Fairbanks Large Animal Research (LARS)

Leslie Sunday, August 31, 2008

We’re enjoying staying on the river in Fairbanks. Because we have such a nice site, we’re slow to get moving away from camp.

We wanted to go to the Univ of Fairbanks Large Animal Research Center (LARS) which closes on Labor Day. We arrived at LARS in time for the 4:00 pm tour. LARS is a large research site/former homestead that was donated to the University of Alsaka (Fairbanks). They do research on muskox, cariboo, and reindeer. Tomorrow, Labor Day, is the last day of tours for the year.

The male muskox were in a pasture separate from the female and baby muskox.



They’re rather aggressive animals. I read in the Anchorage newspaper yesterday that a wild muskox had attached and gored a team of mushing dogs in a remote village. The dogs were chained to their dog houses in the owner’s front yard. He was a mile away tending to his fishing nets. He heard the dogs barking like crazy and returned to find the muskox attacking the dogs. After three shots he was able to kill the muskoxen. The muskoxen we saw weren’t as large as we expected, but they are dense. Here’s the female.



We next visited with a cariboo. Look at the difference between the antlers on these two. One had antlers which had largely shed their velvet; on the other the velvet was still intact.



See the velvet peeling off.



And here's a big boy.



As we were watching the cariboo, a beautiful red fox crossed the field. He’s beautiful.





After our large animal experience we returned to camp. We feel so lucky to be situated on the banks of this very pretty river. We fixed crackers and cheese and spent the evening sitting at a picnic table overlooking the river. The neighborhood ducks came to visit. Check out the pretty purple color on the feathers.




Later I went out to photograph this pretty sunset.




We know autumn is coming and we have to get moving south but we’ve extended our stay here for two more days so we can plan our route.

Large Animal Research Station

Robert, Sunday, August 31

We went to the Large Animal Research Station to see musk oxen and caribou. We saw both and as a bonus, a red fox trotted out into view. After the tour there, we came back to the trailer. It was early enough that it was still warm. We grabbed a bottle of wine, some cheese and crackers, and sat along the river enjoying the view. I have to tell you this traveling in our RV is a tough life. It eventually cooled down as the sun dropped toward the horizon. We came in and ate dinner. Then I crashed while Leslie surfed the web.

Fairbanks Farmer's Market

Leslie Saturday, August 30, 2008

Our site is so pretty along the river that we hung around camp most of the day. It’s not raining! This is wonderful. We wanted to stop by the county farmer’s market in the afternoon.



This was the largest farmer’s market we’ve seen. There were many booths selling crafts and vegetables. The vegetables were very pricy. 1/2 cup of fresh peas was $2.00. Tomatoes were $5.00/lb.



And even some furs. This beaver pelt was priced at $80. We didn’t buy anything.



We’d avoided the laundry chore for two weeks so today was the day to catch up. Luckily we found a new laundromat with no customers except us. That made the process pretty quick since we didn’t have to wait for any machines.

Diesel is down to $4.89 in Fairbanks.

Laundry Day

Robert, Saturday, August 30

We set out to scout laundromats today. The first one was close to the university and it was very crowded. The second one was almost deserted. Actually, beside us, there was the manager. The manager told Leslie that he had just opened up and people had not discovered this laundry yet. We got the laundry without waiting for anything other than for it to finish. We also bought a thermometer for the freezer. We have an alarm that sounds when the temperature rises to 15 degrees or higher. We bought a regular indoor-outdoor thermometer that uses a wire to the outside rather than a wireless one. As the freezer has a metal case, I don’t think that a wireless one would work. Before we set out, we defrosted and marinated a flank steak. When we got back to the trailer, I grilled it outside while Leslie fixed stuffed baked potatoes inside. It was great. Then we spent a little time on the internet and I turned in.

Alaska in the National Political News!!!

