McCarthy, AK to Glenallen, AK

It’s Thursday morning and they don’t believe the bridge will be repaired until early next week. The overhead cross members were bent by a piece of equipment that was too tall to cross the bridge. We decided to arrange to get a shuttle to the bridge where they are allowing foot traffic across the damaged bridge to a shuttle on the other side of the bridge. We need to get to our clothes and medications in our trailer, even if we have to leave the truck behind. When the bridge is repaired, Grant plans to fly to McCarthy and pick up the truck. Our shuttle leaves at 1:30pm. So, we walk across the bridge to McCarthy (about ½ miles) to pick up groceries at a little store and have a bite of breakfast/lunch.

While we are in McCarthy, we learn that they have decided to open the bridge from 1pm to 7pm today for vehicles less than 6,000 pounds. We quickly head back across the bridge to the hostel to cancel our shuttle and pick up our truck and head for the bridge, hoping to be among the first to get across. What a relief to be back across the bridge. We pick up our trailer in Chitina, and head for Glenallen to spend the night. We plan to drive on to Soldotna tomorrow.