How do you summarize an amazing five days of camaraderie, excellent weather, and serendipitous surprises? It’s going to be tough to do in this blog post.
If you recall, I mentioned the RVing to Alaska Facebook ground we belong to and the associated sticker we put on the back of the RV. It’s all the brainchild of Stacey and Gary and their travel business, RVing to Alaska. They have made it possible for Alaska bound travelers to meet people on the road, get questions answered, get advice, etc etc etc. They also coordinated the biggest RV Rally in Alaska and we were participants.
The Rally was held at the Historic Chulitna River Lodge, contained within the boundaries of Denali State Park. It was an easy (by Alaska standards) drive north from Wasilla.
The Lodge had been abandoned for a number of years. But new owners have gotten it whipped back into shape.
The Lodge is on the east (right) side of Parks Highway. Across the street is a runway that was abandoned for a number of years. That runway was the site of the Rally…meaning we would be parking RIGHT ON the runway. We arrived a day early to help set up the Rally.The caretaker made a real effort to get the runway ready for 73 RVs. Twenty truckloads of crushed stone was brought in before our arrival. Being there early, we got our choice of where to park, and were also handed a can of spray paint and a tape measure to mark where others were to park. We opted for a spot where the runway was the widest to accommodate the length of our RV. Note, there are NO utilities on this runway, this is strictly dry camping. We were in the solar section. The other end of the runway was the generator section.Next, all of us volunteers set up the tents that were used for our gathering space.And the next day, all the remaining RVs showed up. I helped greet RVs when they pulled up and instructed them were to go. James got out his eBike and escorted the new arrivals to their parking spots. By that evening, we were all lined up along one side of the runway.
James took these next two pictures. Note the placement of the windsock.
This is looking Southward. Hmm, is that a curve in the runway?And this is looking Northward. There is a definite curve in the runway. We are thinking it would be challenging to land on this air strip!How many Starlink antennas can you see in this picture? It’s easy to spot ours and the one on the pole a few rigs down from ours. But honestly, almost every RV at the Rally had a Starlink setup. Yup, we were roughing it…not. The connectivity was appreciated. Cell service was spotty.
Fortunately, we did not have any planes attempt to land while we were there. Although our hosts’ neighbor did fly his plane over us once and give us all a moment of panic. Stacey and Gary immediately recognized who it was…so no worries. The guy was just checking up on us.
Let the fun begin
We had daily activities and happy hours. There was a band one night. We had a game night and now know how to play Mexican Train with dominoes (kind of). Multiple potlucks were had. Many new friends were made.And watching over all of these activities was Denali. We had excellent weather the whole week. It would be somewhat cloudy in the morning. But by afternoon, Denali a.k.a. The Great One was showing off.
RV Tours
Most RV Rallys seem to have RVs that you can tour. This one was no different. Except it was us attendees that gave the tours of our own rigs. Those that wanted to, let people into their living spaces.
This is a truck camper that pulled a small trailer FULL OF TOOLS. Tool envy!
We put the Sandpiper (our RV) into the tour. We were the only Super C there, so why not!
Interesting People
It was arranged for some speakers to come in. That was no small feat considering how far out into the wilderness we were.
This is Trinidad from Northern Epics Hiking Tours. He is only 27 and founded this company. They lead guided hikes in Denali National Park. If you ever wanted to know what you could eat in the wild, this is your guy. If we hadn’t already visited Denali, we definitely would have signed up for one of his hikes. He was incredibly knowledgeable.Joshua was a last minute fill-in for a musher who cancelled. Boy, did he deliver. Joshua is an Army vet who suffered from PTSD. After getting help himself, he decided to start an organization called Outreach22. 22 represents the number of veterans everyday who take their own lives. Through dog sledding, he is helping these veterans heal. Joshua has run one Itidarod so far and had some very interesting stories to tell.He passed around the booties that the dogs wear when they are racing. They cost $1.16 apiece. I was surprised at how inexpensive they seemed, so, I had to check one out to see how they are put together. They are pretty simple to make. But then again, mushers go through THOUSANDS of them! For one Itidaod….14 dogs x 4 paws x 12 days = 672 booties. And that is me just guessing what they might go through based on what Joshua was saying.
On another day, the Boy Scouts came into town.