Leslie Friday, August 29, 2008

I don’t usually write about politics but I believe that part of the benefit of travel is to learn about and understand other people. I am certain that my world view was shaped by all the traveling I was fortunate to experience as a child and young adult. Alaska is very different from the lower 48 and even more different from Washington, DC where I lived for more than 30 years. Alaska is comprised of very tiny towns and villages separated by huge distances. Many, many people (even those who live in towns) still provide a great portion of their family’s food by hunting and fishing. Big Oil companies provide the revenue to run the state. All Oil is good because it provides the annual subsidies to the citizens of Alaska.

Early in the day we were glued to the TV — John McCain has announced that Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska, is to be his running mate. Palin has been governor for almost 2 years and before that she was mayor of Wasilla - a town of 5,000 people. I think it is difficult for people to imagine just how small the towns in Alaska are – and even how small the state of Alaska is. Alaska has more moose than people and the state population is about the same as the town of Austin, Texas. Watching the primary campaigns on Alaska TV for the past month or so, we noticed that every politician in Alaska, regardless of party, calls themself as “conservative”. Sarah Palin is radically conservative – a Pat Buchanon Republican, supporting teaching creationism in public schools, hunting wildlife from airplanes, drilling for oil in the Alaska national wildlife refuge, and against listing polar bears as endangered species, a proposal forbidding large mining companies from polluting natural streams and killing salmon, and in favor of outlawing all abortions, with no exceptions (including rape and incest). When asked if she had ever traveled outside the US one Alaska reporter said, “she went to college in Idaho and she visited the troops in Iraq.” I guess that McCain selected her to try to bring in the far right of the Republican party. – really scary if 72 year old McCain happens to win.

Off soap box.....

In the afternoon we checked out the Visitor’s Information Center in downtown Fairbanks. That lead us to Pioneer’s Village, a city owned park.



There are old cabins in Pioneer’s Village that were moved there from downtown. Most of the cabins were built around 1905-1915 and interestingly were still occupied as residences until the late 1960s. Today most of the cabins are small shops.

One cabin is a museum. It shows the home of a single woman in 1910. She purchased the home and lot in downtown Fairbanks for $11.23 as evidenced by the deed posted on the wall. The wooden cabin had 2 rooms on the first floor and a bedroom upstairs. (No indoor plumbing) The funny thing I noticed was a manual carpet sweeper. I told the docent that I remembered a similar carpet sweeper; I didn’t think that was so old. – That’s another thing about Alaska, it was mostly settled fairly recently, at least as far as American history relates. (When I lived in New Jersey the historical focus was the Revolutionary War; in Virginia the historical focus was the War of Northern Aggression (aka the Civil War); in Colorado the historical focus is the 1850 gold rush, and in Alaska it is the 1905 gold rush).



And perfect to locate near the jewelry shops....



Notice this picture of a cache. A cache is an elevated place to store meat. Because your cabin is heated (with a stove), when you shoot a moose in winter you need to be able to store the meat in a cold place safe from other predictors. Many rural homes in Alaska have a cache out in front.



I couldn’t resist making Robert pose as a musher.

A Day in Fairbanks

Robert, Friday, August 29

We went to the visitor’s center today. We had a bunch of questions about things to do in Fairbanks. We got a handful of brochures and directions to some of the places we want to visit. In truth, sometimes the GPS does a better job of getting us where we want to go than directions from someone in the visitor’s center. After that we set off for the Pioneer Park. It is a city park where 30 or so old log cabins have been relocated and preserved. Most of the cabins have shops in them selling things like jewelry and T-shirts. There is also an old paddle wheel boat right in the middle of the park. The boat is at least 150 feet long and 40 feet wide. I didn’t ask how they got it in the park. As the nearest water some distance away, it must have been quite a job to move it to the park. After that, we went to the restaurant that is part of the campground. In addition to RV sites, the campground has small cabins and a restaurant. We had looked at the menu and it looked good. The food was turned out to be good and we enjoyed our dinner. The restaurant is right on the river with both indoor and outdoor seating. We waived but decided to sit indoors although it was a beautiful evening. There were people sitting outdoors but as we ate, they kept coming inside as the temperature was dropping from the 60s to the 50s. After that, we came back to the trailer and called it a night.

