Talkeetna, Alaska: A Wild Wilderness Jet Boat Trip

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Yesterday was rainy and cool; perfect weather for curling up with a good book. Mary Lynn and I love to read, especially about the history and people of the area we are exploring. We stop at almost every visitor center we see; they are packed with lots of great information and displays plus they always have the obligatory gift shop/book store.

Given the high cost of books multiplied times the number of books that appeal to us, you could quickly break the bank buying them brand new, especially at visitor center prices. Instead we take note of the titles/authors and then look up on-line at www.amazon.com and www.half.com.

Amazon is a tremendous resource and they have 1000's of book sellers as their partners. Whenever you do a search for a specific book they show you the price of that book from all the resellers, both new and used copies plus any shipping. Amazon stands behind these book resellers if there is a problem; we have never had a problem. No problem other than our obsession with books, not the best habit when you are trying to travel light in an RV.

Another great resource is Half.com. These folks have great prices on lots of items including books. In fact our kids use Half.com for hard to find (and expensive) college text books. The savings can add up pretty quickly.

Both of these booksellers will try to aggregate your purchases and use

media mail, which lowers your cost. You just have to be patient as media mail takes a week or so to make it to your door. Expedited shipping, always a tempting offer, will kill you in high shipping costs. Patience wins the day! Always tough when you are visiting a location/area a book is about...

Today Mary Lynn and I took a Jet Boat Tour organized by Mahay's Jet Boat Adventures. They organize wildlife viewing and fishing trips throughout this area on Talkeetna, Susitna & Chulitna Rivers.

We were originally scheduled to go our our trip yesterday however at noon it was still rainy and misty so we called and rescheduled for today (Sunday). Wouldn't you know it; yesterday it quit raining in the afternoon and by the 3 pm departure time the weather was beautiful. This morning we woke to beautiful weather and by 3 pm it had changed to overcast and cloudy -- go figure. Locals say weather predictions can't be trusted; just schedule and go...

Anyway, our trip included all three rivers, ending with the beautiful Chulitna River Gorge. The Jet Boat is probably the only way to see the Chulitna River since it is a multi-braided river with lots of shallow areas.

In addition to lots of birds, mostly Bald Eagles, we saw an Athabascan native village and an old fur trapper's cabin. The Athabascan villages were small, the land would only support a small number of people in any one area. Whenever the tribe reached a population of 25 or so they split into two tribes and went their separate ways.

It was interesting to note that our naturalist/guide strapped a shotgun over his shoulder -- another reminder that we are in a very wild part of the country. Sometimes all the attractions & exhibits start to take on a Disney like feel and then you notice people carry guns as casually as people in the lower 48 carry cell phones. Definitely not your everyday Disney experience...

The trapper's cabin was one small and dark place. A small door you almost had to crawl through and no windows. Trappers spent a lot of time outdoors running the trap lines and working the skins they harvested and I can see why. You would spend a lot of time outdoors too rather than spend a whole (9 month) winter in one of those cabins.

As usual, the cabin had a cache located high up on poles. The cache was were you stored your food, furs, etc. Basically anything you didn't want animals to get into. The ladder was removed and stored against another tree -- never on the ground. In a place that gets snow frequently and in large volumes, anything left on the ground would quickly get covered and 'lost' until the spring thaw.

We also saw a 'Beaver Deadfall' trap, which is basically a large log balanced on top of a small pole. The beavers cut through the pole (in about 3 minutes) and the large log falls on them -- instant beaver pelt. And since beavers in this area get upwards of 100 pounds, some mighty fine eating (so I'm told). Any excess meat the trappers had as a result of trapping went to feeding the dogs. Beaver meat is actually high in fat content and is a favorite of Iditerod racers to feed to their dogs.

The boat ride was a lot of fun as the driver really put the speed and turning ability of a jet boat on display for the return trip. Definitely recommend taking this tour.

