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Denali Sled Dogs/Mt. McKinley Flight!!!Jun 7, 2009
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"Muddy" was our favorite
Hooking up to the sled
Here they come!
Saturday, June 6th, D-Day After a morning of Janet washing clothes and me breaking camp and backing up about a hundred feet to dump our tanks, then setting back up, we ate lunch and headed back to Denali National Park for a 2PM Sled dog demonstration. This involved going to the visitor center and following the paw prints on the sidewalk to the bus terminal and catching a park bus to the kennels. The dogs were magnificently trained; these are large working dogs, not the sleek dogs used in racing. They are used all winter doing chores in the back country of the Park. They got all excited about being selected to pull the sled in the demonstration, barking and jumping. They had about 59 dogs and each gets their turn during the week. They flew around the track with the wheeled sled. Beautiful dogs............
Sunday, June 7 Today we worked a half day training on the dreaded Mac, which was a breeze. The program was easy and the Mac operation came back to us quickly. We called the Denali Air, which was only 2.5 miles away and they got us on a 6 PM flight which took about an hour and a half. We were in a Piper Navaho, beautiful 8 place, twin engine plane. Wonderful flight, the mountain ranges were great and "the mountain" was cloud free. We flew 200 miles round trip at 180 miles per hour at 7500 feet, then up to 12,000 as we approached Mt. McKinley which is 20,320 ft. The views were breathtaking, but the ride left Janet a little nauseous!!! She hung in there though; riding in the co-pilot's seat helped her get beautiful pictures out of the front of the plane! The pictures, I'm sure don't do it justice; this is a must if you come to Alaska! On the way home, I was chewing gum and lost a crown, so now, it's a phone call in the morning and plan a trip back to Fairbanks! M
