Author: Buck

Day three involved a drive from Anchorage to Talkeetna with ad hoc stops along the way.  Candy has a great book that has everything in Alaska by milepost.  We made an impromptu stop at a pullout for Thunderbird Falls.  After a mile hike over mostly easy trail, we reached the falls.

They were nice, but not the most spectacular falls we’ve ever seen.  Still, it was a nice hike and a great way to break up the drive.

Farther up the road, in Wasilla (Sarah Palin’s home town), we visited the Iditarod Race Headquarters.  The race actually begins in Anchorage, but the headquarters is in Wasilla.

Inside the gift store they showed an eighteen-minute movie and had some very interesting race memorabilia.  I was hoping that the movie would talk more about the history of the race.  It was in fact more like a racing documentary, discussing the mushers competing in the 2012 race.  In anchorage we learned that this race commemorates an historical event.  One winter there was an outbreak of diphtheria in Nome and the only way to get the serum from Anchorage was by dogsled.  Sometime in the the 60’s or 70’s someone came up with the idea or resurrecting the event for sport, not unlike running a marathon, which was initially to commemorate the end of the battle of Marathon.

Still farther up the road toward Talkeetna we stopped at Miller’s roadside cafe.  They were reputed to have great burgers and ice cream.  They did.  This was a neat place: combination general store, ice cream parlor, burger joint, coffee house, and post office.  In fact the Postmaster is the person who cooked our food.

We topped off our food with ice cream and got back on the road.

Eventually we arrived in Talkeetna.  The town, which has a year-round population of ~800, was originally a transit point where goods were take off barges and the hauled by mules, horses, or dog sleds farther into the interior.  Today it is largely a tourist attraction, with gift stores, place to eat, river rafting excursions, and flights to glaciers on Mt. McKinley.

We signed up for a flight up to a glacier on Mt. McKinley the next day and walked into town to look around.

This town was the model for the town in the television show Northern Exposure.  One of the locals told us that the high school (fed by three towns) graduated 22 last year.  This general store reminded me of the one in my grandmother’s home town in Illinois.   There was a little bit of everything in the store, from bread to bait and from animal skins to snacks.

That night I made chicken kabobs on the grill for dinner.  We finished the day with a little ice cream while watching an episode of the Mission Impossible TV show.  It began to rain that night.  The next morning, clouds hung low in the sky and visibility was limited.  Our flight to the glacier was cancelled.  We, therefore, took our time getting packed up and then headed toward the entrance to Denali National Park.

One of our stops this day was in Denali State Park, where we saw the Alaska Veteran’s Memorial.  Nearby were some VERY interesting placards describing interesting vignettes about Alaska at War, mostly WWII and the Cold War.  There was also a story about a Confederate ship, the Shenandoah, which was sent to Alaska to sink Union whaling boats.  Apparently, profits from whale hunting were important sources of revenue to finance the war.  The Shenandoah sank 6 or 8 Union whaling vessels, continuing its mission for six months after the war had officially ended.  There is debate among historians as to whether the crew knew the war was over and kept sinking ships anyway.  This whole memorial area was a really unexpected gem.

You can see by this picture that it was drizzly all day, and visibility was limited.  We should have been able to see Mt. McKinley most of the day, but the thick clouds got in the way.  We eventually arrived at our campsite just a few miles outside the gate to the Denali National Park.  I barely had time to finish cooking burgers for dinner on our little grill before the sky opened up.  We are told that the weather will get progressively better throughout the weekend, so we have hopes of a good visit to the National Park and making another attempt to fly up the mountain and land on a glacier.

This year’s family vacation is a trip to Alaska.  Once again, Candy has painstakingly planned this event.  Day one was a travel day from Baltimore through Detroit through Seattle to Anchorage.  In Detroit Metro airport we had a long layover, which enabled us to get a stack of Coney Island hotdogs at National Coney Island.  I was quite disappointed in not being able to find a Vernors ginger ale.

We also learned — almost by accident — that there is a USO-like organization operating in the Detroit airport, so we had a chance to sit on comfortable couches and have a drink in a quiet place while we waited for our flight.

After nearly 10.5 hours in the air and two layovers, we finally caught a glimpse of Alaska.  You can see a glacier under the wing along the southeastern coast of Alaska.  This was about 0100 East Coast time.

