Denali and Talkeetna

I'm back!

After spending the night in Anchorage, I moved on north towards the town of Talkeetna (the town used as the model for the tv show Northern Exposure).
Then on to Denali (or what non-Alaskans call Mt. McKinley) and eventually to Fairbanks for the best views of the Northern Lights.

Driving north from Anchorage, it gets very back country and what they call the "bush". Lots of birch trees with turned yellow leaves, creating a beautiful landscape with the snow capped mountains in the background.
After hours of no signs of life, and almost missing it, a black bear lumbered across the road in front of me and back into the woods. Unfortunately, he was so quick, I didn't have time to get a picture.
Actually, I have been very cautious of stopping along the road to get pictures, not knowing if one is going to jump out from behind a tree and bite me in the ass! It's quite scary being out there all alone, they say to just make lots of noise and the bears will stay away so, I sing and whistle a lot.


I eventually got to the road that leads off the highway to the small town of Talkeetna but, just before you enter town, there is a pull off with the best views of Denali. As the locals say, it was almost completely obscured by clouds when I arrived. They say you're very lucky if you ever get to see the whole mountain, let alone the whole range. Some say they live there and very rarely see it.

I ended up meeting this woman artist who lives there in a van. Most of the towns people are hippies with the men all wearing very long beards. Kind of like the old miners and trappers that settled the town in the 20's.
We talked for over an hour about everything. The people of this town are just like the folks in the tv show and they are very bitter about It since, the Hollywood people came up there and spent months in the cafes and streets talking to the people and getting to know their way of life and then going on to copy that for the show but, refusing to give them any kind of credit for it.

After talking all that time, the clouds eventually moved away and the whole range was exposed, everyone at the pull off (which were locals mostly since there are very few tourists here at this time of year) all began clapping because, it is so rare to see the mountain.
It was a beautiful site and needless to say, I spent the next hour shooting as many pictures as a I could, until it became dark.

I then headed to town to look for a hotel and get a bite to eat. I ended up in a log cabin inn with a bar and restaurant. The room had no phone or tv so, you are forced to communicate with people!
It was mostly hunters and trappers and some local people hanging out in the bar. All very nice people to chat with.

I spent the next day in town taking lots of photographs and meeting people.

In the afternoon, I headed out of town.

Along the way I came to a trading post where this guy was selling all this junk he had collected.
And, along with the antiques and junk were some very weird things indeed, as you'll see by some of the pictures here and believe me, there were many more shots that I got!
He actually had a pet reindeer on a chain!

From there it was on to Denali National Park where everything was boarded up and closed for the winter, no signs of life anywhere and I was out of gas! I had thought the gas stations would at least be open for travelers along this lonely stretch of road but, nada!

I started to get a little freaked out and saw that in my handbook of Alaska, there is a very small town called Healy, 11 miles north of Denali. I kept my gear in neutral as I descended the mountains in hope of conserving what little gas I had.

The scariest part was that it was getting dark and my handbook said that I was right near the road that leads to where Chris McCandless (the subject of the famous book, Into The Wild of which Sean Penn has just made the move version of) starved to death in a burned out school bus.

All of a sudden I came upon Healy and the first thing there was a gas station. I went to pre-pay for my gas and the guy said that they are doing testing on the tanks and It would be quite a while before I could pump! I got all wide eyed and said, no, you have to give me gas! You don't understand, I'm on empty and I have to get to Fairbanks by nightfall!
He was very nice and stopped the testing for me. Phew! what a relief, I felt so much better in my warm car with a full tank as it got dark. I was still and hour outside of Fairbanks and eventually made it into town and got a hotel.

So, now that I'm here, It's time to see the Northern Lights!

Unfortunately, I woke up this morning to pouring rain. So, I'm sitting in a coffee house on the campus of the University of Alaska typing away. I'm hoping it stops and clears up tonight?

Keeping my fingers crossed so, I can hopefully send you pictures of the lights.

Until next time.....