On our way to Valdez

Back on the road and heading south for the steamy beaches and the Salmon Rich waters of Valdez (pronounced Val-Deez, so we were told). Jimmy and Sharon said that the drive to Valdez was THE best drive in Alaska. We thought that was quite a statement as we had been on some pretty spectacular roads here in Alaska already. It was a cooler day with the clouds hanging low and the rain drizzling down. We were leaving the lower hills of this part of Alaska and moving into the coastal mountains. The hills were still mostly green here as the temperatures were holding a bit warmer. We have been following Autumn on this trip and have been constantly amazed by the display of colors that each region has to offer. The forests here resemble those in Colorado with a mix of Spruce, Pine and Aspen, though this area has a great number of Birch as well. The undergrowth here is a wonderful mix of cranberry, blueberry, crowberry and current which all create a colorful bed for the trees, not to mention the great snacking! Rock bluffs and walls of varying colors and textures punctuate the greens, yellows, oranges and reds of the foliage. Then, to be sure we are getting the best possible show possible, there are big and small lakes dotting the landscape which reflect the opposite hillside. All this and rivers too. It is an endless series of… “Check THAT out!” and “Look… over There…” and “Are you serious?”

Beyond the display immediately in front of us were the peaks of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. This is the eastern end of the Alaska Range, north of Cordova and bordering Canada. It boasts 14 of the 20 tallest peaks in North America (including Mexico and Canada) with the greatest collection of peaks over 16,000’ on the continent! It is the largest National Park in the United States… at 13.2 million acres it is bigger than Death Valley, Yellowstone, The Grand Canyon and The Everglades COMBINED! This is an area that we did not get to explore this time. We were headed that way when we got that flat on the McCarthy Road as the park pretty much begins where the McCarthy road ends. I guess there is yet another reason to make a return trip to Alaska. Next time you are cruising around online and can’t figure out what to look at, do a little search on the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park… you won’t be disappointed.

We drive towards Valdez anxious to see this town of so much lore but equally as anxious to explore the space between it and us. Susan reads up on some of the high points coming our way. We duck in to check out a campground then pull over to read a roadside history marker. It’s still doing that misty-drizzle rain thing but we decide to take a little walk along the Teikel River (which just so happens to be conveniently running along the road) and check out the trees that have been washed into piles due to spring snow-melts and floods. Our trekking reveals many treasures as we discuss just how many pounds of rocks can we legally take into Canada and if a 6’ long, 80# burled log can be called “firewood”. We settle on a couple nice specimen stones and head on our way.

We have already seen several Bald Eagles along the road and there is one here just hanging out atop a dead spruce all proud and majestic-like. We pull yet another u-turn and got back for some photos. I have heard about this new development in photography called “auto-focus”. Wonder if it really works…

Our next target stop is Worthington Glacier, which at one point threatened to engulf the highway, but is now retreating like many other glaciers here. It is a very accessible glacier and is a popular tourist stop as well as a playground for locals throughout the winter. In fact, we talked to the visitor center lady who told us that there is a snowmobile 70’ down in one of the crevasses of the glacier. Seems there was a group riding their machines up there last winter and one guy went across a “false bridge” -a crevasse that is covered with a thin layer of snow and it makes it look solid enough to cross. Well, they rescued the guy but left the machine. He is still making payments on it.

We decided to take the extended hike up to the glacier but were warned not to actually climb onto it, walk directly below it or crawl into the ice-cave as it may collapse and effectively make us a permanent part of the glacier. We gave a quick thought of doing all three just because, but then Susan came to her senses. It is an interesting, but very effective, combination of lines of thought here between Jim & Susan. Jim has that “Let’s go to the edge and check it out” thought pattern and Susan has, as she put it one time, “A greater sense of self-preservation.”

We worked our way up to the glacier and once again get all caught up in all the small stones that make up the path. There is this huge expanse of ice and rock in front of and above us but we can’t help but look down at the palm-size stones at our feet. The coolest thing is when we move a stone to pick it up and what we find underneath it is solid ice from the glacier! Beautiful, clear ice with air bubbles throughout… both water and air being trapped thousands of years ago and now on the verge of being released once again. We move around the glacier being careful of our foot placement while we explore and examine it and it’s work over the past millennia. Again, taking pictures just doesn’t capture the magnitude and impressiveness of what we are looking at, but we do try.

