Up at 5 am (remember bedtime and multiple trips to river to see moose).
Left on the schoolbus at 6 am for the 6-hour ride in the rain with an entirely miserable group. Coughing call and response from the asthmatics, a murderous nurse and her husband, the polish man wearing a face mask (to protect himself from us) and an open window.
We were disappointed that our bus back to Juneau did not leave for 3 hours. Sheesh. We did manage to grab a shuttle to glitter gulch for the best hamburger, fries, and onion bits of my life. I don't usually eat hamburgers and I swear I didn't realize the food was at our lodge was so bad until I at the hamburger.
Finally we got our bus back to Anchorage. We both slept quite a bit, thank goodness.
We met Kendra (our hostel before Denali) at Orso. Ummmmmmmmmmm. Really really good food.
We slept 11 hours, recovering from the Denali experience.
Friday, July 10, 2009
Denali Day 6 - Denali Backcountry Lodge
Tired from yesterday's hike, I overslept. So had to take the casual hike, which was fine with me. I was hoping to sight some wildlife, but we didn't see anything but a few arctic groundsquirrels. Did taste a wild cranberry from last season -- pretty tasty.
Hung out for lunch with Kathy, Craig, and Gary. Read in the screened gazebo in the afternoon. The mosquitos in Alaska are legendary -- "so big they have to get on their knees to screw turkeys." You need the screening, and you need DEET. I had brought 100% DEET. It was not too strong, although I hear it melts cameras it's so strong.
The Man from Poland
I sat at table that was nearly empty; only a lone man sat there. When I asked if it was available, he said he was reserving a seat for his wife and son. Perfect – I had Barbara joining me, as well as our new best friends. We had just enough room for them. The stranger was from Poland and said he lived in Boston. A few minutes later, after our friends joined us, his son sat down. He said he came to the U.S. to study at Harvard – religious studies – but ended up at Marquette. We had a lively discussion about Russia. He hated Russia. Craig had studied there, so they had a bit of a discussion about Russian culture.
The son was totally silent as dad rambled on about his life. Barbara tried to bring out the son, but only got a mumble. The kid was shut down. I mean, he didn't say a word. He may have been internally rolling his eyes, but appeared to be in a totally altered state, hovering above us instead of with us. When we had nearly finished with dinner, his "wife" came to dinner. I immediately said to myself, this isn't his wife! She was a single traveler who had made a bit of a stir in the camp – I had heard of her! Her name was Julie, she lived in New York, and had come to Alaska for a wedding. At any rate, I was very confused and shocked and disgusted, I am really not sure why. Well, for one thing, I found out later from Julie that he did indeed have a wife back in Boston. So think of the son, sitting there with his dad while dad refers to some stranger they met yesterday as his wife. Yuck.
Later that night we had a sing-a-long. That's right. Another group of three had brought karoake books and were doing sing-a-longs at night in the gazebo. We decided this was our night for a sing-along. We brought the leftovers – which were significant – of our boxed wines. Gary brought his 15-year-old Laphroaig. And others bought beer from the lodge. We sang for three or four hours—John Denver, traditional folk, Beatles, and so on. The kids were great – except for Barbara and me they were all around 40. But they knew the lyrics to all these old songs.
Later in the evening Julie showed up – wthout her husband! I said something to her about the Polish man – about how he referred to her as his wife. She said she was very flattered, he was a very special person, he had taken Awaska (do we know what this is) and that was a very rare thing. We all shook our heads. It seems everyone t our table despised the Polish man for one reason or another.
The next day on the bus going back to the park entrance, I found that he had even more enemies. First, the bus was crowded, but he hogged two seats, sitting in the aisle. When a woman getting on late tried to find a seat, he refused to move over. Someone even yelled out to him, "give the woman a seat."
Next he donned his facemask – presumably to protect himself from us, and opened the window (it was cold and rainy out) The emergency room sitting in front of us started making wisecracks about him. When the bus stopped for a break, we talked to the driver about the negative vibes on the bus. Barbara told the driver to watch out because someone may push the guy out the window.
But all went well – no fatalities on the trip back, but no animal sightings either. Later that day at glitter gluch we saw the son standing alone smoking. No dad around. Barbara whispered to me, "don't talk to him, the father can't be far away." Like a wolf or bear I guess.
Sing along -- share wine, scotch, etc. Gary and Craig (late 30s/early 40s) knew words to all Beatles song, including Rocky Raccoon.
