July 20 - August 3, 2000
My nephew, Kevin, and I planned to see Alaska for ourselves from the time I told him about the Alaskan kayaking trip my friend B.C. Wasley had taken with his then girlfriend, later wife. We planned to take kayaking classes and collected books about Glacier National Park.
We didn't go until after Kevin's senior year in high school, we never learned to kayak and we didn't go to Glacier National Park or even Southeastern Alaska at all. I was lucky enough to be included in a backpack trip in the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park with my friend Barbara and 8 others in 1995. But in the summer of 2000 Kevin and I did take our trip in its own form - this Alaskan Sampler.
The narrative is chronological, and the geographical links roughly relate.
Day 1
We flew into Anchorage from Salt Lake City. Kevin had brief glimpses of Mt. Rainier and good views of several Canadian glaciers before clouds closed in. We checked out our pickup camper, Ford 250 diesel with extended cab (great for our camping gear) from Alutiiq RV. Gary gave us more information about the RV and Alaska than we could have absorbed in twice the time. We threw in our bags and took off for Walmart to buy the essentials that we couldn't pack.
We learned: (1) you can't duplicate camper keys (important later), (2) it was not a Super Walmart, (3) Carrs is the same as Safeway, uses the same discount card etc., (4) Alaskan hours are from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. for many retail stores - I should have gone to REI for MSR Rapidfire fuel first.
Day 2
After waiting for REI to open at 10 a.m. (locally owned stores didn't carry canisters with the right nipple), we drove north on the Glenn Highway to Parks Highway. Then we turned off thru Wasilla. I meant to call Dr. Graham Davis, an old friend from Washington, NC, now living in Wasilla; never did.
It's cloudy with a few showers. The breadth of the land is amazing. Kevin tracks our progress in the Gazetteer - points out Twin Peaks and other landmarks. We check out the views of Denali (none) from the Denali State Park pulloffs. We're thinking about hiking the Kesugi Ridge later.
For tonight, we check in at Denali Grizzly Bear RV six miles south of the park. Site 11 overlooks the torrid waters of the Nenana River and is in the trees. We pick up our shuttle tickets at the Denali Visitors Center (VC), see exhibits and a brief film on Denali. On a brief hike around Horseshoe Lake we begin a trip long effort to identify the local vegetation - primarily Sitka Alder, white spruce, aspen and fireweed here - and watch the muskrats in the pond.
Back to the campground for showers and much needed sleep. The long hours of daylight (4 - 11:30) and deep twilight instead of dark are already taking a toll.
