The Park Road: Mile 2 to Mile 15

I actually did this hike last Tuesday, but I've been too lazy/busy to write anything until now.

In the interest of full disclosure, I guess I should get this out of the way: I cheated a little on this segment.  I took a route away from the road from the beginning of the hike at the visitor center to park headquarters around mile 3.  Instead of following the road, I took a longer route along a low ridge, the Rock Creek trail.  It added a mile or so to my total distance, but the views I got as a result of climbing some 400 feet up were worth it.

To the south

And to the north

Moose Count: 1

The ptarmigan, hare, and beaver counts are also into positive numbers, not to mention caribou.  However, the internet connection here is barely functional, so I can't upload pictures at the moment.

In the meantime, here's a photo from the Park Service of what the sky looks like right now.  There's a forest fire burning about 10 miles north of here (has been for several days now), but the winds are bringing smoke this way for the first time.

Beer status: Alaskan Amber, from Juneau.

Update:  Pictures

Moose

Beaver

Ptarmigan

The Park Road

One of my goals this summer is to walk the Denali Park Road, the only road leading into the park.  It's a long-term project, given that the road is 92 miles long, and it's not exactly a well-traveled path for hikers (or cars, which are only allowed for the first 15 miles).  My plan, basically, is to take buses to the point where I leave off, walk for awhile, then head back.  It may involve some overnight camping near the end, simply because it takes a 6 hour bus ride to travel the entire distance one way.  For reference, here is a map of the park:

 

Click to embiggen.

63º45'N

The view from my window at 12:25 AM Saturday:

Only in Alaska

• Safety training includes instructions for how to deal with moose and bears.  For the record, you can run from moose because their eyesight is terrible, but that's an awful idea with bears.
• If you wake up one day and your building is leaning or you can't close your door anymore, just call maintenance.  Everything here is built on permafrost, so that stuff happens.

The Last Frontier

If you look up the word "frontier" in the dictionary, you're probably going to find a reference to a boundary or a limit.  It can be an international border.  Or it can be the limit of civilization, as it is frequently used in the context of American history.  Regardless of the specifics, it is the end of something, the place where the world you know meets the unknown.

But beyond that threshold is also opportunity.  That was the reality for tens of thousands in the middle of the nineteenth century, as every child who ever played Oregon Trail on classroom computers knows well.  It does not come without risk, as became apparent to those same children while passing digital headstones mourning the loss of the beloved Stinky to dysentery.  However, the hope of wealth and bounty trumped, for many, the potential costs of leaving behind their stable existence in the east.  That is why so many went to Oregon or California in the 1840s and 50s.  Or the Klondike in 1897 and 1898.  Or Nome in 1900.

Bullet Points and Bullet Holes

After a 6 hour bus ride (starting with an hour tour of Anchorage as we picked everyone up), I'm unpacked and getting settled in at Denali.  This might turn into a real post later, but for now, it's bullet points again.

Anchorage! (?)

I got into Anchorage at about 12:45 this afternoon.  It's about a 6 hour flight from Chicago (plus another hour and a half from New York), but the last 2 hours of the flight have incredible views (pictures later) if there isn't too much cloud cover.  After waking up at 4 AM (Eastern) to catch an early flight, I can't put a coherent post together right now.  So here are a few observations.

What is Mile 238?

Mile 238 is a blog about my summer living and working at Denali National Park in Alaska.  It will probably be rambling and skip from topic to topic.  Other than that, I promise nothing.

Why the name?  Addresses in rural Alaska tend to be given by highway mile (if they're on a road at all), and the Denali Park Road is located at mile 238 of the Parks Highway, that is, 238 miles north of the zero point in Anchorage.  So if you sent a letter to Mile 238 Parks Highway, Denali Park, AK 99755, it would get delivered to park headquarters.