Flightseeing at Denali

7/8/07
We woke and started tearing down camp about 6:30 AM. We took a break
to have a breakfast at the Roadhouse. There, we sat at a community
table with a man and his wife that were from MN. He was an assessor
and shw was a flight attendant. Both Ruth and he had the LARGE
breakfast while his wife and I had the regular ones. They were
hilarious. They were also going flightseeing but not until after us
and with some other company.
When they left, we had the ranger that gave the programs yesterday sit
at the table with her husband and we chatted for awhile. The
husband's age confirmed to Ruth that alleged age of the ranger. This
must be at least a second career for her.
We then returned to the camp site and tore down the camp, loaded the
bikes, and went to the airfield.
The weather was as bad as the day before and they still weren't doing
glacier landings. Ruth and I decided we'd do whatever they'd let us
do and we went for a walk and returned at 10:30. The rest of the
passengers canceled so we were flying alone with Eric. He gave us all
the same instructions flight attendants give and Ruth got up front and
I sat in the back of a 6 person Cessna. He gave us a tour of the
three rivers area prior to heading toward Denali. We knew we weren't
going to see Denali but we hope to see a glacier up close. On the way
we say a pair of bald eagles at eye level and a sow black bear with
two cubs in a clearing. The clouds were high enough that we did get
to fly to the Ruth Glacier and see the "tow" and up into a gorge. The
toe was very dirty with glacial till but you could see the ice under
parts of it.
On the way out of the glacier Ruth spotted a moose. We saw some
Trumpeter Swans also before we landed.
After the flightseeing, we mounted the bikes and headed toward Denali.
Ruth was cold and I'd not installed her Gerbing's plug so we took the
time at a gas stop to install it. She is impressed with the warmth of
the Gerbing's jacket.
We passed two vistas and Denali was clouded in both times. We arrived
at the Grizzly Bear cabins, unloaded and then took a quick trip to the
visitor center. As soon as we entered the park, a train was passing
and a cow moose was on the tracks as the train approached. The train
literally chased her partly down the tracks until she got out of the
way.
We were late getting to the vc so we returned to camp, showered, and
ran across the street for a VERY late meal. I'm sitting in the
restaurant now, its 9 PM and the sun is still shining brightly.

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Todd Ryan; Hudson, MA
Westborough HS Science Teacher
MSF RiderCoach