Month: July 2019

Thursday 11 July

We were up early as Tayla and Danika were going on a flight to Brooks Camp to view the bears.   We had to have them down at Beryl Air’s office on Beluga Lake by 7:45 am. We met Stephanie, the pilot, who was just lovely!  Ross and Chris went back and worked in Kay and Joyce’s camper for the day.  

We flew for an hour and a half from Homer out to Brooks Camp in Katmai National Park. Just as we were pulling up to the shore, we saw a bear walk across the path up to the Ranger Hut and along the beach past the other float planes, and up into the forest. We realised that this would be the first of many up close encounters with the bears. We walked up along the same track the bear just took, up to the Ranger Hut where we listened to an enthusiastic guy and listened to a bear safety video. This means we gained our badge for Bear Safety Orientation for 2019 and we were ready to go out by ourselves. We were not allowed to take any food out on the track with us, as they didn’t want the bears to learn they would get any reward if they approached or attacked humans. We locked up our food in a food cache and out our excess gear in the gear cache. We then started our 20 min hike from the Ranger Hut out to Brooks Falls where it was likely we would see bears along the tracks we were also walking on.  There was a lot of evidence that bears had been there – with lots of bear poo on the tracks. We walked along an elevated walkway careful to close gates that keep the bears out. There were platforms off the walk-way where we could safely view the bears in close range. There are no words to describe the experience. It was INCREDIBLE. There were bears all along the falls including a sow and her three cubs which were 18 months old. We saw them sleeping, swimming and catching salmon (or attempting to). There were people fishing in the river, very close to the bears and sometimes the bears got a bit too close, causing the people fishing to move!  

We had an hour to be on the platform by the falls but had free range on the other platforms.  We walked back to eat our lunch in the locked area with an electric fence and then went back to the plane.  It was a lovely flight back with view over Aleutian Mountain Range and Katmai National Park.

Mum and Dad met us at the plane and we went down to the spit and caught up with Kay and Joyce. They showed us around a bit, where the fishing trips and commercial boats come in and saw them filleting the fish.  We enjoyed an Alaskan beer at the ‘Salty Dawg’, one of the original buildings on the spit, a small log cabin where the fishermen would go at the end of a long day at sea, have a drink, and often drown their sorrows when some of their colleagues were less fortunate and didn’t make it back.  Some of the fishing is at its best in winter (e.g. Dungenes Crabs) out in the Bering Strait! The walls and ceilings were lined with dollar notes with peoples names and messages on them. Although it was a real touristy place, most of the people were locals. 

We came back and had American hot dogs and salad with Angel Cake, cream and strawberries for dessert.

 

Wednesday 10 July

We headed out from the campground back into Seward and Mt Marathon. Weren’t completely sure of what the view would be like as there was a bit of cloud around. One of the campground managers wasn’t what you would call helpful, as we asked her if she knew what the weather was going to be like, and possibilities for clearing cloud to which she replied something along the lines of “I’ve got no idea, I’ve only just woken up!”.

The first part of the hike resembled Grouse Grind, a wider path, but just as steep and rocky. After the first part, the track leveled out somewhat and was a nice gradual climb, snaking up the mountain through some trees and then out into some subalpine bush with plenty of fireweed and great views back down to Seward and the port, with snow-capped mountains in the background.

One we climbed out of the sub-alpine region, the going got quite a bit harder with some steeper rocky climbs, and in one part a schist slope that was very steep and quite challenging. In this upper part of the climb, we were in and out of the cloud, and the temperatures dropped significantly. We climbed to above where there was snow, and the signpost at the beginning of the trail was certainly accurate, describing it as an ‘unmarked trail’. As long as we were going up, we must be getting closer to the top? Walking on this schist rock terrain, came with the saying “oh schist” when something went wrong or we were frustrated, and the saying became quite the laugh.

After a fairly tough 4 hours, we finally made it to the summit at over 3000 ft above sea level. The clouds cleared and the views did not disappoint, just stunning, and certainly enabled some of us to take our minds off our weary legs. Now for the downhill back to the truck.

