Denali State Park in the Spring

Taloofa (Samoan for Welcome). I can not believe I have been in Alaska 9 months already. Time has really flown by. I will be returning to Memphis for the summer and then return to Anchorage again in early August. I hope you have enjoyed my adventure up here. Thank you Kathy Garrison for making this blog possible. Last weekend I was initiated into the DKG teacher sorority. I will have you all know I am no longer on the short yellow bus anymore when it comes to web pages. I spent the afternoon creating the Nu chapter's web page. I worked with another member and we were quite proud of what we accomplished in such a short time. My triathlon training is coming along really well. I am getting better at swimming. I can swim the 1/2 mile in about 39 mins. now. I cut off 21 mins. in just two short weeks. Now I have to tell you, I do not swim any normal strokes. My teacher has created one that works for me. It looks a bit different but it works. I am getting pretty fast with the side stroke (right side is stronger than left side). I enjoy working towards a goal but I am not sure swimming will become a favorite sport for me. I have some pretty funny stories about my swimming experience. One involves a male in a black speedo swim suit! Did I tell you that we swim circle style, so there are about 4 - 6 swimmers per lane and you swim in a very long oval. In case you have not swam in a high school pool lately, at the end of each lane is a black square on the wall so you know where you should do your touch and flip turn. Well, the gentleman in our lane decided to take a lap rest and stood in front of the black area on the wall. Yep, you guessed it. I was so focused on not drowning and I touched the black spot - or so I thought it was the pool's black spot. It wasn't. I was so embarrassed I thought I was going to drown trying to get away and apologize as I was drowning. My friends had to pull me to the ropes so I wouldn't really drown. They laughed so hard. Ooops, I mean they laughed a lot. The gentleman apologized for resting at the most inopportune spot. There is another Warmboldian funny! Our spring is here - well at least I think. All studded tires had to be removed by today or you receive a $100 fine per tire. The tire dealers are open 24 hours to get every one's tires changed. You can't imagine the long lines at all the tire stores. Not me. I changed my tires out 2 weeks ago and beat the last minute rush.
I am sure you all have heard about "Buddy" the dog that helped save his owners house from burning down. Well, Buddy is quite the hero up here. I had the opportunity to meet Buddy's owner on our Denali trip. More in a bit. But I want you to understand how connected Alaskans and their dogs are up here. Amazing.

