THE ALASKAN ADVENTURE Day 34,35 & 36 June 19, 20 & 21, 2009 Dolly Varden Campsite, AK

We spent the morning getting ready to head up Swanson Lake Road. Groceries, Gas, Propane etc. but I must admit we did not get a real early start. Undaunted by the late start we headed out anyway and made to the campsite without any mishaps. We did have a young black bear dart across the road in front of us. He as moving so fast that even super click ( Me ) could not get a picture of him.
Swanson Lake Road turned to gravel shortly after we turned on to it at Sterling. Dolly Varden Lake was the first campsite of the three in the area and we stopped in to have a look. We realized it was pretty full and as this was the biggest campsite of the three we decided we had better grab a spot,. As it turns out it was a good thing we did as the campsite filled up shortly after we got parked.

Our Campsite and views of the Lake

We spent the evening having a little BBQ and then sitting by the fire. You can't have marshmallows if you don’t have a fire. I did have to send the wood scavenger out a couple of times.

If someone had told me that I could spend a day just sitting around and watching a fire I would have told them that they were crazy. Well, that is exactly what we did yesterday. We sat by the fire, watched the lake, ate lunch, watched the fire, watched the lake, ate dinner, watched the fire, roasted marshmallows and it was time for bed. It was one of the most enjoyable days I have had in a long time.

This morning we got up to a dead battery, camper not the truck, so we got going as early as we could. Early is always a challenge for us. We finished the drive up to Rabbit Lake which was at the end of Swan Lake Road and then headed back into Soldotna for a new battery.

Soldotna is the largest city in the Kenai Peninsula with a population of about 4000 people. However during the two salmon runs the town explodes with people from Anchorage, Fairbanks and of course the tourists. The City has 3,700 feet of elevated fishing boardwalk along the Kenai River and over 220 campsites and during Salmon Season they are filled. The largest King Salmon was caught here weighing in at 97 lbs 8 ounces.

We also re-stocked the fridge, got propane and headed for an RV park. We needed one with Wifi so that I could catch up on the blog. It has been a little harder keeping up with the blog when we are dry camping.

We are not sure what tomorrow will bring but I think we are heading for the Russian River to do a little hiking and maybe a little fishing.

Animal Count for the Day

Black Bears 1