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.
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