Barbara and I went to bed at 11 and talked until 1:30. Rain, thunderstorms, went out to find moose and calve.
Hung out for lunch with Kathy, Craig, and Gary. Read in the screened gazebo in the afternoon. The mosquitos in Alaska are legendary -- "so big they have to get on their knees to screw turkeys." You need the screening, and you need DEET. I had brought 100% DEET. It was not too strong, although I hear it melts cameras it's so strong.
The Man from Poland
I sat at table that was nearly empty; only a lone man sat there. When I asked if it was available, he said he was reserving a seat for his wife and son. Perfect – I had Barbara joining me, as well as our new best friends. We had just enough room for them. The stranger was from Poland and said he lived in Boston. A few minutes later, after our friends joined us, his son sat down. He said he came to the U.S. to study at Harvard – religious studies – but ended up at Marquette. We had a lively discussion about Russia. He hated Russia. Craig had studied there, so they had a bit of a discussion about Russian culture.
The son was totally silent as dad rambled on about his life. Barbara tried to bring out the son, but only got a mumble. The kid was shut down. I mean, he didn't say a word. He may have been internally rolling his eyes, but appeared to be in a totally altered state, hovering above us instead of with us. When we had nearly finished with dinner, his "wife" came to dinner. I immediately said to myself, this isn't his wife! She was a single traveler who had made a bit of a stir in the camp – I had heard of her! Her name was Julie, she lived in New York, and had come to Alaska for a wedding. At any rate, I was very confused and shocked and disgusted, I am really not sure why. Well, for one thing, I found out later from Julie that he did indeed have a wife back in Boston. So think of the son, sitting there with his dad while dad refers to some stranger they met yesterday as his wife. Yuck.
Later that night we had a sing-a-long. That's right. Another group of three had brought karoake books and were doing sing-a-longs at night in the gazebo. We decided this was our night for a sing-along. We brought the leftovers – which were significant – of our boxed wines. Gary brought his 15-year-old Laphroaig. And others bought beer from the lodge. We sang for three or four hours—John Denver, traditional folk, Beatles, and so on. The kids were great – except for Barbara and me they were all around 40. But they knew the lyrics to all these old songs.
Later in the evening Julie showed up – wthout her husband! I said something to her about the Polish man – about how he referred to her as his wife. She said she was very flattered, he was a very special person, he had taken Awaska (do we know what this is) and that was a very rare thing. We all shook our heads. It seems everyone t our table despised the Polish man for one reason or another.
The next day on the bus going back to the park entrance, I found that he had even more enemies. First, the bus was crowded, but he hogged two seats, sitting in the aisle. When a woman getting on late tried to find a seat, he refused to move over. Someone even yelled out to him, "give the woman a seat."
Next he donned his facemask – presumably to protect himself from us, and opened the window (it was cold and rainy out) The emergency room sitting in front of us started making wisecracks about him. When the bus stopped for a break, we talked to the driver about the negative vibes on the bus. Barbara told the driver to watch out because someone may push the guy out the window.
But all went well – no fatalities on the trip back, but no animal sightings either. Later that day at glitter gluch we saw the son standing alone smoking. No dad around. Barbara whispered to me, "don't talk to him, the father can't be far away." Like a wolf or bear I guess.
Sing along -- share wine, scotch, etc. Gary and Craig (late 30s/early 40s) knew words to all Beatles song, including Rocky Raccoon.
Barbara and I went to bed at 11 and talked until 1:30. Rain, thunderstorms, went out to find moose and calve.
Denali Day 5 - Denali Backcountry Lodge
Barbara got us up at 5:15 am, grabbed cameras and went out. Again, miraculously, all 15 people got up for a chance to see the mountain. We were rewarded with a perfectly clear day, the entire snow-capped range in view. Too pretty. Pictures will follow.
From our hotel, only the tip of one of the mountains is actually visible.
We also signed up for a moderate hike to Eagle Ridge. For me, the hike was not moderate - four hand-over-hand pitches -- 1300 feet straight up. It was stupendously beautiful at each viewing spot. But it was tough keeping up -- really tough.
In the afternoon I took a course in spiritual economics. It turns out the owners of the lodge are hari krishnas. Afterwards I took a yoga class. No beef is served at the lodge -- but lots of other meat and plenty of vegetarian choices.
In the evening we watched a movie about the northern lights - hokey and I still don't get it.
From our hotel, only the tip of one of the mountains is actually visible.