We continue our hike around the leading edge of the glacier and come upon the major stream being created by the melting ice. This is where our minds start playing around with possibilities again and off Jim goes to collect a chunk of ice from the stream so we can make an evening beverage with it. The simple thought of that… sipping on a little Pendleton chilled with thousand year old ice as we look out over the mountains and glaciers while we wind down another glorious day in our little retreat called Thumper… is too much to ignore.

There is something special about traveling this time of year. We see pictures of the roads being lined with cars, trucks and rv’s as everyone is trying to get to the same place and get the best camping spot at the best campground.

When we get back into the truck to leave Worthington Glacier parking lot we look around and notice that we are the only ones here. As we pull back onto the road heading towards Valdez, we are the only car in sight going either direction. The whole place just seems to slow down and take a breath and we can almost effortlessly travel down the road.

It is getting dusk and Susan has read of a pull-off at the summit of Thompson Pass not far away. We slowly drive towards the summit counting glaciers and still being amazed by our surroundings. Thompson Pass sits at 2,678’, which by Colorado standards is more like river bottom, but here it is a majestic sight with snow levels not much above and glaciers reaching down to what seems like eye level. Our pull-off is right where the book said it would be and we stop to check it out. There is a dirt road that leads away from the pull-off and out onto a point which falls away on three sides to the valley below. It’s an incredible overlook, even with the low clouds hiding the surrounding mountains. We discuss the logistics of getting out to that point and somehow Jim convinces Susan that he can make it out there… and back… without any worries. We slowly make our way out and get turned around so we are sitting perfectly at our campsite. Susan gets out and finds a nice size rock to put behind the tire… just in case. We get bundled up and head out for a quick walk around this spectacular spot. We are pretty exposed here and the wind is coming right over the pass and heading past us and down the valley towards the ocean. We can’t see water from here but we are close. It will be the first coast we will be on and we are both anxious to be by the water. And if rumors hold true, Valdez will be THE spot to reconnect with the ocean. Neither of us really knows what to expect tomorrow, but we do know that tonight we once again have the BEST campsite anywhere.

A Day in the Life

I know many of you are wondering just what a ‘typical’ day on the road is like for us.  Well, it goes something like this… with room for variations.

Rounda’bout 7am the sky starts getting light.  Jim and Susan are still in bed trying to make a point of remembering that Crazy dream they each just had.  At 8am Jim jumps out of bed ready for the day and Susan rolls over and wonders where he went all of a sudden.  By this time, Jim has the espresso brewing, the heater on, is fully dressed with hair and teeth both brushed and has been outside making another modification to Thumper and taking some morning pictures for the yearbook.  Jim comes back in, warms and froths the milk and prepares Susan’s dry Cappuccino while she is commenting how warm and comfy she is in our bed.  Susan crawls out of bed and gratefully sips her morning beverage as she lets out a “Brrrrrrrrrrrrrr” and gives a little shiver while she gets dressed.  If there is any power left in the batteries, and time left in our busy schedules, we fire up the laptops and update our entries for the ongoing Blog and prepare them for the next elusive Wi-Fi hotspot so we can get them off for you to labor through.

About this time, Susan takes over and makes breakfast for us, prepares tea and snacks for the days drive, makes the bed and prepares Thumper for take-off.  Inevitably, we leave camp at or around 10am.  Occasionally we manage to get out earlier, but not often.  Our speed on the road isn’t much faster… As the case yesterday, we manage to drive 57 miles in a trail-blazing 2-1/2 hours!  

No…not always because the roads are that bad, but because we stop here for a picture, and there for some glacial ice and somewhere else to look for cool bits of wood along the riverbed.  Then we turn around to go back for another picture or to stop at that interesting looking place we just missed.  We are breaking no land-speed records here… at least not the fast moving type.

