I left Fairbanks yesterday, to begin my trip out of Alaska and back down towards the "lower 48", as the Alaskans call it. But I had a few more adventures before I left town.
Primarily, I went to Denali National Park for two days. This is a confusing park, so let me start by giving some information. Mount McKinley is the English name for the mountain, Denali is the native name. It means "the High One". The original park was "Mount McKinley National Park", but has been expanded several times, and is now larger than the state of Massachusetts. When it was expanded, the name was changed, too, to the Denali National Park and Preserve. Here's how it works. The original park is now the Denali Wilderness. This portion of the park contains the mountain, and is maintained as wilderness; there's only one road, for bus use only. Humans must pack out everything they carry in, and no hunting or fishing is allowed, even by the natives.
The second part of the park is Denali National Park. It surrounds the wilderness. Subsistence hunting, fishing, and trapping is allowed in this portion of the park by Athabascan natives, who've hunted and fished on that same land for millenia. Finally, west and south of this area is the Denali National Preserve; both subsistence and sport hunting and fishing are allowed in the preserve.
Anyway, I took a bus tour that day. It started at the park entrance, and traveled westward 62 miles to the Stony Hill Overlook, where we were supposed to be able to see The High One itself. Unfortunately, it was hiding that day, and I only saw one very small portion of the left side of the mountain. But I did get to see and learn all kinds of interesting things. First of all, tree line out there is only at 2500 feet, due to the harshness of the climate. Tundra line is at 4500 feet or so; above that the mountains are solid rock. At 6000 feet is the permanent snow line. Secondly, Denali has one of the highest actual mountain climbs of any mountain on earth, and is higher than the climb Mt. Everest. (For instance, in the Colorado Rockies, the mountains peak at 14,000 feet or so, but the climb begins at 10,000 feet, for a vertical climb of 4,000 feet. At Denali, the mountain "starts" at an elevation of only 2000 feet, so the actual "climb" is 18,000 feet.) It takes 2-3 weeks to climb Denali.
I also got to see lots of animals. The "big five" at Denali are Grizzly Bears, Dall Sheep, moose, caribou, and wolves. We got to see all of them except for the wolves. And we saw at least 15 grizzlies, and probably twice that many caribou. (I even saw a grizzly fishing -- which I'd been expecting to see at Kodiak, but instead saw at Denali! The bear literally stands in the water, then snatches a fish right out of the water with its snout, and shakes it violently. Then it digs right into its newfound feast.) The Dall sheep were cool, too -- there was a caucus of rams high on a mountain summit, like a group of men at a meeting. I saw golden eagles (bald eagles, which eat fish, lives primarily along the coast), beavers, snowshoe hares, and two types of squirrels.
I also took a very cool hike at Denali, which had been recommended by Caroline. It is the Mt. Healy Overlook Trail, and it's pretty tough, with grades of 25% in some places. It takes 3-4 hours. Unfortunately, I didn't get to make it all the way to the top, because I had a (slight) mishap. I feel almost as stupid about this one as I did about falling into the water in Kodiak: I sprayed 100% DEET into my left eye.
It happened like this: I was hiking uphill, and started getting hot in my multiple clothing layers. I gradually stripped off all of my layers, until I eventually got down to my t-shirt. Unfortunately, the mosquitos then decided to come in for the kill. So I opened my trusty camelbak and took out my super-duper Alaska-strength DEET. I sprayed my right arm, then my left, and then I rubbed the stuff on my face. But then I realized I hadn't gotten the back of my right arm. So I tried to do a quick spritz to that area. Unfortunately, I didn't realize the sprayer was aimed right at my left eye. So I sprayed directly into it. Yes, it burned, like crazy. Yes, I was alone. No, I didn't know what the possible side effect of this would be. And yes, I had my contact lenses on. So I lifted my camelbak and did a pseudo eyewash with the water, even though I couldn't open my eye fully for fear I'd lose my contact lens and not be able to see well enough to get down. And then I had to make a decision about whether to abort the hike and go to an ER to get checked out, or to continue on the trail. The DEET bottle didn't say that I needed to go to an ER, so I decided to continue hiking for a little while. But my eye kept hurting after another hour, so I finally cut the hike a little short and went back down to my car and my glasses. Fortunately, my eye was red and tearful, but my vision was okay. I made it back to Fairbanks without too much trouble. But I felt like an idiot. Apparently, I'm not too good with this outdoorswoman stuff....
Friday, Caroline and I went to Pioneer Park in Fairbanks to take some old-fashioned pictures. We bought a disk of the photos, so hopefully, I'll be able to post one here! I've never done that before -- and although I don't think I ever would have come up with the idea, it was fun taking the pictures. We decided to look like bad-ass, gun-toting saloon girls. I was the saloon maven behind the bar, and Caroline sat atop the bar.
When we got back to Caroline's house, I piled my things into my car, and left Fairbanks. Today, I arrived back in the Yukon, to a town called Haines Junction. I cannot believe the Alaska portion of my trip is over; it seemed like it was so far away for so long, and now it's over. Finishing the Alaska portion also means that my Possibilities Tour is half over. It's strange; I definitely feel like I've changed during the trip somehow. I feel so fortunate to have this time away from work, to see the world and explore a bit. I've loved spending time with old friends whom I haven't seen in years, in most cases. And I feel present, in a way which I haven't felt in a long, long time. But now, I feel sad, and a bit lost -- like even though I still have three months left in this trip, that it's already over, somehow.
I hope that the second half of my trip provides me with a new opportunity, to see the possibility of exploration, fun, and authenticity, even in the midst of everyday activities. I hope that I develop some habits which I can maintain, even after I go back to Atlanta and my "normal" life and job, so that I can see the world through the eyes which I have now, the eyes which appreciate the beauty, uniqueness, and real in the "unremarkable" events of every day.
One final note, just because it's interesting to me: the days shorten very quickly in Alaska. When I arrived in Fairbanks on July 13, sunrise was at 0346, and sunset was at 0008, and it really never got dark at all. When I left on July 30, sunrise was at 0444 and sunset was at 2308. So literally, the day was two hours shorter than when I arrived only 17 days previously; each day shortens by about 7 minutes or so. And I started using my headlights to drive on July 24, when I drove home from the Eskimo Olympics at 1am. This was notable, because it was the first time since I'd arrived in Alaska that it was even dusky enough to require them. It's still not dark dark, but it definitely looks like late twilight now, as opposed to when I first arrived, when I was sleeping in what looked basically like very early evening. The change has been pretty dramatic.
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