Talkeetna here we come!

What a great trip. The road to Talkeetna has little interesting places spotted along the way. Great fishing spots, a birchwood syrup factory, a kids fishing derby. So much to see. When you get to Talkeetna you understand why, it's a little tourist trap. People everywhere!

First stop, the little old visitors center, way out in the middle of nowhere just at the turnoff. What a good choice that was. Then on to Birch Syrup. Well I have heard of maple syrup. Birch syrup? It is delightful, a bit like golden syrup or treacle without a sickly sweet taste, still sweet though. There is only one other group who harvest significant quantities of birch syrup that they know of. It takes 110 gallons of birch sap to make 1 gallon of syrup. They tap trees 8” or more and use a reverse osmosis machine to seperate the water out and then boil down the remainder. Apparently in Russia, they drink the sap straight, it is like ever so lightly sweetened water with calcium, potassium and manganese. Who would have guessed. Makes one look at birch trees in a different light.

Next stop Talkeetna itself. My first thoughts were; old fashioned setting, full of hippies, dirt/gravel roads, and despite the loads of tourists by the bus-full everywhere, I loved it. This is a really quite a small town center that is reminiscent of the olden days and brings in huge numbers of people. We visited the town market where Reagan chose a lovely little necklace with coloured glass, then a couple of bits of Alaskan gold with clear glass fused on top. Next stop, a wonderful museum.

The Talkeetna airstrip in the middle of town!

Then on to the ranger station where all Denali/Mt McKinley climbers have to sign in, pay $200 to register and go through a ranger training session before their ascent. Only 50% of those who attempt to climb Denali are successful. Tax payers money rescues those who are unable to come down themselves. We watched a wicked video showing people climbing up and down Denali. Sitting out incredibly severe weather even though it is summer, being rescued, being treated for injuries such as swelling of the brain when one hasn't given ones body enough time to acclimatise. They are all issued personal tins for toileting in, everything that goes up has to come down, and so it does. No oxygen is used on Denali, so they can really only climb 1000ft a day. Not my thing – the climbing part, much too old and far too unambitious in that department. Although, as we sat in the Talkeetna Roadhouse having a reindeer pasty, there were plenty of young guys who looked loaded up and rearing to give it a go.

Talkeetna Road House with live music,
a warm and inviting atmosphere.

Fishing



The view of Denali from Willow



 

The day had cleared for the first time this week, blue sky, Mount Denali as a magnificent backdrop when I drove home with the kids. It's a wonder that there aren't a few accidents with people mesmerised by the scenery.



 

Horseshoe lake didn't result in the large catch we thought we might bag. Despite having all the local knowledge in our favour – night crawlers, corn and just the right jigs. Rain for the last week may have had something to do with it. Regardless it was magical. Brent and the children were out, a ripple making its presence across the lake and those magnificent mountains in the distance. If only I had my paints on me.



A couple of things we did see, one was a young muskrat swimming in the water and diving under every now and then. Brent and the kids saw a loon and its beautiful plummage, also diving. Then when everyone was out of the water and we had loaded the boat into the van, I noticed that Bradley had a leaf stuck just under his ankle and said stop, so that I could brush it off before he got in. Except that it didn't brush off, and if felt slippery, and it stuck in the one spot regardless of which direction I swished in. I quickly came to the conclusion that a leech had attached itself to his ankle. He said you could only feel it if you concentrated. So Brent burnt it off, and that was interesting in itself. The leech kind of melted barely leaving a mark on Bradley's ankle and then fell off, right into Brent's sandal and was quickly flicked out. A little bit of excitement for the evening.

Fishing on Horseshoe Lake, Alaska