General – Page 22 – MacKenzies on the Road

August 15, 2018August 13, 2018

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.

August 14, 2018August 13, 2018

The Rollercoaster of Life on the Road

A few weeks ago we were in Eagle, AK and it was 90+ degrees. We heard the distant rumblings of thunder and in need of some heat relief, and as usual in need of a shower, we did a little impromptu rain dance…it didn’t rain. We took our bar of biodegradable all natural soap and went dipping in the brook.

Unbeknownst to us, our rain dance must have had a delay built in. Fast forward a few weeks and all it wants to do is rain, including the remnants of a typhoon hitting Alaska as I type. We aren’t complaining, we did have 2 beautiful days that gave us a glimpse of her majesty, Denali. A rare treat!

We have also been saying that we needed some down time. We have been traveling too much, and 3 weeks above the Arctic Circle in 24 hour sunshine does something screwy to your noggin, well screwier, we already have quite a few bolts loose. We now have had days and days of down time to read, play cards and chess and take naps. Again, we aren’t complaining…I’m reading a great fantasy book full of dragons and mages and such.

Moral of the story: Be careful what you wish for! Take what life on the road gives you and be thankful:)

Exhibit A: This is a little flooded brook in our campground. All of the rivers in our area are at ‘bankfull’ according to the Special Weather Statment. I’m not sure what that means, but I don’t think I’ll be dipping my toes to find out.

Exhibit B: Another gushing stream in our campground. This was barely a trickle a few days ago. Just in case you can’t tell, I have on 2 ibexs and a heavy wool coat under my rain coat!

Just a reminder of what’s supposed to be there…

Exhibit D: The soggy wee Rover and a soggy Darrin cooking our dinner. Notice our neighbors in full rain gear.

So…we snuggle in and enjoy the down time.

August 13, 2018August 11, 2018

Chance Encounters of the…

They say it is a small world and we can vouch that that is true. We are consistently running into people we have seen in other places. We have run into 1 family so many times their young kids come running up to us now like we are old friends!

2 recent stories stand out.

The first happened in Fairbanks. We were sitting in a restaurant having breakfast (our first meal out in months) when a woman comes over and starts telling us how she saw us up on the Dalton Hwy. It turns out, she was riding in one of the oversized big rigs we pulled off the road to let past. She saw us drive into the restaurant and had to come over and tell us how much she loved our rig. We were almot 500 miles from where she had seen us. What a memory.

The second happened just the other day here in Denali State Park. We were sitting under the awning enjoying a bit of nice weather when a rig pulled in a few spots down and the guy came running over to tell us he had a picture of our Land Rover on his phone. It turns out a good friend of his, Mike, had camped next to us at the Ponca State Park in Nebraska. Darrin and Mike had hit it off talking about cars and such and Mike had sent a picture of our rig to his buddy back home in Iowa. What are the chances that guy from Iowa would turn up here in Alaska in the same campground we are in?

It truly is a small world.

August 11, 2018

The True North

Just north of Coldfoot on Alaska’s Dalton Hwy is the small community of Wiseman. We had a bit of spare time because of road construction so we decided to detour in and take a look.

Wiseman is a very small community that historically was a mining area and according to Wikipedia had about 100 residents during the mining boom. Today, the community is much smaller and mainly consists of people living a subsistence lifestyle and/or providing ameneties to travellers on the Dalton (Bed & Breakfasts, etc.).

We drove the 3 miles in from the Dalton and slowly made our way through the tiny community. Part way through we noticed a sign for a shop. Darrin, always being happy to meet new people, wound the wee Rover in towards a small homestead.

We were greated by Jack Reakoff and his cat, Willow. Jack and Darrin talked about life in Alaska, hunting, different furs and their uses and such while I took on the much more serious task of playing with Willow. Jack even invited us into his home and shared some amazing lettuce out of his garden. We were very taken with his hospitality and thoroughly enjoyed our impromptu visit.

Jack has lived in the north most of his life and is a guide. People drive or fly into Coldfoot to spend time learning about the north from him and other locals. We highly recommend joining one of the tours!

For more information or to contact Jack. Sorry, a bit blurry.

The log cabin Jack’s parents bought when they moved to Wiseman in the ’60s. It is now part of Jack’s home. Amazing flower gardens, above the Arctic Circle!

Another view of the original log cabin with a newer attachment. Check-out the gardens, again, above the Arctic Circle!

August 10, 2018August 9, 2018

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.

August 9, 2018August 8, 2018

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.

August 7, 2018August 6, 2018

Rolling Rocks and Yoo-hoo!

We are headed south on our way to Denali. Its raining, foggy, closing in on time to get off the road for the night, and its pretty miserable for camping. We see a small gravel road headed off into the mountains and decide to check it out for a place to camp. After a couple of miles of steady climbing the gravel track has shrunk to a 4 by 4 trail. After another mile or so, just below the base of the rain clouds we begin to see a glacier peeking out! We drive to the end of the track and find a little area somewhat sheltered from the wind to set-up.

Next to our spot is a raging torrent of a glacial stream. The thick silt filled glacial runoff is the color of Yoo-hoo and as we try to fall asleep the gushing river loosens a rock. It clunks around for a few seconds as it is pushed down stream. At first we thought there might be a moose wandering by as there is moose poop everywhere…nope. This “rolling of rocks” goes on all night and can be loudly heard and felt in the base of the sleeping platform! Pretty cool but very unnerving.

Darrin found a swinging bridge up above our campsite.

Notice who the smart one was who stayed on the edge.

August 6, 2018August 2, 2018

The Wally Show

We are back in Fairbanks and our choices are limited for a place to sleep. First choice free, second choice cheap, last choice expensive..okay not really a choice.

After driving around a bit checking the various iOverlander spots and finding them closed. We tried our luck at the in town campgrounds and found them to be a parking lots next to the highway or near the airport. It was time to hit the RV campers Ace in the Hole…..Walmart!!!!

Sidling up next to a nice elderly gent’s RV to block some of the wind we set up for the night.

For once the little Rover was not the talk of the park as across the way was what we have taken to calling the Urban Assault Vehicle! We have been told that primarily Germans drive these million dollar post apocalyptic vehicles ready for the end of the world!

Wally is loud, and packed with RV’s, but it’s free! We may not get much sleep tonight! But we will have time to download lots of books and up load blogs.

The Wee Rover feels all grown-up parked in an RV space!

Follow up: at 10 pm we put in our ear plugs and fell sound asleep! We got the best nights sleep in weeks…go figure!

August 5, 2018August 1, 2018

The Coldest Shower of All Time!

On our spring canoe trips one is always aware of what is called the “Gasp Reflex”. This is when your face hits very cold water. The body’s response is to quickly expel all of the air in your lungs and just as quickly suck back in a lung full of air (or water if your face is still in it).

While we have been in the arctic we try to dip in a river or lake when ever we can to clean up after driving and to cool down from the heat, believe it or not.
We have taken to gauging the water temp based upon the number of times one can dunk their head under to rinse.

Was that a double dunk? No only a single tonight!

Then we found the coldest shower of all times!

This artesian well comes straight from the permafrost
on the ice planet of Hoth (see Star Wars)!

Which brings us back to the gasp reflex; it’s a darn good thing we weren’t in a lake when this water hit the face!

Notice the sign says ‘no washing vehicles’…it doesn’t say ‘no showers’!

August 4, 2018August 1, 2018

Travel Companions

By now you are more than familiar with our wee Rover! We thought it was time to introduce you to our other companions, Puppy for when we don’t have another dog around to play with like Sophie and Oscar, and Buddha our calming influence when the road gets rough!