NORTH TO ALASKA 2025 - DAY 63 - TENDERFOOT CREEK ON SUMMIT LAKE

On the road again...

We grudgingly left Skilak Lake. We really didn't want to. It was so nice there. But I think it was time to get moving. 

The traffic was increasing once we reached the main highway. The 4th of July people are out and about in full force. The weekend before the 4th and the weekend after the 4th brings out a lot of people who take that precious week off of work in between. 

We understand the joy of having vacation and hitting the campgrounds. We did it too with a family with four children. Usually our kids invited extra friends along, so sometimes we had six or seven! So we know all too well the noise and the hubbub that a large group can bring on every campsite. So it was good to get moving and go find something quiet and out of the way.

We drove along the Sterling Highway, and had our eyes set on another little quiet out of the way place. It was called Tenderfoot Creek and it was on a little lake called Summit Lake. I figured we would try to roll on in and see what we could see. 

It is part of the Chugach National Forest and we like camping in their types of campgrounds. We get half price camping with our Federal America the Beautiful Senior Access Pass.

https://www.fs.usda.gov/r10/chugach/recreation/tenderfoot-creek-campground

We drove on it, and the mountains were higher than the clouds! 

Campsite number 1 was open when we got there and looked pretty good. It was a drive-through site which makes it even easier to get in and out. We did a complete loop through the campground and most of the sites were taken or reserved. So we looked back to site number one and pulled in. 

The only real problem is that the surrounding brush and woods are completely filled with a form of noxious weed called "cows parsnip". 

Heracleum lanatum
Apiaceae/Carrot Family

Cow Parsnip grows in moist fields, woodlands and alpine meadows. It is a tall (5-8') plant with large hollow stems and very large maple-lead shaped leaves that are deeply divided into three. The leaves and stems have conspicuous hairs. The leaves have a striking resemblance to the Devil's Club, another understory plant of Alaska, but Cow Parsnip isn't covered in thorns. The flowers are tiny, white, and arranged in flat-topped clusters at the top of each thick stem. If you find this plant while hiking, be careful about brushing against it because the juices (and compounds called furanocoumarins) react with sunlight, especially in people with light sensitive skin, and cause blistering. If you do get the juices on your skin, wash it off as soon as possible. 

Steve is severely allergic to wild parsnip in Wisconsin, so we are pretty sure he would be allergic to this too. Even just busting off one branch and letting the juices touch his skin can really mess him up. I believe it becomes what's called systemic and gets into his system. It spreads inside through his body and crops up in other places externally. He had experienced this when he was working at High Cliff State Park mowing it down with the big flail mowers. Anywhere that his skin was exposed where the juices hit, he was in severe distress. It was so bad he ended up going to the hospital! It took weeks and weeks and weeks for the weeping blisters to finally heal over and probably a couple months for the scarred and discolored skin to fade away as it healed. So we never want to deal with that again!!

It was kind of a rainy misty evening, so we really didn't need to be outside anyhow. He did take one loop walk around the campground the next morning, but didn't touch any of the weeds and stayed in the middle of the road!

Our campsite itself, around the picnic table and fire pit were well maintained and cleared of any of the weeds.

We supplement the heat during the day with this Coleman sport cat propane heater. It's a catalytic type and doesn't use any electricity or battery power. It really takes the dampness out and we have it set on a table centrally located in the motorhome.  The less draw on the batteries during the daytime is good, And then at night we run the big propane furnace and turn this unit off.

It was a wonderful warm and cozy night...

We slept peacefully and listened to the pitter-patter of rain on the roof of the motorhome. That's good, because the area does need rain. Considering all of the wildfires to the north, I hope that they got a large abundance of it. 

When we woke up, the lake was as clear as glass. Over on the other side we could see some cute little cabins that are available to rent from Summit Lake Lodge. How beautiful.

Steve needed to refill the 1 lb canisters of propane that he uses for that sport cat heater. I wrote about this in another blog a while back. It's a refill kit from Mr Heater and he can refill them from that one gallon propane tank that he uses for the grill.  He also bought two of the refillable canisters from Mr Heater that have a special valve to help him fill them up. They are made to be refilled over and over. He used to refill the green disposable or throwaway ones, but after a while the little rubber ring in there wears out and they leak gas. This is much safer.

Here's the little walkway that leads over to the tenting area. People who rent the tinting campsites parked their cars on one side of the bridge, and then cross the little babbling brook to the tenting sites on the other side. How cute is that?