Very seldom does the road just go in one direction.  When we come to a fork in the road, we usually take it.  Sometimes the fork does a little loop and puts us back where we started, other times it sends us on an excursion that can last for days.  In either case, as the road dips and turns and rises and falls, it unfolds an endless display of beauty and grandeur in front of us.  We are constantly an awe of what we are seeing and how Alaska has put on its best face for us.  We drive perpetually down the road with Susan reading to Jim about the upcoming areas and finding hidden gems to stop at and explore, finding the next-best album on the i-pod or practicing her scramble through the back window out of the truck and into Thumper to retrieve something…  all the while watching for Moose.  Jim keeps one eye on the dips in the road, one eye on the fuel gauge, one eye on the fields & woods for random wildlife and the other eye in the rear-view mirror making sure we aren’t holding up too many other drivers.    

After visiting roadside booths and mini veggie stands, stopping in at a museum, visitors center or a little pull-off to take a hike and make our afternoon espresso, 

we decide that we should look for our nesting spot for the night and inevitably find ourselves yet another beautiful campsite along the road.  Jim tinkers outside possibly gathering firewood or but more than likely just walking in circles once again being amazed by his surroundings.  Susan, on the other hand, has dinner in mind and gets to work on another culinary delight.  She constantly puts together one great meal after another and keeps us well fed on the road.  As of today, we have only eaten out once, and that was with JC in celebration of our accomplishments at his place.   We sit down and enjoy our meal complete with a nice Chianti and fine china as we reminisce over the days events and discuss the many possibilities that tomorrow brings.  Jim jumps on the dishes and gets them somewhat clean and puts them aside for Susan to get what he missed.  

We attempt to write postcards or sort pictures for The Blog but for the most part we just collapse from a combination of food coma and adventure exhaustion.  Jim crawls up into bed with one of the many volumes of Alaska travel brochures and tries to read up on the road ahead but can only get 2 or 3 sentences in before he succumbs to the comfort, warmth and horizontal position, mumbles something that resembles “goodnight” and heads straight for R.E.M.  And Susan, on those rare evenings that she isn’t already in bed when Jim gets there, fumbles through a page or two in her most recent picture book or updates the travel journal then makes a comment like “thank goodness it’s bedtime!” and wrestles her way into the bunk.  We open the vent above the bed so we can hear the forest rustle, the river rush by, the ocean waves crash or the wind blow as we drift off to sleep ever so thankful we are where we are and doing what we are doing.

Alaska has a magic to her that is tremendous… and comforting.  Our days are full of discovering and our nights are full of dreaming.  We have a warm, dry home and good food.  We have unbelievably beautiful surroundings and wonderful new friends.  We have families and friends that we think of constantly.  We have each other.  We could not ask for more.  

And don't forget... it is the Simple Things that really make a day special.

We awoke on Saturday morning anxious to see if our Do-It-Yourself tire repair held… and it appeared that it did!  We only lost one or two psi through the night and the tire still looked round and ready to go.  So… we got the spare back in its place and decided to head back to town to see if we could find ourselves a new tire-iron (aka breaker-bar) for the truck.  We got sidetracked yet again on the way back towards Glenallen, where were hoping would have our tool, by a roadside veggie stand and a “Native Crafts” sign.  We spent the next hour or so shopping and talking to the native lady who ran the place and got some good information on who might have our tool… namely, Wegners General Store just down the road… “If they don’t have it, they will know who does”. 

Wegners General Store is just what you would picture a typical country store to be in a place like this… a rugged, not-so-forgiving, cold-a lot, self-relying place.  Bales of hay and bags of animal feed were stacked out front.  You walk in the front door to the makings of a hardware store, 3 aisles worth, with the typical trimmings.  But look at the next 3 aisles to the right and lo and behold, there’s the grocery store!  All the basics that you might need are right there.  Then, as you are perusing the chips and dips, you look up and see the automotive department, complete with hoses, belts and filters.  And, just to be sure you remember you are in Alaska, in the back aisle is where they have the wolf pelts hanging for your winter craft days. 

