Thursday, July 8, 1999

Today was the grayest of weather we've had so far.  We were up pretty late last night so we took the chance this morning to sleep in a little.  We had decided to just knock around Talkeetna a little more this morning and make the ranger talk at 11:30 a.m.  The topic was going to be on the mountaineering and expeditions on the mountain through the years.  It was a gal and she was great.   The first climbers and cartographers are still alive and visit here often.  The couple is now in their 80's.  Obviously they are very vibrant and active folks!  I'll have to find their names as I only remember Barbara.  She was the first woman to climb to the summit back in the 40's or so when women just didn't take off and do things like that.  She left three young children at home with grandparents for nine months or so.  They have continued to be active with climbing teams and are basically responsible for mapping Denali.  Early maps of Alaska were simply blank in that area for lack of information.  The model of the 400 square miles in the mountainous areas was fascinating.

We have seen a lot of the outboard motor "jet drives" up here.  The picture above is a good example.  A transom lift permanently raises the motor.  The lower unit of a standard outboard motor is exchanged for a water pump.  The boat has a tunnel that allows the pump to pick up water in extremely shallow water.  None of the motor extends below the bottom of the boat.  This allows travel in water that is just a few inches deep.

 

We didn't have a very long ride from Talkeetna to Anchorage and it was probably the least spectacular drive we've had or it was too cloudy to see something.  We could tell we were "back in civilization" the closer we got to the city.  We already long to be back out in the "green" area!  We found the t.v. and the radio offending noises tonight and shut them off.

 

Our car was due back in at 7:00 tonight so we came by here to unload it first.  We're in the Day's Inn again and it did feel a little bit like "home".  We know our way around this area of town pretty well.  After unloading we went out to drive the area around "Earthquake Park."  It the area of town that was totally destroyed (fell into the bay) in the 1964 Earthquake.  It's never been rebuilt on purpose.  The look from the bluff on the top right is the view of the bay from there.  We walked through the trails and the land is just buckled up in ridges.  We had seen the film about it. 

We also drove out around the far side of the airport where we were told we might spot moose.  No luck for us but we watched some planes for awhile.  Rus was hoping to see a 747 take off or land. 

We got gas and turned in our rent car.  We met our four favorite ladies in the airport. We met them in Denali... stayed at the same place in Talkeetna and then bumped into them in the airport.  We told them we'd come to see them off!!  All our meetings were by accident.  They were from New York but were heading to Juneau etc before ending their trip.

Dinner was at our local and Rus's favorite Mexican place.  Then we decided to go down and watch the train come in from Fairbanks.  I guess they have it up and running again.  We are close enough to walk so it was our evening stroll and we'll walk down in the morning instead of taking the van since we'll have no luggage this trip.  We are headed to Whittier tomorrow and then out for a 26 Glacier Tour.

        Chilling out

We did get the weather on t.v.  The whole state has really cooled down.  It looks like the high temperatures now are what the low ones were last week.  We'll take all we brought in jackets tomorrow.  This will probably be the coldest day we've had since we've been here with the wind and being on the water.