7/12/17 And indeed we did. We woke to rain in the night and were cloud covered in the morning.  lucky to have had the dry day to explore McCarthy/Kennicott with a short hike thrown in. Knowing the weather was not good for a couple more days it would be silly to sit in the camper… so we drove out (of course encountering another break down …who after pushing their vehicle off the road, I found their battery had been loose in the tray …bouncing on the washboard and had thrown off both leads… just hanging there… fast fix and off they went) the 94 miles to the Richardson Highway… a road needing serious attention in this section north. We fueled up and had Tok Thai food takeout from a roadside hut at the gas station…go figure …understand everything is a tad rough on the edges here…(though getting too smooth daily) not too bad.I found a truck stop high pressure hose to blast the cemented mud off the back of the camper and truck doors… now we can get in and out without getting filthy. 

The Denali Highway: paved for 20 miles to The Tangle River inn… a place that was homesteaded by a man and his wife 56 years ago(Nadine…who we met over a beer and talked a good Irish roll) … a mountain nearby named after her…. We went on further onto the remaining 110 miles of dirt road (closed in winter)… it looks like Scotland highlands in the mountains… but different.. lots of glacier kettle ponds and bugs…. many many bugs… then there are more bugs. We popped up in a short spar off the road along a stream. Boondocking again just off the paved starting section of the road. Here is where we took out the small piece of smoked Halibut, Irish Kerry butter and black bread for dinner… with a half bottle of white wine from a good friend carried all the way here from New England. We tried a hike…did I mention the bugs? Retreated to the camper and pulled out the head nets. Tomorrow ..as it is raining now… will be a slow day… up late ..coffee and breakfast … and a leisurely departure as this road is packed with sights… and we will probably only go 20-30 miles and then camp again (Tuesday). It will be Wednesday..…the sun hopefully out and the views opened up… for the next 80 miles we will slowly explore maybe a day or two more. 

On a side note of being bear safe… our Black Bears of the Northeast seem like fluffy toys… seeing the photos on the walls of hunts or the skins on the wall and floors of a truly huge bear with claws 4-5” long…you have to respect that… a 1000 lb. bear who is hungry. I am or have food…bottom line. We took a good pointer from my nephew and it makes real sense: flares. We have bear spray with holsters that we wear anytime out of the truck and I have a marine air horn that is deafening as a first stage. But the flare… that is a great defense. A flare that has an instant pull cord ignition… point and pull. It is compact, bright and hot. I got two. 

Today met a man and his wife who used to live in Alaska 50 years ago and it is their first time back. He is more shocked than she as she liked having the amenities nearby but he did not. I could see in his expression as he spoke the sense of loss. The wildness tamed, the cell phone and the internet wifi in a place he held a gun and a backpack. He just kept shaking his head. Being in the moment folks always think it will be as it is. Almost never is. Forever wild is essential for some places. No roads, no planes on lakes, no nothing but foot travel. No exceptions. We need to save some corners. I am here and that means everyone else can be too. I would be glad to give it all back but that won’t happen either. 

Needless to say this trip has been on my compass for over forty years… I do not remember and am too lazy to check if I said before: I had a choice at 25 years of age. I had graduated from college and was working in the paper mill section of a newspaper… just factory work, long days of doing the same thing for 10 hour shifts. I did some research and found that Alaska was looking for teachers to fly in to villages and teach. The requiement wa at the time that you pay for the six months of food. The flight was free and the return as well if you lasted the contract. It was in the Brooks Range. I had done all the paperwork and had absolutely no idea what I was going to… typical youth. Then a phone call came in the middle of the night from a friend of a friend teaching in Paraguay, South America. This was in 1979. I was offered a job at the American School, American Embassy Asuncion. For no other reason than I had no idea what, where or how …  I said sure. My life’s direction changed in a word. Where would I be today if I had taken the Brooks Range position…. probably not in a camper here now. But why Alaska? Sky King. I dreamed daily of being a bush pilot in Alaska as a boy. 

Immense… The Denali road from Paxson off the Richardson is best west toward the mountain. The road was pretty much empty …perhaps a car once every half hour either direction ..surprising as the road by Maine standards was great. There had been grading and new gravel repairs in the first 40 miles… the next were as we expected … teeth chattering washboard or stretches of boxed out potholes again lucky to have rained the night before and were water filled to make them visible easily in time to swerve around. The truck is getting high marks… settled into the load it bears and manurers well. By the end of the day today it had explored many rock crawl side roads with mud holes and boulders… did great…in 4WD and staying in 1st gear. We must have discussed five different possibilities to camp the night… and each time went on until a fluke high elevation (back in the trees again on the mountain) little side road… roller coaster rock crawl through some deep mud to an insanely beautiful overlook (mile post 71 from Paxson on left... there is an easier one also  at MP 73). Mountains straight up behind us and a 60 mile 180º view 750 feet off valley floor that is covered in ponds, lakes and rivers. Hands down in the top 3  places I have ever truck camped.

This today is why I came here. I dream of places like this. Absolute quiet except for the bugs and breeze. I am looking out at nothing man has done. It is drop dead beautiful. Last night, our first on the Denali road, was by a stream 100 ft off the road and it was still quiet. Today though tops it all. The expanse gives one an idea of what the first people experienced all over our continent … endless wide open splendor so big it seems it could never be anything else then what it was at that moment. 

We are now just over half way to the end of the Denali road “T”-ing at Cantwell on the road to Denali Park where we might stay depending on the crunch of being back in the ‘road barn’ packs. A shower is needed as we have not been able to use the solar shower due to rainy days. Thereafter north to Fairbanks (passing through) to a stay at ?????