We also signed up for a moderate hike to Eagle Ridge. For me, the hike was not moderate - four hand-over-hand pitches -- 1300 feet straight up. It was stupendously beautiful at each viewing spot. But it was tough keeping up -- really tough.
In the afternoon I took a course in spiritual economics. It turns out the owners of the lodge are hari krishnas. Afterwards I took a yoga class. No beef is served at the lodge -- but lots of other meat and plenty of vegetarian choices.
In the evening we watched a movie about the northern lights - hokey and I still don't get it.
Denali Day 4 - Denali Backcountry Lodge
The breakfast was subhuman - carb-o-fest and instant coffee. Did I mention $219 a night?
I went into the media room to update this blog and Barbara miraculously packed again (two bag, 35-lb limit at Denali Backcountry Lodge). She even found room for our two black boxes of wine -- a miracle.
This left us time to cab it to the tacky Denali glitter gulch strip mall where we got real Alaska-roasted coffee (Ravensbrew).
At 1:00 pm we took off on the schoolbus to Denali Backcountry Lodge. We were fortunate that only 19 folks were on the bus -- there is room for 40 on the bus. Our guide Peter, was excellent -- guided us through the entire park -- it's a 6 hour, 90-mile trip from the park entrance to the lodge which is a few miles beyond Wonder Lake.
It was smokey on the way out. Denali was not out. There are currently 56 active forest firest burning in Alaska. The state does not make an attempt to put out these fires unless they threaten human populations. All are caused by lightning strikes.
On the trip, we saw an Eagle's nest, three grizzlies (mamma and two babies). We saw Dall sheep pretty close up. Also spotted my first Ptarmigan -- the Alaska state bird.
Lucky us, we got to white knuckle through Polychrome pass again, but this time on a bigger bus.
Peter recommended that to see the mountain we get the Lodge staff to take us out early in the morning.
We arrived at the lodge at 7 pm for our first mediocre meal. Dinner was family style -- we sat with Freda and her husband, Craig, Kathy, and Gary. Pay attention to the names. At dinner, I asked if we could reserve a special van to Wonder lake at 5:30 am the next morning and we arranged it. Of our 19, 15 decided to go -- amazing, huh?
I went into the media room to update this blog and Barbara miraculously packed again (two bag, 35-lb limit at Denali Backcountry Lodge). She even found room for our two black boxes of wine -- a miracle.
This left us time to cab it to the tacky Denali glitter gulch strip mall where we got real Alaska-roasted coffee (Ravensbrew).
At 1:00 pm we took off on the schoolbus to Denali Backcountry Lodge. We were fortunate that only 19 folks were on the bus -- there is room for 40 on the bus. Our guide Peter, was excellent -- guided us through the entire park -- it's a 6 hour, 90-mile trip from the park entrance to the lodge which is a few miles beyond Wonder Lake.
It was smokey on the way out. Denali was not out. There are currently 56 active forest firest burning in Alaska. The state does not make an attempt to put out these fires unless they threaten human populations. All are caused by lightning strikes.
On the trip, we saw an Eagle's nest, three grizzlies (mamma and two babies). We saw Dall sheep pretty close up. Also spotted my first Ptarmigan -- the Alaska state bird.
Lucky us, we got to white knuckle through Polychrome pass again, but this time on a bigger bus.
Peter recommended that to see the mountain we get the Lodge staff to take us out early in the morning.
We arrived at the lodge at 7 pm for our first mediocre meal. Dinner was family style -- we sat with Freda and her husband, Craig, Kathy, and Gary. Pay attention to the names. At dinner, I asked if we could reserve a special van to Wonder lake at 5:30 am the next morning and we arranged it. Of our 19, 15 decided to go -- amazing, huh?
Denali Day 3
We took the white van upriver on Lake Teklanika to do some tracking. The braided river (for those who do not know, a braided river is a wide glacially formed riverbed. There are multiple channels of water the braid in and out) had gorgeous animal tracks on lots of scat -- caribou, moose, bear, and wolf. We also saw some Dall sheep that ventured down to the river. In the woods next to the river, we found a number of bear trees -- trees where bears had rubbed their backs. We spotted some arctic kitty litter - a tree stump where a lynx had pooed. Our guide Tim made plaster castings of the wolf, bear, and moose tracks. Barbara took one and promises to make a copy for us.
To end the day, we took the van to polychrome pass - a very scary mountain road, narrow and landslide prone. We stopped briefly at the igloo river looking for tracks. I met a woman who was backpacking in the park alone for five weeks. What a woman. She was awfully chatty though, desperate even. I had to run off to catch up with my group and felt kind of bad to leave her alone.
