Rainy day so did laundry and worked on photos.  Tomorrow we head to Chicken.  Here are pictures of Mt McKinley/Denali.

The mountain was amazing.  I am now in the 30% club of people who have seen the mountain, so is Roy.

A little out of order but this is from Whittier glaciers, Prince Williams Sound.  It was a cloudy day but the ice was so blue.  

Who’s ready for some animals?  I know I am!

  More next post.

Getting around a little bit better today, so I don’t think it’s super bad.  I thought today was going to be a lazy day, then, we made plans.  Yesterday on the boat we stopped to see dog mushers when she was at the village I asked about a tour of the kennel, I called this morning.

Roy and I decided to clean up this am by showering and stuff.  I also figured out it’s laundry time. Tomorrow.  We ate lunch at the trailer, sandwiches quick and easy.  Headed the 21 miles into town.  First we had to stop at the North Pole Post Office and mail post cards.

We arrived at Trail Breakers Kennels http://trailbreakerkennel.com for the tour at 3:30. Laura was our guide she reminded me of a young Demi Moore.  She ran in the 2014 Iditarod she plans on running again in 2018. We talked for a bit then the three of us played twister to fit on the small ATV. 

 The first stop was the puppy/mentor pen. It is there where puppies learn the ropes and pecking order from older dogs. Second was the boarding kennels and dog kennels.  I learned that if a dog doesn’t have good qualities needed for racing they are spayed and neutered.  Speaking of puppies we were able to hold two puppies who were 12 days old.  Such whiners, the one Roy was holding wanted to suckle.  The one I was holding just wanted to hide his head, and whine. The tour was fun and easy because we rode the whole way.

We went to dinner at the Chena Pump Room also seen from the boat yesterday.  Roy had another round of King Crab and I had Red Deer.  It was so good going back tomorrow.

My knee swelling is down a littlle bit, now my knee cap is black and blue.  My coordination on good days is slim, so rather then risk breaking my neck I’ve gone down to one crutch and toe walking.  I do know I will have to get it looked at upon getting home.  

Today we went on a river boat cruise down the Chena, very muddy and shallow river.  The river boat was hid in an out of the way spot and did not look promising.  I have to say we were pleasantly surprised. We went 4 miles down the river where the Chena meets the Tanana.  Here we stopped at an Athabascan village, a replica of course.  Before this we were treated to a float plane landing and a dog sled demo.  If you ever get to Fairbanks YOU HAVE TO GO.  http://riverboatdiscovery.com 

I wasn’t going to get off at the village being the gimp I am, but, I am glad I did.  Langley one of the employees was able to drive me from stop to stop on the tour.  Roy stayed on the boat he has pictures of me riding in my chariot.

After the cruise we stopped at a restaurant to get some good seafood.  I also saw TV for the first time in two months that was wierd.   Another wierd thing is having to get away from the coast to have an opportunity to even order Alaskan seafood.

I think Monday is going to be a lazy day, maybe pictures.  I know I keep promising.

Well, good news bad news.  My knee is not broken but, I’m on crutches for awhile.  This should be interesting.  I can not put any weight on it until the swelling goes down.  They wrapped it with an ace bandage.  If it doesn’t go down by Tuesday we have to go back to the ER on Wainwright Army Base.  

I do have to say quickest in and out of an ER ever.  The total time was about 2 hours start to finish with an x-ray and a trip to pharmacy thrown in.  I do have to say I am glad I kept my tricare, the VA said I needed to call Loma Linda VA and they needed to call Anchorage VA to get me enrolled up in their system.  Once that occurs the clinic triage nurse will figure out where to send me, probably to the civilian ER down town.  The VA guy suggested if I had tricare go over to the base hospital ER.  DONE!

We did some running around and stopped at the North Pole Welcome Center.  Picked up a t-shirt one of hopefully a few from the North Pole.  People who see me every holiday season know I need more Christmas and Santa shirts.  Look for a few pictures from the village because we can drive most of it.

I’m leaving everyone with two funny thoughts me on Santa’s lap, and crutches and a second person in a 12 foot trailer.

