Two New Posts -

 Hi

We've made two new posts – Hunting Denali and Spa Day. We're getting caught up from major computer problems.
We are currently sitting in a Wallmart parking lot, using Tom's phone as a hot spot.  We've have really learned to appreciate technologic infrastructure, having been so many places without it !
Cheers to all - Happy trails.

Spa and Computer Day

Our chariot, who we now fondly call 'Daisy', was due for some attention.

After drowning ourselves in Mt. McKinley's (Denali) beauty, we took her north to the big city of Fairbanks. Along the way, we stuck our head into Denali National Park to mail a few postcards and to confirm our upcoming camp reservation at Denali National Park.

That went well and we saw some fun stuff along the way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We stopped to see the bus that Alex (?last name) lived in in 1992 in his attempt to live in the wild.   A book (Into the Wild) and a documentary movie were written about it.  The inside of the bus has pictures he took of himself and the way he was living, plus copies of postcards and journal entries.  It's a bit sad to see - just out in the open, rotting to the elements, a testimony of an adventure that went very badly.

 

Daisy had a day at the spa. She got a bath, oil and various other filters changed, and windshield ding repaired.  

 

She looks great and is ready for part B of the trip.

In our time in Fairbanks, we replaced Kris's computer, which crashed … literally. It flew off the seat while underway (oops), and then got idiosyncratic and eventually wouldn't work. It crashed, then crashed. We did take it to a 'Geek' shop and they were very kind to diagnose the problem without charging us. Yeah Sams club for having one that will work. It's been a challenge to get the required photo processing software since internet access is so limited an no store in town sells a boxed version of Photoshop Elements. Grrrrrr. Barnes and Noble internet wasn't fast enough to download the program purchased on line. We eventually went to a Verizon store, told them we were Verizon customers (which they confirmed) and begged for good internet access. That worked. After many hours of download, unzip, activate, help phone calls etc, we're up and running again on pictures. OMG was THAT painful !! Note to self: secure electronics very well.

Another event using Fairbanks as a base camp was our trip to the Arctic Circle. Discussion of that is in a separate post.

Hunting Denali (Mt. McKinley)

 When we were in Alaska 10 years ago, we never saw Mt. McKinley in all it's glory. This trip is more than making up for that.

We limped into a campground (more like a parking lot … actually it WAS a parking lot) with a flat tire, and had a great view of the top of the mountain, but just the top.

After the tire was changed, repaired, and recovered, we felt inspired to seek out better views, perhaps of the WHOLE mountain – not just the top. We headed south, stopping at Mary Carey's place. That was worth the trip. Mary Carey established a homestead in the exact spot that many people argue is the very best reasonably accessible view of Denali. She was an author, publishing many books about her Alaska life. She was a strong proponent for construction of roads that would allow visitors to see Denali mountain. Her family still owns the property.

So what's the big deal about Danali (Mount McKinley) ??

It's the tallest peak in North America at an elevation of 20,320. What makes it particularly dramatic, is that one can view nearly the entire mountain, from top to bottom when viewing from a height of about 375 feet (in Talkeetna). The extreme and entire verticality, all in one view, is quite impressive. The word Denali means 'the High one' in native Athabascan Indian language. McKinley had no connection to the mountain. There are complex (mostly federal) issues that have blocked returning the official name of the mountain to Denali.

The first officially documented assent was in 1913. Today, about 1200 per year attempt the assent, flying into base camp at 7200 feet, and slightly more than half complete the assent. The trek takes about 3 weeks from that point. There are a few climbing deaths per year.
The mountain is still growing, at about the same rate as a fingernail grows.The Chulitna River is green from spring glacial melt that carries large quantities of silt.

Near Mary Carey's place we set up camp, and enjoyed an evening with the mountain.

We continued south, having lunch on the balcony of the hotel where we stayed 10 years earlier. Again … MAGNIFICANT views and afternoon. As we sat there, planes that take 'around the mountain ' tours were landing. Seemed like it might be fun to try one of these. So, off to Talkeetna we went. 

Talkeetna (population 800) is an artsy funky town that serves as a base camp for hiking, mountain climbing and fishing expeditions. We like Talkeetna, spending the afternoon cruising the town, eating a string of appetizers at a local pub, then returning to the camper to charge camera batteries for our scheduled flight-see the next morning with K2 Aviation.

Right in our backyard at the campground.

The decision for a flight tour of Denali and the surrounding mountains turned out to be one of the clearest, calmest flying days they've ever seen. And we LOVED the tour .

Feast your eyes:

Planned Detour.

 

We have made such good time, seen everything (so far) that we wanted to see, that we are scheduled to arrive in Fairbanks a week earlier than we need for our booked trip to the Arctic Circle on the 20^th.  So we decided to add a ‘loop’ between Anchorage to the south, and Fairbanks to the north.  The mission was to drive the Denali Highway (110 miles of dirt, potholes, loose gravel … you get it), in a westerly direction pointed at Mt. McKinley (Mount Denali) the whole way.  If we leave in the morning with the east sun pointing on the mountain, AND the weather is clear, it could be spectacular. A lot of ‘ifs’…

The first 80 miles of the trip was on Richardson Highway – a well paved road connecting Fairbanks with Valdez.  It is reportedly one of the prettiest highways in Alaska, and it did not disappoint.Many stretches have lupine along the edge of the road

We did pass the pipeline several times en route.  

We drove right past rainbow ridge. 

It’s kind of funny following the guidebook and the road signs.  By the end of the day, it can be easy to blow off yet another pull-out.  We were flying down the road, and saw a sign for yet another pull-out and couldn’t figure out what the view was.  So thinking we might not want to miss something, we went ahead into the pull-out, turned the RV around to look behind us rather than in front of us.  Boy was THAT a good plan. 

There were numerous glaciers clearly visible from the road.

We camped at a BLM (Bureau of Land Management) government campground (no services), and managed to snag a waterfront site in the tangle lakes region – lakes that formed as glaciers receded.  

We were greeted by a porcupine.  

This area is rich with archeological remains from ancient people who lived here 10,000 years ago (easy access to water and herd animals). 

There were grouse at our site.

Denali Highway the next day:  

The Denali Highway is 134 miles long with 20 of them paved.  We liked the paved road, but not the unpaved, which in many ways was worse than the top of the world highway. 

 The views and the good weather MORE than made up for the difference.  

Along the way, we stopped at Gracious House lodge for an ice cream cone.  The place is for sale.  No … we didn’t even THINK about it.  The owner does try to sell everyone who comes in, wanting to know if we’d like a change in lifestyle.  The owners have run the lodge for 50 years, they are 72, he had open heart surgery 4 months ago, and they need to sell.  They have had an interesting life here. The antlers are included in the sale

We crossed many rivers popular for canoeing.  Notices indicate ‘fast flowing waters, water temperature = 45degrees, an unprotected person will survive 6-10 minutes in the water’.We passed the Wrangell Mountains (heights 14-16,000 feet), rounded a turn, and were looking right at the Alaska Range. 

We made friends along the way. Stinky liked this one

We set up camp in a boondock spot (free camping – such as Walmart, or rest area) spot with a distant view of Denali mountain.  There were large animal carcass bones at the site, and we eventually saw private property signs.  

AND, we were still very far from Denali, so we picked up and headed further south, through construction, 

to Denali State Park campground – a parking lot with a reasonably good view of Denali, 

and a great view of the surrounding mountains.  We also arrived with a flat tire.  There is no cell phone service and our little compressor isn’t doing the job. 

Night night – we’ll deal with this tomorrow.

More pictures from the day