When we got back to MSLC, we realized we had no way to get to our accommodations at the trashy Denali cabins. Terry and Chuck, the only couple on our tracking trip, thankfully dropped us and all our gear off at the cabins.
Denali cabins were trashy trashy -- $219 a night? Alaska. We went uproad to a pizza joint the locals frequent and returned to enjoy the chemically hot tub and fox news.
To end the day, we took the van to polychrome pass - a very scary mountain road, narrow and landslide prone. We stopped briefly at the igloo river looking for tracks. I met a woman who was backpacking in the park alone for five weeks. What a woman. She was awfully chatty though, desperate even. I had to run off to catch up with my group and felt kind of bad to leave her alone.
When we got back to MSLC, we realized we had no way to get to our accommodations at the trashy Denali cabins. Terry and Chuck, the only couple on our tracking trip, thankfully dropped us and all our gear off at the cabins.
Denali cabins were trashy trashy -- $219 a night? Alaska. We went uproad to a pizza joint the locals frequent and returned to enjoy the chemically hot tub and fox news.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Denali Days 1 and 2
We met at the Murie Science and Learning Center (MSLC), which is right outside the entrance to the park. At the center, we met our small group of fellow learners of which half were Alaskan. We met our guide Tim and our host Susan. So this Tim (aka Trapper Tim) is a big game hunter guide. He takes rich tourists to the backcountry -- usually in airplanes -- to catch the big one. He said that $35,000 is a mid-range pricetag for this kind of adventure. Apparently he guides, tracks, skins, and carries. The tourist merely shoots. Tim is amazingly respectful of the animals. He understands everything about them -- including how they taste. He spoke a lot about the Tom Brown books. You know Tom Brown hails from our NJ Pine Barrens and has his wilderness school there.
Susan drove us (10 participants, guide and host)into the park. Traveling is extremely restricted in the park, so I have to think that joining the MSLC was a very good idea. Our first few minutes, we saw a caribou wandering drunkenly on the road and a moose in the distance at the side. No moose picks unfortunately.
We arrived at the Tenlatika campground --mile 29.1. MSLC has a little facility right next to it with 5 cabins, a dining yurt, and a food storage shed (bears).
Ok so I was tired at this point. Maybe two hours of sleep the night before, the train ride, the ride into the park. As soon as we arrived, we took a tour of the campground and began tracking animals -- until approximately 11 pm. I am tired, I just want to go to bed, but I kept along with them. Remember, at 11 pm, the sun is still several inches above the horizon. The agreement was to meet at 6 am for coffee, to get an early start in the morning due to the extreme heat (high 71). Of course we overslept, so at 6:30 we get a knock at the door, we're leaving soon. I hadn't unpacked yet, and I have a backpack, so I scrambled through my pack and through all my things on the bunk in order to get to my hiking boots at the very bottom of the pack. Sheesh.
Anyhow, it was all worth it. During our first scrabble up the first hill a half mile from our camp, we saw a lynx. There were 12 of us lined up, but the lynx promenaded by us, making absolutely sure we saw her. The leaders thought she was guarding a den of kittcns, so we had to turn around and go back -- park rules to not purposely encounter an animal.
Moving on, we looked at scat - lynx, wolf, moose, caribou, and snowshoe hare. We found a moose skeleton - the head, jaw, and spine intact. We found other carnage as well -- the woods is full of bones, fur bits, and scat. It is pretty scary picturing yourself as a hare or ground squirrel. You are everyone's dinner.
Later we drove 30 miles to another section of the park where we climbed up the tundra to view some Dall sheep sleeping on a hill. These sheep were tiny dots, not visible from my naked eye, but Tim spotted them all. He also spotted a grizzly bear foraging in the distance. Not even a dot, no kidding. But his eyes are accustomed to looking for these things. He kindly set up a scope for us so we could actually see these animals. Even binocs weren't working for me.
The tundra is amazing. I always thought of tundra as a harsh crusty thing, but in reality it is soft and luxurious and fragrant. The cover is filled with tiny flowers of all varieties, it is fairyland. I felt bad walking on it, but so few visitors actually get off the bus to climb around, the damage we did was minimal.
We got back to camp around 7:30 pm and had dinner. Remember, we started at 7 am, so I was beyond tired, stumbling around like the caribou. After dinner, the group went tracking along the braided river next to camp. I went to bed. I do not have the stamina of Alaskans, I cannot stay up.