In fact, our bus diver is the General Manager for Mahay's, a fella named Mike. He moved up here with his new bride in 1971. Great guy. He tells the story of how he came back from Vietnam, swore he would never touch another gun, moved to Alaska, staked out ten acres and began building a log home. No experience -- no knowledge -- just the determination to make it work. He and his wife lived in that cabin until she became pregnant for the second time, and in a time before Pampers, declared she wanted a home with running water. So they moved from the bush 20 miles into the 'big city' -- Talkeetna, with a population of 300. Today the population is 800. Just a different view of the world. Mike was a delightful guy to talk with. Made you feel as if you had known him all your life -- or wished you had...

Tomorrow we pack up the RV and head south to Palmer, Alaska to re-join our friends, Dave & Mary Anne.

Along the way we will pass through Wasilla, Alaska which has a Super Walmart Center. Good thing since we need to re-stock on a few basics... Who knows -- maybe we'll see Alaska's Governor, Sarah Palin out shopping -- she lives in Wasilla, Alaska. Can't wait to see Russia from her front doorstep...

Regardless of what folks in the lower 48 think about her, they love her here in Alaska. Everyone you talk to simply refer to her as Sarah and then they launch into a long lecture about all the good things she has done/is doing for Alaska -- who knew?

As you know I'm mostly interested in Alaska wildlife sightings however its my duty to report any Sarah sightings should they occur...

See Ya!

Talkeetna, Alaska: Flight Seeing Denali From Talkeetna: A Little Preview Of Heaven

I had breakfast this morning at a small lodge just down the street from the Talkeetna Camper Park, our 'home' while we explore Talkeetna for the next few days. Dave & Mary Anne were leaving this am to go see friends in Palmer; Mary Lynn and I decided to stay and soak up the good vibes of Talkeetna for awhile.

One, we had already scheduled a flight seeing tour for this evening at 7 pm (more on that in a minute!) and two, there's a lot to see and do in this small town. Like a lot of small towns in Alaska Talkeetna caters to the tourists in its own kind of quirky way.

Many communities heavily dependant on tourists develop a kind of love/hate relationship that needs to be kept in check. On one hand locals hate to see so many visitors come into town since it risks changing the look and feel of a small community, the very essence that makes the town appealing to locals and tourists alike. On the other hand, locals love (and depend on) the money spent by the tourists. It's a real balancing act to develop the attractions & activities that brings in the tourists without letting the repetitiveness of the tourists and especially the tourist's unending questions/jokes. All of which the locals have heard a thousand times. And yet another discussion about about how vicious the mosquito's are in Alaska. Talkeetna appears to perform this balancing act as well as any town we've visited so far.

Anyhow, at breakfast, I looked up and there, right out the window was Mt McKinley in the distance, blindingly bright as the sun drenched it's snow covered mass, trying to throw off the clouds that normally hide it from view. Only about 60% was visible however this was more than I've seen so far. Wouldn't you know this was one of the few times I was without my camera?

In the five minutes it took for me to get back to the RV, get the camera and return to take a picture, the local clouds had blown in and covered the mountain completely. After all this time, the clouds that normally cover The Great One's slopes had cleared however the local (Talkeetna area) clouds were blocking the view. Go figure...

The rest of the day was spent fixing the washer/dryer, which needed to

have its lint traps and dryer hose cleaned. Sounds simple right? It took

four hours to complete a 20 minute

job. The design of our RV (and most RV's) crams as much 'stuff' as possible into the smallest space possible. Every inch is utilized.

Well, to get access to the back of the combo washer/dryer I had to remove

the toilet, which meant turning off the water and septic, sliding the w/d out and around. To get access to the dryer vent hose I had to take the living room TV off the wall so that a shelf below the TV could be removed. Oh yeah, I also had to take up the floor under the w/d.... What a trip! However it's typical of what happens when you work on your RV. Most repairs would be done in a jiffy if you didn't have to dissemble half the coach to get to your project.

Now here's the bad news. After spending four hours on this project the dryer is still not completely fixed. It's much better but still having a slight problem. Means I need to call the factory on Monday and start all over again. Bummer dude.

