Black Dog's House on Wheels: Valdez, July 31-August 2

Saturday morning we returned to Addison Point campground to see if there would be room for all of us to camp. The general consensus was that water front camping was much better than “buggy” camping even though there was no water or sewer dump. There was room, so we all hurried back to Glacier View and moved our RVs. The day was raining and gloomy so I caught up on a few chores, including laundry.

Campsite from across the bay. Our RVs are the white specs on the left.

Sunday morning brought fog. Coastal fog is nothing new to me having grown up on the central coast of California where summer fog is an everyday occurrence, the difference is that coastal fog in Alaska often turns to rain. The day continued to be dreary, but we did manage to get a short hike in on the Dock Point Trail and walked down to the fish hatchery which is a mile for our site.

Monday morning I woke up to front row seats watching a purse seiner and fishing boats put out their nets and then load the catch on to the purse seiner. The fishing boat lifts the net up and then the purse seiner basically vacuums all of the catch into a big “purse” (holding tank). There were several fishing boats loading catch on to the pursiner.

The fog was not as dense and the clouds appeared to be parting so we all jumped in Liz’s car and headed back up Key Stone Canyon to see the water falls and scenery which we had not stopped to see on Friday.

Horse Tail Falls

Huddle Falls

We are driving a long and Liz yells out SWAN!!. We were treated to this serene scene.

We drove as far as Blueberry Lake and had a picnic lunch and were entertained by the ducks and

the arctic squirrels, at least I think they are arctic squirrels.

Vistas near Thompson Pass

There are several trails around Valdez and Nancy and I attempted to walk a few of them but they were just too muddy or the rising river made crossings too wet. Sadie had her first real run in with wild life. I had let her off the leash to run and I heard barking, the bark she uses when she has something treed. She had run into think brush and didn’t come back when I called, which she usually does when she is in a new place. About the time I was getting a little concerned she came back....with a snout full of porcupine quills. I didn’t know you were suppose to clip the quills to release pressure so I just pulled them out. Ouch!! She is fine and so far no residual damage. Hope she has learned her lesson.

We walked back towards the fish hatchery and saw a black bear competing with the sea gulls over salmon. They are trying to go up stream to the hatchery and some get stranded. It is quite a site. All along the bay front there are fishermen snagging salmon.