uncommonly feeble and random thoughts

 June 27, 2018 Fresh from the Denali romance, my attention turned to the story lines of the people and the place, not the first nation people but now the homesteaders, the bush dwellers, the White Fang crowd and their successors. I have to admit, I read Jack London at a very young age, and actually wrote a fiction work based on that book, when I was in the sixth grade. Hearing the tales of the settlers, and such hearing things such as "When a car is stopped on the road, you stop to help them. You never know what's in the woods....". I also learned, later in life, that the Iditarod mushers all carry. There is a strong independent, self-reliant, I'll-fix-it-myself mentality among the year-round residents. We learned that there are a lot of "dry" cabins inhabited year-round. Think about that, not having running water... So I was happy to see this relic moored on the grounds of the Mt. McKinley lodge: Cliff Hudson was a renowned bush pilot, one of the...

June 27, 2018 There were days, and days, of cloud cover. We'd heard that a limited number of visitors get to see the mountain... it had been viewable only 13 days since Jan. 1, so as we were there in late June, the factor would have been roughly 13 of 180, or less than 10%. That fit well with what we had been told, that only about 10% get to see the mountain. So at Mt. McKinley Lodge (which, in thinking about it, Princess named one lodge Denali, and this one Mt. McKinley - perhaps to appease both sides on the naming controversy??), there's a site map which I shot to show the usual visibility. Note the rain-slicked sidewalk: Although people's fingers have, over time, obliterated Denali on the map (white smudge), you can see the guide map and the actual view of the range (well, sorta) simultaneously. Here's a look at this guide map up close: Note Mt. Foraker on the left, and Mt. Silverthorne on the right, with the Tokosha Mountains in front of that and Mo...

June 26, 2018 From the same base, McKinley Princess Wilderness Hotel, we took a bus to Talkeentna, again, and this time went with the same skipper to Devil's Canyon. The boat is a jetboat, meaning, flat bottom, and no prop. Essential on the Chulintna, and Talkeentna Rivers, due to their ever-shifting bottom contours. Oh, and the Susintna as well. This trip traveled that last one. The view from within: Enroute, we were watched: And watched. All eyes on the intruders: However, I did a little watching back: Then, it was "strike a pose" time: On to Devil's Canyon... at this point, the skipper is holding us steady, facing upstream. That's category 4 whitewater at our bow, with cat 5 up ahead, and cat 6 around the bend. Also, note the rock abutment just off our bow (proximity not Photoshopped): No one has successfully navigated this stretch of water. There are a couple epic fails, one involving US military, with a chopper resc...

June 25, 2018 Our second base of operations was south, to the McKinley Princess Wilderness Lodge. It is nestled on a private drive and is billed as being in Trapper Creek, AK, but unlike Healy, it is remote: no amenities save for the hotel. However, the intrepid couple took a bus to Talkeetna, further south along Parks Highway. Our target was a water trip to Chulintna Gorge. This was an excursion booked through our cruise line. The river is totally glacier-fed. The banks are lined with trees missing bark - it was rubbed off by ice floes coming down the mountain in the spring melt. Sometimes, the floe will simply shear off the whole tree. The bottom of the river is constantly shifting, as gravel deposits and current fight for supremacy. Watching over it all, and fishing, were these two eagles: Finally, it was back to shore.  It was but a short walk back to our lodging. This is the jetboat for the excursion: