Day 6: Denaili to Talkeetna

Blog post for Thursday, September 6.  A few of us started the day with a quick stroll around Horseshoe Lake.  Here's the lake.

 

 

And here's the intrepid voyagers doing the one mile trip 

 

We saw a small flock of Rock Ptarmigan on the trail, or what one of our party disparagingly referred to as Alaskan Pigeons.  I really haven't seen that much wildlife on this trip so far, probably because we haven't had the chance to get off the beaten path too much.  But more on that later.

 

We also got a glimpse of the elusive Sasquatch.  This photo will probably be debated and disputed by scientists and conspiracy buffs for years to come

 

And a Grey Jay eating...a cheese doodle?

 

Horseshoe Lake is a beaver lake.  This is a shot of the beaver dam, but we didn't see any beaver

 

Two trail vixens

 

We took the bus back to the lodge, waited for a bus to the train station, then waited for the train for a half hour (maybe!) which would take us to Talkeetna where we'd catch a bus up to the Princess Mt McKinley Lodge.  The Alaskan Railroad connects Seward through Anchorage and up to Fairbanks.  Anchorage and Fairbanks are Alaska's two biggest cities and until the 1920s Fairbanks was only accessible by river boat or bush plane (or dogsled).  I'm really glad I got to ride the Alaska Railroad

 

Princess and some of the other tour companies have their own rail cars on the train.

 

Sue and Sherry

 

Table 3

 

Table 2 (we were Table 1)

 

The views from the upstairs of the rail cars was quite spectacular.  The downstairs was the kitchens and dining cars.

 

The track runs in and out along the eastern edge of Denali National Park and parallel to Alaska Rt 3.  FACT:  Alaska is some 420 times the size of Rhode Island, yet Rhode Island has more paved roads than Alaska. 

Winter is coming on and every day the snow line gets lower and lower

 



 

There was an open air caboose at the back of the train and I spent a lot of the trip taking picture and enjoying the fresh air on the caboose

 

Picture looking back from the way we came

 

This is right around the continental divide for Alaska.  It's a large, flat glacial valley.  On the other side of the divide, we went backwards from late autumn folliage to early autumn folliage.

 

This is the "town" of Cantwell Alaska, population 222.  SALUTE!  FACT:  Cantwell's was the filming location for the film "Into the Wild" 

 

 

 

For most of its length, the Alaska Railroad is a single track, which means that things need to be well coordinated so a south-bound train can get on one of the few sidings when a north-bound train is passing.  Our train and another stopped side-by-side to exchange provisions, crew, and greetings

 

FACT: The Alaska Railroad is the only remaining full-service railroad in America.  What makes it full-service is it still offers flag service.  Flag service is when you can buy a ticket, not to a station, but to a mile marker.  The trains that offer flag service will essentially drop you off wherever you want, and when you want to go back, you have to flag the train down and they will stop for you.  Hunters, fishers, and rugged individualists use this service to get out to their cabins or their homes that are accessible in no other way

 

Next we passed over Hurricane Gorge.  Hurricane Gorge is some 300 feet across and a thousand feet deep (I forgot to bring the guide book with me to write the post, so estimates will have to do).  The Bridge was built in 1921 and is still sound even after a few pretty big earthquakes.  After we crossed the Gorge, our guide told us "The Alaska Railroad runs a stress test on the Hurricane Gorge Trestle twice a day.  I'm happy to report that we just passed ours"

 

We saw two types of rivers on our trip.  This is the Indian River which is spring or snow fed.  They are crystal clear and these are the salmon rivers.  We actually saw hundreds of salmon from the train looking down into one of the rivers.

 

The other type of rivers are the glacial fed rivers.  As the glaciers melt, in addition to releasing millions of gallons of water, they release millions of pounds of glacial silt.  Glacial silt is as fine as baking flour and is so dense virtually no plant or animal life can live in these rivers.  This is the Chulitna River 

 

And, safe at Mt McKinley Lodge, we ended the night with a rousing game of Yahtzee.  I lost.

 

 

Editor's note: now that I'm almost at the end of the land tour portion, I'm finding that a group tour involves a lot of waiting for something.  You can't just really go out and explore on your own, at least not unless you're in a city where you can walk.  For example, tomorrow we have to have our bags outside our door at 6:00 am, then wait for an 11:00 bus to take us to a 1:00 train to take us to the ship at 5:00.  Most of the day will be waiting or traveling.  And any excursions you want to take will cost you $150 - $300 per person.  On the flip side, you're always near a nice restaurant or bar, and someone else has to worry about driving and getting you where you want to go.  Some people find this very relaxing.  I guess I'm just more of an "adventure vacationer" as opposed to a "relaxing vacationer".  We'll see if I feel the same way after the cruise portion of the trip.  As always, your mileage may vary.