28JUN15 - Talkeetna, AK

Sunday, 28JUN, we headed south.  We wanted to spend the night at Trapper Creek, AK, but no room at the RV park chosenL.  They directed us to one 17 miles down the road.  After setting up camp we immediately jumped into the Toad & headed back to Talkeetna, AK (located at the end of a 14 mile dead end road off the main highway).

We immediately noticed the town was overrun with day tripping tourist; & bus upon bus of cruise ship passengers from AnchorageL.  Talkeetna used to be known as a “laid back” community, where lots of mountain climbers used to hang out.  Now it is well on its way to being just another place where tourist feel they have to go on their visit to AK.

We made every effort to stay far from the maddening crowd & experience the old Talkeetna.  There was no on street parking left, but Dan noticed the local museum had an empty “customer” parking lot.  Since we were going to visit it anyway, we parked there.  We ran into the museum to find out where in town the daily Denali (mountaineering) Ranger presentation was held at 1PM.  Turns out it was in the museum!  And for $3 each we got all day parking, access to the Ranger talk, plus access to the museum:)!

The Ranger presentation was by Roger Robinson who has been a mountaineer for almost 40 years, & a Denali (mountaineer) Ranger for over 30.  He didn’t have a prepared talk, but just started off with general info on climbing Denali, & talked further about any questions asked.  It was not a direct presentation, but it was fascinating!

We won’t go into the “gross” details, but someone asked about how “polluted” the climbing route on Denali is today.  We were all surprised by his answer that the Denali climbing route in the 70s/80s was the most polluted part of any National Park in the USA.  Climbers would literally dump all their trash (& even their gear) at 17,000 feet after summiting so they wouldn’t have to carry it down.  Sometimes they would throw it in a crevasse.  Sometimes they would pile it all up, pour all their remaining fuel on it, & burn it – then the wind would blow the ash over hundreds of square yards, where it remained in the snow for years.

Lastly let’s not talk about the high rates of dysentery at 17,000 ft & the glacier airfield, because of fecal coliform poisoning.  This was because of non-existent safe sanitary practices.  Ranger Robinson also stated that the 20 & 30 year old climbers of today are much more environmentally sensitive than us baby boomers (so much for the Earth Day generation).

When Robinson started there were two rangers assigned to Talkeetna; one to manage climbing permits & one to address issues on the climbing route.  Obviously not enough Rangers!  Today there are nine Rangers in Talkeetna; & one of these Rangers & 4 volunteers (ie experienced mountaineers) are stationed at 14,200 feet for a month at a time.  They manage the constant stream of climbers during climbing season, & are stationed there for emergencies.  Then it was off to the Ranger Station to view the 17 minute movie on climbing Denali (excellent).

Trivia – what is a Clean Mountain Can, & who invented it?

Corrie then went exploring the shops of Talkeetna, while Dan went back to the Museum to view their exhibits.  While Dan was standing in the museum parking lot a bush plane literally flew over Dan’s head, almost clipped parked cars, & landed on a grass airfield at the end of D Street.  Turns out this is the town’s airfield, & the pilot was practicing landings & take-offs.

We then got together at the Talkeetna Roadhouse for lunch/dinner.  Corrie had the mushroom quiche w/Hungarian mushroom soup, Dan had reindeer meatloaf slider w/reindeer chili – two thumbs up!

http://www.talkeetnaroadhouse.com/

From Talkeetna we back tracked to Trapper Creek, AK.  There we explored Wal*Mikes, a roadside attraction we had passed on our earlier drive.  Later that evening while walking Gumbo we noted several fisherman at the Montana Creek next to the RV park.  From the adjacent walking bridge we could clearly could see big king salmon making the journey to their spawning grounds.  A very moving sight, too bad we no longer see this in the lower 48.  In the RV park we discovered we had 1G cell phone coverage.  This is ok for phone calls & texts, but forget any use of data!