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| My Favorite Bakery Near Talkeetna |
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| Darrell in Line at Flying Squirrel Bakery, Talkeetna |
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| My Toasty Sandwich at Flying Squirrel Bakery, Talkeetna |
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| Darrell's Pushing a Tree into the Lake, Talkeetna |
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| Highway Going East to Wasilla from Talkeetna |
Saturday. 20. Regular morning routine. Mid-morning we drive 3 ½ miles to Flying Squirrel Bakery. We each get an Americano and a bakery treat. Darrell got Chocolate Babka. I got Walnut Raisin Toast with butter. We sat and visited for over an hour. Then we decided to get sandwiches. I got the Turkey Pesto and Darrell got the Muffaleta. We enjoyed lingering and eating our lunch. Then we went to a local trailhead and walked 3+miles around a lake. While walking we stopped three times to spray ourselves with mosquito repellant. Third time was the charm in this case! We talked about our future travels and possibilities for some of our open dates this September and October. We also walked along quietly enjoying our woodsy experience. The path is nice and there are flowers lining it that look intentional. A low border flower with small white blossoms on either side of the path looks very gardeny. Then there are the pink flower bushes that are a level taller than the lower ground flowers. They are all making this wooded walk more enjoyable. Also there are a lot of different ferns and mosses with fresh smells, colors and textures that are pleasing to my senses. We got back to our cabin about 1:30pm. We are working on our computers. Darrell’s reading an e-book. I’ve made a camping menu for next week and a grocery list to go with it. We have Sirius radio on the Baroque and Beyond station as our background. I’ve treated my toes with a vinegar soak and some essential oils. I think that I have a toenail fungus that began showing a couple weeks ago. I get it to calm down, but it’s difficult to treat. I might go to a podiatrist in another 10 days once we arrive in Fairbanks. I’ll see how it’s doing then and decide about seeing a doctor.
Sunday. 21. 8:30 am drive 85 miles to Palmer church of Christ for Sunday worship. We hung out after worship and visited as long as we could stretch it. Lunch out at a restaurant. We chose the Mexican one across from Walmart. It was good food. Shopping at Walmart. Then back to Talkeetna for our last night at our cabin there. We got back at 4pm. I am tired, and a bit contrary. Darrell made his pancake mix, and divided it into daily ziploc sandwich bags for our camper stay. I rested and had a small meltdown with tears. It’s a mix of tiredness and missing what’s familiar to me. I applied my newly acquired antifungal spray to my toes.
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| Owen, Grandson with a Big Smile from Alabama |
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| Esther, Granddaughter Showing Us Her Pigtails |
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| Our Oldest Son, Eric Embracing His Toddler Dad Status! |
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| On Our Roadtrip From Talkeetna to Healy, Near Denali |
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| Restaurant with a View of Denali |
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| Highway to Denali View |
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| Storms Brewing on the Way to Denali |
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| Hard Rain on the Way to Denali |
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| Rain Begins to Clear |
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| Clearing Views on the Way to Denali. Droplets on my Car Window Sparkle. |
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| Views Driving to Denali |
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| Beautiful Views and Drive to Denali |
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| Nenana River Next to the Small Tourist Town of Denali and Denali National Park |
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| Nenana River and Healy Mountain (I think) Near Denali Park |
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| Driving Out of Denali toward Healy |
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| Our Airbnb Parking Space and Path. 17 miles North of Healy |
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| Darrell Walking the Path to Our Airbnb/Camper the First Time |
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| Still Walking to Our Camper/Airbnb |
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| Arrived to Camp Seclusion. Outhouse to the Left. Door on the Other Side. |
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| Inside Our Cozy Airbnb Camper. Darrell Can't Stand Upright (he's 6'4") |
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| Built on Entryway with Shower and Taller Ceiling for Darrell. |
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| Wagon Offered as Extra from Our Host |
