Sunday, December 09, 2007
Alaska 2007
Alaska
I had wanted to visit Alaska for years; with the rising Euro and British pound, the ever increasing airfares during the summer to Europe, I decided in March 2007 that this was the year. I cashed in sixty thousand Delta airmiles, for a first class, round trip ticket. This also made brilliant sense as an economy ticket to London is 60,000 mile and first class 90,000 during the summer for a seven hour flight. Anchorage was a 9 hour flight, for the price of economy to London.
After a 10 ½ hour trip from New York via Cincinnati, I arrived at Ted Stevens’s airport in Anchorage. It was 8pm local time (midnight in NYC). I had reservations on the 6:45am train to Seward, and had booked a room at the Econo Inn, close to the train depot. While waiting for the motel shuttle, I had an interesting chat with a TSA agent, who was posted up there for the summer from California, being from Piso Beach, with no major airport nearby, he frequently gets posted to busy areas. Last Christmas/New Year’s, he was posted to Washington’s Reagan airport. He does not agree with all the TSA procedures, but has to follow command! What other job in Piso Beach would give him these travel opportunities.
By the time I got to my room at 9pm my body clock was saying 1am, but the sun was still shining, so I went in search of a drink and a bite to eat. There was not much around in the immediate area, but I did find La Cabana Mexican restaurant, which served a good margarita and tasty seafood tacos.
Sated, I went back to the motel and got to bed around 11pm, boy did that 5am alarm go off quick. The Alaska railroad require you to check-in 1 hour prior to departure just like the airlines, fortunately they had good coffee.
When we finally got to board, I was located in the last reserved car which was of their older rolling stock and had big comfortable reclining seats. Each car has an assigned tour guide, in my case it was the lovely Jennifer, and it just so happened her Dad was in the seat directly behind me. Jen was a high school senior and eager to show off her knowledge of her home state. Dad just kept asking more and more questions; bring out the best in her.
Although the journey is only 128 miles the train takes 4 ½ hours, slowing down for all animal sightings and four glaciers, at one point stopping for almost ½ an hour in a spur to let the Whittier train pass. It is a journey you do not want to end. The scenery outside your window is mesmerizing, the snow capped mountains slope down through emerald green forests to the crystal clear aqua blue lakes that mirror the mountains and sky. The houses dotted along the lake shores don’t have cars parked in the driveways, but seaplanes moored at the dock. A higher percentage of people commute by plane than car in Alaska. If you are really lucky, you will see some Dahl sheep, a moose or an elk, it is extremely unlikely to see a bear from the train, but it has been known.
When you finally pull into Seward at the head of Resurrection Bay, it is almost the epitome of a picturesque fishing village, until you look off to your left and see the huge ugly conveyor belt pier that stretches out into the bay, this is for loading coal, that is brought by train down from the interior for shipment to Korea and Peru.
I had booked a room at the Breeze Inn Motel across the street from all the charter boat docks. My room was not ready so after dropping my bag off I went for an exploratory walk around town, but that only took 40 mins. it’s a small town ! Never the less it was enough to sharpen up my appetite for lunch, I had only had coffee and a power bar on the train. Most of the towns restaurants seemed to be of the same coffee shop/dinner type, all advertising fish n chips except for 2 right on the waterfront, Chinooks & Roy’s. I decided on Chinooks for some reason and was glad I did, the lovely proprietor, Sandy was tending bar and we struck up a great conversation. She is originally from nearby Connecticut. I sampled a few of the local Alaskan ales and soaked them up with a delicious grilled salmon with rice & veg. A most satisfying lunch.
Now the effects of the late night early start and jet lag were starting to have an effect, so I went to see if my room was ready, but alas the Breeze Inn are very firm about their 3pm check-in time and I was once more, cast out to fend for myself, for at least another hour. In no mood to do any more exploring I headed straight across the parking lot to the Breeze Inn’s bar/restaurant, to kill the hour over a beer.
Initially there were just a few guys, all of whom were smoking, so I stayed down the emptier end of the bar on my own, but then several of the restaurant waitresses came in to cash up their tips and have an after work drink, well they perked me right up and one of them was from Dublin, naturally! We had a great time and before you knew it, it was 5pm, they had to go home and I needed a nap, surely my room would be ready by now?
After a short nap I got up and wandered over to Ray’s which was packed but I managed to find a stool at the bar, and ordered up a Tanquary martini while I perused the menu. Well it had been a most satisfying first day in Alaska to I decided to treat myself to a pound of King Crab Legs, and a bottle of Cloudy Bay,(New Zealand chardonnay)awesome. Half way through dinner 3 guys joined me at the bar, they had just come in off a charter and one poor soul had not done so good, his mates were enjoying razzing him and I chimed in my two cents worth.
I finally shuffled out of Rays at 11pm but it only felt like 7 in New York, as it was still quite bright, I felt like having a nightcap at the Breeze bar but it had been a very long day and I had a glacier boat tour booked for 9am, so bedways was the bestway.
When I opened my eyes in the morning I could not believe it, I had slept through 2 alarms and it was 9:30, my ship had sailed. I got up and looked out through the curtains and the whole fjord/harbour was locked in by low clouds and fog, I had lucked out, it was a crappy day to out on the water. I called the office across the street and explained my predicament; a very nice lady asked if I was traveling solo? And when I said yes, she said I was better off missing the boat I was booked on, it held almost 200 passengers. She recommended I book the Captain’s choice tour for tomorrow which is on a much smaller vessel and so far there were only 16 bookings, thank you, yes there is a god, back to bed for an hour!
When I finally emerged into the day it was a very damp fog that reminded me of the old famous pea soupers, in the London of my youth. It was a good day for indoor activities, so I headed for the Alaska Sea Life Center, a mile down the road in downtown Seward. It was built with a donation from Exxon after the Exxon Valdez disaster decimated all the local sea life.
The sea life center is well worth a visit regardless of the weather, lots of very interesting exhibits of the local aquatic life, and plenty of live mammals and birds, which have been rescued due to various accidents.
I walked back to the small boat harbour and decided to have lunch at Chinooks again with Sandy, but unfortunately she was not working. I had their seafood chowder (better than Roy’s) and the crab cakes, very good.
After lunch I caught a shuttle out to Exit Glacier, what a difference a valley makes. In Seward it had been very overcast and misty; here it was 70 degrees and beautiful sunshine. It was a nice easy 1 mile hike to the glacier and although small in glacier terms it is very impressive, especially as you can get to within about 10 feet and feel the cold emanating off it.
Upon my return to Seward I had a quick nap then went for dinner again at Roy’s and met a very interesting man while dining at the bar, Steve, he worked for the coal mine in Healy which shipped the coal down via Alaska RR to Seward where it was shipped out.
I had originally planned to take the train up to Denali and the bus back but the bus was booked and the return train did not make my flight, so I had been forced to rent a car, but now Steve said I had made the right choice. The first 4 hours of the train journey were very boring and I would cover the distance in half the time with a car, but also that the train was packed with cruise passengers. Also being on the train I would not see Talkeetna, a beautiful little Alaskan town well worth a stop for lunch. We were then joined at the bar by a woman from Ketchikan, which is down the southeast peninsula, she and Steve started swapping stories, how hard it is sometimes living up there in the dark, she had moved up from the lower forty eight, but Steve was a third generation Alaskan, I was very privileged to evesdrop this conversation.