We spoke with the owner and asked him about our needed tool.  After a little thought and some checking in with an employee, he decided he didn’t have one.  We walked outside as he made suggestions to us about where else we could look.  As we took notes, a guy approached us from his truck and asked what we were in need of.  We told him about the breaker bar and he said he had a tire-iron in his truck and that we could take one with us if we wanted… with the caveat of “If you guys happen to come back by this way then you can give it back.”  We thanked him for his offer but explained that a typical tire-iron wouldn’t work.  He said he had something that would work at the house and we could follow him there. We thanked Mr. Wegner and told him we were going to follow the other guy back to his place.  Mr. Wegner smiled and just said, “Now that will be an adventure.”  Well, why not, we are always up for an adventure.  About 2 miles down the road we made a right on a dirt road and followed him about a mile back.  We came upon a “typical” Alaskan home… which would fit right in back in Clifton!  Everything around was in some varying state of construction or decomposition.  2 houses in mid-build, cars and trucks either being repaired or dismantled (the latter probably supplying the former), supplies and tools spread around, blue tarps and corrugated steel sheets covering the important stuff.  We introduced ourselves and thanked Jimmy for the help. 

Jimmy is someone I think you all would like.  He used to be a freestyle climber in Boulder, Colorado in the early 80’s and then decided he had survived enough falls and moved to Alaska.   He is about Jim’s build, around 50 with a full, mountain-man style beard, a firm but gentle handshake, wearing worn and torn Carharts and sensible shoes.  He immediately went to one of the resident cars and grabbed two tire-irons off of its trunk.  Even before I could try them out to see if one of them would work, he had gone to his shed and brought out a box of sockets, rods and irons.  We evaluated the situation and decided nothing so far was going to work.  So, as I returned that box back to the shed, Jimmy found a ½” anchor bolt for concrete… you know… the type that has threads on one end and a 90-degree bend at the other so you can set it in new concrete and anchor your new building to it… you know.  Now we have an anchor bolt, I have a 1/2'” deep-well socket for the lugs so all we need is the breaker bar.  Jimmy thought we could grind the anchor bolt down so it would fit into the socket and then we could use another piece of pipe as a leverage bar.  So he grabs his angle grinder and fires up his generator.  I put on my safety glasses and hold the anchor bolt in place.  He grinds away and we finally get the round bolt to fit a square hole and give it a try. 

Round about this time, Jimmy’s wife, Sharon, pulls up with their 4 dogs and Susan introduces herself.  We are all over at the truck anxiously awaiting the results of Jim & Jimmy’s experiment.  Jim puts the socket on the newly grounded bolt and slides an extension bar onto the other end of the bolt.  He puts the socket onto the lug nut and gives it a good crank to get things loose.  Well, let’s just say it didn’t work out like we had hoped as the modified anchor bolt was too soft and just twisted.  It made this really neat design but didn’t do a thing for loosening the lug nut.  Jimmy, being the upbeat kind of guy just happy to be able to be out here helping us out while he drinks his “Hamm’s” beer (I didn’t even know they still made that!), didn’t look fazed by our setback at all.  He just looked around and said, “What can we try next?” About this time Sharon asked us what we needed and Jimmy explained it to her, what we really need is a ½” breaker bar.  She disappeared into her Jeep for a moment and returned with, ready for this, a ½” breaker bar, the EXACT thing we had been looking for in the first place, and asked Jimmy if this is what we were looking for.  We all had a good little laugh at that point and Jim tried out the bar on the lugs.  We had everything we needed now and asked them what we could give them for it all.  Their response was, “Nothing.  This is how we do it here.  Consider it your gift from Alaska.  You look like the kind of  folks that would do the same for someone else”  Then, they gave us their phone numbers in case we ran into any other trouble along the way.  Jimmy said he had seen us camping the night before as it turns out that they were both on the McCarthy Road where we got the flat.  They were in different vehicles but both said they thought about stopping and checking in on us but didn’t.  Now, after putting it all together, they got kind of upset with themselves for not stopping and helping us at that point.  We assured them we were just fine that night and REALLY appreciated what they were doing for us right now. 

We asked if they often went up to McCarthy and Sharon laughingly said, “No.”  What they were doing was one of their favorite activities, dropping really big rocks of the Kushkulana Bridge.  “No Stopping on The Bridge”, we do it anyway, said Sharon.  Jimmy chimed in that there was this one huge boulder sticking out of the river they would try to hit.  Quite a challenge it seems, but the rock you choose to throw makes a big difference, hence their driving back on forth on the road looking for just the right rock!  Jimmy has an older Toyota pickup with a wooden flatbed, perfect for backing into a bank along the road and rolling a rock onto it.  He then pulls close to the edge of the bridge and they roll it off and down into the river (525’) below.  You make your fun where you can in rural Alaska J

We left Jimmy and Sharon with a little Cherry Pie Liquor from The Annex and with a very thankful hearts headed back out their driveway.  This is such a perfect example of how things work out in ways that you never expect if you just let them.  How does that go?... “Sometimes you get shown the Light, in the Strangest of Places, if you look at it Right.”

