Button, the baby goat

Rika’s Roadhouse Campground, Big Delta, AK – June 13, 2014

The Loosey Goosey Gangs plans diverged this morning. The rest of the group opted to move to a real campground and we were still in boondocking mode. They got an early start and we hung around just being lazy after all we had a whole 65 miles to go today. As we were walking back from a coffee run, we saw ClassC Mark and then Jon/Sue. They had just arrived from their Top Of World Highway trip and survived.

Since I had cleaned up Big Guy and the Element it, of course, began to rain early in our days journey.

One of the many braided rivers we’ll see.

Our first stop is Delta Junction, the official end of the Alaska Highway. At 1422 miles long, it’s been 21 days since we started at Mile 0. As you can see we are definitely taking our time.

Frank is holding our official certificate for reaching the end of the ALCAN.

One of these objects is an obsolete pig. And their take on how big the mosquitos are up here.

The Alaska Pipeline crossing the Tanana River on its way from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez.

As we pull into Rika’s Roadhouse parking lot we are greeted with a sign we rarely see.

It’s an Alaska State campground that no one appears to be using. No hookups, but it’s only 5 dollars a night. There’s also a dump and fill station in the park for an additional 5 dollars. The sites are all back in, but we choose an end one and circle our way into it so we don’t have to unhook the Element.

We set out to explore the grounds and find Rika’s Roadhouse.

Quite fancy for a Roadhouse. But there used to be a lot of commerce here. Ferry’s and Steamers served the area bringing in lots of passengers and goods.

The park does have a restaurant and we feasted on some pretty spicy chili. While there we got to see a production line of sandwiches being made for the weekend crowds.

Afterwards we continued our wanderings and met a young couple that were here for a summer job taking care of the animals. They were living upstairs in the roadhouse and had traveled from Illinois in this.

We asked them about the baby goat we had seen and they told us it’s name was Button and it had just been born this morning.

Hey', I think we found the original Jed and Granny Clampett truck.

Across the Tanana River we spotted an eagle’s nest high up in a tree.

That’s if for another Alaska day.