More Smoke, A Lake Hike, Still No Fish
The day began even more hazy than yesterday. We couldn't even see the nearby hills, much less Denali. Time for a walk.
We took Harry and Sally's van up to Byers Lake. There is a trail that goes around the lake which also goes to a bridge at the lake's outlet. It looked like it might be place to fish and Harry wanted to give it a try. The trail started by going down a wide gravel road that lead to lakeside cabins, but it then veered into the bush. And it was dense winding trail, with the bushes and grasses up to waist height on both sides of a narrow track. It was perfect bear habitat... but we didn't see any. The trail opened to the lake and ran along it up to the bridge. The outlet was pretty shallow but ran pretty swiftly into a wide creek. We saw no fish longer than about four inches. No fresh fish today.
But, we did get fish. On the way back to K'esugi Ken we stopped at Mary's Mount McKinley View, a lodge, gift shop and restaurant just up the highway from the campground entrance. It was built by Mary Carey, before there was even a road. She was one of the people responsible for getting the Parks Highway built from Fairbanks to Anchorage. We had a halibut sandwich which, although a rather small portion, was quite tasty. The booth we sat in had a great view of Denali...if there were a view today.
It was back to the campsite for a quiet afternoon and dinner, which was enhanced by fresh-baked blonde brownies. Ellen has taken advantage of our electrical hookup and used Speedy's convection oven to whip up another great dessert. After dinner is was off to an evening ranger talk. Tonight is was about bears. How to identify them and how to deal with them if approached by a bear. It was a good talk by a young National Park Service ranger who was from Massachusetts.
We've been frequently going to the Denali reservation website to check for cancellations. We have been trying to extend our stay at the National Park. This evening we finally got the last piece and we all have reservations for three extra days at Riley Creek campground starting tomorrow. We will finally be moving on to Denali National Park for the next two weeks.
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