We NorCal Eight are becoming concerned about arriving at
Denali without tour reservations, and little information has been available from our leaders. Martha
does some research and we agree on the 8-hour bus option; she makes the reservations
and we are good to go. We hope it works
out better than our rumbling endless school bus ride on gravel 10 years ago with
Andrew and Kevin. Unfortunately, access to the park is pretty well limited to the concessionaire buses and the park's dead-ended road has to be repeated to exit.
Meanwhile in Chicken we take a guided walking tour of the old part of
Chicken. It thrived roughly from the
1920s to about 1960 supporting the dredging operations but was abandoned when
the large companies pulled out. The
old-lumber smell of the buildings give me a flashback to the workshop behind my
grandfather’s house in Pasadena. Our
guide, a “off-the-grid” twenty-something experimenting with wilderness
life, tells us the history, but the 1960s just don’t seem as long ago as it
appears to her. Nor, I guess, does WWII.
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| School for 10 in this room, including 3 natives, which caused some concern until the teacher pointed out there would be no school funding if attendance fell below 10. |
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| Donna, Marcia, Janine, Karen K |
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| The camp mess hall. |
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| Uneven permafrost melting causes buildings to settle strangely. |
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