Fairbanks Arrival

Leslie Thursday, August 28, 2008

We drove from Denali to Fairbanks. As we move further into the interior, the weather should be more at the extremes. Fairbanks is consider tropical in Alaska in the summer – the temperature sometimes reaches the high 80s — but come winter, cold is real. At a Princess tourist site in in Denali and again in Fairbanks I’ve seen the ultimate tacky tourist experience — come see what it’s like at 40 below.



40 below zero is the point at which the Fahrenheit and Celsius scales merge. The tourist deal was to don a parka and enter a special room where the temperature is 40 below zero. They’d take your picture and issue a certificate for $10. We didn’t partake. What I did learn that was rather interesting is that in Fairbanks they never close schools for cold. If the temperature is as low as 20 below, they still have recess outdoors in elementary schools. From -20 to -40, it is principal’s discretion. If the students are going on a bus trip within the district in winter, they are required to have winter hats, gloves, parka, and sleeping bag. All trips continue within the district unless the temperature is lower than 40 below. Bus trips are not permitted to leave the district if the temperature is lower than -20. Everyone dresses in layers – but of course.

We are staying at Rivers Edge RV Park in Fairbanks. It is a delightful park with wide spaces separated by trees and grass. Our site is close to the river. There are ducks in the river who beg in the park. They’re quite successful.



Our view is excellent.

On to Fairbanks

Robert, Thursday, August 28

Today we drove to Fairbanks. The campground here is right on the banks of the Chena River. Our site is about 100 feet from the river. It is a very pretty campground. We got here and set up. After checking out the WiFi, we went to FredMeyer to get groceries. The store is enormous and the checkout clerk told us it is the largest FredMeyer store. I can believe it. We got some groceries and went back to the trailer. A few sites away from us there were a bunch of ducks panhandling for food. They probably live in the river and this is their turf. We had dinner and I turned in.

This shows where we were in Denali Nat'l Park and now in Fairbanks. The two are about 110 miles apart.

Moose Real Close

Leslie Wednesday, August 27, 2008

While we traveled so long on the bus yesterday, we decided that today we’d explore independently. We wanted to check out the Alaska National Geographic Bookstore. While they had many interesting things, nothing moved me to buy.

We decided to drive into the park as far as private vehicles are permitted. I wanted to get some pictures of the landscape with the colors changing. This morning around 9:00 am the temperature was 38 degrees. Fall is in the air. I forgot to mention that it rained yesterday on the Tundra Wilderness Tour but today is sunny.

We started out looking for landscape pictures. Here’s the reds of the ground cover.




And even some yellow birch trees.




We wanted to get back to the trailer by 4:00 pm to run the generator. We arrived at the turn around at 3:00 pm. As we drove back along the park road, we noticed that several cars were stopped along the road. In Yellowstone we learned that other cars parked along the road generally means that someone has seen some animal. Yes, I saw two moose deep in the field. The moose were both male – and they were bashing their antlers against each other. This is the beginning of moose rutting season and it appeared that these two were sizing each other up. We stopped and I climbed in the bed of the truck. The moose continued to act aggressively toward each other - clacking their antlers against each other. They were moving in our direction (this is so unusual – animals almost always move away from people, that’s why I have so many pictures of animals bottoms). Over the next half hour the moose moved toward the road (and us). Different cars stopped. We were very lucky in that we could move the truck forward and back to get the best pictures as the moose were partially hidden by the brush along the road.

More cars stopped – some of the cars were filled with fools. Moose are notoriously aggressive animals and these people were standing on the road as it was clear that two MALE moose would soon emerge from the brush. We were both standing in the bed of the truck on top of the extra fuel tank. We were standing at about 8 ft in the air. The passenger side door of the truck was open. If the moose had charged the truck, I know that I could have climbed into the cab; it would have taken some athletic ability but I could have done it. The fools were standing in the road and they couldn’t see (as we could up high) that the moose would soon come onto the road. We expected to see a moose stampede.