I had mentioned to Steve about my planned boat trip the next morning to see wildlife and a calving (falling ice) glacier and he told me on my next trip, I should plan going to a tiny town called Cordova, on Prince William Sound that is only reachable by ferry or plane where you can sit on the beach and watch the glacier calve all day, sounds perfect.
It was getting late so I bid my new Alaskan friends good night as I did not want to miss the boat, again.
The next morning dawned foggy as the day before but I had seen how quickly it changes from fjord to fjord. There were still only 16 bookings for our boat so things looked good. I saw the line of people queuing for the 8am boat which was the same size as the one I missed and was I ever glad of oversleeping. It would have been hell.
I felt positively naked when we boarded, I was dressed in jeans, long sleeve shirt and a windbreaker, everyone else must have had about 2 or 3 layers of artic gear with rain gear on top!!
As we motored out of the small boat harbour, we spotted our first bald eagle sitting on the coal conveyor off to our left and as we came about there was another sitting on the channel marker to our right, beautiful, noble and strong creatures with no fear of the passing boat.
We moved down the fiord, the backdrop of the low lying clouds on the surrounding mountains, with bright sunshine glinting off glaciers in the high valleys was very dramatic, it looked like a vision of Valhalla.
As we got out of the fiord past Fox Island and into Resurrection Bay, Ellen, the first mate, served up a breakfast of yogurt, fresh fruit and canola with coffee and told everyone to search the calm waters for signs of wildlife. It seemed to take for ever; I think we all thought they would be just there waiting in the bay for our enjoyment. But after an hour we finally spotted a humpback whale gracefully swimming along, it was beautiful to watch.
Further out into the bay we came upon the Chiswell Islands, where we saw dozens of sea lions, and literally millions of sea birds, the noise was incredible. Ellen was giving us a running commentary, what I found even more incredible was that some of them can dive to 400 feet underwater to fish, even the cuddly cute puffin can dive to 350 feet. During the winter, when these waters virtually freeze over, the birds will fly 4 to 500 miles south in the Pacific and winter there, not touching land for over 6 months.
We then motored up Aialik Bay to Aialik Glacier, it was very eerie, with a low lying fog and it was getting colder by the minute. Now I started to understand why all the passengers were wearing so many layers of clothing, but then I looked at Captain Joe and mate Ellen and they were not overly bundled so what the hell, how bad could it get!
After about half an hour of cautious sailing, the fog lifted and we were confronted with a 400 foot wall of ice, it was just an incredible sight and felt like standing in front of an open freezer door, WOW and the noise was also incredible. It creaked and groaned as large chunks fell away into the freezing arctic waters. We were bobbing in a sea of large ice chunks, just a ¼ mile from the glacier face. Local law prohibited us from going any nearer, Joe could not cut the engine to get the full noise effect, due to the fact that we might need full power any second, should a large enough piece calve to cause a wave which could swamp our small boat. I doubt if I, in my light clothing, would have lasted more than 40 seconds in that water but I would have loved to have experienced the glacier in total silence.
Glaciers are constantly moving, being pushed forward by pressure from above and move an average of 4 miles per day. We scooped up ice as it floated past the boat, it was so clear and pure looking, I could only think of making a martini or a gin n tonic.
Motoring back down the bay I noticed some kayaks beached on the shore. I asked Joe how they got here and he told me there are outfitters who will drop you off and then return to pick you up, weather permitting!! Now that would be the way to visit a glacier, maybe next time!
Exiting Aialik Bay we came upon a killer whale with her calf just frolicking in the open water, we heaved too to observe them, and then another passenger spotted 3 more, a couple of hundred yards off the port side. Joe was trying to decide whether we should move, when they changed course and came to join the mother and calf by us. It was a male and 2 females and all 5 swam around us for a few minutes before the male took off and the rest of the pod followed, what an exhilarating experience.
Heading back to Seaward, all of the passengers seemed content to huddle in the main cabin, sipping tea and soup as if the return leg offered nothing. I on the other hand grabbed a beer and sat up beside Joe in the wheel house. Joe and his ancestors have lived here all their lives making a living from the sea. He told me all about the great quake of March 27th 1964, which wiped out the town of Seaward, Joe happened to be in Kodiak that day, which also got hit but not as bad.
It took years of hard work, living through harsh winters in make shift shelters to rebuild the town, and the fishing industry, so when the tourist industry started to take off in the nineties, Joe literally jumped ship and traded his fishing net for a tour microphone.
Back on the dock at 5pm, I had ninety minutes till my bus to Anchorage, so I decided to have a bite to eat at Chinooks and was rewarded with the lovely Sandy being behind the bar. I told her all about my great day on the boat, with Joe and Ellen, of course she knew them, they usually come in most evenings after work, about 7ish, when the boat was all ship shape, alas I would be gone.
Naturally I ordered the chowder and followed it up with their Halibut cheeks cerviche, which was out of this world. I’ve had Grouper cheeks cerviche in Florida (I made it myself) but it was nothing on this. This was a taste explosion in my mouth; forget about lobster, this is seafood at its finest. Halibut cheeks are reason enough for a return trip, they never leave the dock! There just happened to be a couple of fishermen sitting down the bar and they agreed, it was the tastiest part of the fish and luckily for all the locals, when tourists catch Halibut, they only ask for the fillets, leaving all the good stuff for them and me.
Traveling on ones own has its benefits, firstly you don’t have to conform to other people’s requirements, and most importantly you usually get to ride up front on boats, shuttles and of course buses. This bus was no different, I grabbed the front seat and we had a good chat. He had retired from New Jersey to Florida, to take care of his mother, but for five months a year, he came to Alaska to supplement his income, driving a bus for the park shuttle service. I had seen a lot of buses zooming around with cruise line names on them, and asked if he had ever drove them? He had made inquires at the start of this season, but they require that you drive 13 out of 14 days, i.e. 1 day off every two weeks, sod that he said, “they pay more but I did not come here to kill myself”.
After 2 local stops we mutually ended the conversation as he hit the highway and put the hammer down, he was cruising at 80 mph and you have to keep your eyes on the road as an animal can wander out at any moment. He had had a few close calls, but none on this day.
We got into Anchorage around 9pm which was really good going, the bus stop was just a few blocks from the Econo Inn, so I was checked in by 9:30pm. Although it had been a long grueling day and I was pretty knackered, with it being full daylight I had no inclination to sleep, so I headed for my new favorite Mexican joint, La Cabana, for a couple of Margarita’s and some fish tacos, I would be able to sleep-in in the morning as I had reserved a rental car at the airport for noon.
Although I had wanted to sleep late I found myself wide awake at 8am with the bright sunshine outside. Well I had not seen much of Anchorage so now was as good a time as any, check out was not until eleven, so I had a couple of hours, figured I’d wander downtown and grab some breakfast, preferably consisting of salmon or halibut, but no such luck, every joint I went into, had an all you can eat breakfast buffet, yuck! So I settled for a Starbucks latte and their egg Mc muffin sandwich, the last thing I wanted, well almost last thing, Micky D’s or Burger King would have been worse but I had been walking for almost an hour.
There is nothing to downtown Anchorage, its all souvenir shops, so I headed back to the motel, grabbed my bag and took the shuttle to the airport.
Heading northeast out of Anchorage on route 1 there is some decent scenery but when you turn north onto route 3 through Wasilla the terrain gets very flat, green and boring, just as Steve had said, there was very little traffic after Wasilla so I just floored the rental, next stop Talkeetna, which is 115 mile from Anchorage and I managed to make it in under 2 hours.
