Fairbanks to Denali

I am choosing these words carefully, after considerable reflection. I have lived more than 21,000 days. Today was in the top 50, perhaps the top 25 of them. It was an amazing day. Seriously. Way up there.

Melinda and I were up early and had our bags ready to be picked up by 6:00 AM. We grabbed a cup of coffee and prepared for the day. By 7:20 we were on our bus along with the 41 other members of our tour. making our way to the rail depot in Fairbanks. The weather was perfect. Perfect.

We boarded one of the Princess Ultra Dome rail cars attached to Alaska Railroad’s Midnight Sun Express to make the four hour, 125 mile trip from Fairbanks to Denali National Park, my first trip by rail. We were seated at a table on the upper deck across from Norm and Sally, travelers from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. They have been married only three years. Norm is 90 and Sally is only 84. He kept referring to me as “young man.” They were old enough to be our parents. (Aside, we are one of the two youngest couples on this tour.)

About thirty minutes after leaving the station we were invited below to have breakfast in the dining area. I had a breakfast skillet of scrambled eggs, tomatoes, onions, cheese, peppers, and reindeer sausage. Melinda had the blueberry “flapjacks” with reindeer sausage. (Reindeer and caribou are the same animal, but reindeer are domesticated. I don’t know if it was Dancer or Prancer, but it was good.)

After breakfast we took the stairs back to the upper deck and watched an endless parade of the most beautiful country you can imagine pass by our eyes. A gray, glacial melt river ran beside us much of the way. Tall, thin birches and spruces crowded the valleys and mountain sides like so many blades of grass. Civilization seldom showed its face. The parade lasted four hours and only got better as we drew near our destination.

At the Denali Wilderness Lodge we moved into our rooms, shared a light lunch at the King Salmon Restaurant (one of the best portobello mushroom sandwiches I’ve ever had), and took the shuttle to the Visitors’ Center at Denali National Park. We selected a trail and hiked in the mountains for the next two hours. The trails were lined with wild roses, dwarf dogwoods, and a thousand other wildflowers in yellows, blues, and white. Around 5:00 we returned to our lodge. I drank an Americano and answered email in the foyer of the lodge, looking out on the river and mountains as we waited for our dinner theater experience.

Dinner was served family style (cole slaw, biscuits, bbq ribs, baked salmon, corn on the cob, and garlic mashed potatoes, followed by strawberry shortcake and coffee). Then our serving staff performed “The Music of Denali,” a musical account of the first mountaineers to scale the tallest peak in North America.

It is 9:00 PM, and still daylight as I write. Melinda has fallen asleep on the couch and I’m pretty tired. Beautiful weather, indescribable scenery, train rides, hiking, great food all shared with her. Really, one of the top 25. Maybe 20.