The moose actually decided to come closer toward us and crossed the road behind our truck. The car you see is parked just behind our truck. This was as close as I ever want to be to a wild moose. Look at him glaring at me!





Look at the moose clacking their antlers against each other.








The moose were 8 ft at the shoulders and 10 ft at the top of the head. We were standing so our feet were at 9 feet. It was an amazing experience to have these moose pass so close. The white car in this picture is parked about 10 feet behind our truck.

Moose Up Close

Robert, Wednesday, August 27

After the grueling bus trip yesterday, we decided to cancel the even longer bus trip we had scheduled for today. The trip was to leave in the morning at 10:00 and as cancellations had to be two hours in advance to get a refund, I got up and drove to the information center to cancel by 8:00. The weather today was great. After we had lunch, we went to the visitor’s center. They have a bookstore that we wanted to browse. We then decided to drive into the park a little way. The first nine miles into the park is a paved road and private vehicles can go that far. Beyond that, only tour buses, vehicles with permits and going to one of the campgrounds further in the park, and a select few such as professional photographers and researchers can proceed. We drove in to get some photographs of the changing fall colors in to the park. There is a short bush that has turned red and it covers entire hillsides. Also there are birch trees that have turned yellow. The sun shining today made the colors stand out. After the nine miles in, we turned around and headed back out. Along the way, there were several cars stopped along the road. This is normally a sign that someone has seen something. Sure enough, about a half mile off to the side were two bull moose. We pulled over and watched. As there were bushes along the edge of the road, it made watching difficult. I rolled up the cover on the back of the truck and we climbed up on the auxiliary fuel tank. That put our view eleven feet above ground level. The two bulls we mildly pushing each other around. This is the start of the rutting season and they were sizing each other up. And as they did so, they kept moving closer and closer to the road. We backed up to let a bus through and had the best location possible. The bulls entered the brush right along side of the road. There were still people standing on the edge of the road. I was sure we were going to be watching a moose stomp. At the last minute the people were diving for cover as the moose came up on the road. I told one spectator that I wasn’t moving as we were well out of the way and the truck is insured. The moose crossed the road between the truck and the car immediately behind us. I could have spit and hit them. It was about as close to wild moose as you can be. I am glad we took the flight seeing trip in Telkeetna as this is the third time we have been to the park and except for the flight, we have never seen Mt. McKinley. After that we came back to the trailer. We killed some time and then went into town to check out the gift shop sales. We had already decided to eat dinner out. After all that we came back to the trailer and crashed.

Tundra Wilderness Tour

Leslie Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Three years ago when we were at Denali we took some bus tour into the park. Bus tours or bus shuttles (or hike) are the only way to get in to the park. We were very disappointed then because the bus driver drove too fast and we didn’t see animals. Back in March when I planned our time in Denali for this summer, I wanted to make sure that we took a better tour this time. I signed us up for the Tundra Wilderness Tour. The tour was supposed to run from 1:00 pm - 9:30 pm. When we picked up our tickets, I noticed that we were scheduled for a 2:30 tour. I didn’t really think about it at the time, but that would make for a very late return.

The campground registration person told us to go into town to one of the hotels to board the bus because the best seats go quickly. We followed her advice. The bus is a retrofitted school bus. The retrofit was to install 2 separate seats in place of the standard “bench” seat everyone remembers from high school and to install a video camera system so that the driver can zoom in on a distant animal and passengers can see the animal on a video screen. The bus was packed like sardines! Five adults were crammed into the back seat. Unfortunately because the bus was so crowded, the day felt really long and we weren’t able to see as well as we would have liked. If someone has never been to Denali previously, I’d probably recommend that they take the tour, but we would never do it again. (Cost was $237 for both of us.) The other disappointment with the tour was that we got back a bit after 10:00 pm. Because it’s late in the season, the last hour of the tour was a waste – it was pitch dark. The driver was a great tour guide. During the winter he is a guide at Yellowstone driving one of the snow coaches. (Visiting Yellowstone in winter is on my list of things I want to do.) We got box snacks (roll, piece of cheese, reindeer sausage slices (like pepperoni) and bottle of water). Because the National Park Service doesn’t want any animals to get any “people food”, you have to eat your snack in the crowded bus. Most people had additional food along, but frankly it was difficult to eat because I couldn’t put one more thing on my lap.

