Victory Bible Camp to Valdez
Saturday, July 25, 2009
After a beautiful morning walk down to the lake,

(and that early morning moose sighting)

we got another early start since we wanted to get to Valdez by the end of the day. It was ”new road” all the way – and some of the prettiest road we’ve seen. (I know, I know – you’re thinking, here come all those superlatives again, and the trip is just starting. I’ll try to show some restraint!). Let us just say we know why it’s called “scenic” –




Our first stop of the day (well, except for a pull off with a view just too beautiful to take from a moving vehicle!), was the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. While it’s not very well known (at least I had never remembered hearing about it), it is the largest National Park. Four major mountain ranges meet in the park and they include nine of the 16 highest peaks in the United States. It also has the largest subpolar icefield, Bagley Icefield. It’s pretty impressive, but unfortunately, you can’t actually get to any of these places (unless you are a young and strapping hiker/adventurer – or can afford a helicopter!), but we did want to stop at the visitor center and see about one of those great 12 minute videos. Not only was there a great 22 minute video, but we were privileged to see the start the second to last leg of the longest wheel chair and hand-cycle race in the world. The bikes were swarming around the parking lot (a little un-nerving when you are driving a big ol’ RV), and eventually settled into groups for that day’s leg – 56 miles! And believe me, they weren’t in Kansas anymore! We had a chance to chat with one of the competitors and he shared that the youngest competitor was only 25 and she had lost her leg in Iraq. The fastest hand cycler in the world was there too. It was so inspiring as we cheered them on to victory.

We took the nature walk around the area, enjoyed a nice al fresco lunch in the parking lot and then continued on. We were told the drive to Valdez was one of the prettiest in the state – and we think they might be right.

Apart from mountains and glaciers and other Alaskan wonders, there was also this 7 mile hill from the top of Thompson Pass

(Those big poles along the side of the road help the plows in the winter to FIND the road.)
down to Keystone Canyon.

Yep, it was right up there at the top of scenic drives!
Once we made it to Valdez we re-connected with Pete and Ellen, parked right along Valdez Bay and enjoyed the afternoon.

Gary and Ellen gave fishing a try

but with no luck. This is prime Pink Salmon season and the fish were jumping left and right all around their lines. Hmmm…I think they needed some different lures. We enjoyed watching the other fishermen’s successes and even got to see sea lions playing out in the bay. But the big excitement came after dinner when the area had a visitor –

See those fishermen? They were oblivious to the bear until just then (even though lots of folks were yelling at them). They left behind their four freshly caught salmon – and the bear sure enjoyed them! He continued down the shoreline until he worked his way closer to those blue buildings. It was fascinating to watch him catch fish (especially since there was a chain link fence between him and us) –

But since the blue buildings house the local salmon hatchery, his chances were pretty darn good to catch something. Can you see all the fish in the water around him?

(And now that you see just how many salmon there were in this area, you can feel Gary and Ellen’s pain for not catching a thing!)
It was a great day – beautiful drive, fun time with friends, and getting to watch a bear go fishing!

Day two – made it to Valdez – 209 miles. Too many pictures to admit to!

PS – there are OODLES of more pictures of this day, but my internet connection is SOOOO SLOOOW I’m going crazy trying to get them formated for your viewing pleasure. If you would like to see more, the whole Day Two set is HERE.

(Note – I’m trying to keep a daily journal of our travels. Unfortunately, finding a good internet connection to post daily is proving to be a challenge. So, I’ll be posting in order, but not necessarily for the date of the actual post. Does that make any sense?)
Friday, July 24, 2009
Solid Rock Bible Camp to Victory Bible Camp.

We hit the road early in a light drizzle. I think all of us were ready to hit the road and begin our long trek back to the Lower 48. We won’t be traveling together the whole way (like we did on the way up), but we’ll be a little caravan for at least the start of the trip. (Baby steps! We don’t want any separation anxiety).
The first leg of the trip (to Anchorage) was pretty familiar, but the beautiful fireweed along the way really helped to brighten the dreary morning light.

Even when we had to wait for construction, the wildflowers made the wait a little less tedious.

There were a couple of rough patches

But all in all, it was a smooth trip to Anchorage.

From Anchorage we picked up the Glenn Highway – Ah, new road! (not so much NEW road, just new road to us!)





Our destination for the day was Victory Bible Camp – located between Anchorage and Glennallen. (Glennallen is located at the end of the Glenn Highway. Go figure!).
Victory Bible Camp is the sister camp of Camp Li-Wa in Fairbanks where we worked in June. They offered to let us camp there for the night – and even invited us to their “Christmas in July (a day early)” celebration dinner. We had a nice evening at a lovely camp, and were even treated to a moose by the lake in the morning!

