17 Days of So Much Fun!- Starting with Denali

Day 1-
 Our trip began in Anchorage on August 2nd.  I took the late flight out of Salt Lake City the evening of the 1st and landed in Alaska a little after 1am on the 2nd.  When I sent the itinerary to David, he pointed out that I landed at 1am and departed at 1am.  He wanted to know what I was going to do until the group met at 6pm.  I told him not to worry, I'd catch up on sleep or visit with friends.  And then I discovered that almost everyone I knew in Alaska was going to be in the lower 48 states while I was in Anchorage.  How's that for timing?  Luckily, one of my summer camp friends is now living in Alaska and she reached out to let me know she was up there.  Meghan insisted on picking me up at the airport and taking me to her place to crash.  Of course, after so many years (the # of which we will not calculate), we had a lot of catching up to do.  I didn't get much sleep, but it was such a blast chatting with Meghan.  I also enjoyed getting to know Zoey and Terry in the morning.  We had so much fun hanging out and enjoying the worlds best blueberry pancakes, until Meghan and I headed into town for a late lunch.  I even had a chance to chat with her twin sister Sarah on the phone for a bit while we were visiting.  Meghan and I had a lovely lunch looking out over the water.  I had my first reindeer burger and some delicious seafood chowder.  Great way to start the trip to Alaska.
 

Meghan and Sarah during our camp days.

Meghan dropped me off at the hostel on her way to work.  It was a bit too early to check in so I waited the 15 minutes until they were ready.  I was getting a little nervous since the people ahead of me weren't having much luck with their check ins.  Fortunately, mine went smoothly.  Once I dumped my stuff in my room I headed back to the office to use one of the computers.  I ended up having a Facebook chat with David, which was entertaining since we were a block away from each other.  We were joking that he was going to let a bear get me and then mom would have to kick his butt.  (I'm doubtful on whether she would have done so since she always loved David.)  I teased that one of the most insane things I could have done was agree to go on a trip with him.  We'll see if that turns out to be true.

Our group, minus one, met at the truck at 6pm.  The truck has been named "Atka".  David and Natalie introduced all of us, talked about some of the details of the trip and prepared us for our departure the next morning.  Our group included the Germans: Ulli, Thorsten, Renee (and Natalie), the Americans: Me, Mary (and David), and Evelien from the Netherlands.  (Going forward you will see Evelien referred to as Evie in my stories.)  It was an interesting mix of old friends and new friends.  I had known David forever, Thorsten and Natalie knew each other from home, and Mary had gone on one of Natalie's trips in South America.  Renee, Ullie and Evie were new friends.  Mary was the one member of our group who was missing since she had late flights getting her in that evening from Virginia.  The others had flown in a day or two early and explored Anchorage.  After our meeting we walked downtown for lovely dinner and chance to get to know each other better.  Earlier in the day I had received a message from Katie about the kind of shirt she would like me to find for her.  David was nice enough to walk me over to one of the bigger tourist stores to look for one.  I hope the one we found will work.  It was nice to have the time to catch up on our way back to the hostel.  When I got back, I got the chance to meet Mary since we were sharing a room and she had finally arrived. 

Preparing Atka for our departure

Day 2-
We had an early start after breakfast at the hostel.  As we headed out of Anchorage, David was driving and Natalie was giving us information.  We had been divided into cooking pairs.  Since I had admitted before the trip that my cooking skills were slim, I had been matched with Thorsten who liked to cook.  Ullie and Evie were working together and Renee and Mary made up the third group.  Natalie gave us a paper with the days we would cook, the meals we would have to cover and the budget we'd have when we got to the store.  It had been suggested that if there were food items that we didn't like we should write them on a list by the door.  Then others could see what should be avoided.  I'm fairly easy going and open to trying anything once, so I didn't think I needed to write anything down.  We discussed some options for the meals we needed to cover and I went back to my seat to watch for wildlife.  Soon after entering moose country, David spotted our first moose.  It was trotting across a meadow and looked to be a big one but was kind of far from the road.

Our first stop was in Wasilla (No Palin Sightings) where we stopped at a Fred Meyer's grocery store.  This was a super store, so it was somewhat overwhelming to the European portion of our group.  Thorsten and I did a lap of the aisles before we started working on our shopping list.  His idea for our first dinner was couscous with veggies and pork.  I had pushed for French toast for our first breakfast since it was one of the mornings we had more time to prepare.  The rest of the meals we had to cover we chose to do simple things.  I walked around the store with the calculator on my phone in one hand, while pushing the cart with the other, so we didn't go over budget.  It was hard to keep Thorsten on target when things cost twice what they cost at home.  I had to keep asking him what things cost and then doubling back to figure it out when he didn't know.  Eventually we got everything purchased and packed into the coolers or storage bins and put away in the truck.  Pretty much everyone had taken advantage of the stop to stock up on the alcohol of their choice.  We are now ready for this trip.

