Sunday July 13, 2014 Denali, Alaska

Alaska Train

Brad came around thumping tires at 7 AM.  I may not have mentioned it before, but every day that we are traveling Brad comes around and thumps the duals with a bat to make sure they aren’t flat, and un-seen.  The thumping time is usually set at the briefing for the day’s travel.  I was awake by the time Brad came around, he also looks under all the coaches to spot drips or anything that looks loose.

A panorama of Denali

I got up and made coffee.  I also turned on the electric heater so Gerri would get up to a warm coach.  Even though it gets warm during the day the nights cool off.  It makes for comfortable sleeping but it also makes you want to stay in bed covered up in the mornings.

Looking toward Denali

My tire monitor has been showing lower than optimal pressure in the left inside dual.  I got out the Co2 tank and had Susan help me get the valve extension that I had bought in Dawson Creek on with her nimble fingers.  I then aired the tire up to match its mate and the other set of duals.  I then got everything outside ready to travel.  We had to pull out of the site and then hook up the Jeep.  We went to a nearby Fred Myers for fuel.  Diesel was $3.999 a gallon and the tank took a little over 90 gallons.  By the time we got on the highway it was almost 10 AM.

Mountains near Denali

We got on AK-1 and headed north, after Wasilla we took AK-3 the rest of the way to Denali.  The road was rough in spots but mostly a good road.  We had a tail wind and I’m hopeful for lower fuel consumption on this leg of the trip.  Today’s drive was 140 miles.  It rained much of the way. 

We stopped at the South Denali Viewpoint.  We had a good view of the clouded over mountains that make up the Alaskan Range.  I got the information for an Earth Cache on a small sheet of paper. I also looked for another cache at the end of a short trail.  I should have read the last logs first.  The last two logs were DNFs.  I wasted my time. 

Looking into the clouds around Denali

Our next stop was the North Denali Viewpoint.  When I got out to take pictures the small sheet of paper that I had written the information on the Earth Cache on blew under the slide room.  I may not be able to claim the find.  There was a cache at the viewpoint but it started raining hard.  I didn't search for it.

We stopped at another viewpoint later and I found a cache there.  By then it was getting late so we drove directly to the RV Park.  We were the last of the group to arrive before the tail gunners, Brad and Susan.  We got there at 5:15.

There was a short meeting of the group to get updates and the tickets for tomorrow’s bus tour of the park.  Alec and Sheila, whose coach is in a shop in Anchorage joined us and are staying overnight with Brian and Sally.  They will go on the bus tour and then go back to Anchorage on Tuesday to check on their repairs.  We also learned that two more coaches broke down not far out of Anchorage and were either towed or they limped back to the Golden Nugget RV Park.  Bob and Rebecca had stayed behind hoping to get a problem with their unit worked on.  That left 6 people still in Anchorage, two people at a garage in Fairbanks and one person who had to fly home to care for a brother that had a stroke.   Word was the the six still in Anchorage were going to have a “broke down” party.  We have had a lot of casualties including one woman who fell and broke a bone in her leg.  She had an operation and is now back with the group using an electric scooter.

We had left over pizza for dinner and called it a night early.  Our bus tour starts at 7:10 in the morning so I set an alarm for 5:30 AM.