… And so it goes here in Alaska… there are maybe 5 or 6 major highways… there’s the Alaska Highway, the Denali Highway, the Richardson Highway, the Parks Highway and the Glenn Highway… and they use “highway” loosely… as long as it’s somewhat level and sometimes paved, I think it qualifies as a “highway”.  When you find something called a “road” you really have to be ready for anything.  Definitely larger gravel, sometimes resembling something more like golf-balls, punctuated with small landslides, sinkholes and wash-outs.  Somewhat rare and often randomly placed guardrails along with occasional disabled vehicle make for an exhilarating, albeit often quite slow, drive. 

So now… have you ever wondered what it would be like to turn east on The McCarthy Road and head up the 63 mile old railroad track turned car road (a very simple 3-hour drive as long as you keep on the lookout for spikes that have come loose from the old tracks that might ruin your day… not to mention your tire) to the old mining town of McCarthy and walk around for a while and maybe take a hike across the aged footbridge and up the 4-mile Root Glacier Trail to the Kennicott Glacier and step out onto the glacier and check it out and, say, grab a nice rock and take in the sensation of being there on that huge expanse of ice that has been moving slowly towards the Chitina River for centuries before deciding to head back to Thumper to make another nice dinner and call it a night so you can get up early and head back to the town of Chitina and “cruise” the last 14 miles of pseudo-paved road to where you had  turned off of Alaska Hwy 4 originally to begin this whole adventure and then make another left turn and keep driving south towards Valdez?

Well… we wondered just that not 3 or 4 days ago… and you know what?... it turned out to be an interesting decision.  You see… we were moving right along keeping an eye out for those elusive railroad spikes and the ever warned of Moose when we came upon the single-lane Kuskulana Bridge. It was built in 1909 as a railroad bridge that spans 525’ about 238’ above the river and only on in 1988 did it get guardrails and complete decking (before that, there were boards missing and you could see through the holes down to the river below!).  So… we want to get a picture crossing this amazing bridge.  

I drop Susan off on this side of the bridge with the cameras and drove slowly (No Stopping on The Bridge!) to the other side.  I turn around and drive back over to pick her up.  Now, we both drive over to the other  side and pull into this nice parking area (the first one we’ve seen in 17 miles) so we can walk back to check the bridge out in person.  When I turn off the engine I hear this faint Hhhhssssssnng coming from the back tire… and Yes… it was the beginning of our first flat tire of the trip.  We had heard rumors of these inevitable flat tires… kind of like the never-ending Moose warnings… but had been fortunate enough to drive some pretty bad roads and only suffer a stone chipped windshield and enough mud on the truck we could have chiseled it off.  But there it was… a stone in the tread.  I told Susan to go check out the bridge and I would get the spare on and we could head on down the road.  

Well… to make this long story a bit shorter, I dropped the spare tire from underneath the truck (an achievement of its own… had to get Susan to help before she took off for her walk) and I got Thumper jacked up and ready to go.  Now… all I need is to get the lug nuts off.  This would be a LOT easier if only I could find the tire iron!  It’s an interesting scenario here, as my actual tire iron doesn’t work on the long lugs on the truck so I have a deep-well socket and a breaker-bar to get the nuts off.  I couldn’t find that breaker bar anywhere.  Susan and I took the truck apart and looked for it everywhere… and then looked again.  We could only hypothesize where it went... did it fall out?... slide under Thumper?... get taken out and not put back?... or is it still sitting on the driveway in Clifton?  In any case, I decided that I was going to try to plug the hole with this great kit that The Pragers (of Palisade, Colorado fame) gave us for Christmas last year.  It sounds SO simple doesn’t it?  

