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.