20030729                      Open new window with today’s pictures.

July 29, 2003
Tuesday


Start:   FAMCAMP, Elmendorf AFB, Anchorage AK
End:     Talkeetna Camper Park, Talkeetna AK
Miles:   108
Hi Temp: 65.3
Lo Temp: 53.1


We arose at a reasonable time, ate, unhooked, hitched, and got on the road northbound from Anchorage, first up the Glenn Highway to Wasilla, then the Parks Highway to the Talkeetna spur road turnoff, then the 13.7 miles to the campground.  That 13.7 miles is rough - they're reconstructing the whole stretch in from the Parks Highway.

The day was dark and cloudy, so there was no hope of seeing Denali on the way up.

After we checked in and set up, the sun came out.  First it peeked through, then as the afternoon wore on it came out more.  It wound up being a beautiful afternoon, a little cool perhaps.

We did hamburgers in the little house for lunch.

We took the truck to town (one-half mile) and walked around the town.  We did the museum, which has a great topographic model of Denali showing the climbing routes. A ranger talked to the climbing methods and procedures, and to the way the rangers help protect the climbers.  Very interesting.

The rest of the museum is a cute small-town this-is-what-matters-to-us type of place.  They have an earthquake clock, one that stopped at the minute of the big 1964 Good Friday earthquake. Lots of stuff on bush pilots, since they do a lot of flying around Denali here, mainly for tourists but also in support of climbing companies and so forth. Pilots are the local heroes.

The town has a bunch of little businesses that support the tourist; cafes, one bar, a liquor store, an old hotel built in 1929, rafting companies, and a few others. The place likes to think of itself as the town Northern Exposure wanted to be.

We looked through the used book store (bought five), the chocolates store (a Christmas Tree ornament), and a couple of gift shops (nothing).  Then we came back to the little house.

Behind the campground is the new Alaska RR station, with its two shelters, one at each end of a looonnnggg platform, for exchanging people with busses (Princess Cruise Lines built the shelters). We read books for a little bit, till the train downward from Fairbanks to Anchorage was due.  Then I went out to take pictures. Naturally, it was a little late (there have been some washouts up near Denali due to heavy rain, perhaps that slowed it down).

I took pictures as it came in, two engines and seventeen passenger cars, most of them double-deck tourist affairs owned by cruise lines (Princess had four, Holland-America had four, Wilderness Express had two, behind seven Alaska RR cars (and three of them were dome-cars)). Tourism is a booming business up here in late July.  Dolores and I have resolved to come up much earlier if/when we come up here again, to beat the rush.  She proposed today that we find a place to settle for a month, to see how it works when we're in a place for a while.

The train departed, and we settled back down.  I got antsy after a while and took a hike downtown; it was too nice to sit.

We just took it easy, did sandwiches later in the evening, and I did the e-mail. The sun will set in another half-hour (10:49pm), so it's time to settle in.