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| I'm Getting Dinner Cooked First Time Here |
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| Half-Sized Fridge Filled with Our Supplies |
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| Some Of Our Items and Some Supplied |
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| Shelf Overflow of Food |
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| Darrell Enjoying the Screened Porch. Worked Until the Mosquitos Took Over. lol. |
Monday. 22. We got up early and enjoyed our morning ab routine workout. We set about getting our breakfast as well as being mentally prepared for packing up and moving today. It’s a clear blue sky morning, and a fairly warm morning. After breakfast we were able to have a video call with our son Eric and their two littles, Owen and Esther. They are adorable to us and bring smiles to our faces. We talked with them for about 20 minutes, then set about packing up. The move out was so easy at this place. The car backed up almost to the front porch that was two easy steps up. We popped the back end of the car open. I carried our luggage and boxes out to the porch while Darrell loaded up. We looked at the map to figure out where we would stop for lunch. We would get to an isolated cafe on Hwy 3 with a view of Denali mountain around noon. Our hybrid car is still going on the fill up we did a few days ago during our Talkeetna stay. Our stop at Mary’s Cafe with a View was very nice. Darrell got a cheeseburger and I got a chicken sandwich. On the side we both opted for the Reindeer chili. We ordered dessert here too. Two small coffees with a pie and a chocolate chip cookie. All of the food was very good. The chili was very close to any chili with meat and beans in a thickened tomato base. All this was $50. It seems high to us but we know the prices have gone up and we are in a remote place. There was a story on the back of the menu at Mary’s about how this cafe came to be. Mary came here in the late 1960’s after her husband died. She lived and worked as a teacher and a newspaper writer. She was often taking flights with a local and well-known pilot. She got to know the area and the people well. She wanted to stay. She discovered that she liked this location where the cafe is for this particular view of Denali mountain. She decided to make this spot her home. She lived in a tent in the beginning. She petitioned the governor for a road to come by her place that would serve vehicles driving between Anchorage and Fairbanks. It took her several years to get the attention and support for this current Hwy 3. She wrote all of her story in a best selling book of the time. We went on our way to our next stay. Our check in isn’t until 4pm. So even though we feel so far away from everything, it’s mainly because there are so few people, and a couple hours driving between spots other than trailheads. Our next stop was 30 minutes before getting to our north of Healy stay. It’s a turn into the Denali National Park entrance road. The scenery has been stunning. There are mountains with green slopes and then various amounts of snow, tundra, and rivers. We’ve had sunshine and a rainstorm. We turn into the park road and follow the signs to the camp store. I read that there is a laundry mat and free wifi there. We check it out. There are showers to purchase there too. There’s a small shop with tee shirts and other souvenirs made in China for sale! We drive on Hwy 3 a little further and come to a beautiful bridge with a parking area and a pedestrian walk across the river. There’s a canyon with a river and 3-4 inflated rafts with tourists coming and going from the river below us. Up on the side of the mountain is a beautiful large lodge overlooking it all. There are also what looks to be condos lining one side of the river bank to one side of the bridge. We take a short walk across the bridge. Then we drive on. We quickly come to the town of Denali, if you can call it a town. It exists for tourists and for a few workers. There are several tourist shops, coffee shops, a few restaurants, gas stations and hotels, including the Princess Lodge. The Princess Lodge is owned by the cruise line of the same name. Darrell and I have sailed over 300 days on Princess so we have also seen the picture of this lodge which is part of the company's Land and Sea tour of Alaska. We drive on through the town and enjoy the canyon views and the meandering river. It’s another 15-20 minutes to Healy where we have a plan to stop for groceries. This town is spread out and looks like a working and support town. We get to the Three Bears Alaska store that is the largest grocery along our drive and until you get to Fairbanks another 90+ minutes up the road. We go in and check on the prices. The prices look to be about 10-20 percent higher than in Anchorage. They have some items that are marked down and some that aren’t marked up to the maximum they could go. It seems like a reasonable supplier and they have a huge selection for the location. We don’t need anything today, but we will be back sometime later in the week. I’m ready for a snack and get one out of our stash, a banana and slice of cheese with a big Wasa cracker. Darrell has a smaller bite to eat. We drive another 17 miles north to our camper airbnb. We turn off the hwy and onto a rocky road that is like a fairly smooth stream bed. Darrell would say that I’m being nice to say it that way! Lol. We drive a mile-plus to our drive turn in. We park and carry our backpacks out of the car and follow the rocky pathway about 400 ft to our ‘Camp Seclusion’. It’s pretty and not raining. We arrive at the little hardsided camper and unlock the keypad on the door and enter. Unfortunately, the ceiling is a few inches too low for Darrell to stand fully upright. The heater’s pilot light is on and it’s warm inside, a little too warm. Everything looks good and very neat and tidy. The shower is built in in the doorway entry and has a higher ceiling than the main camper where the two burner stove is for cooking. Also to get to the entry door, there is a small deck enclosed in a screen with two chairs. This screened deck and entry is important to reduce the number of mosquitos inside the camper. It turned out to be one of the best features of this stay. The ceiling is also high enough on the patio for Darrell to stand up. Our pit toilet is a few feet walk from our camper. This pit toilet is very clean for such a place. The most difficult part is when it gets cold or rainy. It doesn’t get dark at this time of the year so that’s not an issue. We walk back to our car and try to load up all of the rest of the items we need into a foldable wagon that the host left for us and is not usually included in shorter stays here. Darrell had to go back to the car at least two more times. We used mosquito spray because it became apparent that they found us out. We are here for 7 nights. We have decided that if it’s awful, then we can bail out and stay in a hotel in Fairbanks! Lol. We do have at least until Friday because our Park Tour is all day on Thursday. We also have plenty of food to make it through the week with a couple of exceptions that we plan to get from Three Bears. We can also opt to eat out anytime. We turned off the pilot on the heater unit and opened the windows to get a breeze. We unpacked as best we could. We loaded up our small camper fridge and left some items in our cooler. I cooked up lean beef and black beans with chili spices for dinner. After dinner cleanup, I began reading a book that the host left called “Tisha”. It’s a paperback published in 1976 and was a best seller. It’s a true story of a woman who moved to Alaska in 1927 to a remote and very small village to teach. I’m enjoying the story. We slept well enough in the camper’s full sized bed. I forgot to carry my eyemask and special neck pillow from my suitcase. I woke up at 2:30am and got a picture of the sunrise from our bed. I went back to sleep after closing the curtains. Darrell got a shower and told me that it was easier than it looks. I’m waiting until tomorrow for my shower.
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| 2:30 am Sunrise View From Camper Bed. |
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| Darrell Hitting His Head on the Ceiling to Cook His Pancakes |
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| Sitting Down to Our Breakfast Feast! |
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| The Road to Our Camper was Like Driving in A Creek Bed! lol |
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| Coffee and WiFi Respite from Our Camper |
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| I Read This Book Quickly Because of the Thrills in the Story. |
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| Made it to the National Park |
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| Beautiful Trail in DNP |
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| Nice View |
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| Nice Foot Bridge in DNP |
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| This Skinny Tree is Over 100 years Old! The Same Tree in the Vintage Picture Below |
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| Vintage Picture of Tourists in Denali Park at the Same Spot We are Standing Now. |
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| A Couple of Caribou Far Away. |
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| Watching a Bunny Near Our Camper Around Dinner Time |
Tuesday. 23. We woke up and skipped our regular exercises. There’s very little space to do it. So that routine is stopped for the week. Later in the afternoon, I did most of a 40 minute routine called “stand up” out on the porch. I was swatting and clapping mosquitos throughout my time. It worked ok, but not great. Darrell made one day's worth of pancakes with a couple left over. We had our usual big breakfast. The camper has some good Alaska coffee and a french press. Breakfast and clean up went well. Around 9:30 we walked out to our car. The mosquitos were hanging out there and we tried to limit how long we held the car doors open. It’s miserable to get mosquitos inside a car with you. We drove 17 miles to a coffee shop in Healy. It was pouring down rain there. We went inside to buy a coffee and get the wifi pass. Wednesday. 24.
