Denali–Ally and Mike

After delivering Matt to the airport on Sunday, we started to get ready for Michael and Ally to arrive on Monday night.  Laundry, grocery shopping and cleaning the trailer were all a high priority. Fixing the daytime running light was also a priority. Sue had to tryout her new camera. The old one developed a problem of not opening the lens fully.

Luckily, their plane was on time and we spent another night at  "The Nugget" planning an early morning departure for Denali.  Enjoying their company and the  beautiful scenery along the way, we arrived at Riley Campground in Denali National  Park around noon. After selecting a camping site where we did not have to unhitch, we quickly boarded the shuttle bus so we could take in the sled dog program at 2 pm.  We were able to tour the dog kennels and pet many of the dogs and the three puppies.

  
Steaks on the grill made for an easy dinner and we were all ready to retire early.  The next morning we were off to Teklanika campground to spend the next four nights.  TEK Campground is located 30 miles into the park.The scenery driving to TEK was spectacular, but we were disappointed that we did not see any wildlife.

After settling in our campsite at TEK we rode the shuttle bus to Eielson Visitor Center which is located 66 miles inside the park. On the way we were rewarded with a bear sighting and some caribou.  At Eielson we signed up for Discovery Hike on Friday that began at TEK Campground.  On the bus ride back to TEK  we saw bears, moose, ptarmigan and caribou.

On Thursday Michael and Ally went hiking to Stony Ridge.  They saw a marmot, ground squirrels, a golden eagle and caribou during their hike.  On their bus ride they saw bear.  With GPS in hand, they did not have any problems hiking in Denali where there are no designated trails.

   

On Friday Michael, Ally and Sue did the Discovery Hike out of TEK campground. Ranger Allysa was our guide for the day and she was good at helping us to identify the flowers and various tracks and scat that we encountered on our hike.  We started the hike along the Teklanika River  with several stream crossings that resulted in wet feet for some people due to the rain we had during the night before. After climbing a cliff that jutted out into the riverbed we watched for any wildlife, but did not see any.  Heading through the forest we walked on the spongy tundra and discovered many native plants and flowers.  As always, hiking with a park ranger you learn a lot.

Despite the cloudy skies Saturday morning, Michael, Ally and Sue took off to hike in the  Polychrome area while Terry took the bus in search of wildlife.  We got off the bus at the Polychrome rest area to begin our hike.  The wind and rain were persistent as we worked our way up the ridge line.  Two caribou with huge racks posed on top of the ridge, but weather prevented us from digging out our cameras.Trudging through willows and following a faint trail that traversed across scree, we were glad that we were prepared for the weather with rain pants, rain jacket and gloves.  However, after a morning of hiking in the unrelenting rain and wind we decided to turn around and head back.  On the way down we took time to pick some of the blueberries that were abundant on the mountainside while dreaming about eating blueberry pancakes in the warm and dry trailer.  In spite of the weather, we had a great time hiking in such beautiful country.

Sunday morning we left our campsite at TEK and headed for Willow to camp for the night at Willow Creek Resort.  We parked right on the creek and watched as people fished in the creek.  The water was so clear you could see tons of fish--good size fish--but we did not see anyone catch anything.  We were all glad to finally have hot showers. Glimpses of the peaks of Denali on the way to Anchorage were awesome.

 
Monday we returned to "The Nugget" in Anchorage.  The week went by too fast and it was time for Michael and Ally to return home.  The trailer is too quiet and it no longer looks like we are having a giant slumber party.

Tomorrow we head for Homer.

See all the pictures here.

Seward

We are still around but have been out of touch with the Internet. We decided to spend the week in in Seward with Matt. Got there on Sunday morning and a lot of folks were leaving. They had been there over the Fourth weekend. There was a steady stream of traffic including a large portion of RVs, heading back to Anchorage. This meant we should have a good chance of getting a prime spot on the water in the city campground. Sue had been in contact with Dave and Susi. They decided to join us in Seward. Their bear viewing trip out of Homer had to be canceled because of fog that would not allow the plane to land. Sure enough we were able to snag two spots together on the water front for each of us. It was good to get back together and share stories of the past several days.