Let me tell you about the much more enjoyable part of my day. Mary Lynn and I took a flight seeing tour where we landed on Mt McKinley. Actually we landed on one of Mt KcKinley's six glaciers. This one is located in a valley deeper than the Grand Canyon. The glacier ice we landed on is just over 4000 feet think and our elevation was 5000 feet. The peak of Mt McKinley towered over us; in fact it was another 15,000 feet to the top of the mountain. Our plane, a 10 passenger De Havilland Otter, was outfitted with a combination of skis & wheels that allowed us to take off on a runway, land and take-off on ice/snow, and then land on a runway when we returned home.

See the small dots on the picture below? Those are three airplanes that landed on the glacier just before we took off. We had the glacier & valley all to ourselves and then these three planes landed within minutes of each other. It was very cool to watch them land and then see them from the air after we took off. That's when it hit me just how massive the scale is in these mountains.

The sight of these massive mountain peaks and valleys is simply amazing. I took so many pictures I thought my finger would fall off.

Here's the best part. Four of the ten passengers wanted to fly up front in the co-pilot's seat so we decided to flip coins to determine the 'winners'. I won the coin toss for the return trip so I sat up front as we took off from the glacier. Wooow hoow!

It was just too cool; spectacular view of the glacier sliding faster and faster under the plane as you descend the glacier, bouncing all over the place, while you quickly gather speed and then suddenly -- swish -- a silky smooth ride as you circle this massive glacier valley to gain altitude.

I offered to take over the controls if the pilot needed a break. I explained I had left seat flying experience from my Combat USA flights where I fought 12 dogfights and flew a number of acrobatic maneuvers: emmelmans, split S's, barrel rolls, wing overs, etc. She was not as impressed with my two hours of flying experience as I had hoped... and declined my offer to help her fly the plane. I didn't want to fly anyhow...

There are several flight seeing tours to choose from -- we flew Talkeetna Air Taxi since we had a two-for-one coupon for their flight. Not all the flights land on the glacier so be sure to specify you want a glacier landing -- and trust me, you do want to land on the glacier. The views and the silence once the plane's motor was shut down made it very special.

You would not believe how many people build cabins beside a lake miles and miles from the nearest road. The only way to get yourself/supplies/building materials in and out is by snow machine in the winter or by plane. Don''t get me wrong; this part of Alaska is not crowded by any stretch. It just amazes me to see these cabins located in what most of us would label 'the middle of nowhere'.

The ride back was over all too quickly. In total we were gone about 90 minutes; probably spent about 20 minutes on the glacier. Very cool! MLA gave this trip to me for my birthday -- what a special lady. Thanks Hon!

Tomorrow we are scheduled to take a 3-4 hour jet boat ride and look for wildlife on three different rivers, tour an Native Indian village and a trapper's cabin.

I mentioned people building cabins. That's been going on up here forever. I enjoy looking at the construction of these cabins. I take pictures and examine every one I can, especially the inside. There is just such an amazing variety of log cabins in Alaska. Each one seems to have its own special flavor although most of the one's built in the early years have two things in common: almost all of them are small and dark, really dark. Usually they minimized windows in order to keep the cabin warmer, especially since glass was pretty hard to find and rarely used for cabins.

How small you ask? So small you have to go step outside to change your mind. Small enough that a man could sit on his bed while he cooked a meal on the stove. Many times these small cabins were shared by 2-4 men. Ouch.

BTW - Danielle, our pilot for our flight seeing trip was excellent. She's been flying for over 19 years, the last seven out of Talkeetna. She's convinced she has the best job in the world -- I couldn't agree with her more.

See Ya!

Talkeetna, Alaska: Denali Wilderness Adventure Launchpad

Today, Thursday June 18, 2009 we drove south from Denali National Park to Talkeetna, Alaska. A relatively short trip of ~150 miles by road took us through some spectacular scenery. You get a little 'immune' to all of the splendor; it's simply one breathtaking vista after another.

