When we left Homer we knew our first destination had to be Anchorage-time for some follow up medical tests for me. We found Providence Anchorage on a beautiful campus staffed by wonderful people-at least the ones I had contact with. After testing, we hit Moose’s Tooth Pizza-again! We loved it so much the first time we had to return. Then we checked into Cabela’s, they welcome boon dockers and we always support them by spending some money with them, this time was no exception. When we woke the next morning we figured we would head for the Fairbanks area and explore outside the city, since we didn’t when we first passed through the town.
We decided we would head for the Chena River State Recreation Site -it looked like there could be some good boon docking sites in the area. We were right, after we passed Rosehip Campground we saw a turn off for a boat launch. While driving down the dirt road we saw a sweet pullout along the river about a mile before the boat launch.
Our first day here, the weather was perfect, sunshine, the smell of Autumn in the air, cool Fall breezes and those huge puffy white Autumn clouds. We welcomed the weather, we had been battling cold rain, overcast days, and night temperatures in the high 30’s. We were ready for sunshine. All the locals we had been talking with told us that this summer was an unusually wet one and we could attest to that. I can’t tell you how many times we thought we were on the Olympic Peninsula and not in Alaska based on the rain ! You can see from my Alaska photos that we have enjoyed many days filled with sunshine-so I’m not complaining.
After we set up camp, Jim wandered down to the boat launch to try fishing the Chena River. I started hiking the forests and along the river to capture the beauty of Autumn. It’s my favorite season, that cool crisp night air and clear night skies and days filled with bright sunshine and usually a sweet cool breeze.
Hiking through the forest instilled a sense of urgency in me, the first time I felt that since we began this journey. I started to think about all the places we wanted to go to see the Fall colors. Duh, I said to myself, look around, what do you think this is ? Again, I had to remind myself, stay in the present moment, don’t worry about what might be, but enjoy what is. Remember this is the best moment of your life. And it was. I lost myself in my photography and the incredible colors. We were blown away by Alaska when we first arrived in June and everything was so green. I never imagined its beauty would increase 100 fold with the colors of Autumn.
My fisherman returned to camp, and all I will say is that we had grilled cheese and tomato soup for dinner. The fish lived to swim another day.
We never saw another car or person the entire time we camped here. We didn’t stay the week we had planned on-the rains came after a few days and we wanted sunshine and warmth so we took off chasing the sun and warmer weather.
Happy trails and safe travels, wishing you the heat of the sun to warm your body and the beauty of nature to warm your soul.
Wandering Under the Stars 