Our next stop was in Talkeetna.  We had lunch in the truck since it was a bit windy, while David went to check on flight seeing trip status for part of our group.  After they decided it was too cloudy, we went to walk around the village.  I bought a funny photo card from a local artist and a baby shirt for my new niece who will be arriving soon.  Then Evie and I walked around taking some funny photos and picked up drinks.  It was a nice chance to get out and see things, while stretching our legs.

Kissing a Moose.

A few miles before we reached our camp area we saw our second moose.  This time we pulled over for photos.  It was standing in the river eating dinner.  A couple of us even climbed up on top of the truck to try out the viewing platform.  It helped us get a photo without the electrical wires in our way.  So far these moose sightings are not convincing me that they are bigger in Alaska than they are in Utah.  We'll see if I can find one that might prove whether this is truth or myth.

Our second moose.  (Guess I should have chosen the shot w/o the wires in it)

We reached the Denali area in the evening and set up our camp near a pond.  There were a couple of spots that were big enough for two tents and a picnic table that had a roof over them.  We put our tents under those so we were protected from any weather that might come in.  So far it is beautiful up here.  Natalie showed us how to set up the tents.  I reacted the quickest so she used my tent as the example.  Mary is going to be my tent mate, so she lucked out too.  They aren't too bad except for getting the top pole to fit in where it needs to be.  I'm just a tad too short to see it easily.  We set our tent up closest to the truck and pond.  Thorsten put his tent up next to ours.  The other two tents were nearby but uphill from ours.  After I got our tent situated I went and helped David with the cook tent and the eating tent.  Both will help protect us from the mosquitoes that are buzzing around.  While we waited for dinner Mary and I walked to the beaver pond but didn't see any.

Dinner was delicious but a bit too spicy for me.  This is what I get for not putting on the list that I have issues with spices.  My lips were burning before the end.  Ulli and Evie (with some help from Thorsten) had made a rice and chicken dinner.  We have a camp stove with a couple of burners for cooking, so not the campfire cooking that I was imagining.  As we finished up, David gave us the details for the next day and then went and started a campfire for s'mores.  It was fun to teach the Germans.  Roasting marshmallows looks like a bigger hit than the whole s'more.

Turns out that this camp site is just down the road from the hostel I stayed in when I visited Denali in 2008.  Small world, even in a large state.

Day 3-
This was an early morning.  We had to be out of camp at 7am and we actually made it.  Group 2 gave us toast and cereal for breakfast.  Then we packed up sandwiches to take with us.  I made a mental note to invest in some chips and fruit on the next grocery stop.


At the park we used the bathroom, grabbed a drink and got on Tony's bus to head for Eielson Visitor Center in the middle of the park.  David believes if you want to see something you need to project it out there.  We all took it to heart and had said what we hoped to see.  It was a slow start for wildlife viewing.  By our first stop we had only seen 1 caribou.  Fortunately after that it picked up.  During the whole day we saw 2 moose, 11 caribou, 11 grizzly bears, 11 Dall sheep, ground squirrels and a Ptarmigan (state bird).

The bears were actually the most impressive.  We saw two different mama bears with two cubs each.  One of them we saw on the way out and even closer to the road on the way back.  Tony wasn't always the easiest driver to deal with due to his desire to stick to the time line.  He also didn't care to stop for beautiful views, so we did what we could.  Sadly, Mt. Denali did not cooperate for us and was cloud covered.  We opted not to stay longer at the visitors center, but decided to head back for the last dog sled demo.  It was fun to walk around seeing all the dogs beforehand.  They are so excited when they realize it's time for the demo.  It sounds like a bunch of kids saying, "Pick me, pick me!"  On our way back to our truck we made a souvenir and in my case, park stamp stop.  I decided I need to try and visit all the National Parks, so I bought the passport book.  I never remember to travel with it, but can pick up a park stamp each time and add it in later.  I ended up with two for Denali so far, one for each visitor center.  I also found a vintage postcard for Katie and put the park stamp on there for her.  Hopefully it will help if the vintage looking t-shirt isn't a success. 

Love this photo of the baby bears.  They had been playing and suddenly stopped and looked innocent.

Since it was cloudy again, the portion of our group who wanted to go flight seeing decided to skip it.  We went back to the camp for showers before dinner.  Since it was a long day no one had to cook.  We went for pizza across the road instead.  Someone ordered 20 pizzas before we arrived so it was a long wait.  But the conversations going on around our table were entertaining.  I can already see that mixing Europeans and Americans is going to make this trip far more interesting than just the sights we will see and the adventures we will have.

Before bed I worked on writing postcards.  Hard to believe I can write after 10pm without a light.  It might have helped, but I didn't need it.

