Day 6 : "Into the Wild"

                                                     Thursday 8/28/14

Woke up to rain.  (Again.)  Time to head back further north! Although we decided to stick to the South Central area of Alaska , it still is a big area and lot's of time spent getting from one place to another. (Alaska is 12 times bigger than New York State) And we did do a bit of backtracking, some because there were certain things we wanted to do and share  with our friends Kim and Terry when they got here and some just because that's just the way it is in Alaska... there are only 4 interstate highways in all of Alaska. Drove back up through Anchorage and  stopped in Wasilla for lunch at Red Robin. Our first time at one and it definitely was not "Yummmmm" as the commercials lead you to believe!  We had decided to drive to Petersville (off the main road and  about 100 miles north,  )  to spend the night. Petersville is a census-designated place (CDP) in Matanuska-Susitna Borough.The population was four at the 2010 Census! The CDP has a total area of 355.4 square miles. (with a year round  population of 4? wow!) "Petersville Road is the "other" road to Denali, the southern gateway and certainly the road less traveled. It's a rugged mining road that was built in the 1920s and designed for true explorers of Alaska who wish to discover the backcountry on their own terms."

The Milepost Book showed  there was a Forks Roadhouse about 20 miles in and a "beautiful" primitive campsite  spot just past it on the banks of Peters Creek. Sounds like it will be right up our alley! It had already been a long day in the van  when we turned off the Parks Highway at Trapper Creek. Petersville Road becomes a dirt road about 10 miles in. At about 20 miles in, there was a fork in the road but no Roadhouse , just a junk yard 

Forks Roadhouse? What we thought we'd see!

Forks Roadhouse ! What we saw!

So we continued on. The road was getting narrower and we were climbing higher. At about mile 25 we decided to turn around, as we weren't sure if there would be another place  wide enoughto turn around up ahead. We went back and took the other fork in the road and sure enough just around the bend was the Peters Creek , maybe it was because of all the rain, but one could hardly call it a beautiful spot with scenic views. (When we got back into civilization and some internet service, I googled the "Forks Roadhouse" and found that it had burned to the ground 2 years ago)

Beautiful Campsite?

Kroto Creek

 Regardless, having been on the road for over 8 hours (including stops) we decided it was a good place to camp for the night. After cooking dinner and retiring for the night, a car came screeching by in the dark. It  appeared to drive right into the creek. And then nothing, no car lights, nothing...Mike thought he should go check that they weren't  stuck in the creek and in trouble. I thought we should lock the camper van doors. About 5 minutes later, headlights appeared as if coming out of the creek, and they went screeching by us again. I felt like I was in a Stephen King movie!

This was the  day we tried  to touch base with  Ruth Rudd Decker (She lived in Inlet and her dad was my Mail-Boat driver at the Post Office, her husband Bob's parents live in Old Forge and his mom, Dalejean, worked at the school when Mike did) by phone and meet up with her and her husband as we would be traveling close by where they live in the outskirts of Willow on our way to Petersville. We ended up with torrential rain and the cell phone service was  non existence in many areas, played phone tag with her for a bit but never where able to meet up.