July 7-10 -- The Start Of North To Alaska Is Finally Here...

And as it's now July 15 when I'm writing this, I'd better get on the stick before I start forgetting all the details...On Thursday, July 7 I picked up Discovery II at the Lazy Days RV service center. They'd replaced the propane regulator and checked the lines just to make sure there were no leaks. I have Good Sam's extended warranty service for the trailer, which means that if anything goes wrong with it, you just pay a deductible, and Good Sam pays the rest. My deductible was $250; the work on the trailer was $226.28. But just in case something goes wrong and it runs over $250, it's nice to have. So I head out -- and the journey to Alaska starts. Through the magic of the Internet, I discovered that it's 3,781.6 miles from Portal to Anchorage. Well gee, I'd better get things going! 

I didn't want to go too far the first day, and I knew where I wanted to camp -- Oak Flat Campground northeast of the town of Superior.  It was recommended at Free Campsites.net, and had no facilities; it was a boondocking site. At Winkelman I was faced with my first choice; take Hwy 77 straight to Globe, then backtrack on the 60 down to the campground, or take a more winding route but not have to lose mileage. I opted for the more winding route, which began picturesquely enough, but just before Superior I had to climb a grade, with the gas pedal pressed all the way to the floor. 45mph, 40, 35, 30... I couldn't pick up speed, and there were cars behind me. "Come ON, where's the top of the hill? I finally reached it after hitting 20mph, wound down to Superior -- and saw one of those highway construction signs reading the route NE from Superior leading to the campground was closed from 5am to 5pm Tuesdays and Thursdays. Today was Thursday. And it was only 11am. Well, that's a fine how-de-do!  So I had to backtrack anyway, and I was running out of gas, so I headed for the closest large town, Florence. While on the way I thought I'll wait until 4:45, then head back and in the meantime I'll just park on the side of the road and wait it out. I ended up near a gunnery range. It was hot inside the trailer, and it was hot and windy outside, so I said "this is ridiculous; let's head back to Superior as at least I'll be going in the right direction." (Sometimes if I'm faced with a choice that's different than the one I planned, I dither, which I was doing now.) So I went back to Superior, and the highway sign now magically read "closed 9am-1pm", and it was now 1:30. What? Well, who cares why; I lucked out once again instead of deciding to sweat inside Discovery for a few hours. The highway from Superior to the campground is one of those on the map with green dots running along it, meaning it's scenic, and it certainly was as it ran through a canyon that was still pretty lush considering how hot it was. I saw the sign for Oak Flat Campground, pulled in, and got a nice spot next to an oak tree --

There were even fire rings and a bench -- and it was a freebee site. Across from me were large tents with a large group of people; I figured out later that they were part of an Apache tribe that were protesting giving the land to a mining company. Apparently it's created a lot of controversy between the Apaches and local politicians, lined up with the mining company. I went for a hike and found out just how beautiful and area was, with the copper mine visible in the distance. There were a lot of 4-wheel-drive roads running through the landscape -- 

There were venerable oak trees running through the riparian area. I'd say it deserves to be saved, just for its scenic qualities.

Around sunset, Western Kingbirds were chasing one another around the tops of the oak trees, and a young Cooper's Hawk flew over me at my camp site, and I later saw another take a dip in a small water hole on the entrance road. Yes, I'd say it's a pretty neat area, and a great place to spend the first stop of North To Alaska. BTW, I never got up the courage to go over and talk with the Apaches; I should have... 

The next day I went through the town of Miami. It was where my mother was born, and the family lived in a canyon called Turkey Shoot. All of this area is mining, specifically copper. My grandfather worked in the copper mines, and all he got out of it was having all of his teeth fall out from all that exposure to copper. But blissfully, it now has a Walmart. Now, I don't like what they do to local businesses when they move into a community, but I have to admit that they're extremely convenient when you're traveling. And the Miami one had WiFi, too. There isn't much to see in Miami; the majority of the town seems to be mines; there's even one across from Walmart on the main highway through town. So as is my usual, I get out of town, and the road past Globe takes me through the very scenic Salt River Valley. I'd read it on the map, but had no idea it looked like this -- 

