Day 45
8/4/26 Tuesday
Scenic Route. We drove the scenic way over Hatcher Pass route to Parks Highway. 49 mile route over Hatcher Pass following the Little Susitna River. Bypassing a busy part of the Parks Highway. Once again I am just enjoying the farm scenery of Palmer with red barns and all. We really haven’t seen this much farming anywhere we’ve been. There was some around Homer but not the pastoral scenery like Palmer. I think I mentioned how they brought people from lower 48 to live here years ago. They brought their farming knowledge and skills.
Skeetawk Ski Area. Triple chair, night lights, snow making, yurt lodge. Interesting weekend ski hours… daylight issue. I was told theirs a snowcat that takes you up higher to ski than the chairlift.
I’m wondering why??
To ski higher you have to hike up.
As we continue to climb we have a nice view of Talkeetna Mountains in the distance.
There are several other popular trails in this area. Some are used by paragliders.
Hatcher Pass. Switchback roads up to the pass. When you are almost near the summit there is the Hatcher Pass Lodge. Cool A Frame cabins.
It’s about to get serious. Switchbacks and gravel road over the pass! 20 miles of gravel.
The top of the pass is 3886’ ft. All tundra covered mountains with big bowls.
It was a steep winding descent to the Parks Highway. Past more mining sites along the way that look active today. We went down into Willow Creek. It was here we thought we saw the bus….magical mystery bus! Chris McCandless. “Into the Wild” bus. But it was just another old hippie bus in the woods. The Inti the Wild bus has been pulled out of its home and is being restored as an exhibit at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks.
Jana and Lance. Our friends Jana and Lance were waiting for us on the Parks Highway north at a gas station to caravan to Denali National Park. Somehow we did not coordinate our reserved camp dates the same and there’s was one day earlier. Our plan was to go to the reservation desk and see if there was an opening for tonight. Lucky for us there were campsites available first come, first serve.
We have known Jana for about maybe 13 years through bicycle tours in Montana and became friends from the first time we met. She and Lance have lived, worked and raised their family in both Juneau and Anchorage. She has been inviting us to Alaska since Day 1 and we finally made it! It’s fun to see them in their happy place. If you think Jim and I are active…we don’t hold a candle to these two but we can “try” to hang.
Teklanika campground. Our campground was about 29 miles into the park on the one and only highway into the park. We found side by side campsites. It was about 7pm when we arrived. We shared quick and easy dinners around the campfire then took a walk out on the riverbed to see if we could see any bears… Bear spray in hand! No luck but it was a nice (very cool) evening. We did however encounter the biggest pile of bear scat at the ranger amphitheater in the campground! The bears are frequenting this area. Don’t walk far without bear spray!
On our way to the river to see bears I spotted my maiden name on a campsite post. I had to meet the other Lemire. It was a darling young woman from Massachusetts. She did not know anything of her Lemire lineage but knew they came from Canada. I told her quickly a bit of what I knew. She said they pronounce it Lee-mire, instead of La-mere. That was fun to see…so rare.
Tomorrow our plan is to go for a bike ride to the furthest point we are allowed to ride. About 13 miles to a road under construction and back. I will explain more about how Denali NP operates tomorrow.
Highway Names… not Numbers in western Canada and Alaska.
Alaska Highway, Parks Highway, Denali Highway, Sterling Highway, Seward Highway, Richardson Highway, Taylor highway, Glenn Highway, Cassiar Highway, Top of the World Highway, Tok Cutoff, Klondike Loop, Dalton highway, Dempster Highway. We have traveled the majority of the above highways… notably not the Dalton or much of the Dempster that go to the Arctic Ocean.
cinnicrew 