What a wonderful start to this trip. The weather was perfect – 12” of snow for the start of the Iditarod followed by a cloudless sky the following day for the drive down to Seward making for spectacular views. Day 3 we took a 3 ½ hour tour on a boat. Our captain mentioned if we headed south there wasn’t much till we hit Antarctica in about 11,000 miles. Hawaii is in there somewhere, but kind of a funny thought.
We hope you enjoy the pictures and stories on the link below.
March 3, 2022
Our National Park adventures will resume, starting tomorrow evening with a winter trip to Alaska. At first Elizabeth did not think Alaska and winter would fit into her plans, but she is truly excited now to venture off to the great white north. Fairbanks is supposed to stay above zero all this week! 😉 (Iniakuk will be a bit cooler as it is 200 miles north of Fairbanks). At least the days there are basically the same length as wherever you live, as we approach the spring equinox.
Our good friend Mark will be watching Rangeley for the two weeks we are gone. Thank you to him for allowing us to take off like this.
We have a nonstop flight tomorrow from Phoenix to Anchorage. Saturday morning is the start of the Iditarod Dog Sled race. The start is part of a week long winter festival in Anchorage. Elizabeth is looking forward to the Reindeer Run on Saturday afternoon. Anchorage’s version of Pamplona’s Running of the Bulls.
We will drive the 120 miles south to Seward where we will take a boat to Kenai Fjords National Park. We then will head back to Anchorage where we will catch the train for the journey north to Talkeetna where we plan to fly into Denali National Park and land on a glacier.
We catch the next train out of Talkeetna (48 hours later) heading north to Fairbanks. From there we get a plane ride 200 miles north (60 miles north of the Arctic Circle) to Iniakuk Lodge where we will spend 4 nights mushing (driving dog sled teams) and hoping to see the Aurora Borealis (northern lights). We will also mush the 6 miles north into Gates of the Arctic National Park.
So this trip literally includes planes, trains and automobiles as well as boats and dog sled teams.
There are 8 National Parks in Alaska so we will return in the summer (maybe this summer – who knows) to visit the remaining 5 Parks.
In April/May we are planning another road trip with Rangeley. He and I plan a couple short section hikes on the AT (150 miles total). This will be his first back packing experience (hope it goes well). Elizabeth will fly east and meet us probably in Virginia. We will then go to the northeast to visit family, Ohio to visit Rangeley’s Amish family then head up to northern Michigan to visit Isle Royale National Park, head to northern Minnesota to visit Voyageurs National Park and then west to Montana and Glacier National Park before returning to Phoenix.
That will leave the 5 Alaska Parks as the only ones remaining on our list to visit. What an amazing journey this has been. Thanks for travelling along with us.
Our third road trip in the past 11 months is now in the rear view mirror. All three of us have really enjoyed driving around seeing the beautiful sites and meeting many wonderful people that call this great country home. It is amazing to me how resilient our society is, as we did this all while the world has been dealing with the coronavirus pandemic.
When I have hiked on the Appalachian Trail or ridden my bicycle I have always enjoyed sitting outside a local store and watching and talking with the people of small town America. These roads trip have been the same concept, but covering a much larger geographical area.
The US is very easy to get around. There are great roads everywhere. It was eye opening to see how America works from the farmers growing corn in Iowa, the ranchers of Texas with their cattle, mile long freight trains and trucks everywhere moving product so we can go to our local store (or log on to Amazon) and purchase just about anything. As consumers we take most of the supply chain for granted.
As far as “what is next?” we don’t have any real plans at this point. Elizabeth has a busy fall with the return of in person corporate events. Click the link below to read our recap of this trip. Thanks for following along.
We had another great visit with our Amish friends in Ohio. Rangeley didn’t get to swim, but he did visit 3 different farms and was fine around all the animals. He was a bit hesitant around a 1 year old and a 2 year old but quickly warmed up to the mini humans. He has never reacted around Charity (who is 2 1/2) so we didn’t understand his initial reaction to Dennis’ nieces.
Since you are not supposed to take pictures of the Amish, the photos do not include any faces. Click below to read about our visit.
We had a great time visiting family in Vermont, the state we both grew up in. This was Rangeley’s 40th state visited! He will visit 5 more new states on the drive home. He loved being at my sister’s house where he could run free and visit the river every morning. (He was never loose without supervision.)
Click below to read about our latest adventures.
What a great few days. Rangeley the pup had an awesome time in Rangeley the Lake and Rangeley the town. We met up with my thru hiker friends and met many more while doing trail magic. Click the link below to see the many great pictures.
We sure do enjoy visiting the National Parks. It is the journey and everything around the parks, not just the parks themselves that make for the amazing experiences we have had so far. Acadia is very dog friendly and even though it is one on the 10 most visited parks we found lots of places for Rangeley to enjoy the ocean. He sure has enjoyed Maine so far and he has more to come as we head to the town of Rangeley tomorrow to meet up with our AT friends again.
Click the link below to read our stories.
Our wonderful journeys continues. The past few days we have been “hanging out” on the Appalachian Trail visiting and assisting the hiking community. I had met many hikers during my short section hike through Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York but really enjoyed a recently retired couple – Metta and Grasshopper. Elizabeth hit it off right away with them as well. We spent 3 nights (out of our 4) in the same hotel and plan to meet them again in a few days, further north on the trail, in Rangeley, Maine. All told Elizabeth got to meet 9 people I hiked with 7 weeks previous. Click the link below to view our recap.
We have had a great time in Maine so far. We lived here for four years back in the 80s. Elizabeth enjoyed her Lobster at my brother’s, we visited her brother out on an island and now we are on the Maine/New Hampshire border by the Appalachian Trail. Our trail activities will be a separate post in a few days. We head to Acadia National Park tomorrow and then off the Rangeley, Maine trail activities.
Thanks for following along. Click below to read about our Freeport fun.
We are now in Connecticut, our 15th state of this road trip, 7 of these are new to Rangeley. Tomorrow we will go through Massachusetts, New Hampshire and end in Maine (all new states for Rangeley). He continues to be a fabulous traveler.
We were talking today how you never really escape civilization driving in the east. The highways are always busy and you are never too far from some town. In the west we were often on a road with town or no services for the next 80 miles and very few cars. The last 60 miles today took almost 2 hours, all on Interstate, but lots of traffic had us at a crawl for much of the way. We never saw an accident or construction issues to cause the slow downs, just lots of cars and trucks. The speed limit also goes down as you move east. It is 80 in Texas, then drops to 75, then 70 and is 65 in the northeast.
The main reason for this trip is coming up, visiting family in New England and friends on the AT, so we are very excited for the next couple of weeks.
Click the link below to read about our adventures over the past 2 days.
Gary and Elizabeth's Adventures