Day One – 233 miles. Check

PS – of course, there are more pictures! If you’d like to see them, click HERE!

Tomorrow is our last day at Solid Rock. It’s been a good month. The weather has been outstanding – the locals have all said that this has been one of their nicest summers in a long time. We saw our first rain drops of the month on Monday, and even those were pretty few and far between. The intermittent rain has been a blessing for the local firefighters as they battle several wildfires in the area, and it hasn’t really slowed us down.
Solid Rock Bible Camp is one busy place! They run several different types of camp each week. During our first week there was a Running Camp, a Waterskiing Wakeboard Camp, and a Wagon Train Camp (focusing on horsemanship). This week they have two Wagon Train groups, a large Lakeside Camp and a basketball camp. It’s been keeping us pretty busy in the kitchen feeding all those hungry campers. We’ve been blessed by being able to eat with the campers, and since the guys were working down at the Wagon Train area we all got invited to their campfire breakfast last Friday.
Yummmmm.

Here are a couple of other shots from the Wagon Train area –



There is a nice trail around the lake that starts at the Wagon Train and goes over to the Lakeside Camp.


Here’s a view across the lake to the Prayer Chapel that we’ve been meeting at =

The trail ends at the Lakeside Camp –

I think you can see the appeal of these camps.

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So tomorrow we raise the jacks, pull in the slides, strap down that coffee maker and make sure all the drawers are securely closed. We’re not done with Alaska yet, but we’ll be officially beginning the long trek back to the Lower 48. Fair Warning – there are windshield shots in your future!

Each morning that we work we are blessed to gather together with our fellow Sowers and share a time of devotions. I thought you might like to come along for my early morning walk to devotions.
This is the path from the “camper area” down to the parking lot.

That’s Bill and Marilyn ahead of me. They always beat us down to devotions!

You can’t really tell how beautiful the fireweed is along this path, so I thought I’d give you another close-up of this beautiful wildflower.

This one comes complete with its own spider.
From the path we take a the road around the bend, past some camper cabins.

And right past a new cabin being built by 10 amazing guys from Michigan. This shot was taken Tuesday morning. Last Monday – there was only a pile of supplies. Like I said, Amazing!

Staying on the road, we pass the main conference center/business office

Catch a glimpse of the dining hall through the trees,

Turn right at the Solid Rock (literally)

And head down to the prayer chapel by the lake.

Not to worry, I wasn’t the last ones there! John and Rosie were behind me!

Morning has broken, like the first morning
Blackbird has spoken, like the first bird
Praise for the singing, praise for the morning
Praise for the springing fresh from the Word

Is a good day!
We had a great hike on Friday. All 10 of us did the 2.3 mile hike to the Russian River Falls with the hopes of seeing some of those legendary salmon swimming upstream and jumping up the falls. We were not disappointed.
The hike itself was lovely. We walked through stands of fireweed

Along rushing streams

And through deeper forests

Until we came to the Russian River.

We hopped off the trail and walked downstream for a bit


And found a group of salmon in a shallow spot in the river.

I think they must have been resting up, because they really have to work hard to make the journey up over the falls.

That funny looking thing on the edge of the river is a fish ladder. It gives the fish the option to bypass the falls. Maybe that’s what those guys were doing that we saw further downstream – discussing their options. “So, you gonna take the ladder? Me, I think I can make the falls. Yeah, I’m sure I’m fish enough to do the falls. “
The ones that do decide to “do the falls” certainly had quite a cheering section from the peanut gallery-

And with enough patience, and just keeping the camera focused on the same spot, I did manage to get a couple of shots of those brave fish, giving their all trying to get back to where they were born.

There’s no place like home.

There’s no place like home.

There’s no place like home.

They didn’t all make it on the first attempt, but it certainly wasn’t for lack of trying (or lack of encouragement from the spectators!)
Lovely weather, a great hike, fish jumping up waterfalls, and ice cream. Yep, a very good day.

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The rest of the weekend was pretty quiet. Gary finally had the opportunity to do some fishing, so he and fellow Sower (and Alaskan resident) Paul headed off to Paul’s favorite fishing hole. We wives ran some errands and then went to see how the guys were doing. Guess I forgot that they might not exactly be accessible for a conversation. We never actually found them, but I took some shots of the general area (and the crowds of fishermen).

Turns out we were indeed at the right spot –

He didn’t catch anything, but Paul did, and he generously shared his bounty.

Plus he got to finally try out those fun waders! (and that funky hat!)
Hope your weekend was just what you had in mind.