The next level...

For those who thought we’d forgotten about the lower 48 now that we’re in the Great North, no, no!  Just so busy enjoying it there has been no time to write!;-)

We were heading into Fairbanks, with plans of just stopping on the way through to check out their renowned museum (at U of A-it was REALLY cool!) and botanical garden, when Jim called JC Barber, a friend through String Cheese who we heard was up here for the summer. (Skaryd/Schurrs will be interested to know he hails from Keene, NH.)  It turns out JC is working near Denali park, but even better he owns land north of Fairbanks and was headed up there that day to work on his place.  Lucky timing and fun for us!  

JC set us up in a nice level camping spot among the beautiful trees at the bottom of his driveway, which goes STRAIGHT up the hill to his cabin.  There is a theme in Alaska that we are discovering… basically, the switchback idea never seemed to catch on up here.  Like when we were hiking on a trail off the Dempster Highway and passed a couple hikers from Switzerland as we were heading down.  We commented how these hills are probably nothing compared to what they are used to and they responded with, “yeah, but in Switzerland, we cut back and forth up the mountain, we don’t go straight up.”  Well, you’re in Alaska now…

So… now set up at JC’s we went to work.  For the next couple days we cut and stacked wood, cleared and piled up debris and worked on two “cabin-improvement” projects. In the process, we met more cool Alaskans. Andy, who flew up to Fairbanks for the day from his place somewhere down on the coast, to help JC with the cabin and Lindsey, JC’s former landlord and all around very cool guy, who let us use his tools, power and driveway to build JC a solid door for the cabin. We also finally got that seat JC has been dreaming about put in the outhouse. Most fun of all, we wandered around the absolutely gorgeous forest in which his place is situated.  So sweet!  It was great hanging out with JC and throwing sticks for his awesome 4-legged buddy, Chowder.  

We left there with plans to hook up with them again in Denali.

But first, we had to check out Chena Hot Springs. Located back in the hills about 60 miles east of Fairbanks, this place has gone through several incarnations since the late 1890s and now has come into the hands of some pretty ecologically mindful people.  They have been developing the use of geothermal energy in several ways on the property including warming greenhouses to grow food for their restaurant, generating power for the whole complex and, believe it or not, cooling a VERY large building that houses an ice sculpture museum and carving studio as well as several “Ice Hotel” rooms (kept at 20*F… brrr!!!!) and a bar that serves Appletinis in carved ice glasses.  

In honor of Uncle Karl we had to go! We managed to preserve the glass long enough to make a few espressotinis of our own in Thumper J.  It was a pretty amazing place, despite it’s full-on resort status and the busses of Japanese tourists who arrived in the afternoons.  Rock Lake, which is the main soaking pond on the site, is pretty big.  The water comes into it at about 165*F and then cools as it flows through the pond so you can find your sweet spot and hang out there.  And even the wildlife like it - a moose came down to the creek running behind the main pool while Susan was in there soaking J.  One of the best parts of this side trip was the perfect little camping spot Jim found off the road on the way out there.  Right beside the crystal clear river, surrounded by woods and only a couple mosquitoes!   It was hard to leave… (Believe us… it is always hard to leave)… but we did.

Because, it turns out, that on Friday, September 4, Keller Williams was playing at a tiny bar in the village just outside Denali Park.  Who would believe it?  What a crazy-fun coincidence and better still because our friend Boogie was working this tour with him.  So we stayed up late and danced away our first night in Denali.  And though we had thought that JC styled us before, we had not seen anything yet!  

JC works for the Denali Education Center, which is a wonderful not-for-profit that does Elderhostel and youth programs on private property just across the river from Denali National Park.  He set us up in a great spot right next to the river with indoor plumbing, hot showers AND wireless internet!  Then he sent us on a great cranberry picking hike one day and a fun mountain bike/blueberry picking ride the next day.  Thanks to Janet, Susan came prepared for the possibility of making jam while we were in Alaska and in fact did make almost a dozen jars of yummy berry jam right here in Thumper.  It was a total mess but they came out great! 

But JC wasn’t done… It turns out he had another friend coming in to check out the D.E.C. for a student trip next year.  He had already been talking to some friends, who live way up in a small valley of private land surrounded by the park, about bringing Tim in, so he went ahead and asked them about getting a pass to drive Thumper up there.

A bit of background here, Denali Park is about 6 MILLION acres of wilderness.  The mountain, formerly known as McKinley ;-), cannot even be seen from the entrance area. In a very wise move, they have disallowed private vehicles more than 30 miles into the park, but provide shuttle busses for the 55 miles of road beyond that.  Many people go for day trips (that can last 8-10 hours!).  People who want to camp further in than their car can go take the bus with their gear.  It’s a pretty good system for balancing preservation of the wilderness and access for people who want to check it out.  So for JC to arrange a pass for our vehicle was a pretty major deal and gave us an opportunity few people have.  And though we knew it was special going in, looking back now we are overwhelmed by the gift we received.

Sunday morning JC brought Tim over to get acquainted, we loaded up their gear and all headed up to the park office early to get the pass.  There was a minute or two of “will this really happen?” (most of you know how the whole ‘List’ thing goes sometimes) but it all went smoothly.  We received the window pass and were informed of the rules-of-the-road inside the park, agreed that we wouldn’t chase any sheep and off we went.  We didn’t drive but a couple miles when there was a cluster of cars and line of cameras mounted on tripods along the road. It turned out a huge bull moose was lounging in the woods less than 100 feet from the road. Amazing!  There was a ranger on site directing traffic and ensuring that no random tourist was going to try and put his 3 year old on the moose’s back to get a picture (yeah… sounds stupid, but…).  

We hung out for a bit and got some great, mostly in-focus pictures of this beautiful animal and then decided to move on down the road.  We pulled away all giddy from this first sighting and got back up to cruising speed (25mph) just in time to see some more cars pulled over and a guy waving at us to stop… so we did.  It took a moment to see what he was looking at but then a Mama Moose and her 2 year old calf (he was MUCH bigger than that sounds!) came ambling across the road about 50 feet in front of us.

I say ‘ambling’ because moose don’t seem to be the most graceful of creatures here and just look as if they are heading a particular direction because the ground happens to be sloped that way.   So we were off to a great start!  Oh and did I mention the weather was perfect?  It had been for 3 or 4 days (we actually saw Denali on the drive from Fairbanks at about 120 miles away).  But this day we got to see it again and again as we would come over a pass or around a bend on the mountain.

I would like to find words to describe the vastness and extraordinary beauty of this place, all decked out in color for autumn and with a fresh coat of snow on the high peaks, but I know there is NO WAY to give you an imagine that can come close.  And pictures… you will see some great ones, but they are still just a glimpse and a pale one at that.  It is hard to believe the wonder of it all even when you are standing right there.

So the 90 mile drive took us about 9 hours, though 3 of that was a wild bush whacking hike along and above the Toklat River looking for bears.  For better or worse, we didn’t see any, but we did find 2 half snow hares and a couple random rabbit feet.  Guess it was a good day to be a predator.  And there were many stops for photos, caribou and Dall sheep on the hilltop, eagles and a falcon.  By the time we rolled into Kantishna Valley we were pretty tired but so excited at the same time.