The Tundra Wilderness Tour goes about 60 miles into the park. The road is paved for the first 9 miles, then gravel.




The highlight of the day was a grizzly bear who was digging roots very near the turn around. The grizzly was on the opposite side of the bus so I had to hover over other people to take these pictures.









I like this picture because you can see the size of his paw. Look at that foot!



Late as we got back near the park entrance we saw several moose. It was too dark to get pictures.

As we traveled on the bus we discussed that we really didn’t want to take the shuttle bus that we had booked for tomorrow. I couldn’t stand being trapped on another bus for 10+ hours.

Looong Bus Trip

Robert, Tuesday, August 26

The bus for the tour makes two stops to pick up passengers. The first is in town and the second is in the park at the information center. When we checked into the campground, we also got our tickets for the tour at the same time. The woman assisting us recommended to us that we should go into town to get on the tour bus. Although the information center is close to the campground, she said that the bus loads up in town we individuals on organized tours. Waiting until the bus gets to the information center might mean a poor choice of seats. We drove into town to catch the bus. Almost all of the seats were quickly filled but we were near the first of the line and got good ones. Everyone on the bus got a box lunch but it was not something to write home about. Our bus driver was very knowledgeable about the park: its history, its geology, its wildlife, and its flora. For the first part of the journey, we saw Dall sheep or as I call them “white dots.” Dall sheep are snowy white and when you see them at a mile away, they are little more than white dots. They live high up in the rocky cliffs where the road doesn’t go. Finally, just before we got to the turn around point, we saw a grizzly bear right beside the road. The bear was digging and eating roots about 30 feet from the bus. There is only one road into the park so you go in, turn around, and come back out the same way. The bus stops about every hour and a half where there are rest rooms but other than that, it is a long bus ride. The bus also had every seat filled and the seats were just not that comfortable. As a result, on the way back it was becoming that everyone on the bus was getting tired. Someone would point out more “white dots” and most on the bus just sat with the attitude of whatever. On the way back we saw a lot of snowshoe hares. They change from brown to white as summer changes into winter. These all had white feet and bellies but the rest of them was still brown. A fox ran in front of the bus but we were too far back to see it and of course we see foxes all the time at home. Finally as we were nearing the end of the trip, we saw several moose. One was feeding in a pond and a little further was a cow and calf. As we didn’t start the trip until 2:30, it was now 9:30 and getting dark so it wasn’t the best light for photographs. We got off the bus at 10:30 and headed back to the trailer. We turned in soon thereafter.

Camped in Denali

Leslie Monday, August 25, 2008

We moved further north along the Parks Hwy to Denali National Park. As we travel north, it is obvious that autumn is here. The trees and ground cover have turned to reds and yellows.




Denali National Park is huge – over 6.4 billion (yes, Billion) acres. There is only one road into the park and private vehicle travel is extremely limited.



We’re staying in Riley Creek campground which is located just inside the park. Some of the sites are set aside for rig over 31 ft in length. The sites are very nice, with a picnic table and a fire pit, but there are no hook ups. We filled our 100 gallon fresh water tank before we left Telkeetna. If we’re careful with water, we’ll be fine for three days. We’re allowed to run our generator from 8-10 am and 4-8 pm. We need to run the generator to keep the fish in the freezer frozen and to keep the rig batteries charged. It takes a fair amount of battery power to extend and retract the hydraulic slides and to raise and lower the landing gear (feet in the corners that hold up the trailer).

We’ve been carrying fire wood in the back of the truck for a couple of weeks. Denali is the perfect place for a campfire. We had no rain today! So we enjoyed a nice campfire before the mosquitos came on attack.

