DAY 16
After a leisurely start to the
day, we went to the visitor Centre at Denali to see life-size replicas of
moose, dall sheep, eagles and some of the smaller critters in the park and we
read interesting comments about the way in which the animals co-exist or form
part of the wilderness food chain. Then we boarded our first class carriage of
the Alaska Railroad and we were amazed that we had the same seats we had had 2
days before. We saw a moose just after we left the station on the way to
Anchorage and then we looked down on some of the lodges we had seen during our
stay in the park.
We followed the Nenana River as
the tracks fitted snugly around the base of the backs of some of the mountains
which surround the national park wilderness. Panorama Mountain (5800 ft) had
some grren colouring in its rocks and it has a limestone mine at its base.
Suddenly the train stopped and an engineer got out of the train to manually
flip the switch. Apparently it is safer to do it manually than to rely on power
supplies in the area. At Summit (2363 ft), we met the partner train coming up
from Anchorage. The 2 trains pulled up side by side so that some of the crew
could swap trains. We were in the middle of no-where (not at a station) on an
elevated plain and the people just jumped on the track and over to the opposite
train. Luckily no “baddies” rode up on horseback to rob us but maybe that is
why the carriages are cashless these days.
Broad Pass is the watershed divide
of the trip. On the Denali side of Broad Pass the waters of the streams flow
north but on the Anchorage side they flow south. We saw a family of beautiful
swans there. They have been in the area for about 2 years and they measure
about 6ft from head to tail. Beavers live in Honolulu which is the halfway
point between Fairbanks and Anchorage. We saw many beaver dams before we headed
into Hurricane Gulch where there was a 296 ft drop to the creek below. After we
safely crossed the creek on a scenic bridge, we were told that workmen are
currently working on the foundations of the bridge to make it stronger.
In the distance (46 miles away),
we could see the base of Mt McKinley but the top was covered in clouds so it
was good that we had such a clear day the day before. The Indian River ran beside us with clear
water and we tried to see the salmon swimming upstream to spawn (The red salmon
spawns in lakes). By contrast, The Susitna River which appeared beside us was
dirty in colour due to glacial silt being suspended in the water. Yet all 5
types of salmon (chum, sokkai, king, silver and pink) swim in the 300 mile long
river.
The town of Curry used to be a
bustling rest place for travellers before the railroad was built. The hotel had
a swimming pool and a tennis court which was luxurious at the time but it was
mysteriously burnt down in 1957 and never rebuilt. Now it is almost a ghost
town but there was a little caboose surrounded by vegetation on an old siding
and we saw some native Athabasca Indians using a fish wheel in the river
nearby. Then we saw a golden eagle sitting on a rock in the middle of the
river. Perhaps he was looking for fish and chips for dinner.
Talkeetna is the base station for
climbers who want to climb Mt McKinley. Many climbers believe it is harder to
climb Mt Mckinley than it is to climb Mt Everest. It is mainly because it is
climbed without oxygen and the temperatures they have to endure climbing a
mountain which is close to the arctic circle are much more challenging than
climbing mountains near the equator. It is not as high as Everest but the
conditions are much harder. More than 90 people have died climbing Mt McKinley.
I don’t think that I will put it on the bucket list. However, as a town,
Talkeetna is famous for its salmon fishing, rafting and boating excursions.
Although 75% of the Alaskan
population live between Anchorage and Fairbanks, the capital Of Alaska is
Juneau. They tried to have the capital moved to a town on this railroad,
Willow, so that it was more accessible by the majority of the people but it was
rejected due to the cost involved in moving everything there. Willow is a small
town of only 2000 people and it is famous as the starting point of the Iditarod
dog sled race. By 8pm we had arrived in Anchorage and we lined up with the
baggage tags to collect our luggage from the bag carriage. The scene was total
chaos. Fork lift drivers carried big containers of bags over to the area in
which we were standing (outside the station near the taxi rank). Then workers
took the bags from the containers and put them in front of the travellers
(about 200 people) and we had to find our bags along a 25 metre line. Anyone
could take anything. No-one checked baggage tags. Then there was a rush for the
taxis. We were lucky in that we found our bags quickly and we joined a taxi “area”
( no-one knew which end of the line was the head of it) and arrived at the
airport in good time.
DAY 17
Day 17 was really an extension of
Day 16. We waited until just after midnight to board our flight to Seattle. A
Chinese family sat down opposite us. There were 9 people travelling together (
Grandma, Mum, Dad, 2 sons, 2 primary school-age daughters, one toddler and one
baby. ) In the 3 hours we sat with them, Mum and Grandma chatted without a
break and the 2 little ones were the responsibility of the three older
children. Neil entertained the children for a while by making his camera
disappear by magic as he removed lenses and put it in his bag and then the
camera which appeared was the little red one. All 6 kids were spellbound
watching the magic. After that the
toddler took off and the bigger kids spent their time carrying the baby and
following the toddler to various areas of the waiting area. Mum and Grandma
just kept talking……Then when boarding was called for our flight, Mum carried
the baby in her arms as though she was the most precious little thing and the
other 5 children picked up their bags and boarded the plane.
The flight to Seattle was about 4
and a half hours and we managed to get a smidgen of sleep. We went from shuttle
to shuttle via very clearly marked signs through the Seatac airport and found
the gate we needed for the next flight to Calgary. We had a 4 hour wait and it
was difficult to stay awake but a toddler beside us kept us interested as he
tested his parents as they went through a variety of behaviour management
techniques to get the little boy to stop running and yelling because they
wanted to get some sleep. As you would expect, the boy, Sammy won on all
counts but the parents weren’t upset they just grinned.
When we hadn’t been called to
board by the 9am timeline, Neil went for a walk and found that the airline had
changed the gate for our flight in the past 4 hours. Luckily he did because
some people we already on the plane and we had to hurry to get on the plane.
They wheeled me out in a wheelchair because I wasn’t moving fast enough. Access
to the plane was via a “few” steps but we made it and eventually arrived in
Calgary. Our motel is great. Neil selected it because there was a good deal and
it was close to the airport. However, that was in January and now they are
doing works on a new super runway, so the shuttle trip from the airport to the
hotel was 30 minutes (without traffic). As soon as arrived in our room we crashed for
2 hours and I think we will sleep well again tonight.
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