As we travel through the wild landscapes of Alaska, I frequently think of Jon Krakauer’s book, “Into the Wild” about a young man who perishes trying to live out on his own in the wilderness. This is an audacious place: spectacular in its beauty, forbidding in its extremes. Imagine trying to live off the land here if you weren’t prepared! There aren’t many edible plants (at least not to my slightly trained eyes). There are wild animals…big, often hidden, and frequently interested in you as food! The weather is rapidly changeable (and this is just August!). It’s the ferocious majesty of the place that strikes awe into one’s soul.

After making our way through the populous areas surrounding Anchorage, Jim and I stayed for four nights in Denali National Park at the Savage River campground approximately 12 miles into the park. The weather wasn’t easy on us, especially after being acclimated to 90-100°F weather this summer in Washington. But we plunged in and took in as much as we could wearing all of our gear. (As our good friend Richard says, ” There’s no such thing as bad weather. Just bad gear!”)

Despite my attempts at waxing poetic at the beginning of this blog, our scariest challenge came when our brand new coffeemaker quit working 🥺! Morning with me without any caffeine is a scary proposition. So we climbed on our bikes in 40°F weather and headed down the mountain to the park store at the entrance to the park. About 12.5 miles and 1400 ft later (” oh look, a moose”), we arrived at the store only to find no coffee or ptea supplies for sale. There was a coffee stand and after warming up with some hot chocolate (“ahhh”) we bought 4 tea bags for an outrageous price from the proprietor and headed back up into the park.

We cycled back up the road, about as successful in our quest as Krakauer’s protagonist, but actually having greatly enjoyed the ride.

We had a lovely, rainy day hike. And Jim’s Truck has been keeping us warm, dry, and living in relative luxury.

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We were also fortunate to have obtained a one day pass to drive further into the park. Usually only buses are allowed up the road. The drive was great we were able to unload our bikes where we parked. Eating a bite of lunch in the Truck before we headed off cycling, there was a knock on the door 🤔. Surprise! It was we MJ, a tour bus driver and niece of our Spokane friend Linda Mell who had recognized our rig. It was great to meet her. Plus, MJ had just driven a tour up into the park and told us there was a herd of caribou at Sable Pass. We cycled up and saw many caribou at the top. Such spectacular animals! Worth the climb and cold descent!

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We have to find a place to get COVID tests and then we have 72 hours to cross the border into Canada. As you might imagine we only get cell/ data service occasionally. Will send this off when we’re next connected. We plan to drive the remote Denali Highway on our way to Canada 🇨🇦. See you from the road!