Finally, Sunshine and blue skies

Sat 7/9 was supposed to be shopping and sight seeing. Well we did get the shopping done. Then spent most of the day in camp reading as the rain didn't let up until time to go out to dinner. It was a FABULOUS halibut fish and chips special at Robbyn's on the highway.

7/10 we left Whitehorse and it changed from watching for wildlife to watching for frost heaves and gravel. We had been warned of bad roads ahead and frankly they didn't come close to living up to the warnings. None the less there were several sections of gravel road and some frost heaves that if you didn't see them would rattle your teeth. The first half of the day started as many others in overcast and rain. Nothing heavy, just enough to be a nuisance. About 1 pm however the skies broke. We got sunshine and plenty of it. Knowing that we had many more miles of road construction and gravel to pass we decided we would stop within range of Tok but still short of crossing into ALASKA. We stopped at White River RV Park and found one of the top places we have camped at the entire trip. Trees, grass site, excellent washrooms and a very gracious hostess.
So much so that within the first hour we had a good size Black Bear stroll through the campgrounds. This created quite the stir of excitement. It was then decided this particular Bear was an unwelcome visitor. It seems they have a local group of 8 bear that never cause a problem. This one however had been in camp and gone scavenging under someones trailer. (photo of bear to come later). The game warden was summoned and before nightfall this bear was taken out. Another smaller black bear also captured by the wardens trap was to be released.

We awakened Mon 7/11 to the prettiest day we had seen in a week. Bright blue skies with barely a whisper of a cloud. The majority of the day was spent riding in that beautiful weather. The vistas of mountain absolutely incredible across the backdrop of blue. Colors so radiant you would have had to have a full box of 106 crayolas to match the hues visible. In spite of the roads which again had lots of construction zones and the fact we crossed the border back into the US, we got to TOK much earlier than imagined. A change in plans had us turn south toward Anchorage. We have stopped for the evening just north of Glennallen. Tomorrow we will make camp just south of Palmer, Alaska and just out side the city of Anchorage. The thought is we will make a day ride to Seward and back, but as we discussed this the weather started moving a front in our direction. We will just have to see what the weatherman and mountains have in store for us tomorrow.