Our drive was through both Denali National Park and Denali State Park. We stopped at several points along the way that, if the clouds & weather are cooperating, provide spectacular views of Denali's Mt McKinley.

Long story short is that the views, while breathtaking and spectacular, did not include a view of Mt McKinley. Despite the clear weather and copious amounts of sunshine locally, Mt McKinley was still hiding behind it's own blanket of clouds.

Yesterday, Mary Lynn and I spent time exploring the town located just outside the entrance to Denali National Park before joining Dave & Mary Anne for dinner. Over a fine dinner of hamburgers & salad (made all the more 'fine' because Dave was the one who had to dodge the mosquito's to grill the burgers), we compared notes on our explorations during the day and planned the next few stops of our trip south towards Anchorage and then into the Kenai.

Around 10:30 pm last night I wanted one more chance to see Denali:"The Great One" so I went to the Denali National Park and drove the Denali road. It stretches for 90 miles into the park however visitors are only allowed to drive the first 15 miles into the park. So that's what I did. I drove 15 miles in & then 15 miles out, all the while looking for Mt McKinley to show itself or for some wildlife to show itself.

Normally my nocturnal roaming pay off and I was hoping this would pay off as well. I did see more of Mt McKinley around the mile marker 9 pull-out. I sat for half an hour or so as the clouds swirled around both the north and south peaks of the mountain, teasing me with brief glimpses through thin veils of clouds. In the end it never fully revealed itself. I saw lots of Snowshoe Hares and birds but no moose or grizzlies.

Oh well. I was treated to the special Alaskan light that occurs just before the 1 am 'sunset'; the sunset itself was nice as well.

So tonight MLA told me she was giving me a Mt. McKinley flight seeing trip for my birthday, which is at the end of June. What a great gift! We are scheduled to fly to Mt McKinley tomorrow evening at 7pm. In addition to flying over several of McKinley's six glaciers we will get to land on one of the glaciers.

How cool is that? Land on a glacier and spend some time exploring/taking pictures plus get another chance to see "The Great One".

I am so excited I can hardly sit down to type/post this blog entry. The flight will last about an hour and a half.

Talkeetna is a pretty cool little village. Just about everything/everyone here caters to keeping the visiting tourists happy (and emptying their wallets).

In addition to flight seeing and glacier landings they have guided fishing, float plane fly-in fishing, jet boat wildlife tours, hiking, mountain climbing, river rafting, fishing in local lakes/rivers, dog sledding, bush pilot tours, kayaking, etc., etc.

You name it and they can make it happen here in Talkeetna. MLA and I went in search of a few groceries and found the historic downtown area of Talkeetna, which is entirely devoted to adventure trips, eateries, bars, etc. Very relaxed in Talkeetna; kind of a modern day Hippie village except people are very much focused on making money. They have to be; it's tough (and expensive) to live in Alaska.

Talkeetna is the launching center for the flights that take the mountain climbers to Mt. McKinley's base camp. Once at base camp, climbers spend several days 'acclimatizing' before beginning their attempt to ascend the mountain. Hopefully we'll be able to see a few of the climbers during our flight seeing trip tomorrow evening.

Hey, maybe I can get MLA a guided fishing trip for her birthday!

See Ya!

Denali National Park: The Great One (Was Hiding)

Yesterday we put Fairbanks in our rear view mirror and headed south to Denali National Park. Over 6,000,000 acres of pristine wilderness. Believe it or not, in Alaska 6M acres is only big enough to make Denali National Park the third largest national park. Wrangell St Elias National Park is the largest and Gates of The Arctic National park is number two. In case you didn't know, all three are located here in Alaska. Wow - is Alaska big or what?

Mt McKinley is the official name of the tallest peak in North America; the original Indian name was and is Denali which translates to "The Great One". Most Alaskans and most visitors think the mountain should be changed back to it's original name: Denali. Almost everyone agrees this makes sense -- everyone that is except for some yahoo congressman from Ohio -- the home state of William McKinley. Seems reasonable to me to call the mountain by the name it has been called for generations, especially since McKinley never even visited Alaska yet alone spend time at Denali.

