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?