8-hour Tundra Wilderness Tour

This is the professional photo I got offline in February went I got the job and below is Danny and I here.  The day is perfect.  1/3 of groups see any portion of the mountain let alone all of it.  Absolutely breath taking.  This is 36 miles away from the base.

We saw bull moose, caribou, foxes, bears, marmots, and the state bird I can't spell.

Rock Climbing

This is Savage Rock along the Savage River.  A couple of brothers from church invited me to go rock climbing there.  We set up the gear at the top and repelled down to then do our ascents.  This is ranked a 5.8, which is between 5 and 5.15 in difficulty.  Endless mountains surrounded us as we climbed.  Breath taking . . . for the view, not me struggling to climb the rock.

My Daily Job on the Train

During my 6-2:30 shift, three hours go to the my excursion on the train.  Half-hour to get to the train yard, hour wait till train picks me up, hour on the train itself, and a half hour getting back to the resort.  I pass out welcome packets and then explain them briefly on  all the cars I have(3-5 cars total). I may have up to 300 passengers packets to pass out.  If you know me, I love trains.  Since I was a kid watching "Shinning Time Station" with Ringo Starr, I have wanted to be a train conductor when I retire.   The train ride goes through Healy Canyon, winding along the Neanna River.

Fishin' wit yer bear hands

We started our evening fly fishing.  I was learning for the first time.  Before casting the reel, I saw my first owl.  It was perched on top of a 40 foot tree.  It was big and did the turning of the neck without breaking it like it should have thing.  :) Anyhow, none of us were catching anything so we climbed back out of the deep lake basin and headed up the road 10 miles to a good size stream.  The idea was to fish out salmon swimming upstream.  This time however, we didn't bring our rods . . . just our bare hands.  Here's the video, enjoy the experience.  It was so much fun!

King Crab Dinner

This is my buddy Danny, who ate with me for my free dinner.  For his free dinner he had this mound called seafood nachos!

As I work at the front desk of the hotel, I received a gift certificate for the entire experience of a dinner at King Salmon, our fine dinning restaurant.  I thought of my mother and went for this 42 dollar plate of king crab.   My total bill was 74 dollars, all expenses paid.

Into the Wild bus

This is the final photo of our return for the Into the Wild bus.  

well.....35 miles mountain biking in 24 hours, what would you do within seconds off your bike without your pack?
This image is taken inside the bus without flash with Tim with his headlamp videotaping Dayne at fire stove.  You can see the flame in the bottom left corner where Dayne is.  

Into the Wild forging the river video

This is the "Tec" River, one of three we had to cross with our bikes.  I felt this video would better illustrate something I never comprehended as doable till the situation was before me.  I already had crossed and Dayne was there for Tim if the help was needed.  We never fell in, though times were close.  One thing I didn't think of was with only the river in front of my eyes when crossing, I got dizzy and off balance with the fast movement of the current.

Into the Wild bus

17-mile mountain bike ride in, 22 out.  Pouring rain, dried off in the bus, and slept in it.  Crashed about 4 times and for nearly a minute flew down a super steep mountainside not by choice, I had no brakes, but in the peace of the chaotic moment I elected not to crash like it was accepted before as a option.  We waded through waist deep rushing rivers of the Tec and the Savage.  Crossed terrain of beaver dammed waters, think grass lands, big hills up and down, rides through streams and giant mud puddles.  At last, all my gear was dry.  I liked how prepared I was, the beauty of a 40 pound plus pack. 

 What I really love is nearly six years ago, David Mehr gave me the book.  At that time, I was lonely, insecure, and uncertain if adventures were safe.  Now I have journeyed so much and not once did I feel alone out there in the wilderness of Alaska in my pursuit of that bus.  I thought it was a neat the amount of growth that has occurred and a capping point by being at the bus, the location of the story that I read which influenced me nearly six years earlier.

            I appreciated the miracles that the happened.  One, no serious injuries and two, after 22 miles and quite a few more to go with down hills and no brakes, we got picked up my Sam.  This man took us to another truck to give us a legal ride back to the homestead.

Glacier Landing Flight with Sergin

 Today Sergin and I went on the Glacier Landing Tour!  It was a perfect day.  We could see Mt. Mckinley the entire way on our trip.  I was trapped in the back seat having to slide my backside down the seat and cram my legs between the seats in front of me.  A nice German lady sitting next to me despite her limited knowledge of English spoke so clearly through her smile.  As we approached our landing we were passing so many carvases that I was very curious as to how we were to land.  We just continued towards the mountain side and “cookied” as we landed.  Outside of the plane the giant bowl of the mountain with the beginning of the glacier was impressive.  Another beautiful piece to my Alaskan experience was added today.

Glacier Landing Flight In the Plane

Just a bit of the experience inside the 10 passenger plane.  Everyone had a window seat!

Derek and Steve from Oregon!

My buddies from Oregon.  I went to college with Derek on the right.  On the right is his brother Steve who lives in Anchorage.  We had so much fun in the 24 hours they were here.  

Julia's Birthday Dinner

Birthday dinner at King Salmon.  This is our best restaurant and it is amazing.  I had their prime rib this time and wish it would never ended even though I was full.  This picture is outside the restaurant with the Nenana River behind down below.

Canoeing at Otto Lake

Canoeing at Otto Lake with Leslie, Kelly, Danny.  We went swiming at the base of the giant hillsides.  The water was actually quite warm.  It was good to say I swam in Alaska!