We are renting an RV for this trip.  We arrived after the rental agency, Great Alaska Highways, was closed.  The rental agency is used to having people arrive late, so they had the keys for our RV on the rear wheel and allowed us to sleep in it overnight.  The picture above was taken at about 2200 at night; Anchorage had 17.5 hours of daylight yesterday.  We arrived got to bed after midnight after we unpacked our suit cases into the various drawers, closets, and cubby holes.  The next morning we got our training on the RV and were on our way.

Our first stop was downtown anchorage for a trolley tour and brief history lesson.  We learned quite a bit about the great earthquake (the second largest in world history) and some other interesting facts.

I found this sign near the visitor’s center interesting.

After a couple of hours wandering around some gift shops, we headed out of town.  Our first stop was our proposed camp sight for the first night — just a couple miles outside Anchorage near Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson.  We reserved our camp sight and then went to visit the Alaska Heritage Center.

The Alaska Heritage Center includes villages representing the 11 major cultural groups in Alaska.  Most had high school aged docents from those regions and cultures who described the traditional dwellings, tools, and other artifacts.  Except in the southeastern part of Alaska, which is classified as rainforest, most of the state is permafrost.  The native Alaskans built semi subterranean dwellings that protected them from the harsh temperatures.  The picture above shows the entrance to a reproduction of one such dwelling.

In addition there were a number of talks by the high school aged kids and some demonstrations of native dancing and sports.  The picture above shows one native athletic event in which the participant, starting from a standing position, jumps straight up and tries to kick a ball hanging in the air.  The demonstrator placed third in the recent native Alaskan athletic games.

We also took the time to do something really touristy at the Alaskan Heritage Center:  we got pulled in a training sled around a short course by a team of dogs that completed this year’s Iditarod competition.  Afterward we had a chance to see some of the dogs, who were amazingly friendly.  I expected them to be more wild.

After about four hours at the Alaska Heritage Center we went to Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson to stock up our camper with food for the next week or so.  Then we retired to our camp sight for a light dinner of grilled cheese sandwiches and chicken noodle soup.  We were quite tired from the previous day’s traveling and late night, so we hit the sack early.

The temperature was between 55 and 65 all day.  The weather and scenery were terrific.

 

This past week I was one of five adults who supported a trip to hike the Grand Canyon rim-to-rim.  (Venturing is a program of Boy Scouts of America that is co-ed.)  The trip included three major phases:  two days in Bryce Canyon, four days in the Grand Canyon, and two days in Las Vegas.

Early last Saturday we flew from BWI to Las Vegas with all our camping gear.  Then we rented a 15-passenger van (with surprisingly little cargo capacity) for the three hour drive to Bryce Canyon.  Despite the cramped conditions in the vehicle, everyone was in high spirits.  We stopped at Walmart near the airport and bought all our food for the camping days and then headed to Bryce.

We spent a day and a half hiking around Bryce Canyon.  This was a good shakedown and opportunity for people to exercise those hiking muscles prior to the main event.

We camped two nights in the Bryce Canyon campground and hiked during the day.  A couple of the adventurous kids and I got up early to see the sunrise over the hoodoos.

Our last morning in Bryce we took a final hike to see the “mossy cave.”  Nearby was a nice side hike up to a window formed in the rocks by wind and erosion.

This last hike was a lot of fun.  I remember making this hike with our kids many years ago the first time we visited Bryce.  We crammed ourselves back into the van and drove three hours to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.  We chose to start our rim-to-rim hike from the North Rim because it is 1000 feet higher than the South Rim.  We figured this would be a slightly easier route.

The first day, North Rim to the Cottonwood campground, began at 0540.  Our aim was to avoid hiking in the heat of the day.  It was actually cold when we departed, so you can see some of the folks wearing jackets in the picture below.  As we moved down into the canyon, the temperature rose.

Below you can see us snaking around a switchback.  You can see in the background just how deep we were going to go during this first hike.

The first portion of the hike involved a large number of switch backs.  After hiking for about a mile and a half, we stopped to rest.  I was thinking that the hike wasn’t as bad as I expected, but then it got worse!

There is debate among the Crew as to whether the first or last day was harder.  After we crossed the bridge shown below, the sun came out, and the next couple of miles were brutal.

