Water, water, nowhere to drink

We originally planned to skip blogging today since it was primarily a travel day. However, a couple of things happened that are worth mentioning.

We'll start with water. Our RV can carry 50 gallons (about 190 L) of fresh water. However, this is very heavy: about 417 pounds (about 190 kg since 1 L of water weighs 1 kg - yay metric system!). It is suboptimal to drive with a full tank of water: the RV handles worse than usual, and our fresh water tank tends to spill a bit when full. (We're still puzzled how Winnebago can design a waste water tank that does not spill but a fresh water tank that does. Fortunately, it's the clean water that spills). For the longer drive today, Greg figured that we would leave with only about 1/3 of a tank of fresh water, then fill it when we reach our stop tonight or tomorrow. You probably guessed that this turned out to be a bad idea...

When we stopped at the Visitor Center for Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, the Park Ranger said that we would be unable to fill our water tank from the fresh water supply when we reach McCarthy tomorrow.

OK, Greg figured that we could fill the fresh water tank at our rest tonight in Chitina. When we arrived in Chitina, we checked our guides (two apps and one book) for sources of fresh water. No luck. One campground was closed. The city well mentioned in our guidebook was extremely difficult to find. It also turned out to be abandoned and in a rough part of the small town.

Next, we have a device that can filter and purify water from a lake or stream; we used it extensively in Mexico as well as in Glacier Bay. Chitina has abundant fresh water: it is a prime fishing spot along the Copper River, source of our favorite wild salmon. We drove around looking for a place along the water to park and fill the tank. We failed to find a spot, but a fringe benefit of our search is that the RV scared a small black bear out of the woods.

This supports Amy's theory: we have encountered less wildlife lately because we have been in areas busy with people. (Excluding, of course, our trip yesterday to Katmai National Park, which we visited for the purpose of seeing wild bears). We saw the bear today because we're traveling again in the wilderness.

Finally, we turned around and went to the one full-service campground just before the village of Chitina. Huzzah, water and a quiet place to spend the night! And a valuable lesson learned: when we have a reliable source of fresh water, we will fill the tank.

Bear count

Today: 1 black bear
Total: 48 bears