Trip ending smoothly in Denali National park! :-)

Hello everybody!

I know you didn't hear much from us over the last few days, but we just did not have any wifi access at all inside Denali National Park.
But I mean... that's why we went out there isn't it? :-) We wanted to be away from people and into the backcountry!

So before entering the park, we spent some time in Fairbanks! Now they have excellent "Hot Licks" (local) ice cream, for example their alaskan blueberry one! Mmmmmhhhh! :) Then they also have a very nice Visitor Center, all new and fancy, with a very nice museum inside! That sure was worth checking out. But other than that... well, there was not that much to do there, for us at least. Cute little town, but that's about it...

So from there we drove down to Denali, where we had to spend one last night outside the park, waiting to fly in (Yes we did - FLY IN! :-) ). So we arrive at that hostel, exhausted, knowing we misbooked it... See, we thought we had booked a tent space, but instead we had booked one of those wooden floor, wall tents like the gold miners had back in the day... So here we are, exhausted, not too happy about the "not using our tent" part and here's the receptionist telling us that we are not allowed to use our own sleeping bags!! COME ON! Now we didn't argue, but I can tell you this: We spent the COLDEST night of all down at that hostel!! -4°C outside (and inside... AND inside the "sleeping bag" which wasn't one actually...) whatever... So that was BAD, is all I can say about that... but at least it proved that our gear is first class :)

Outside the sun was shining, it was one of the BEST days since 6 weeks, that's what they said and we were going to fly into Kantishna only by 4pm (that's at the end of the road going into Denali)! So Davy called them and asked for an earlier flight in. Luckily, they said: "Yeah, we can squeeze you guys into a flight by noon" AWESOME!! :) Now we had some more time on our hands which is why I convinced Davy to go see the Kennels, where they keep the huskies and sleds! :-) Now I know he doesn't like dogs that much but as you can see, he does like these A LOT! :-) So that was funny, we spent like over an hour cuddling those overly cute dogs :D

From there we were up in the air in no time, and... there are just no words to describe what we saw up there! I mean we had THE view! We saw it all!! They only have this kind of opening in the sky, like once every month! Usually it's all foggy and rainy! :) I can only say this: the view seemed taken out of a photographic, national geographic book! See for yourself... I just simply cannot describe this to you people in words... :D That park scenery is just amazing!

And here we were, in the Kantishna Skyline Lodge, which we booked for the last few night of our trip - a treat! :) You could argue it was expensive, but it was worth every penny, that i can tell you! (Plus, compared to the only other Lodge there, which rents out rooms for 800$ a night, we were staying at a cheap hostel :) haha... ) the team there, Matt, Bobby and Shakti amongst others, was incredible! Welcoming, nice and friendly, which is why we immediately felt at home in the lodge!

So for three days we went dayhiking, trails, trailless tundra and we even went blueberry picking :) Now that was amazing too! :) And they were sooo tasty! :-) I took them home and had to wait until 5pm (which is when they switch the generator on :D ) to be able to use the blender and make Milkshakes! :) Yummy!

Davy told me he didn't want any milkshake because he just didn't like it, so I made lots of it anyway and left a big glass in the fridge. Shakti came in and was really happy when I told him he could go down to the fridge and get some too! :) Now 5 minutes after that Davy asks me if he could taste my milkshake... so I said yes of course and not a minute later you see him grinning and heading for the stairs to get the rest of my blueberry milkshake :-) A first for him, and it just proved that my alaskan blueberry milkshake was excellent :-) Haha! (Or like Shakti said: "Anne Burg made smoothies you guys, they're really good!") :-)

So hey, flying into Kantishna means bus-ing out of the park! 6 hours of bus drive through the park over the only road there is. And I would say it is a very cheap Safari you pay for :-) All in all, we saw 3 wolves, 9 caribou, 2 golden eagles, 2 marmots, 1 moose and lots more :-)

So hey, now we're back at the airport in Anchorage after having spent our last night at Linda's place (Remember? We spent our first two night with her too!) Seeing her again was amazing too, we were so lucky we met her, and all the information on backcountry trips she gave us (plus the bear spray... obviously) helped a lot! :) So thanks again Linda for all of you advice and support! :D


Now guys, we are coming home tomorrow at 5:45pm, but that doesn't mean we're never coming back to Alaska! We loooved it! And talking to Linda last night there seems to be an opening in the future for a float trip by canoe down the Yukon River (5-9 day trip) which we could combine with a 5 day backcountry trip in Denali National Park!!


All I can say is: "Once you got the Alsakan experience in you, there's just simply no way you're going to just let it go!!" :D So listen up everyone, because WE'LL BE BACK! :-)


Take care all of you and stay tuned for our next adventures! (We're thinking about Thaïland, Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia, India... that part of the globe :) )


AnD

Fairbanks's famous ice cream :)

the pipeline near Fairbanks

Wall tent outside Denali National park

Huskies at the Kennel's

D and his second best friend :)

flight seeing staerted... :)

polychrome Mountains

TNF of Mt. Mc Kinkley (Mt. Denali)

Denise our Pilot!