Talkeetna is a cute little town that still looks like it probably did back in the gold rush days but now it is caught up in the tourist rush. I walked around the whole town in ten minutes and figured the only place I would set foot in, was the joint I had parked in front of, The West Pub & Grill; surely I would find some fish here for lunch. It looked a bit ominous when I walked in, as most people in the small garden appeared to be eating burgers, but a peruse of the menu offered a salmon filet with homemade slaw, sold, with a pint of Alaska Amber Ale.
Naturally I got talking to the bartender, Simon, and asked the obvious question, do you live here year round? No he only came up here five months of the year, tending bar 2 days a week and teaching kayaking the rest of the time. What he makes in the 5 months supports him in Costa Rica, surfing for the winter, very cool. My advice to him was to keep living that life as long as possible, you never know what is around the corner.
I got back on the road by 4pm, I wanted to be in Denali by 7 and it was 155 miles north, through what promised to be spectacular scenery. After about an hour I came upon the south Denali lookout point and got my first glimpse of the great mountain, even at over 120 miles away it was spectacular.
When I got to Denali just before 7pm it was just as Steve had described in Seward, “glitter gulch”. I came over a small rise on the highway and there laid out before me was a small valley chock full of condos, restaurants, fast food joints and souvenir shops, yuck, but a necessary by-product of Denali’s success.
All the condo/hotels in the area were priced at $175 and up per night, a little out of my range and not the kind of place I would like to stay anyway. Through some digging on the internet, I had found a cabin with shared bathroom facilities at The Salmon Bake for $50 per night, much more my speed and now I was pulling up outside.
The Salmon Bake is the largest, locally owner restaurant in the area and they were doing a thriving business, all 3 of their dining rooms were packed and there was a pungent smell of fish.
Reception was the cashier’s desk and upon production of my confirmation e mail I was handed the key to cabin 5 and a map to find it up in the woods, it wasn’t that far just a little complicated.
Up the hill I found 10 little canvas covered frame cabins connected by a wooden walkway surrounding a triple bathroom/shower house. Inside they were quite cozy, carpeted floor, small desk for writing postcards and 2 queen size beds with complimentary water bottles on each bed.
After getting my bearings and settling in, I wandered back down to the main building and was amazed that the whole place had emptied out, I suppose it’s just like this on the boats, cruise/herd mentality.
Upstairs the bar was equally as quiet, I ordered an Alaskan Blond (beer), fish chowder and grill Halibut n chips, excellent, after another few beers, I decided to have a wander around the neighborhood, you can’t really call it a town because I don’t think anyone actually lives there permanently
After about an hour I wandered back up the hill past the cabin site and found a small bar/restaurant called The Overlook, which was attached to the Crow’s Nest motel. They also had cabins but were made of logs and looked better decorated inside (I checked the web; they go for $199 per night). I stopped in for a quick nightcap and called it a day.
Next morning I was awake at 7am and decided to go for a long walk as I would be spending eleven hours on a bus for the rest of the day, I had booked the 9:30am trip to Wonder Lake, which is 90 miles into the park, and if Denali is out, there would be spectacular views. Private vehicles are not allowed past mile post 15 without a permit, there is a small parking lot there and it is a good spot to hike the Savage River.
At the bus depot, I was third in line, as I wanted one of the coveted left side window seats, which has all the best views for the outbound leg, when the bus pulled up I got the perfect seat, half way back with a full pane by my seat, but unbeknown to me, the couple I had been talking to behind me in the line, had a group of graduating high school seniors with them, and they all piled into the back. There were about eight girls in the group and they did not shut up for a second, after half an hour, if I had a gun, I would have shot them. At one point the driver stopped the bus and asked them nicely, to stop talking, one of them replied” we are college girls, we don’t stop talking”. No wonder we saw so few animals on the way out, we could be heard for miles.
The tension was broken when our bus pulled up beside another bus exiting the park and the two drivers leaned out to talk to each. After a few minutes our driver dug into his backpack and passed a jar of Grey Poupon to his fellow driver, he explained it had been a running joke between them all season and yesterday he had been in Anchorage and so picked up the mustard, very funny in the middle of nowhere, although not everyone got the joke, guess who!!
As we got into the park we got our first clear look at Denali from about 90 miles, it’s awesome to look at, something that big and that far away. The mountain makes its own weather systems at that altitude, and we did not see it again until we were about 40 away, now it really started to look overpowering. Our destination, Wonder Lake, is the closest the road gets to it at 24 miles, but looking at now the signs were not good that it would be out when we got there.
Sure enough when we got to the lake, Denali was totally engulfed in cloud, there was not much to do except eat lunch and have a wander around. The terrain was very flat and treeless, just a lot of tall shrubbery. From the top of a small knoll I could see there were a lot of people camping in small pup tents dotted around the area, waiting for that elusive glimpse of the mountain.
The bus only stays for 40 minutes but with the mountain socked in and the mosquito’s being pretty bad, there was no point staying the extra hour for the last bus of the day and beside the girls had finally quietened down. The return journey was pretty quiet, but with every seat taken it was very cramped. When we stopped at Toklat River, where the park service has a large tent set up to sell books and souvenirs, the driver announced we would be here for another 40 minute break. The drivers had a small tent to the side for them to take a break. So when I saw one exiting as ours entered I asked when he was leaving and if he had space, he had and I had 5 minutes. A quick toilet break, I grabbed my bag off the other bus and away we went.
This bus was virtually empty, with only about eighteen people on a fifty seater, I was going to take the back seat, but there was a family of six (Mum, Dad, 3 sons & 1 daughter, (boy, girl, boy, boy)) occupying the third and fourth rows from the back, so it seemed a bit rude to sit behind them. After about twenty minutes, the youngest son said he was tired, so Mum told him to lie down in the back, so I felt I had done the right thing. Two minutes later he is jumping up and down, hollering and waving 2 twenty dollar bills in his hands, he had found them on the floor, lucky bugger, that would have bought a nice bottle of Cloudy Bay to erase the memories of the yakkedy yak school girls.
I don’t know if it was having fewer people on the bus not making noise, or the time of day, but we saw a lot more wildlife on the return trip, two separate brown bear sightings, a family of Foxes, who’s den was just twenty yards from the road, two Moose that ran right in front of us and a Caribou, it was such a difference from the first bus.
Getting back to the bus terminal almost an hour ahead of schedule was a delight, I could have called the Salmon Bake Camp to send their shuttle, but decided to hoof it. When I was out walking earlier that day, I had seen a trail that lead to the park, but did not know where it came out, so I started walking around the parking lot looking for a trailhead, when I came upon a young guy looking for the same thing. We agreed where we thought it should be, and just as I was about to say, lets hike together, he took off into the woods like Bambi on speed, I tried to follow but within minutes, I was totally discombobulated and lost. The immediate thought of running into a bear any moment, suddenly became very real. I decided to backtrack and quickly realized, I had no idea in which direction I was going, for someone who always prides themselves on knowing their north’s and south’s, this was very disconcerting. All of a sudden I stumbled through some thick trees and found myself on the edge of a storm drain by the side of a road.
I was not sure which way was which, but I had the feeling I was facing south, so I turned to the left, as I wandered down the road a man appeared out of a side road about 500 yards ahead of me and just stood there. As I approached, I figured I could at least ask him if I was headed in the right direction, but as I drew closer, he shouted “are ya headed to town?, I replied “if towns this way, then that’s where I’m going”, it is he said, may I walk with you? sure!
