lois on the road: Denali to Anchorage

DENALI TO ANCORAGE

Tue July 24 we only drove 120 miles down the Parks highway, stopping a little below Trapper Creek to unhook and take the car for a ride on Petersville Road, This road is actually in Denali National Park and is reported to have excellent viewing of the mountain when it is ‘OUT’, and we were hoping maybe to see some wildlife, and maybe a burl for our son to make a bowl. Burls are round protrusions on a white birch or spruce tree, and I understand Cherry trees can get them also, It’s debatable what causes them, some folks told us a virus, some an insect, and some an injury. We stopped at this wonderful little place called Wal*Mike’s on the way. He sells a little bit of everything, I bought a Fitz and Floyd Santa, we ask him if he had any burls for sale and he said we were the second person to ask for one today. Mike said we should find plenty if we went about 100’ off the road, but he didn’t have any to sell. We then stopped at a German bakery just up the road from Mikes and purchased a loaf of pumpernickel bread, asking there if they knew where we could buy a burl, she said we should just be burl burglars! The trip up Petersville road was unproductive, no wildlife and no burls spotted, and no mountain OUT. When we got back to camp Norm went for a walk in the woods and spotted 3 of them, but we had no saw, so back to Wal*Mikes in the morning for a bow saw we had seen there for 5 bucks.

Glory to be the Mountain is “OUT”, AND GLORIOUS IT IS. I didn’t want to stop at Mikes I wanted to go up the road to a lookout where there was to be great viewing. We pulled into Mikes first anyway and bought the saw, but it was certainly a lucky stop because a friend of Mikes was there and Mike ask him if he had any burls on his land, and he said sure, they are all over, and offered to take us there and cut us one, no charge. Well that was the beginning of our great adventure! Steve Strong lived about 10 miles up a dirt road on what he called a farm, in a cabin he had built himself about 40 years ago, and raised 5 children in. His daughter and granddaughter live there with him at this time. His wife of 45 years had a stroke and is in a nursing home. His daughter was cooking pancakes for her daughter on propane stove as they don’t have electricity, and he just punched a well 2 or 3 years ago. Steve said he raised his family there on creek water that looked red with tannin. He works construction when he can and raises sheep, pigs and horses. While we were at his place there was an awesome view of the mountain and he said I’ll take you where you can get a better one, He must have stopped 5 times for me to get pictures.

There were blueberries all around. We drove around looking for a burl when he spotted one high on a spruce tree, he just whipped out his chain saw and cut the whole tree down. He told us about some of the other farms up there, most of them were homesteaded from 1956 thru 1966. The government gave them 160 acres of land to come up and settle here. There were no roads in the area so those who came here had to come up the river and pick their land. Steve came in the 1970s and he said he paid the government $350.00 per acre for his land.

On the way down the hill a neighbor stopped to tell him he was going to Homer fishing and Steve could use his backhoe while he was gone. Everybody helps one another out here. I mentioned we were headed for Homer and hoped to get some halibut there and he wanted to go chasing after him, said he would take us out fishing with him. I told him please don’t, but he tried to call him anyway with no luck. It was a very interesting morning, he didn’t want any money but Norm insisted he take something for gas. When he dropped us off at Wal*Mikes we headed up the Parks highway to Mile marker 136 where there is a turnout with great Denali views. Took lots of pictures there then headed into Talkeetna to browse the shops and eat some really good pasties,(meat pies) and some homemade raspberry pie. Went home to Mickey and Norm tried to cut off the burls but the saw was too dull.

Norm woke me early to announce that the mountain was out again so we headed back 30 miles up the road for the views. More pictures! We met a woman there who came up at 11pm at sunset last night to get pictures and the photos were good enough to encourage me to do the same tonight. We also met a couple from Montana who flew here and were fishing. They said if they caught any salmon today they would call us as they couldn’t take any back. We went back to Talkeetna for lunch and more views down by the river. We had lunch with the couple from Montana. We have found that the lodges built by the cruise ship companies often have beautiful views so we drove up to two of them and were not at all disappointed. We purchased a larger new bow saw, Norm was determined not to let that Burl beat him, and went back up to the Lodge to wait for sunset pictures. After taking the pictures it was about 11:15pm and we started back to the motorhome, when we spotted a fox playing along the road. We stopped to watch and were really treated to two foxes playing with each other and pouncing on one another like a cat would, what a treat! When we got back to the motorhome, he went into the woods to cut those burls from the trees, around midnight he came back a beaten man, they were just too hard and high to get without a chain saw. He sure did give it a valiant try!

7-27 It’s another gorgeous day but we should move on, I really enjoyed spending our time in Talkeetna. Left our site at Mile marker 104 and headed south 29 miles where we stopped for more mountain views and a spot to park while we explored Hatcher Pass with the car. The Hatcher Pass road is paved for the first 11 miles then turns to gravel and ascends into beautiful alpine country passing by beaver dams and lodges and running along a beautiful mountain stream. Close to the summit is a gold mining company and several abandoned mines visible high on the mountains. After the summit, about 30 miles, the road got so bad we couldn’t continue and turned around and headed back, I hope to do the other side from Palmer on our way back from Homer. We spent the night in Wasilla, (Sarah’s Hometown), passing a lot of people sunbathing and swimming at a lake by the road.

Saturday there was a large market in Anchorage so we traveled 40 miles south and checked it out. There was a large Artic Air show going on at Elmendorf AFB, and they had a beautiful day for it. We have had 4 days of sunny hot weather, temps in the 70s. Walked around downtown and went back to Wasilla, for another night.

7-29 we moved to Anchorage and took a side trip down the Seward Hwy to Girdwood, Portage Glacier, Whittier Tunnel, and Mt Alyeska, which is where Alaska’s largest ski resort is located. Last time we rook the tram up the mountain and played in the snow but today it was cool and windy so we wimped out. We were traveling along the Turnagain Arm, where if your there at the right time you can see great Bore tides. As the tide rises in Cook Inlet it fills Turnagain Arm so rapidly that a tidal flood is formed when incoming water collides with the outgoing water. Bore tides here can vary from ½ foot to 6 feet high and travel from 10 to 13 MPH. We also drove up a dirt road searching for those elusive blueberries. We found a few but not enough to do anything with, but we did find several glaciers and a gold mine.

We were going to head south today but because of a minor problem with the motorhome charging the batteries we decided to stay in Anchorage where we can get an appointment to get repairs tomorrow. It’s raining anyway so a good day to read and catch up on laundry.