Well, it would be simple, if only I could get the $%#@& stone out of the tire!  I never thought a stone could be so embedded in a tire and so determined to stay there.  I tried prying it out with a screwdriver… then with 2 screwdrivers… then I tried to pound it into the tire…and after I almost knocked myself out with a rebounding, 3-pound hammer, I got the screwdriver back out.  After breaking one screwdriver, drinking one beer, talking strategies with another couple from Colorado who stopped, putting the hammer away, trying to invent a new type of tool to turn a deep-well socket and putting another beer on ice for later, I finally got the stone out!  We are keeping that stone as a souvenir by the way.  Susan and I rejoiced over this little victory in the face of defeat and I proceeded to read the instructions on the tire plug kit… ream the hole, thread the plug material into the big needle-like thingy, apply rubber cement, put it in and pull it out… NO twisting!  Done… And there was another little celebratory moment in the parking area.  Now all we have to do is fill it with air.  I KNEW I should have bought that $30 electric air pump at Canadian Tire (the Canadian version of Super-Target) but it seemed so frivolous at the time.  So… the new tool-of-the-hour becomes our bike tire pump!  

Not one to turn away from a challenge, I connect it up to the tire and start pumping.  I manage to get to 10psi before my arms go numb and Susan steps in and takes over with a comment on how similar this is to churning ice-cream.  I had to agree with her in some odd, kinda-sorta way.  We keep taking turns pumping away and trying to hide the whole circus act when someone else drives by.  Slowly, but surely we approach our goal… 80psi… each pump putting a solid 1/16^th psi into the tire.  At 72psi we decided we were good (as that’s all the other tires had in them) and there was much rejoicing.  By now it’s almost dark and we are hungry and that other beer is almost cold.  With everything in kind of a holding pattern till morning, we headed out for a quick walk before we called it a night and went into Thumper to discuss our next move… keep going forward to the unknown or retreat back towards the somewhat familiar.  Let’s sleep on it…

Denali Exodus…

Now we had a goal. To get back to JC’s in time for their end of year party that night.  Since it took over 9 hours to drive in, we figured we’d better get an early start, which we did (earlier than usual anyways!).  But dang if the mountains and wildlife didn’t conspire to slow us down.  First we had to go by Wonder Lake and of course had to stop for a couple shots as it was another glorious day!  Then there are all the other amazing mountains, river valleys and vistas which capture the eye (and imagination).  Seems like every time we got moving again there was something else that stopped us in our tracks because between all the physical beauty there were also the majestic Dall sheep feeding on the mountainside, then the huge Mama Grizzly and her two rolly-polly cubs loping up the mountainside and the occasional Bald or Golden eagle soaring above it all.We even ran into some new friends from Kantishna who were heading back in and told us where the caribou and the wolves had been that morning... just about 2 hours further down the road (like 20 miles). 

Shortly after that meeting came the coolest moment of all those many cool moments, when Jim had a psychic wolf experience.  We were just driving along through a seemingly endless expanse of gold and red tundra when he slowed the truck and asked me to hand him his camera.  When I asked what he saw, he said nothing but he wanted to be ready in case we see… “THAT!”…. and pointed straight ahead.  Literally, in mid-sentence, we came around the corner and Mr. Wolf was standing there looking at us.  He turned and started trotting up the middle of the road all casual and confident.  Not the least bit concerned about the humans and their big old Thumper (speaking of which, it appeared he’d just finished off his own thumper as we drove by what looked very much like the remains of a snow hare).  We followed him slowly for what seemed like many minutes (though you know how time slows down…) trying like crazy to get a good photo through the window when the wolf shot out into the tundra.  When we got up to the spot where he went in, there he was looking back at us, then looking around where he was standing and giving us several more opportunities to get a photo.  Then he was gone.  We were simply amazed at what just happened!  We decided to back up and check out his kill.  We found a very clean rabbit skin and a couple of feet in the middle of road.  It was pretty neat how basically everything but the fur was gone.  We were still kind of marveling when we looked up and there was wolf again, standing in the middle of the road checking us out one last time before he disappeared.  Wow!