After exchanging pleasantries and such (sorry I forgot his name) my new friend, explained that he was going to town to buy a new tent, as his had just been stolen, I was aghast. He had been hiking around Alaska for the past few months and just came upon this campsite at the entrance to Denali. He had booked a campsite for the night and someone stole his tent. I naturally thought that it had been erected, but no, he had just gone to the bathroom, left his pack and tent roll outside, but when he returned the tent was gone!! I explained this was not really a town in the normal sense, but merely a collection of hotels, motels, RV parks and eateries with one gas station. I don’t think there is a hardware or grocery store, so buying a tent would not be an option. He did not seem worried and started to ask about my trek into the park that day, and how far I had got. I explained about the bus system and he asked if there was a trail as he wanted to walk to Wonder Lake. Walk!! It was ninety miles through bear country. He reckoned it would take him 5 to 6 days and I calculated I would be back at work in New York by then. I have no idea if he ever made it or if he even got a new tent, but I thought of him often, especially when I saw a trailer for a new movie coming out “Into The Wild”.
The Salmon Bake was thankfully devoid of tourists when I got back, so I retired to the bar for a well deserved martini followed of course by the fish chowder and their seafood quesadilla, excellent as usual, I’m really getting spoilt on all this fantastic fish.
After a stroll around, I looked into the Overlook, but it had a very loud cruise type of crowd, so I decided to have an early night, write some postcards and get a quick start in the morning, it was after all my last day and I wanted to make the most of it.
While this trip was in the planning stages I had considered all the other “adventure” things to do while up here, white water rafting, I’d seen the river, it’s fast moving, but not white water. Four wheel all terrain vehicles, just did not seem very ecco friendly, so I just decided to drive into mile 15 of the park, leave the car and go hiking up the Savage River trail. Great move, there was nobody out there and the silence was deafening.
I drove back to the visitors centre for lunch, I had excellent Halibut n chips which really surprised me, as the concession is run by non other than Aramark, the global conglomerate, that ruined my trip to the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai.
There are a number of short hiking trails from the visitors center, I chose Horseshoe Lake, which is about 2 hours round trip and I was rewarded by the sight of 2 Moose cooling off from the afternoon heat with a frolic in the lake.
As you exit the park, there is one hotel, The Grande Denali Lodge, spectacularly positioned atop a mountain opposite, I thought I must have a cocktail there and get a panoramic photo, but first I was going to drive up to Healy.
Healy is a small town of approx one thousand people, just fourteen miles north of Denali, but out of the Alaska Mountain Range. It sits on the open tundra and the main industry is the coal mine. I had been talking to the bartender last night at the Salmon Bake, he was born and bred in Healy. His dad worked for the coal company, but he could not see himself going down that road. Last winter he had tended bar at The Totem Pole motel, which was pretty dead, so now with the money he was making he was going to Hawaii for the winter.
Needless to say there was not very much to see, so I just turned around and headed back. I just made it over the Nenana river bridge, when it was closed to all traffic due to the movement of a huge piece of machinery, that was being moved north, presumably to the coal mine. It was wrapped in white plastic, took up both lanes of the highway, was about 20 foot high by 40 foot long and sat in this immense trailer, that was cradled between two bogies, each with seven axles and eight wheels per axle, all being pulled by a Peterbilt truck, at approx 3 miles per hour. I stopped to watch it crawl over the bridge and noticed that the railroad ran above the other bank, and cut into a tunnel under the bridge. The railroad was built to Fairbanks back in the 1920’s, they did not get around to building the road until 1974.
Well it around 5:30pm by now and time for that pre dinner martini at The Grande Denali Lodge. There must have been at least eight switchbacks in the gravel road leading up the mountain, but what a view from the top, of course Denali itself was not out, it must be fantastic when it is. The lodge itself was nothing to look at, but when you step in the door to the lobby, wow! It was a huge cavernous room of gleaming varnished wood , reception desk to the right, gift shop to the left and straight ahead a lovely seating area in front of a huge fireplace. Past the fireplace was the bar and dining room which sat out over the cliff and had floor to ceiling windows on 3 sides offering dramatic views, I ordered an in&out Tanqueray martini up with a twist and the barmaid apologetically tells me they have no vermouth, NOOOOOO, who ever heard of a bar with no vermouth, I was outraged, it took the shine off the whole place. I opted for a gin n tonic, she did not even have a slice of lemon, I had to settle for lime, now I’m pissed off, this place is a sham.
I downed the drink and headed for home to The Salmon Bake, it might not be pretty or have great views but it sure knows how to do food and drink. Later that night I got talking to the young girl who was the bar back that night, she said she used to work there as a waitress and hated every minute of it, this she said was the place work even though she made less money, she was happy.
Bellying up to the bar I got my perfect martini, ordered the fish chowder, of course, followed by the Dungeness crab cakes, all washed down with a nice New Zealand, sauvignon blanc, heavenly, my last supper in Alaska.
After dinner I got talking to a couple of girls and they were working as chambermaids across the road at the Denali Princess Lodge, which they hated, they were filing applications at The Salmon Bake for next year.
Well that was it, time to hit the sack, I had to have the car back at Anchorage airport by noon, so I would have to up by 6, on the road by 7, so I could be in downtown Anchorage by 11 to eat before hitting the airport. I had noticed a place called the City Diner last week near the airport so I figured I’d try it.
What a great choice this turned out to be, there was a half hour wait for tables but I snagged a seat at the counter and ordered up some salmon hash with poached eggs. It was fantastic but I could not finish it, huge portions.
Well that was it, my last meal in Alaska, time to head for the airport, turn in the car and settle down in the Alaskan Airlines lounge, as I had a 3 hour wait for my flight.
The lounge was virtually empty and what a nice surprise to find they had Alaskan Blond on draught, I got a pint and settled down to watch The Battle of Britain on my DVD. When I went back to get another pint there was a wonderful fish smell in the air, when I inquired from the bartender, she informed me there was fresh fish chowder available in the kitchen, just help myself. Ah one last taste of Alaskan cooking.
I was originally scheduled to have a three hour lay-over in Seattle and had toyed with the idea of getting a cab downtown for a quick bite to eat at The Flying Fish but had to dismiss that idea when my flight out of Anchorage was delayed by 30 minutes.
Despite the delay, I was very impressed by Alaska Airlines, the lounge, staff and facilities were superb, but that was nothing compared to when I got on the plane. The flight crew were the most charming I have ever met and the service was impeccable. Good wines served in glasses, nice salmon and pasta served on china with real silverware, things that have gone missing on other major American airlines since September 2001.
Another nice touch in their first class, is that they hand out, preloaded personal DVD players, which contain about 20 movies, cartoons and a lot of nature shows about Alaska, as an alternative there was the spectacular scenery of the Alaskan and Canadian coastline, I must have counted at least eight cruise ships during the flight.
Landing at Sea Tac airport it turns out even if the flight had been on time I would not have had time to make it downtown, we pulled into the very last gate of the north terminal and when I checked the departure board, my Delta flight was leaving out of the last gate on the southern concourse A. The transfer would take 2 trains and a lot of walking about 40 minutes all told. As it was, I was only going to get about 45 minutes in the Delta Crown Room, but it was enough to have a couple of glasses of wine and watch a late Seattle Mariners rally, which failed against the visiting Red Sox.
My flight was being called and it was time to end my latest odyssey next stop was JFK and back to reality.
