Alaska

Talkeetna

I boarded an Alaska Railroad train to the own of Talkeetna, which is about 4 hours away from the Denali National Park entrance.

Why Talkeetna and not Denali?

Denali is a fully booked and overpriced destination. It’s possible to camp out in the park itself, but I am not a camper, I am alone, and I don’t own or want to haul any camping gear. Color me lazy. Prices for the lodges there are i.n.s.a.n.e, and nothing was available one month in advance anyway.

Talkeetna, on the other hand, borders the park itself, with its airport serving the Denali base camp, for the few who are crazy enough to climb it. Staying here is multiple times cheaper compared to Denali, with great glacier landing flights and boat tours, weather permitting.  I was able to rent a whole house, with four bedrooms, for an average price of a motel.

My Talkeetna digs

Talkeetna is a tiny town, with only a few hundred people living here (and less in winter). This place almost forces you to ignore any schedules or plans – it’s just that laid back. Most roads are unpaved, which locals prowl in their “Arctic Cat” alternate terrain vehicles.

There is one store that’s kind of a grocery store, but that does not mean there is a lack of places to get food at. In fact, almost every joint along Main Street is some kind of a food establishment, with some open until midnight. At the end of June, that’s approximately the sunset time. Princess Tours has a lodge near Talkeetna, so there is no lack of cruise ship tourists in this town either.

This is also a prime spot for Mount McKinley viewing, which I will refer to by its real name - Denali (official name in Alaska). I actually did not know this - that there are some beautiful viewing spots right near the town. In Denali National Park, there are only a few places from which you can see the mountain, if it’s not obscured by clouds, which is 75% of the time. I also didn’t know that I was going to see Mount Denali in more spectacular ways, without even expecting it…

While my arrival date did not see a lot of promising weather, the next morning was gorgeous, so I booked a Talkeetna Air Taxi glacier landing flight right away.

The weather here changes in an instant. I’ve heard of how unpredictable the Denali area weather is, but now I know first hand. Even IF you are in Talkeetna, and you book a flight two hours in advance, you can’t expect the weather to stay the same for more than that. Clouds or overcast seem to come in and out every time you look out the window.

Glacier landings, and extreme altitude rescues were pioneered here – in Talkeetna – by Don Sheldon, who started Talkeetna Air Service. Thanks to him, we can all experience a glacier landing, and Denali climbers can be actually flown to the base camp, instead of spending weeks hauling gear to it. Everyone here knows who Don Sheldon is. The town of Talkeetna may still exist because of him.

The airport is a 10-15 minute walk from downtown. I strolled over, signed in, and went to the waiting deck behind the front office. Here you can choose a pair of snow shoes to pull over you boots, and wait for your friendly pilot to pick you up. Our friendly pilot was Tom, who gave us the mandatory safety lecture and packed us into the small DeHavilland Beaver plane.

On the 2+ hour flight, you first fly over some remote cabins, surrounded by intensely lush green terrain, with alpine lakes, and an occasional moose on the loose, grazing down below. Then, the flight crosses into Denali National Park, and now you are in for some of the most incredible Nordic views in the world. Gigantic glaciers with enormous crevasses, or some of the highest peaks and deepest gorges in North America.  On this particular day, we were incredibly lucky to see the actual summit of Denali. Any day that you can see the Mountain is a good day.

Not every flight is a glacier landing flight, since the weather can change before the plane can even get there. We were very lucky however, yet again. The landing site was where Don Sheldon used to land all the time. He built a cabin for himself nearby (you can clearly see it before the landing), which is available for rent for almost free, but you need to arrange delivery of all supplies by plane – no fresh towels or room service there.

It was actually hot on the glacier surface. Why. Why. First of all, the surrounding range completely shielded this area off from any kind of wind, so it was very calm. Secondly, the snow reflects most of the sun rays hitting it, so you are basically standing on a mirror, with heat coming from above and below you. Therefore, if you are dressed up for winter - hot. See?

Before we left the glacier, we did the mandatory Stupid Glacier Trick, where we would all let out a short loud holler and listen to the multiple echoes bouncing in the Alaska Range….

We landed back in Talkeetna, and I spent the next day very busy doing nothing, enjoying the second straight day of great weather, eating and sipping on beer at the local open-air joints.

It’s 11:20 pm - try falling asleep like that

Next: I spend two days traveling deep into the Arctic Circle.

It was time to undertake the most ambitious trip of my stay in Alaska so far - in a path that crosses the entire state, from the south-eastern islands where Juneau is located, to the Arctic Ocean shore.

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The red shape is the part of Alaska within the Arctic Circle

Anchorage

The largest city in Alaska is medium-sized by the lower 48 standards. It’s about seven times smaller than Queens, with its 300,000 residents. Almost half of Alaska’s population lives here, and that gives you an idea of how unpopulated the rest of this enormous state is.

