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August 30, 2009, a Sunday
Denali National Park (Wonder Lake to Teklanika), Alaska, USA
— Denali National Park: A rainy day of travel
[You may view a Denali National Park brochure with map in PDF format here.]
I awoke around 12:30 to answer the call of nature because eating dinner so late last night threw off my usual routine. :( On the way back to my tent, I paused to watch the sky for a while because there was a band of wispy clouds overhead — the closest thing to northern lights I had ever seen.
I awoke around 4:35, and it was raining. :( I went back to sleep.
I awoke around 5:34 after the 5:30 alarm, and it wasn't raining. :) By the time I got dressed, it had started raining. :( While I dislike the rain in general, I really dislike the rain when I have to break camp! Had a leisurely breakfast in the shelter of two cups of Quaker Natural Granola - Oats & Honey & Raisins and some instant coffee. Having rain today is actually not that bad. While it would make breaking camp unpleasant, it won't affect too much on the bus ride back to Teklanika. In the past, I've had to endure at least one rainy day while camped at Wonder Lake and usually just hung out at the Eielson Visitor Center to help stay warm. Now I can "hang out" in the Camper Bus as I get shuttled out of Wonder Lake, and I didn't need to waste a day on this trip. I went back to the tent at 7:00 to start packing up. A ptarmigan walked through camp as I was shuttling things from the tent site to the shelter. I had to rush to shuttle everything to the bus stop, but got everything there before the 8:00 Camper Bus actually arrived. :) We departed at 8:03.
We turned around at Kantishna at 8:34 without stopping. Then we made two stops while leaving Kantishna and picked up 12 people — the bus was now almost full!
We stopped at the Eielson Visitor Center at 9:56. I went inside to check the weather: chance of rain tomorrow, sunrise 6:35, sunset 9:16. The following quote by the Dalai Lama was on the weather board and it's so true: To think is easy. To act is difficult. To act as one thinks is most difficult of all. We left at 10:35.
Our bus driver, Gary Borenstein, was a bus driver for the crew making the movie Into The Wild. The book is one of J's favorites, and we both enjoyed the movie about Christopher McCandless, an idealistic young man, who walked away from the typical American rat race to live off the land in Alaska.
As we were approaching Stoney Pass, one passenger asked his partner if their keys were ready for when they arrived back at Riley Creek. That jogged my brain, and now I knew what was rattling around in the tent as I was folding it up — my set of keys to the RV. The bad thing was that they were still wrapped up in the tent which was wrapped up in the rain fly, and the whole thing was in a stuff sack in the bottom of one of my duffel bags. :( I hoped that J would be in the RV when I got back.
I got dropped off at the Teklanika Campground at 12:47, and shuttled my stuff to the RV. J and I talked for a while about our different experiences over the past few days, then I took a shower. A friend of mine from Boeing used to say that the best part of camping is the first shower after returning. Unfortunately, a Navy-style shower in an RV doesn't quite provide the same sense of luxury as a regular shower for such an occasion. J and I talked some more, then I started to download all of the images I took while out at Wonder Lake.
We had dinner around 6:15 of J's shrimp scampi over angel hair pasta and a Greek salad. We talked for a long time over dinner about our different experiences over the past few days. It was very nice! I did the dishes.
I did a quick edit of the images from Wonder Lake, and I got some great stuff! :)
I awoke around 12:30 to answer the call of nature because eating dinner so late last night threw off my usual routine. :( On the way back to my tent, I paused to watch the sky for a while because there was a band of wispy clouds overhead — the closest thing to northern lights I had ever seen.
I awoke around 4:35, and it was raining. :( I went back to sleep.
I awoke around 5:34 after the 5:30 alarm, and it wasn't raining. :) By the time I got dressed, it had started raining. :( While I dislike the rain in general, I really dislike the rain when I have to break camp! Had a leisurely breakfast in the shelter of two cups of Quaker Natural Granola - Oats & Honey & Raisins and some instant coffee. Having rain today is actually not that bad. While it would make breaking camp unpleasant, it won't affect too much on the bus ride back to Teklanika. In the past, I've had to endure at least one rainy day while camped at Wonder Lake and usually just hung out at the Eielson Visitor Center to help stay warm. Now I can "hang out" in the Camper Bus as I get shuttled out of Wonder Lake, and I didn't need to waste a day on this trip. I went back to the tent at 7:00 to start packing up. A ptarmigan walked through camp as I was shuttling things from the tent site to the shelter. I had to rush to shuttle everything to the bus stop, but got everything there before the 8:00 Camper Bus actually arrived. :) We departed at 8:03.
We turned around at Kantishna at 8:34 without stopping. Then we made two stops while leaving Kantishna and picked up 12 people — the bus was now almost full!
We stopped at the Eielson Visitor Center at 9:56. I went inside to check the weather: chance of rain tomorrow, sunrise 6:35, sunset 9:16. The following quote by the Dalai Lama was on the weather board and it's so true: To think is easy. To act is difficult. To act as one thinks is most difficult of all. We left at 10:35.
Our bus driver, Gary Borenstein, was a bus driver for the crew making the movie Into The Wild. The book is one of J's favorites, and we both enjoyed the movie about Christopher McCandless, an idealistic young man, who walked away from the typical American rat race to live off the land in Alaska.
As we were approaching Stoney Pass, one passenger asked his partner if their keys were ready for when they arrived back at Riley Creek. That jogged my brain, and now I knew what was rattling around in the tent as I was folding it up — my set of keys to the RV. The bad thing was that they were still wrapped up in the tent which was wrapped up in the rain fly, and the whole thing was in a stuff sack in the bottom of one of my duffel bags. :( I hoped that J would be in the RV when I got back.
I got dropped off at the Teklanika Campground at 12:47, and shuttled my stuff to the RV. J and I talked for a while about our different experiences over the past few days, then I took a shower. A friend of mine from Boeing used to say that the best part of camping is the first shower after returning. Unfortunately, a Navy-style shower in an RV doesn't quite provide the same sense of luxury as a regular shower for such an occasion. J and I talked some more, then I started to download all of the images I took while out at Wonder Lake.
We had dinner around 6:15 of J's shrimp scampi over angel hair pasta and a Greek salad. We talked for a long time over dinner about our different experiences over the past few days. It was very nice! I did the dishes.
I did a quick edit of the images from Wonder Lake, and I got some great stuff! :)