I had wanted to visit Alaska for years; with the rising Euro and British pound, the ever increasing airfares during the summer to Europe, I decided in March 2007 that this was the year. I cashed in sixty thousand Delta airmiles, for a first class, round trip ticket. This also made brilliant sense as an economy ticket to London is 60,000 mile and first class 90,000 during the summer for a seven hour flight. Anchorage was a 9 hour flight, for the price of economy to London.
After a 10 ½ hour trip from New York via Cincinnati, I arrived at Ted Stevens’s airport in Anchorage. It was 8pm local time (midnight in NYC). I had reservations on the 6:45am train to Seward, and had booked a room at the Econo Inn, close to the train depot. While waiting for the motel shuttle, I had an interesting chat with a TSA agent, who was posted up there for the summer from California, being from Piso Beach, with no major airport nearby, he frequently gets posted to busy areas. Last Christmas/New Year’s, he was posted to Washington’s Reagan airport. He does not agree with all the TSA procedures, but has to follow command! What other job in Piso Beach would give him these travel opportunities.
By the time I got to my room at 9pm my body clock was saying 1am, but the sun was still shining, so I went in search of a drink and a bite to eat. There was not much around in the immediate area, but I did find La Cabana Mexican restaurant, which served a good margarita and tasty seafood tacos.
Sated, I went back to the motel and got to bed around 11pm, boy did that 5am alarm go off quick. The Alaska railroad require you to check-in 1 hour prior to departure just like the airlines, fortunately they had good coffee.
When we finally got to board, I was located in the last reserved car which was of their older rolling stock and had big comfortable reclining seats. Each car has an assigned tour guide, in my case it was the lovely Jennifer, and it just so happened her Dad was in the seat directly behind me. Jen was a high school senior and eager to show off her knowledge of her home state. Dad just kept asking more and more questions; bring out the best in her.
Although the journey is only 128 miles the train takes 4 ½ hours, slowing down for all animal sightings and four glaciers, at one point stopping for almost ½ an hour in a spur to let the Whittier train pass. It is a journey you do not want to end. The scenery outside your window is mesmerizing, the snow capped mountains slope down through emerald green forests to the crystal clear aqua blue lakes that mirror the mountains and sky. The houses dotted along the lake shores don’t have cars parked in the driveways, but seaplanes moored at the dock. A higher percentage of people commute by plane than car in Alaska. If you are really lucky, you will see some Dahl sheep, a moose or an elk, it is extremely unlikely to see a bear from the train, but it has been known.
When you finally pull into Seward at the head of Resurrection Bay, it is almost the epitome of a picturesque fishing village, until you look off to your left and see the huge ugly conveyor belt pier that stretches out into the bay, this is for loading coal, that is brought by train down from the interior for shipment to Korea and Peru.
I had booked a room at the Breeze Inn Motel across the street from all the charter boat docks. My room was not ready so after dropping my bag off I went for an exploratory walk around town, but that only took 40 mins. it’s a small town ! Never the less it was enough to sharpen up my appetite for lunch, I had only had coffee and a power bar on the train. Most of the towns restaurants seemed to be of the same coffee shop/dinner type, all advertising fish n chips except for 2 right on the waterfront, Chinooks & Roy’s. I decided on Chinooks for some reason and was glad I did, the lovely proprietor, Sandy was tending bar and we struck up a great conversation. She is originally from nearby Connecticut. I sampled a few of the local Alaskan ales and soaked them up with a delicious grilled salmon with rice & veg. A most satisfying lunch.
Now the effects of the late night early start and jet lag were starting to have an effect, so I went to see if my room was ready, but alas the Breeze Inn are very firm about their 3pm check-in time and I was once more, cast out to fend for myself, for at least another hour. In no mood to do any more exploring I headed straight across the parking lot to the Breeze Inn’s bar/restaurant, to kill the hour over a beer.
Initially there were just a few guys, all of whom were smoking, so I stayed down the emptier end of the bar on my own, but then several of the restaurant waitresses came in to cash up their tips and have an after work drink, well they perked me right up and one of them was from Dublin, naturally! We had a great time and before you knew it, it was 5pm, they had to go home and I needed a nap, surely my room would be ready by now?
After a short nap I got up and wandered over to Ray’s which was packed but I managed to find a stool at the bar, and ordered up a Tanquary martini while I perused the menu. Well it had been a most satisfying first day in Alaska to I decided to treat myself to a pound of King Crab Legs, and a bottle of Cloudy Bay,(New Zealand chardonnay)awesome. Half way through dinner 3 guys joined me at the bar, they had just come in off a charter and one poor soul had not done so good, his mates were enjoying razzing him and I chimed in my two cents worth.
I finally shuffled out of Rays at 11pm but it only felt like 7 in New York, as it was still quite bright, I felt like having a nightcap at the Breeze bar but it had been a very long day and I had a glacier boat tour booked for 9am, so bedways was the bestway.
When I opened my eyes in the morning I could not believe it, I had slept through 2 alarms and it was 9:30, my ship had sailed. I got up and looked out through the curtains and the whole fjord/harbour was locked in by low clouds and fog, I had lucked out, it was a crappy day to out on the water. I called the office across the street and explained my predicament; a very nice lady asked if I was traveling solo? And when I said yes, she said I was better off missing the boat I was booked on, it held almost 200 passengers. She recommended I book the Captain’s choice tour for tomorrow which is on a much smaller vessel and so far there were only 16 bookings, thank you, yes there is a god, back to bed for an hour!
When I finally emerged into the day it was a very damp fog that reminded me of the old famous pea soupers, in the London of my youth. It was a good day for indoor activities, so I headed for the Alaska Sea Life Center, a mile down the road in downtown Seward. It was built with a donation from Exxon after the Exxon Valdez disaster decimated all the local sea life.
The sea life center is well worth a visit regardless of the weather, lots of very interesting exhibits of the local aquatic life, and plenty of live mammals and birds, which have been rescued due to various accidents.
I walked back to the small boat harbour and decided to have lunch at Chinooks again with Sandy, but unfortunately she was not working. I had their seafood chowder (better than Roy’s) and the crab cakes, very good.
After lunch I caught a shuttle out to Exit Glacier, what a difference a valley makes. In Seward it had been very overcast and misty; here it was 70 degrees and beautiful sunshine. It was a nice easy 1 mile hike to the glacier and although small in glacier terms it is very impressive, especially as you can get to within about 10 feet and feel the cold emanating off it.
Upon my return to Seward I had a quick nap then went for dinner again at Roy’s and met a very interesting man while dining at the bar, Steve, he worked for the coal mine in Healy which shipped the coal down via Alaska RR to Seward where it was shipped out.
I had originally planned to take the train up to Denali and the bus back but the bus was booked and the return train did not make my flight, so I had been forced to rent a car, but now Steve said I had made the right choice. The first 4 hours of the train journey were very boring and I would cover the distance in half the time with a car, but also that the train was packed with cruise passengers. Also being on the train I would not see Talkeetna, a beautiful little Alaskan town well worth a stop for lunch. We were then joined at the bar by a woman from Ketchikan, which is down the southeast peninsula, she and Steve started swapping stories, how hard it is sometimes living up there in the dark, she had moved up from the lower forty eight, but Steve was a third generation Alaskan, I was very privileged to evesdrop this conversation.
