carbonel

All of us but Rick had signed up for river rafting this morning. It started early -- 7:30 -- so we could make our 11:30 transfer, and we were all yawning a bit as we boarded the bus to the site.

They had us put on dry suits and rubber boots over those, then we took another bus to the river. The safety talk on the way there was a bit daunting -- what to do if you fall out of the raft, how to get back in, and so on. Not a problem normally, but this was a glacier-fed river that was barely above the freezing point.

I was a bit disappointed to see that we weren't going to be doing any of the paddling ourselves -- the guide had 10-foot-long oars and did all the steering work. Apparently that was a requirement of Princess, because the odds of going into the river are much, much lower if the passengers don't paddle. Five of us sat in front, rather squashed onto one seat that went across the raft, and five more in the back.

The trip was spectacular. There were 11 stretches of class 3 and 4 rapids, plus we bypassed a couple of class 5 rapids. (The scale goes up to 6; class 6 rapids are, by definition, not navigable.) We were drenched by splashing a couple of times, and despite the dry suit, the water was amazingly cold. One of the class 5 areas we bypassed was called a "hydraulic," where (IIRC) the currents bring the water down over 20 feet before it resurfaces.

There was a long disclaimer that we had to sign, and it included mention of various hazards in the water, including (but not limited to) railroad cars. I was wondering how railroad cars got down there, but it turned out that the railroad company had put some on the banks, hoping it would control erosion. Instead, the river flooded badly one year, and washed the cars into the river, where they remain.

The view was also spectacular. We were paddling though a glacial gorge, so there were high cliffs on either side of us. Sometimes there was vegetation, sometimes raw rock.

The rapids themselves were different from the ones I'd gone through when I was canoeing. There, you could generally see the rocks, and they, rather than the water, were the major hazard. Here, the rocks and other obstructions were far enough below that you didn't usually see them, just the turbulent water caused by them.

By the time the trip ended, 12 miles downstream, I was quite chilled despite the dry suit -- wet face and hair, and several splashes on the suit -- and wanted nothing more than a bathroom and a cup of hot coffee, in that order. Unfortunately, when we got back to the lodge, the electricity was out, so I couldn't have either. After questing a bit, I walked across the road where there was a Subway, and obtained both.

We were supposed to take the train to Talkeetna at 11:30, and the bus took us from the lodge to the train depot right on time. Unfortunately, when we got there, it turned out that the train was going to be a couple of hours late. They gave us the option of going back to the lodge or visiting the nearby nature center. We elected to go to the nature center. Somehow I got separated from the rest of my family, and ended up there alone. There was a movie that had some wonderful close-ups of the flora and fauna of the Denali National Park, and some interesting displays in the rest of the center.

Once I'd finished that, I went to the other building, which turned out to be a gift shop and cafeteria -- and that's where my family was. They'd gone directly to lunch. Luckily, they had some extra lunch -- an Italian sausage and hamburger, both of which I ate sans bun. We finally boarded our train around 2:00. It turned out there had been a small electrical fire that caused the delay.

The train trip to Talkeetna took almost five hours, and went through gorgeous mountain scenery. We didn't see much in the way of wildlife, except for several sets of trumpeter swans and something that might have been a glimpse of a Dall sheep, but the scenery made up for it. Unfortunately, it was cloudy enough in the distance that we didn't get to see Denali.

We got to Talkeetna around 7:00, and though we had originally planned to walk around there and have dinner, when we found out that a) just about everything in town was closing and b) it was an hour bus ride to the lodge from the train station, we decided to go straight to the lodge. Talkeetna is apparently the town that Cicely, Alaska (from Northern Exposure), was based on. I saw three coffee shops and a couple of souvenir shops, but not much else.

We got to the lodge around 8:00 and had dinner (much better service this time, though the salmon was a bit dry), then wandered round. Daniel, Carol, and my mother were planning a dip in the hot tub and I decided to join them. They waited while I changed. It was after 10:00 by this time, but still bright daytime. It turned out that only Daniel and I had changed, so we went in the hot tub and Mom and Carol hung around while we chatted. The water was hot enough that I only lasted ten minutes or so, then we went to bed.