Some say walking downhill is harder than uphill. We may have doubted that at the beginning, but towards the end, it certainly was tough going. 4 hrs up and 21/2 back down, all feeling pretty weary by the time we got back to the truck. Dani started off the hike saying “I hate this” but as we continued we heard more comments like “This is so cool”, so was definitely well worth it once it was all over.

We stopped into the supermarket to get an ice cream and iced coffee to reward ourselves afterward and to keep us going for the trip to Homer, and Tayla said “Can I sit in the trolley?” when we walked in the doors. Let’s say, it was quite a slow trip around the supermarket with our sore legs. We also used their bathrooms as we had gone the whole hike without using the bathroom! Well, the girls did anyway…

We got back on the road to Homer late afternoon, and when we turned off onto the Sterling Highway, the air was very thick with smoke from all the fires burning on the Kenai. Some nice scenery on the way to Homer but nothing compared to the road in and out of Seward. We got into Homer at 9pm just minutes before the campground office closed, and then headed out to get dinner and went out onto Homer Spit, which was really unique.  It is a lovely fishing village, one of our favourites so far. Found a cafe, Fresh Catch, on the spit, and had dinner which was Clam Chowder, Fish and Chips, and Bison Burgers. Our waitress was called Molly and had been to NZ and worked in Whangarei for a time. We went to the supermarket to stock up and by the time we got back to the campground, it was really late.  We had a site next to Kay and Joyce, and they had taped a welcome message to their windscreen inviting us for coffee and bagels for breakfast the following day.

Tuesday 9 July

We woke up and enjoyed some coffee with Pam and Bruce while planning more of our trip and mapped out a more detailed plan for the next few days.

We went to Fred Meyer supermarket to get some food supplies for our trip. Tayla made chicken, salad, cheese and chip croissant sandwiches which we ate on the road as we drove south towards Seward. 

We drove from Anchorage to our first stop at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Centre where we saw lots of different Alaskan animals, with our favourite still being the bear. We continued driving towards Seward where we stopped in at Exit Glacier. We did a hike around the area out to the glacier, where we had to cross several quick flowing streams. There was another part of the trail that was closed due to recent bear activity around the area. 

We arrived at Stoney Creek RV Park which was full, so we were glad we had booked earlier that day! We enjoyed a nice hot shower and cooked sausages and salad for dinner in the camper and enjoyed eating this on our picnic bench outside the camper. We tried to post some blog posts but the “high speed internet” was definitely not cooperating. After our big evening, we headed off to bed quite late for an early morning start

Monday 8 July

 We spent the morning packing our bags to head away on an overnight trip down to Hatcher’s Pass but after some discussion, we decided that we would go further and spend a few days away from Talkeetna on a road trip. We cleared out the camper and truck and packed up gear in case we needed to tent and supplies to camp. 

We stopped into the Hick’s to discuss options of flying to Brooks Falls and to outline more of a plan of our trip. Peggy contacted her sister who lives in Anchorage and said that she was happy for us to stay with her on our way down.

We had dinner at Royal Thai in Anchorage and then continued on our way to Pam’s house in Anchorage. It was only her and her black Labrador, Lupin, home as her husband is a firefighter and was at work. Her three daughters have all moved out of home but her youngest daughter Hannah (21) stopped into the house after work to say hello. She had baked some cookies which we enjoyed with ice cream and mango for supper before heading off to bed. Mum and Dad slept in the camper while Tayla, Dani, and Josh slept upstairs in the house.