Anchorage to Denali
Barbara booked the luxe train to Denali. This means we were in the panoramic dome car with our own personal bar and a restaurant below -- with tablecloths and flowers. It is entirely possible to spend a week in Denali and never see Mt. McKinley. We saw it two hours into our seven-hour trip. Of course we trained through Wasilla. A fellow passenger got the news on his blackberry just as we pulled out of Wasilla. We were there as Sarah announced her resignation!
Most of the people on our train seemed to be Alaskans. The railway is interesting -- there are cars owned by different concessionaires. So the first cars are Alaskan Railroad, but subsequent cars are Holland America, and Princess Cruises. So if you come to AK on a cruise, and book the train, you may well be on a Princess or Holland train.
Anchorage
At the airport in Juneau, we ran into a Juneau lawyer who Barbara thought managed cruise ship deaths – if old people die on the ship, makes the arrangements. We are speculating, with 15,000 people docking in Juneau every day, many of a certain age, there must be a fair number of deaths. But it turns out he is lawyer to crew who get into trouble onshore. If they get caught drunk and disorderly or are arrested for assault, he helps them out. The complications come because the crew often have no address or country of origin because they live on the ship. That somehow doesn't seem right – just because you have this job living at the bottom of a boat, doesn't mean you have no country. I regret not asking him how the crew paid for his services given that they make minimum wages.
Anchorage is a big city – 250,000. Barbara's friend's daughter Kendra picked us up and we went to dinner with Susan and Kendra. We ended up doing an Anchorage pub crawl – for hours as the sun set oh so slowly into the west. The first bar was Darwsin's ?? – an old-time bar with a charming bartender, friendly patrons, and cheap drinks. We moved on to the Snow Gooose – their top outdoor terrace that looks out over the Cook Inlet and the setting sun. We ended up in the Crows Nest atop the highest end hotel in Anchorage. Great view, great service, great bowsls of olives nad nuts, we stayed for a few hours as the sun set slowly into the west. At about 11:30 we hailed a cab back to Kendra's house, the sun still slowly setting.
Juneau - Whales, Sea Lions, Eagles, and Crabs
Barbara and Bruce took me out in their boat for a whale-watching excursion. He took us to the place where the whale watching boats go. The humpbacks started to emerge pretty close to the boat. I made some attempts to take pictures, but in the end decided I was losing to much of the experience by trying to snap a pic. The coolest thing is the sounds they make – the loud groan as they emerge through the water surface and then dive backdown, their tails peaking out through the water.
Barbara insisted that we move to the buoy where the sea lions hang out. Too cute, a bald eagle was sitting atop the buoy while several sea lions were sunning themselves at the bottom. A little lion was trying to hop aboard, but no luck.
We then skiffed to steal a few dungeness from their friends' crabpot. We did get advance permission via cellphone, but there was some worry that the neighbors would shoot us. Bruce pulled the on the barnacle-encrusted roap (yuck) and pulled the pot up through 40 feet of water. Lucky us, there were 5 crabs in the pot. He took 2, the others were thrown back into the water, as was the pot.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Adaptation
Day two in Juneau feeling better than day one although the rain is pouring down. I don't mind so much though. It's kind of nice to be inside relaxing a bit more and I am used to the rain coming from Philly. Yesterday we went downtown (there were 5 cruiseships docked in Juneau harbor) and went to the museum. The exhibits of native arts and crafts were wonderful. Our favorites: a skin diaper, waterproof parkas made of seal gut.
Afterwords we visited Barbara's friend Mary Ellen Frank (picture of Mary Ellen and my hostess Barbara above) who is a doll artist. She makes these amazing dolls of natives Some of Mary Ellen's dolls.
Barbara made sure I picked up the Alaska hunting guide -- a newsprint throwaway. Do you know that out-of-staters pay $18 to 20 thousand to hire a guide and outfitting to go bear hunting? The guide is full of photos of women -- mostly women -- and their kills. It is a different world entirely. Many people eat only wild animals -- either salmon,halibut, crabs, or venison and moose. In fact, the recipe for venison-spam chili is in demand -- Sam if you can find it, can you send it to me? Everyone is very appreciative of what Spam and Venison can do to a pot of chili.
Last night we had an amazing dinner of fresh halibut and salmon in a pecan-panko crust. Yum!
Today we go whale watching on the skiff. Of course it is raining, but one has to adapt.
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