Day 4-
This morning was the cook day for me and Thorsten.  Since I chose French toast Thorsten deferred to me.  I got up early to get ready and then started organizing breakfast.  We also had to make lunches for a day of hiking in Denali.  For that we put out lunch meat, cheese, hoagie style bread and cookie packs.  I was nervous about the french toast since I have only made it a couple of times for myself, never for 8 people.  I had no idea on measurements so I just winged it.  Fortunately it worked out and I got a lot of positive comments.  We pulled it off and were ready to leave on time again.

French toast that I made.

 This was our hiking day in the park.  We didn't have to start as early since we had a 9:30 bus and weren't going all the way in this time.  I kept hoping Mt. Denali would show itself.  There were some glimpses of pieces of it, but we never saw it all.  Our group got off at Sable Pass after seeing 2 moose, a bird I can't identify and a mother bear with 2 cubs from this spring.  They were the smallest cubs we had seen yet and so cute.  David led us back down the road from the direction we had come.  the light and colors on the mountains in front of us were just amazing.  My photos don't even come close to doing it justice.

Ready to hike.

We walked down until we reached the creek/canyon area where we had seen the bears.  Talk about being outside your comfort zone.  At first it sounded like we would only go a little ways up the creek while keeping a watchful eye out for the bears.  Finally David asked if we still wanted to keep going or turn around.  We also had the choice to split up into two groups so some people could stay while others kept going.  We all kept going but it definitely made me nervous.  I would be the first to admit that that I don't take many risks.  I just told myself that I trusted David and enjoyed the beauty of the canyon.  I must tell you, David was doing everything right for keeping us safe.  He had bear spray, we were making noise so wildlife would know we were in the area and we were all watchful.  The only sign of a bear we saw were some piles of poop.  Eventually some of the group asked for lunch so we stopped on a hillside to eat.  Watching Thorsten take flower photos during this break was fun.  He is so serious about his photography.  He does end up with some fabulous pictures.  After lunch we decided to hike back toward the road and try a new area.

We headed down the road a bit further before trying to hike uphill to a ridge.  Tundra is soft and spongy to walk on which is nice on my knee, but not really that easy for hiking otherwise.  We got pretty high up the hill before Mary wanted to go back down.  Working the way down on tundra provided new challenges.  Evie and I took photos before we headed down to show how high we got.  Across the way we saw some Dall sheep.  We were almost as high as them.  There was a group of 6 and then one off by itself.  I joked that was the petulant child.  We made it back to the road and started watching for a bus to flag down.  The first one only had 3 spots so Natalie, Evie and I got on.  I tried to let Thorsten go first since I knew he was done with hiking, but he was a gentleman and sent me ahead.  The rest were able to get spots on the bus behind us.  Just down the road we spotted more Dall sheep.

That brown line below is the road.

The three of us had a fun trip down sitting in the back of the bus.  We talked about nicknames since I can't pronounce Evelien the way it should be pronounced.  That's when I asked her if I could call her Evie.  The best part of the trip was seeing a decent sized male moose very close to the road.  then he came right over and crossed behind us.  Evie was excited because it meant she would beat Thorsten in their daily photo contest.  She was bouncing with excitement.  I made the mistake of asking the ranger sitting in front of us if Mt. Denali had made an appearance and the answer was yes, for about an hour.  I shouldn't have asked.  We got back a bit ahead of the rest of our group so we shopped for postcards, stickers and drinks.  I also used the bird books to try and figure out what I had seen that morning but couldn't figure it out.  We greeted Thorsten with photos of the moose we saw as soon as he got off his bus.

Our fabulous moose photo.

Thorsten was in charge of dinner.  I helped by chopping veggies and I cut the massive pork loin into smaller pieces.  That was quite a challenge.  Then I got out of the way of Thorsten, Ulli and Natalie.  It took a bit longer than predicted but it was worth it.  I had chopped zucchini and cucumber and had them sitting in separate bowls.  I walked away for a moment and when I came back they were gone.  I made a comment about never trying cooked cucumber before and that's when Thorsten realized he had grabbed one too many bowls.  He sat there and picked the cucumber out from the zucchini.  The pork might have been the best part.  Most of us wanted seconds.  During dinner we all decided to go check out the beaver pond.  We were projecting what we wanted to see when Evie said, "I want to see a beaver in action!"  We laughed and teased her for awhile over that one.  Sadly, our walk did not yield a moose or a beaver sighting.  I told Ulli I would go with her in the morning at 6am to try again before we left for our next destination.

I love that we saw so many amazing animals in Denali and on this trip I got to hike.  I'm excited that I did something outside of my comfort zone.  That is going to be one of my trip highlights.  I am sure it will be the first of many times I challenge myself over these 17 days.  The guestimate for our hike today is that we did 6.3 miles.