Day Eleven - Snow machines and Rainy Pass
We started the day with breakfast at The Roadhouse at 8am. Meena was only a few minutes late. Again it was "homestyle" breakfast, where they just brought out food and we passed it around. Pancakes, scramble d egg, bacon, reindeer sausage, toast, biscuits and sausage gravy.Biscuits are pretty much like a scone and these ones were toasted, and very good. Andy arrived as we were finishing up, he has just delivered half a dozen snow machines (these are snow mobiles, not things for making snow.) There has been so much snow here it was a mission to bring them to us, they are on a massive 30 foot trailer, which would have been difficult to manoeuvre at the best of times, but was impossible with the huge banks of snow. So he has to park a distance away and ride each machine up, walk back to get the next etc. So he gave us a briefing on safety, stay on the trail, keep an eye out for each other, don't panic if you get stuck and please sign my waiver absolving me of any liability if anything goes wrong.
Trish stopped by to say hello, she is the manager of The Roadhouse and gave us a quick history of the place.
Talkeetna is a small town of only 900 people, with an additional 1700 living in the wider area that it supports. There was no road into Talkeetna until 1964. It's only 350 feet above sea level, which was a surprise to me because it feels quite mountainous, I guess because of the snow. Trish has owned the Roadhouse for 25 years, and this is the most snow she has ever seen here.
The Roadhouse was originally built in 1914 and became a "Roadhouse" in 1944, to support freighters, loggers and gold hunters, either living locally or passing through.
Gold was discovered in this area in 1905, and there are still active gold mines in the area. Then railroad down to Seward was built (completed 1923) so The Roadhouse supported all those workers.
Then is also became a base camp for expeditions to climb Mt Denali, climbing season is end April to beginning July. Mt Denali is the highest mountain in the Alaskan range and is 23000 feet. It is one of the "Seven Peaks" and attracts climbers from around the world. Mt Everest is higher, but the starting point for that is 17000 feet, whereas for Mt Denali, the climbing starts at only a few hundred feet above sea level, so it is seen as a challenging climb. There are 1200 individual climbers who come here every year
In 1998 it saw an increase in visitors from the cruise ships that visit Alaska, passengers would "add on" a trip to Talkeetna as part of their visit.
Every year there is a bachelor auction, young single men put themselves forward to be "auctioned" and raise money for charity. One year there was a guy that just had no bids at all, and she felt sorry for him. So she placed a "pity bid", and won him for $75. She showed us her certificate with her photo taken with him, These crazy Alaskans.
We are meant to be flying in to Rainy Pass Lodge today, which as the name suggests, is up in the Alaskan ranges. It's only at around 1000 feet, and is a checkpoint for the Iditerod. We are hoping to take some nice photos of the dogs running with the mountains as a backdrop. The weather is a bit iffy, it has stopped snowing but there is very low cloud, so while we are scheduled to go at 11:15, that is weather dependant. So while we waited for the go/no go decision, we were all fitted with helmets in preparation for snow machines. Then we got word that the flight had been pushed back, so we went on a snow machine jaunt around town, to allow us to get familiar with them and learn how to handle them. The snow was pretty deep and soft, and we spent about an hour following the road, all in convoy, stopping every now and then to check how everyone was doing etc. Jon got us to do a three point turn in the snow to make sure we could manoeuvre the machine when we need to, and then we swapped drivers on the way back. It's FUN !!
Took me a while to get the hang of the throttle and get that working smoothly, but otherwise it was pretty simple. Look where you want to go, lean a bit to keep it balanced etc.
Ironically, it was Jon that was the only one to tip it over. He was leading and we were just behind with Belinda driving and me on the back, one second he was there, next time I looked they were climbing out of the snow on the side of the road!
We'd ordered a packed lunch the day before so that we could take it with us to Rainy Pass, so while our flight was still on hold, we all congregated in the boys cabin and ate our lunch there. The weather looked to be clearing, and we heard one plane go up, so we were hopeful this would happen. Eventually we got the word and so we were off, down to the local airfield. We were all weighted individually with all the gear we planned to take on board, clothing camera bags etc. I came in at 227 pounds, and I am just very grateful I don't know what that means in kgs. (103 kgs !!!!) in my defence, there was about 15kg worth of camera gear plus probably another 5 worth of warm clothing, the boots I have weight 2kgs on their own.
Another group showed up immediately after us, probably twice as many people but no camera gear.
Then we waited, and waited and waited for what seemed like ages, Someone came along and scraped the snow off the top of the plane we were meant to be going in, then the head pilot came out and said you're too heavy, we need to ditch some weight. Chris and Jon were getting a bit towy by this point, they had already given them everyone's weight and warned them we had a lot of camera gear, so this should not have been a surprise to them. We waited some more, aware that our window was closing as it was an hour flight to get there and we only have limited daylight hours. By now it was about 3.30pm.
