Hello again,
It’s been a few weeks since I had the urge to sit and write. Here it is August 24 and summer continues. The temps daily for weeks now have been in the low 70’s for the high and upper 50’s to low 60’s for the lows. It is said this has been the warmest summer in many years. We have been going around in t-shirts and shorts and I actually have tan lines. The fires I mentioned towards Fairbanks have continued unabated as we have had little rain during this period. The smoke over the weekend here was really bad with Saturday the worst yet. The tundra and cemetery hill lie approximately a quarter mile from our window across Swan Lake and Saturday we could not see the far shore. We sleep at night with the windows open and a large box fan blowing towards the bed. This usually keeps us quite comfortable but with the smoke sleep some nights can be difficult. It does make for a spectacular sunrise in the morning though. The sun shining through the haze appears as a bright orange ball reflecting off the calm waters of the Back Bay. After taking a shower this morning I was drying off (I know, not a pretty picture but it might help you loose weight) and the towel instead of smelling nice and clean, smelled like a campfire. Again I bemoan the rigors of living in the wilds (as I watch my cable TV {55 channels you know} drinking a cold soda [diet of course] with my feet up on the coffee table, looking out at Swan Lake and the migratory birds, sea gulls, and the multitude of planes flying through the air). If you are interested in seeing where the fires are in relation to Kotzebue click on this link: http://fire.ak.blm.gov/fires/Statewide/Maps/Statewide%20Smoke%20Image.gif You will see two bodies of water cutting into the left side of the picture with the finger of land Kotzebue sits on jutting into the top body of water. I guess since I mentioned sunrise I have to mention that we do have darkness now starting around 11pm and lasting until around six A.M. It is still not dark enough to see the stars or the aurora borealis but it makes for good sleeping, especially now that it’s too dark for the kids to be playing basketball outside our bedroom window. The good news on that score is school starts on the 25th so hopefully for the most part they won’t be up all night anymore. Yea, right.
I already mentioned in my last letter which was that Patty’s sister Susan and her husband Tim came to visit. Patty, Cathy, and I flew to Anchorage on Saturday morning and they drove in Saturday night. After leaving Kotzebue they visited a state park on the other side of Turnagain Arm which is accessible by plane and is noted for its Alaska Coastal brown bears. They had pictures of some pretty big bruins and since they did not have a powerful zoom they were pretty close to those animals. These are animals that can reach 10 feet and weigh up to 1000 pounds mind you. We met up Saturday morning at our house in Anchorage. After a few loads of laundry and a good breakfast at a down home style café about 2 miles from the house the five of us loaded into our truck and began our ride to Denali Park. The weather was sunny and pleasant for the 230 mile ride. The road north from Anchorage travels a four lane highway that is just like an interstate and runs for 40 miles until it reaches Wasilla. There the road changes to a two lane paved highway that runs 318 more miles to Fairbanks. The joke here is that distance in Alaska is not measured in miles but in hours.
We stopped at a scenic turnout that on clear days features a beautiful view of Mt McKinley. Although a good bit of the mountain was wreathed in clouds the view was impressive to say the least, especially when the golden eagle flew past as if on cue. Allow me to state a few facts as we were told them concerning Mt McKinley. First is that Denali is the Athabascan word for the mountain meaning “The High One”. The mountain got its name from a miner named William Dickey who had written an article for a major newspaper of the time and called the mountain Mt McKinley. There was a debate at the time over whether the national standard would be based on gold or silver. William McKinley at the time was I believe a senator and was a champion of the gold standard and Dickey, being a gold miner, named it after this man who later went on to become president. Today the National Park Service and most local folks, and to my understanding a lot of folks period want the name changed from McKinley back to Denali. However and I cannot voice the details, there is a senator from McKinley’s home state that has been in office seemingly since the beginning of time who manages to block the change whenever it is proposed. Another fact is that when the mountain is measured from base to peak, it is the largest mountain in the world. Mt Everest is the highest overall but because the base of it starts so high above sea level, it is much shorter than McKinley. One other thing we found impressive is that McKinley at over 20,000 feet and Mt Foraker at over 17,000 feet seem to rise suddenly and massively into the sky from the already impressive Alaska Range. Why are they so tall and massive when the impressive peaks all around them seem like foothills?
