Brawny Lumberjack Man!!

We sat back in comfort on our chairs and really enjoyed the beautiful weather around us. After 2 or 3 days of rain and just being in parking lots, this was a real treat again. Being in the woods renews our souls.  It was peaceful, and we didn't hear a sound.

Time to break out a beer for Steve, and we had our bear spray and canned air horn handy, just in case. Surrounding us were many, many bushes with currant berries. We knew we were in prime bear country where there was natural food available.

I opened up my ulu knife and cutting bowl. It was time to try it out. At home I have food grade mineral oil as a wooden cutting board conditioner... But for now I would just rub this one down with some olive oil to suffice.

This knife is really sharp, and the cutting bowl is really handy. Food doesn't slide around like on a flat cutting board. It stays within the concave area until you scrape it off into your pan or bowl after cutting.

I cut up some carrots, potatoes, ham and I already had some cut up celery in the freezer. I was going to make a nice big pot of creamy potato soup.  I like those bags of Bear Creek mixes, and I add all this extra stuff to it. It makes a pretty big pot. 

While I did that, Steve took out our two flexible solar panels. Each one is 100 watts. They are just enough to top off our Bluetti power station that replenishes our two coach batteries. The Starlink drains about 65 watts, so we use the "Blue Eddie" power station to run the Starlink as well. 

Those two cheap little solar panels bring in quite a bit of power. This is a day with intermittent clouds crossing back and forth in front of the panels. And it's still pulling in 155 Watts.

When we are normally camping pulling our cargo trailer, the roof of the cargo trailer has a 320 watt solar panel mounted on the roof. We plug into that and never worry about power. But we opted to not take the cargo trailer with us on this long trip. So these two little cheap ones are doing quite well.

The little black flies were buzzing around, and Nick was having fun chasing them. If you watch the video below you can see him chomping at them in the air while sitting on my lap. What a silly little dog. 

But then I had an idea... I took out our Thermacell which we usually use for mosquitoes. We lit it up and sure enough, it chased away all of the little black flies.

It was so comfortable sitting outside, I poured some tea into my mug, and we enjoyed the evening relaxing in our lawn chairs. 

It was so relaxing and peacefully quiet there, we had a restful night without any interruptions at all. 

The next morning, we took a little walk around the campground. These are the currant berries that we are seeing all around our campsite. I am sure the bears see them too!! 

Everything was so lush and green, and I think after the rainfall from the last few days, things brightened up even more. Steve even pointed out the beautiful arrangement of moss and little plants around this stump. He told me I had to take a picture of it... See? He is becoming an artistic photographer in his own right. He just tells me to take the picture with my camera...

I saw this pretty stump with all these little tiny fungi growing on it. It looked so pretty, almost like lace.  

Near our campsite was this funny looking bud ready to unfold. It had little spiky thorns all over it so we didn't dare touch it. It was quite tall, a couple feet at least. We weren't exactly sure what it was.

I took a far away photo and an up close photo and sent them off to my friend Linda in Tennessee. She has an app on her phone that helps identify plants.

ACK!!!!

THIS IS WHAT SHE FOUND OUT:

I guess we will just leave it alone now, won't we? 

The second evening, we were starting some chicken on the grill. That's when Steve noticed we were having some trouble with our propane valve on the motorhome. It's not a normal propane valve, Winnebago has installed this crazy electronic valve system with switches both outside and inside. It's all electronic, and of course that's always subject to fail? It has a solenoid and a sensor and an electronic method of opening and closing the propane valve.

On our last motorhome, all we had to do was get out and physically turn a knob on the tank with our hand. Done. 

But this motorhome has fancy switches both inside and out to automatically turn it on and off with each use--- which of course can go to heck. 

And that is exactly what happened...

Without propane, we would lose all of our cooling ability in the refrigerator and frozen food in the freezer. On top of that, without propane, we would have no heat at night. What were we going to do?

It was about 7:30 in the evening. We decided that we needed to have heat and to save the large amount of food that is stashed in our freezer and refrigerator.

Remember, we are far out in the boonies and there's no place available to buy a bag of ice or to put food in a cooler.

Athough we had paid for a second night here at Byer's Lake, we would forfeit the night and head back down to Trapper Creek where we knew we could plug in electrically. Our refrigerator can run on either propane, or electric. We needed to get someplace to plug in. Our need for heat overnight, as the temps were dipping down in the low 40s, would be solved by running the rooftop heat pump system in our air conditioner. 

We packed up, and hit the road back down to Trapper Creek. It was only 34 miles back down the highway. At least until we could solve our problem, we would have electricity for overnight. 

The cost us an additional $35 to stay at Trapper Creek, but it also saved us a lot more in the way of food in our freezer and refrigerator. 

Here is the link to the YouTube post that goes along with today's blog: 

34 miles travel today 

4,362 miles so far