July 8 – 9 , 2009 Talkeetna

On Wednesday, 9th, we decided we were going to do the round trip to Hurricane on the railroad.  I called the number on the brochure and they told me there were spaces available but that I had to buy tickets at the Talkeetna Railroad Station.  When we arrived at the station, we were told that the train only runs from Thursday thru Sunday – LOL!!!

So since we had the day to ourselves, we took a little ride on the Spur Road and on the Parks Highway.  We did find some more firewood for $10.00 – 3 large bundles – so now we are all set. 

We also took a walk down to the Talkeetna River by the campground.  This is a glacier river – notice the color from the glacial silt:

 

And we enjoyed another wonderful campfire.

Today, Thursday, 9th, we woke to a beautiful cool morning and decided to take a walk into town.  They are starting to prepare for their moose dropping festival and here are some of the moose that will be in the parade.

 

And I even got kissed by a moose – :-)))

And, oh yes, I purchased two moose turds for the drop – :-)))

We did check out some of the old buildings.  This is the oldest existing structure in Talkeetna, built in 1916 by trapper and miner Ole Dahl:

And the roadhouse, built between 1914-1917 by Frank Lee.  This was first used as his home and then became a roadhouse in 1944.

And only in Alaska:

This afternoon we did the Mahay’s Jet Boat Three River Tour.  Here is our boat:

This tour was a 60 mile river tour on the Talkeetna, Susitna, and Chulitna Rivers.  All of these rivers are glacial (lots of glacial silt in them) and they are really flowing right now.  Here is where the three rivers meet – you can see the different colors of the rivers:

This is the Susitna River.  Ice break up was also hard here this year.  If you look at the bark missing from these trees – it was from the ice jams/flows:

This house has lost 150’ of frontage in the past 5 years due to the ice jams/flows (kind of scary, isn’t it):

We made a stop to learn about some of the ways of the Athabasca River Peoples.  Here is where they lived when they were catching and smoking the fish:

 

Here is where they smoked and stored their fish:

This is a beaver trap – notice the gun on our tour guide (just in case we came across a bear – Yikees!):

   

This is a cabin used by homesteaders in this region.  Our captain’s parents homesteaded in this area in 70’s.  Some of the furniture in the cabin was his parents – cool!!:

This is the Chulitna River – Indian name for River of Many Sticks:

And it was also flowing – our Captain told us it was running at 10-12 knots:

And coming into Denali State Park – much narrower and swifter.

And the eagles – oh my!

 

 

Even a little eaglet:

We dropped a lot of people off in Denali State Park so coming back, there were only a few of us on the boat – What a ride!!!

And we ended the evening with another great campfire!!