Wonder Lake

D wearing Matt's rain pants out on Muldrow Glacier

rainy trailless tundra hiking :)

break before the blueberry picking :)

blueberries!!! :)

that's exactly what creek crossing looks like if you do not have gum boots :)

same with gum boots :)

blueberry milkshake! :)

stroll to Wonder Lake

Caribou

Wolf

Mt. Denali (Mt. Mc Kinley)

4°C outside temperature - 40°C water temperature :-)

Hello there! :D

We found free wifi again, this time at Billie’s Backpacker’s Hostel in Fairbanks! It’s a really cosy place to stay at! Lots of people, and the rule here is “just pretend you’re home” :D And we sure feel like it! So here we go!

As you remember, Davy’s birthday wasn’t so great… on the seventh we drove over 6 hours across the alaskan interior without stopping anywhere, except to get gas in a little village (town?) called Tonsina, where there seems to be exactly one house/business: the gas station :-) Plus the weather wasn’t so good then either, it was raining all day long.

So I decided to postpone Davy’s birthday to the 8th.
As every year, when we woke up, I told him: “Hey Davy! It’s your birthday today… again! :D”
He was all happy about that, obviously :-) Then I made him coffee and a peanut butter bagle (the usual morning treat). And finally I told him that as it was his birthday, I’d do everything the way he wanted for one whole day. (I should have know that couldn’t be good… :-) )

So from Delta Junction, on a beautiful sunny summer day, we drove all the way to Chena Hot Springs.
Along the way we stopped at North Pole! We even saw Santa’s reindeers, his house and his street: the Santa Claus Lane. (Believe it or not, all the lamp posts in North Pole look like candy bars! :D Funny little town, appearantly they get an insane amount of letters every christmas… haha!

So from there we drove off to Chena Hot Springs where we thought that with all that driving, a little hike at 3:30 in the afternoon would be just the ticket! So here's what we did: We drove to the Angel rocks Trailhead and started to climb the steep trail up the hill. From there we had a wonderful view of the valley below us.

Davy was so happy with the hiking that he said: “Hey, there’s a trail that goes from up here directly to the hot springs! It’s only an additional 6.5 miles to go! Let’s do it! Only we didn’t have a car back at the hot springs, so we had hitchhike back in a car with someone leaving the springs! And that’s something I was sure never to do!!

But… there’s always a “but”, isn’t there… :D But, it was Davy’s birthday so I had to do all he wanted to do, which is why we hiked on. The trail was really beautiful, with stupenduous 360° views of the valley below us! :)

So we arrived in Chena Hot Springs at around 8pm in the evening. The sun was still shining brightly! Davy and I walked around the hot springs resort for a short while, then sat down on the bridge from where you leave the springs and waited for a car. The first car drove right by Davy and didn’t take us along.

But then I said: “Let me do this, maybe they prefer girls… with boys you never know :D “. So I stood in front of him and it didn’t even take ten minutes when the next car drove by... and stopped! :-)
 “So where are you guys headed?”
“We’d like to get to mile 48.We have our car there and just hiked all the way here”
“Sure! Hop on, we’ll somehow all squeeze in!” (The car was kinda full before we even got on :D) So that was awsome!

From the trail head we decided to drive to our campground, but on the way we saw lots of cars standing on the side of the road… Now, that can only mean ONE THING! :D Wildlife!! So we stopped too, and there it was! First we saw a Moose in the pond, walking in the water, and then a huge beaver crossing the street which then dived into the pond. From there, whenever the Moose got too close to his damn, he'd make noise with his big tail by smashing it down on the water surface! :D So funny! :D

So that was yesterday, a pretty amazing day!!

We also feel less like tourists now, because tourists have nice windshields and alaskan people all have the cracked windshields, cracked all the way through! And ours is cracked now too! Not all the way though, just a little. :-) Guess it's too cracked to be repaired, but those things happen when you drive through Alaska for 4 weeks!

It didn't even happen on a gravel road! (Even though we've been driving more than 300 miles on those too!) No it was on the paved Richardson highway when a truck passed the car in front of him, and Davy followed it a bit too close… then we just heard the “CRACK!!!”… so now we have a nice little crack in our windshield… :D


We were off to the hot springs today! That felt soo good! :) There were hot spots in some places where the water was so hot you couldn't stay there otherwise you had the impression of burning yourself! (the thing is, yesterday the sun was out and we thought it would be better to go hiking and enjoy the views rather than to stay at the hot springs and be lazy all day... it sure was a very good decision! :-)

That’s all for now folks.

Take care! :-)

AnD

The pipeline! Goes from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez all the way through Alaska! :-)

They even got special bridges to keep it out of the water :-)

Santa's Reindeer @ North pole!

