More of our adventures....

I must apologize for being in a grumpy mood. I had just gotten out of my 4th of July funk when I opened up today's paper. Headline: "Curious holiday crowd dooms young grizzly." The bear that Walter and I tried to find was shot by police. The bear wasn't doing anything wrong. "A crowd formed, watching the bear, and some approached the animal. Police officer Brenden Lee thought he then had no choice but to shoot it...." He could have made another call to the Fish and Game biologist Rick Sinnott to come and get the bear. Oh that's right, he would have shot the bear too. I would think that if the animal is just hanging out and not bothering anyone, can't they tranquilize the animal and take it into the woods? I am afraid to let Bob out because he might be mistaken for a lynx and shot. On to other things....

We finally made it to Mount McKinley. Walter had it planned out...he checked the weather for days and saw his chance. We drove up to Talkeetna and booked out flight- Grand Tour with a glacier landing. We couldn't decided what we wanted- did we want to fly to the top or land on a glacier? The planes that go to the top (20,000 feet) have oxygen on board and doesn't land on a glacier. The Grand tour only went 14,000 feet. We had lunch at the Roadhouse. It was good- but you only have 6 choices of what to get. It wasn't what it was cracked up to be. We decided to spend the night at the Talkeetna hotel. Cute place. On the outside it doesn't look like much. But the inside is darling. While waiting for our flight, we walked to the river and relaxed. It was a clear day and we could see Mt. McKinley. AWESOME!! It is amazing that most of the time you can't see the mountain! We boarded our flight. It sat 9 people. We were with a couple from Richfield, OH and Japanese tourists. Al was our pilot. Al was a retired nuclear scientist from California. In is spare time he taught stunt flying. I felt safe. Also on the plane were sleeping bags and food, just in case! Our flight was about 1 1/2 hours long. We began our flight. We got to Mt. McKinley and it was spectacular. I think Al went a little higher then 14,000. Shortness of breath was felt by Walter and me. It was so clear up there. We could see the different camps for hikers. I didn't see any hikers, but you could see there path ways in the snow. Al said that Mt. McKinley is a non technical hike, meaning that if you can walk, you can hike it. Sure!!! And, that Mt. McKinley is really taller than Mt Everest because of the vertical climb. When you start climbing Everest, you are already high in elevation. We got to fly around the mountain- it was so close that we felt we could touch it. We landed on Ruth Glacier. There was a small little maintained airstrip up there! As we were landing I could see crevasses just past the air strip. I asked Al about them, he said some of them you can't even see the bottom. At the air strip there was a big hunk of rock in the middle of the glacier. The rock (about 5 acres) was privately owned. A man bought it before it was a national park. The government let him keep the land. He has since died. His wife lives in Talkeenta. She rents out the house on the rock. You can rent it for $85 a night, plus air fare there. It would be pretty neat to wake up to Mt. McKinley every morning. On the way home, we decided to take Hatcher Pass Road. Memories of Denali Highway came to mind quickly. The first couple of miles are paved. The road follows a couple of rivers and creeks. We saw a juvenile moose! So cute!!! The area has gold, I assume, in the mountains. You could see old mines high on the mountain side. I guess once they were done mining, they just up and left. There were a couple of still working mines. We stopped to see beaver dams. They are cute also! The road winded up the side of a mountain to another valley area. Lots of people were hiking. The area was known for paragliding, but we didn't see any. Walter hiked a little. I stayed in the car, didn't feel very well. There was a lake up there too. A guy was getting ready to dive. I don't know what he was looking for. We got off the gravel road and headed back for town. The next day we decided to go to an animal habitat and Whitter. The animal habitat was AWESOME! We drove down the Seward Highway. Of course we saw the Dall Sheep. We see them every time. The babies this time were so active, jumping from rock to rock. The animal habitat is located at the arm pit of Turnagain Arm. These animals were in their natural habitat. We saw elks, buffalo, black bear, brown bear, cyototes. The animals were all active. LOVED IT! We then went to Whitter. Our plan was to have dinner there and maybe stay over night. When we asked what was there, people would say not much. Well, most of the places we have visited have been small- but the places were cute and always had a place to eat and a nice place to stay. We lined up for the Whitter tunnel. Neat-oh! The tunnel is one lane. It is used for both trains and motor vehicle traffic. The tunnel opens up once an hour for traffic each way. You pay the toll and then you are assigned to a lane. We got lane one. We waited for our turn, then the light turned green. When you go through the tunnel you are actually driving on the rail road tracks. Every so many feet were safe houses. If there was a fire in the tunnel, you were to run to a safe house. When you do this you are told to leave the keys in your car and your car door unlocked. We saw the light at the end of the tunnel. Then we saw Whitter. Ah, Whitter. This is the town the cruise ships come into. Wonder why the cruises bus everyone out of Whitter so quick? One look around and you can see why. Imagine what a Soviet era town looks like and that's Whitter. Whitter was a military town during World War II and the Cold War. There are two big buildings that dominate Whitter. Both were military barracks. One building is empty. The other looks like an old high rise condo building. The colors on the outside were peach and cream. 80% of the town lives in the high rise. I think about 1000 people live in Whitter. Can you imagine living in a condo building with the rest of the town? The building also houses the post office and medical clinic. The school was behind the high rise. The scenery was beautiful, but we couldn't wait to get out. Bye, bye Whitter! We stopped by Potter Marsh on the way home. This area is a marsh area beside the Seward Highway where lots of birds hang out. We first saw a family of geese trying to cross the road. Too cute! We then just watched the birds and babies. I heard Walter yelling about something. I looked over and a seagull had crapped all over him. She had a baby and Walter had gotten too close. He said she swooped him once. She then came at him again and when she was about 10 feet away she went to the bathroom. He had just enough time to react. He turned, so it wasn't a head on assault. He had bird crap from his shoulder all they way down to his shoes. She did not want him near her baby! We went to see "Evan Almighty." An ok movie, but I don't understand why all of the animals came to the dam if there wasn't really a flood. Fourth of July was ok. Neat to see the fish swimming up stream. Walter is working and Bob is sleeping. Life is good!