I had mentioned to Steve about my planned boat trip the next morning to see wildlife and a calving (falling ice) glacier and he told me on my next trip, I should plan going to a tiny town called Cordova, on Prince William Sound that is only reachable by ferry or plane where you can sit on the beach and watch the glacier calve all day, sounds perfect.
It was getting late so I bid my new Alaskan friends good night as I did not want to miss the boat, again.
The next morning dawned foggy as the day before but I had seen how quickly it changes from fjord to fjord. There were still only 16 bookings for our boat so things looked good. I saw the line of people queuing for the 8am boat which was the same size as the one I missed and was I ever glad of oversleeping. It would have been hell.
I felt positively naked when we boarded, I was dressed in jeans, long sleeve shirt and a windbreaker, everyone else must have had about 2 or 3 layers of artic gear with rain gear on top!!
As we motored out of the small boat harbour, we spotted our first bald eagle sitting on the coal conveyor off to our left and as we came about there was another sitting on the channel marker to our right, beautiful, noble and strong creatures with no fear of the passing boat.
We moved down the fiord, the backdrop of the low lying clouds on the surrounding mountains, with bright sunshine glinting off glaciers in the high valleys was very dramatic, it looked like a vision of Valhalla.
As we got out of the fiord past Fox Island and into Resurrection Bay, Ellen, the first mate, served up a breakfast of yogurt, fresh fruit and canola with coffee and told everyone to search the calm waters for signs of wildlife. It seemed to take for ever; I think we all thought they would be just there waiting in the bay for our enjoyment. But after an hour we finally spotted a humpback whale gracefully swimming along, it was beautiful to watch.
Further out into the bay we came upon the Chiswell Islands, where we saw dozens of sea lions, and literally millions of sea birds, the noise was incredible. Ellen was giving us a running commentary, what I found even more incredible was that some of them can dive to 400 feet underwater to fish, even the cuddly cute puffin can dive to 350 feet. During the winter, when these waters virtually freeze over, the birds will fly 4 to 500 miles south in the Pacific and winter there, not touching land for over 6 months.
We then motored up Aialik Bay to Aialik Glacier, it was very eerie, with a low lying fog and it was getting colder by the minute. Now I started to understand why all the passengers were wearing so many layers of clothing, but then I looked at Captain Joe and mate Ellen and they were not overly bundled so what the hell, how bad could it get!
After about half an hour of cautious sailing, the fog lifted and we were confronted with a 400 foot wall of ice, it was just an incredible sight and felt like standing in front of an open freezer door, WOW and the noise was also incredible. It creaked and groaned as large chunks fell away into the freezing arctic waters. We were bobbing in a sea of large ice chunks, just a ¼ mile from the glacier face. Local law prohibited us from going any nearer, Joe could not cut the engine to get the full noise effect, due to the fact that we might need full power any second, should a large enough piece calve to cause a wave which could swamp our small boat. I doubt if I, in my light clothing, would have lasted more than 40 seconds in that water but I would have loved to have experienced the glacier in total silence.
Glaciers are constantly moving, being pushed forward by pressure from above and move an average of 4 miles per day. We scooped up ice as it floated past the boat, it was so clear and pure looking, I could only think of making a martini or a gin n tonic.
Motoring back down the bay I noticed some kayaks beached on the shore. I asked Joe how they got here and he told me there are outfitters who will drop you off and then return to pick you up, weather permitting!! Now that would be the way to visit a glacier, maybe next time!
Exiting Aialik Bay we came upon a killer whale with her calf just frolicking in the open water, we heaved too to observe them, and then another passenger spotted 3 more, a couple of hundred yards off the port side. Joe was trying to decide whether we should move, when they changed course and came to join the mother and calf by us. It was a male and 2 females and all 5 swam around us for a few minutes before the male took off and the rest of the pod followed, what an exhilarating experience.
Heading back to Seaward, all of the passengers seemed content to huddle in the main cabin, sipping tea and soup as if the return leg offered nothing. I on the other hand grabbed a beer and sat up beside Joe in the wheel house. Joe and his ancestors have lived here all their lives making a living from the sea. He told me all about the great quake of March 27th 1964, which wiped out the town of Seaward, Joe happened to be in Kodiak that day, which also got hit but not as bad.
It took years of hard work, living through harsh winters in make shift shelters to rebuild the town, and the fishing industry, so when the tourist industry started to take off in the nineties, Joe literally jumped ship and traded his fishing net for a tour microphone.
Back on the dock at 5pm, I had ninety minutes till my bus to Anchorage, so I decided to have a bite to eat at Chinooks and was rewarded with the lovely Sandy being behind the bar. I told her all about my great day on the boat, with Joe and Ellen, of course she knew them, they usually come in most evenings after work, about 7ish, when the boat was all ship shape, alas I would be gone.
Naturally I ordered the chowder and followed it up with their Halibut cheeks cerviche, which was out of this world. I’ve had Grouper cheeks cerviche in Florida (I made it myself) but it was nothing on this. This was a taste explosion in my mouth; forget about lobster, this is seafood at its finest. Halibut cheeks are reason enough for a return trip, they never leave the dock! There just happened to be a couple of fishermen sitting down the bar and they agreed, it was the tastiest part of the fish and luckily for all the locals, when tourists catch Halibut, they only ask for the fillets, leaving all the good stuff for them and me.
Traveling on ones own has its benefits, firstly you don’t have to conform to other people’s requirements, and most importantly you usually get to ride up front on boats, shuttles and of course buses. This bus was no different, I grabbed the front seat and we had a good chat. He had retired from New Jersey to Florida, to take care of his mother, but for five months a year, he came to Alaska to supplement his income, driving a bus for the park shuttle service. I had seen a lot of buses zooming around with cruise line names on them, and asked if he had ever drove them? He had made inquires at the start of this season, but they require that you drive 13 out of 14 days, i.e. 1 day off every two weeks, sod that he said, “they pay more but I did not come here to kill myself”.
After 2 local stops we mutually ended the conversation as he hit the highway and put the hammer down, he was cruising at 80 mph and you have to keep your eyes on the road as an animal can wander out at any moment. He had had a few close calls, but none on this day.
We got into Anchorage around 9pm which was really good going, the bus stop was just a few blocks from the Econo Inn, so I was checked in by 9:30pm. Although it had been a long grueling day and I was pretty knackered, with it being full daylight I had no inclination to sleep, so I headed for my new favorite Mexican joint, La Cabana, for a couple of Margarita’s and some fish tacos, I would be able to sleep-in in the morning as I had reserved a rental car at the airport for noon.
Although I had wanted to sleep late I found myself wide awake at 8am with the bright sunshine outside. Well I had not seen much of Anchorage so now was as good a time as any, check out was not until eleven, so I had a couple of hours, figured I’d wander downtown and grab some breakfast, preferably consisting of salmon or halibut, but no such luck, every joint I went into, had an all you can eat breakfast buffet, yuck! So I settled for a Starbucks latte and their egg Mc muffin sandwich, the last thing I wanted, well almost last thing, Micky D’s or Burger King would have been worse but I had been walking for almost an hour.
There is nothing to downtown Anchorage, its all souvenir shops, so I headed back to the motel, grabbed my bag and took the shuttle to the airport.
Heading northeast out of Anchorage on route 1 there is some decent scenery but when you turn north onto route 3 through Wasilla the terrain gets very flat, green and boring, just as Steve had said, there was very little traffic after Wasilla so I just floored the rental, next stop Talkeetna, which is 115 mile from Anchorage and I managed to make it in under 2 hours.
