June 14

Lana and I got up at 5:30, went for a walk/jog, and spooked the resident moose right outside of the hotel. We ate breakfast at the hotel, took the shuttle to the Alaska Railroad station at 7:15 and boarded at 8:15. The trip to Denali was pretty, and uneventful. Goldstar class (the glass-domed cars for the tourists) was almost empty. The tour guide, Kyle, had a personal scrapbook that he passed around, which was very well done. He was a native of Fairbanks, had just graduated from high school, and he hiked and camped a lot with his family. Arrived in Denali about an hour late (not really sure why we were late, but we were), and wandered around a bit looking for our hotel shuttle (just like last year). I think the drivers for every hotel but ours had a sign. When I finally found her, I said “You don’t have a sign” and she said, “I know”. Whatever.

On the way to Denali, we passed through the town on Nenana, which has an interesting bit of culture. Every year, thousands of people bet on when the ice in the river is going to break (signaling the onset of spring). A huge wooden tripod is placed on the ice, and it is wired to a clock on shore. When the ice breaks up, the tripod moves, pulls the wire, and stops the clock. The people who guess the correct date and time of the river breakup win a cash prize. In 2000, the jackpot was $335,000!

Our room was ready, even though we were well ahead of the 3PM check-in time. I got the impression that they make up the rooms for the Alaska Railroad customers first. Our room was just two buildings away from the lobby and on the same level. We were happy to see that. Last year our room had been several hundred yards away down a steep hill, and we were worried about Mom being able to hike that hill this year. So the room location worked out well for her. We had about ½ hour to relax before our 2:30 tundra tour.

Driver’s name was Tom, and he seemed very knowledgeable about the park. We found out later that all of the bus driver/guides have been on the job at least 13 years, and most have PhD’s! We saw a red fox at really close range, but no big game, and just beyond Sable Pass, the bus broke down…fried starter. It would take 1.5 hours for another bus to arrive. Since it was late in the day, the new bus would not be able to continue the tour; it would just take us back to the Visitors Center. Since hanging around in the mosquitoes didn’t sound real appealing, we flagged down the next bus for a ride back. The folks on that bus had seen TONS of stuff…Dall sheep in the middle of the road, bears, etc…and had seen it all just past where we broke down. We were bummed. The new driver, Justin, was a serious backpacker, and told some wild tales about some bear encounters that he had. Mom became convinced that he watched too much TV. He did, however, point out a fox den and a bear den that our previous driver had not mentioned. There were kits in the fox den.

Back at the room about 8:30, Lana’s luggage had not arrived. What else was going to go wrong? Well, when we went to the desk the girl recognized the name and took us right to the luggage, so that worked out better than expected. Then Lana and I went out for dinner…Mom was tired and just snacked in the room.