Denali July 30

Last day in Denali

We got the morning started early. We discovered that the taxi was running a little later. When we inquired about the taxi they said that the newest driver didn’t show up. I guess the Prudhoe Bay truck driver hung it up, or maybe just over slept. The goal was to get checked out and then find the Denali Sled Dog Kennels.

Denali Park is the only National Park to have an active Dog Sled team. This is a historical left over from the original rangers that created and manned this park. They used the dogs to patrol the park grounds in the winter to stop poachers from killing the Dall sheep and other park wild life. Given a choice, this stop would not have been on my list of must see. I would have probably been more interested in a boring hike that would have resulted in me getting mauled by a bear or an uptight moose. But I must say that it was really pretty cool. The ranger allowed us to walk through the kennel area and even pet some of the friendlier dogs of the team. The main building in the kennel area was actually the original dog kennel structure, which is around 85 years old. The female ranger gave a great presentation on the dog team and end it by hooking up the team to a summer wheeled sled and ran it around a small track in the kennel area. Overall the presentation was very well done.

Now it’s back to the train to go to Anchorage. My wife and daughters will be flying out on Sunday morning. I will be back on my bike tomorrow (Saturday) and headed for Haines to catch the ferry which leaves Monday evening for Bellingham WA. This will take 5 days and shave about 2000 miles off my trip. While on the ferry I will be going through: Juneau, Prince Rupert, Wrangle, and some other small ocean towns. More later!! I hope it will be a time when I can shoot some coastal wildlife photos. I became interested in doing the ferry trip down the coast while talking to a guy at the Bozeman Gas Station. He was a fellow BMW bike owner and said he had made the trip up and camped on the ferryboat on the way back. He described the communal camping environment as an awesome part of the trip. Shortly after that brief discussion my wife told me that she was going to need me back home ASAP after the vacation. Driving more than 500 miles a day can be a big drag so she came up with this as an alternative. I am sure the drive from Bellingham to Morton will be a pay back, but its all good.


It has just occurred to me that many of you may not have any idea why in the heck I am even doing this trip. Well its kind of a combination of a dream bike trip, family vacation and volunteering at a Baptist mission. It all stems from the fact that my parents are retired and spend almost every summer in Alaska. About 10 years ago they were on the island of Kodiak exploring. They were attending a Baptist Church one Sunday and met a guy by the name of Evan Jones. He was a minister that ran the Kodiak Baptist Mission. Him and my dad hit it off and Evan asked him to volunteer at the mission by teaching some classes and help working on the equipment and buildings. That was the start of the whole thing. My parents had found a new home. They came home that fall and told me all about the wonderful people and work they had done while at the mission. The mission origin is as an orphanage. The state helped to fund the operation until the they started questioning if they were forcing the orphans to pray and attend church. This was a situation that got to the point were the mission felt they weren’t able to do anything with the kids. As a result of this problem the mission closed the orphanage and stop taking the states money. They reorganized and decided to run the whole mission on donations. The people like my parents that are willing to spend there summer or work parties that come up for a couple of weeks have made the operation and growth of the mission possible.