The first few pictures from David's and my snowmobile trip to the glacier. I love the virgin snow picture. The snow was about as deep as our thighs that day which made it so much fun driving in this fluffy snow. The glacier was the most gorgeous blue it was mesmerizing. If anyone plans on coming to Alaska, you must come in early March when you can drive out to the glacier or in September when you can raft out to the glacier and then climb the glacier. Both are hard work but worth every minute of effort. Our trip to Denali State Park was amazing. It took us about 3 and half hours to get there. No traffic on the road at all. The State Park is only open for three weekends when you can drive your own car into the park up to the 30 mile marker. Normally, you get to drive in the park about 2 miles and then you have to take one of their buses to do tours inside the park. The Ranger told us only about 17% of the people who come to the park to visit really get to see Mt. McKinley (Denali to Alaskans). As you can see from the pictures, it was the most gorgeous blue skies, very few clouds, and sunny warm (low 50's). Vanessa, one of my friends, was having one of her first girls nights away. Her son, 4 years old, gave her his Teddy Bear for her to sleep with on Vanessa's trip. Cute! So we made a "Traveling Teddy" instead of a Flat Stanley, story. So you will see Teddy enjoying the State park along with us. Since we are one week from "Tourist season" the roads have a lot of "Mini Winnies" traveling around. Remember, only Anchorage to Fairbanks have paved roads. Nome has two paved streets but no roads leading to Nome. The first picture of Traveling Teddy is in front of the Igloo hotel about 1/2 hour before entering the State Park. Not used during the winter months only in the summer. The next two pictures show you the difference between being on the North side or South side. The one side has no snow left due to the tilt of the Earth and the other side is still snow packed and will be until July. Clears just in time for snowfall in October. Next is Teddy with the Park Ranger. She was very helpful with nature information. She told us only one Grizzy has come out of hibernation, there is a herd of caribou and lots of dall sheep (very pregnant). So she gave us sound advice about what to do, where to hike (to keep our triathlon training going), where to take pictures and just enjoy! She was exactly on with her information. At mile marker 7.4 was the majestic view of Denali. Isn't she gorgeous in all her glory. Denali is the snow covered mountain in the distance. Again, remember only a very select few tourist get to see her in her in this full view. I am lucky!!! I am sure my luck doubles everytime I see a moose. I saw several on the way to school the day before our trip. Denali may not look big to you but remember the base sits at 17,000 feet and the summit reaches 29,000 feet. Denali may look small but she is really really big. It was neat having so many people climbing Denali this time of year. There were 3 base camps (set up by the military in conjunction with tour adventures), and they said there were about 36 people on their way to the summit. I guess I am fasinated with the outhouses so here is another ecofriendly building. The rock formations were incredible, even more amazing when you realize how old they are. Then, just as the Ranger said, Grizzy sightings at Mile 15. Yep, there he was. He doesn't look big through my small camera lens, of course I forgot the zoom lens and spare battery. But he was big. We watched him chase the pregnant dall sheep over the mountain. He stopped about 300 feet from us and ate a snack on some berries. Then he wandered around and we went to view the caribou. The herd was amazing. They run so gracefully but raised up quite a bit of dust. It was easy to spot them far away. I loved the new green coming through the fall timbers. The rivers were starting to flow pretty steadily. Still a lot of snow. You can't really see Teddy with the girls but when you ask a stranger to take the photo you just hope it turns out. He was very cute and polite. We tried to hook him up with Beth, but the Army was there doing some kind of training and his commander called him to head out! Sorry Beth, we tried. The next picture is glissening ice covered river. It will probably break through some time this week. Teddy is taking a potty break in the trees. There are no port a potties so you take whatever cover you can when mother nature calls. I am getting pretty good at nature potty stops! The cabin was our Bed and Breakfast in Talkeetna. We selected this town (about 140 miles south of Denali) because it was Jeopardy night in Talkeetna and then live music. Who would want to miss this? The population of Talkeetna during the winter is 400 and in the summer 785. We found the community theater and paid our cover charge (Jeopardy night was a fund raiser). It smelled like old stale beer and cigarettes. But an interesting crowd. I will have to put those pictures on next blog (I took them with a purchased instamatic camera).
So there were 6 teams, (Buddy's friends, Sara ? the local author, Sara Palin look a likes, and a few more). This was so cool. I am going to see how they got it set up and perhaps pursue a Jeoopardy night for us!!! The live band was fabulous. Of course, the three tourist, stuck out like a sore thumb. So we made a pack if we were asked to dance we would say yes to be gracious. They can really cut the rug in these small places. We had a fun time in Talkeetna. By the way, the mayor of Talkeetna sits on the bar to drink, lays on the billard table to play and always wears a fur coat. The mayor's name is Stubbs. (A jeopardy question by the way). Well, I happen to remember this interesting fact from my visit to Talkeetna with my family in November. Stubbs is a feline tabby cat. Her poster reads, "Dogs are mans best friend. I am the mayor and I don't pull a sled through the cold snow." We had Vanessa going about the mayor. She was looking for a Jerimiah Johnson person almost the whole night. She did enjoy the beers! We finally told her the truth before we called it a night. Talkeetna is so neat it is like an Alaska Petticoat Junction. It still has whistle stop trains (you know the kind where you whistle for the train to stop and pick you up) True fact. Most of Talkeetna is "off grid". That means they don't have running water or electricity. They live in the bush area and use generators and rely on the sunlight. No me! Talkeetna also does not have a mayor nor a police department. I guess this is why so my hippies (pot heads) live here. The smell of the town is weed not wood burning fireplaces. Groovy, Out of Sight, Peace and Love are very common words spoken in Talkeetna. They are very nice and take care of one and other. One lady we spoke to is at a Whistle Stop and it takes her two days (she a two one room cabins) to get to the train. No that is an isolated living. She has her horse (which also rides the train into Talkeetna for a small charge - a bag of weed) That's what she told us. She grows her own veggies, pot and potatoes. She said she is experimenting with vodka since potatoes grow so well up here. She came in for the big weekend. We also learned that in January, Talkeetna hosts the Artic Women contest. I talked my friends into participating in that event next year. It is bizzare but sounds like a fun competition.

So back to Susitna School. I was on the musical committee. This past week was the 1st and 2nd grade Whackadoo Zoo musical. Isn't the set cute. Drawn free-hand by the music teacher, Shawnee. The lions don't roar - they cluck, cluck, cluck. The monkeys he haw, the cows meow, and the pigs gobble and the goats moo. So the zookeep tries to get them to conform. In the end, they realize it is great to be different and embrace our differences rather than trying to change everything. Great musical, great theme.

Finally, here is my 10:45 pm pictures out my side porch. The mountain range in the distance is the Sleeping Lady, Susitna. This is taken at 10:45 looking at Cooks Inlet. The mountains, about 4 blocks from my house, are much more lit because the sun is shining on them. We wear sunglasses well into the 9 and 10 pm evenings. So we went for a walk last night after the movies since it was so light out. The last picture is from my return from the walk. It was around 11:20 pm. The colors are always this pretty. The sun rises about 4:15 am. Alaska is sneaking up close to the 24 hours of sunlight. This extra light at night sure brings about spring fever for the kids. I know the neighbor kids play outside until at least 10 pm. Don't their parents know they have school in the morning? I have taught for a long time and I have never seen spring fever like Alaska spring fever. They kids have pretty much shut down by the end of April when it starts getting light longer. We still have three weeks of school to go. It is funny to see so much sunlight and yet the playgrounds are still about 1 to one and half feet of packed snow beneath the swings and climbing gyms. It is sunny and in the 50's most days. Remember, summer gets to about 75 so the kids are wearing shorts and flip flops. Now picture, elementary students in flip flops on the playground with snow! Yep, everyday. Like is different where ever we live.

I will keep you posted on my last few weeks. I hope Kathy will keep the blog going one more year because there is so much I plan to do next year that I couldn't fit in this year.

Enjoy your spring and beautiful flowering time of the year. I will see you all soon.

Hugs from

Sheryl the Nanq of the North