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| White Mountain is Denali or Mckinley. It's 25 miles in the Distance. The Closer Mountain is 7 miles from Us. Seen on Our Bus tour |
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| View at DNP |
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| View of Denali at DNP |
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| Another View of Denali Seen During Our Bus Tour at DNP |
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| Some of the DNP Road Only Open to Tour Buses in the Park for Now. |
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| Lunch at tAKo in Denali tourist Town |
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| Darrell's Picture of His Hike in DNP |
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| Another Great Picture From Darrell's Hike in DNP. He took me back here on a different day. |
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| Darrell's Picture of His Hike in DNP |
Thursday. 25. We got up with our very early alarm at 4:30am. The Denali Park Bus Stop opens at 5am to begin tours at 6am. The tour buses leave every 10 minutes close to schedule. Our tour was set to leave at 6:10am and last 5+hours. We had everything ready when we woke up. I had the french press set to make a pot of coffee, and the kettle was full with water. I turned on the flame and got the water started. We had a cold night, but the sun was shining and the sky looked clear from our Healy camper. Besides having my clothes laid out for the day, I had prepacked our brunch/lunch bag. I got the sandwiches out of the fridge and put them into our bag of food. We filled our car coffee mugs with coffee, and served ourselves a breakfast of yogurt, cottage cheese, sliced banana, protein granola and nuts. There was plenty of time to have this breakfast with our plan of leaving by 5:15 am. We packed up, walked the gravel path from our camper to our car and took off on our 30 minute drive to the bus tour. Once we arrived, Darrell checked in, I filled our water filter bottles and had a restroom break before heading to our que at the appropriate stop outside the building. We had a manager come and give our group of about 45 initial directions and permission for going to the restroom before getting on the bus. Our bus arrived and the driver/guide talked to our group with details and another permission to take a restroom break here as our next chance would be 90 minutes into the park. We were counted and checked off the guides list as we boarded the bus. We took a snack box from the stack and chose our seats at the very back of the bus. This bus was like a US school bus but painted with the Denali park logo, and upgraded seats. These bus tours are run by a concessionaire and have been going into the park since sometime in the ‘70’s or ‘80’s. Our driver/tour guide wore a microphone and gave us commentary along our way with some quiet time as well. If anyone saw any wildlife, they would yell, “stop!”, and others were to relay the message to him as he was riding over a noisy engine up front. He would stop the bus, get the direction of the animal and see if we could see it from the bus. He also had a camera that he could aim at the animals and then transfer his image to some tv screens positioned at intervals in the bus. Most of the time this worked pretty well. My highlight of the day was spotting a large lynx! I yelled stop. By the time the bus stopped the lynx, I figured was gone and he was way behind me now at 8 o’clock. The bus driver backed up and waited and everyone watched. We spotted the lynx again since the trees had some space between them and his multi-coloring vividly stood out between the green trees. He’d be more hidden among rocks and dirt. It was amazing!! The driver said that’s such a rare sight! Later on our tour, and within 15 miles of the end, another lynx was spotted and several people on the bus caught sight of it. The driver said this one was a kit, and this was also very rare! Other animals we saw were two porcupines, a few caribou, ravens, and dall sheep way up like specks on the mountain. He reminded us early on that our tour wasn’t about having expectations about seeing some animal, but to enjoy the ride and all of the scenery. This morning we got another treat with a clear view of Mt. Denali. It’s a fully snow-covered mountain and that never changes. The two peaks at the top are two miles apart. He explained that we were viewing the mountain from 25 miles away, and if you brought it forward to this closer mountain that was 7 miles away from us, Denali would be 4 times the height of this closer mountain! Denali is more often not visible clearly. The saying is that you can see it clearly 30% of the time. Our bus had an extra stop to view Denali clearly, and it was very appreciated. Darrell and I had clear views of it from Talkeetna on several days too. So we somehow got a good run for our two weeks near this beauty. We ate all of our snacks from our tour box: small turkey meat stick, a kind bar, cheese puffs, trail mix, and brownie crisps along with a bottle of water. We also ate the sandwiches we brought along with veggies straws and a banana. I was exhausted when we got back to our starting point at about 11:30. Darrell was hungry for a ‘real lunch’. We decided to go to the closest tourist town of Denali just outside the park entrance, and less than a mile away. We went to tAKo after seeing their menu and prices online. Darrell got a couple of elk tacos, a Jaritos drink, and I got the chicken tortilla soup. These prices for Alaska and for Denali were easier on our wallet than others. That was about $30. After lunch we went back to the park so Darrell could hike a trail while I napped in the car. By the time he got back and described his steep ups and downs and the beautiful views, he was ready for an ice cream. We stopped again in Denali, where there are at least 3 ice cream shops. We picked one and each got a scoop of Huckleberry. It was not too sweet and loaded with berries. We sat on a bench on the boardwalk and enjoyed our ice creams. Then we walked the short length of the boardwalk and looked into shops. We didn’t find anything we couldn’t live without! Lol. We drove the 30 minutes back to our camper. We both read for a while, took showers, and then decided on having chili for dinner. It’s a go-to favorite of ours as it is simple and full of flavor that we enjoy often. We spent the evening reading until about 9pm. We were both surprised that Darrell could stay awake. I finished the book “Tisha” that stays in the camper. This book is definitely exciting and all about Alaska in 1927, the people, the conditions, and so much more. I learned even more that I am not an Alaskan. I am appreciating the best of what I am learning about Alaska during our spring, summer, and fall visit. I learned on our Denali tour that these three seasons are quick and within the months of May-August. The season can be delayed or come a little early. During these weeks of growth, the animals are eating and sleeping 24/7. A baby moose goes from about 90- 100 pounds at birth to 400-500 pounds! It is about reproducing, growing and getting ready to survive the long winter. We have seen the leaves bud out in one day and thicken and bloom within the same week. It’s quite amazing to see the flowers popping out with colors among the green grasses and trees as we are now transitioning from spring into summer. Darrell pushed the season words together into one: “Sprummerall.” We don’t have internet here to see if this word already exists! Lol. I later discovered that the crammed word for three seasons does exist.
