Alaska Hartman: April 2008

Day 14 - Saturday - May 3, 2008

This will be the last post from Matilda Howard for about two weeks. The laptop from which these posts have come will be staying with Carl in Alaska while Becky and Hank will be riding the Alaska Railroad from Denali to Anchorage on Day 15. The post will resume and include her notes and Hank's pictures from that point on. Carl will start a new blog and the address will be posted here.

Meantime let's look at day 14.

Hank & Becky read in this morning's paper that the park road was now open to mile 30 and for a few days private cars would be able to go past mile 15. H&B previewed the road this morning and then picked up Carl who finished his orientation about 1:45.

Remarkable changes had taken place along the road just since day 13. The thaw is amazing. Where snow had thoroughly covered places yesterday today were brown. Streams were running down the banks and along the road.

But the excitement of the day came when we noticed some people gathered in the road ahead of us taking pictures. We stopped and learned that there was a lynx in the brush.

He/she was obviously stalking a snowfoot hare. I did not manage to get the lynx and the hare in the same picture and decided that even if I could see the capture I really did not want to photograph it. We all have to eat but I'm not sure I would want to see a picture of me eating, either.

Look hard. She is in there.

See her now?

The hunter.

The hunted.

Still hunting.

Then to top off the day, this herd of caribou showed up. Sorry, only have a 200mm lens so I couldn't get any closer. You can't really see it but these guys have nice racks.

More beauty, courtesy of the Alaska range.

Taken from the observation deck at mile 30 on the park road.

Loved the colors in this valley and the blues in the sky and snow.

That's it for a while. Thanks for reading, and thank you also for the comments.

Day 13

Day 13
Friday - May 2, 2008

Sorry for the delay in getting this posted. This was Carl's first day to report in to work and into housing at the McKinley Chalet lodge outside of Denali National Park. It took a while to get reconnected to the internet.

As promised, here are more pictures from Day 12.

Beautiful granite face.

Crevasses in Ruth Glacier.

A larger view if the glacier. Note the crevasses in the upper end.

Looks like a bulldozer has been at work - but looks are deceiving. It's just Mother Nature at work.

Some people actually climb this face.

Crevasses look shallow but they can be 75 feet down to a snow bridge and then even deeper under that. The ice at this point is probably 4000 feet thick. (Three zeros is not a typographical error.)

A view of Denali taken from the Denali Princess lodge. We are on our way back to the entrance to Denali National Park.

Now for some Day 13 pix.

Becky and Hank on the way back to the park road after a hike in the snow to see a cabin in the woods which is sometimes used for shelter for rangers in the winter. In times past it was frequently used but it is now more to demonstrate what life was like.

Yesterday's ptarmigin was just a teaser. Here are several really handsome examples of Alaska's state bird (the official one - the unofficial state bird is the mosquito, about which we have learned that adults winter over and as the snow starts melting they come out fully ready for combat.)

Remember the wolf picture from day 12? If you looked closely the wolf seemed to have extra fur hanging down from its neck. We took our wolf pictures to the ranger station and when the ranger looked at them he told us that this was the wolf that had gotten caught in a snare but had managed to get out. They believed that he still had part of the snare wround his neck and that in escaping had torn his fur. These pictures confirmed other reports.

Today while we were out hiking around the Savage River (at mile 15 on the park road) we noticed a small fixed wing aircraft and a helicopter performing what seemed to be an intensive search above us. The helicopter eventually came very low and hovered above he ground high up on the mountain above Savage River.

Look carefully at the small yellow spot - it's the helicopter.

If you find the highest rock peak surrounded by snow then look to the next largest rock in the snow to the right of the highest you will find the helicopter above the peak of that rock.

We found out from the rangers today that the crew in the helicopter successfully found the injured wolf (whose picture you saw from day 12, tranquilized him, brought him in and a vet removed the snare and sutured up the torn neck skin, then released him.

Lichens (the favorite food of caribou) and moss.

