Mike arrived in Anchorage ahead of the rest of the team and prepared our arrival with a car rental. These are a few photos from Mike and also photos of Mount Ranier in Washington from Tom's flight from Raleigh to Anchorage.
Sunday. We take a trolley tour of Anchorage, visit the Market and Festival. We have lunch at the 49th State Brewing in Anchorage before heading to the Alaska Native Museum. We have dinner at our rental. The last photo in this set is taken about 10:30 PM an hour or so before sundown.
Monday. After a challenging drive though Alaska road construction we rode the Talkeetna to Hurricane train. For dinner, we continue the day by standing in the rain waiting for dinner in Talkeetna at the Denali Brewing Company. We end the day at Grace and Bills Bed and Breakfast.
Tuesday. Rafting with Talkeetna River Guides. They dressed us up like we were heading into the great white north and we were sweating the whole time.We had lunch at multiple locations, but several of us went to the Talkeetna Roadhouse for reindeer sausage. Later, we were overdue for a hike, so we hiked the Talkeetna Lakes Trail. And we end the day at Grace and Bill's with our first views of Denali the mountain and we cook up some sausage for dinner.. The view was spectacular.
Wednesday. We leave Grace and Bill's and continue on North. Along the way we stop to hike Little Coal Creek Trail in Denali State Park. From there we get another spectacular view of Denali the mountain. Once we arrive at Denali National Park we take the tour bus. Once on the bus, we can see another view of Denali the mountain, but it is really far away, and there was no wildlife we could catch on camera.We have dinner at 49th State Brewing just outside the park, where we see the bus used in the making of the "Into The Wild" movie. We continue to Fairbanks.
Thursday. We open the day by visiting the Museum of the North. Then we play a round of disc golf (we missed you Jerry). We continued on to visit the Georgeson Botanical Garden. Then we drive to hike the Angel Rocks Loop. We hike to Monument Creek trying to find the hot springs. Seeing the creek was not where we wanted to be, we continue down the road to the Chena Hot Springs resort. On the road back we stop at an interesting pub. Then we have dinner at the Silver Gulch Brewery before we go back to Fairbanks.
Friday. We're headed back south and we make one more stop at Denali National Park. While we are there we hike Horseshoe Lake Trail. On the road back we capture yet another incredible view of Denali the mountain. Amazing. After dinner just outside Anchorage at Bella Vista, we continue to end our travels that day at the Bird Creek Motel. Off the suite we rented was a room with a freezer. In the freezer was the frozen meat in the photo. We think it was moose, or maybe Mrs. Bates.
Saturday. We keep heading south. First we stop at the Aleyeska Resort. Since we haven't seen much Alaska wildlife in the wild, we visit the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center in Portage. We head through the Whittier one-way tunnel (alternating directions for cars, and also trains) and then hike the Portage Pass trail.Once we get to the peak elevation on that trail we snap photos, including the great group shot taken by a young lady that was hiking with us. We finished the day with a 120 mile drive to Cohoe, just south of Soldotna. Before we get there, we have dinner at the St. Elias Brewing Company in Soldotna.
Sunday. We rent canoes from Alaska Canoe & Campground outside Soldotna. At the end of the day we enjoy halibut cooked by Bob and Dennis and we get a visit from a moose outside the house we were renting. She came back in the early hours of Monday with her calf.
Monday. First we trek across the Kenai Peninsula about 120 miles to Seward. We drop our luggage at the Van Gilder Hotel and then enjoy a wildlife cruise on the Orca Song through Kenai Fjords. On the trip we were treated to a whale sighting, not to mention countless birds including eagles. We end the day splitting up to eat, with several of us at the Peking Restaurant and the rest of us at yet another brew pub, the Seward Brewing Company.
Tuesday. After breakfast at the Alaska Seafood Grill we go to the Alaska SeaLife Center. As we head out of town, we hike Exit Glacier. We drive back to Anchorage and there Mike treats us all to a T-Shirt to commemorate the "Guys' Trip". Everyone headed home Wednesday. The last photo was taken at 2AM Thursday on my flight from Anchorage to Atlanta.
