Day 11 - Getting my first NPS Passport Stamp and Boogie Time!
I recently (meaning, June) picked up a NPS Passport book to collect national park stamps as token of "I WAS THERE"
Never thought about it until before leaving for the trip, so I ordered one.
Today's itinerary was simple: leave Tok and get to Wrangel St. Elias National Park, then drive into McCarthy.
Beautiful day for a nice drive... until the frost heaves took over.
I had enough of this so I hopped out, changed my front suspension settings to offroad mode, and it was perfecto *chef's kiss*
Mount Drum and Sanford in the background.
Obligatory tourist picture.
Having collected my stamp and bought nothing from the visitor's center, I kept trucking.
Going down this road was fun and I enjoyed it, until I realized I gotta do this in reverse on Friday. oh f*ck...
After endless construction zones, it's finally time to boogie.
I was on the fence about dropping tire pressure, but a few bumps early on helped me make my mind really quick. Dropped to 30 PSI and off I went.
Road was overly decent, but some sections were rough with potholes and stuff. Having no lead truck, I had to keep my eyes on the horizon and slow down for blind corners. You can tell who's the tourist and who has dirt road experiences: tourists in their rentals don't turn on their headlights, and never slowed down when approaching. Frigging a-holes.
I ran my S2 chase lights the whole trip, because of how big of a cloud of dust I was making. I also stopped for ADV bikers to pass me when they approach as well. I also managed to pass a RV and a RAV4 on the way in too. They saw my LP9s and knew I meant business, I guess.
The whole trail was around 60 miles long. Took me less than an hour to complete aside from sitting and waiting at traffic control zone. The RV and RAV4 that I passed didn't arrive until I finished cooking dinner and setting up camp lol
This is the basecamp for tonight and tomorrow night.
I will be hiking the glacier tomorrow.
And also visit Kennecott Mining Town after.
What a sight!
Side note:
This is why I did boogielander build. The trail can be done with a Camry or a Subaru (as RVs made it in), but the difference is, how comfortable do you want that 120 miles (round trip) to be?
Doing 35MPH dodging potholes and such, or, doing 55mph and go over everything like they're not there, while being overpacked?
Boogielander build at its current form is about $100k, including the truck. So far, 11 days in, the truck and the whole camping experience has been flawless (aside from Starlink not performing above 60D North when there are tall trees around). I get to spend more time at places, send it through trails, and still get to camp early enough to snag a good site while other people gotta spend less time at places, go slow on the trails, and still get to camp later and not get a spot as good.
11 days in, my build philosophy is proving itself!