SEWARD TO VALDEZ - COAST OF ALASKA

July 6^th,

Our July 4^th day was spent driving to Seward.  The ride over to this coastal town was amazing and when we arrived we were in the middle of 40,000 people watching the 84^th edition of Alaska’s most famous footrace.    The race is a 3 ½ mile run up and down the 3,022 foot peak that over looks the town.   The town normally has a population of 2500 so needless to say we got out of town fast…after eating dinner at a nice restaurant…the halibut was great by the way.   Watching the news that night showed the race and the male category winner made it up and down in 44 minutes.  We drove to Soldotna and camped for the night.  Soldotna is the central hub of Kenai Peninsula.  The world famous Kenai River is one of Soldotna’s big attractions.  We were hoping to fish from the bank but found out the Solomon were not running.  We were too late for King Salmon and too early for the reds.  We have driven down to Valdez today (Wed, 7/6) which is north east of the coast of Seward.   We drove through the largest National forest in the world,   The Tongass National forest in the Wrangler-St Elis National park ,  covers most of Southeast Alaska.   We saw many glaciers and drove within 100 yards from the large Worthington Glacier.  I wanted to walk on it but do not need to break another ankle. The temperature was a chilly 42 degrees.   We are in Valdez for a few days and hope to catch some fish.   Today on our ride we talked about what area is the most beautiful that we have seen and we decided it is where we are at the moment.   Today’s ride through the park was magnificent.