On the Road…to the Ferocious North

I awoke early, to greet my room mate, and companion for the next couple of weeks – David an accountant from Birmingham- who’d arrived in the early hours of the morning, although I hadn’t actually seen him, rather spoken to him !

We went down for breakfast, to meet the rest of the small group, only 3 others, from differing parts of the country, and our leader for the tour – Ryan, a displaced Rocker from California !-along with his guitar

After our tour briefing, we had a final pack, and started to load up our transport – a van – ‘Ginger’ ,along with a trailer containing all our camping equipment, ready for our adventure to begin, however, as in any camping trip, we first of all had to do the shopping, getting supplies for the journey…and then we were off, out of Anchorage onto the Highway towards Denali State Park

As we travelled along, we stopped at a Viewpoint, where sometimes, there was a View of Denali from the South, or Mt McKinley, the highest mountain in North America http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_McKinley famed for showing itself very infrequently, and as usual from this viewpoint…it was clouded over, although the clouds tantalisingly rolled across it in the distance…

The sun was shining, and so, became our first introduction to Alaska’s ferocious mosquitoes, as we batted them off, running for the bug spray we’d purchased earlier in the day ! We continued up the highway, and within a short time were stopping at a further viewpoint, for a view of Denali from the North, and lo and behold, the mountain was visible, and could be seen in the distance(albeit in a cloudy view) – our guide Ryan’s first time ever he had seen the mountain from this position , the omen’s looked good ?

Then onwards to our campsite, just outside Denali state park,Carlo Creek http://www.denaliparklodging.com/tourcompanies.html for some ‘lessons’ on how to put up the supplied tents, which we did, underneath the metal roofs, which were supplied on every pitch, perhaps there’s a lot of rain here ?…or mosquitoes, ominously a sign at the entrance seemed to confirm this …

we had a nice evening meal of Alaskan salmon,even though we had an evening shower of rain,which quickly passed, and given the good news that the following day we needed to be ready to leave at 5-30 a.m. !, by this time it was already 10-30 p.m. although we couldn’t tell, as it was still daylight

So a quick finish to the day, and off to bed under a clear sky, waiting for the stars to reveal themselves, and a ‘long drop’ toilet nearby for any ‘nightime excursions’… Goodnight ! …from the Polar Star state