Slowing Down
It rained all night and was still wet and cloudy in the morning. It was still sprinkling when Ellen and I did an early morning walk on the campground's short trail, the Moose Flats Loop. It starts at the bottom of the campground and goes out to a view of Denali then loops around past the day use area and a pair of small lakes. There was no Denali to be seen this morning and we cut it short by the day use area and went back to Speedy to wait for the day to improve.
It has been most of a week since we filled with water and dumped our waste tanks, so there has been much discussion about filling and dumping since K'esugi Ken has no dump station and the only water is supposedly from a hand-pumped well where the water is being lifted about 200 feet. The pump is so stiff that we saw a young boy hang from the handle without moving it. This could be a problem.
We realized that the Byers Lake campground, where we had last stayed had a dump station, but we didn't know about the water, so we knew we could go there to dump the tanks. When we stayed there we saw only hand water pumps and didn't use the dump station.
We were resigned to hand pumping to fill our tank until Harry asked the campground host if the well water was okay to use without treatment since the sign on the pumps said it was untreated. The host said that it was fine and the sign was only to excuse the state from any liability, but there was a tap on the side of the ranger station and we could use that...just don't spread it around.
Our concerns were eliminated.
Since the day had improved considerably and the sun was out, we decided to be a bit more generous with our water use and try out Speedy's shower. We fired up the hot water heater and fifteen minutes later hot showers were to be had. It is a little tight in the combination toilet and shower "room", but at least it isn't in the middle of the cabin as it was in old Speedy. It is a lot easier to take showers in a campground shower and there is more water that way, but the Speedy shower worked just fine.
After we dried everything out in the sun, it was off to Byers Lake Campground about 15 miles north. The dump station was waiting. We noticed when we were there that they also had fresh water taps at the dump station. as most do, but we didn't know about the quality of the water so opted to go back to K'esugi Ken and fill up at the ranger station.
I think we are now set until we get to Denali National Park this coming weekend.
It was back to the campsite to relax and slow down a bit.
No comments:
Post a Comment