We have seen so much
and are learning something new every day about the 49th state. This
isn’t hard to do though since Alaska is ENORMOUS and has so many sensational
places to visit. It will be impossible to see everything, but you know darn
well that we are going to see as much as humanly possible.
With last weekend
being our final weekend before starting our new jobs, we decided to go on a bit
of a road trip to Fairbanks and Denali National Park. You would think that
since Homer and Fairbanks are in the same state that it would be no big deal,
right? Well here’s a fact: This trip is longer than if you were going from
Washington D.C. to Portland Maine. Also fact: If you were going from Homer, AK
to Deadhorse, AK (the northernmost point on the main highway system) it would
be about the same as driving from Columbia, SC to Portland, ME. Just let that
roll around in your head for a minute and you’ll get a sense of how big Alaska
is.
Now, back to
Fairbanks. Fairbanks is located in the heart of interior Alaska. It is the
second largest city in the state (behind Anchorage) and boasts some of the
toughest people in the state. Those who live here have to endure some of the
most extreme climate changes anywhere in the U.S. Temperatures can range from
-66 degrees in winter to 99 degrees in summer. In the winter there may be only
0-4 hours of daylight per day while in the summer there is over 21 hours on
average. Winters are incredibly hard and painfully long. The locals told us
that the four seasons in Fairbanks are June, July, August, and winter. However,
the people who live there acknowledge that despite the hardships, it is truly a
special place.
We definitely
enjoyed our time there. We stayed at a great B & B owned by an older couple
who came to Alaska so the husband could work on the Trans-Alaskan Pipeline
system. He told us some great stories about the pipeline and also shared with
us a PBS documentary on its construction, which he just so happened to be
featured in. We also went to the Fairbanks Visitors Center where we learned
about native culture, surviving the brutal winters, and gold mining. The
following piece of information about modern day gold mining blew my mind: The
largest truck in Alaska can carry up to 240 tons of rock but each load yields
only 5-8 ounces of gold!
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| One of our stops included seeing a section of the 800 mile long Trans-Alaskan Pipeline System |
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| It's really hot, but in a good way |
Later that night we stumbled across a bluegrass band performing in the
botanical gardens of the University of Alaska-Fairbanks. It was a pleasant
surprise and a great way to cap off our time in Fairbanks.
Unfortunately, we
did have one negative interaction in Fairbanks. One night while we were
sleeping, we were awoken by the sounds of loud, violent banging on the door of
the B & B. A woman’s voice was shrieking as she kept rapping on the door
and slamming her feet on the wooden deck. Our hearts began to race. We were
both freaking out because we didn’t know if this was someone trying to break in,
someone who was in need of help, or a neighbor who needed something from our
hosts. Regardless, the tone of her voice and the ferocious pounding of arms and
feet on any structure that would make a sound kept us from doing anything
except ponder whether or not to call the police. Finally, after about 15
minutes of this absurd behavior, we heard a man’s voice telling her to make a
phone call. After the call went through, the noise ceased. Eventually our heart
rates slowed and we were able to get back to sleep. We would find out the next
morning that the screaming woman and her husband were guests at the B & B
(but staying in a room across the street) who couldn’t get their key to work
and thus were locked out of the room. We could not believe that these people,
probably in their 40’s or 50’s, caused such a commotion and exhibited such
ridiculous conduct without having the common sense to call our hosts first. I
just don’t get some people.
After that incident,
we needed a pick-me-up so we headed off to one of the happiest places in the
world, North Pole, AK. This is a town where every day is Christmas. There are
candy cane light posts, the Santa Claus House, Santa’s reindeer on display, and
of course, Santa Claus himself makes time to see you despite his busy offseason
work schedule. North Pole is sure to give even the worst of Scrooges a shot in
the arm of Christmas Spirit. After a nice dose of holiday cheer, it was time to
say goodbye to the Fairbanks area, we were off to Denali!
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| Santa confirmed that we are on the nice list |
Denali is the native
Athabaskan name for Mt. McKinley which means “the high one”. Once we got
settled into our first campground at Riley Creek, we went to a lecture about
the history of mountain climbing on Mt. McKinley. It turns out the day we got
to Denali was the 100th anniversary of the first successful ascent
to the 20,320’ summit led by Harry Karstens and Hudson Stuck. After hearing all
the amazing stories of the early climbers, and those who claimed to climb it
but were actually liars, the lecturer introduced us to 6 mountaineers. These
young men were direct descendants of the first 4 climbers and the 2 native
guides/assistants from the Karstens-Stuck group. They all were leaving the next
day to reenact the month long journey their ancestors took to the summit of Mt.
McKinley. That lecture was a great intro to Denali and got us excited to what
was to come. If you would like to follow their climb you can find daily updates
here: https://www.facebook.com/Denali2013
For the record,
just because I’m linking to a Facebook page does not mean I intend to sign up
for Facebook any time soon. Not happening.
The next day started
out on a disappointing note though. The weather was overcast and rainy,
terrible conditions for mountain viewing. Also, this National Park is very
different from any previous park we have been to. There is only a single 90
mile long road in the park, of which visitors are only allowed to drive the
first 15 miles. Therefore, you have to rely on shuttle buses to get you
anywhere you want to go. It really takes control out of the visitor’s hands and
puts you at the mercy of the bus schedule. Also, the bus rides are long and
slow. It takes over 5 hours to travel from one end of the road to the other
since the average speed limit is 25-35 mph, there are frequent stops for
wildlife viewing, and bathroom breaks. Basically, the good part of your day is
spent on a bus.
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| Immediately following this picture I became annoyed at the bus system and Amanda fell asleep. Welcome to Denali. |
Once you get deeper
into the park though, you begin to understand why this is such a special place.
Even with all the cloud cover, there are magnificent views of the Alaska Range,
evidence of glacial activity all around you, and an abundance of wildlife. We
got off the bus to camp at Wonder Lake, which is a very basic campground 85
miles into the heart of Denali National Park. It is the closest campground to
Mt. McKinley and one of the best viewing spots. However, despite being only 20
miles from the mountain, we still couldn’t see it because of all the cloud
cover. This isn’t uncommon as the mountain is completely covered for about 60%
of the time in June, on average. In June, you only have a 13% chance of seeing
the whole mountain. We tried not to get down about all the cloud cover, but at
the same time, we came here to see a giant mountain. It’s right in front of us,
but we still couldn’t see it…AHHH!
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| You can't have rainbows without rain |
We went to sleep a
little frustrated but also realized that tomorrow was a new day. Unfortunately,
we would have to leave Wonder Lake early in the morning, so we weren’t too
thrilled about another day on the bus. However, when I got up to go to the
bathroom at 4:00am the next morning, all of that frustration went away when I
unzipped the tent and saw Mt. McKinley completely free of clouds and staring me
in the face. It was an unbelievable sight. After waking up Amanda, I ran around
the area taking pictures from every possible angle. Despite the temperature
being in the 20’s or 30’s I was too excited to feel the cold. I watched the
sunrise and witnessed the Alpenglow move across the face of Mt. McKinley. It
was simply incredible.
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| Cue the Heavenly music |
After breakfast, we
packed up our gear and headed east towards a hiking site near one of the
Visitor Centers. They dropped us off so we could climb up to a ridge opposite
of the Alaska Range where more spectacular views awaited us. Luckily, the cloud
cover stayed away just long enough for us to fully enjoy Mt. McKinley in all of
its glory before we got back on the bus and prepared to exit the park. We
camped that night back at Riley Creek feeling much better about the Denali
experience than we did just 24 hours prior.
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| Seeing Denali put smiles on our faces |
Our recommendation
for anyone visiting Denali National Park is that if you want to see the park
and do a good bit of hiking you should plan to spend 5-7 days there. We were
there for 3 days and felt very rushed trying to do everything we did. If you
just want to see the park via the tour buses, you can easily accomplish that in
a day or 2. If you want to get in the park and explore around though, take more
time.
With our last major
journey (for now) completed, it was time to get down to business and start our
new jobs. Our boss is excellent and is bringing us along slowly so we can get
acclimated to how she runs her clinic. We have already learned a lot from her
and plan to squeeze as much knowledge out of her as we can. Our other co-workers
are really friendly and help us out with ideas and advice whenever we need it.
We are very thankful to have been surrounded by such great people in all the
places we have worked thus far.
We also thank
everyone who has supported us and helped us travel across the U.S. and Canada
from our starting point in Ephrata, PA to Homer, AK. We have achieved our goal
of getting to Alaska, now our mission is to live it up!