Regardless of the Ohio congressman's wishes, almost everyone refers to the mountain as Denali.

The drive from Fairbanks to Denali was very scenic. It's funny - coming into Fairbanks from the east is not particularly scenic - mostly muskeg and scrub forests. Come into Fairbanks from the south and you get a completely different & scenic view.

However, no one ever said Fairbanks was selected for it's beauty. Actually it wasn't selected at all. A riverboat captain was hired by a businessman to transport his family and $20K worth of goods to the goldfields. The boat developed some sort of problem with the boat (stories differ: sandbar? mechanical?). Whatever the cause, apparently the captain unceremoniously booted the passengers and supplies off the boot onto the banks of the Chena river, turned around and left them there to make it on their own.

It was the end of the season and before the businessman could arrange transportation to the original location for the following season, gold was discovered a few miles from their location on the banks of the Chena. Deciding that one gold field was as good as another, the businessman sent word out to the lower 48 about the "huge" gold strike and opened his store on the ground that eventually came to be known as Fairbanks. Did very well from what I understand.

We arrived at the Denali RV Park located about 8 eight miles from the Denali park entrance in the early afternoon, set up camp and then went exploring. Bus trips into Denali vary in length from 3 to 12 hours, depending on your desired viewing points, your budget, and your back muscles. We purchased tickets for the 8-9 hour trip into the park.

This morning we set off for our Denali park adventure on a school bus. The Denali Park road goes about 90 miles into the heart of the national park; only the first 15 miles or so is paved, the rest is gravel. Too keep Denali in a state of pristine wilderness the park does not allow private vehicles into the park; everyone must take the bus.

The goal is to keep Denali from becoming what Yellowstone has become: one large congested traffic jam where the wildlife is constantly interacting with park visitors.

Despite having misgivings about spending 8-9 hours on a school bus, the system actually works pretty well. The buses run every half hour or so starting at 6 am. They stop at rest stops about every hour or so. And you can get off & hike or spend more time enjoying the sights and sounds at any point. Then you simply flag down another bus, show them your ticket to ride and you are on your way.

The park is absolutely amazing. Our trip started with picture perfect weather: warm sunny temperatures and beautiful blue skies. Our driver told us the chances of seeing Denali today were 'pretty good' however it was not to be.

Did you know that Denali is so big it creates its own weather, and that weather is usually not good? The mountain is covered by clouds more often than not. In fact the average number of days the mountain is visible in June is 4 days, in July the average is 1 day, in August the average is 3 days, and in September the average is 5 days. I kid you not! In fact your odds of seeing Denali actually increase as it gets colder -- go figure.

Despite not seeing "The Great One" in its entirety (we saw approximately the lower third of the mountain), the trip into the park is absolutely worth it. Spectacular beauty is around every bend with lots of wildlife thrown in to make it even more interesting.

We saw a grizzly sow and her two cubs, lots of caribou, bald eagles, ravens, ground squirrels, mountain sheep, and more snowshoe hares than I thought could possibly exist in one place.

We did not see any moose, which is unusual, nor did we see any lynx or wolves. Still it was an incredible day. It's hard to describe just how big and how remote this place is. Just this one park is the size of Connecticut. Truly an amazing place.

Tonight we went to a dinner and a show at a 1930's style Alaska Roadhouse with a family style Salmon & Ribs Bake meal. One of those places where the waiters/waitresses become actors/actresses and put on a show. These folks did a great job and we had a blast.

One thing you see over and over again here in Alaska. People are originally drawn here seeking to make their fortune and, despite the hardships and difficulty of living here, they end up falling in love with Alaska. Most folks you talk to tell you they found their 'fortune', just not the one they were originally seeking. Most folks who live here will tell you Alaska is all the fortune they need.

See Ya!

Chena Hot Springs, Alaska: Ice Castles, Renewable Energy & Moose Amid The Hot Springs

Today we drove through the Chena River State Park on the way to the Chena River Hot Springs Resort. The drive consisted of at least 30 miles of muskeg and stunted spruce forests followed by a 10 miles or so of the beautiful Two Rivers & Chena River Hot Springs. At the end of the drive, roughly an hour outside of Fairbanks you come to the Chena River Hot Springs Resort.