The thaw has started - Savage river is flowing through the snow.

You guessed it - still no moose!

Day 12

Day 12
Thursday - May 1, 2008

The sun was shining this morning! We arrived at Talkeetna Air Taxi at 8:29 am and got the great news that we were going to fly and that Tom, a pilot who had been recommended to us by a lady taxi (ground type) driver - artist - eccentric, was to take us up.

I would love to display my vast knowledge of glacier vocabulary but most of it evaporated shortly after I heard it this morning. Tom was very knowledgable and informative with a humerous and entertaining style. He was also an excellent pilot. He only frightened Hank once when flying through what he called 747 pass. From Hank's seat it appeared that he was going to take off the landing gear on a mountain ridge. Since we had a perfect landing, he obviously did not.

The following pictures were taken from the airplane and are among our favorites.

There is an airplane in this picture. Hint: it's in the lower right quandrant of the picture. See if you can find it. The importance of seeing the airplane is that it gives you perspective of the size of the mountain. We were flying above this plane -probably about 4000 feet above it.

The lenticular cloud over Denali is caused by winds of somewhere between 50 and 80 knots.

When we left Talkeetna I think our heads were still in the clouds from the sheer beauty of what we had seen in our one and a half hour flight. But there was more to come.

Carl reported in to the Chalet just to let them know he had arrived. He is due back tomorrow before 3:00.

After that, we drove into Denali National Park. The park is over 6,000,000 acres and there is only one 91 mile road. The first 15 miles are now open so we drove in hoping to see at least one of the ever elusive moose or even a grizzly bear. But alas there are still very few moose in our lives.

The rangers told us that there are only about 100 wolves in the 6,000,000 acre park and they are rarely seen. Take a look at these two lovelies.

After the wolves we saw this lovely ptarmigan all dressed out in her winter feathers.

There are more pictures taken from the plane but it is now almost midnight and it takes a while to load them. We promise to get more into the blog under day 13.

Day 11

Wednesday April 30,2008

Breakfast at Roadhouse - full order of the "standard" breakfast ($13) included 7.5 scrambled eggs, 6 pieces of thick sliced bacon, a full plate of hash browns, orange juice or apple juice, coffee or tea, and two thick slices of toast. Large cinnamon roll was optional. We got a half order.

Spent most of the day blogging and fixing pictures on the blog. Also got our laundry done.

We had tried to fly but the weather was such that the Talkeetna Air Taxi limited its flying to taking climbers and supplies out to base camp. We waited patiently for a call from TAT to tell us it was clear enough to fly but the call didn't come. We made arrangements to try again Thursday morning at 9:00 am.

In the meantime Hank and Carl walked down to the river and managed to shoot these pictures - one is an immature bald eagle perched in a tree, the other is a mature bald eagle in flight.

Hank ventured forth at sunset (about 10 pm) to get a picture of Denali with evening color. He was a little disappointed with this but it looks nice anyway (even though Denali was no longer visible).

We also discovered that there is more than one way to say "Wash your hands".
Click on this to enlarge it.

Talkeetna is the center for mountaineers climbing Denali. The Park Ranger Station in Talkeetna told us that about 3,000 climbers attempt Denali each season...
April - mid July. On average 50-55% actully summit. ~60 countries were represented last year. 39 climbers were already on Denali, with lots of other people out in the "hills" doing technical climbing or some of the other peaks.

Day 10

Tuesday April 29, 2008

Wild View B&B departing 9:09 34 o

Pipeline & Water Feature

Alaska Railway ticket for Sunday

Denali Highway 10:14 37 o

Denali NOT visible from first Milepost suggested roadside..clouds

Denali from George Banks Highway

Healey 12:45 Rose Cafe hamburgers P.O. Box 42 temp 26 o

Denali 2:13 very visible 37 o

Denali with flying bald eagle 3:13 45 o

Talkeetna 4:05 Tesoro $3.729/gallon 50 o
Talkeetna Roadhouse: soup supper and room