North Pole

Candy bar lamp posts! :)

Finally i got my picture ot the Moose Xing sign :-)

Angel Rocks trail

mile 3 on the way to Chena Hot Springs!

View of the valley below!

We got to the top! :-)

the "rural" Hot springs Resort :-)

beaver crossing the road! :)

Moose hot springs :-)

our tent site @ the Red Squirrel Campground

luxury camping ain't it? :-)

Mc Carthy and Kennecott: The ghost town!

Hello again!

Now that you’ve seen some more of Cordova, maybe you’re still curious about where we went those last few days?

We decided to go to Kennecott (Kennicott being the Company’s name, Kennecott the Glacier’s and the National Park’s name… there was some confusion back in the day, and still is now :D) . The road to Mc Carthy (through Chitina) was in itself an adventure! Gravel road, pretty difficult driving for 66 miles… a lot of fun... but still, you had to be extra careful not to drive through holes in the street or to hit a rock the wrong way… It was a good thing we had that spare tire in the back, although luckily we didn’t need it!

You have to imagine Kennecott as a ghost town that, from 1911 to 1938 was one of Alaska’s most profitable industries! From 1908 to 1911 they built the “railroad to hell” (through glacier valleys, streams, thick nature, extreme temperatures, …). Now why did they built a railroad that went that far into wilderness?

Well, a young fellow came across a patch of green grass where he wanted to feed his animals and rest. Only when he arrived at the top of the mountain, so the story goes, he only found big chunks of pure copper lying around on the ground. (Their purest copper was about 87%!!) 87% is a whole lot considering we’re processing today mostly 1% copper :D So this is why New York (the Guggenheim’s included) decided to spend this huge amount of money on a copper mine, lost in the wild!

But as of the thirties, copper prices dropped and the company started to buy other mines in other states/countries, closing the Kennecott Copper Mine in 1938. Their last message to the workers was: “There will be two trains next week and you have to get on either one of them, otherwise you will be left here”… Nice!

It’s just amazing seeing all those buildings left behind, some of which are still in good shape! They had a dentist, a hospital, a school, a community center, showers, a store, and a huge steamhouse which produced electricity that reached even into the mines! They had the telephone as soon as it was available, even down in the mines! They had a refrigerator house and heated boardwalks :D They did everything to be the most modern mine and mill by far!

So that tour we did in the Mill was amazing! Really interesting! And then we headed off toward Root Glacier, having seen Kennecott Glacier all day (that gravel covered volcano-like landscape). The trail led us to the foot of Root Glacier which we decided to climb :D Not too far though as we know glaciers can be quite tricky, only like 20 meters or so. It was a really neat feeling though, standing on a glacier… :D

Oh and one more thing! When we arrived in Kennecott it had rained almost without end since Cordova!! But when we woke the next day, the sun was shining and we had one of the most amazing days! :D Let’s pretend that was an early birthday gift for Davy since today’s the seventh! Happy Birthday Davy! :D

So there you go, that’s all I can tell you all about Kennecott… Now we’re off to Chena Hot Springs with a short stop at Delta Junction! Here, both of us just had three Buffalo Burgers, straved from all the driving :-) Yummy! (the buffalo herd here in Delta Junction is their pride!)

You’ll hear from us soon enough! :D

Take care,

AnD

Richardson Highway from Valdez

on the footbridge to Mc Carthy

Mc Carthy (looks like a western movie)

the Kennecott Glacier

these guys you sure know :-)

the Kennicott Mill and ghost town around it!

Kennecott Glacier and steam house

Root Glacier on top of Kennecott Glacier

me :-)

our campsite at Glacier View Campground (at the bottom of the Kennecott Glacier)

Flash-back Cordova :)

Hello everyone! ☺

We are finally back from Mc Carthy! From there we drove all the way to Delta Junction today! That way we can get to Chena Hot Springs tomorrow! Finally we're getting back on schedule with our trip! (remember we had a two day delay because the Cordova ferry wouldn't leave!)

This is pretty sad for Davy, who's day was more like a driving day through pouring rain than a real birthday, plus we'll spend the night in Delta Junction, not the fanciest place in Alaska... The old trip plan would have enabled us to celebrate the birthday at the hot springs... but I guess we'll just postpone the celebrating until tomorrow :-)

Wow! So much to tell! But first let me get back to the Cordova part, from where you did not get to see too many pictures… first because it was raining most of the time, and second because our internet browser (Camino) on Davy’s good old notebook somehow wouldn’t cope with the heavy task of uploading pictures ☺ So here we are again, let’s try if it works out this time!

(Sorry for downsizing my pictures… but as I said… the upload is the problem)

AnD

this bald eagle landed right next to us (2-3m) ! :)

Hiking the Haystack trail

short break along the trail

last evening in "sunny"!! Cordova :D

Skater Cabin :)

Wood stove for Davy :)

a good Alaskan Amber :) Love it!

Comfy ain't it? :) But at least we weren't wet! :-)