Thursday July 8

Rained like crazy in Valdez. Filled up with gas and propane and headed out.

Checked out the Klutina River near Copper City again to see if the fishing action was heating up at all. It looked dead.

Drove up the road a bit more and stopped at Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. What’s unique about Wrangell-St Elias you ask? Well, for starters it’s America’s largest National Park. It also has nine of the tallest peaks in North America. Most of the park is totally inaccessible. It has 4 mountain ranges within its boundaries. 90% of all Alaska’s wildlife species can be found within it. And…25% of it is glacier.

It also had first class bathrooms…..a welcome change.

Total nerd ball ranger kid gave a convincing talk about how the park represented freedom. By the end he had me convinced that I could preserve the park while living in Massachusetts…… by installing energy saving lights at home etc, etc.

Sometimes the job of park ranger appeals to me. They ride around, give talks, and answer questions. They don’t ever seem stressed about anything. It’s the isolation that would get to me. I think I’d feel trapped in the park. Sometimes I’d like to hit the Northwork’s, go to the movies, catch a sporting event…all things not readily available to the average ranger. It’s all give and take I suppose.

Checked out the only place in Alaska where a non-Native can operate a fish wheel. A fish wheel is this crazy mechanism that spins in the river and, when the fish are in the river, literally scoops up fish by the bucket load. Some interesting cats down there.

Got a few tips from a ranger on some great lakes to fish so I drove to Silver Lake near Chitina, pumped up the float tube and caught some monster rainbows, biggest around 20 inches. Fished ‘til after midnight…..because I could.

During the night, well the dusky night around 3am, I went out to water the daisies and was startled to find a moose and her baby strolling past the truck and on down Main Street in Chitina.