Move to Denali National Park

Robert, Monday, August 25

Today we moved from Telkeetna to Denali Nat’l Park. We got to the Riley Creek Campground in the early afternoon. The campground right inside the park entrance and has no hookups. We got out one of the generators so that we could keep the freezer running. The campground allows generators from 8:00 to 10:00 in the morning and 4:00 to 8:00 in the late afternoon. We have two generators that can each output 2,000 watts. They can be connected so that they synchronize and proved a total of 4,000 watts of power. I just hooked up one of them as that is more than enough to run the freezer and keep the batteries charged. After we got set up, we drove over to the information center to see what we could do on Wednesday. Tomorrow we have a reservation on a tour called the Tundra Wilderness Tour. It is an 8 hour bus trip into the park with the purpose of seeing wildlife. At the information center, they recommended that we take a bus ride on Wednesday that goes further into the park than the tour tomorrow. We bought tickets to go at 10:00 Wednesday morning. From there we drove to the visitor’s center to see that. After that we returned to the trailer, ate dinner and called it a night.

Salty Dog is Famous

Leslie August 24, 2008

Last evening after we returned to the rig and got dried off and warm, we watched a caravan pull into the campground. Caravans are commercial groups organized to provide a group leader and a tail runner to a group fo RVs traveling together. The cost of a typical caravan in Alaska is $4-5 thousand dollars and they last about 20 days. In addition to the organization and staff, they typically cover the campground fees. Our opinion is that a caravan is WAY over-priced and we would never be happy with the organization. (Our campground fees average about $30-32/day in Alaska (much less, perhaps half that in the lower 48)). This caravan was funny to watch however. There were more than 20 rigs in the caravan. They began to pull into the campground around 6:30 pm. The last one arrived in the dark well after 10:00 pm. By 8:30 am this morning, they had all left, moving on down the road. We can’t figure out why they would have come to Telkeetna (14 miles off the main road) for a night, only to not see any of the town, and then move on. My guess is that they had just finished some tour at Denali and didn’t want to drive any further south towards Anchorage last night. There are campgrounds along the Parks Highway where they could have avoided the 14 mile diversion but we don’t know the reason. Our goal is to never spend only one night in any place. There is just too much work setting up and breaking camp to make a one night stop worth anything. We’d much rather drive further on one day and take the next day off on vacation. To each his own! Our campground was empty by 11:00 am this morning. There were only 3 rigs left, the owner, us, and a man who is here for the entire summer as a pilot for one of the flight seeing companies.

I just happened on to the Washington Post webpage where I routinely read the news. The key photo – “above the line” is of the Salty Dog Saloon in Homer, Alaska.



I had photographed the Salty Dog but hadn’t posted that picture earlier. The site sure brings politics back to us in remote Alaska. Alaska has ballot measure next week, Proposition #4, relates to the regulation of mining. The resolution puts pro-mining against pro-fishing – both are economic powerhouses in Alaska. You can’t imagine the amount of press, money, advertisements, spent on this issue. On the TV here the advertisements are constant. I think it comes down to: Prop #4 will prohibit mining where it will harm a key salmon fishery industry. The Native American lands are not subject to the same environmental standards as others. Many advertisements promote how once the Native Americans started working in the mines, they regained their self-respect. (There seems to be an argument of self-reliance vise environmental (and fishing) concerns. I’m guessing that the self-reliance argument is somewhat specious – what we have seen of Native villages is quite dismal.) There is no question that Pebble Mine will harm the Alaska environment. If I were an Alaskan I would vote in favor pr opsition #4. The Pebble Mine isn't going to help the workers but it certainly will harm the fishermen.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/24/AR2008082401674.html?hpid=artslot

The other reason I had planned to post this picture of the Salty Dog is that a few days after we left Homer we were watching a series of Deadliest Catch on TV and the crew of the Time Bandit was returning to Homer. After greeting their families, their firsts stop was the Salty Dog. Now I’m beginning to wonder why we never made time for a stop there. ???

