Out and About: Day 2

The NC couple I had met the night before had recommended I spend the money and flightsee Mt. McKinley. It was rainy when I woke up but had stopped by the time I made it the few blocks over to the airfield it had let up.

I scheduled a 2pm flight that would take me up and around the mountain and included a glacier landing; however the flight was tentative due to low clouds blanketing the skies. I crossed my fingers and headed into town.

"Downtown" Talkeetna consists of a street with a handful of buildings on either side of the road. I walked into the general store to buy batteries for my camera and discovered a restaurant in the back.

After eating lunch, I checked back in with the flight company and they'd scratched the flight. the clouds had not lifted. Argh!...but that was the known risk of trying to see Denali. I'd spoken to many a tourist who'd come back to Anchorage, glumly, having spent a week or more in the rain waiting for a view of the mountain. I gave the company my cell number in case the clouds miraculously lifted but I set out, on foot, for a hiking trail I'd learned about from the locals.

The trail weaved around several lakes and up and down hills. I sang loudly, not as a madman, but to put any bears on notice a human was around. Of course, I had the pistol with me, round chambered, but not cocked. Fortunately, and unfortunately, I had a pleasant scenic hike and wandered back into town.

I considered staying another night to give the flight another go but decided against it. Talkeetna is a quaint little place, but I'd seen evertyhing there was to see in town in a matter of hours and gambling with the weather is an exercise in futility up here.

I purchased a train ticket back to Anchorage. As the train arrived, I took a picture of it, but, when I sat down and took the camera out of my pocket, the view screen was cracked and broken. Damn. The ride was unspectacular but nice enough and I got into town at 8pm, ready to get back to the depot at 6am for the reportedly magnificent route to Seward. Anchorage was sunny.