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Published: July 11th 2016
We stayed a few extra days in Cantwell waiting for Wayne and Ronda’s visit. We could have moved up to Fairbanks, their arrival point, and centered our tourist time around the Fairbanks attractions but one of our main goals was to visit the Denali National Park with them and it is just up the street from our rocky little RV Park in Cantwell. Not the best park we have camped in but what they lacked in amenities they more than made up for in friendliness. They put The Kids rental trailer in the site right next to ours so we could easily share food, drink and space. Their flight from Phoenix was a late night arrival so they did a one night hotel stay at the airport, some early grocery shopping, and headed down to meet up with us in. Soon after they arrived we set out for the Denali Highway. As you know from the last blog post, this is one of the most picturesque roads we have driven and we wanted to share that wilderness experience with the newcomers. After about 30 miles the rains set in and the visibility diminished but we were able to give them a
good quick tour of the backcountry we so admired and they were just as captivated as we were. It was strange being the tour guides instead of the tourist. The next thing on our agenda was to do some fishing in Alaska. Not wanting to leave anything to chance we hired Denali Fishing Guides for a half day trip, electing to fish on their private lakes. Great choice. We had two experienced and knowledgeable guides, Mike and Mike. The younger Mike fished with the women and the older Mike fly fished with the guys. As always seems to be the case the women who actually heed their guide’s instruction out fished the guys but everyone caught fish, it’s just that theirs were in the bragging category. Wayne and I did get some good fly fishing instruction, we both caught the elusive Artic Grayling and rainbow trout, but we never hooked that big one. I was able to catch a nice rainbow using my grandfather’s very old split bamboo fly rod which was a highlight of the day for me. The pictures and the smiles tell the story. Not having an early departure planed for the next morning we stayed up
too late reliving our fishing trip and planning the next few days over some cold brews and wine, easy to do when midnight looks like 4 in the afternoon. Wanting to share with them the total Alaska experience as much as possible in just a few short days we headed out the next morning back to the eclectic little town of Talkeetna. We were also on a moose hunt for Ronda and wanted to stop at the best Mt. Denali viewing spots along the Parks Highway. Unfortunately the mountain was shrouded in clouds for the entire day and we found no moose on the road but we enjoyed the amazing drive, the lunch in town and the stop at Wal-Mikes on the way home. That left only one thing undone, but that cannot be added here, it would just short change the most exciting day of our trip so far.
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Ray, Michelle, Seems like you really enjoyed fishing with Wayne and Rhonda. The girls out fished the "Master"..... Glad all are having lots of fun at 4 am. Very happy you could spend time with the younger generation. I am on travel again, just spent a week in Hawaii and fly direct to Jax for more work. Keep enjoying life, making many of us wanting to follow your steps.