Eventually the pilot returned, with a 2nd pilot in tow, and we were loaded on board and off we went. We were allowed to keep our camera bags with us which surprised me, there was not a lot of room. It was a DHC Otter according to my plane guru, about a 12 seater with some space at the back. Given we were initially told we had too much weight, they were completely unconcerned about who sat where or where our gear went. But we got off the ground and were on our way. I initially felt fine and was busy go-proing and snapping pictures out the window. As we got closer to the Alaska range the cloud had lifted and we got fabulous views of Mount Denali and two other large mountains I can't remember the name of. Then the pilot started helpfully dipping wings to point out the dog sled teams on the ground below us, and I started to feel a bit queasy. As we got closer to the ranges, there was a bit of turbulence from the wind coming off the mountains, and I felt a bit more queasy. I had to stop fiddling with cameras and stare fixedly out the window to avoid throwing up. I was very grateful to hear him say "we'll be landing in a few minutes". We touched down on the snow a few times, it was bouncy, but we eventually stayed down and taxied to a stop. I was sitting right at the front so was one of the last ones off, took about two steps and went up to my knees in deep snow.
We were piled onto toboggans (read that as large square plastic tub) and towed a short distance along the ice to a spot where Chris thought had some promise for good photos. We'd barely got out of the toboggans into more knew deep snow when we heard "dog sled" to indicate a team was on it's way. So within a space of about 10 minutes, I went from feeling as sick as a dog to almost throwing up, to taking pictures of a dog sled team passing by.
Jon came by to check on us all and make sure we had hats and gloves and would be warm enough. We took a few minutes to get our shit together, and by the time the next team came through were a bit more prepared.
We spent the next couple of hours, lying in the snow, plodding through snow, sinking over the knee in snow, and snapping lots of pictures of Iditerod dogs, mountains and ski planes.
The sun went behind the mountains and it suddenly got much colder, but it was almost time to depart. We were meant to leave at 6:15, and we were pretty much on time. It was a much smoother flight back. By now my go-pro was down to 2% battery and my phone had completely died, and I had decided to flag any photo opportunities and just enjoy the view. The sun was setting and the light was beautiful. We passed over a lard herd of moose that were resting in the trees, flew over another couple of dog sled teams, and eventually touched down without even noticing.
BY now I was hungry enough to eat a herd of moose, and so we had a quick drop off of gear and walked two minutes to the restaurant/pub around the corner for dinner. Fish and chips for mewith curly fries, followed by a peanut butter pie. Delicious.
The skies are clearing now and we are far enough north for lights to be a possibility. So we all gathered in the boys cabin with our camera and tripods so Chris could check that we knew how to use them and we would have the right lenses and initial settings if there happened to be lights during the night. As usual, there is a mix of skill and experience on this trip, and the usual sharing of information and helping each other with settings etc.
By now it was 11:30pm which felt late late late and I was feeling a bit shattered, so it was off to bed and lights out.
Trish stopped by to say hello, she is the manager of The Roadhouse and gave us a quick history of the place.
Talkeetna is a small town of only 900 people, with an additional 1700 living in the wider area that it supports. There was no road into Talkeetna until 1964. It's only 350 feet above sea level, which was a surprise to me because it feels quite mountainous, I guess because of the snow. Trish has owned the Roadhouse for 25 years, and this is the most snow she has ever seen here.
The Roadhouse was originally built in 1914 and became a "Roadhouse" in 1944, to support freighters, loggers and gold hunters, either living locally or passing through.
Gold was discovered in this area in 1905, and there are still active gold mines in the area. Then railroad down to Seward was built (completed 1923) so The Roadhouse supported all those workers.
Then is also became a base camp for expeditions to climb Mt Denali, climbing season is end April to beginning July. Mt Denali is the highest mountain in the Alaskan range and is 23000 feet. It is one of the "Seven Peaks" and attracts climbers from around the world. Mt Everest is higher, but the starting point for that is 17000 feet, whereas for Mt Denali, the climbing starts at only a few hundred feet above sea level, so it is seen as a challenging climb. There are 1200 individual climbers who come here every year
In 1998 it saw an increase in visitors from the cruise ships that visit Alaska, passengers would "add on" a trip to Talkeetna as part of their visit.
Every year there is a bachelor auction, young single men put themselves forward to be "auctioned" and raise money for charity. One year there was a guy that just had no bids at all, and she felt sorry for him. So she placed a "pity bid", and won him for $75. She showed us her certificate with her photo taken with him, These crazy Alaskans.
We are meant to be flying in to Rainy Pass Lodge today, which as the name suggests, is up in the Alaskan ranges. It's only at around 1000 feet, and is a checkpoint for the Iditerod. We are hoping to take some nice photos of the dogs running with the mountains as a backdrop. The weather is a bit iffy, it has stopped snowing but there is very low cloud, so while we are scheduled to go at 11:15, that is weather dependant. So while we waited for the go/no go decision, we were all fitted with helmets in preparation for snow machines. Then we got word that the flight had been pushed back, so we went on a snow machine jaunt around town, to allow us to get familiar with them and learn how to handle them. The snow was pretty deep and soft, and we spent about an hour following the road, all in convoy, stopping every now and then to check how everyone was doing etc. Jon got us to do a three point turn in the snow to make sure we could manoeuvre the machine when we need to, and then we swapped drivers on the way back. It's FUN !!
