I woke up on my day off on July 3rd determined to do something with my day off. So I packed a small lunch in my backpack, threw on my boots, and caught our shuttle to the canyon to catch the shuttle at Chalet into the park. Horseshoe lake is a popular short hike just a few miles into the park. Its simple and just a mile each way and I as I was told takes you to along a nice, well-groomed trail to a lake shaped like a horseshoe (go figure) that a pack of beavers call home.
The bus driver was kind enough to drop me off at the railroad tracks and point me in the direction of the trail-head some 50 yards down the tracks. I made my way through the trees and just five minutes into my decent I caught my first glimpse of the lake.
Its hard to tell by this photo taken by my weathered and beaten blackberry but the lake is shallow enough and the water clear enough to make out the bottom of the entire lake. I took off at a little faster pace excited to reach the bottom and explore the banks and surrounding trails. I wasn't more than ten minutes into the trail however, when I was stopped again, this time by a mother and daughter who explained to me (very out of breathe I might add as they were apparently excited by the news they were about to share and had been making the climb back up) that a moose was just a few minutes down the trail in the brush to my left. I thanked them and sped up my pace even more but moved quietly as not to scare the moose away. I began to wonder if I'd unknowingly passed it when I came across a large group of people standing with their cameras pressed to their faces, facing the bushes. Tourists are the worst when it comes to moose. Everyone was walking closer to it as it stood their sizing up each and every one of them, munching on its breakfast all the while. Children were running around, yelling at it, their parents too preoccupied with their new fancy cameras to care that their kids were wandering far too close to the animal, which by that time I'd confirmed to be a young bull. I snapped a quick picture and moved on.
I reached the lake in just a few more minutes and was pleased to find no one else down by the bank. I spotted a trail beyond the benches that marked the end of the hike and made my way to the northern most bank of the lake where I came across a beaver dam and subsequent pond and a few energetic beavers. The video's shaky since I was using my zoom and sometimes strays away from the beaver since the sunlight made it nearly impossible to see what I was pointing at but I spent a good half hour mingling with these guys.
I eventually parted ways with my new found friends and made my way back to the end of the trail and caught a small game trail that my boss had told me would take me to the Nenana river and followed it through some thick brush to the river bank. I enjoyed a bit of my lunch there and made my way back up the trail and then from the railroad tracks I walked the mile or two out of the park to the highway and caught a ride with the first car to pass me. My luck hitchhiking that day was phenomenal. I enjoyed some pizza and beer at Prospectors and watched the dodger game (a rare luxury up here) and caught a ride with the first driver to pass me on the highway again.
MY NEW ALASKAN RIDE
A few weeks ago I was sitting around fiddling with my computer when I decided to check craigslist for any ridiculous deals on a car in the area. I was surprised to find an ad in Fairbanks for a 92 Dodge Dakota that ran great - albeit with loose steering and a broken speedometer - and for the reasonable price of $500. I called the guy to see if anyone had taken it yet and was excited to find out it was still available. So I told him I'd call him back once I'd arranged a ride up to Fairbanks to check out his truck. After talking with Kyle and switching a shift with Travis we arranged to meet on June 28th in the early afternoon so that I could be home in time for work at 4:45, hopefully with a new ride. The seller was in New Hampshire for work but said he'd arranged for a friend to show me the truck. So we woke up early that morning, made the two hour trip up stopping at the DMV for Nick and me to take our written test for our CDL. I passed the CDL portion with just a few hours of studying under my belt but failed the passenger endorsement section. Regardless I was pretty happy to have the harder of the two tests out of the way.
After a few other stops we arrived at the guy's house and found the truck waiting in the driveway, but with no friend in site to let me have a look at it. Instead we found the doors unlocked and the key in the ignition. I took this to mean I was to feel free to take a look at it and start it up, but didn't feel comfortable taking it for a spin. This is Alaska after all and I was confident I was already drawing attention from the dude's gun-toting neighbors, so I didn't want to press my luck. It needed an oil change but other than that the thing seemed to run like a champ. It also roars like a boat because it has no exhaust. I was in love. So I called the guy to find out where his friend was since I had the cash in my hand. No answer. I texted. No reply. After waiting 15 minutes we reluctantly left to take care of a few more errands. I texted the guy one last time in desperation saying "I traded a shift and drove two hours to see this truck, WHERE ARE YOU? I have to leave in 5 minutes." Still no response. It was a long two hour drive home to say the least.
