Some of you may wonder why our recent SPOT tracker was transmitting from the middle of Byers Lake… No Land Cruisers can’t float. We rented a canoe for the afternoon and headed out for a paddle under the heat of the sun. While the lake was small we took our time and enjoyed the silence of the water and the calm feeling of being out on the water. At one end of the lake there was an inlet stream. At the mouth there were hundreds of huge Salmon that were waiting to spawn upstream and as we paddled closer we could see large dark shadows darting away in massive schools of panicked fish.

      We paddled up stream for a few minutes and then let ourselves drift back down into the lake. Pulling over at the nearest landing point we had some chips and salsa for lunch and watched the clouds roll over Mount McKinley in the distance. We explored the rest of the lake until the clouds started rolling in then we headed towards shore and set out to the Denali National Park.

     We pulled into the park to check out the local visitor center, it ended up being closed, we continued driving anyways. We knew that there was a fee to drive on the road yet we could not figure out where to pay. Confused we continued driving into the park hoping we would find a toll booth. Driving for about 20 minutes we started to feel uneasy being in the park without having paid so we decided to turn around and check it out in the morning. We headed into the town of Denali and checked out a local pizzeria; unfortunately two busses full of senior tourists had taken up the whole restaurant so there was no room for us. After cursing the travelers who sit on a bus all day like sardines we headed towards the village of Healy. There we went to the 49^th State Brewery to have dinner and at this place we could fill up our Growlers. This bar was located in the brewery itself and had a massive circular bar with an elevated fireplace in the middle which we huddled around. The orders here were massive, I had the Table Top burger, and it was literally a table top. The bun itself was about 9” in diameter and was stacked with onion rings, a massive patty, and all the fixings one would ask for. Ricki had a Rueben which was also larger then her face, this time she had learnt from her subway experience and only ate half. Finishing my burger I got complements from the waitress and people around me for finishing the whole thing. I felt like a real man… and then I felt way too full.

     We slowly made our way out to the car feeling 10 pounds heavier and went to the neighboring campground. The sites here were tight and it took some maneuvering to get the Land cruiser between the trees, leaving enough room for the tent to open. After we were all set up the neighbors came over and wanted a tour of the tent. They were very excited about the whole vehicle and wanted to see all the little details and gadgets I had onboard. I kept the men amused while Ricki had girl talk with the wives, sharing stories of the horribly bumpy roads and hearing tales of their fishing adventure in Valdez.

     After the tour they headed back to their trailer while Ricki and I played another game of Risk… I Lost. Right before we went to bed, the now slightly intoxicated neighbors came back and asked if we wanted some salmon. They handed us a massive piece of frozen fish, roughly 3 feet long. When they were out fishing in Valdez they did well fishing and had already sent home 60 pounds of salmon and now didn’t know what to do with the rest. As the rain began to fall we hit the hay. Waking up once again to the pouring rain we packed up our wet tent and headed to the showers. After a nice hot shower we went to go update the blog. Turns out there actually was no WiFi so we were delayed another day on uploading. The weather outside was miserably, cold, rainy and cloudy so we decided we had given Denali enough chances and headed to our next destination.

     Before we left we stopped at the local pub we were at the night before and took some pictures in front of the Magic Bus this was the bus used in the movie Into the Wild. While the actual bus is still in the woods outside of Denali, the 10 mile hike that had already taken the life of one person was not appealing to us, so we settled with the one from the movie. Inside the van were pictures and diary entries from the actual adventure of Christopher McCandless itself. The whole thing had an eerie feel to it and to actually be surrounded by the pieces of his sad yet inspiring story was a little overwhelming.

     We took our pictures and headed along the Denali Highway. While the views were spectacular we didn’t stop much, this road was all gravel. Compared to the Dalton Hwy it was a fantastic drive. The one time we stopped was to take some pictures and Ricki noticed some blueberry bushes. We quickly realized we hit blueberry heaven and filled the rest of our bucket within minutes.

      Before we reached our new home we stopped at the Sourdough RV Park, the friendly staff at the roadhouse gave us some lemon juice for our salmon bake. After driving down the road for a few hundred feet we reached the Sourdough State Campground. After driving the wrong way on the one way street (the campground was empty) we of course ran into the camp host (not literally) she angrily told us to turn around and drive the right way on the gravel path. We setup camp, made a fire while Ricki went all out on dinner. For starters we had devilled eggs.

The main course was of course our freshly caught Salmon cooked over the fire.

Dessert was some sort of chocolate, hemp granola, blueberry thing. It was delicious.

     We set up our tarp city due to the rain clouds on the horizon. We are now laying in our tent with the rain dripping on the tarp. Ricki is already snoring beside me, we smell of salmon so I’m trying to stay awake a listen for any bears in the area. Tomorrow we plan on heading to the Kennikott Mine with hopes of good weather and finally some internet to update this blog.