Alaska or Bust: Revisited: Cantwell, AK/Denali National Park to Anchorage, AK (6/30/2017)

Day 17
1964, the Plan: Juneau to Haines, AK by ferry, then on to Whitehorse, YT.
1964, the Actuality: On Sunday, August 2, the Explorer Scouts were still in Cantwell, AK. Kent reported via postcard that he had caught five 1-pound trout. Since only he and one other boy were under the age of 16 (at the age when a license was required to fish), these two accompanied the mechanical engineers on their fishing trips, managing to bring home dinner for the Scouts.

1964: Cantwell church (Dr M)

2017: Cantwell church (6/28/2017)

1964: An Explorer Scout looking south in Cantwell (Dr M)

2017: Kent looking south in Cantwell (6/28/2017)

This is the type of stream where Kent remembered fishing in 1964

Friday, June 30, 2017
Having reached the goal of Mt McKinley/Denali, we will leave the 1964 route of the Explorer Scouts, and continue on Parks Highway/AK-3 to Anchorage, AK.

The "best" breakfast was at the McKinley Cabins Creekside Café

Tracey's pancakes with apples and pecans

Eggs and bacon, home fries, with toast of homemade bread

There were many pull-offs with views of Denali
if the weather was clear, which it was not

Some clouds were sitting in the valleys

We detoured east along the Talkeetna Spur Road to Talkeetna, AK, the base camp for climbers wishing to tackle Denali or other Alaska Range mountains. About 1,000 people register for permits to climb Denali, but reaching the summit has less than a 50% success rate. Denali is unique in that it is the highest mountain in the world from base to summit, rising 5,500 m/18,000', while Mt Everest rises 3,700 m/12,000'. (Okay, there seems to be another mountain that is higher than Denali from base to summit: Mauna Kea in Hawaii, which rises 10,210 m/33,497' from its base deep under the Pacific Ocean!) No matter, Denali still fits the Athabascan meaning of its name: The High/Great One.

David St Lawrence-Harry Robb Cabin (1920s), a freighter cabin;
freighters could be hired to take supplies and equipment overland from
Talkeetna to the remote areas of staked gold claims

Talkeetna Roadhouse (1917) was historically a respite for
fur trappers, miners and prospectors, and other travelers,
now a respite for mountain climbers

Denali Brewing Company Brewpub (2009)

Inside the Denali Brewpub; Kent had a Twister Creek IPA
and purchased a 6-pack to go

Nagley's Store (1921), home to Mayor Stubbs, the cat;
seriously, the cat has been elected Mayor of Talkeetna
since 1997, the year he was born

We were in time to catch the Hurricane Turn Train, a flag stop train service, the last in the USA, running from Thursday to Sunday in the summer (the first Thursday-Sunday of the month in the winter), leaving at 1:00 pm. Although there seemed to be more local riders than tourists, the train makes stops to view wildlife and the conductor narrates local history. The train has been featured on the TV reality show Railroad Alaska (2013-2016).

The Chase Depot? A group of people got off here
at Mile 10 in order to float back down to
Talkeetna on rafts on the Susitna River

The locals let the conductor know at which milepost they wish to disembark. Some people have cabins along the railroad, but many have miles to go to their remote dwellings "in the bush."

Many locals had a dog with them and the dogs stayed in the baggage car;
this dog had just gotten off and leads the way home

The home of Mary and Clyde Lovel,
where they had homesteaded in 1964

The Alaska Railroad named the siding near the Lovel home as "Sherman," so the Lovels have put a sign on their home as Sherman City Hall. They also have a bookstore, to sell the books written by Mary, based on letters to her family about the homesteading experience (Suddenly It's Spring and Journey to a Dream).

A local disembarks assisted by Warren, the conductor

The locals with their supplies to be hauled to their cabin (KSS)

On one side of the railroad was the Susitna River, and on the other the
landscape varied from thick forests to marshy areas of beaver ponds

There was a dome car

The Hurricane Turn Train alongside a creek

If waiting at the tracks for the train to arrive, you put out a flag
to have the train stop; apparently any kind of flag will do!
Here a dog awaits the return of someone (KSS)