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| View of Nenana River Coming South on Hwy 3 into the Town of Denali. |
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| Love This Food!! |
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| Darrell Getting Me in the Picture. |
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| Keeping Up On the Big Climb in DNP |
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| Keep On a Going Higher and Higher! |
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| Views as We Climb |
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| I'm Pink With Circulation, Exhilaration at the Top |
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| Steep Climb |
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| We Made It to the Marker. |
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| Darrell at A Level Higher! |
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| Our Descent |
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| Beautiful Views Going and Coming! |
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| Moose in DNP on the Drive Out |
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| DNP Moose |
Friday. 26. We tried to sleep in. Ultimately I needed to go to the outhouse about 5am. It was beautiful and full on sunny like noon with a slight coolness in the air. I still wanted to dive back into the warm bed so I did until about 7am. We hang around our camper until about 10am, reading and writing mostly. We decided to go on to Denali, the little tourist town near the park entrance, and get a coffee. It’s a half hour drive from us, and we get there and get some good coffee, Darrell an Americano and me a Latte. We sit in the outside seating and enjoy the view and the other tourists walking by. Around 11 we decide to keep our table and order brunch. Darrell got the scrambled eggs with cheese and a biscuit with sausage gravy. I got a homemade english muffin sandwich with sausage and scrambled egg with cheese. The portions were filling. After this we walked down to the end of the short boardwalk that we had not visited yet and shopped for Tee shirts. We started a conversation with a couple sitting at another restaurant and stood and talked for 10 minutes or so. She was wearing an Apostle Islands hoodie and I asked her where those islands were. She said in Wisconsin and went on to say that they were wonderful and worth going to. After our tourist town stop, we had a trail in mind that climbed Mt. Healy from the park Visitor Center. It was straight up over 2 miles, climbing to 3500 from the 1750 ft elevation of the Center. It was a beautiful sunny day to walk through the woods on a challenging climb. The weather temp was a warm 77. While climbing up the trail, other groups of hikers were coming down and letting us know that a bear had been seen by one woman ahead of us. This made the groups chatty as a noise deterrent for any possible hidden bears. Darrell carried our bear spray in his belt. We shared carrying our small backpack with our water bottles, mosquito spray and our jackets. We weren’t bothered by mosquitos because of the spray. We saw one group trying to dodge the bugs. On the climb, it got steeper with switch backs. It was mostly tree covered with more and more openings until we were above the treeline. There were beautiful views of the valley and mountains from every vantage point that we stopped at. After an hour of hiking, I kept thinking, “are we there yet?, is this the top?” It took us another 40 minutes to get all the way up. We traded getting pictures with a couple carrying a baby in a front pack. Darrell went one ascent further up than I wanted to climb. I started back down. I congratulated a family of 6 just arriving at the top. Darrell caught up with me in about 20 minutes. We encouraged people hiking up that the view was worth the climb, and it was a good story and amazing accomplishment. It took us more than an hour to descend and get back to our car. Glad that we had enjoyed our afternoon this way and for our mutual accomplishment. We went to the tourist area for an ice cream. We had scoped out the place to go since there are several ice cream shops to choose from. Instead of ice cream, I had seen avocado chocolate pudding in the grab and go case at the coffee shop we ate brunch at earlier. I used to make avocado pudding often, before it was popular, and I love it! I was so hoping that it was not sold out yet. I arrived while Darrell was getting his ice cream, and found two left in the case. I got one and I was so happy! We met up outside and sat again with the mountain views and rest from our amazing hike. We drove the 30 minutes back to our camper/airbnb and cooked our planned dinner out of our food stash. Tonight was the second time for chicken sausage links and sauerkraut. We had dessert first which didn’t ruin our appetites at all!
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