  

Our first activity was to go out to Exit Glacier ha do the hike to the glacier. Unlike when we were here in 2007 you could not get close to the ice. It had retreated significantly since then. In 2007 Mike was able to reach out and touch it near the foot. Exit Glacier is feed by the Harding Ice Field. On another day Matt and Ben Bezaire did the hike all the way to the Harding Ice Field. From their stories I’m glad we did not try it. They did bring back some great pictures..

    

Sue, Matt, and I took a Kayak adventure out to Alitak Bay and Glacier. We had our own guide Libby. We were taken out to the bay by water taxi.  We were able to view humpback whales, sea otters, porpoises, and Orca whales. You will have to see the movie of the porpoises surfing in the bow wake of the boat great fun.  The glacier put on its own show with a caving every 5 to 10 minutes.

   

All of the pictures can be found here.

It is about time I try to get caught up!

Week One Denali

It was an interesting first week in Denali to say the least. Let me try to explain. While having record setting heat in Fairbanks a fire broke out along the Parks highway between Fairbanks and and the Park. This happened a couple of days before we were to be in the park. The Parks Highway was closed for a period of time because of thick smoke and a fear the fire might jump the road. The next day they were allowing traffic through but with a pilot car to guide you. This continued when we drove the road but at that time the smoke was not too bad. Were lucky.

Next there was a long stretch of construction on the road and again we had to follow a pilot car. Now we were to meet Dan and Matt at the train station in Denali on Sat afternoon so timing was important. We had left quite early and the delays were not bad so we made it with time to spare.

The next part of the problems were that Matt’s plane from San Diego and LA had mechanical problems. He was forced to take a van to LA. This meant that he missed his connecting flight. Delta did reroute him through Minneapolis then to Anchorage. Now he has missed his train reservation by about 10 minutes. Not to fear he was able to catch a shuttle bus to the park and we picked him up at the bus stop about 9:30pm.

Now we had Matt but Delta had lost his Delta had found his pack. She demanded that they deliver it to our campsite in Riley CG, Denali NP. To make the long story shorter Charlie delivered the pack around midnight. The guy had to do some quick packing on Sunday morning to get ready. Dan had already did preliminary paperwork for their permits. Their early morning bus tickets and been changed to a later time. All in all they did get on the trail, all though about 4 hours later than they anticipate.

Two hours of packing into the back country the came across a Grizzly. It was only about 30 yards away. The good part was that it ran away from then very quickly. On their hike the came across a herd of Caribou with maybe 200 in it. The day had been overcast with heavy winds and some rain but mostly mist. That night the wind kept up and bent their tent poles. This required them to return to the trailer the next day. We were surprised to see them when we returned from our bus tour to the end of the road.

Our bus trip found a number of animals as you will see in the pictures. The most interesting was the moma bear and two yearling cubs  that walked right beside the bus.

 

Fortunately for the boys we had picked our tent when we visited Matt in California. With a second tent they were off to explore another part of the park,

Our troubles however were not completely over. The batteries on the trailer were now 3 years old and now would not hold enough charge to get my CPAP machine through the night and run the furnace. You see there are not services in the Tek, no electric . We did have the generators. The would recharge the batteries but this meant we had to be there during generator hour 8 to 10 am and 4 to 8 pm.  This would get us through each night but the batteries would be pretty much done by then.

The next issue was we discovered that hour fresh water tank was leaking. We could not figure out where all our water was going until Dan noticed it dripping below the trailer. Some investigation lead to the conclusion that it was not the plumbing by the tank its self. Turns out we are just fine on city water and can carry water for over nights. Fortunately Tek does have water at the restrooms so we should be fine for Mike and Allies visit next week.

I should end on a high note that the view and stay were great and we are looking forward to the return trip. I did have the batteries replaced so one problem solved.

We are currently parked on Resurrection Bay in Seward, AK with great views. More on this later.