Sunday 7 July

We woke up to Larry ‘buzzing the cabin’ with him and Robbie in the cub.  Ross drove the quad out to the airstrip to pick up a ‘spatula’ and some life jackets for when we go canoeing.  We made pancakes with chocolate sauce, strawberries, maple syrup, and our favourite lemon and sugar. We listened to a podcast of Church at CauseWay and chilled out.   We played ‘double solitaire’ that Larry taught us and Ross and Chris were the first to get to 100 points and then Danika and Tayla were the first to 200 points, so they won. We recreated photos that we had from 1996 with Chris cutting Ross’s hair in front of the cabin and us shooting a rifle from the log cabin window. We started watching “Fast and Furious” and we got a text from Larry telling us to only use the generator for water as with the generator running, the shed becomes really hot and with the tinder dry conditions, again a potential fire hazard.  He also warned us to drive slowly on the quads as they don’t have spark arrestors, and could also cause a fire. Then we started to get emergency alerts about the fires, coming through on our phones. We made the decision to cook dinner, pack up and leave the cabin after dinner as we didn’t want to be a fire risk.  Larry then decided to come out to the cabin to help us pack up and to clear a path to Wiggle Creek and Kelly Lake to improve access to water in case they needed it to protect the cabin from fire. We had chicken, corn and bread for dinner with watermelon for dessert. We then travelled in convey back home. When we got back Robin was shifting the sprinklers and wetting down the perimeter around the property.  It was really smokey. We went for a drive down to the airport to see the helicopters but they had stopped working but ended up talking with a friend of Larry’s. The plumes of smoke were growing. We are looking at going on an overnight trip to Hatchers Pass tomorrow.

Saturday 6 July

Ross and Larry headed off to the hangar to organise some camping and fishing gear, while Chris and the kids went out to Cubby’s for food supplies. Ross and Josh then went and filled up 6 x 5 gallon fuel cans to take out to the cabin for the ATVs. By the time the food trip got back from Cubbys, the rest of the party were ready to head out to the cabin, complete with a .44 caliber handgun, just in case we had to convince a bear to find an alternative restaurant. Chris stayed back to organise food as it was going to take 2 trips anyway.

Made the dusty trip to the cabin OK, then Josh headed back into town to pick up Chris. While the girls organised things at the cabin, Larry and Ross headed out on an ATV to scope a good fishing spot. Clear Creek where Chris and Ross fished 23 years ago now has a few more cabins around, so headed a little further north. At one stage a reasonably sized Moose jumped out of the bush onto the track in front of us, and some signs of bears, but no close encounters! Although the track was once wide enough for cars to drive down (as evidenced by a number of rusty wrecks along the way), the trail was now significantly narrower, quite overgrown, and extremely rough in places. For the last half hour or so we were in low ratio, and progressing very carefully with deep ruts and rocks to navigate. We came to the end of a sidetrack terminating at Gallin’s Cabin, a cabin that was in an advanced state of disrepair, that was owned by a guy called Gallin, who is now deceased and the brother of one of Larry’s neighbours. Great fishing spot, really picturesque and private.

Headed back to the cabin (the trip was over an hour each way), and got back to find that we only just got back after Chris and Josh, as Josh had got ‘lost’ on the way back, trying a number of tracks before finally finding Larry’s driveway. 

Had a great night at the cabin, reminiscing, and Larry taught us how to play “Double Solitaire” – a favourite hunting camp card game. For dinner, we cooked sausages, roasted broccoli, and bread. We had a good night’s sleep, even though the temperatures were really warm (over 300C during the day). Josh decided to sleep downstairs as it was cooler.

Friday 5 July

Chris, Ross, and Josh went for a flight with Dave Hicks. Headed north from Talkeetna, flew over Larry’s cabin then headed out to Denali (Mt McKinley) where Dave flew up completely around the mountain.

He said that it was a perfect day – the weather was spectacular, not a cloud to be seen, McKinley was just spectacular.  We could see where base camp was – there was still one tent there. We could see the different trails that climbers had forged this summer.  Due to the long stretch of summer weather, climbing continued later, but the heat was now melting, exposing crevices that would have made it dangerous for walking. 

Unbelievable scenery, just hard to put into words.  We would highly recommend a flight with David Hicks N2 Alaska Floatplane Sightseeing Tours – it was amazing!  Both Chris and Josh felt a little unwell at times even though it was a smooth flight. You could feel the temperature drop as we flew around Denali where David pointed out different routes of varying difficulty for climbing Denali;

There are 4 main routes up McKinley;

1. Over 90% of the people who climb Denali these days ascend it by the standard route up the West Buttress.
2. For nearly 40 years the Muldrow Glacier on the northern side was the standard route.
3. For those who fancy something a little more challenging there’s the West Rib, first climbed in 1959.
4. Long regarded as Denali’s classic line, the Cassin Ridge is a bit more hardcore, and for elite climbers, first climbed in 1961.

