What A View!!! : NORTH TO ALASKA - DAYS 37 & 38 - LEAVING KENNY LAKE TO MATANUSKA GLACIER

I left off where we had driven this whole crazy long road out of McCarthy back out to "civilization" again! Lol...

We ended up back at Kenny Lake, which is where we had made a stop off on our way out to McCarthy. This time we decided to spend the night. It's quite expensive but we were tired and we needed a break and needed to stock up and do laundry. It really isn't much more than a parking lot with plugins. But we needed a break and this would suffice.

Although we were parked close to the road, there really wasn't much traffic at all on this little highway. Once it gets dark, people don't travel too much because of the possibility of hitting a moose. You know, moose are like a cow on stilts.

We did a little shopping in their mercantile. For a small mom and pop business, they tried to really include a lot of items in their small store. It's nice to patronize places like this, rather than big chain stores.

They have fuel, both diesel and gas, and propane. They have a dump station and freshwater fill. They have a small hotel, and even a laundromat. So we took advantage of almost everything there, with the exception of the hotel of course.

Steve went over and fueled up our tank before leaving. Fuel was $4.12 a gallon. That's not too bad. Our budget says anything under $5 a gallon is good for us! He did 15.8 MPG which is probably due to all the slow driving back and forth in and out of McCarthy.

It was time to catch up on some laundry. Everything was neat and clean. We took care of two full loads, and it only came to $13. It was nice to just walk back and forth to the rig in between changing the loads. Can't do that in a city laundromat.

The laundry was complete and I got most of it put away. One of my sweaters and my favorite flannel shirt don't go in the dryer. So I hung them from hangers for a while up in the cockpit before we were ready to start driving. Then I swapped them over into the shower stall.

We also had the opportunity to meet a couple who are YouTube followers subscribers of our channel! They are also from Wisconsin and they have been watching our journey step by step. They are kind of behind us on most of our stops. But then they are going in a different direction now than we are planning. But it's nice that we have crossed paths, and maybe we will cross paths again soon!

Our next intended stop would be over by Matanuska Glacier on the Glenn Highway. We knew we would be in for some wonderful scenery, but it was kind of dark dreary and rainy. We were hoping to make the best of it for the next 100+ miles.

We made it up to Glenallen, and made the turn to head further west. Seriously, the roads here are not known for being smooth. You could kind of get seasick going over pavement like this!!!

As we were zooming along, we were enjoying the texture of the landscape and the difference in trees from where we were earlier. These are tall skinny pine trees, and in this section where nice and green.

But all too often we are seeing sections where they get invaded by the pine bark beetle and it is doing a lot of damage across Alaska. These aren't too bad yet in the picture below but we are seeing other areas where many many acres are just completely brown. And then of course, they are more susceptible to wildfires because they are all with dead dry branches on standing timber.

Up ahead, snow-capped mountains were unfolding with every mile that we drove west. It was so cloudy we could not see the tops of them, but it was very pleasant to roll along and watch it materialize in front of us.

We made it to the Matenuska Glacier area... and pulled into the Glacier View Rec sites. The website said there were only six sites, but when we got there I think it was closer to 10 or 12. We found a very nice secluded site and got settled in.

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

During the evening, we ran into another individual setting up a tent nearby on the site across from us. He had ridden up on a bicycle. Steve started chatting with him and we found out he is a pretty interesting guy.

His name is Pascal Picard. He is doing a journey from Alaska to South America on his bicycle. So this is the first or second day of his amazing journey.

He is creating a documentary on the relationship between people and nature and what you find within your soul.

All of his gear that he needs he is taking along on his bicycle. We are really in awe of his efforts and his planning to do this trip.

It was cloudy and miserable, no solar, so he needed to charge up all of his camera batteries as well as his phone. We offered the external USB and C ports of our Bluetti unit to charge up everything he needed. He was extremely grateful.

We really enjoyed meeting him and chatting about life. He took this photo of us to put on his social media pages. We are excited to be part of his journey, especially at the very beginning. We can't wait to see his documentary on the day it is done and published!

This is a silly photo from his social media that shows absolutely everything that he has with him and how it's amazing to be all packed together neatly on his bike.