This was, by the way, Jim’s second psychic animal experience.  The first was on the Alaska Highway, just a couple miles after we had rejoined it from our little side trip over the Top of the World highway and Chicken.  We were moving right along at about 65 mph and enjoying that pace after being on gravel or dirt roads for more than a week.  We came around a small bend in the road and, speaking 1st person here, I thought, "There's a Moose up here."... not the typical, "We are in Moose country, I had better be careful" type of thought, but an actual thought that there IS a Moose up here!  So I take my foot off the gas and put it on the brake and a moment later a huge moose came out from the woods and crossed the road, oblivious to the big camper heading straight for him.  Had Jim (back to 3rd person) not slowed down when he did we certainly would not have been able to avoid hitting that Moose and none of us would have come out OK from that encounter.  People had been telling us to “watch out for the moose” for  well over 1500 miles at this point, though we had never seen even one.  Jim joked this must have been the moose we were supposed to look out for!

But I digress......

At one point during the exodus, Jim apologized to Susan for stopping so much and taking so much time photographing.  Susan just responded that she knew what she was getting herself into when she bought Jim a camera and waited patiently looking over the vista in front of her.  But finally, despite all the beauty and animals we finally made it out of the park and down to Denali Education Center (only 6 hours this time J). It was great to see JC again-he just smiled knowingly when we explained about the flying and the wildlife and not being able to leave Kantishna until we absolutely had to.  He was still working hard to get things wrapped up around campus, but made sure we knew when the kegs got tapped.  Being the final shindig for all the employees, this was a great opportunity to really get to talk with folks and hear more about their lives at Denali and beyond. The more we got to know Jodie and Jill, who pretty much run the DEC programs, the more impressive they are. Both of them winter in Denali so they can work on all the details that keep things running smoothly in the summer. They are wonderful and dedicated women, whose work to get elders and youth into this incredible wilderness has been a gift in many lives. It was another great evening connecting with some of Alaska’s finest people and we were again struck by how Blessed we have been through out this journey.

We had been planning to head the Kenai Pennisula at this point, but JC and several others strongly advising we take the Denali highway along the south side of the Alaska range and drive into the old town of McCarthy and check out the Kinnecot mine and Glacier. Kind of a rough road, they said, but we were getting used to that sort of thing.  And it was on the way to Valdez, which had come most highly recommended.  So off we went… after all what’s the use of asking the locals for their suggestions if you aren’t going to listen?

Kantishna... OH, Kantishna.

Ahhh, Kantishna….where to begin?

This sweet little valley is tucked below a line of hills just to the northeast of Denali and the Alaska Range, so though you can’t see the peaks from where we stayed, a short, exhilarating hike (or do I mean exhausting?  Remember Jim’s comment about the lack of switchbacks in this realm?) gets you high enough to see the whole lineup in all their glory. The Kantishna River is fed by Wonder Lake and springs coming down from the mountains so it runs clear, not milky like the many glacially fed rivers in the area. Tons of wildlife, in fact we watched a mama moose and her yearlings feed along the river for quite a while one morning. There is also a VERY active beaver pond, footage of which we’ll try to post.  It is late autumn here and the hills are covered in color, much of which turns out to be blueberries and cranberries.  SO yummy and seemingly endlessJ    

Upon our arrival at Kantishna, we first met Matt, a very welcoming and wonderful man, who seems to keep everything moving in the right direction for the Kantishna Air Taxi (KAT) and their charming Skyline Lodge, perched California-style on a very steep hillside above the river.  He greeted us warmly, showed us the way to our camping spot on the little dirt road leading back to his cabin and invited us to make ourselves at home.  As Matt was heading back to the lodge to finish out his day he says “By the way, we’re having a party here tonight to honor two of the locals who have made this place possible.”  When we asked if there was anything we could do to help, it turned out there was, so the four of us got busy and by the time he made it back we were pleased to surprise him with a stack of firewood, Jim’s solar Christmas lights strung around and a couple plates of hors d’orves ready for the guests.  It was really a treat for us to be able to use our well honed “party on wheels” skills to contribute to the event.  And what a fun party it was!  This is a small, tight knit community of maybe 30 people, living far from any one else in a very amazing and special place.  We felt honored to be there to begin with, then to have the opportunity to get to know everyone in such a relaxed, celebratory fashion was just incredible.  Amazing places draw amazing people.