92% climb Denali by the West Buttress

51% of climbers reach the summit

We flew right into Denali and it was hard to gauge distances as there were white sheer cliffs.  He pointed out a cabin that he had stayed in at one point at the base of the Mountain. We saw loads of Glaciers, the beautiful blue Glacier pools, and even a Moose further down in the tundra. 

We came home and had a lazy afternoon.  Once we were all awake Larry set us up with Kayaks and a Windsurfing Board.  We spent about 2 hours paddling around Christensen Lake (a lake that Ross and Chris swam in, in the summer of 1996 and then snowmobiled on, in the Christmas of 1996.   We had sprayed ourselves with bug spray before going into the lake, not as much for the bugs but to act as a repellent for the leeches. We had a lovely swim and it was really warm and thankfully no leeches.  

It’s Kay and Joyce’s last night before they head to Anchorage and they bought Pizza from the well-reputed Mountain High Pizza Pie in Talkeetna.  We had Bennetts Chocolates, Brownie and Chocolate Biscuits for Dessert. We had a lovely time with them and hope to see them again sometime, maybe in NZ.

   

Thursday 4th July

We had a slow start to the day, as everyone prepared for the 4th of July Parade.  Larry is somewhat of a celebrity in Talkeetna and he dressed in his annual gear that we have seen pictures of for years!  Tayla got to ride to the parade on the back of his bike, and we walked into town. First up we came to the Bunny Petting table and stayed there for some time while we enjoyed cuddling these gorgeous bunny’s. As she handed the bunny to Danika she said “here have a Bunny Burrito” and handed her a bunny wrapped in a cloth so they didn’t scratch.   It was 30 degrees so they had bottles of frozen water to keep them cool.  

Then we made our way along the street ready for the parade at noon.  It started with a guy playing the National Anthem on an electric guitar standing in the middle of the road.   Then the parade started and it was awesome to see Robbie dressed up on her Cushman bike, dressed as “Rosie” from the war.  Then Robin who was riding a Honda ….. and then Larry came through – and you will have to look at the photos to see him as he rode up and down the road giving women rides on the back.   He also picked up Danika for a ride. The parade consisted of floats throwing out ‘candy’, with people dressed in red, white and blue. There were old cars, quads, and all sorts of vehicles – some doing burnouts – it was awesome to be a part of it!  Apparently, many of the guys carried guns.  

Afterward people came back for an awesome lunch – “Gold Rush Beans”, Meatballs, Ham, Greek Salad, Watermelon, Pecan Pie made by Carol Perrin, Oaty Slice made by Peggy, with red white and blue M&Ms, chocolate chip cookies and Reese’s Peanut Butter cups made by Rose which were yummy and Chocolate Brownie made by Tayla.  There were 38 people there over the day. We sat outside underneath the trees in the shade for hours talking, as it was 31 degrees. It was great hearing stories of aviation adventures, various plane crashes and fun they had meeting each other.  

It was a relaxing afternoon and a cruisy evening.  Robin is recovering from a horrible fluey bug and Larry is in the middle of it.

Wednesday 3 July

Tayla and Danika went on a float plane ride at 9:30am with David Hicks around Denali National Park. The views were unreal and we couldn’t believe how big everything was. We flew over base camp which only a few dots in the snow below, and also saw the Mountain House which would cost $20,000 to stay in for one night including the accommodation cost and the flight out there. Julia Roberts came out and stayed there with her family last year – Larry got a hug and a photo with her during her visit!

