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Published: September 5th 2012
Stunning Glaciers of Alaska
North! To Alaska that's where I want to be.My father has been a nomad for as long as I can remember...only to be domesticated somewhat by my mother when my brother and I arrived back in the late sixties. Once you meet him it doesn't take a genius to figure out that he needs to be in forward motion at all times. My mum, the clever girl she is, bought him a ride-on lawnmower....and that seemed to keep him in check.
Dad, aka "the Bud" has lived the equivalent of 16 lives...and has no intention of letting old age get him. After a lifetime of flying all sorts of planes & jumping from them, racing anything with wheels, ice road trucking the Arctic, outfitting horses through the deep B.C. mountains, surfing the big waves in Oahu, chasing fish the entire coastal Pacific, terrorizing the neighbourhood on his muffler-less Harley Davidson....he's retired. God help us all. First line of business...a retirement gift to himself, a monstrosity I like to refer to as the Rock and Roll Motorhome. I have only ever seen famous rock stars with this same getup so I offhandedly ask if he is planning to start a new career in country music. I am absurdly dismissed.
Fairbanks, Alaska, 0540 hours
I find the Bud panning for gold somewhere north of the Tanana River...I'm not authorized to specify exactly where as he has been diabolically earning $100 per day. He proudly exclaims, “I’m paying for my upkeep.” Suddenly doom overwhelms me. Could this mean I too will be required to earn my keep or risk being unceremoniously kicked out of the Rock and Roll Motorhome to fend for myself?
Thar are grizzles in them these parts...and mosquitoes the size of bears. I pan furiously.
Thanks to Dad and his wandering ways, I have been to the North many times before. That being said, this taiga frontier continues to unequivocally blow my mind.
Arriving in late August, I find Alaska’s distinctive autumn already closing in. The carpets of crimson fire line the valleys of the Denali National Park bringing on that feeling of solitude, tranquility and wilderness. What awaits us is over six million acres of wild land, bisected by one ribbon of road.
However, there is a ski resort-like atmosphere at the parks entrance, slightly reminiscent of a Camp Wannapuke. We order a greasy American pizza from a place called Prospectors
Carpets of Crimson in Denali Park
Fields of berries as far as the eye can see. Grizzlies fatten up for the long winter as the masses of international visitors merge into one ball of chaos, who like us, are trying to jam as many activities as possible into their limited itinerary. At this point I'd like to acknowledge two remarkable strangers called Charles Sheldon and Harry Karstens whom over a hundred years ago lobbied government to make this the world’s first national park. Thanks to them, Denali is frozen in time.
This park is well-known for its wildlife diversity which is dictated by seasons. The brief spring brings the return of 80% of Denali's bird life, the waking of hibernating bears, and an increase in activity levels of wildlife. Summer is a time for eating and raising young to prepare for migration, hibernation, and survival during the winter. Summer also brings hordes of insects. In fact, the national bird of Alaska happens to be the mosquito. In late summer salmon run in the multitude of streams and rivers. And by autumn, migrating birds fill the skies south as bull moose gather their harems of cows for the mating season. Winters are long and brutal.
One of my main objectives was to tackle a few interesting hikes while we enjoy the gloriousness
Nice Rack!
Antlers displayed proudly on peoples cabins. Hunting for game is a natural affect of living in the far north. of the park. Armed with bear spray, mum and I trod along the slate blue paths. The silence is deafening. Too quiet for mum, she pipes up to state she sure hopes to see a parmesan. I answer with teenage-style exasperation, "Ptarmigan mum, not parmesan!" We do spot lots of birds and fuzzy critters along the way but none of the big five as we ascend. Large piles of nuggets indicate there are a zillion of them all hiding within plain sight, probably having a laugh. Like them, I’m relieved to be in the safe confines of a national park at this time of year. Excitable hunters will shoot at anything that doesn't have on a neon jacket.
The following day we join up for a more extensive ranger-led hike with some Europeans whom are wearing disproportionate amounts of jingle bells. How do you say, “You are annoying the living piss out of me,” in Norwegian? I grit my teeth. We scale switchbacks for almost four and 1/2 hours to a lookout for Mt.McKinley, also known as Denali (the high one). The largest mountain in all of North America at 20,320 feet (6,194 m) I can feel her looming
Denali Highway
The endless mud road not open in winters, it would be a nightmare under 6 feet of snow. presence somewhere out there in the rain but alas, I will not be one of the lucky 30%!t(MISSING)hat get to view her in all her splendour. Not that I care,
Aaahhlaska just kicks you in the gutty wuts it is so beautiful.
As I get older I grasp the fact that, so do your parents. I know they won't be around forever…so my goal is to appreciate and enjoy them while they are on this glorious planet with me, but I struggle not to revert into a whiney teenager within the confines of the Rock and Roll Motorhome. A challenge. Case in point, I highly suspect both of my parents…and their dog…are going deaf. I find myself constantly yelling to relay information between all three.