You start high on one side of the valley, wind down to the bottom, and climb up the other side. The grade this time, as opposed to the one before Superior, was manageable, and the views were terrific. And thankfully there were strategically placed, wide turnouts for those with big rigs -- 

You can see a bit of the road just off to the right. The rest of the highway to Show Low (I just checked, and the unusual town name comes from what a participant said after the result of a marathon poker game) is pretty, high-desert and mountain scenery. There had been a horrendous fire in the area just a few weeks before I went through, but I saw no evidence of it. I connected on to Interstate 40 and took that west to Flagstaff, then north where I stayed at my second free campsite -- right across the road from the entrance to Sunset Crater National Monument. It took awhile to find a good, secluded spot, as most were taken up by weekenders out for some ATVing, but persistence paid off -- 

Perfect. After dinner, I put the camp chair out and watched a Mr. and Mrs. Western Bluebird feeding their fledgling, heard screams of Steller's Jays, the cries of Flickers, and enjoyed the waning day, and the setting sun on the pine trees --

If you can find a good spot, and get off the main road through the area, I can highly recommend it -- though not to get away from everyone. 

The next day I continue north up Highway 89 and going the Navajo Reservation land. It's an odd mix of stark beauty and abandoned "trading posts" along the road where the locals sell their wares. The plateaus and mesas remind you that you're entering into the redrock country of the southwest, after the pine forests of Flagstaff -- 

There's always the dilemma when traveling with an RV or trailer; should I take the easy looking route on the map, or the squiggly one with the green dots along it, meaning it's scenic but possibly winding and twisty with uphill and downhill grades? That's what confronted me now. I threw caution to the winds and headed along the "green dot route". And I'm glad I did; the landscape  near the Vermilion Cliffs looks like it could have been right out of a John Ford western  --

And then, at Navajo Bridge, one of the few crossings of the Colorado River from Page to the western end of the Grand Canyon, you get a unforgettable view of the Colorado, though the river was named because it was originally red (Colorado) due to silt carried by the river, which is now stopped by the Glen Canyon Dam; it now runs clear and cold --

There are now two bridges spanning the Colorado at the point; the old one is used as a pedestrian bridge, and the newer one supports the highway traffic. Here's the view of the new from the old --

Some scenes of domestic life on the road with Discovery II... The trailer has 2 solar panels of 160 watts each. It means that the RV batteries (2 of them, AGM sealed batteries of 6 volts each) are constantly kept charged up by the panels -- well, as long as there's sunlight. Without the panels, there's always a chance that the batteries will be run down if you use them at night -- mostly things like lights. With the panels and its controller, it's much less likely to happen. And though the outlets don't work -- you need 120-volt shore power for that, say a generator -- you can buy a small inverter that, when, say, a shaver is plugged into it, will charge things like cell phones, laptops, and Sonicare toothbrushes. My inverter, a 300-watt one, plugs into a cigarette lighter in the USB terminal. I got the inverter from Amazon, of course... But it really helps when you're living off the grid.

And who says you must have bland meals when you're traveling in an RV? The spaghetti was de-lish, and I was reading the latest Gordianus the Finder ancient Roman mystery by Steve Saylor. Hey, this is not a bad way to live on the road... But I still do need Faranuf to come home to.

Back to North To Alaska... I usually prefer not to go over, say, 250 miles a day. That way I don't feel wiped out when I finally find a campsite. But I decided to go all the way to Baker, Nevada that day -- about 400 miles. I ended up fighting a headwind when I went through the desert mountains of western Utah, but actually wanted to get to my next free campsite as the weather report for the next day was for high winds. I figured the further west I got, the less of a chance for high winds, since that was direction they were coming from. (Fat chance; it was even windier the next day.) But once I got to my no-charge home for the next few days, it was worth all of the effort to get there in one day --

It's the BLM "recreation" area at Nevada's Sacramento Pass, about 20 miles west of Great Basin National Park. Hard to believe it's a free site -- fire rings, barbecue grills, tables, cabanas, vault toilets, even a little riparian area with Killdeer and Barn Swallow residents. And my spot had a killer view, too. More to come about Great Basin Nat'l Park, an unsung jewel of the national park system, and then the Ruby Mountains of northern Nevada...