Short Stories
Entry No. 3 June 17, 2004



Tok Equals Seedy!
Tok River State Campground - About 258 Miles Along

Fairbanks is a fine town, nestled in a valley of rolling hills with McKinley in the distance on a clear day. Salcha was my first stop on my trip and it was just about a Pueblo with a beautiful clear river flowing through. Delta Junction, well, let's just say that the guy with the self-made sleeveless army vest sans shirt, Texas-like belt buckle, and aviator sunglasses didn't really do anything for me except smirk. Dot Lake was beautiful and the owners of the restaurant/campsite/ convenient store/ lodge were wonderful people with 7 yapping Chihuahuas and a gorgeous Husky pup named Chena with blue eyes, a black body, white paws and tip of tail and some beige on each leg. After talking with the owners for hours and accidentally French-kissing Thumbelina, one of the Chihuahuas, Eric and Ellen offered me a free breakfast with the works to get to Tok the next day. Now, for Tok.

I arrived in Tok at about 4:30 PM and made some calls and went directly to a book store with internet. When I finished my tasks and cursed myself for forgetting a few, I meandered around town to find a place to camp for the night. After passing the first RV park with it's huge obnoxious sign that should have said: "We clear-cutted this whole area, so the few trees that we have here are just saplings because we were too lazy to think ahead and save a few trees around the grounds so as to keep shade and maintain some feeling of the outdoors" I decided I needed to move along. The Salmon Bake/RV campground didn't do much for me either. Forging ahead was a dicey proposition considering that it was already 8:15 pm but I just couldn't bring myself to support these silly people. Also, I had light on my side and the sun was to my back. I dug through my trailer and looked for my Milepost pages and luckily I found a state campground just 5 miles out of town. I popped in a Clifbar and a PBJ-filled corn tortilla and proceeded out of Seedy Tok and into a heavily wooded campground along the Tok River. I nestled in for the night after burning all of my knuckle hairs and setting my pot holder afire just to boil some water for a dehydrated meal. I dreamed about big meals already made, but home made. I awoke making a vow to look into easy recipes for outdoor cooking and stop depending on Clifbars and PBJ!



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