Our Sunday was quiet. I spent hours organizing the photos from the last few weeks. Late in the afternoon we walked back in to town to visit the shop where I had seen great wool sweaters. I did buy a fuzzy wool sweater thinking about the coming winter. We then moved on to the General Store for ice cream. Wow! I don’t eat much ice cream but I do think that the serving size has increased dramatically over the years. They had a sign at the counter that said you have 3 seconds to choose your favor or else they will choose it for you! Robert pointed out to me that they had peppermint (real peppermint, not mint chocolate chip) ice cream. No decision for me. We both enjoyed our ice cream before walking back to camp.

Surprise, surprise, as we walked along the road it started to rain. Come on, we’ve been here three days and every single day, as we walk home, it starts to rain. :-( But today we fooled the clouds. We started home earlier so it only sprinkled! The hard rain occurred after we got back home.

Monday we move on to Riley Creek Campground at Denali National Park. We won’t have hook up so we’ll likely be back in touch on Thursday when we reach Fairbanks.

Last Day in Telkeetna

Robert, Sunday, August 24

We spent all morning doing stuff on the internet. In the afternoon we walked into town so that Leslie could look at some sweaters she had seen. This time of year is a good one if you want to buy tourist clothing in Alaska. All of the shops have signs that say, “50% Off Sale.” Well, this worked for Leslie as she bought a sweater for 50% off. After that we walked down the street and got ice cream. I love ice cream and this is the first time since we left home that we have had ice cream. Yum! Then we walked back to the trailer. I renamed the road, formerly known as the Telkeetna Spur, as Rain Way. We got rained on as we walked. Every time we have walked back to the trailer along this road we have been rained on. Not else to report except we leave in the morning for Denali. The campground there will not have internet so we will be out of touch for a while.

Mt. McKinley

Robert, Saturday, August 23

It rained like the devil last night. In the trailer, the roof is right over your head so you hear the pitter-patter of rain drops. I thought this means another rainy, gloomy day. And I thought we would have to reschedule our flight seeing. When we got up, it was cloudy but soon the overcast started breaking up. Sunshine! Maybe not all is lost after all. We ate lunch and headed into town to see the open air market. That was a bust. Six booths were selling homemade jewelry. We had seen it all in about two minutes. We walked down to the river to see if we could see Mt. McKinley from there. The river is one of the places in town that you can get a view of the mountain. The reason is that you look across the river and so the trees don’t block the view. We could see part of the mountain but the top was blocked by clouds. Having checked out the shops downtown, we walked back to the campsite. Leslie has one shop picked out where she wants to back to for the hand-knitted sweaters that are on an end-of-season sale. That will be on tomorrow’s agenda. The trees are starting to turn so I guess the fall is almost here, at least in Alaska. We walked to the airport for the flight seeing. To the southeast there were dark clouds that were approaching. When we checked-in, we were told that there was a good chance that the top of the mountain would be visible so we set off with our pilot to go see. As there was just Leslie and I as passengers, we were in a Cessna 185. They also have two larger aircraft when they have more passengers. The 185 has six seats but the back two are for midgets and the middle two aren’t much bigger. I sat in the right front seat and Leslie had the middle seat all to herself. As we climbed from the airport, we went through rain but on the other side it was looking pretty good. Our pilot knew a lot about the area and pointed out sights on the way. We all had headsets with microphones so it was easy to talk. As we got closer, the mountain came into view. The sun was shining and we could see the entire mountain. The top of the mountain is more than 20,000 feet and the base is 2,000 feet. The highest we got was 11,000 feet so we were looking at the side of the mountain. We flew between several of the nearby peaks and the mountain and it was very scenic. As it was late in the afternoon, the sunshine coming almost horizontally made it more so. Our pilot told us he had climbed McKinley three times and also some of the surrounding peaks. We had signed up for an around-the-mountain flight but the north side was solid clouds so we made several U-turns and passed up the north side. All of the pilots who flying around the mountain announce where they are located every 3-5 minutes. This is in lieu of having air traffic control. They also tell each other about weather conditions. One told our pilot that to go around the north side of the mountain we would have to go above 14,000 feet. In a small plane without oxygen that is not a great idea. Also, losing sight of the ground in a small plane not advised. Soon we were on the way back to the airport. Our landing was one of the smoothest I have ever experienced. Some commercial pilots slam it on the ground but this was smooth as silk. The flight lasted an hour and a half. After that we walked into town and ate in the restaurant where we had drinks yesterday. When we came out of the restaurant, it was sprinkling, As we walked the half mile back to the campsite it kept coming down harder and harder. By the time we got here, we were soaked. Turned up the heat and changed clothes and soon we were warmed up. I crashed soon afterward.

