We camped on the Arctic Circle. Yes, we
did!! Not too many people can say that!! I admit I am very, very leery of bears. I just know that I would never be able to
outrun any wild animal. And the warning
signs are everywhere which, of course, doesn’t help alleviate that fear. And elk and moose are even more dangerous if they
happen to have little ones they are protecting.
When we drove through the campground a few days ago, we realized it was
pretty isolated, way up on a hill, so I was preparing myself that we could be
the lone campers. However, last night there
was a “Rent Me” RV with older people in it already parked there (WHEW!) and as
the night went on, two more cars pulled in, although they did not set up tents
but must have just needed a place to snag a nap. The mosquitoes last night were EVERYWHERE and
they seemed much bigger. They landed and
swarmed on Andrew but never bit him; they landed and swarmed on me and of
course I get bit. I sprayed on layers of
bug repellent and that kept them off, sort of.
They landed but took off again but I am grateful they didn’t bite as
much. They could find the one or two
places that I didn’t spray! Of course,
then they just settled everywhere nearby.
We were inside our tent already by 8:30 to keep sane. They then swarmed the screens!! We got the few that snuck in, but the high-pitched
sound was very unnerving and annoying; they were so close and so ready to get
us!
It was also very warm. The truck said 70 degrees when we pulled
in. The Arctic Circle was 70
degrees. We sure didn’t need our warm
clothes like we did the days and night before!
It did cool off some as the night progressed. It is still the weirdest thing to try to go
to sleep when it is light. It never
really gets dark as the sun sets and rises within a few hours of each other.
As we were leaving our campsite, we saw a UFO
hovering down near the highway. It was a
group of motorcyclists from Denver that had a drone that they were zipping to
and fro to grab pictures of the area.
That drone sounded like a swarm of mosquitoes!! Andrew’s quote of the
day: It’s part of the experience! Of course, he doesn’t get bit at all. When I killed one in our truck, it left a HUGE
blood spot on the rag I used! I don’t
know if it was all mine or mix of mine along with bear or caribou or other poor
animal that happened to be the first victim.
The drive to Fairbanks was again unique in
that we saw things anew from the “other” direction. Lakes that we didn’t see all that well the day before yesterday
showed their full glory today. The roads
were still not as good as between Coldfoot and Prudhoe Bay but the really wet
sludge-like one was dried over so it wasn’t a problem at all. There were lots of bumps and dips, very “rollercoaster-like.”
We stopped in Fairbanks to replenish our
food supplies and pick up a few things.
We are trying to keep it simple so it was a fairly quick stop. We then headed to a car wash to find Ruby
Tuesday’s real color. It took some time
for us to spray off all of that encrusted dust and dirt. Yikes!
The car in the next stall was doing the same thing but it was a small
car so it didn’t pick up as much mud. We
literally had an inch on our running boards!
Now we have a red truck again and even scraped through the bug guts on the
windshield to get to the glass. We will still have bug guts to tackle again and
again, but we shouldn’t be traveling on any dirt/rock roads again this trip.
We stopped by the 49th State
Brewery for a quick beer and to check out the bus that was used in the movie “Into
the Wild.” It is a book/movie about a
young man that deliberately sets off to live in the wild but then gets sick and
can’t get out because the river basically floods him in. He spends part of his time in this abandoned
bus (the bus was some sort of hunting “cabin” for those needing it and passing
by. This was a true story that really
happened near here years ago.
We are now set up at camp right next to
the Nenana River near Denali. We
actually had site right on the river but it would have required lots of back
and forth trips to get our stuff from the truck as the vehicles can’t part down
there. They allowed us to move up the
hill from our original space. Still an
amazing view!! We walked along the river
and found a pile of moose scat. J There are some girls camping near there so I
asked if they thought that the moose deposited them itself or if someone just
piled them up for fun to freak out campers.
They didn’t realize that was what the pile was. How did I ever know it was moose scat?? Well, remember when Dad sent gifts made from
moose turds?? Like drink stir sticks and things?? They look just like that!!
It is early to bed this evening as we have
to be ready at 5:25 for our tour of Denali.
There are parts of Denali you can’t go to unless you do the tour. It is nearly 11 hours but some of that is
driving to and fro as the mountain itself is 80 miles away.
No comments:
Post a Comment