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Published: November 30th 2011
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What can be said about our second day in Wild Alaska? At the Start, Danielle proceeded to get up at around 4:30 am as a victim of jetlag and write her journal for the first day of travel. I woke up at around 5:00 am for the same reason. I eventually emerged at 6:00 am acknowledging my inability to get any more sleep. At 6:00 we gathered our things and proceeded to breakfast at the concierge’s lounge as we did the day before. This time, we go there during operating hours so we could get our full allotment. After gathering our stuff in to the rented truck (2011 Chevy Silverado nicknamed Silver); we then embarked on our trip to Willow to the Dream a Dream Sled Dog Bed and Breakfast. It was a beautiful morning as we drove through towns such as Wasilla and Houston capturing video and pictures of the beautiful mountains on our way to Willow for our first adventure.
We got to the turn off for Vern Halter’s dream a dream camp at about the scheduled time of 9:30 am local time. Funny because locally, addresses are given in mileposts from the road as opposed to address numbers
standard to the lower 48. Another cool tidbit to separate the last frontier from the rest of the US. Enough of that. We pulled in and I immediately emerged from Silver and met Vern Halter and he introduced himself as just that. He told us to settle in to the B and B and inquired if we own Silver. I said it was a rental and he stated it was a good choice. Owning my own Silverado, I couldn’t disagree. We did settle in and marveled at what a nice place it was; two rooms and a great room over a garage. I was in heaven! We then geared up for the first hike with the puppies. We walked behind Vern’s property on a trail with the pups and it was fun. Jumpy little animals. Vern didn’t take long to offer the washer and dryer in the garage for us. Good thing because it was obvious we would need it before the days out.
After the hike, Vern then proceed to give us a long and extremely descriptive session and demonstration about his participation in the Iditarod as well as his other accomplishments including multiple Yukon Quest championships. We both
agree that this was extremely interesting, but was information overload at the same time for a couple suffering from jetlag and general exhaustion from the wedding. Vern informed us that Mischa, his protégé from Prague, Czech Republic, will take us to lunch and will take us on a 4 x 4 dog sled ride. He had an emergency meeting in Palmer, Ak as it turns out he is a local assemblyman. We went to lunch to Roni’s and had tacos since it was Taco Tuesday. They tasted very good after some exercise in the cool mountain air. After lunch, we went on the dog sled ride guided by Mischa. We both had a blast on the nearly one hour tour of 12 dogs pulling a 6 person 4 x 4. We got to give the dogs water and feed them upon return. After that, we decided to take a nap to rest from the exercise and the jet lag. After waking, we went on another hike with the puppies with Mischa. She was wondering if she need to go the whole way, but after I demonstrated, I did not know the whole way as I thought I did, she accompanied us on the whole hike. At that point, we went back to the room for our happy hour and clean up for dinner. We wanted to check out Sheep Creek Lodge as recommended by Vern. By the time we got there 16 miles north of Vern’s B & B we discovered it was closed. We then decided to proceed north towards Talkeetna as opposed to back to Willow. We went to Talkeetna and ate at a The Denali Breing Co. and had a good meal. It made for a long round trip but it was worth the warm meal.
Upon our return, Danielle turned in for the night and I worked on our ride on the Dalton Highway based on an Alaska travel book Mischa provided us. I documented mile by mile information that I thought would be helpful to navigate the difficult and challenging road as well as provide a background on where to stop for good photo opportunities. After its completion at 11:00 pm, I proceeded to go to bed as tomorrow was another day.
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