Sightseeing Alaska with Zeph

A visit from Europe? For just two weeks? Is Alaska that fantastic, or am I that irresistible?

Whahoeoe! Mr. Zeph from Paris took three plains to be stuck with me in my little Station Wagon, crossing everything you can possible think of called: 'Alaskan'.
He landed with a Reblochon (a creamy, finger-licking cheese), a Saucisse Séche (a fatty sausage) and four bottles of Cote du Ventoux – Cuvé du Monastére: French cuisine with Alaskan fresh air.

When I close my eyes the memories come back like a wild river, colorful like Northern Lights in the clear sky, which we saw on our first nigh together. THE reason I came to Alaska, THE thing Zeph wanted to see before his two weeks were done. There they were, dancing above the hillside, green and misty, slick and wavy. Nothing else could screw this trip anymore.

We crossed the state from Anchorage to Seward; back to Anchorage and up to Fairbanks; and back to Anchorage again. 1530 Miles (2450km) in twelve days. From autumn colors in the Kenai Peninsula to snow covered mountain in Denali NP en -10C at Chena hot springs. From the metropolitan jungle where Spiderman lives to little towns with less than a hundred people.

Because winter approaches quick in Alaska we decided to head South first, to glimpse the last week of the gold beaming Aspen valleys.
Before Zeph arrived I had spend four days hiking amongst them, and I can't help but say that it's my favorite time of the year.
The bright yellow whirling leaves seduced us into endless hiking. Mmmm, maybe it was my passion that motivated Zeph to do a 23 mile (36.8km) hike in one day. It wasn't the best of weathers and it definably wasn't the best of hikes, so it definably wasn't good for a first taste.

We did invent the hitch hike dance which brought us warmth and two friendly locals with blasting heaters in their car.

Glaciers, as I wrote before, are plentiful in Alaska, but not many can be approached as close as Exit Glacier: not very big, but still very impressive, especially with the surrounding Fall contrast. The hike up along this tongue of the Harding Ice Field was my favorite (sorry Zeph). From falling leaves to falling snow.

I've never seen a snow blanket this big, pure and white. A lot of bears too, Zeph saw his first Brown Bear crossing the river bed and I saw three more hiking up the trail. Pretty thrilling when they come running right at you around the corner and then spur off into the bush.

Another, shorter hike brought us to an icy cold top with a view of hundreds of surrounding peek’s covered in the first fallen snow to the North and East, and the flats of the Kenai Peninsula to the South.

Because of the cold, because you want to meet those Sourdough folks (people that have lived through an Alaskan Winter) and because Zeph was on vacation, we peeped our noses into many road houses. Every time again they brought us sweet chocolate milk, great hunting stories, harsh winter episodes, cold beer, filling hamburgers and warm locals. Just to sit with the owner in his empty roadhouse, the walls covered with quad pictures, loaded with game or crashed but still smiling. Or all the bullets and arrowheads on a board, the shot animal written underneath.
Or that time when the waitress told us that when you go shopping in Soldotna or Anchorage (in summer time only 50min. or 1.5 hours away), you're in for an adventure that will take you all day. Slides, snowstorms, accidents and breakdown can all occur so your car needs to have sleeping bags, kindling to start a fire, candles, canned food and water besides the regular spare tire.

In our house, Some nights I would cook, Zeph would patiently wait in the back with a beer. The driving was magnificent. The snowline, straighter then the road, came lower every day.
More than in any other area, Alaska is a place of one way roads. We drove to the end of the world seven times. Every time the yellow line stopped in a little town, at a Nat. Park or at the top of a mountain.

Like in Talkeetna ‘Where the road ends and life begins.’

Even before you drive into town you are stunned by a view of majestic Mt McKinley (‘Denali’ in the indigenous language; meaning ‘Great One’) and the surrounding peaks of Denali National Park. We were given a bright blue day and so the contrast of those white peeks and the sky made you stare, dream and wonder. Mt McKinley is the highest peak in North America and rises 20.320ft into the air, that’s almost Four miles!
How about having that as a backdrop! Log cabins and geriatric clapboard storefronts line the streets and all sorts of bushrats, hippies, nature lovers, musher’s and travelers that mingle together made this a place where we could’ve stayed several days.

You have to remember that the tourist season ends on Labor Day, the first weekend in September, or very shortly after. It’s a blessing and a little bit of a curse traveling after this date. What we loved is that the streets and trails are ours and people are not fed up with telling the same story a hundred times a day; they have more time. But it’s a pity that all information centers are closed and most businesses are on holidays. The same in Talkeetna: most cozy restaurants and bars were shut for the week and only opened on Thurs. Fri. and Sat. And the art shops didn’t open altogether. So we hauled ourselves to the three open waterholes in town and had a beer in each one.
It gave us new friends that now know how to play Mancala, a new book, a can with reindeer sausage and……… something even I didn’t get to know until the next day at noon.