We spent the night at the Denali Backcountry Cabins just outside of the park and while the cabins were comfortable it was a bit warm at bedtime. This was of course due to the temps being in the upper 70’s with the sun beating down and no a/c. That evening before bed we rode into town and dined at (not ate at, little finger in the air) a restaurant perched high on a mountainside accessed by a dirt switchback road with mirrors posted to see around the next curve. The view was overlooking the “valley of the tourists” (my terminology) as it looked down at the hotels, restaurants, and gift shops outside the park. (Oh, and we’re not tourists of course since we are “Alaskan’s” right? Another joke is as long as you have been here longer than someone else, you’re an old-timer.) My seafood cocktail consisting of shrimp, king crab meat, and scallops was a bit tasty (I would not dare to say it was better than New Orleans on risk of being accused of being a traitor) and my Halibut with a light crusting of egg batter wasn’t too shabby either.
The next day we got to sleep a bit late as the bus to our ultimate destination was scheduled for an 11:30 am departure. It was a school type bus but the seats were comfortable. The bus was not completely full and for the most part we each had a seat to ourselves. The only warning prior to departure was if you are afraid of heights, do not sit on the drivers’ side. This was something I well understood after about 4 hours into the ride as we sat in this full length bus, on what seemed like a single lane dirt road precariously perched on the side of mountains. The good news is that the road was so dusty that the cloud sent up by a bus coming the other way gave enough advanced warning to our driver to find the spot of the road that was a few inches wider so they could pass one another “safely”. It took about seven hours to make the around 90 mile trip to the Denali Backcountry Lodge where Susan and Tim had reserved for us to stay. The driver provided a lot of information on the park, history, animals, mountains, and so on taking her time on the drive. People were always on the lookout for animals and we did get to see a total of 4 grizzly bears, around 6 caribou, a heard or whatever the term is of white Dall sheep, beaver, and just before entering the park we saw a moose and calf. Tim, who’s an avid (rabid-don’t tell him I said that) birdwatcher got to add quite a few new species to his list of bragging rights. Can you imagine a livelier group-sitting around a table getting hyped about the birds they’ve seen? (Boy am I going to be in hot water with a few folks.)
Denali Backcountry Lodge is within a mile of the literal end of the Denali road. The nearest large city in that direction is Nome just a few hundred miles away. This group of cabins nestles in a valley and is among about four outfits that have places to stay there. They are privately owned camps. The National Park Service a few years back acquired a few thousand more acres to add to the park and these lands have some private owners although I’m not clear on the arrangement. The park with these lands included comprises over 6 million acres and is I believe the largest untouched natural area in the world. Our meals were included and we “dined” three excellent times a day (my little finger is going to stick in the up position). There was a stream next to the compound and some trails around the camp. You could sign up for a number of activities each day including the wimp, intermediate, or challenging hikes, biking, fishing, “rock” walks, or lectures. If you just wanted to relax that was also an option. Susan and Tim opted for the intermediate hike each day while the three of us slept in the first day. The second day Cathy slept in while Patty and I grabbed poles and boots and had them drop us off at a lake. We declined the hip waders as we were told they were only to keep us dry on the tundra and opted for calf high boots. The water was so shallow we waded out to the tops of out boots and still could not reach deeper water. So in true southern fashion we waded out into this glacial lake up to our butts where we continued with an unbroken record of not catching fish. Oh but what a spectacular place to not catch them. After about two hours of this we sloshed the half mile back to the dock and took off our boots now turned buckets, sat down with our backs to a canoe that was there, and read the books Patty so wisely included in our day pack. The folks coming back from the wimp walk on “blueberry hill”, each with their little bucket of fresh picked blueberries, offered us a ride even though we were soaked which we gladly accepted. Patty and I also took a walk on the trails around the camp where the bushes were loaded with blueberries and cranberries. The difference between those and the ones here in Kotzebue is in Denali, the berry bushes were around knee high and the berries were much larger. Here they are just an inch or two off the ground and smaller. We did have a bit of excitement as Patty almost stepped on a man eating snowshoe hare (camouflaged in it's summer coat of brown fur of course). The evenings we all spent in a gazebo we kind of took over with Susan reading and the four of us playing spades. Susan and Tim took an evening flight around McKinley and got some spectacular shots. Patty got a bit bus sick on the way in so It was decided that Susan, Patty, and Cathy would take a flight out of the park passing McKinley on the way, and Tim and I would take the bus.