The hot springs have been opened commercially for over 100 years however there is plenty of evidence the hot springs were used by generations of Native Americans before the first miners soothed their aching bodies in the 105 degree mineral waters.

On the drive out we saw a moose however our attempts to get a few pictures were foiled by hordes of ravenous mosquito's. Mary Lynn got a real kick out of watching Dave and I trying to use our cameras while swatting wildly at the buzzing menace.

Turns out the moose was too far away to be seen clearly in the photos -- all those bites for nothing. Well, not for nothing really, we still had a chance to see a wild moose knee deep in the swamp contentedly munching on the lake bottom's vegetation. Truly a beautiful sight.

We jumped back in the car and from then on we explored the various turn outs and sights from the car with the windows tightly closed against the little blood suckers. For some reason these particular mosquito's bite itched more than usual.

Eventually we reached the Chena Hot Springs Resort. As I said it's been in operation for over 100 years (at least the hot springs portion), for many years it was operated by the state of Alaska. Turns out the state was losing over $1M a year operating the resort. About 11 years ago the hot springs were purchased by Bernie Karl, a man with big dreams and ambition.

He immediately began improving the 450 acre property, building a hotel, restaurant, runway and made the resort a base for many activities: flight seeing, dog sledding, Northern Lights Viewing Tours, Arctic Circle Tours, horseback riding, hiking, biking, etc. In fact they market themselves as "One location; 100 activities". I'm not sure if it's 100 activities however the variety of choices are enormous.

One of the main attraction is an Ice Museum that, using geothermal energy production and cooling is preserved year round, even during the Alaska interior's warm (80 degrees is not uncommon) summers.

The Ice Museum is really an Ice Hotel, Wedding Chapel, Ice Sculpture display (including an unbeleivable sculpture of two knights jousting), and a bar that serves Appletinis in solid ice martini glasses. They can't call it a hotel since Alaska state law requires all hotel rooms to have a fire sprinkler system. Not practical (or needed) in an all ice hotel. Everything is made from ice. Beds, tables, chairs, alter, castle, hotel rooms, martini glasses; even the fireplace and mantle are carved from ice. What's going to burn? But the law is the law and so it's called the Ice Museum...

We really enjoyed exploring the ice museum/hotel. The pictures are only OK. If you use a flash you lose all the fantastic colors. Without a flash you lose the sharpness. I included both so you get an idea of both what it looks like and how its made.

Dave & I took the Geothermal Renewable Energy Tour, where you get a behind the scenes view of how the resort uses the 165 degree hot water to create electricity. This is one of Bernie Karl's biggest innovations and is a model for self sufficient energy generation. In fact, the resort plans to sell excess energy in the future.

Oh yeah, did I mention they have hot springs. MLA and I grabbed our swimsuits and towels from the car, paid $10 each for access to the hot springs, quickly changed in the locker room, and within minutes we were enjoying the luxurious warmth of the Chena Hot Springs. Felt especially good after spending about half an hour in the Ice Museum, which is maintained at a constant 20 degrees.

In any case, the hots springs quickly brings your core temperature up and the mineral waters will sooth whatever aches and pains you might have. What a great place. I highly recommend you visit the Chena Hot Springs. They live up to their tag line of "Alaska's Premier Pristine Wilderness Resort For All Seasons".

BTW - on the ride home I told MLA I would take her to dinner iF she found a moose and I was able to get photo's of said moose. We have found a great restaurant that the Fairbanks locals frequent called The Cookie Jar. Needless to say, MLA was determined to find us a moose so I would take her to dinner (and she wouldn't have to cook!).

Sure enough, about 15 minutes up the road we found another moose in a different creek, about 40 yards from the road. I was able to get the pictures I wanted and MLA was able to get dinner out on the town. Ain't life grand!

See Ya!