Flightseeing to Mt McKinley

Leslie Saturday, August 23, 2008

We began the day with another walk to town to check out the outdoor market. I’ve come to think that every little town in Alaska holds an outdoor market several days a week. While I would expect some produce, what we’ve usually found is homemade jewelry and baskets, some jams, a few pictures or paintings. Other than some vegetables in Palmer, we’ve rarely seen anything we were interested in buying. I guess what I’m most surprised about is how small these markets are: usually only a few booths. Perhaps that actually makes sense when you consider the size of these towns.

We walked through town again. This time I checked out a few of gift shops. I did see some wool sweaters that caught my attention. Perhaps I’ll make it back there tomorrow to seriously consider one.

Late yesterday we made plans to take a flight seeing trip around Mt McKinley. McKinley is highest peak in North America. Robert has always wanted to see the mountain but that’s a difficult challenge. Due to the height (over 20,000 ft.) and the weather patterns, the mountain is most often obscured by clouds. When we had talked with one of the flight seeing operators yesterday, he told us that here in town we’re 60 miles from the mountain and that the weather here is little indication of whether the mountain will be visible from the air. Flight seeing trips are quite pricey so we only wanted to go if we would actually see the mountain. The deal with the air transport companies is that you can cancel without penalty if the reports are that the mountain isn’t visible. When we walked to the plane we were told that returning pilots reported that there was a good chance we’d see the mountain, so we decided to take the chance.

This is the small, single engine plane we rode.



The single engine plane could carry the pilot plus 5 passenger but we were the only passengers. I graciously suggested that Robert take the front seat. :-) This turned out to be useful for photography because I could slide from side to side in the second row whereas his view was sometimes obscured by the plane parts. (I was also extremely glad to not be in the front seat when we flew through a rain storm on the way to the mountain.) The young pilot was very knowledgeable. He told us that he’s been flying for 6 years, mostly in Montana.


We crossed vast amounts of tundra.



The small airplane in the picture is flying at 2,200 feet. We were at 4,200 feet. As Robert noted in his blog, the pilots announce their present location over the radio every few minutes.

After the rain storm we were lucky to see McKinley come in to view.



We flew around one side of the mountain but due to heavy cloud cover we couldn’t fly all the way around the mountain. The pilot explained that although he is certified for instrument flying, it isn’t very safe in such a small plane – mostly it would give you a few seconds warning before you smash into a mountain. No thanks!













We flew over many glaciers and could gain from the air a better understanding of how the glaciers move. In the next few pictures you see several glaciers joining together. The dark line in the middle is a central moraine. The moraine is created by the glaciers grinding rocks over the centuries. As the glaciers come together the edges comprised of ground rocks form a line between the two glaciers.





One last look at Mt McKinley as we started back.



As we flew over the tundra, you can see the colors starting to change.



Here we are having survived the flight.



Afterward we walked back in to town for dinner at the West Rim Café. Because the weather was threatening to rain, we decided to each indoors. The food was surprisingly good and the prices the most reasonable we’ve seen in Alaska. As we left the café, it started to rain. I had Robert put the camera in my backpack. By the time we were half way back, it was pouring. At least I had a fleece jacket. We walked as quickly as possible, but got soaked nonetheless. I had on nylon pants which were soaked through. The temperature was in the low 50s. It is easy to understand how hyperthermia can occur when someone gets wet at moderate temperatures. We got inside and quickly changed into warm, dry clothes.