Took me a while to get the hang of the throttle and get that working smoothly, but otherwise it was pretty simple. Look where you want to go, lean a bit to keep it balanced etc.
Ironically, it was Jon that was the only one to tip it over. He was leading and we were just behind with Belinda driving and me on the back, one second he was there, next time I looked they were climbing out of the snow on the side of the road!
We'd ordered a packed lunch the day before so that we could take it with us to Rainy Pass, so while our flight was still on hold, we all congregated in the boys cabin and ate our lunch there. The weather looked to be clearing, and we heard one plane go up, so we were hopeful this would happen. Eventually we got the word and so we were off, down to the local airfield. We were all weighted individually with all the gear we planned to take on board, clothing camera bags etc. I came in at 227 pounds, and I am just very grateful I don't know what that means in kgs. (103 kgs !!!!) in my defence, there was about 15kg worth of camera gear plus probably another 5 worth of warm clothing, the boots I have weight 2kgs on their own.
Another group showed up immediately after us, probably twice as many people but no camera gear.
Then we waited, and waited and waited for what seemed like ages, Someone came along and scraped the snow off the top of the plane we were meant to be going in, then the head pilot came out and said you're too heavy, we need to ditch some weight. Chris and Jon were getting a bit towy by this point, they had already given them everyone's weight and warned them we had a lot of camera gear, so this should not have been a surprise to them. We waited some more, aware that our window was closing as it was an hour flight to get there and we only have limited daylight hours. By now it was about 3.30pm.
Eventually the pilot returned, with a 2nd pilot in tow, and we were loaded on board and off we went. We were allowed to keep our camera bags with us which surprised me, there was not a lot of room. It was a DHC Otter according to my plane guru, about a 12 seater with some space at the back. Given we were initially told we had too much weight, they were completely unconcerned about who sat where or where our gear went. But we got off the ground and were on our way. I initially felt fine and was busy go-proing and snapping pictures out the window. As we got closer to the Alaska range the cloud had lifted and we got fabulous views of Mount Denali and two other large mountains I can't remember the name of. Then the pilot started helpfully dipping wings to point out the dog sled teams on the ground below us, and I started to feel a bit queasy. As we got closer to the ranges, there was a bit of turbulence from the wind coming off the mountains, and I felt a bit more queasy. I had to stop fiddling with cameras and stare fixedly out the window to avoid throwing up. I was very grateful to hear him say "we'll be landing in a few minutes". We touched down on the snow a few times, it was bouncy, but we eventually stayed down and taxied to a stop. I was sitting right at the front so was one of the last ones off, took about two steps and went up to my knees in deep snow.
 |
| I'm surprised my face wasn't actually green at this point |
We were piled onto toboggans (read that as large square plastic tub) and towed a short distance along the ice to a spot where Chris thought had some promise for good photos. We'd barely got out of the toboggans into more knew deep snow when we heard "dog sled" to indicate a team was on it's way. So within a space of about 10 minutes, I went from feeling as sick as a dog to almost throwing up, to taking pictures of a dog sled team passing by.
Jon came by to check on us all and make sure we had hats and gloves and would be warm enough. We took a few minutes to get our shit together, and by the time the next team came through were a bit more prepared.
We spent the next couple of hours, lying in the snow, plodding through snow, sinking over the knee in snow, and snapping lots of pictures of Iditerod dogs, mountains and ski planes.
 |
| Snapped on my phone from the plane as we were waiting to take off, a sled team leaving the checkpoint. |
The sun went behind the mountains and it suddenly got much colder, but it was almost time to depart. We were meant to leave at 6:15, and we were pretty much on time. It was a much smoother flight back. By now my go-pro was down to 2% battery and my phone had completely died, and I had decided to flag any photo opportunities and just enjoy the view. The sun was setting and the light was beautiful. We passed over a lard herd of moose that were resting in the trees, flew over another couple of dog sled teams, and eventually touched down without even noticing.
BY now I was hungry enough to eat a herd of moose, and so we had a quick drop off of gear and walked two minutes to the restaurant/pub around the corner for dinner. Fish and chips for mewith curly fries, followed by a peanut butter pie. Delicious.
The skies are clearing now and we are far enough north for lights to be a possibility. So we all gathered in the boys cabin with our camera and tripods so Chris could check that we knew how to use them and we would have the right lenses and initial settings if there happened to be lights during the night. As usual, there is a mix of skill and experience on this trip, and the usual sharing of information and helping each other with settings etc.
By now it was 11:30pm which felt late late late and I was feeling a bit shattered, so it was off to bed and lights out.
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