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Say a Prayer for the Lost

It’s seems somehow fitting that we have been under a blanket of clouds and rain during most of our time at Denali.  When we arrived the ranger told us that a sightseeing plane carrying 4 visitors from Poland had crashed on Denali the previous day. There had been radio contact a number of times just after the crash letting the rescuers know that the 4 passengers and pilot had survived but were injured.  A rescue attempt was made, but the weather turned and the rain down here was snow on the mountain. The next day, the skies cleared briefly and they lowered an EMT to the site from a helo who discovered that all had perished under the snow.

Yesterday, they announced that the site is too dangerous to retrieve the bodies.

Say a prayer for the lost and their families.

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A Parting of the Clouds

Today, the sun came out! The clouds parted! And Denali peaked through! For 20 minutes she shyly gave us a glimpse before pulling her modest cover back over for the rest of the day. Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny so maybe we will hit the jackpot and see her twice…a rare thing the park ranger tells us.

Tada!
And again!
Oh ok, one more
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Moldy Toes

For those of you who haven’t been following the news, or your news channel doesn’t relay the items that are important to my life, Alaska is having a bit of a chilly rainy season (a ‘bit’ is what the Newfies say when there is a downpour or gale force winds…we learned that one the hard way one year riding our motorcycles in Newfoundland).

The good news is that all the rain is putting out the many wildfires raging up here, the bad news is it is raining so much the rivers are flooding, and the really horrible news is that it really makes camping soggy. See you knew it would all come back around to me:)

Being the intrepid campers we are, we tucked into a state campground, set-up all the tarps and such and hunkered down. We read, played cards and chess, read some more, walked around the campground and the airport next door, played more chess and cards…well you get the idea.

After 5 days of rain, we noticed a patch of less rain and even a few cloudy spots in the forecast…for the other side of the state. So, we weighed the options…stay on the eastern side in the rain or make the dash for the other side and a chance for a peek at a blue sky.  We also figured in the fact that we were way over due for a shower and some laundry (we won’t discuss the actual definition of how far we were overdue). The vote was unanimous! We packed up and made the dash to the other side, in the rain, over a pass which was probably beautiful, but we will never know, to a motel in Wasilla (and no, we couldn’t see Russia all of you SNL peeps).

12 hours later, we are clean, our clothes don’t stand up on their own any more and….drum role please…we did see a patch or two of blue sky! It was fleeting, but it was there (sorry, we were too busy staring at it to take pictures, it is amazing what a week of rain will do to you).

The weather report now shows a 2 day window of clouds and partial sun that might let Denali peek out, so north we go for a rare summer glimpse. They say in the winter she shows herself much more often, although seeing it requires frostbite. After that window, the clouds and drizzle are back…I think there is a real chance we might grow a new strain of mold between our toes before we leave Alaska.