Alaska!!!!

The Magpies were there to greet my Father and I, as we rolled out of our tents. Sometime through the night, I guess they stumbled upon their new neighbors. I don’t think friendly best describes these birds, bold would be more fitting. They let you know, pretty quickly, that it is all about communal living up here in the north. They become animated, very vocal, insisting on getting their fair share. Our Camp Site on the River was spectacular, The Ranger at Denali told us of this spot, having come up to the Park without making arrangements. We were a little worried about Bears, we were off by ourselves, I was glad I had met that guy camping, back behind Mammoth Mountain, earlier in the Spring. We kept the site clean, no trace of food, these were not the Brown Bears of the Sierra, we had no desire to draw one in. Later in our trip we saw some of these Bears rooting out Ground Squirrels, a couple hundred yards off a dirt road, even from that distance, they looked huge. Breakfast on our trip always was an ordeal, Dad had been Diabetic for years, the Mornings, he had his routine. We were able to sit around, and just talk, maybe get back some of the time we lost years before. Most of the rough edges between us had been smoothed over, we had been operating as a team for days, had achieved some victorses in our path. What I think worked really well, was how all of this, was so new to both of us, we explored all this together. For a couple hours we sat by our fire on the River, the fire was easy to start, we had it blazing the night before. We had it making lots of smoke, that guy in Devils Post Pile, told me bears don’t want anything to do with smoke. We sat that night, covering ourselves with the scent of fire. Across the river we watched as a train from the Alaska Railroad rolled across the side of the mountain, it was peaceful here, just the Magpies, Dad, and I. We reserved space on the bus into Denali, the day before, when we arrived at the Park. The weather was, for it to cloud up, Denali would not be in view, we decided to only go about thirty miles in. We got out of our Camp, with time enough to hit the pay showers, good thing for everyone on the bus, we were smelling sorta smokey ripe. Our transport into the Park, was similar to what I rode to school as a child, maybe a little older. It wasn’t a nice ride, the only game in town, eighty miles of dirt road to Wonder Lake. We were not getting any sense of the Park, viewing it from our bus. We were told on the way back we could get out, and hike through Polychrome Pass, that another bus would pick us up on the other side. We had seen some Caribou, a Grizzly Mother and Cubs off the road, but were told, they mostly stay well off the road, that no one had a run in, so far in the season. Dad and I were the only ones who opted to hike, I guess it took a little more than an hour. A few vehicles passed us by, but mostly we were out on our own, hiking across the top of the world. The ground cover, is sponge like, very few trees. The pass is of sharp, rocky cliffs, pastel, in the distance, separated by valleys of greens, yellows, and reds. To look out, and know, for thousands of miles, there may not be another soul in that direction, causes one to sense solitude. I was beginning to like this guy, I’d been hanging out with in the bush, too bad neither of us had the time a few years back. Thinking back, back then, we were always trying to teach each other, I don’t think I listened much, too bad, and hell, he was always talking, sometimes till 4 or 5am, so he wasn’t listening either. Up here, we were both learning together, watching each other. I, for the first time, saw that we were the same, something he must have known for some time. That explained those long lectures of my youth, him trying to save me, from the traps that caught him up.