Greg, who owns KAT and the lodge, has been flying around this area for 14 years.  Through luck (and being a genuinely good person) he was able to buy enough land from one of the original homesteading families to build a modest, really beautiful lodge (6 guest rooms) which also houses the office for the air taxi.  They fly folks all over the place (not just sightseeing) and will get your sled dogs and materials where you need them, too.  His girlfriend, Elise, has been a wilderness guide in Alaska for about the same number of years and was an incredible source of information about regional geology, history and wildlife.  The guests of honor, Mike and Carol (originally from Broomfield, Colorado)  first moved out here in the 70s and lived in a cabin with their five kids, hauling water from the river, trying to grow food and mining the property for gold, at which they were apparently fairly successful. (Kanitishna was originally established as a mining camp in 1900 or so with a population of almost 3000 people at it’s height.)  Then there’s Aine, Connie and Jered the bush pilots for KAT and Jeff and Kristy who cook delicious meals for the staff and guests.  All of them amazing people.  Oh yeah, and Matt, in addition to being an extraordinarily kind and magical person, is also a truly skilled artist whose work will be gracing our home, once we get one again.

So the party is great, so great in fact that Jim is nursing a pretty significant hang over Monday morning and Susan is only slightly less wounded.  But then comes the best news we could imagine: JC and Tim, who both need to be out by today for work, have managed to arrange flights out with one of the pilots. Matt, because he is who he is, requested a three day pass for Thumper (rather than the one day we had thought we would have) and has extended the invitation for us to stay until it runs out.  Unbelievable! We are in a place so few people even get to see and now we get to stay!  Somehow that eases the headaches (along with a couple Tylenol and an Emergen-C) and we manage to hike up the back hill to a wonderful spot where the mountains can be seen and the blueberries are especially sweet.  

Turns out to be a great place to nap in the sunshine as well.   J   Elise came through as she was out “walking off her hangover” on a ten-mile hike on the ridgeline of the mountains in her back yard.  And when we finally made it back to the lodge, we ran into Greg who looked at us, made the sign of the cross with his fingers and said “Oh No!  It’s the whiskey people!”  Guess we were not the only ones wounded last night.

Meanwhile, back at KAT, Matt is working hard and has a couple of folks that want to do a flight-seeing trip that evening, but not enough to fill up the plane.  He runs down the hill to our camp and says “I have room for 2!”  Well, we had been thinking about doing some sort of flight somewhere, but not really knowing how that would play out (or if it was really in the budget). It does seem like a no brainer, doesn’t it?  So we get to fly in a 6-seater plane for an hour, in a mostly clear blue sky, around the highest mountain on our continent-20,240 feet above sea level and with the valley floor below checking in around 3000’ that’s a lot of mountain to see. 

Then there are the glaciers and the cornices and the snow covered peaks of 14,000++ heading off in either direction from ‘The Great One’ and the oh-so-lovely clouds and the rivers shining far below.  At one point Aine (who I am so happy to say is a woman pilot) took us up the valley of one glacier and did a long sweeping turn in the bowl of the mountains surrounding it.  I was just completely blown away .  Even sitting here now thinking about what we saw up there brings tears to my eyes (just like it did then).  I hope Jim’s pictures can relay a fraction of this experience… But really, I wish you all could be there and see it for yourself.

The next day Matt lent us his truck and we headed down the road to Wonder Lake-site of many of the famous pictures with Denali reflected on the water.  We wandered around there for a good while, had a great picnic lunch and headed back to check out the previously mentioned beaver pond.  Those guys are serious workers!  And really could care so not-at-all about humans.  We watched them for a long time and when a busload of camera toting folks came along, the beavers slowed down for a minute, one did a tail slap on the water (a sound that is kind of startling) and back to work they went.  So cool to get this glimpse of life as a beaver when usually they are so shy you don’t get to see them at all!

We did go back to Wonder Lake that evening for photographs and to revel again in the beauty of these mountains against a clear blue sky.  Oh, we are so Blessed!!  It was going to be hard to leave in the morning, it always is, but made harder this time by saying goodbye to our new friends.  And just to make sure we didn’t forget them (or was it to get even for all the Pendleton induced hangovers on Monday?), there was a bit of a party that night involving a ping pong tournament and several bottles of bourbon.  Fortunately, we made it back to Thumper mostly unscathed ;-)