Our second and third days in Denali found us looking for Christopher McCandless' magic bus (most people know him from the book turned movie Into The Wild). In short, there was a guy who graduated college, donated all his money, and went to travel the the continent. It seems his main goal was to explore Alaska, without much direction. He's been criticized for being stupid, and has been stood up for being brave. His travels took him to a bus outside of Denali park where he lived for over 100 days, until he died of unknown causes (though most people believe he ate something poisonous).
The hike was gorgeous but strenuous to say the least. The nature is gorgeous along the Stampede Trail, and the ocassional sign of human life is comforting. There were a few places where people had set up and abandoned their camp.


We had to cross 3 rivers including the Teklanika River (which is the river that was too much for McCandless to cross). We were told by the forest rangers "if you think you're gonna die, don't cross it". Fair advice, we still crossed it. It was worse coming back over it because it had been sunny so the ice was melting and feeding into the rivers. Regardless, we didn't encounter any water that went above my waist.


Getting lost would be easy, but there are often ATVs taking the trail, so its carved out. There's a winter and summer trail, we took the winter.



We think this is Mount McKinley (to get to it in the park you have to pay for a bus ticket, people aren't allowed to drive out there).



As i mentioned before, the hike was extremely strenuous. It was 12 hours on sand, rocks, dirt, mud, through swampy areas, and rivers. The trail was rarely flat because most people take it with ATVs, which are more fun when its hilly. The mosquitos were awful, and we oftentimes had to say "hey bear" or talk loudly to keep any big game away. The only big game we actually saw (although i think we heard some, or maybe the birds were messing with us) was a HUGE moose. I wish i would've had my camera handy. We saw it, started yelling "hey moose!" and it followed us! My boyfriend had firecrackers handy, so he lit them, threw them at the moose who fled.

With the crappy trail, we were at least treated with a gorgeous sunset.


Since the bus isn't technically in the national park, people hunt. We saw sooo many shells from hunters, but only heard a few shots.


Our first sight of the bus- i've never been so happy to see an abandoned bus! We built a fire and slept outside. Even though it's July, it was ridiculously cold at night. We had to ditch one of our sleeping bags earlier in the day when it fell captive to the river.


The MAGIC BUS!!!

We came up with some pretty creative stories of how the silly thing got there, but I honestly don't know why it's there... or why it was turned into a house.



Inside the bus are some journals that people have written their thoughts in. We signed some, and wrote some inspirational things.


This is where McCandless died, kinda gross and spooky but also neat.


This was left in the suitcase with the journals, it reads: "Please sign in so searchers will know where to look for your body"


McCandless' family went to the bus a few years after he was found, and left this bible. His sister also left a journal with some memories of Chris, as well as some pictures.


The inside of the bus- two beds, a wooden stove, a desk (which you can't see) and a little cabinet (also can't see)


Me & the bus


Traveling buddies and the bus

Our first day in Denali was spent driving there, and then river rafting!! We rafted on the Nenana River in class III-IV rapids. Our tour guides were amazing, and they even let us jump out of the boats into glacier water!
Together with exciting rapids, almost-dry suits, and good company, it was definitely worth the money. The only bad part? my camera isn't waterproof, so it had to stay in the car :(

Our camp in Denali. When we were walking in to find a camp spot, we saw some rangers who told us spot 139 and 140 had some bear-troubles. Apparently the night before, a bear was seen walking through the camp sites. So where did my boyfriend decide we should set up camp? Spot 140.

Unfortunately (or fortunately), we didn't see a bear. We did meet a guy from Massachusetts, so that was almost as cool.

We spent a whole day relaxing and taking our books to the post office. In the interest of still having one post per day, I'm putting this up.

I spent $80 on postage. Yuck!

But, when i get back to MO, it'll be nice to know there are 6 boxes of books waiting for me :)

Today, we went to ft. richardson and a national cemetery, where my grandpa (granchops) has a stone.



Then, we went to beluga point to see if we could see any beluga whales. Unfortunately, we didn't see any whales, but i think its quite possibly the windiest place in alaska.



We went to the anchorage int'l airport, where they have some stuffed animals, including this albino beaver


and a wolf! i didnt realize how big wolves are!

and a lynx.


and of course this sweet reflecting work of art.


tomorrow... to the post office to mail our bunches of books, then to denali!!

Today we didn't make it to Eagle River (too rainy) but we did go to the governors picnic. Tomorrow Sarah Palin resigns her office as governor, so she was there to say hi and bid farewell.

Sorta ironic, peace supporters were across the street from the governors picnic. The police seemed to have a problem with them being there.


It's out of focus, but this is what i waited 2 hours in line for. It was kinda a sloppy-joe plus hamburger.
There were a TON of veterans at the function.



There was a fun thing for the kids (and us)- dig out the chocolate chips like you're mining- but beware of the forest and the river. if you get any snow, choc chips (gold) or anything in the river or forest, you lose some gold.


The lady of the whole picnic- her last full day as governor.




Helicopter taking off- it was super windy!


The not-so-secret secret service.



the helicopter flying

For the past few days, we've been spending some quality time with this cat, two other cats, a dog, and my grandmother. It's been nice to relax, not worry about putting up and taking down a tent, and free showers. But alas, we knew it would come sooner or later- back to the "wild"!

We decided to go to Seward, where it didn't stop raining the whole time we were there. Sewards a quaint touristy town, with too many hotels and way too many restaurants. However, it also has Alaska's only public aquarium.


This is the vertebrae of a whale!




Sea Lions apparently are known for loving an audience. This little fella could come under and see us looking in the windows and then go back out and see people looking down into the water.




We also hiked to (but unfortunately not up) Exit Glacier, right outside of Seward. Along the path...


The glacier itself:
If i were taking this picture in 1998, i'd be standing in the glacier. Along the trail to the glacier they have signs saying how far out the glacier was in different years. It was really cool, a little sad to think it's receded as much as it has.


We will be spending the next few days in anchorage, then up to denali, fairbanks, and then back to the lower 48.

update for today: nothing. haha we took a break and just hung around anchorage. We ate $12.95 all you can eat sushi at a japanese restaurant called Kobe, washed my car, and went to the wildberry products inc. When we got home from traveling around town, we had some delicious tortilla soup waiting for us.

again, not terribly exciting. we will start traveling again tomorrow.

Today we got a workout! we climbed to the top of flat top mountain, the most hiked mountain in anchorage. It is said nobody goes there anymore because it's so crowded. We got lucky, it rained a bit and it was a Monday, so there were only a few other people on the trails. The whole trail is pretty easy until you get to the rock scramble at the end. I've hiked Flat top before, but never to the top, so we changed that today.

That's the mountain
Thats one of the gooorgeous views from the mountain
Another view - we actually took a nap on the very top :)
Flowers on the trail.
Then, we went bike riding down around earthquake park. the whole trail was right around 22 miles. We saw two different sets of moose & calves, and some more single moose.
of course, the park even had gorgeous views.