“The High One” Mount McKinley

Our stop at Denali National Park was really a highlight of this trip and included a 6-hour bus ride into the park where private vehicles are rarely allowed.  We found out why right away; especially the folks that are afraid of heights, cliffs, shear drop-off edges, not having control over the situation and of course, dying.  They’ve never heard of guard rails and there is much of the dirt road that we were on that is strictly single lane.  If there is no wide spot or something that resembles a pull out, one of the vehicles has to back up.  Remember now – there are no guard rails. 

The scenery was amazing.  The magnitude of the mountains was over my head to comprehend.  Talk about big.  Before I go on,  I need to tell you, no, we did not see the mountain.  We hoped, but like so much of the time, the tallest peak on the North American continent at 20,320 feet, was behind rain clouds.  Denali National Park consists of 6,000,000 acres, (yes, million) and became a national park in 1917.  It was made a national park and preserve to protect large animals not because of the mountain.  The Athabascan Native People referred to the mountain as the “High One” and is part of the 600 mile long Alaska Range.  The park has 650 species of flowering plants and 37 mammal species that are recorded.  Much of the park is deep beds of permafrost – ground frozen for thousands of years with only the thinnest layer of topsoil that thaws each summer to support life. 

We saw quite a few Dall sheep up in the rocks.  Dall sheep are members of the bighorn family and graze mostly on alpine tundra.

Not too many caribou and no herds, just single animals.  They usually travel in groups.  Both sexes sport antlers – the only member of the deer family to do so.  The ones we saw were collared.  No explanation why.

Moose are not herd members.  The calves are born in May and may stay with the cow for one or two years.  We didn’t see near as many as we had hoped, but we did see moose in Denali.

What we did see was an absolutely unexpected bear encounter.  A grizzly came walking down the road in front of the bus and we all fell so silent and took picture after picture.  He didn’t change his pace nor did he even look at us.  We were all blown away.

This sow had two cubs; young ones and she sniffed around until she located a ground squirrel or some critter and raised up on the front legs and pounced on the critter or it’s tunnel and the cubs came a runnin’ and kinda, sorta shared the meal.  As much as a bear can share.

Remember, these pictures just don’t do the park justice, but we tried and told everyone we would.

Connie’s lesson (a few days worth):  There’s bad news and there’s good news.  The good news is that we don’t have a broken water pipe on the 5th-wheel, dripping water on the ground.  The bad news is that we don’t have a 2 1/2 gallon plastic container of spring water for coffee.  The trailer slide is mightier than the plastic container.

We’re off to Anchorage next!

Fairbanks–back to civilization (July 15, 2012)

Before pulling into our rave park on the Chena River in Fairbanks, we stopped at Santa Land where Connie had a good time with Santa with a little “lap time”.

We were treated to a town tour and out to the Alaska pipeline.

The pipeline was built from 1974 to 1977 and runs over 800 miles, crossing 34 major streams/rivers and 500 minor streams and rivers.   The first barrel ran through in 1977.  Most of the line is 48” in diameter and at present, 5 of the 11 original pump stations along the line, can move 20,000 to 60,000 barrels per minute.

The Alaska pipeline has “pigs” in it.  Say what?

Then off to the river for a ride on the paddlewheel, “Discovery” which stopped at a re-invented native village showing how the natives lived, hunted and survived.  Also, their beautiful handmade clothes from leather and furs.

 

A bush pilot gave us a demo of a take-off and landing on the river.  Main mode of transportation up here with the size of the state and the lack of roads.

Then a demonstration from the bank of the river by Dave Munson, who is Susan Butcher’s widower and still runs the dog kennel they owned together.  Before she passed away 6 years ago, she held the title of the woman who had won the 1000 mile Iditarod more than any other woman racer.  Dave doesn’t race in competitions anymore but is still a big promoter and breeder.

The very next day, we all traveled in our trucks and cars to visit personally with Dave Munson and listen to him tell about the races, the dogs and answer all of our questions.  He only does this “cookie and ice cream” get together with Spike and his tours, so we really felt privileged.   One of the ladies in our group, Randy, got all dressed up by Dave in Susan’s racing clothes and gear to show us all of the layers it takes to stay warm in temperatures down to 60-70 degrees below zero.  She was such a good sport and warm!

We all enjoyed the puppies and the dogs.  The racing dogs are not what most people envision.  These dogs don’t own an ounce of extra fat.  They truly are athletes and they absolutely LOVE to run.  No one has to convince them to run.

Tomorrow, July 19 we leave for Denali National Park.  With all this rain, we’re hoping hard that we will get to see the mountain – Mount McKinley.  The natives have always called the mountain Denali – “The High One”.

 

Why would an Alaskan chicken cross the road?

Chicken, Alaska is a little mining hamlet that is perhaps the quirkiest of all the small communities in the state.  It has several hubs:  downtown Chicken; the Original Chicken Gold Camp; Chicken Creek Outpost and the Goldpanner.

The community got its name in 1902 when it was officially incorporated.  They wanted to name it Ptarmigan, because that was the wild bird in the area, but no one could spell ptarmigan, so they named it Chicken.  Like so many other fares, it tastes like chicken.  About 20-30 people live here year-round, there is little electricity for public use, few phones and little plumbing.  We did have electricity for our overnight stay.  Mail arrives twice per week by bush plane.

This is the ceiling in the bar.  What an assortment of things left behind.  We forgot to add to it. yeah, right.

Before we ever got to Chicken and after the ferry ride across the Yukon river from Dawson, we encountered some of the most amazing scenery and rough roads just to get to Chicken.  By the time we reach Fairbanks, The Top Of The World Highway will have saved us over 800 miles but we would have missed scenes like this:  remember now that these won’t do the country justice.

This shot of the Yukon leaving us and the Ogilvie Mountains was taken when I climbed up on top of the 5th-wheel to get these shots.

And once more, back into Alaska from the Yukon Territories.

In Tok (pronouced Toke) we stayed one night.  Civilization, wow!  About 1400 residents and they boast that it is the “Coldest inhabited community of North America… with warm, friendly people”.  Burrrr!  Minus 71 degrees in January ‘65.  Connie and I took a short side trip to Mukluk Village just down the road.  Not knowing what to expect, it looked like just a kid’s small-town amusement park.  It was, but we didn’t let that stop us.  A sweet lady with a smile just as sweet, met us with a hug and showed us photos and had us sign her guest book.  She had pages for each state.  We paid our $5.00 entry and proceeded to play like kids. With our winning coupons, we picked out winner’s candy.  Then we looked around and had the best time.  Sure glad we didn’t blow the place off.  Very unique.\

Did you notice that Jane finally got her Mountie?  Remember Dudley ?