Since our whirlwind itinerary is short of the ridiculous side, we decide to cheat and cut through using the Denali mud highway which is only open half the year. I’m talking bumpy moose wetlands and caribou tundra as far as the eye can see. We spend the afternoon picking wild blueberries with grizzlies…..there is a respectable distance of rolling tundra scrub between both species.
Rule of thumb, you don't need to
The Bud pans for gold
Trying to earn his fortune in Alaska's frontier outrun a grizzly, you just need to be faster than the person you are with.
Down the road, gigantic pairs of trumpeter swans float like marshmallows in lake of hot chocolate as we fish for Arctic grayling in the Tangle Lakes, Dad and I while away the day discussing his memoirs. I have been begrudgingly recruited as his ghostwriter but all my notes are a confusing mess of conflicting data as my parents argue over the correct names of places and the year it happened. I seriously wonder how they were able to rear children without misplacing one of us.
Rewarded with crisp air around a hardy campfire, I realize for the first time I am not going mental swatting bugs. Verification I have discovered the most grand time to visit Alaska indeed. We keep our eyes peeled above for an Aurora Borealis to streak across the glorious twilight sky. No luck. Perhaps I would feel robbed had I never seen it before. The stars twinkle a light show as an offering of
constellation prize.
On the solid pavement again heading south, we hypnotically roll through miles and miles of alpine tundra and sporadic groves of funky
The everlasting sunset on Denali
The daylight never does fade summers in Alaska but it was sneaking up. Winter dark is not that far behind black spruce when my Dad states plainly, "You have control" and suddenly leaps out of his driver's seat. We are hurling down the highway doing 100 km. I scramble to quickly assume control as the Bud goes in the back to make a sandwich. "I have control." I yell back sarcastically, this old captain’s trick was intended to keep rookie co-pilots on their toes....an acceptable practice while mid-air, it's a little more alarming on the terra firma.
We have spotted the Alaska pipeline all along our journey. An engineering marvel, I'm not sure how I feel about it at the minute. Currently in B.C. we are being forced to consider one of the same spanning our province for no particular benefit to us, and the majority aren't happy about it. Depending on where you stand in the fossil fuel debate, it is a hard sell. I personally want us all to get away from the use of any carbon fuels eventually, so this hideous silver snake surprisingly irks me. However, to appease the Bud I take in the touristy presentation with guarded scepticism. The presenter gleefully exclaims that all Alaskan residents reap the benefits of this pipeline with a
Wild Blueberries on the Denali
Sat with the grizzles and ate my share of berries. Awesome for blueberry muffins and pancakes. fat dividend cheque each year in which they spend on commercial goods therefore circulating their economy. “Win win for all,” he explains. This pretty much seals my decision. Some suit in Texas sitting behind a desk doesn’t give a flying fling-flong about my province's environment. He just wants that oil to move in any way necessary to China.
It’s really time for my generation to wake up and rethink what we are all doing to our planet. Seriously.
As we come upon the glaciers of Wrangell–St.Elias National Park I can tick off another UNESCO World Heritage Site from my list. A total area of 13 million acres reserved of spectacular glacier and ice field landscapes. I am gobsmacked at how wonderous they are close up.
We need more time. Although we are not here to hunt for any of Alaska’s big five, I can see the Bud is starting to get antsy. There are too many people wearing camouflage in this country and this sorta ignites some kind of primordially redneck yearning within him. He promises not to kill anything this trip…unfair expectation because we have gone through some pretty prime habitat for moose, grizzly bears, caribou
Sled dogs wait for the snow to arrive
They while away the day on the roof of their logcabin dreaming of racing off on a sled team and Dall sheep...the Bud reluctantly forfeits but glasses the horizon longingly.
Our only animal encounter is a baby moose that almost became a hood ornament for the Rock and Roll Motorhome as we approached Anchorage. Oh, and I've passed my country music threshold.
As our trip winds to a frenzied close, I realize Alaska is impossible to fully enjoy in just one visit. It would take me months to see and do everything I love here. I plan for a tentative return so I can fly into some of the more remote parts, sea kayak the glacier fields south of Valdez, and perhaps enjoy a salmon fishing excursion past the 60th parallel. For right now I have memories solidly locked in of time with my parents and for that I am pleasantly content with my Alaskan adventure.
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The Bud is cool....
...all hail the Bud! Why is it that I never ended up with a cool dad like yours? All I got was an old bike for my 12th birthday and I never saw the ol' git again! Anyway, 'Du är den mest retande jävelen jag har någonsin träffat' should alleviate all your Norwegian tourist troubles, it's actually Swedish, but they speak the same lingo up that way and it all sounds the same to me anyway :)