Mushing and Paddling....

We have heard a lot about the Iditarod dog sled race as we have travelled in Alaska, on board ship we had Libby Riddles, the first woman winner in 1985. She brought along a couple of dogs and described her adventure. Then as we travelled up towards Fairbanks we met Bill Cotter, another winner of the more than 1000 mile race, held in the dead of winter over a course from Anchorage to Nome that includes some of the wildest and least inhabited country in the world.
This is one of the checkpoints north of Anchorage where the race starts, before it really goes off into the wild. We met some of the dogs there, while Bill himself took some of our party on a ride.

Later we were to meet the family of Susan Butcher, the four times winner of the race. Unfortunately she died of cancer in 2008 at the age of 50, but her family keeps up the tradition, and owns around 100 dogs on the side of the river in Fairbanks.

He lives for his dogs, and with them. They are all kept outside his log cabin, and he demonstrates his prowess for tourists at every opportunity, when there is no snow on the ground he uses a motor-less quad bike as his sled, running ten dogs at speeds up to 20 mph.
By the time we got up to Fairbanks we were pretty exhausted, after eight hours in a bus. Unfortunately one of our cases was soaking wet, so we had to spend time washing the clothes within. By the time we had done that and had dinner it was time for bed, and we were pretty b***ered.

It was an early start again the next morning, we had to pack and be out of our room by eight o'clock, as we were to go on a paddle boat up the river. As is very usual in Alaska we were dropped off at a gift shop in the harbour before we were allowed on the boat, in fact we were the first there, just four of us in a 44 seater bus! We thought the boat was just for us.
Anyway in this gift shop was a couple of stuffed moose who had locked antlers, so I couldn't resist snapping them for posterity:

Eventually we were allowed on the boat, along with at least 500 others, There were four decks, so it wasn't too crowded. But it was cold, we started off on the top open deck, but soon retreated to the lower deck when it started raining heavily.

There are some beautiful houses alongside the river, this was the first one we saw and it set the tone of the trip, most had beautifully manicured lawns: but with the climate here they probably only had to cut them for one month a year!

Others however were a little less well looked after, this one was only partly finished. We had heard that if a house was not completely finished they did not pay rates, even if they were living in them, so we saw many houses with one wall not yet clad, probably to qualify for rate relief. What a great idea.

During the trip we had a float plane take off and land over us, I presume just to give us a thrill. As we had sat for two or three hours in Vancouver watching them it was nothing new for us!!

We stopped off at an Inuit village where they smoked salmon, most of our party disembarked to be shown round the village and receive the usual advice on what to do if confronted by a bear......

This is a fish trap, it is turned by the fast flowing river, and as the salmon travel up stream to spawn they are lifted by the vanes and slid down into a box. Clever stuff eh?

They keep reindeer too, which is a close relation of the caribou. This lot were grazing on the riverbank, brought out specially for us to get a photo.......
After the trip we had a great lunch of Miner's Stew, (along with the other 500), then made our way back to the hotel where we sat about until it was time to make our way to the Airport.
Now we are in Toronto after a seven hour flight via Chicago, and a five hour time difference. So we are pretty exhausted, and the fact that it is over 30 Celsius here doesn't help!

The Denali "Express"

We had to move on again the next day, to Denali Lodge. This time by train, but not exactly express. It was however very comfortable, we sat upstairs with scenic windows, we had never been on a train quite like this.

As all of Alaska Railways are narrow gauge, 3ft, and as most of the lines have to follow the contours of mountains or the sides of lakes and rivers some of the bends are quite severe, meaning quite slow going most of the time.

It took about five hours to get up to Denali lodge, we were served lunch on the way, which was pleasant. Again the views were quite spectacular, bur there was a distinct lack of animals.

 At one point we passed over Hurricane Gulch, a bridge standing about 300ft high with a great view of a glacier fed river being joined by a clear one below us.

The bridge was a massive steel cantilever construction, with a wooden roadbed, the two rails in the middle were the running rails, and we could see through the sleepers to the gulch below.

Unfortunately it rained much of the way, making it difficult to take good pictures, but as you can see above, it was very comfortable. We were served drinks by the guy in blue, and although we could have had our meal at the table, we chose to go down into the dining room for ours, to be joined by two new lady friends or ours, Rosemary and Sue. They had been in the next cabin to us all the time on the ship, but we hadn't taken a lot of notice till we met them on the journey north.

Anyway, eventually we arrived at yet another one horse town called Denali, where our lodge was located. The town itself had a multitude of gift shops, and businesses promoting various recreational opportunities, but just one saving grace, a Subway!!!! I had felt very deprived since leaving Vancouver, so I took the opportunity of slaking my craving as soon as I could!

The lodge was literally across the road from the village, and was larger even than the McKinleylodge we had just left. This one had five or six restaurants, as well as other amenities, but unfortunately we were only there one night, so didn't get the chance to try them all out.
The following morning at 7 am we were scheduled to go into the park for a five hour trip, on a 'school bus'. A wee bit primitive it was, but reasonable, no loo though.

We did get to see a cow moose on the way in, grazing about 100 yards from the road. There was a young one nearby, but not near enough to catch with the camera.

We were stopped as we entered the park, we had to report the number of bodies on board, I think to make sure we didn't leave anyone behind! We had our usual lecture about what to do if we came across a bear, for about the tenth time, I am an expert now....

Anne and I are now officially thirty per centers - we are two of the very few who get to see Mount McKinley (Mount Denali, The big One, whatever you wish to call it but Obama has officially changed its name to Denali now) Most of the time it is swathed in cloud, at 20,000 feet it has to be a very clear day before you see it. If fact, before we left, and before the next crowd came along it had vanished again, So were we lucky?

In this area we are quite high up, above 2000 feet, and it is officially called Arctic Tundra. The trees here are squat, and fewer than below, much of the ground is covered by bush about three or four foot high. Quite different from the lower areas where the trees grow a little spindly but thick on the ground.
We had talks en route from the parks department and from an Inuit girl who spoke of the various tribes in the area, and their lifestyles before the western invasion.

On our way out of the park we came across this caribou sauntering up the road, his antlers were superb. They grow these in about ten weeks each year, before the rut, and their calcium becomes so depleted as a result of the massive growth that their other bones become brittle, and they are likely to break legs etc. This guy was still in velvet, but almost ready to shed it. He will be looking for his harem soon.
After lunch, (Subway of course!) we had to re-bus for the three hour trip up to Fairbanks, we seem to be forever on the move, never getting a chance to rest.