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We once again awoke to another beautiful day, in fact clearer than the day before. We all slept like the dead last night, and didn't get up until 7:00 am. As Bud and Jan had never been here before, they decided to take the bus excursion with John and Diane, up the Denali Park road. This is a 6 1/2 hour trip. Sandy and I had decided that we were going to unhook the RV, drive up the Denali Road as far as Savage River (12 miles) and see if Mt. McKinley was visible today. After that we were going to do some fishing. After a nice breakfast, and getting our fishing gear all sorted, we headed off for the Denali Road. The climb up the mountain is quite spectacular, with drop offs, and snow banks along the way. At approximately Mile 11, there was Mt. McKinley off to our southwest. To say it was spectacular is a gross understatement. We were thrilled to be able to see it, as this mountain is very fickle. Because of it's height, 20,320 feet, it produces it's own weather, and is covered in clouds quite frequently. We were also told that even on a
clear day, if the sun is shining too brightly, you can't see the mountain due to it's complete snow cover. Mt. McKinley, or "Denali" as the native Americans named her, is the highest peak in North America, and is only viewable 30% of the time. The mountain to the left of Denali is Mt. Foraker, 17,400 feet, and is known as "Denali's Wife".
After taking in all the fantastic views, we turned around at the bridge at mile 12, and headed to Otto Lake, about 6 miles north of the campground, for some fishing. The setting was quite lovely, and after trecking half way around the lake, and casting along the way, we concluded that the shore line area was too shallow and perhaps we should rent a canoe. Of course, my last cast got caught on some rocks, and my rod snapped trying to get it free. As I am traveling with McGiver, we had the rod repaired and duct tape good as new. With no boats available to rent, we had a quick lunch, and headed to another area that was suggested to us. Getting to these two small wilderness ponds required some hiking through thick brush,
so I donned my Bear Bell and off we went. Again, no luck, but saw some lovely ducks and lot's of animal sign. There were moose prints and scat all around the ponds, and even what looked like wolf prints in the mud. This time I really did NOT want to see any animals! We returned to the RV, and took a short nap while we wait for the others to return.
Well, the gang got back from their excursion around 5:30 pm, and we had our cocktail hour on the picnic table, rehashing all the things we saw today. After a nice supper in, we went to a local studio that does costumed pictures of groups. We had ours done in a dog-sledding, mushing theme. It came out very nice. I'm sure it will be hung with pride in Diane's living room in Marco. Talked about our next 6 nights left, and hit the sack, with a planned 8:00 am departure southbound.
Mileage today: 68 Total to date: 3898 Animal Count: 1 Grizzly and cub, 1 Golden eagle, Big horn sheep, Caribou, No fish
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Raymond
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What a beautiful pic of Mt. Mckinley....good talking the other day, glad you are having fun! Did you catch dinner the other day? LOL