The city is often mocked as” Los Anchorage” due to its LA-like layout. Downtown is businesses and shopping, noticeably lacking apartment building clusters. This means you need a car to get pretty much anywhere.

Length of day in June here is about 1 hour longer compared to Juneau (pushing 20 hours of daylight), and the nights are even less dark. You need a thick set of blinds to go to sleep.

I decided to not spend more than a day in Anchorage for my urban life fix - it’s awash in cars and exhaust, as well as ravaged but construction all over.

One of the better known Anchorage things to do during a one-day stay is the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail. I rented a bike at Downtown Bicycle Rental, to take it out onto the trail. This in-city paved path hosts the usual Alaskan wildlife fair right within city limits. You get the usual moose and bear warning before leaving the shop.

The trail goes along the mud flats, which are deadly if walked on, and people did die here. The flats look innocent enough, and just another proof that there are plenty of things in Alaska that can kill you if you don’t do your research. (When I was back in Juneau, a cab driver told me how he had to convince a tourist not to approach a bear for pictures, when the fluffy one walked into downtown a few days ago). As an interesting fact, the tides here are the second fastest and highest in North America.

The trail also crosses the landing path of incoming planes, and I spent some time “birdwatching”:

Overall, this is obviously a great convenience to Anchorage residents, but the path is within city limits, so noise pollution is abundant (occasional highway stretch or the airport). Of the places where you can actually rent a bicycle for a day, my Haines trip is yet to be beaten. I logged the paltry 12 km on the bike along the Tony Knowles trail, and went back to have enough time to catch the weekend downtown life.

Saturdays here are wild, with the weekly Saturday Market taking up multiple blocks. Live music stages are set up on every street, and here you can get anything from hot dogs to un-restored vintage car gazing. This event is a big deal - people from all over Alaska descend upon Anchorage for their shopping needs. This is the only city that has a Bloomingdales, for example.

Coincidentally, an air show was taking place at the local Air Force base, so military jets would occasionally pass low and fast over the city with a ground-shaking roar. I mean, I had to hold on to my burger.

I got tired of all the fuss fairly quickly, so I dived into one of the bars to drink some Alaskan and shoot some pool, followed by a downtown stroll. It was my first urban raid in almost three months, but I didn’t want any more of it. After one exhausting day in Anchorage, I continued in the only direction I knew - North.

I was not aware of it, but Beer Fest was happening in town that weekend. Too bad, since I had other plans. I can always get trashed on my own time, I say, and I did not come to Haines to fight a hangover. By the way, this was happening on the set of White Fang, mentioned in part 1.

The first thing I did was rent a bicycle, to take it out onto Haines Highway. As the town of Haines itself, the highway is one of the most beautiful roads in Alaska, although I would guess most of the roads in Alaska are that way. Some actually choose as their cycling adventure a multi-day trip via Canada, from Haines to Skagway.

There is some Canadian TV programming in Haines, with Canadian and U.S. coins freely accepted at the same time.

Since I have not ridden a bike in well over 10 years, I didn’t push it this time all the way to Canada, although “real” cyclists can cover that distance for fun and not even notice it. I am sure I could have gone further, but my casual riding style sent my butt into intense pain. The bike and I just weren’t made for each other. My real goal was the Bald Eagle Preserve, but I fell far short of it, having to turn around before I couldn’t sit anymore.

And the road was, as expected, beautiful. There is almost no traffic, and there must be only a few roads in the world that are so scenic and almost desolate.

This is the heaven cyclists go to when they die.

I spent a fair amount of time just chilling in the town itself. If you can call 75 degrees “chilling”. Someone actually complained that it was “almost too hot”.

There a few things in particular that struck me about the town:

* Haines appears to have a much bigger slice of 20-somethings, compared to Juneau, sort of contributing to the idea that the young and the hip don’t dig places with no roads out.

* Even though the place is not a cruise ship port (a good thing), there are multiple public restrooms built throughout the town, which is obviously very convenient.

* Prices, OMG. The only cab in town will charge $20 to drive you 4 miles to the ferry terminal. A medium-sized bag of chips can cost as much as $5. And this is not even the edge of existence.

The travel back “home” seemed much shorter, now that I knew my way around the Malaspina. I parked on one of the lower decks, having the place pretty much all to myself for over an hour:

I was gooed in sunblock this time, so I could spend a lot more time outside watching for wildlife and scenery shots.

An interesting thing that the ferry system does is host a forest service representative on board. Keep in mind this is not a narrated sight-seeing tour but a means of transit. Nevertheless, you can still sit in on Southeast Alaska trivia sessions and learn that bears are not true hibernators. Dang it! Just when I was about to find one and pull on its tail!