Talkeetna is a cute little town that still looks like it probably did back in the gold rush days but now it is caught up in the tourist rush. I walked around the whole town in ten minutes and figured the only place I would set foot in, was the joint I had parked in front of, The West Pub & Grill; surely I would find some fish here for lunch. It looked a bit ominous when I walked in, as most people in the small garden appeared to be eating burgers, but a peruse of the menu offered a salmon filet with homemade slaw, sold, with a pint of Alaska Amber Ale.
Naturally I got talking to the bartender, Simon, and asked the obvious question, do you live here year round? No he only came up here five months of the year, tending bar 2 days a week and teaching kayaking the rest of the time. What he makes in the 5 months supports him in Costa Rica, surfing for the winter, very cool. My advice to him was to keep living that life as long as possible, you never know what is around the corner.
I got back on the road by 4pm, I wanted to be in Denali by 7 and it was 155 miles north, through what promised to be spectacular scenery. After about an hour I came upon the south Denali lookout point and got my first glimpse of the great mountain, even at over 120 miles away it was spectacular.
When I got to Denali just before 7pm it was just as Steve had described in Seward, “glitter gulch”. I came over a small rise on the highway and there laid out before me was a small valley chock full of condos, restaurants, fast food joints and souvenir shops, yuck, but a necessary by-product of Denali’s success.
All the condo/hotels in the area were priced at $175 and up per night, a little out of my range and not the kind of place I would like to stay anyway. Through some digging on the internet, I had found a cabin with shared bathroom facilities at The Salmon Bake for $50 per night, much more my speed and now I was pulling up outside.
The Salmon Bake is the largest, locally owner restaurant in the area and they were doing a thriving business, all 3 of their dining rooms were packed and there was a pungent smell of fish.
Reception was the cashier’s desk and upon production of my confirmation e mail I was handed the key to cabin 5 and a map to find it up in the woods, it wasn’t that far just a little complicated.
Up the hill I found 10 little canvas covered frame cabins connected by a wooden walkway surrounding a triple bathroom/shower house. Inside they were quite cozy, carpeted floor, small desk for writing postcards and 2 queen size beds with complimentary water bottles on each bed.
After getting my bearings and settling in, I wandered back down to the main building and was amazed that the whole place had emptied out, I suppose it’s just like this on the boats, cruise/herd mentality.
Upstairs the bar was equally as quiet, I ordered an Alaskan Blond (beer), fish chowder and grill Halibut n chips, excellent, after another few beers, I decided to have a wander around the neighborhood, you can’t really call it a town because I don’t think anyone actually lives there permanently
After about an hour I wandered back up the hill past the cabin site and found a small bar/restaurant called The Overlook, which was attached to the Crow’s Nest motel. They also had cabins but were made of logs and looked better decorated inside (I checked the web; they go for $199 per night). I stopped in for a quick nightcap and called it a day.
Next morning I was awake at 7am and decided to go for a long walk as I would be spending eleven hours on a bus for the rest of the day, I had booked the 9:30am trip to Wonder Lake, which is 90 miles into the park, and if Denali is out, there would be spectacular views. Private vehicles are not allowed past mile post 15 without a permit, there is a small parking lot there and it is a good spot to hike the Savage River.
At the bus depot, I was third in line, as I wanted one of the coveted left side window seats, which has all the best views for the outbound leg, when the bus pulled up I got the perfect seat, half way back with a full pane by my seat, but unbeknown to me, the couple I had been talking to behind me in the line, had a group of graduating high school seniors with them, and they all piled into the back. There were about eight girls in the group and they did not shut up for a second, after half an hour, if I had a gun, I would have shot them. At one point the driver stopped the bus and asked them nicely, to stop talking, one of them replied” we are college girls, we don’t stop talking”. No wonder we saw so few animals on the way out, we could be heard for miles.
The tension was broken when our bus pulled up beside another bus exiting the park and the two drivers leaned out to talk to each. After a few minutes our driver dug into his backpack and passed a jar of Grey Poupon to his fellow driver, he explained it had been a running joke between them all season and yesterday he had been in Anchorage and so picked up the mustard, very funny in the middle of nowhere, although not everyone got the joke, guess who!!
As we got into the park we got our first clear look at Denali from about 90 miles, it’s awesome to look at, something that big and that far away. The mountain makes its own weather systems at that altitude, and we did not see it again until we were about 40 away, now it really started to look overpowering. Our destination, Wonder Lake, is the closest the road gets to it at 24 miles, but looking at now the signs were not good that it would be out when we got there.
Sure enough when we got to the lake, Denali was totally engulfed in cloud, there was not much to do except eat lunch and have a wander around. The terrain was very flat and treeless, just a lot of tall shrubbery. From the top of a small knoll I could see there were a lot of people camping in small pup tents dotted around the area, waiting for that elusive glimpse of the mountain.
The bus only stays for 40 minutes but with the mountain socked in and the mosquito’s being pretty bad, there was no point staying the extra hour for the last bus of the day and beside the girls had finally quietened down. The return journey was pretty quiet, but with every seat taken it was very cramped. When we stopped at Toklat River, where the park service has a large tent set up to sell books and souvenirs, the driver announced we would be here for another 40 minute break. The drivers had a small tent to the side for them to take a break. So when I saw one exiting as ours entered I asked when he was leaving and if he had space, he had and I had 5 minutes. A quick toilet break, I grabbed my bag off the other bus and away we went.
This bus was virtually empty, with only about eighteen people on a fifty seater, I was going to take the back seat, but there was a family of six (Mum, Dad, 3 sons & 1 daughter, (boy, girl, boy, boy)) occupying the third and fourth rows from the back, so it seemed a bit rude to sit behind them. After about twenty minutes, the youngest son said he was tired, so Mum told him to lie down in the back, so I felt I had done the right thing. Two minutes later he is jumping up and down, hollering and waving 2 twenty dollar bills in his hands, he had found them on the floor, lucky bugger, that would have bought a nice bottle of Cloudy Bay to erase the memories of the yakkedy yak school girls.
I don’t know if it was having fewer people on the bus not making noise, or the time of day, but we saw a lot more wildlife on the return trip, two separate brown bear sightings, a family of Foxes, who’s den was just twenty yards from the road, two Moose that ran right in front of us and a Caribou, it was such a difference from the first bus.
Getting back to the bus terminal almost an hour ahead of schedule was a delight, I could have called the Salmon Bake Camp to send their shuttle, but decided to hoof it. When I was out walking earlier that day, I had seen a trail that lead to the park, but did not know where it came out, so I started walking around the parking lot looking for a trailhead, when I came upon a young guy looking for the same thing. We agreed where we thought it should be, and just as I was about to say, lets hike together, he took off into the woods like Bambi on speed, I tried to follow but within minutes, I was totally discombobulated and lost. The immediate thought of running into a bear any moment, suddenly became very real. I decided to backtrack and quickly realized, I had no idea in which direction I was going, for someone who always prides themselves on knowing their north’s and south’s, this was very disconcerting. All of a sudden I stumbled through some thick trees and found myself on the edge of a storm drain by the side of a road.
I was not sure which way was which, but I had the feeling I was facing south, so I turned to the left, as I wandered down the road a man appeared out of a side road about 500 yards ahead of me and just stood there. As I approached, I figured I could at least ask him if I was headed in the right direction, but as I drew closer, he shouted “are ya headed to town?, I replied “if towns this way, then that’s where I’m going”, it is he said, may I walk with you? sure!
