This morning we got up at 5am because we had to have our bags out for collection by 6am. We went to get an early snack at the hotel restaurant as breakfast on the train wouldn't be until about 9am. I had some reindeer sausage and Sandra had oatmeal.
We're both still rolling a lot with our sea legs. It's somewhat unnerving to have the ground moving so much.
The bus took us to the train station downtown. Our train car (see photo) was specially designed by Celebrity Cruises. The passengers sit in the upper part which is domed so you can see all around. The lower level is a dining room. The people on our bus are the only people on this train car (there are lots of other cruise cars and also some regular passenger cars). So we have a "train host," bartender, and the staff in the dining part all to ourselves.
Onboard, the seats are very comfortable, with lots more legroom than the bus (see photo). The train host does the running commentary, but she is a much livelier speaker than our tour director. While we're waiting to take off, she points out how the train station and train yard are about 30 feet lower than the rest of Anchorage. She said this area of the city dropped during that 1964 earthquake.
The train went along the Knick arm of the Cook Inlet up towards Talkeetna (see map). The sights are similar to what we saw doing up to Anchorage, except we're beginning to see more mountains. Partly because there may be more, but partly because it's not quite as cloudy as yesterday, but still can't see much in the distance.
Our train host shared several interesting pieces of information with us. We learned that "reindeer" are simply domesticated caribou. We also learned that the way they rescue people who get stuck in the mud flats is to blow air under the mud so the person can be pulled out. We also learned that the permafrost up here creates bogs because the rain can't soak in past the permafrost. There were lots of areas where the trees were dead or sick looking due to these bogs. Also, the trees here have to have roots that spread out rather than going deep because of the permafrost. Black spruce, a smallish narrow evergreen, can do this and is pretty common here (see photo).
We had breakfast down in the luxurious dining room below (see photo). I traded seats with the woman across from us because she gets motion sickness when traveling backwards. I could see if you watched out the window it was a bit nauseating, but if I didn't look out it didn't bother me. Sandra and I both had an omelet with shrimp and crab.
Up top there's a bartender serving coffee drinks and mimosas and any other drink you want (this costs extra, but the breakfast was part of the tour). The train host and bartender also tried to sell us souvenirs. They were both funny and sweet, but it really amazes me the extent to which the cruise folk try to sell you stuff, from diamonds to expensive handbags, (on the ship) to souvenir caps and books (on the train). We also have realized that most of the side excursions offered through the cruise are expensive things like flight seeing, zip lining, and very expensive hikes. They don't give us any information (now or when we were on the ship) for things like where you would rent a bicycle, or where the best walk you can go to on your own is. So next time I did this, I would look for a travel guide to get that sort of information. I did download some information from the Internet before we went, but more would have been better.
We unfortunately we didn't see any wildlife on the train trip. They said they saw a moose when Sandra and I had gone down to use the restroom. But that was really it. That was disappointing.
We got to Talkeetna a little before lunchtime. Skookum picked us up at the train depot and drove us the short distance to the bus parking lot just outside of town. We walked into town, a very short walk. Talkeetna is very small, there's really one main street about a block long. Most of the buildings on the street have historical markers on them. Supposedly, Talkeetna is the inspiration for the town of Cicely on in the TV series Northern Exposure (although they filmed it in Roslyn, WA). It certainly has the appearance of a rugged, small town on the edge of the wilderness. Except for the huge masses of tourists walking around the street and the huge numbers of gift shops. Still, you could see stores like the Nagley store on the edge of the wilderness (see photo).
We walked all the way to the end of main street in about 10 minutes. We asked directions and found the National Park Ranger Station down a short side street. This ranger station is the check in point for people scaling Mt Denali (McKinley). There were flags from all around the world for those who had climbed (see photo). The ranger was a bit laconic, but did show us a walk we could do that wasn't far from the lodge we are staying at. He offered to show us a movie about climbing the mountain, which we weren't sure about watching since we don't expect to do that, but he said it only took 15 minutes. It was actually very interesting. Denali is very difficult, in part because it is not only high, but also very far from the equator. On the other hand, you don't have to do rock climbing to get to the top. The movie stressed how difficult the climb was and how prepared the climbers have to be. Only about half the people that go up make it to the top. They also have to pack out everything they bring in, including their poop (in special cans). There are rangers and volunteers that do month-long stints up on the mountain so they can be acclimatized to the altitude. They help climbers who are injured or sick and also enforce the park rules.
Next we decided we needed to eat. We ate at the Wildflower Cafe. Sandra had a salad with grilled shrimp and I had a sandwich with haddock, wilted spinach, hollandaise, and a crab garnish. They were both delicious. After that we went through some of the gift shops and stopped at The Roadhouse (see photo), which is an old building where the logs are held together with spruce pegs. They rent rooms and have a restaurant, but also very delicious pecan sticky rolls, one of which we bought and ate sitting in the park.
Then we went back to the bus and went to the lodge where we are staying. It's supposed to have a spectacular view of Mt Denali, which we would be able to see right out our window. But unfortunately the mountain never came out while we were there. Even when the afternoon was sunny, there were still clouds on the horizon. They say you can only see the mountain about 1 out of every three days on average.
We went on the walk the ranger had told us about. He said it started about a quarter mile down the highway from the lodge. It was more like 3/4 mile in my opinion. It took us about 25 minutes to get there counting the walk to the highway from the lodge. The hike was around some little lakes, named X, Y, and Z. It was hot and the mosquitos were thick (just about all the tour folk have made the joke that the mosquito is the state bird of Alaska). But we had our bug repellant, so as long as we kept walking it wasn't too bad. We didn't see any wildlife, which was a disappointment. Otherwise it was a nice walk and was the first place we've been where we were alone and it was quiet (see photo).
We were really exhausted when we got back. We rested up in the room a while and then went to dinner at the lodge restaurant. They had seating out on the view deck, which was beautiful, but still no mountain view. We did see lots of small planes taking off from Talkeetna. We shared a drink that had coconut rum, blue curaçao, lime and something else I forgot. It was purple! And also tasty. We had some seared tuna for appetizer and each had a halibut quesadilla. The food was all good.
After that, we played pinochle on the iPads until bedtime.
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