The German Boy Scouts that is. On the one day that was raining, a number of us wandered over to the Lodge across the street. Alaskan road lodges, historically, are places where travelers can rest during their travelers. We walked in and found these three young adult Scouts and their leader, sitting in the Lodge, playing a guitar and singing. They were from Ulm, Germany (we visited there back when we lived in Germany in the late 80’s) which is part of Swabia. Someone asked them about food and the word Maultaschen was mentioned. I was all over that! Maultaschen was one of our favorite meals when we lived in Stuttgart. The Scouts played a few tunes for us and then were back on the road to continue their travels.
Biking the World
Then Gurkan arrived. This deserves an explanation and I’ll try to keep it short. Earlier in the year, our Rally Hosts, Stacey and Gary, met Gurkan in the Yukon. They started talked and found out he is from Turkey and has been biking around the world for the past 15 years. They invited Gurkan to stay at their house when he came through the Anchorage area later in the summer.
Fast forward two months and Stacey had been following Gurken via his Garmin InReach (same satellite tracker we have…you can see where he is at in real time at https://eur-share.inreach.garmin.com/gurkangenc). Stacey realized he was about 10 miles down the road from us, riding down from the Arctic Circle. She couldn’t reach him via phone, so she jumped in the car, chased him down and invited him to join us for the night. The Rally had rented the whole Lodge facility, so he could have a cabin to sleep in and a hot shower for a night.
Boy was he surprised when he pulled and and found all of us standing along the entry drive applauding him!
Screen shot from Gerkan’s video.
This link is to Gerkan’s video of his arrival at our Rally (along with some of our footage). The link should work even if you don’t have a Facebook account (I tested it). https://www.facebook.com/reel/3997572107055890
After catching his breath and getting some water into him, Gurkan proceeded to tell us about his travels, some of his experiences, and what he hopes to achieve by doing this. His full story is on his website at https://gurkangenc.com/en/
Little did Gurkan know that day would end with him speaking to a rapt audience of 140 people!Gurkan’s bike is a bit of an engineering marvel. It’s custom made and weighs around 100 pounds. When he pedals, he is charging his phone, tracker, Kindle, etc. So cool!Then Gurkan was involved in some of our Rally shenanigans. It was July 4th, so there was a patriotic cocktail contest. The judges were Gurkan, Stacey and Gary. What a way to be introduced to an RV Rally!
Gurkan ended up staying with us for two nights! He definitely made good use of the free lodging and the hot shower.
Just like that, after two days with us, Gurkan was off again toward Anchorage.Safe travels! As I write this, he is down in Wasilla, the area we were in before the Rally,
The End….
All too soon, the Rally came to an end.
One of our Rally participants, Rob, was a whiz with his drone. So here we are, the whole gang!
On our final night, we were treated to a sweet snack called Waddingers. I tried to google “Waddingers” without much luck. So I’ll try to explain.
You start with a Waddinger stick. In this case, it was an old golf putter (head removed) with a rounded wooden dowel impaled on it. You take some biscuit dough (think Pillsbury) and form it over the dowel. You then cook the biscuit dough over an open fire until it’s golden brown and cooked through.Once the dough slips off the dowel easily, it’s done. You fill it with pie filling and then your favorite topping. Delicious!That final night at the Rally was a perfect way to end a perfect week. I took this picture at 10:00 p.m. Yup, the sun was still up high in the sky!
Packing Up
All too soon, it was time to say our good-byes and continue on our Alaskan Adventure. We started by getting the truck ready to hook up behind the RV. I heard James holler at me through the RV door, “Corinne, see if your key works to unlock the truck, mine doesn’t.” Nope. Time to check the battery.
Sure enough, the battery on our 6 month old truck was DEAD. The truck had not been started for 5 days, but we weren’t sure why it was dead. And still aren’t.I reminded James that we had a vehicle starting kit. Santa brought a kit to all of us last Christmas.This little battery had enough power to crank over the engine (after reading the instructions to see what to do if you had a deep discharge situation). I guess Santa chose well when picking out this unit. We could have gotten a jump from someone…we have jumper cables with us. But this was so much easier!We stuck around and helped take the tents down. And then everyone was on their way.
We have been to other RV Rallys, typically big ones with hundreds of rigs. This smaller Rally was really more enjoyable. Sure, the educational opportunities that the bigger Rallys provide weren’t available. But with a smaller group, you got to meet and connect with so many more people. We now have many new RVing friends and hope to see them in New Mexico someday.
What a fantastic group experience! And I will be sharing Gurkan’s story with Erhan.