Tim and I had breakfast at 5:30 am and hopped the bus back. The ride out was quicker, only around five hours this time but we did see another four grizzly, a moose, more sheep, more caribou, and for Tim, more birds. I have not said much about the beauty of the park but I have long ago used up all the adjectives I could think of trying to describe Alaska. The park is vast, unspoiled, and spectacularly beautiful; stretching in all directions as far as the eye can see with the only human disturbance the ribbon of road cutting across it. We were in the truck and moving around 11:30 am and after a lunch of sub sandwiches (if you’re ever in “tourist valley” outside Denali, eat at Bud’s Subs) we were at the train station where the girls were supposed to be at 12:30. We waited. Then we waited some more. We found out the airfield was right behind the station and drove there and waited some more. We played cards and waited. We talked and waited. We finally went to a phone and were told they should almost be there (checks in the mail right?). As we pulled up to the airfield they landed. The delay wasn’t due to them putting on makeup but they were all pretty green faced I have to say. Patty looked the worst and sheepishly carried a doggy bag no dog would want. Seems the flight was not only a couple of hours late (How many times do I have to say the clocks in Alaska are different? Scheduled times here are like speed limits in the lower 48-their just suggestions.) it was a bit bumpy too. The worst part is Tim and I lovingly saved half of each of our Philly Cheese Steak subs for the girls and they upon smelling the inside the truck, promptly banished them to the covered bed never to be seen again. After a walk around the visitor’s center to allow the girls to return to a more natural shade, we headed back to Anchorage arriving around 8 pm. We "ate" that night after stopping at the only Popeye's fried chicken in town.
Friday we took a ride first to Potters Marsh on Turnagain Arm, about an 8-10 minute ride from our house. There Tim got to see more birds and we got to see three types of salmon in a spawning stream. We then drove down to Exit Glacier in Whittier after stopping at various turnouts to take in the scenery and of course, the birds. It was too late to take one of the tours but we did get to see more salmon in a stream getting ready to spawn. We made our way back stopping to watch for the scheduled bore tide that comes daily up the Arm. We did not get to see the wave but we did see the tide turn around covering massive sandbars in a matter of minutes. We then drove to the Alyeska Ski Resort turnout and went down a dirt road to what I consider the best restaurant in Alaska-The Double Musky. This is a New Orleans themed restaurant nestled along the aforementioned dirt road. The building is of wood surrounded by gardens full of flowers. I gotta tell you if you want steak, this is the place. Patty and I got the New York strip while Tim got the Filet with prawns and Susan got the pepper crusted steak. Tim’s filet was a good six inches thick and the wife and my steaks were in the 20 oz range. Suzy swears she got half a cow. They were not only big but delicious too. Once again we “dined” all the way through dessert which was also excellent. We rolled out of the restaurant and after driving around the ski resort we headed home, worn out by now from a week of oooing and ahhhing. Oh, we did do one more ooo and ahhh after seeing mountain goats along the road by Turnagain Arm and Mt McKinley in the distance. Note: Cathy did not come with us that day, she had a shopping list over a grand long.
Since the New Yorkers were flying out Saturday evening we stayed in Anchorage which is of course the boring big city right? Wrong. After dining at their swanky hotel (Not bad as Alaska goes. Of course folks that live outside of Anchorage do not consider Anchorage part of Alaska. The saying goes "Alaska is only 10 minutes from Anchorage".) we visited the Saturday market downtown which goes on all summer. It's like a giant craft fair with fresh veggies and good food thrown in for good measure. Tim got into the spirit and probably will help some of these folks make it through the winter. We did a bit of a driving tour touring first Earthquake Park, then Lake Hood the world’s largest seaplane lake, and ended up at Ship Creek which was only about 3 blocks (all down hill) from the fair. Although the water was extremely shallow and we did not see any fish, there were fishermen here and there with their "Cabela Warrior" outfits and some of them had some pretty impressive fish. The tide was out while we were there but we were assured the fish would be back around 8pm. The yearly tournament that lasts a couple of weeks was in progress so I guess they do come into the heart of town. We "dined" for the last time at the Glacier Brewhouse that evening and Suzy and Tim got out on time.
We did our shopping Sunday and returned home that night tired but glad to get back to a familiar bed (and less of that pesky darkness). Since then we have been trying to get back into the work thing while trying to eat up all the fresh veggies we brought back and suffering all the ill effects that brings.
Well again enough for now. I had something else I was going to write about but it will have to wait.
You folks take care,
The Sam's
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Last updated:
08/29/05
