Road Lottery in Denali

Every summer, the National Park Service holds a lottery for the opportunity to drive your own vehicle into Denali National Park. Normally, the 93 mile park road is closed to (almost) all private vehicles and travel in the park can only be done on park buses. The park officially closes on a Thursday in mid September and the following 4 days are open to 400 vehicles per day on the road. The fee for entering the lottery is $10 and this year, there were over 6,000 entrants. We had enormous luck - (perhaps it was fate's way of rewarding me for a season with lots of rain and some difficult clients???) - and won a spot on the final road lottery day.

Fall in Alaska normally starts in late August and is marked by lots of rain and cool temperatures. This year has been no different, but we managed to experience Denali in the best possible fall weather - blue skies, sunshine and late fall colors on the mountains and tundra blessed us for the duration of our stay.

We drove 6.5 hours up to the park on Sunday, stopping for short hikes and lots of photos of the glorious colors and soft lighting that signal the end of the continuous sunlight of summer. We set up camp at the park entrance and got to sleep early.

The following morning was our day in the park and we got going before sunrise (at this time of year it's 7:30 AM). Within the first few miles, the pink glow of the rising sun illuminated the far-off peak of Mt. McKinley, the gem of the park and North America's tallest mountain (20,320 feet). As we drove farther into the park, the mountain became more and more glorious until it was almost too much for us to look at her anymore.

We spotted several wolves and even learned that there are several all black wolves in the park. One lone wolf even walked directly down the road toward our car as we gaped in awe. We watched beavers working diligently on storing away branches of birch trees high up a rocky slope (we had no ideas that beaers would or could climb so high and so nimbly). We saw several groups of grizzlies (mostly sows with 2 cubs) , Dall sheep, golden eagles, a fox trotting down the road towards us, and most excitingly, a wolf and a grizzly boar (male) having a stand-off over a cache (stash) of caribou meat taken from a recent kill.

Fall Fun

Since the end of the tour season, we've been lucky enough to have mostly fantastic Indian summer weather - sunny with clear, blue skies and warm temperatures - perfect weather for doing all of those activities we'd talked about doing all summer long.

We spent several days doing some work around the house for our landlady. Mostly, this involved splitting wood (with a magnificent machine that does the splitting for you with a big chisel) and, of course, stacking the split wood.

We also learned how to drive the 4-wheeler and had some fun driving it around the neighborhood.


Once we finished our duties at home, we did some wonderful hiking and really enjoyed the reds of the alpine tundra, the golds of the aspens and devil's club plants and the deep greens of the evergreens.




We were invited by one of Michiel's many employers to join him fishing. Jason owns and operates Angle 45 , a local fishing guide company. He took us out in a row boat to go driftboat fishing on the Kenai River. As we are both pretty sick of eating salmon (imagine that!), we were thrilled to discover that we would be fishing for Dolly Varden and Rainbow Trout. With Jason's expert guidance and excellent gear, Michiel got a trout within 2 minutes of leaving the boat put-in. Unfortunately, the trout was actually too large to keep (to Michiel's surprise and dismay). Jason released it and we spent the rest of the gorgeous day catching our limit of Dollys (1 per person) and trout (also one per person) and trying our hand at catching silver salmon (no luck). The day ended with a great boat run past a large brown bear doing his own fishing and swimming in the river. Many thanks, Jason, for a super day!

Michiel cooked up the fish beautifully that night and we had a truly gourmet meal of freshly grilled fish with sauteed green beans and basmati rice. YUM!

This month also featured an extremely high tide in the Turnagain Arm so a group of us did some canoe and kayak paddling from the Seaview Bar parking lot at sunset. We certainly surprised many of the locals, who'd never seen paddlers in the Arm - as it is known to have very dangerously strong currents and quicksand-like mudflats.

Dipnetting for Reds

One of the privileges of being an Alaska resident is being able to dipnet for salmon. With the appropriate permit, dipnetters use their own home-made nets to "dip" for salmon as they swim upstream to spawn and then die. Dipnetting at the mouth of the river in which the salmon are swimming allows the dipnetter to catch salmon at their prime - before they start the decaying and mutating process that accompanies the hard slog upstream. The type of salmon we were hoping to catch were the red or sockeye variety that are known as the tastiest of all Alaskan salmon.

We joined some other Hope residents for a couple of days on the Kenai River to try our hand at this uniquely Alaskan activity. We had the mistaken impression that we would put on our chest waders (waterproof overalls), lower the giant nets in the water and we'd immediately pull in dozens of salmon. We thought we'd reach our limit (25 fish for the head of the household and 10 additional for each family member) in a day or two.

We couldn't have been farther from the truth. We spent hours in the freezing cold water watching the line of fishermen and women to our left and right. We gauged when we got back into the water after a break by watching for when others pulled fish out. We'd stand patiently and I'd try not to let the incoming tide flow over the top of my chest waders until we felt a jerk in the net. The real trick was then to flip the net over and drag it over the sand until you got to shore. Most people lost their fish by looking in the net to check out the fish while they were dragging it in to shore.

Once on shore, you had to "bonk" the fish with a small bat to kill it and then untangle it from the net. Here I am with my one and only after getting lessons from a friend on how to "bonk" it and carry it. (Note the very feminine gloves.)










Sadly, the run was no where as strong as it should have been for that time of year and Michiel and I ended up catching only 3 fish between us (2 for him - he'll be sure I added this detail).

It was just as well, really, as each fish yields 6 fillets - more than enough fish to satisfy us for the rest of our summer in Alaska - and we had a great time camping out on the beach and spending time with our neighbors and friends.

The gulls had a great time, too. When fish were being caught and filleted on the spot, the gulls had plenty of opportunity to eat the discarded heads and guts.



Fortunately, we received some lovely recipe tips from Marie-Birgitte in the comments of the post "Getting Ready for the Ice" so we will enjoy our salmon in gourmet fashion. Thanks, M-B!

Breath of Life / Lost Lake Run

16 miles (26 kilometers) of cross-country running through beautiful peaks (highest point on the trail is 2100 ft (640 meters) and valleys of the Lost Lake area near Seward. 16 miles of running in a slow drizzle on a very, very muddy (it had been raining for days) and slippery trail.

August 26 was the day of Breath of Life / Lost Lakes Run. This is a run that donates all of its proceeds to the CF foundation (Cystic Fybrosis). This year was probably the last year of its existence as the 2 main organizers are calling it quits after 16 years of hard work. They went from raising $1,200 in their first year to $ 44,000 (if I remember correctly) this year.

Running a race is always fun because there are so many people running together; running in beautiful surroundings is even better ; knowing that your entry money goes to a good cause makes the enjoyment complete.



I didn't bring my camera so this picture isn't my own, but comes from their website http://www.lostlakerun.org














Dirty and tired, but satisfied and on my way to hamburgers and beer. My finishing time was 2:47.

















Brad "Chugach" ; I ran with you in mind. I hope you are doing well.