Now for some deep thoughts....

Now that we are past the halfway point of our Alaskan adventure, it's time to reflect on a few things. 

We are having the Trip of a Lifetime, and enjoying the adventure through and through. Even though we have now turned around to start heading in a homeward direction, it doesn't matter, because it's still an adventure.

 Most of our route home, like I said, will be on a different route then the way up. That makes it more exciting --- because we will get to see different things. 

Traveling-wise, we are very comfortable in the motorhome for months on end. We really have it set up quite well and have planned equipment in advance. As long as we find locations for dumping tanks, taking on freshwater, and finding propane fills, we are fine. 

Diesel fuel is available at almost every station we stop at. Especially the diesel #2 that we use. Rather than some of the modified biodiesels that we are seeing down in the lower 48 states. Our Mercedes engine really does not like that type. We look for diesel #2 as much as we can when we are traveling in the lower 48. It seems that up here in Alaska, we haven't seen any of that bio junk. Everybody wants regular good diesel #2. That's fine with us. 

Organizational-wise, we do miss pulling the cargo trailer behind us. We usually do that in the lower 48. We opted to not take it along on this trip because of the degree of ruggedness on the roads. Everything back there would be so tossed around it would be hard to imagine things not getting damaged. The cargo trailer carries our two e-bikes, all of Steve's extra tools, and things like extra sitting lawn chairs for guests, folding tables, camping rug etc. The center aisleway is usually stacked up with totes of firewood or wood pellets for our pellet burning fireplace. Yes, that's in there too. On the shelves in the cargo trailer we carry things like my air fryer, my electric pressure cooker, our big Blackstone griddle as well as other external cooking gear. We have things along like an electric chainsaw, extra extension cords, and solar panel equipment. The roof of the cargo trailer has a 320 watt solar panel on it. We can use that to charge up our Bluetti power station or hook it directly to the motorhome camping batteries and charge them at the same time. What is really nice is we can unhook the cargo trailer and push it off into a sunny area, while we still park the motorhome in a shady spot. So those are all the benefits of having the cargo trailer along. And we do miss it. But I think for this type of trip, it was best to leave it at home. 

Connectivity-wise has been just wonderful having our Starlink along. We are able to connect and remain in contact with our families. The grandchildren text us all the time. We are able to send photos back and forth. And essentially we are able to update our children to reassure them we are safe and alive. Two old cronies like us bumming around 5,000 miles from home makes them a little worried about us. So having constant contact and being just a second away of a keystroke on a computer or a touch of a cell phone makes it really nice. Both of our cell phones are set to Wi-Fi calling and they are able to call through the Starlink. 

Financially, I keep pretty good records through a spreadsheet and recording all of our receipts and dates and whether we used a credit card or cash. While using our credit card in Canada, it is all immediately converted over through the exchange rate to the United States funds. Also at the border we transfer some cash over into Canadian currency to use while traveling throughout Canada. 

I am pleased to say we are well under budget and have not overextended ourselves for this trip. We've splurged a little here and there, but most of all the things are about what we expected. Even the grocery stores are not nearly as bad as what some people proclaim. A few of the fuel stops have been a little higher in price, but we knew that going into this because those places pay more to get the fuel brat there. These little mom and pop places that are on the route along the Alcan Highway or the Klondike Highway are making their money in a short 3 months out of a 12-month year. We don't be grudge them their profit. If they didn't make any money, they wouldn't even be there and we would have no fuel at all! 

As far as adventure and sightseeing, we love the natural beauty and looking at the landscapes and the textures and the terrains. As you can tell by now we don't do the tourist things, we don't go for crowds, and we avoid tourist traps like the plague. We don't do restaurants very often, and we enjoy cooking out in our own campsite and looking at the scenery while we do it.

Overall, I think the best part of this adventure is that we are together. 

We are enjoying the scenery, exploring new places, and seeing things that neither one has never seen before.  We enjoy each other's company and we are best friends. Do you know on this entire trip we have not turned on the radio once? We spend our time talking and pointing out things that we see. We are soaking it up and preserving the memories in our minds and our hearts. Plus we are preserving them on film as best I can. Actually right now as I am narrating this text into my blog, a big moose was on the road! I was able to drop the cell phone, grab the camera, and film it as well as snap some still shots. They will show up in a future blog.

Most of all, we are just soaking this in and enjoying our travels.

Here is the YouTube video that goes along with today's blog: 

48 miles traveled today 

5,151 miles traveled so far