Shake, Rattle and Roll

July 30, 2013

 Traveling north to Gulkana today but there is not any hurry.  We did some light shopping in VALDEZ and lunch overlooking the harbor.  The drive was uneventful and unhurried.  We did speed by one moose and that upset someone in the truck but she soon gave the understanding look that you don’t slow down from 50 mph with 18 thousand pounds pushing you.  After three hours we arrived at my summer residence, Jon’s place.  Jon is back on the North Slope so we setup the Raptor in the driveway between his houses and did a short walk around the 18 acres.  A friend dropped by (from the sky) to see Jon.  It was neat that Carol and Lisa got to see the plane land and take off.  Laundry was done by midnight and we all would be sleeping in.

July 31, 2013

Everyone seemed to want to pull the covers up and go back to sleep.  Around 7:00am thunder started and shortly thereafter came the rain.  As usual it lasted no more than an hour so the laziness and raindrops faded as one.  Just some refilling of the water tank and we were off toward Paxson.  The Richardson Highway was fair to excellent with minor to medium frost heaves and repairs to brand new asphalt.  The last 20 miles were double yellow lanes twisting and turning uphill to Paxson.  We had lunch at the Paxson Lodge and I was impressed that the prices were overly fair for these parts.  Philly steak, mushroom Swiss burger and sweet potato fries were shared by all.  At 2:30pm we started westward on the Denali Highway.  The highway is paved for the first 22 miles so I drove about 45-50 mph.  The next 50 miles to our campsite was all dirt, mixed large stones and washboard.  Top speed was 35 mph but most was around 20-25.  We just pulled off the highway onto a turnaround and that was that.  To say we are remote, I’ll let you be the judge.  In the first hour, not a single vehicle passed by.  After four hours there had been three.

The Denali Highway awaits

                                                             Deanli Highway scenery

August 01, 2013

We awoke on a small lake around Mile 73 to no bears, no moose and no caribou.  Ate breakfast, pulled in the slides and we were off to Cantwell.  Lisa got her first taste of the driving as I sat in the copilot seat cringing at every bump and chatter.  The road could shake your RV apart and when Alpine Creek Lodge (Mile 68) repairs 3-5 flats a day, we took care to continue at a slow and even pace reminiscent of the tortoise.  Just after a beautiful stop for pictures and bonus blueberry picking we were informed by a passing BLM worker that a Grizzly sow and cubs were up the road a quarter mile.  We stopped and the terrain was not conducive to all so I quickly scurried up the gravel covered hill side just in time to see the blonde colored momma slip into heavy cover, almost ¾ mile away.  She was followed by her blonde cub then her chocolate cub and the moment was only captured in my memory with aid of my binoculars.  More scenery passed by with the Alaska Range to the north and plenty of caribou and moose habitats.  Then I asked Lisa to “STOP!”  “What?” she asked.  “It’s our camping spot,” from ten years earlier I replied.  The two-track where the truck sat was just as visible as was the farthest hilltop where the tent was pitched.  I glassed the wetlands to the north and there was a cow moose and her calf just like the before.  I got Oma and Lisa to see these then I jogged the path for a closer look.  It was emotional to be there but I did lack the completeness not having Megyn and Kristyn along. 

At Mile 122.9 I announced, “There it is!”  Denali sat there in the over 90 miles away 95% visible, only the peak was obscured by its own clouds.  You know Denali causes its own weather don’t you?  As the road twisted back and forth as we continued toward Cantwell, Denali would disappear then reappear until we were too low and the nearer mountains and trees blocked the view.  We had made it to CANTWELL.  Cantwell RV Park and Cabins would be base camp for three days and nights.  Denali National Park is thirty minutes north, Fairbanks is 140 miles north and Anchorage 210 miles south.

                                         Susitna River

                                        Parked at Mile 96 (proof we were actually on the Denali Highway)

                                         The glacier a few mile north of Mile 96 (20+)

                                         The cow moose in area near our 2003 camping spot

                                         Not just another big mountain, "The Mountain" DENALI

August 02, 2013

We see overcast skies and 60 degrees for this Friday morning.  We tried real hard to be lazy this first half then after lunch went for a drive to Broad Pass on the Parks Highway.  Broad Pass has an elevation of 2409 feet and its significance is the rivers south flow south to Cook Inlet (Anchorage) and the rivers north run north to the Yukon River which flows west to Bering Sea.  Everything has to drain somewhere and at times it is hard to wrap your head around information like that.  Around the Pass we stopped and picked wild blueberries.  Lisa picked the most followed by Carol.  I failed to produce more then a small handful…I could not resist the temptation and I ate about a pint.  The quart that made it back to the Raptor will meet there demise in yogurt and in sourdough hotcakes (we don’t have room in freezer for ice cream).

 
 My contribution to the quart

                                    Carol's (L) and Lisa's (R)...I'm the hunter, she's the gatherer