“Yes, here you go right. Ok, then you turn left and straight right again, and……” “NO! Are you Serious? Really? Are we gonna FLY?”
Zeph had taken a chair beside Zok the night before and this friendly local had made him big eyed and hungry with his job, which was chartering flights to the Alaskan Range. You know, dropping climbers and explorers, doing sightseeing tours.
With a most gallant gesture Zeph took me along on the best (and easiest) adventure to be found in this area. There is no other way to see this National Park and its high peaks for sure. Even if you have no money for this kind of stuff, I still recommend you doing it. Its mind gobbling to see 18,000ft of rock, snow and glacier rice from its plateau, especially when you can almost touch the mountain side, fly lower then the peeks, right over the glaciers, have the urge to dip your finger in the whites, most powdery snow you’ve ever seen, so rough, so untamed, so pure and so lonely.
Zeph, the day could not have been brighter, the activity not more intense, thank you.

Talkeetna also gave us an insight look at what mushing is all about.
The dog has been the most important animal in the Alaskan history, it being the best means of transportation. Dog sledding is still done, and not only for pleasure. Many a countryman uses his dogs to haul wood or groceries or get from place A to place B. Although the biggest commotion concerning dog sledding is the Iditarod Race from Anchorage to Nome, a historic mail and supply route originally from Seward to Nome. The race is held in March and it covers 1,150 miles of the most extreme and beautiful terrain known to man. 15 dogs and their driver set off for ten to twenty days to cover this harsh trip solo, with helicopters following. Jerry and Kathleen Sousa have mushed dogs for several years and competed in the race as well. Of course it was super interesting to hear and see fifty barking dogs that are bred and trained to perfection, their smartness, solid feet and thick fur being the most important points.

Wow, just to remember all those times we got talking to some people and they just paid for our drinks or offered us a steak in their hotel room. Or when those people let us use their account so we could rent a movie. We placed the laptop at our feet, cuddled under the warm blankets with tea and cake and watched ‘Ray’ with the music blasting through the car speakers: Wiehoe, the Silver Spirit with an all-surround-sound system! Big ice chunks were floating in the river outside. In the morning we would wake up with frozen windows on the inside because it was -6C.

But not all nights were in the cozy Silver Spirit, one evening we carried our sleeping stuff and goodies to a cabin only half a mile away. We had a splendid view of Denali from our window, the stove made us undress and walk bare feet for the first time and it was a pleasure to cook something while standing up. The fire outside was even better.
Two times we discovered other cabins to sleep, not far from the road, but they were locked. The care takers asked too much money so we just made a fire outside and melted Zephs Reblochon and drank Cote du Ventoux.

And then our pre-last night:
Like a King and Queen we arrived at Chena Hot Springs where a rock pool (an artificial lake lined by boulders) produces 156F water that first gets cooled before it enters. The bubbling waters were first discovered in 1905 by gold miners who made this a recreational area for residents from booming Fairbanks.
The luxury of a warm room where we could walk freely was taken; we told ourselves that we needed the electricity to load the pictures and finish the movie and that it would do good for being comfortable together. I assure you, it was. Its been a long long time sins I felt this rosy, soft, warm and tranquilo. A pity though, that no Northern lights-wake-up-call disturbed our rest.

Alaska: towering mountains, yellow valleys, chatty people, lots of hunting, reindeer sausages, desolated roads, numerous glaciers, snow powdered mountaintops, lots of watery coffee and warm tea, wondering moose on the highway, campfires with frosty wood, bottles of wine for every situation, great views for small people. As they say: ‘It’s the biggest small town you go to.’

Zeph, our third time exploring together: no fading colours. I knew the trip was going to be awesome ones again, I knew you would show me even better that traveling with the right partner opens even more doors. Now let’s see if we can also open our own ones.

We finished this wild country in a wild meat market: ‘Koots’ as the locals call it. A wooden edifice with 22 beers on tap, 10 bars, 4 dance floors and a couple of stages. Here the youngsters show their booty and drink their lust a notch up.
For us it was a show in itself and the start of a new chapter.

Three hours after we closed our eyes (a quarter mile away from the airport) we got woken by the police. We were not allowed to stay here, but because our plain would leave soon they let us be, after they checked our passports.

Bye Zeph, Hello cold and my new mission: I have to find work.

But first a phone call to a pretty famous photographer here in Anchorage to see what that might bring me and the road…………..
www.rosenberg-artphotos.com