Anchorage Bound

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We got our bags out onto the outside second floor walkway for transport to Anchorage by HAL. We walked over to the Denali Square just across the street for breakfast, where I had a heated cinnamon roll and mocha Frappuccino and Sharon got a chocolate chip muffin. We sat on some benches outside the restaurant, and protected from the misty rain. Sharon had become concerned about our likelihood (or lack thereof) of reaching Seward in time to make it to the onboard Sunday mass tomorrow evening. I didn’t see what the problem of and asked, “Why don’t we just go Sunday morning in Anchorage?” noting that the train won’t be leaving Anchorage for Seward until noon. “Hmm,” Sharon thought, “Thanks! I Might have thought of that!”



We waited in the Dinner Theatre from the other night, after they opened the doors. They directed us to sit by the rear exit where we would be boarding the coach to take us to the train station. When it came time to board, they instead directed us back out the front door and over a winding path through the woods to get to the coaches; although, it wasn’t exactly why this longer walk through the rain was better. Our bus driver asked everybody once everyone had boarded, “So you folks are going for a train ride. Let’s see if you know, ‘How do trains hear?’” We had no idea. “With their engine ears.” Okay, Alaska is quickly becoming the “Land of the Corny Jokes.”.



When we boarded our assigned car, and reached our assigned seat, we found ourselves sitting across from two ladies that we seem to keep bumping into, more than once so far. The one lady travels without her husband (because he doesn’t like to leave home); so, she travels with her high school best friend (whom I’m guessing her husband is happy is a woman). They were also on our bus visiting Denali wildlife, and before that on the riverboat on the Chena River. And then we heard “THEM”. A rumbling herd of undisciplined squealing children came barreling down the aisle, from one end to the other, and then back again. They were in that seven-to-eleven year range with parents who didn’t seem to mind the hubbub. I decided to spring the $13 for the sealed tumbler with built-in sealable straw that entitles you for unlimited drinks on HAL trains, perhaps a bit pricey when you figure the drinks are $2 per small cup; but, it is a pretty nice tumbler



Shortly after departing the Denali station we had a moose sighting on our (right) side of the train. This meant that travelling back to Anchorage we would again be on the side facing Denali; but, also on the side from which no wildlife was sited on our journey up two weeks ago. Amazing us all, the moose did not immediately bolt into the trees. Even more amazing, the engineer decided to stop the train to give us a good view of the moose a scant sixty feet from the train. Everyone got a good picture before the moose meandered away. A short time later we saw two moose swimming in the waters off the left side of the train; but, we didn’t get a chance to take any pictures of them.



When I went down to use the restroom, I found where some of “THEM” where hanging out. Two were on the lower deck outdoor open observation platform. The car had siding that went up about four feet, high enough to keep children inside the car. Above that the area was open except for two horizontal chrome bars that further impaired anybody from accidently falling from the car on the side and end of the car; but, these two boys were using this as a jungle-gym, sliding their bodies from the outside between the cars through the two chrome bars on the end of the car and swinging their bodies onto the floor. Now the cars appeared well enough sealed with continuous sleeved flooring to prevent anyone from falling between the cars, a sudden sideways lurching motion at the wrong time could rapidly increase the danger of what they were doing. And boys being boys might decide to move to the chrome railing on the side which would leave them no safety net at all. Shortly after I went back up, the guide went down to ban them from the outside area. However they then used the small area outside the restrooms on the lower level to play and their screams could be heard upstairs for the rest of the trip. Not sure what their parents were doing.



Our onboard guide was obviously active in outdoor activities, fishing, rock climbing, hiking, camping and mountain climbing among them. He said that he aspires to climb Denali before he turns thirty; but, noted that the right conditions would need to come together for that to happen. He noted that if someone just wants to go out and climb the mountain it will cost about $10,000 to reach the summit. That gave me pause for thought, thinking about my last-minute decision to climb Mount Whitney, where I needed to buy a lightweight sleeping bag and a canteen, and other than provisions that was pretty much my cost (plus the gas for my car to drive to the base camp at about 8,000 feet). To climb Denali you need to have a pilot fly you to the base camp at just over 7,000 feet. And you also need to allocate two to three weeks for the ascent and descent; which, was a bit more that the two days I climbed Whitney. There we camped overnight before starting the climb to acclimate to the altitude. After climbing for a day I was so tired, I was ready to quit; but, after resting overnight I was ready to continue to the summit the next morning. More time is needed for Denali because acclimation is a bigger issue, with the mountain raising nearly one additional mile in altitude, and no oxygen bottles are allowed on Denali. They want to avoid the pollution problem on Mount Everest where spent oxygen bottles are just jettisoned into vast debris fields among the rocks. The average success rate for climbing Denali is 50%; although, this year it is down to 20% due to the weather this season.



We had a long wait at Curry, the former halfway point between Anchorage and Fairbanks. That was because we were waiting for a northbound train that was running late (it ended up being a Princess train from their ship that was heading north from their port of Whittier) , and most of the route has only a single track that must be shared between north and southbound traffic. Curry was a place that all but disappeared off the map when Alaska Railroad switched from steam to diesel powered engines, and the travel time between those two cities went from two days to one day. A former five-star hotel had put up travelers overnight; but, with the advent of Alaskan diesel travel the hotel had lost its livelihood, and before a year lapsed on its annual fire insurance policy, the hotel burned down.



Later we passed Wasilla, a thriving Alaskan suburb. This is the home of Sarah Palin. It is also the home of a number of agricultural records, such as a 1,300 pound pumpkin or a 70 pound kale. The trees were becoming noticeably taller and diverse. Our guide posed “What are young trees called?” If you thought “saplings”, congratulations; but the answer our guide was looking for was “Sons of birches.”





We crawled through Anchorage, and we did spot a three black bears in someone’s fields. We disembarked, and got a bus ride to and by the westmark hotel. There were too many busses already there; but, it caused us to note that the Catholic Cathedral was less than one block away. When there was space for us, our bus dropped us off. We got to the room; but, it was a bit of a hassle with so many trying to use the elevators. We decided on Humpy’s for dinner based on our guide from a few weeks earlier recommendation, and when we found Humpy’s, we realized that this was where Sharon and I had dined in Anchorage two years ago with a former member of her work group in Ohio. The restaurant has “Self-Seating” which works well enough when there are places to seat, not so well when all places including those on the patio are taken as they were on this Saturday evening. We did manage to squeeze in at the bar, and I ordered the horseradish crusted halibut and Sharon had the halibut Fish and Chips. The food was good; but, we were so looking forward to rejoining the Zaandam tomorrow where all of these onshore headaches will melt away as we become pampered by a crew that will even leave little chocolate treats on our pillows and make cute little towel animals for us to enjoy each evening.

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