A Busman's Holiday

What does a bus driver do on his day off?
He goes on a bus trip, in this case two bus trips.

Yesterday afternoon, I took a trip out into Denali National Park. It was on a free shuttle  bus that goes 15 miles out into the park and returns. We did not see very much of interest, so not too many pictures. But here are a few.

The Black Spruce are full of pine cones

The National Park Visitor's Center

Summer Solstice is Approaching

Less than a month until the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere and the day with the most daylight here in Alaska

It is already pretty light out at night. The picture above is of the back of the main lodge building at Princess Lodge. It was taken at 11pm a few nights ago.

The Local Forest Fire

It is very dry in Interior Alaska and the danger of forest fires is always present.

There is a relatively small forest/brush fire about five miles from our housing area in Healy. This fire started last summer, spent the winter smoldering in the peat contained  in the permafrost and in small veins of coal in the area and has now broken out again.

The wind has kept the smoke going away from our housing area so we  do not usually smell the smoke. But we certainly see the smoke, not only from the housing area but 10 miles away at the Princess Lodge.

Smoke above the mountains. Picture was taken in front of the Princess Lodge about  15 miles from the  fire.

About 8am, while driving along the Parks Highway between Denali and  Healy, smoke from the  fire lays down close to ground

More About the Alaska Railroad

The Alaska Railroad is basically a single route running from Anchorage to Fairbanks. At the Anchorage end there are a couple of short additions, one running to Whittier, AK and the other running to Seward, AK. The railroad does not connect with any other rail system directly, but does move cars to Seattle by barge, where they can be added to other rail systems.

The railroad is the last full service railroad in the US. By that I mean that anyone living near the line can flag down the train by waving a white flag and the train will pick them up. Their fare is based on the  number of miles they travel after being picked up. They can also arrange to be let off just about anywhere along the rail route. This is very  important to people living in very remote areas of the  interior because they may not be close to any road other than the railroad.  They  depend on it to get groceries, mail and almost anything else. Here is a picture of an elderly couple who have just been let off the train, their house is in the background. Note the stack of supplies they have brought home.
Here are some more pictures of the train:

When the train goes around a curve the people in the back cars can see the front cars

The engine of one of the trains that arrived in Denali today

The cars used by Princess and Holland America to move the tourists in. In this case people are leaving Denali heading for Anchorage, about a 9 hour trip for them, but beautiful country. These are two level cars, the upper for sight seeing and the lower is a dining area.

Motor Coach Driver Humor

Here We Go!!!!

There have been a few small groups trickle into the Princess Lodge during the last 3-4 days, maybe 20 or 30 in each group. But it really started today.
Today we had about 175 people arrive. Tomorrow there will be three trains arriving, one of them will have 508 people onboard that are coming to Princess Lodge.
Today I drove the trolley car around the lodge property for about 7 hours. People, mostly the elderly and infirm, would get on and I took them to their room or to one of the restaurants. It was fun.

A boy and his trolley car. Note the hat...isn't it cute!!!

It was cold with a strong wind all day and this is pretty much an open air trolley.

Tomorrow I will be driving a motor coach (aka bus) to the train station, taking people who are leaving and picking up arrivals. Will be doing that for all three trains. This is fun as well. I have done it once before. You get to stand up in front of them and give them a safety speech (where the fire extinguisher is, how the emergency windows work etc). Then we get to tell them about things in the park and at the lodge during the 10 minute drive from the depot to the lodge. All the coach drivers and guest services hosts stand in line and wave at them as the train pulls into the depot (the depot is a tiny building with covered but open walled waiting areas). So I will let you know how that goes.

Our Trip on the Train

On Friday the 13th we started out on another familiarization trip. We rode on a coach down the road to the Princess McKinley Wilderness Lodge, 120 miles south of Denali. We spent the night there in their guest rooms. Nice.
Saturday morning we rode in a coach about 50 miles to the little town of Talkeetna where we boarded the train and rode in the Princess Denali Express rail cars back up to Denali.
The rail cars are two levels. Bottom is a dining room, top is general seating with the large curved windows all along the sides and curving over the top. We were on the train for four hours, had a wonderful, free lunch (Free is good), and enjoyed the sites.
We arrived back in Denali about 4pm. A great day.
Here are some pictures. More later.

We were in the next to last car of about 10 cars. When we went around curves we could see the front of the train. Note the silver cars...like the ones we rode in.

View down from the highest rail bridge in Alaska, almost 300 feet above the river. Although the ice has broken up in the rivers and creeks, still lots along the edges.

The Nenana River which runs right past the Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge. This picture is up stream a little ways from the lodge.

Which is taller Everest or Denali?