41 degrees inside the trailer BRRRRRR.  Well my knee was still swollen and it was very cold, so decission was made to leave.  Having no electricity and me not being able to move spending another night was useless.  

I was able to hobble around using my cane for stability and get the stuff put away, Roy did the outside.  Once down we headed out, saw no animals until we got onto the main park road.  We did an earth cache at Savage river then a little further down the road saw three caribou. I was beginning to think that was all there was in the park. 

All of a sudden Roy slows down and this time I have my Canon ready.  There is a momma moose (cow) with her baby (calf).  I was able to zoom in and snap some good photos.  The cool part is she wasn’t spooked and Roy was able to inch up to the pull out.

We stopped by the Riley Creek Campground and at least we got a refund for the two nights we did not use.  So there is a silver lining :).  The rest of the trip to Fairbanks only had one animal sighting.  I had never seen a fox in the wild, this little red fox stopped in our lane then thought better of crossing the road.  He high tailed it back to the brush.

Friday we will head to Wainwright Army Base to check my knee, we are staying at the Air Force Base outside North Pole Alaska.

After waking up to 45 degrees in the camper, I tried to make instant coffee by heatimg water on the propane stove.  That didn’t work  the water should have been hotter,  then I ended up dropping my coffee on the floor.  I added more crystals because I thought my was going to be weak.  After the mini disaters we walked up to the bus stop to catch the Kantishna bus.  This bus takes you to the end of the park road.  https://www.nps.gov/dena/planyourvisit/visiting-denali.htm

When I got on the bus I twisted my knee, I heard a pop then could notut full weight on it UGH!  I felt rushed but I should have taken my time.  She was the one who was 1/2 hour late, so we got seated on bus and on our way.  My knee was sore but I still enjoyed.  The total trip waa 10 hours.

We saw mainly caribou, a few dall sheep, no moose or bear.  The main thing we saw was the mountain which will always be Mt. McKinley to Roy and I.  Shortly after we saw it the clouds rolled in.  I stayed in at most of the stops but I did get out at the end of the road and took a picture.  On the way back we saw a young male dall sheep run down the hill.

Unfortunately, by the time we got off the bus I could not put any real weight on it. Lucky for us the park ranger who was doing the evening talk pulled in.  She gave us a ride to our campsite, she also called medical.  Medical came out and wanted me to self transport.  We decided to see how it will be in the morning

We are 30 miles inside Denalli, no phone, no internet, and no car driving.  I played el touristo today by walkingalong the overpriced tourist stores right outside the park.  We got up this morning and bought fire wood, smores makings, and water.  You have to be prepared when you rough it.

On the way out to teklanika, it’s the farthest you can drive and camp.  More info https://www.nps.gov/dena/planyourvisit/campground-tek.htm  we saw no animals unlike the night before when we saw caribou.   Although when we stopped at the guard house to get permission to proceed we were warned that there was a sow bear and 2 cubs that passed through the camp on Monday night.

Setting up was quick as we stayed connected so Roy turned on the propane and I set up.  Once set up we decided to nuke hot dogs, because you could run a generator from 4pm to 8pm.  I then went to the ranger program it was on bears.  BTW the bear bells are to make us humons feel better.

After the program came back and Roy had a fire going so we warmed up a little and made smores.  Got beat in a game of cribbage, then went to bed.  Tomorrow we take the bus to the end of the road.

I actually saw a moose.  We were heading down the George Parks Highway and low and behold there was this young male moose just eating.  The cool thing is he still had part of his velvet.  I was able to get a picture of Roy taking a picture of the moose. I would say the moose was maybe 4 yearsold

We made it to the park and checked in for all of the nights, we are in for.  Found a site right away, if you ever book go with the larger sites on A loop.  I checked out the gift shops and struck out.  I did buy a t-shirt from the camp store.

This is the first of six nights boondocking, this should be fun.  It’s funny camp Riley has no electric but it does have wi-fi by the store.  Speaking of wif-fi I will have no phone or internet service for the next several days.

After we got our site drove as far as we could drive because most of Denalli is only available via bus which is cool. We did see some caribou in the valley tonight.  I can’t wait to see more.  I will post my next blogs in a group when we get back to civilization.