Alaska/Canada 2022-12: The Nenana Ice Classic & Boondocking at Its Best

July 7-9, 2022

    In 1917, a group of Alaska Railroad survey engineers working in Nenana bet on when the ice on the Nenana River would break up. They put $800 into the pot. 

The Ice Classic Tripod is over Doug's left shoulder. The official clock is in the  building to the right to the tower.

    Thus began the annual Nenana Ice Classic, now a community fundraiser. Entrants guess the date and time the ice in the river will break. There's a very scientific method of determining this: when the tripod set on the river ice moves 100 feet downstream, a pulley system stops the official clock. The jackpot in 2022 was over $233,000. We bought two tickets at $2.50 each for the 2023 drawing--fingers crossed! You, too, can enter the Nenana Ice Classic--just click on the link.

Nenana RV Park has some of the nicest bathrooms/showers of any campground we've stayed at, plus laundry facilities.

    We'd stayed in Nenana in 2017 and did our favorite things again this year: camped at the privately owned Nenana RV Park, ate breakfast at Roughwoods Inn Cafe, and exchanged free books at the honor system book house.

Roughwoods Inn & Cafe serves great breakfasts & is Nenana Ice Classic Central.

Doug exiting the honor system book exchange house.

    There was a big wildfire about 20 miles southwest of us, and the skies alternated between clear, cloudy, and smoky. 

Skies were smoky the day we arrived, clear the next.

Doug at the Nenana River.

    Saturday, July 9, we woke to heavy smoke and bad viz.

   

    So after breakfast at the cafe, we headed to Denali National Park on the Parks Highway (named for George Parks, not the park), where we hit the visitors center but quickly left the masses. 
    Heading south from Denali, the skies were clearer.

Looking toward Anchorage & clearer skies.

    We crossed the Nenana River numerous times. It flows roughly north and into the Tenana, which eventually connects to the Yukon.

Nenana River.

    We were headed to Talkeetna when Doug caught something out of the corner of his eye and made a U-turn. This is what we saw:

The pictures still take my breath away. 

Doug didn't need to ask twice if we should camp there. So we parked on a narrow pullout off Highway 3, with the right tires on the bank of the Nenana River as it makes a 90 degree bend.

    Rather calming. There was no cell service and, finally, no mosquitoes. 56 degrees, rain and wind—couldn't get much better. Plus, no smoke.

    Marilyn was in heaven photographing fireweed from every angle. 

Plus there was a very obliging bee, who flew off before she could get pictures of him, but when she implored him, returned to buzzing in and out of the fireweed.

It's amazing how with live photo you can capture a bee in flight.

    We probably drove 80 miles that day. It really was boondocking at its best.

Ice floating down the river.

    The plan was to head to Talkeetna early the next morning, stopping at the Flying Squirrel Bakery a few miles before town.