Somebody find me a signal!

One of the hardest things on this trip so far has been finding cell phone & internet access.  In Canada we can use our cellular data plans – as long as we have cell service (which isn't so easy in the middle of nowhere!).  That can get expensive though (you can burn through 1 Gig in a shockingly short amount of time), so we also try to find free internet.

Our options are finding a business that offers wifi or finding a campground with internet service. These businesses aren't always close by, and trying to take the family in and work on the net can be an exercise in frustration (for both me and the kids!).  Many campgrounds advertise free wifi, but often it is restricted in use or only accessible right near the office.  These parks also tend to be (but not always) the more expensive ones where our only option is to take a full service pull through spot (which are always the most expensive, and we don’t actually need most days).  The ones that do have good internet from the comfort of my trailer are gems! We try to search out less expensive options, in order to keep overall costs down, but there’s never a perfect solution.

Take the last few days for example…

We spent an extra day in Tok, because we needed a do-nothing day.  And we did pretty much nothing.  I caught up on the blog and checked emails and such before flaking out for the rest of the day.  It was fantastic.  Moving on the next day towards Palmer, we traveled along the Glenn Highway.  It’s beautiful mountain country, and the road south from Glennallen is designated a Scenic Byway (which I’m guessing in American for “pretty road”. There are some very tall (+10,000 ft) snow-capped mountains around here.  It was raining though, so those lovely mountains were mostly cloud covered. We stopped to take a few pictures, but mostly just drove down the wet highway.  I had investigated a couple potential stops for the night, and planned a walk along the way.  The first of those stops was too expensive, and too small for what they were offering.  Um, no thanks, I don’t want to pay that much to try to squeeze my 40 foot monstrosity of a trailer into that! 

Sticks - an essential tool for poking at mud

But this was also where there was a tantalizing bit of information about a one mile hike to see a mud volcano. Well, mud spring.  But it sounded intriguing. We parked the trailer on the grassy area (for a fee – I’m noticing Alaska likes to charge fees just for parking in certain areas!), checked in and then went to find the trailhead. We were warned that it was a basic trail leading through the forest, marked by CD’s on trees, and finding the trail did take a little bit of work. Once we found the trail, it was easy to stay on, since it was the only thing even remotely resembling a trail anywhere around. We followed the narrow track, heading up the hill, through (wet!) muskeg filled with scrawny black spruce, and into a lusher area containing lots of bushes & deciduous trees. Reaching the end of the trail, we broke through the brush into a roughly circular open area covered in mud.  Several pools of water bubbled slowly, providing evidence that this area was something other than muddy bog.  I was a little concerned about the safety of walking out to the pools, at first, but a multitude of large animal prints on the flat indicated we wouldn't have any difficulties. So we all had a bit of fun poking at the pools, watching the methane bubbles, looking at the variety of animal prints, and just wondering how anyone ever figured out this thing was here. The light rain of the day picked up a bit and we decided that it was time to turn around and head back.  The walk up took 45 minutes of so, the return a bit less. I was quite impressed with the kids – other than a few momentary protests at the very beginning of the walk, they didn't complain the whole way, even though the trail was not what I’d call easy.

Mystery print on the mud flat (lynx, maybe?)

By the time we reached the truck and changed into clean, dry clothes it was 6. We were committed to heading further down the road to check out the other campground option I had read about, so off we went.  I have mentioned that there seems to be a profusion of hunters & campers in the area, and this being the Friday of a long weekend, people were everywhere. We began to notice that large gravel pits along the highway were full of trailers. Hmm – we’re certainly equipped for dry camping, and for an overnight stop we have no need of hookups & campground fees. We checked the Milepost (which has been a fantastic reference and pretty much details every bump on the roads it logs), realized another gravel pit was coming up, and then promptly missed the turn. Luckily there was a scenery pull off spot a moment down the road. We turned around, pulled into the gravel pit and found ourselves a lovely spot for the night. It had an absolutely fantastic view of the surrounding mountains across the road and the hill behind us was covered in fall reds & oranges.  Other campers pulled in after us, but there was plenty of room to go around.   

From the hill behind - the picture does not do it justice

We had a relatively slow morning, as we knew our drive wouldn't be that long. Morgan played on the hills and then came in for some school work.  Finally packing up, we got in the truck and got going. The grand views of the mountains, glaciers and scenery were again overshadowed by rain. The main highlight on this stretch of road is the Matanuska Glacier. We stopped twice to take a look - first at the local elementary school (where the kids enjoyed the chance to play at the playground), and then a few miles down the road at the Matanuska State Recreation area (again with the parking fee!). We took a walk to the viewing platform for a better view of the glacier (with much protest from both the kids – guess a walk a day is too much), and then had lunch.

We are not impressed

Okay, enough with the slow travel day – time to get to Palmer. We drove to the Visitor Centre, inquired about campgrounds, and chose the Mat-Su Borough run Mat River Park, which has electrical hook-ups at a very reasonable rate (no wifi though), over the other area campgrounds (with full hookups). The playground swung our decision in its favor a bit too. The campground is in a very nice area, and quite close to everything.  It’s all grassy, and treed around the edge with a good playground & day-use area beside the camping loop. 

I’m missing my internet connection though. Especially as we still haven’t figured out the phone thing, now being in the US and all. Bob went to get a phone last night, but failed to read the fine print on the pay-as-you go plan and purchased one that can’t actually call Canada! Live & learn. I am sitting in the Starbucks at the local Safeway (and the kids are happily eating cake pops) so I can actually post this! 

P.S. (This post may make us sound cheap, but travel can get expensive. When one part of our budget goes overboard (eg fuel costs), something else needs to give a bit to balance this out, and one easy way is campground fees)