The scenery throughout the hike to Cottonwood was breathtaking.  The hike was about 7 miles long, and we were pretty tired when we finally stopped.

We arrived at Cottonwood by noon.  There was little shade in the Spartan campsite.  The temperatures was over 100 degrees.  Some of the folks sought the little shade that was available and played cards.  I took four of the kids to see the Ribbon Falls (pictures to be posted in a subsequent article).  While I didn’t feel like hiking an extra three miles, Ribbon Falls were definitely worth the effort.

The “girls'” campsite was visited by a small rattlesnake which slowly made its away across the trail to another site.

The next morning we set out early through “the box” from Cottonwood to Phantom Ranch.  We set out early to avoid the direct sun.  It worked.  All day (7.2 miles) the direct sunlight was blocked by the high canyon walls, so we arrived at Phantom Ranch in good condition.

The walk was mostly downhill, and the terrain wasn’t very rough.  Because we avoided the direct sunlight, the hike was pleasant.  We actually arrived at Phantom Ranch sooner than we had expected.

We turned around a corner and found a sign saying “Bright Angel Campground .3 miles ahead.”  Phantom Ranch has flush toilets and a terrific creek in which to sit and cool off.  It also had Kamikaze squirrels who preyed on our backpacks looking for food.  In fact, they’ve gotten so used to stealing food from campers that they are attracted to the smell of plastic bags in which food is usually stored.

The temperatures at Phantom Ranch reached 120 degrees by mid afternoon.  The thermometers near the Bright Angel Campground said it “felt like” 130 degrees.

That night we had a wonderful steak dinner.  You have to reserve and pay for this in advance.  All the food is carried down by mule that day and included very good steaks, baked potatoes, corn, peas, cornbread, and a great salad.  I was surprised at the fresh butter and sour cream for the potatoes.  Every was stuffed.  After dinner many of us hit the sack early, but a couple of the kids came back to the canteen to play cards.  The next morning we had a bacon, eggs, and pancakes breakfast and picked up bag lunches before heading out.   These pre-paid meals allowed us to reduce the weight in our packs by three meals.  All the food was excellent.

We were up at four and on the trail by 0530.  Just outside Phantom Ranch we crossed over the Colorado River on this bridge, which was narrow and swayed as people tromped over it.  The view was amazing.

A little way up the hill toward Indian Garden, you can see the view of the river and the Silver bridge.

The hike from Phantom Ranch to Indian Garden was about 5 miles, mostly up hill.  At the end of the hike there were lots of sore muscles and tired campers.  We made this hike in just over three miles and arrived at the campground sooner than expected.

While Indian Garden had a creek that was deemed “lame” by the kids compared to the creeks at either Cottonwood or Phantom Ranch, all the campsites had shade.  We had thick cloud cover all afternoon, which further cut the heat.  A couple of us even managed to take a nap in the late morning.

The next morning we woke at 0300, planning a 0430 start time for the last 4.5 miles of the hike to the South Rim.  This was straight up for 4.5 miles.  The picture above gives you a sense for the climb.  We stopped every 1.5 miles for a water break.

Less than a mile from the South Rim and the Bright Angel trailhead we saw this sign: “Going down is optional; up is mandatory.”

Here is another picture which provides some idea of the difficulty of the climb with full backpacks.  In the center is the three mile rest house from a few minutes farther up the trail.

At 0830, a half hour ahead of schedule, we arrived at the trailhead.  I asked everyone to pretend they were tired for this pictures, since none of us were really tired.

Everyone did well.  Several had doubts when we began whether they could finish the walk.  “Up is mandatory,”  however.  In the end, many of the participants accomplished more than they expected and learned something about themselves.  More importantly at the end of four tough days, everyone was still friends.  We had no serious sun burns and few injuries, other than three bruised toes.

Just a few minutes after we completed the hike, Candy showed up with the van.  After spending an hour repacking duffle bags in shoving all our gear back in the van, we all headed for the gift shop to get our “rim to rim” T-shirts.  After a large lunch in the nearby lodge, we headed to Williams, Arizona for some rest and relaxation, which included showers, time in the pool, showers, horseshoes, showers, pizza, showers, and early bedtime.