Hiking in Alaska

On Monday John went on a hike led by a ranger in Denali Park.

John wrote, “I’m back from our hike. I really liked it! We didn’t hike great distance, but we were out there for 6 hours plus over 2 hours on the bus. Weather was great – sunny and warm but high wind in the ridges. I saw moose, but the real highlight were the plants, especially the berries. All of the hiking was off trail bushwacking … but this is the best bushwacking through the brush I’ve ever done. There are branches to contend with but NO scratchy thorns. You can just push your way through. Here are some pics. Denali was out again!”

“This is our group of about ten with ranger on the left.”

“Blueberries! We hiked through so many blueberry bogs. They are everywhere, and they taste great. This is what the bears are eating now. No reason to eat people when you have so many yummy berries.”

He also sent me a photo of his dirty hiking sock, stained with blueberries, but I will spare you.

Here’s several mushroom pictures:

He says, “This is fireweed. You can use it to tell the coming of fall. The higher up the plant it is blooming, the closer you are to fall. This plant says that fall is approaching.”

Ha, to which I replied, “That and the fact that it’s August in Alaska.”

Another fantastic picture of the mountain:

His photos are coming through with weird image numbers. This batch ranged from IMG_0044 to IMG_8554, including some in the 2000’s and some in the 4000’s etc. They should actually all have similar numbers in numerical order (maybe missing a few that he decided to delete). But a range of 8,000? It makes it look like he’s taken 8,000 photos on his phone alone. He says it doesn’t know why that’s happening. But my brain still wants to know.

He also sent a picture of his dinner.

At first glance I thought that was pieces of dried mango softening in rice, which actually could be quite good. There is a Thai desert with mango and rice and sweetened cream or coconut milk. For a moment there I was impressed. But no.

He says, “I’m cooking dinner before my drive to Fairbanks. I call this one chicken-Fritos-rice soup. I am trying to up the salt. I had Raman last night, which was good. There is no salt added in the chicken or rice. I am also adding fresh Fritos for the crunch. 😀”

Uh, I prefer my Fritos crispy, not in soup. And John knows better than to go hiking and camping without salt and electrolytes! At least he didn’t add any of those mushrooms.

That night he was planning to stay at a Holiday Inn in Fairbanks. This sounded like a big improvement over his campsite the previous night, because a train was blowing its horn all night, waking him up repeatedly.

Then he wrote, “I’m at my hotel. I had to change from the Holiday Inn to this cool quirky former BnB called 7 gables inn. It has a detached bath, but the room rate was only $110 (half of what the holiday inn would have charged). They put a glass atrium in front of the building to grow plants. It’s weird in a cool funky sort of way. Here is a pic.”

I asked what he meant by he “had to change”?

“The holiday inn didn’t work because it was on an army base and you need military base access. I was annoyed because there was nothing in the hotel reservation system saying that you need base access to get to the hotel. The hotel looked fine and the rate was cheaper than the other chain hotels ($212), so that’s why I booked it. Then I had to cancel it and scramble to get a new place after arriving in Fairbanks. I really like this quirky hotel, so I will take some pictures. The bathroom for my room is outside the room down some stairs and around a corner. It is supposedly just for this room, and it worked out fine. 😀”

I’m glad he’s happy. Next up – a lake cabin and fishing in the rain. Stay tuned.

To send me a comment, email turning51bykristina@gmail.com.

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