Depends on how you look at it.
Mount Everest reaches a height of over 29,035 feet above sea level, and Denali is 20,320 feet above the sea. So Mount Everest is tallest, right?
 But wait a minute. Mount Everest sits on a Tibetan plateau that is 17,000 feet tall, so the actual mountain is only about 12,000 feet.
Denali starts at about 1000 feet above sea level so the actual mountain part is around 19,000 feet tall.
Now which is tallest??
The debate continues.

Is it Mount McKinley or Denali??

Back in the day the mountain was named Mount McKinley, after President McKinley who wasn't president at the time.

The local native Alaskans called the mountain Denali, meaning the Great One or The Big One.

Several years ago, the state of Alaska decided to change the name to Denali to agree with the original name the native Alaskans used. But the federal government would not change the name so they still call it Mount McKinley.

So if you are an Alaskan, you refer to "the mountain" as Denali. If you are a tourist and don't know any better, you call it Mount McKinley.

It is still the biggest hill in the area no matter what you call it.

More Training

It has been a busy few days since we left Fairbanks.
The evening we got here we found out that we were going on a trip to Anchorage and Whittier. Some drivers will be taking tourists from Denali to Whittier each week so they wanted us to know the way.
We stopped at the Princess Mt. McKinley lodge on the way down to Anchorage. It is, of course, still closed to the public but they let us in for a quick rest stop. The Mountain (Mount McKinley or Denali) was out in full glory. A few other places of interest are included in the pictures.
We spent the night at the Westmark Hotel in Anchorage. Westmark is a chain of hotels in Alaska and the Yukon owned and operated by Holland America Lines, a sister company of Princess. We stayed in their hotel for a month in Fairbanks.
Sunday morning we piled in the coach at 8am and went south east to Whittier.

On the way we drove alongside Turnagain Arm, a body of water that has the third largest tidal change in the world, something like 38 feet. It is slowly filling up with silt from where the glaciers have ground up rocks. As the glaciers melt the very fine rock silt washes down along with the water.
Whittier is a deep water, ice free port where the Princess cruise ships dock to disembark and embark tourists. Otherwise there is not much to it. The town has only 200 or so year-round residents and 90% of them live in one big apartment building. It was started up as a US Army base during World War II. The only way you can get to or from Whittier is through a 2 1/2 mile tunnel, also built by the Army in WWII. It is only big enough to handle one way traffic and was originally built for trains. About 15 years ago it was modified slightly to allow one way vehicle traffic.
So, if you want to go to Whittier, you can go at 30 past the hour, if you want to go from Whittier you can go at the top of the hour. But, if a train comes along, you have to wait for the train. If you miss your time slot, you have to sit and wait for a half hour or so. And if you arrive after 11pm and before 5am you can't go at all because the tunnel is closed.
After seeing the wonders of Whittier we drove for six hours back to Anchorage.

Other than the trip we have been in classes each day learning how to be nice to tourists, how to use your time card, got our uniforms, took a tour of the lodges, and all sorts of other stuff, much of it a repeat of what we heard in Fairbanks.

Today we are enjoying our first day off since arriving in Denali. It is cold and we are having snow flurries.
More later.

Denali (Mount McKinley), tallest mountain in the world.

Denali right on top of my head!

Pretty snow covered mountains on the way to Anchorage

Why do we need Walmart when we have Wal-Mike's!!!

Movin' on Up To The Big Time

A lot has happened in a few days.
Bill was issued his CDL license on Cinco de Mayo.
On May 6 I drove a bus from Fairbanks to Denali. It was nice to be out on a two hour trip without an instructor sitting right behind me. I made it just fine.

A couple of hours after we arrived we had a short snow storm. A couple hours after that we learned that we were going on a familiarization trip the next morning, Saturday, to Anchorage and Whittier and would be spending the night in Anchorage.We returned on Sunday evening.

A few pictures attached. Will send more later.

The bus I drove to Denali

The view from our room. with snow coming down.

Our room as we were moving in. The room is 12 x 14 not counting the bath.

Nenana Ice Classic Update

Ice on the Tenana River broke up today in Nenana. The tripod (see earlier pictures) did not actually tip over but floated downstream on an iceberg, causing tension on the cable and stopping the clock at 4:24pm this afternoon.
The winning jackpot is $338,064 but the winner(s) have not yet been announced.

The real news of the day is that Bill passed his CDL test!!!

Bill Passes the Test

After 27 days of training (including Sundays off) I passed the Alaska Commercial Driver's License test this evening.
Thank the Lord.
As with many things like this, it really wasn't as hard as I had envisioned it. At least it is over.
Have to go to DMV and get my new license tomorrow morning. Then a trip to Walmart, pack up and we head to Denali on Friday where we will stay for the summer.
I cannot yet believe that they are going to let me out on the roads with a coach full of people! Aren't you lucky you are in the lower 48?
More later.