After exchanging pleasantries and such (sorry I forgot his name) my new friend, explained that he was going to town to buy a new tent, as his had just been stolen, I was aghast. He had been hiking around Alaska for the past few months and just came upon this campsite at the entrance to Denali. He had booked a campsite for the night and someone stole his tent. I naturally thought that it had been erected, but no, he had just gone to the bathroom, left his pack and tent roll outside, but when he returned the tent was gone!! I explained this was not really a town in the normal sense, but merely a collection of hotels, motels, RV parks and eateries with one gas station. I don’t think there is a hardware or grocery store, so buying a tent would not be an option. He did not seem worried and started to ask about my trek into the park that day, and how far I had got. I explained about the bus system and he asked if there was a trail as he wanted to walk to Wonder Lake. Walk!! It was ninety miles through bear country. He reckoned it would take him 5 to 6 days and I calculated I would be back at work in New York by then. I have no idea if he ever made it or if he even got a new tent, but I thought of him often, especially when I saw a trailer for a new movie coming out “Into The Wild”.
The Salmon Bake was thankfully devoid of tourists when I got back, so I retired to the bar for a well deserved martini followed of course by the fish chowder and their seafood quesadilla, excellent as usual, I’m really getting spoilt on all this fantastic fish.
After a stroll around, I looked into the Overlook, but it had a very loud cruise type of crowd, so I decided to have an early night, write some postcards and get a quick start in the morning, it was after all my last day and I wanted to make the most of it.
While this trip was in the planning stages I had considered all the other “adventure” things to do while up here, white water rafting, I’d seen the river, it’s fast moving, but not white water. Four wheel all terrain vehicles, just did not seem very ecco friendly, so I just decided to drive into mile 15 of the park, leave the car and go hiking up the Savage River trail. Great move, there was nobody out there and the silence was deafening.
I drove back to the visitors centre for lunch, I had excellent Halibut n chips which really surprised me, as the concession is run by non other than Aramark, the global conglomerate, that ruined my trip to the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai.
There are a number of short hiking trails from the visitors center, I chose Horseshoe Lake, which is about 2 hours round trip and I was rewarded by the sight of 2 Moose cooling off from the afternoon heat with a frolic in the lake.
As you exit the park, there is one hotel, The Grande Denali Lodge, spectacularly positioned atop a mountain opposite, I thought I must have a cocktail there and get a panoramic photo, but first I was going to drive up to Healy.
Healy is a small town of approx one thousand people, just fourteen miles north of Denali, but out of the Alaska Mountain Range. It sits on the open tundra and the main industry is the coal mine. I had been talking to the bartender last night at the Salmon Bake, he was born and bred in Healy. His dad worked for the coal company, but he could not see himself going down that road. Last winter he had tended bar at The Totem Pole motel, which was pretty dead, so now with the money he was making he was going to Hawaii for the winter.
Needless to say there was not very much to see, so I just turned around and headed back. I just made it over the Nenana river bridge, when it was closed to all traffic due to the movement of a huge piece of machinery, that was being moved north, presumably to the coal mine. It was wrapped in white plastic, took up both lanes of the highway, was about 20 foot high by 40 foot long and sat in this immense trailer, that was cradled between two bogies, each with seven axles and eight wheels per axle, all being pulled by a Peterbilt truck, at approx 3 miles per hour. I stopped to watch it crawl over the bridge and noticed that the railroad ran above the other bank, and cut into a tunnel under the bridge. The railroad was built to Fairbanks back in the 1920’s, they did not get around to building the road until 1974.
Well it around 5:30pm by now and time for that pre dinner martini at The Grande Denali Lodge. There must have been at least eight switchbacks in the gravel road leading up the mountain, but what a view from the top, of course Denali itself was not out, it must be fantastic when it is. The lodge itself was nothing to look at, but when you step in the door to the lobby, wow! It was a huge cavernous room of gleaming varnished wood , reception desk to the right, gift shop to the left and straight ahead a lovely seating area in front of a huge fireplace. Past the fireplace was the bar and dining room which sat out over the cliff and had floor to ceiling windows on 3 sides offering dramatic views, I ordered an in&out Tanqueray martini up with a twist and the barmaid apologetically tells me they have no vermouth, NOOOOOO, who ever heard of a bar with no vermouth, I was outraged, it took the shine off the whole place. I opted for a gin n tonic, she did not even have a slice of lemon, I had to settle for lime, now I’m pissed off, this place is a sham.
I downed the drink and headed for home to The Salmon Bake, it might not be pretty or have great views but it sure knows how to do food and drink. Later that night I got talking to the young girl who was the bar back that night, she said she used to work there as a waitress and hated every minute of it, this she said was the place work even though she made less money, she was happy.
Bellying up to the bar I got my perfect martini, ordered the fish chowder, of course, followed by the Dungeness crab cakes, all washed down with a nice New Zealand, sauvignon blanc, heavenly, my last supper in Alaska.
After dinner I got talking to a couple of girls and they were working as chambermaids across the road at the Denali Princess Lodge, which they hated, they were filing applications at The Salmon Bake for next year.
Well that was it, time to hit the sack, I had to have the car back at Anchorage airport by noon, so I would have to up by 6, on the road by 7, so I could be in downtown Anchorage by 11 to eat before hitting the airport. I had noticed a place called the City Diner last week near the airport so I figured I’d try it.
What a great choice this turned out to be, there was a half hour wait for tables but I snagged a seat at the counter and ordered up some salmon hash with poached eggs. It was fantastic but I could not finish it, huge portions.
Well that was it, my last meal in Alaska, time to head for the airport, turn in the car and settle down in the Alaskan Airlines lounge, as I had a 3 hour wait for my flight.
The lounge was virtually empty and what a nice surprise to find they had Alaskan Blond on draught, I got a pint and settled down to watch The Battle of Britain on my DVD. When I went back to get another pint there was a wonderful fish smell in the air, when I inquired from the bartender, she informed me there was fresh fish chowder available in the kitchen, just help myself. Ah one last taste of Alaskan cooking.
I was originally scheduled to have a three hour lay-over in Seattle and had toyed with the idea of getting a cab downtown for a quick bite to eat at The Flying Fish but had to dismiss that idea when my flight out of Anchorage was delayed by 30 minutes.
Despite the delay, I was very impressed by Alaska Airlines, the lounge, staff and facilities were superb, but that was nothing compared to when I got on the plane. The flight crew were the most charming I have ever met and the service was impeccable. Good wines served in glasses, nice salmon and pasta served on china with real silverware, things that have gone missing on other major American airlines since September 2001.
Another nice touch in their first class, is that they hand out, preloaded personal DVD players, which contain about 20 movies, cartoons and a lot of nature shows about Alaska, as an alternative there was the spectacular scenery of the Alaskan and Canadian coastline, I must have counted at least eight cruise ships during the flight.
Landing at Sea Tac airport it turns out even if the flight had been on time I would not have had time to make it downtown, we pulled into the very last gate of the north terminal and when I checked the departure board, my Delta flight was leaving out of the last gate on the southern concourse A. The transfer would take 2 trains and a lot of walking about 40 minutes all told. As it was, I was only going to get about 45 minutes in the Delta Crown Room, but it was enough to have a couple of glasses of wine and watch a late Seattle Mariners rally, which failed against the visiting Red Sox.
My flight was being called and it was time to end my latest odyssey next stop was JFK and back to reality.