We offered to cook dinner so drove up to the Y and went grocery shopping at Cubby’s.  It was fun to look at all the brands etc and Danika cooked her coconut creamed chicken pasta with spinach, cherry tomatoes and roasted yams. It was yummy!  Tayla cooked brownie which we had with strawberries and cream. Rose (Robin’s Mum) came for dinner and cooked a Strawberry and Rhubarb pie which was so yummy! Carol Perrin (Larry’s Mum) who we spent Christmas with in 1996 came also. She now lives at Larry’s property Chris and Ross had previously stayed in.  Leroy and Gail Rotgers from Florida arrived with their daughter and two grandchildren. Larry and Robin had been stranded in bad weather in Florida and he took them in. Leroy is also a pilot.

Before dinner we heard that a fire had started in Montana Creek Road where we had gone for the quad bike and peonies tour yesterday and was within a mile of Cindy and Marks house.  Over the course of the evening the fire spread to 300 acres but the fire service laid retardant around 90% of the fire to contain it. Because of the damage the Spruce Beetle, there were lots of dead trees which were just like matchsticks. 

Rose, had been mowing her lawn but it was too hot so after dinner, we went with her and Josh mowed the rest of her lawn and Danika came to take photos of her amazing home with so many treasures.  They both rode quad bikes over there on the main road (without helmets) as that’s what you do at around 60km/hr. Rose, her husband and Robin lived in Platinum, which was a Platinum Placer Mine near the Native community of Y’pik Eskimos.   Rose had a collection of baskets that she had brought from the native’s. They were made of grass and dyed Seal Gut and were beautiful – Rose said one of the smaller pots would be worth about US$1000. They are a real treasure, and they are no longer being made.   She had ones twice the size and had so many pots. She also painted and did mosaics. Her work was gorgeous and her garden was too. We then drove home with Danika and Josh on the quads.

Robbie took Joyce Kinter for a flight and said the fire had died down.  

Tuesday 2 July

Today we had a later start, and it was a super warm day.  The Beringer Family came over and it was ‘Gun Day’! We started with a lesson on safety and guns and the importance of not treating them like toys.  The amateurs started first and shooting at clay targets which was so much fun! We started with a .22 rifle, then Tayla and Josh moved onto a .257 AR15 Semi-Automatic, then Larry asked Tayla if she wanted to shoot a .375 caliber pre-1964 Winchester Model 70 Rifle and she accepted the challenge.  He was impressed with her braveness! Then Tom Berringer shot a .460 caliber Rifle. The same caliber that Fern shot her bear with when she was 10. It was such a buzz as Tayla and Josh had never shot a gun before and Chris’s only other shooting was in Alaska previously.

When we went to Church on Sunday we met Cindy Peterson who had previously been to NZ offered to take us to see her Peony Farm and give us a tour on quad bikes around their 800-acre property.  We met up with Peggy in the afternoon and set out to the farm on Montana Creek Road. It was hot (30 Degrees) and dusty. We met the family who showed us the Peonies and then took us around the farm, showed us his crops, roads he was building and dreams for development of their farm and then Mark Peterson showed us his metal work which was awesome.  We were covered in dust (even worse than the day we went out to the cabin). We came home and showered and then we all went around to the Hicks for Dinner. Peggy, David, Katelyn, and John Hicks came to New Zealand on 1st January this year and stayed with us for a week before traveling around NZ. We had a lovely night with them and David organised to take Tayla and Danika for a flight around Denali (Mt McKinley) in his float plane in the morning.  

While the girls and Josh went on ATVs to the peonies, Larry and Ross went up in the cub.

Landed on a ridge, a little bit of a bumpy landing … we sort of hit a rock. Larry didn’t seem phased, “it’s what Cubs are designed for!”

Then we followed the river back to town. Some amazing scenery, but with the temperatures hitting record highs, no sign of wildlife, I expect they would have been all in some shade somewhere.

Talkeetna even got a mention in the paper back home;

“Alaska climatologist Rick Thoman tweeted Anchorage, Kotzbue, Talkeetna, and Yakutat all posted their warmest June on record while Nome, King Salmon, and McGrath logged their second warmest June.”

https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/114010402/alaska-set-for-record-heat