I texted him twice in the next couple of days only to get no reply still. I figured the guy had sold it by now or was just leading me on the whole time. But then one day I finally got that text I'd been waiting for - "Sorry dude, been in the bush since that afternoon for work and had no service. My friend had to leave to catch a plane. Did you take the truck?" This whole time I could have taken the truck and left the money. SON OF A BITCH. I texted him back -"No I didn't. I didn't know if I should." So we settled on meeting again the following Wednesday - July 6th - and I would buy his truck.
We made our way up there, stopping again at the DMV for me to take my passenger endorsement test and get my general Alaska Drivers License.
After that we picked up Kyle's new snowmobile and rushed over to the guy's house for a second time to buy my truck. We caught him just before he had to head out to work and after a short test drive I gave him the cash and took the title and got out of there with my new ride. The best $500 I ever spent.
BEST DAY OFF EVER
Kyle was nice enough to give me the day off the day after I bought the truck. I wasn't sure what I was going to do but I knew I wanted to wake up early and ride somewhere. Of course I ended up staying out way too late the night before and when I woke up at 8:30, I exchanged those plans for some later plans and shut off my alarm. I was woken up again a half hour later though by a text from Kyle telling me it was the nicest day of the summer and to get my ass out of bed and do something. I pulled my shade back from my comfy spot in my bed to find he was telling the truth - it really was ridiculously beautiful out. Not a cloud in the sky. So I pulled myself out of bed and threw on some clothes and jumped in the truck. I couldn't think of anywhere to go so I just started heading to Stampede Road.
If you're unfamiliar with Stampede Road, its the road that Chris McCandless (Into the Wild) took to the Stampede Trail that takes you to the "magic" bus approximately 30 miles into the wilderness. We run a tour that takes customers 9 miles down the same trail he walked. There's also a great place where the dirt road turns to the narrow trail that we normally stop on a clear day for customers to get a good glimpse of Denali. So I figured I'd drive myself out there and see if I couldn't see the mountain on this beautiful day. I was pleased to find no campers or hikers there when I arrived and posted up on the roof of my truck for some quiet meditation before one of the greatest spectacles in the world. It was as peaceful as it was beautiful, and a fantastic way to begin my day off on wheels.
I started my drive home, and began making plans to head into the park. This time of year you can only drive 15 miles in but I figured it'd be a nice drive in my own vehicle for the first time. I got a text from my friend Brian on the way down Stampede so I invited him to come along. When I got home we had a bite to eat and headed out on our adventure into the park.
Just a few miles in we had our first wildlife sighting - a WOLF walking slowly across the road directly in front of us. We were so surprised by this rare sighting neither of us had time to get our cameras out to grab a picture, but I assure you it was stunning. So many of my customers who have taken the 8 hour tour into the park aren't lucky enough to see wolves and here I was just a few miles in and so close to one. I felt pretty lucky. We continued on down the road to find a few cars stopped. I was hoping they were looking at a bear since I've yet to see one in the two years I've been here but it turned out to be just an old cow moose eating on the side of the road. We continued on down the road, stopping to take a few shots of Denali which was still looming completely unimpeded by clouds or any trace of haze.
We arrived at the the Savage River turn off at the 15 mile marker in the park and parked the car to hike down river a bit to the bridge that takes hikers to the Mt. Margaret trail (see previous blog) and turned around and came back. It was a nice short hike beneath a perfectly clear, sunny sky.
We got back to my truck and made the drive home stopping at the grocery store for Brian to pick up a few essentials (beer). Then Emily called. She wanted to go swimming seeing as though it was such an awesome, warm day. She'd heard of a secret lake off the highway a few miles south of the park near the railroad tracks. She picked us up at the gas station and we headed down the road. There was some sort of construction or maintenance going on at the railroad tracks where we were supposed to park so we stopped to ask if the workers new where the lake was. He directed us to a parking lot a few thousand feet down the road and said to walk from there. We did as we were told, not a hundred percent sure where we were going or if it was even in the right direction. We had to hike down the road a bit but we found a lake hidden by the trees off the highway and decided it was our swimming lake. We found a little rock that served as our beach and cracked open a few beers.
It was difficult to tell if it was deep or shallow where we were standing near the water. Emily was certain it was shallow, but the weeds in the water made Brian and me think it was deep enough to jump in. Anyways, Brian was the guinea pig and made the plunge first, only to discover it was only knee deep after jumping in. I snapped a few pictures with Emily's camera before getting in myself.
I ended that night with a few beers at Totem with Emily, Kyle, and Mike. Needless to say I slept very well that night. And that is the BEST day off I've ever had in my short time here in Healy.