Ernie and Ginger Alaska 2011: Princess McKinley Lodge Trip, July 23-24

July 23 thru 25, 2011

Ginger and I got a 3 day weekend off together. Our HR office arranged a trip for us to visit our lodge nearer to Mount McKinley.

We took the train (Space-A) free. All cars were viewing cars. They had a Host who gave history and geography as we gently rode along . We love riding trains. These are part of the Alaska RailRoad. Cars may be from different companies, ie: Princess, Holland America, etc, but the locomotive is from ARR. We met many wonderful people. One a recently retired Alaskan commercial fisherman, He fished the waters where the TV show Deadliest Catch fishes for crab, He goes for Halibut, Cod, etc. Met a young couple that live in Deltona. Became friends with a sweet girl that went to our Julie' high school, she immediately called her friend in Deltona who was one of Julie's cheerleaders (Julie was her coach)

(Don't forget...you can click on the photo to make it larger)

the Engineer waves to us.

Our Princess train arrives

How do they remove snow from the tracks, in the long winter in Alaska..with this mean machine!

The Dining car..food was very good, prices reasonable. Drinks, with a bartender,was available in each viewing car.

Ginger got a strawberry smoothie in a souvenier cup.....

Yes, Ginger loves to ride the train...she relaxes to the gentle rocking, and clickety-clack...

Tiffany Kratzer, a Deltona 2007 graduate, who now lives in Apopka, when not working at various lodges. We ate lunch next to her. Our waiter was a recent Florida State grad

Wilderness views from the train, some excellent trout and salmon fishing in some of these rivers.

It was cloudy, and raining the entire weekend. The lodge had decks, and inside areas where you could sit and view Mt McKinley. As like the normal 70%, we could not see it. It was so cloudy and foggy! So instead of paying for a chartered fishing trip, I was advised to go to a stream on property. It was a nice hike, along a grades, gravel road, behind the employee housing. It was tough getting down the hill to the stream, that fed into a large river...unfortunatley the King Salmon had just run the week before, but I was told could catch graylings and trout. My second cast into a small clear pool, the merged with the muddy glacier water, I caught this nice clean rainbow trout.

I hiked up and down the creek, over rocks, and downed trees. If you remember the scene from Rambo 2, where he was being chased up the stream, thats how it looked.

Note they used tree trunks, as the beams for this bridge.( Restricted area)

Note the tree growing out of this large rock.

Its a rain forest here, so things grow fast and large.

I returned back to the room, to warm up, and see how Ginger was doing. She was ready to go see the town of Talketna. This is the town where the TV program, Northern Exposure , was based off of . The first few exposed were filmed here, then moved some place not as rugged. It is exactly like the show! Historic, artsy (lots of hippies, and unusual characters inhabit it) it reminded us of a beach town. We walked up and down the street in the coool drizzle. Went to the 2nd hand book store, ahd a great talk with the owner, walked by the Landmark Hotel, where President Harding had stayed, mainly a bar now, it sounded pretty rowdy, went to the Denali Brewing Co, tasting room, had a sample small glass of beer, Ginger had a brewed rootbeer that smelled and tasted wonderful, sat in the fireplaced sitting area of an old hotel where the original mountain clibers would stay while preparing their climb of McKinley, Enjoy these colorful photos of this neat Alaskan town: