From the Border to Denali NP

We hope this update finds you doing well! We are currently in Dawson City in the Yukon. We are drying out from a monsoon type rain storm that completely drenched us yesterday. Bad for off-road riding; good for catching up on blogs. Just a heads up, if you had not noticed already, we have very little connectivity (no cell service, no WiFi), so, if you write us something it might take a week or even two for us to respond. It also means we only update our blog about the same, or even less. We hope you understand and can be patient with us.

So our first main stop on entering Alaska from Canada was Fairbanks. We actually spent over a week here in order to attend the World Eskimo Indian Olympics (WEIO) and the annual Golden Days celebration.

To anyone who is not familiar with the Eskimo Olympics (probably just about everybody) I invite you to stop reading right now and Google, “Eskimo Olympics, two foot high kick” and watch a video – it is AMAZING! The amount of strength, speed, agility, and just overall physical skill that we witnessed was unbelievable. Each event relates in some way to a survival skill that was needed in times past and these practices were used to keep those abilities honed during the long winter months. Many of the events require very little space since they would have traditionally been performed indoors and floor space was limited. We loved being introduced to so many cultural traditions and practices outside of our own experience! Our absolute favorite thing was the camaraderie shown between the athletes. Whenever an athlete was struggling the competing athletes would come along side and encourage and advise them on how to do better.

The other highlight of our time in Fairbanks was being hosted by two couchsurfers – Jenn and Clarke. They were so generous with their hospitality and treated us just like family! They also helped educate us about Alaska, its people, its wonders, its challenges and so much more. We are so grateful for the time they spent with us and the homes they shared with us. We also had the opportunity to attend Jenn’s church which was a great treat and helped us to known her even better.

Another thing we have been looking forward to for some time is visiting Chena Hot Springs outside of Fairbanks. Well, as luck would have it, the weather was fantastically sunny and the temperatures were in the upper 80s! Which is great when we are driving around but it doesn’t make you want to jump in hot water :)! Fortunately, haha, it rained the last day and so it was cold enough to get in the hot springs.

And last, but certainly not least, Denali National Park. We loved it! We camped at Wonder Lake for a week which is the most remote campground in the park. We knew it was going to be a special place when we were able to view a mama grizzly bear and her two cubs (see pictures) from the bus less than fifty feet away! The scope and immensity of the park and Mt. Denali simply can’t be captured. Not even with panoramics – believe me I tried! The weather for the first four days was sunny and clear (which is very rare for Mt. Denali)! We were able to see: Grizzly bears, brown bears, moose, caribou (a first for us), wolves (and pups), and a porcupine who liked to eat the plywood at our bus stop. We also met many people from all over the world at our campground. It was great to share experiences and life stories on the days we weren’t out hiking. Our experience in Denali was absolutely amazing! Except for one little thing it was perfect…the bus drivers. Of the six bus drivers we had, one was fabulous (Thank you Mona!), one was indifferent, and the others need to retire or take some time off because their condescending attitude towards their passengers was appalling. We still had a great time, but it was sad to see these unhappy bus drivers strive to spread their unhappiness. It was also a reminder of how important it is to do something that you love and that you believe in and the positive impact such a combination will have on others!

Thank you for sharing our adventure with us (the good and the bad)!

Chris & Sharon

p.s. – The map of our route for this section is below for those interested.